The weekend passed smoothly, meeting with the kids Saturday afternoon to teach how records were made (and hoping I wasn’t making a hash of it), my dinner date with Rarity that evening, which went spectacularly, especially when I found out that Prench and French were functionally identical. Fortunately, I can get along in the language, as evidenced by a trip to Paris shortly after my discharge, and while I was noticed as a tourist, at least the residents didn’t turn up their noses at my language skills. We spent a good two hours out, dining, drinking and dancing. Okay, I tried to dance, but my four left hooves reared themselves up. I’m just glad Rarity laughed WITH me, not AT me. She did say when I dropped her off at the Carousel, that she had a wonderful time. I did, to be totally honest.
Sunday was a day of rest, quiet and relaxation, to me at least. While Twilight was down in her lab doing something I was not ready for, Starlight being out with her friend Trixie all day (at a spa, someplace I would have to be dragged into), and Spike doing duties around the castle, I spent the time reading books and magazines about the state of affairs in Equestria. Everypony will know I’m an outsider, but hopefully my attempts to learn will be good for something, at least.
Monday morning, we were up at rooster crow to get ready for our train trip to Canterlot. After breakfast, I packed my good clothes into a small trunk, my immediate necessities (phone, charger, and toiletries) packed into a set of saddlebags Twilight gave me and was ready to head to the train station.
The trains came as a bit of a surprise to me. Steam driven wood or coal burners, with about six to eight cars at most behind the locomotive. I marveled at how they could even BUILD such things, let alone operate them. I could remember one time going to Washington from New York Penn Station when I was seven, taking the Metroliner. A conductor asked me if I wanted to see the control cab. What little boy wouldn’t, right? I have never forgotten the sight of the tracks running ahead of us, tapering down to a point on the horizon, while a readout on the control panel said we were doing seventy-nine miles an hour. Thrilling, isn’t it?
It turns out all of my friends were going, the six plus Starlight and Spike. It seems they are all thought of highly in the upper echelons, and on occasion go to Canterlot to either meet the Princesses or the nobles. The trip was spent listening to their adventures. I, for one, found them fascinating to hear. I asked about the Elements of Harmony, and got a full explanation from Twilight, followed by better explanations from the rest of what each of the Elements did. “Well, I hope to show traits of all the Elements, because I find them all sensible,” I said to the group.
“I know you’re very generous with yourself, offering to help all of us at our jobs, and teaching at the school,” Rarity said.
“Ah lahk your honesty in how you work with others, explaining or not explaining about your world as need be,” Applejack declared.
“Hey, I can’t fault your loyalty to us!” Rainbow Dash said from where she hovered.
“You’re fun enough to laugh at yourself, whenever you do something we find silly, and not feel bad!” Pinkie Pie added.
“I saw how kind you were to the animals. They all liked you, except Angel. He’s a hard case,” Fluttershy said in her soft voice.
“I know you’re making great progress in magic!” Twilight said with a smile.
“Thank you, ladies, for saying so,” I said, blushing enough so that I felt I could light a match by putting it to my ear. “I just hope I can impress the movers, shakers, and powers that be.”
“You’ve impressed Princess Luna, which caught Princess Celestia’s interest, and she does want to meet you, both with us and by yourself,” Twilight reported.
“Now, let me hope I don’t catch hoof-in-mouth disease,” I managed to say in reply. “which is making enough faux to get a pas out of town.”
The ladies laughed at that, especially Pinkie. “That’s what I meant!” she managed to get out between giggles, pointing at me. “You’re laughing at yourself!”
It took me a moment before I could reach into my saddlebag and pull out my phone. Once I could, I called up the music player and selected one song in particular. “Ah, Pinkie, but can you do the same?” I asked as I started the song. “This applies to you, maybe…” as the opening notes to “She’s a Must to Avoid” played.
When the song ended, she sat there stonily, giving me a look that would have scared a stone statue. Fortunately, I’m not a stone statue. We held the glare for maybe half a minute, enough so that the others were getting nervous, before Pinkie and I fell into each other’s hooves, laughing hard enough to shake the windows of the train car. “Gotcha, Pinkie!” I manage to choke out before laughing again. The others laughed as Pinkie and I did, seeing we were not hating each other.
“Have y’all picked out music for any of us yet, Tristan?” Applejack asked once we calmed down.
“Not yet, Applejack. I have not got a good enough grasp of each and every one of you yet to make a good choice. I have options in mind, but I have not yet made a decision. Time will tell.” I told her.
Applejack nodded. “Fair enough,” she said almost under her breath, which I took as a sign of approval.
It was not too much later that we arrived at Canterlot. Like any tourist, I stared out the window at the magnificent stone buildings clinging to the mountain, topped by Celestia’s castle, as the train slowly made its way through the points to the station. “I like what I see here. Not like the cities I’m familiar with,” I said almost to myself. “No cars. Gonna have to get used to that.”
“Never really caught on here,” Twilight said. “I’ve seen cars on that trip I went on, but they were a bit nasty.”
“Burning gasoline does that. Diesel fuel is worse. We’re working on other methods, but they have not approached gasoline’s availability and range of travel yet. They will get there, in time,” I explained to her as the train came to a halt. “I miss my little car. Served my needs and fuel-efficient.”
“Well, here, we get out and walk to the castle. That’s where we will be staying for the next few days,” Twilight said.
I stopped and just stared at Twilight. “You didn’t mention that…” I squeaked.
“Oh, yes. I’ve had a suite there for a long time, ever since I was Princess Celestia’s personal student in magic. Now that I’m a princess too, I was able to ask for a suite of rooms for us. You’ll like it. Just ignore the guards unless you need one,” she said.
“Me, staying in a castle? I really hope I don’t stick my foot in my mouth…” I muttered as I made sure I had left nothing behind in the train car before departing the carriage. Old habits die hard, especially when I had left my phone on a plane fifteen years before.
“Hey, we got faith in you, Tristan!” Rainbow Dash said from her usual hover. “You won’t make a bigger fool of yourself than you normally do!”
I looked up at the pegasus from the door of the carriage. “But, Dash, I have such a good example to follow, you!” I called up to her.
Some of the ladies let out giggles, I could not say which ones. I did hear Applejack say quietly, “Ooh, burn…”
Dash smiled a little, a tight little smile that promised imminent mayhem at my expense. “You can’t claim victory yet, Tristan!”
“I won’t. That’s your job, to proclaim me the winner.” I said as I left the train carriage. Our luggage was being off-loaded from the boxcar by a team of porters wearing nice livery into a wagon being pulled by two earth ponies, who were looking at the loading with critical eyes.
“Let’s get a move on! Lunch will be at the castle, and our audience is at the end of Day Court. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m hungry!” Twilight said from the edge of the platform.
“So am I! I know they have some tasty rubies here!” Spike said from her side. Even though I knew the dragon consumed gemstones, hearing him say so always left me a little confused. With those two in the lead, we trooped off, destination Canterlot Castle.
My hooves clopping on the cobblestoned streets of the city sounded a lot different than when I walked around Ponyville, but then again, this IS the big city. Comparing what I have seen of New York City and Boston in my trips there for baseball games, Canterlot had them beat. No cars on the streets, just ponies going about their business, the occasional wagon or cart adding variety to the scene. Advertising was present, but it was not as ‘in your face’ as ads are back on Earth. We passed one shop that proclaimed itself as the True Brew Café, which caught my attention. I made a note to try to stop there while we were in the city. Something about the place just seemed attractive to me, and my curiosity was stoked.
Twilight saw my attention was diverted. “That’s a good little coffee shop. I’ve been in there more than once. Want to stop for coffee?”
“Coffee sounds like a good idea. Do we have time to?” I asked, still nervous about staying in a castle like it was a Motel Six.
“We’ll make time,” Twilight declared. She asked the luggage wagon pullers if they would like some coffee, and they both agreed it would not be a bad idea. None of the ladies objected, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all saying the baker here is one of the best in Canterlot. Thus agreed, we all trooped in, the porters finding a place to park the wagon before getting out of harness.
Half an hour later, we all trooped out of the café, everypony feeling refreshed. I found Frothy’s double strength coffee, with cream and sugar, an excellent alertness aide, and the cherry pie defied my ability to describe properly. Pinkie Pie said it was ‘too fancy for parties’, but I could tell she found it up to her standards. She didn’t fool anyone, but nobody called her out on it, not even me. Thus fortified, we made our way to Canterlot Castle, and our meeting with the Princesses. To the others, it was routine. To me, it was anything BUT routine, my nervous jitters having been replaced by a caffeine near overload. At least I wasn’t nervous anymore. That came later.