The two made their way through the castle halls in the direction of the Dining Hall, Celestia had to reassure every guard they came across in the way that Rinna was not a threat; but even then the guards still eyed her suspiciously.
This did not bother Rinna in the slightest though, even after seeing the guards being hostile towards her; she did not feel any fear or worry for herself at all. Besides, the maids in the halls made up for that, they’re actually very nice to her; some even went out of their way to give her a hug which made Celestia giggle, because apparently she was too cute.
“Rinna, I hope this doesn’t sound rude of me; but why are you so calm?” Celestia said still sensing the hostile stares the guards were giving Rinna. “I mean if I wasn’t here with you, the guards would have probably assaulted you by now for intruding on Royal Grounds without permission.”
“Oh, it’s not a bother at all Celestia; they are just doing their job myu,” said Rinna reassuringly. “If they weren’t cautious around strangers, they wouldn’t be suitable to be decent guards.”
“I must say you impress me Rinna, but that still doesn’t explain how you’re so comfortable around ponies. I thought you were new to our world, but your reactions and behavior shows otherwise,” said Celestia still confused by this fact.
“Thank you for the compliment myu, but I am in fact new to your world,” Rinna said and Celestia raised an eye-brow at this. “The reason I’m so comfortable around your subjects, is because I met another pony before you, myu.”
At that moment the two reached the doors to the Dining Hall, where a pair of guards opened them for their princess. They heard about the new creature that was with the princess, even if they didn’t show it they were still suspicious about it.
“Well I will like for you to tell me about it, but before that let’s take a seat so we can have something for breakfast. I guess you must be hungry for being out there for how long now?” asked Celestia herself unsure how much time Rinna had spent in the gardens.
“Five days now, but I didn’t let myself starve; so don’t worry too much myu,” said Rinna with a smile while staring in awe at the scenery in front of her.
Sitting in the middle of the room was a huge wooden table covered with a white tablecloth, which had a big sun on the center. The chairs had a crescent moon on the front of the back support and a sun on the back-side.
Then the two made their way to their respective chairs in the big wooden table.
After sitting down Celestia asked with worry, “five days? What have you been eating in all that time?”
“I had some food on plastic containers inside my backpack; I packed some just in case I got hungry on my walk, now I’m glad I did that myu,”said Rinna making herself comfortable in her chair.
Celestia then noticed something about what Rinna said. She had no backpack with her and Celestia didn’t saw any on the gardens either.
“A backpack you say, I didn’t saw any backpack with you out there; did you lose it?” asked Celestia.
“Oh, that’s because I gave it to Pinkie; she said a friend of hers could repair a hole my backpack had after getting stuck on some sharp branches myu,” Rinna said calmly.
“Hmm, makes sense-“ Celestia said before a realization struck her like a brick, “-did you just say Pinkie?, like in Pinkie Pie?” Rinna nodded.
“But, how?” asked Celestia.
“She was the first pony I become acquainted with myu,” Rinna said remembering that moment, “she kind of… appeared out of nowhere when I tried to lure my pet with a cookie, she then will speak at a very abnormal speed about random topics; until I offered her a cookie which calmed her down.
“Just then, we were able to have a somewhat normal conversation myu; Pinkie mentioned some things about her home named Ponyville, how she is in her own words a ‘supermegaawesomeadorableandpinkestpartypony’ and that I should go for the party she’s planning for me when I find my pet myu.
“After that first encounter, she will appear once a day to help me find my pet; Pinkie gave me the idea of setting plates with pastries on different areas so he could get something to eat and I would be able to find him easier myu,” Celestia froze at the mention of this.
So, those pastries I found on the gardens for the last few days; were Rinna’s attempt to find her pet. Oh, goodness I need to apologize, Celestia thought.
“Emm, Rinna;”- Celestia shifted uncomfortably in her chair with ears flat on her head, while Rinna looked at her -“I should apologize for eating those pastries you left on the gardens, I thought those were not more than a prank from a now reformed threat,” she said with shame.
Unlike any other situation before, this time Rinna reacted with some shock at this.
“So, it was you?”- asked Rinna with some surprise in her soft voice, this made Celestia look away ashamed of herself. Rinna let out a sigh before saying calmly ,-“it makes sense I guess, Slify will not eat and go without looking for me myu, were they of your liking at least?”
Surprised Celestia looked at her and asked in confusion, “aren’t you mad at me?”
“Why would I be mad at you, myu?” replied Rinna.
“For ruining a way to find your lost pet,” Celestia said sadly.
“I cannot blame you for what happened, Celestia;” Rinna said reassuringly.
“Like you said, there was no way for you to differentiate my method of a prank from this past threat myu; and I really want to know if my pastries were good enough for royalty to enjoy them,” she continued.
A weight lifted from Celestia’s back, and a smile came back to her face; “thank you for being comprehensive, Rinna;” she said with a little bow of her head.
“And to answer your question, yes those were excellent pastries; even when Equestria has almost all of the same pastries you left out there, the taste was very different. Something in your cakes made them even tastier than any other I ever had.”
Rinna blushed slightly at the compliment before saying, “I’m glad they were good enough myu. I put a lot of care and love on my baking.
“Compliments aside, are you waiting for something? You said you were going to have breakfast but you didn’t order anything yet, myu.”
At that moment the doors of the dining hall flied open and Rinna could see a tired looking dark-blue alicorn making her way towards a chair.
“Good morning, Luna;” greeted Celestia, “how was your night?”
“Good morning, dear sister;” Luna said while looking at her sister tiredly, “and we wish to not talk about last night if possible.”
Meanwhile Rinna decided to be polite and not interrupt this little exchange between siblings.
“Did something happen?” asked Celestia.
“Nothing really noteworthy, sister;”- Luna replied before letting out a tired sigh –“it’s just; it was a very busy night, that’s all.”
“I could say that you shouldn’t stress yourself that much, but you wouldn’t listen to me,” Celestia said playfully.
“Like you are any better, sister;” Luna shoot back with a smirk, “you only stop working when there’s cake nearby.”
At this the two laughed for a bit. Then Luna noticed the new “guest” of the table.
“Sister, why do you have a doll sitting on a chair?” she asked while levitating the “doll” close to her, giving it a hug.
Celestia’s eyes widened at this action, but a look at Rinna told her that she was merely playing along.
To her credit Rinna did not make any sound or sudden movements, and her breathing was almost inaudible.
“It’s very soft, and has a very sweet vanilla-like aroma;” said Luna still hugging the “doll”, “but, what is it?” she asked lifting it in front of her.
Before Celestia could answer Luna saw the doll staring at her and blinking. The two stared at each other for some moments.
That was until Rinna said in a calmed way, “I’m a nekomimi, myu.”
“Oh…” was all Luna said before her eyes widened in realization, “WHAAAA!” she screamed and then tossed Rinna away from her.
Celestia was about to catch Rinna before she crashed on the floor, but then Rinna spun her body mid-air and landed on a fourth legged way pretty much like a cat.
“Forgive me for scaring you, Princess Luna;” Rinna said still in her calm tone. “It wasn’t my intention to do so, myu;” she then did the same bow motion she did with Celestia.
“WHAT IS THAT?” Luna shouted in her Canterlot Voice, which pushed Rinna a few feet away before falling down from the sheer power the shout had.
The moment Rinna hit the ground the sky flashed black for a second, Celestia noticed this on the corner of her eyes; but she had to stop her younger sister before Rinna gets injured.
Luna jumped towards the strange creature,trying to pin it down with her hooves, but before she could make contact, her target banished in a golden glow.
“Luna, stop this right now!” shouted Celestia.
Luna looked back to see her sister protecting the creature on her back with a frown on her face.
“Tia! What are you doing protecting that creature!?” Luna asked angrily.
“She’s not a mere creature Luna! She’s sentient, and is lost on our world by unknown circumstances,” said Celestia in a stern tone.
Luna was about to reply back in anger but her attention was caught by soft sobs coming from Celestia’s back, the creature was crying.
At this the sky flashed black again, but none of them noticed or cared about it right now.
“I-I’m s-sorry,” Rinna said between sobs.
“Shhhh,” Celestia said softly to the little cat-girl while nuzzling her, “it’s ok Rinna, nopony will hurt you.”
“R-really?” Rinna said in a cracked voice while looking at Celestia which in turn nodded.
Then Rinna got down from Celestia’s back to the floor, and hugged her still sobbing but these were less frequent than before.
This action took the Solar Princess by surprise, but after a moment she returned the hug.
All anger Luna had banished at the sight in front of her, it was heartwarming and she suddenly felt the imprudence of her actions. She was about to attack and hurt a harmless being just because she knew nothing about it.
The anger from before came back to Luna, but not anger towards the creature.It was anger directed at herself for doing something that was distinct of Nightmare Moon.
It was no surprise that she felt terrible about it, “emm…” she said trying to remember the name of this being.
“Her name is Rinna,” said Celestia, still holding the little cat-girl that wasn’t sobbing anymore.
“Thank you sister,” Luna said before trying a softer tone. “Young Rinna, can you please look at us for a moment?”
At first Rinna didn’t want to let go, but she could not feel any bad intentions from Luna’s voice. Then even when she still was a little afraid of Luna,Rinna let go of Celestia and turned around to look at the Lunar Princess.
The look of fear Luna saw on Rinna’s face was enough to make her felt even worse than before, so with ears flat on her head she said; “w-we want to apologize for our recent behavior, we know this cannot be enough for you to forgive us.
“But at the very least we want to let you know how regretful we are, even if you don’t forgive us; at least acknowledge our plea.”
Rinna looked right at Luna’s eyes which showed so much sorrow and regret now; little by little the fear was fading away, and was being replaced with empathy and forgiveness.
After taking a deep breath to compose herself, Rinna said; “I forgive you Princess Luna, you probably acted on instinct which I can understand perfectly, myu.”
Luna did not expect this, why was Rinna forgiving her so easily?
“W-why?” was the only thing Luna could say.
“Everyone and everypony deserves a second chance even a third myu, I will not hold this against you; because you acted out of sheer emotion which some of my friends do too,” Rinna said in her recovered usual soft and calm tone.
“I must say that is very mature of you young Rinna, and we are very grateful for your forgiveness;” said Luna with relief, “in turn we want to take this moment to properly introduce ourselves.
“I am Princess Luna, princess of the night and dreams. But you, young Rinna may refer to us solely as Luna,” Luna ended with a smile.
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Luna, I’m Takamura Rinna but you can call me Rinna,” Rinna said in a happy tone.
At that moment a low grumble noise could be heard, the noise coming from Rinna and Luna’s bellies; which were protesting for not having a meal in them so early in the morning.
With a blush on the faces of these two and a chuckle from Celestia, the three made their way to the table again.
“It seems we postponed breakfast too much,” said Celestia while igniting her horn in a golden glow to call for a maid.
In cue a maid entered the room, and made her way towards the table at which she stopped some feet away from Celestia and Luna’s side.
Then she proceeded to bow at the princesses, “what will you order for today’s breakfast, your highness?” the maid said politely.
But Celestia did not recognize this maid in particular, instead Luna did.
“It’s good to see you again; young Lucky Star,” Luna said with the same politeness and respect the maid had done.
The mention of this name caught Rinna’s attention though; something about the maid was really familiar.
She had a tan coat with long and black-colored mane and tail; she was wearing a black maid uniform with a white apron under her and tied on her back forming a ribbon and a white maid headdress on her head, her eyes were a golden shade of color. But what actually made Rinna curious was the ahoge that this maid had, alongside the sleepy eyes and her confident voice; these traits were too familiar to be a coincidence.
The maid noticed Rinna’s stare, then made a shush motion and winked at her, telling Rinna that her supposition was correct but she didn’t want to be revealed yet.
“Lucky Star?” asked Celestia confused, “are you new to the personnel?”
“Indeed, your majesty;” said Lucky Star, “your sister Princess Luna hired me three days ago, I’m still in conditioning time; you haven’t seen me so far because this is the first time I got to take an order directly from your highness. The last two days I was assigned to cleaning labor on the halls which your majesty doesn’t take too often.”
“I see, well then Lucky Star, will you bring us a pot of green tea and some toasts?”Celestia said.
“As you wish your majesty, but is there any special request from our most recent guest?” Lucky Star asked while looking at Rinna.
“No, I’m fine with tea and toasts, myu;” said Rinna.
“I’ll take my leave then, now if you’ll excuse me your highness,” Lucky Star said with a bow, then proceeded to leave the room.
“By the way, I’m surprised the guards didn’t storm in when you attacked Rinna, Luna,” said Celestia confused.
“We dismissed them, sister;” said Luna a little annoyed that her sister reminded her of what happened moments ago, “we don’t like ponies eavesdropping on us in the morning, and we are glad we told them not to; they would have made the situation worse.”
“You’re probably correct, Lulu;” Celestia said with a nod.
“Tia! Do not call us that in front of friends!” Luna shouted while a blush appeared on her face.
Rinna couldn’t help but giggle at this reaction, and then said, “It’s a cute nickname if I must say so.”
Luna just pouted at this, but after some moments she just laughs it off.
Lucky Star came back with the princesses and company’s breakfast, situating everything in its place and moved back a few feet away from the table in a place in which she would stand still, prepared to take any orders the princesses may have.
Then the other three prepared themselves to have breakfast, to recover energy and start the day.
Meanwhile in the magical world of Álfheimr, more specifically the kingdom of Ygvarland; inside the Ivory Tower of the Great Sage, a little girl with red eyes, white rabbit ears and tail alongside purplish silver long hair stylized in a pair of twin tails, wearing a red bunny suit her ears nor tail being part of it and a large (larger than herself) dark purple robe over it, was sitting on a desk thinking out loud.
“It has been five days.Why can’t I make contact with Rinna?” she said with a bit of anger, “the sprout of Yggdrasil I gave her is not responding, whatever this place where she has been sent is, it must have some kind of magic that is interfering with my own.”
She let out a sigh to calm herself, “I have located the world where she is, but it’s not a world any of us has visited before. I just hope she’s alright.”
At that moment the door of her tower opened, giving place to a little green-haired and green-eyed girl. This girl was wearing a white and blue navy maid dress with white gloves and boots that resembled cat paws. On her back a cat tail with a blue ribbon on the tip could be seen and on her head were white cat ears, with golden cat bells tied up on her hair.
“Hi there Ini-chan!” said the girl energetically to the now named Ini-chan, “the annoying of Gema told me that you wanted to see me, nyo.”
“For the thousandth time Dejiko, it's Ingrid Sorveig Sorgrims,” said Ingrid while massaging the bridge of her nose with two fingers, clearly annoyed by the nickname.
“But Lotte calls you Ini-chan too, even Rinna and some others calls you that nyo,” said Dejiko while pouting, “why am I the only one that is not permitted to call you that way nyo?”
With a sigh Ingrid replied, “Princess Astarotte and the rest are special cases, they have been my friends for a long time. I just let those who are very close to me call me Ini-chan.
“But that’s beside the point; I called you because I found the world where Rinna was sent for the anomaly of Yggdrasil’s magic flow, and I want you to go and bring her back.”
“Why me? Nyo,” Dejiko said in an uninterested way.
“Because you’re friends with Rinna since you two were five years old. You don’t require that much magic to be sent there, so it’s easier to send you instead of Shana or Kotori which powers are much more hard to compress,” Ingrid replied before saying, “besides, Mother wants you to do it and she will reward you accordingly for your success on this quest.”
This picked Dejiko’s interest, but on the outside she was just acting tough. Deep down she was worried for Rinna’s safety too, and was more than happy to go to this other world and take her back home.
“Alright nyo,” said Dejiko with confidence, “I’ll go to this other world and bring Rinna back home nyo.”
“So you are really worried about her, that’s a new one;” said Ingrid in a teasing tone.
Dejiko blushed a little at this and pouted before saying, “shut up and give me what I need to go there and blast everything to find Rinna nyo!”
“Alright, alright;” Ingrid said chuckling which made Dejiko pout even more, “I have almost everything here; the only thing missing is another sprout of Yggdrasil which I’ve been growing since the anomaly, it will be ready by tomorrow sunset at most.”
“I’ll go pack then, nyo;” Dejiko said in a serious tone, before going to a more teasing one, “I’ll see you later Ini-chan!” then she ran off the tower.
“For the last time, it’s Ingrid Sorveig Sorgrims!” Ini-chan shouted angrily from her doorway.
“I can’t hear you nyo!” shouted Dejiko teasingly.
In the way home Dejiko could not help but feel relief at her new quest, she was going to help one of her best friend back home.
Just wait a little longer Rinna, I’ll definitely bring you back nyo; and if something or someone is hurting you, I hope they are prepared to be blasted off nyo!, she thought while running in the direction of her home to get prepared.