//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Is that pony waving at me? // Story: Shackles and Friendship // by Zaibatsu //------------------------------// Shackles and Friendship Chapter 6 - Is that pony waving at me? AN: Next chapter will be delayed, details below. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK... "......" KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK... "Five more minutes!" KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! "I'm up! Dammit I'm up!" with a long sigh and a few stretches to wake up my muscles I got of the bed and opened the door. Outside was the purple unicorn from yesterday looking at me with a smile that sent chills down my spine, so I slammed the door shut and put my weight against it. "What the hay!" an aura of purple suddenly formed around the door but since I was still leaning on the door it was instantly siphoned. "Open the door Rodney!" "Make me Twirly Sprinkles!" "It's Twilight Sparkle! Now. Open. This. Door!" the door started to glow several times with the same purple aura but I just kept absorbing it. Eventually she decided to take another approach and instead of using her magic on the entire door, she focused on the door knob instead. However I when I saw it glowing I swiftly placed a single finger on it thus making the entire door immune to magic. "RODNEY!" "Here's an idea, I'll let you in IF you can open the door without using any magic." "What!?" "I've always been somewhat confused why creatures that lack opposable thumbs or fingers would create doors with knobs, a handle would've made more sense. I mean sure you have magic but still..." there was silence and I can imagine her having wrapped in thought. Eventually I felt the knob turn somewhat uncertainly as she attempted to turn the knob with her hooves. All the time I kept chuckling at every failed attempt while keeping a finger on both the knob and the door. Soon the knob did turn all the way and I thought the unicorn must've found a good enough grip. "Phhfft....HAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAHAHAAAA!!" it was mean but I couldn't help it. She walked in while biting on the knob with her head tilted near 90 degree to one side. Her eyes frowned and she scowled at me while still biting on the knob, causing me to fall to the ground laughing harder and gasping for air at the absurdity of the scene. "Are you happy now?" *pant* "Quite." I was still laying on the floor on my back still feeling a bit winded from my laughing fit. "Well come on then, Princess Celestia is already waiting in the dining room with breakfast." at the mention of food my stomach bade me to go with a growl which cause made Twilight giggle. "Aright, just let me freshen up a bit." After a small trip to the bathroom Twilight and I, as well as the guards but they really don't count, made our way through the many hallways. One of them had a large opening which gave a magnificent view of the surrounding area, last time I looked I was too busy trying to not piss myself to pay any particular attention to the view except down. But now. "Woa...." "Quite an impressive view isn't it?" 'Impressive is right but damn....' I could see a river running across the fields below as well as a forest or two and on end of the field was a large mountain rise forming across like the ground itself decided to built a wall. I saw a village down below, far smaller than the city under the Castle, I could just barely see the resident moving about and even saw something bright pink that was bouncing up and down, 'is...is that pony waving at me?' Discarding that ridiculous notion I continue to survey the village and saw trees dotted a large landscape in an organized fashion meaning that it was cultivated, 'a farm then.' I was about to pull myself from the amazing view but caught myself when I saw a large group of clouds far in the horizon. The clouds looked strangely organized, in fact some of them looked like building or pillars, I also thought I saw several waterfalls and one of them looked like liquid rainbow. It was way too early for a headache so I just chucked it off as the early morning light playing with my eyes, even if the sun was rising on the opposite side. We got back on track and soon enough Twilight stopped in front of a lavishly decorated door which was guarded by another pair of armed ponies, though one was a unicorn and the other a pegasus. After a brief nod to Twilight they opened the door and allowed us entry, each shot me an a look of warning to behave as I made past the doorway. Except for the lavishly decorated pillars and the many paintings, potted plants and sculptures that litter the room in every corner, the dining hall simple. A large rectangular white-wood table took the majority of the room and was covered in a bronze colored cloth and was surrounded equally lavish chairs, although it was hard to tell whether or not to call them chairs. The cushions were so low it was only about a foot of the ground which makes sense for these ponies since they sit like dogs, I on the other hand might as well just sit on the floor. Celestia was, sure enough, sitting at the other end of the table at the head, I had expected Luna to be present but she was no where in sight. But Celestia wasn't alone, near her sat a male white unicorn with blonde mane and tail which has been extensively groomed to the point of ridiculous. He was also wearing a collar from a suit, hes entire demeanor reminded me of snobbish, spoiled rich kids from the up-town. "Good morning Rodney, I see that Twilight was able to wake you up in time. I feared we would have to begin without you." "Sorry bout that Celestia, I kinda got-" before I could finish though the white unicorn interrupted. "That's Princess Celestia to you creature!" I looked at him in the eye with as much ice and malice I could muster. Without even trying the he had was already faltering and soon enough averted my gaze. 'Right so spoiled and a push over, probably the type that screams his station everywhere.' though I couldn't imagine what Celestia sees in him other than being a waste of space. "That's quite alright, Rodney meet Prince Blueblood, my nephew." 'Ah, so its family ties.' "In that case I feel sorry for you Princess." Blueblood snapped his head and looked at me. "And what does that mean!?" "It means exactly what it means." I looked at him in the eye again but this time he had anger helping him hold firm under my gaze. "That's enough you two. Rodney, though I appreciate being addressed in a friendly matter, please remember that, unless in private, I do have a position of leader." 'And all the bullshit that comes with it, yea I understand.' I gave the Princess a respectful nod of understanding and she beckoned me to sit close to her, right in front of Blueblood. I sat on the chair crossed legged which felt perfectly fine considering how low it was. Surprisingly Twilight sat next to Celestia in a smaller chair I had missed, obviously her relationship with the Princess was deeper than mere teacher and student. 'I better not mess with her too much then.' As soon as I sat down several maid both mare and stallion started to come in from a side door pushing trays filled with dishes. They went to each member of the table placing dishes of various food, every single one of them looked delicious and decorated beautifully yet remain somewhat simple ad homely. But despite the impressive view in front of me I still noticed the lack of meat. "Uhm...Princess," 'Careful, you don't know how they go about treating meat eaters.' 'Don't worry I got this.' 'Sure you do.' 'Wait...who am I talking to?' 'Do you really think we'll have a straight mind knowing were stranded in a magical world inhabited by talking-multi-techno-colored ponies with no chance of ever going home?' '........' 'Exactly, now where were we.' "do you have any meat?" *facepalm* "You eat meat? Ugh simply barbaric!" 'Suck it Blueblood.' "Unfortunately no, the griffin ambassador from yesterday had eaten all our supply of meat." 'Well at least they didn't come at me with pitchforks and torches, and meat is definitely still on the menu.' "It's ok Princess, humans are omnivores. We can pretty much eat anything from fruits to vegetables to meat, except for grass and flowers." I set one bowl aside which had some hay and various flowers resembling a salad of sorts. "However we do require to eat meet in our diet once a while, there's a specific protein or something that we can only get from it. I'm aware that there are substitutes for meat but I don't know what they are." even if I did I wouldn't tell, like hell I'm giving up on meat.' "I don't believe we should let this, thing indulge itself. In fact I don't think it's wise to be in the same room with it. It might have fleas or carry some other filth around." by this point my patients was teetering on the brink and any witty remark will only push him further and in turn drive me crazy. "Blueblood, that's quite enough." before I only suspected that Celestia was getting nothing but stress and problems from this guy, and based on the strain in her voice I concluded it to be true. Now in most circumstance I would keep egging Blueblood forever or just lunge at him and start beating his teeth in. But either choice would prove troublesome for me and for her, so in this extremely rare moment of understanding I decided to keep my mouth shut. For the next few moment's it was mostly light talk between the ponies as I ate the breakfast they served, which was absolutely delicious, however Celestia must've noticed how I looked left out. Too bad she was stupid enough to assume I wanted to join the conversation. "So Rodney, would you care to tell us more about yourself?" although Blueblood was somewhat irritated that I had become the center of attention and not him, Twilight's eyes bore on me and her ears perked up at attention. "Uh, what do you wanna know?" "How about your world, I'm quite interested in how a race progresses without magic." "I can do that, but understand I am by no means an expert on anything, so I won't be able to explain most of how things actually work." Celestia gave an understanding nod and bade me to continue. "Well, as you said our world have no magic whatsoever. We rely entirely upon the law of the universe and thus created tools to help us thrive." "A world with no magic, pah! What rubbish!" I just ignored him and continue on. "As you can tell humans have no natural means to defend themselves, no claws or beak and our skin is frail not unlike other animals with think hide. We created tools to help defend ourselves from rocks to sharp sticks. Eventually we realize our greatest strength is in our ingenuity, our ability to craft and adapt to almost every environment. Soon enough our tools became more advance and we started to gather and build villages which grew to cities with walls and took our first step in creating our civilization. We continue to learn everything we can to help us survive and thrive, from farming for a constant food supply, to metallurgy to create armor, weapons and hardier tools. Before we know it the threat of nature and animals became a thing of the past, we have become the only species of out world with the ability to mold nature into our needs." both Celestia and especially Twilight listened intently wrapped in curiosity, even Blueblood was interested enough to keep his mouth shut. "Fast forward several thousand years and our technology was slowly approaching ludicrous notions, sometimes quite similar to what magic can accomplish. Our numbers exploded once we've mastered health care and medicine and soon enough with our advance technology and our numbers we became the masters of our world. We have created contraptions that could help us travel hundreds of miles, when that wasn't enough we created flying ships that can carry us over entire seas. Soon our sight fell to the skies, the oldest and most alluring frontier. We studied the stars and the planets around us and discovered galaxies containing thousands of solar systems. Eventually enough people got the stupid idea of actually going there, which led to one of our greatest achievement in modern history." I paused to help give a dramatic effect. "We put a man on our moon." and like clockwork I hear three jaws drop to the table, yes even Celestia's. "That's......THAT'S AMAZING!" Twilight was hopping up and down towards me all the time throwing questions left and right. "How did you manage to escape your plant's gravity? *hop* How did you survive the vacuum of space? *hop* And how did you-" "That's quite enough Twilight, I do believe your starting to scare him." yes she was. "In my opinion I think it's all a bunch of lies and grandeur. I refuse to believe that anypony, except for you dear Aunt, could send someone to the moon. Especially not some....ugh monkey thing." I could imagine myself lunging forward over the table and strangle the bastard. I was about ready to throw my plate on his head just to knock him.......out. *smile* I was probably gonna get an earful but it was worth it to teach this guy a lesson; don't FUCK with the monkey. I took several deep breaths and slowly focused on my 'Sense'. "GAH!" I screamed in fright while awkwardly jumping backwards and tumbling over the chair. 'WHAT DAFUQ!!', it took a moment for me to realize I was still alive and breathing. I turned to Celestia who was gazing down on me with concern and worry. I was, for a lack of a better world, awestruck at what I felt. Her 'fire' wasn't a fire at all, from what little I felt it was like an explosion. Had I been affected by the 'heat' like normal I would no doubt be nothing more than ash or an imprint on the floor. I had respected Celestia before by how much I owed her and being in her care, but now. 'Rule one in Equestria: do not FUCK with Celestia!' 'Well, maybe just a little.' "Something wrong Rodney?" "Eh.....no....Princess. Sorry about that, I'm ok. My eh legs kinda fell asleep on me and I tripped trying to get up." she wasn't entirely convince but was kind enough to leave it at that. I had to take a few breathers to stop my heart from bursting out of my chest while getting back to my seat. "So Rodney, are you ready for first session with Twilight?" "Huh? Oh yea." despite my somewhat flat reply I was genuinely excited to learn magic, but I was still recovering from my shock to properly say anything. But seeing Twilight express a sullen and disappointed look at my flat response I quickly corrected myself. "Yes Princess, I'm quite excited. Truth be told I had a hard time sleeping yesterday with the prospect of doing something humans have only dreamed of." Twilight's expression instantly made a quick 180 and was now giggling and smiling like a school girl. "I do not enjoy the thought of the monkey harnessing magic, however I doubt he even has the ability or finesse to properly master the finer arts of spell casting. In all likelihood it would all just be a waste of time." 'You know what Blueblood, just for that I'm going to make you my first target practice.' AN: I know this chapter is somewhat shorter than I normal, but I didn't have enough time left to write and edit since I gotta go prepare for a trip. Which is why the next chapter will be delayed, don't worry though I'm still gonna write while I'm gone. It's just that I won't be able to post it up. So once I get back I'll immediately copy/paste to the site and publish it. So till then, cya!