The princess leaned forward with an expectant look on her face as her eyes made tiny shifts in movement, quickly looking at every part of me, from the ridges on my head, to my boots and everything in between.
A moment later I saw her ears fall back while her face and posture slumped in disappointment. "Of course it was a one off. And I came so close to being the one that triggered it," She said as she turned to Sunburst with a look of frustration, "Twice!"
She took a breath and let out a long, disappointed sigh.
My eyes simply shifted back and forth between her and the guards still behind me, unsure of what she was wanting.
"Twilight?" Fluttershy called to the princess as she put a comforting hoof to my nearest arm, "I think we're scaring him. He looked nervous the entire way here."
The princess finally noticed me glancing towards the guards' spears. She sat straight up and gave a gasp of realization. "Hey! Lighten up, you two! He's a guest here at my request, not a prisoner! Stop scaring him and take a break!" She gestured at the snack table at the far side of the room.
The two guards that were in the room with us slowly eased themselves and their spears from attention, walked towards the table with snacks and started picking at it with a notable lack of enthusiasm. It wasn't until one of them rubbed his back hoof's ankle did I recognize them as two of the guards I had been chained to when I lost control in the court room. Turns out bruises are better hidden under fur than on bare skin.
I darted my eyes around the room with a confused look, then stood up in a still tense, but closer to relaxed stance.
"So I'm not-" I pressed on my amulet after seeing the princess tilt her head questioningly. "So I'm not in trouble?"
Sunburst chimed in, "Well it depends on your definition of trouble. You're stuck in an alien world that's in the middle of a war. But no, you're not in trouble with us. Quite the opposite, actually. You've done us a great service, albeit without knowing. But we will get to that in time."
The princess gestured to a chair that was seated a bit higher than the rest of the furniture in the room. Its width was extended more than it's height compared to the rest, so I could only guess that it was intended for larger guests from other lands or something. It definitely wasn't intended for a human, but it was still better than sitting on almost child sized furniture or sitting bare on the ground.
Or so I thought. As I tried to get situated, the seat proved to be uncomfortably wide for me just as the seats they normally used were small. The notable difference in height once I was seated was also uncomfortable. I didn't like seeing them crane their heads up to look at me. It didn't feel right. Ultimately I thanked them for the well intended gesture, but I had to take the cushion off the larger seat and put it on the floor to sit.
Once I was situated, able to look at them at their level, we finally went about getting a lot of my questions answered.
"So," I opened while looking at the princess, "I was told that I wasn't allowed around royalty or any pony of significant political importance. What changed all that?"
Sunburst started to answer before the princess beat him to it, "We didn't know anything on how or why you are here until recently. We have somepony confirming some of the pesky details but we'll have all the answers in only a couple more hours at most and we have a good enough idea now to say for sure we know that you aren't a threat."
My heart leapt at the idea of getting answers of why I was here and if I could go home. Although, I wasn't sure if I should go home. I mean I'd probably get dissected being so strange to them. Even if I didn't get dissected, just going back at all might give my home world a chance to come here and the ponies would have another world they would need to handle on top of the current invaders. Goodness knows that by now my rent was so over due that I had long lost my contract and another renter had been found for my old apartment. So I was eager for answers, but not eager enough to not wait a few more hours.
"I'm glad that it's finally been cleared up," the princess said with an upbeat tone, "I've been so eager to meet you since Zecora told me about you."
With this, she pulled out not only the letter from Zecora I had brought with me to town, but several others like it and started sifting through them. It was at this time I noticed the mark on her flank matched the symbol on the letters.
"This one tells about how she observed you befriending crows in the woods. This one told about how you fought to guard her against wolves, not realizing she had it under control. This one told me about how you had so much trouble learning the simplest tricks the Animus Mundi lets those attuned to it do, but were able to cast a more advanced spell just by mimicking Speaks with Talons's gestures and words."
"I'd still like to observe that some day," Sunburst added.
"Hold up," I called while raising my hand to them, "Speaks with Talons. Was that Zecora's griffin student?"
The princess gave me a familiar look. Indeed, I recognized the look by now. I could tell that in this case she wasn't offended, but I had put my foot in my mouth again.
Fluttershy managed to speak up from beside me, "He isn't her student, Moss. He's the son of a prominent shaman of the Tribal Griffins and came to assist her with the increased numbers of unnatural creatures in the area. But yes, Speaks with Talons is the griffon you met with Zecora."
With my inquiry answered, the princess continued.
"Basically, there were a lot of things that didn't add up until now but she still saw a lot of good in you. So she had asked me to do what I could to look out for you when she couldn't keep you from town anymore. But since I couldn't be near you myself, I sent my protege, Starlight, to do what she could instead."
I made a note to add that to my list of things to think about on Zecora and her motives. She seemed to have good intent, but something was nagging at me to not trust her blindly.
* * *
And so we went on for an hour or so talking about little details on different subjects. I still needed an RRE officer, but I had been cleared to have a job without Fluttershy escorting me to and from work every day, so long as I kept the permission slip on me and I only went straight to the workplace then back to the cottage and nowhere else. That was at least somewhat good, since Fluttershy's schedule placed limitations on what jobs I could apply to back when we were contemplating before the big fuss with Tempest.
When I asked about the court case, they told me that Tempest broke her horn suppressor ring and fired at me with the same blast that had let her capture me before. If it weren't for the fact that I was unconscious but still floating and spewing out Equestrian, I probably would have been back in jail right now instead. That is what cued them in that it wasn't me doing it.
I asked if the guards were uncomfortable with talking about this, but they responded with how they would have been more uncomfortable leaving me alone with the princess. The look in their eyes made me make a note to make it up to them at some point.
Finally, the book with the moon symbol next to Sunburst glowed for a moment. He casually picked up the book and read one of the pages. Once he was finished reading, his eyes widened as he said, "Oh my..."
He then looked at the rest of us and then to the princess specifically. "Princess Luna had to stop early for the creature's safety, but she has the answers we need. She will be with us in a few moments."
'Wait...' My mind went as I heard the name "Princess Luna." I had started getting a knack for associating the names of ponies with their appearances at this point.
"Isn't that the princess that..." I had to swallow the rising lump in my throat.
"That performed your Astral Judgement?" Sunburst finished for me. "Yes. She's the only princess born with the dream walking gift."
The doors burst open and I saw what was literally my own personal worst nightmare.
Back in the dream realm.
Princess Luna quickly batted the back of my head with the thick part of her wing. When I looked over at her I saw a playful look of mild insult.