//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Becoming one with the Moon // by ParaNomaly //------------------------------// As it turned out, an 'evil spirit' had broken free of its prison and had proceeded to turn everything upside down and inside out, literally in some cases. By the time we had arrived back at the library, a royal chariot had already arrived to pick us up. It looked like Twilight hadn't told the Princesses who Carl was because the guards seemed pretty surprised to see her. After a few minutes, we had boarded the chariot and were on our way back to the castle. Another Chariot shortly arrived after we had departed and picked up a statue, neither of us could make out what it looked like from our distance to it. "Hey, Carl," I spoke up as I pried my gaze from the town and looked up at her. "Yeah?" She replied. "I've been wondering... Shouldn't we start thinking of some names that fit us better? It feels weird calling you by your human name." I continued. "Well, I don't know. Maybe? Thinking up of proper names isn't very easy." Carl said as she looked up, no doubt pondering my question. "The Princesses seemed to have names that fit their appearance, and their cutie marks. Maybe we can do the same, like Solar Flare or something." I added as I peered out of the side window and out into the distance. "It sounds cool, but I don't think it would fit. What about... Europa? Or something along those lines." "Isn't Europa a moon?" I looked back at her. "It's the best I got. Unless you want to start digging into other languages for space names." She shrugged. "What about Celeste?" "That's two letters different than Celestia." She shook her head. "Since when do you know their names?" I asked with a slight tilt of my head. "Did you think I spent almost an entire hour doing jack shit? I read a history book." She said and looked at me with a slightly hurt expression. "Don't give me that look. You and I both know how lazy you are." I retorted. "We're getting off track here. How about we focus on the names first of all?" "I guess." I sighed in defeat. "Good. Now, about that name you mentioned..." We spent the majority of the ride to the Castle going back and forth on the name subject. Neither of us could agree on what names sounded good or bad. In the end, we decided to seek help from someone more knowledgeable on Equestrian names. Carl looked down as we passed over the city, admiring the unique architectural style. "Does everything look so medieval in this world?" She asked, not shifting her view from the city. "From what I've seen, yes," I responded. Carl didn't say anything else and continued to admire the city below us. We touched down five minutes later in a specialized landing pad, which was odd to me. We had landed and taken off from the gardens the last time I rode one a chariot. "Be careful on your way out, I almost fell the first time," I called out to Carl as I slowly got out of the chariot from my side. "Pff, I got this." She waved my words of advice away and tried to hop down from the chariot to the ground. She failed miserably. I spent a good 2 minutes laughing my ass off at Carl while the guards attempted to help her up. In my defense, I did warn her. Did I not? She glared at me as she wiped off bits of dirt from her coat. "Hey, don't glare at me! I have every right to laugh after you ignored my warning." I retaliated against her accusatory glare. She opened her mouth to counter my statement, but closed it soon after and kept her glare. Our little interaction was cut short, however, as a guard signaled us to come with him. We complied a few seconds later and began walking with them. "Where are we going?" I asked one of the guards as I glanced towards him. He remained static as he continued to walk. "The Princesses have requested your presence in the old war room" The guard replied. "War room? Why are we needed there?" Carl questioned. "I don't know. I just follow orders, ma'am." I glanced over at Carl in worry, 'could they be planning to get rid of us or something?' I thought to myself. And it looked like she shared the same thoughts. Or something similar, if the look on her face said anything. We continued to follow the guard for the next six minutes or so as he took us through the halls of the castle. We definitely wouldn't remember the way out at the rate which the guard was making twists and turns. As we arrived at our destination, we saw a large stone-like door located at the end of a long hallway. The guard pushed the door open and gestured for us to come inside, which we hesitantly complied. The door opened up to a flight of stairs, with numerous torches on the walls illuminating the way down. "This doesn't seem creepy at all..." I muttered as I slowly began to descend with Carl in tow. "No shit, this is straight out of a horror movie..." Carl whispered as she looked behind her for a second and saw the door close. "It isn't that bad," I whispered back. "Just shut up and keep going, if anything happens you'll be the first to die." "Hey, fuck y-" I began as I turned my head around glared at her. Before I could continue though, Carl quickly put a hoof up to her mouth and shushed me. Just as I was about to say something that wasn't exactly very nice, we both heard a knocking coming from somewhere in the bottom of the stairs, which caused us to freeze up for a few seconds. "Just keep going, man..." I sighed and shook my head as I resumed my walk down the stairs, with Carl close behind me. Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, we were greeted by Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia, who were both gathered around a large, circular stone table. Which strangely had nothing on it. The room itself didn't seem all that unusual, it had a circular design to it as well, with various decorations hung on the wall. Some looked like they had been there for quite a while. "This is what passes as a war room in this place?" I thought to myself as I took a few steps to the left, which allowed Carl to walk up and stand beside me, looking equally confused as me. The Princesses turned their attention towards me and seemed to be quite surprised when they saw Carl standing next to me. They recovered remarkably fast, their expressions changing from surprised to serious in a second. "We... Did not expect the new arrival to look like our sister. What is thy name?" Luna spoke up first, directing her attention towards Carl at the end of her sentence. Celestia remained quiet, her magenta eyes scanning over the both of us. "Uh... My name's Carl. I'm David's friend." Carl responded. A bit nervousness made its way into her voice as she spoke. "Carl... Such odd names. But we suppose it makes sense, neither of thee are from this world. Nonetheless, come and join us. We have much to discuss." Luna motioned with her left wing for us to come and sit down in one of the several stone chairs that surrounded the table as they became seated. We both hesitantly made our way towards said table and sat down on the opposite side, with the entrance to the room behind our backs, and them in front of us. "Now, as both of thee should be aware by now, we cannot simply have thee walking around outside of the castle. It would raise too much confusion among our subjects. Thus we have called the two of thee here to address this issue. And several more that have come to our attention." Luna turned her head towards her sister and nodded, allowing her to continue. "While outside of castle grounds, you will need to use a disguise. What it will look like depends on your preference. Inside the castle, you will be allowed to roam freely without one. The entirety of the staff has been briefed on the situation, and they have been sworn to secrecy. Does that seem fair?" Celestia began as she looked at the two of us. I glanced at Carl for a brief second, who responded with a nod. "Yes, it does. But one question, how will we disguise ourselves?" I asked. "We shalt cast a spell on thee that will disguise thy appearance and make thee look like an ordinary pony. As my sister said, what they look like will be dependent on thy preference. All thou hath to do is describe it to us, and we shalt take care of the rest." Luna had decided to answer my question first. Satisfied with that answer, I decided to press on about the 'other' things we needed to talk about. "You said that we had a lot to discuss, what might that be?" "We have been trying to figure out who, and how the two of you arrived here. We didn't make much progress, as we had to put it on hold after Discord broke free of his stone prison. That was... Before he decided to approach us."Celestia began. To which Luna responded with a snort. "'Approach' is an understatement, we were forced to listen to him as he immobilized us and went on a monolog," Luna added. "Yes, well... While he was rambling on, he mentioned something about you two. He didn't go into detail and refused to answer our questions about the subject." Celestia continued. Before I could say anything, Carl beat me to the punch. "What does that entail exactly?" She asked. "It means that Discord is more than likely the reason you two are here."