I woke up early to the sound of a few metallic clicks and some flapping sounds followed by the sound of hoof steps approaching. After lightly moaning, I opened my eyes and lifted my head from the comfy warm pillow, turning it in the direction of the sound. Celestia was near my bedside, probably here to wake me up. “Good morning.” I greeted, wrestling my way from under the covers. I heard Celestia stop a few yards from my bed.
“Thank you.” She probably thinks that I’m complimenting her work on raising the sun. I decided not to clarify seeing no reason not to. Looking at my face, she giggled and I knew why. “Still feeling sleepy are you?”
“No need to worry about it,” I reassured her. “Give me about five minutes and I’ll be wide awake. By the way, Tia, before I forget again, we still haven’t discussed when I will start training with Shining Armor.” she smiled, lit up her horn, and after a flash, I was in my butler suit again.
“Shining said he can start tomorrow.” That should be fun. I thought half sarcastically. “As for today, we have day court to run.” I got ready, collecting my writing supplies.
“Sounds like fun.” sarcasm strikes again. “What’s my role?”
“Just like during the meeting with the ambassador, to take note of anything important. Except this time, you’ll be more focused on looking for contradictories between two sides of the same story.” I followed her out of my room during her answer, still following her to the throne room that doubles as the courtroom.
When we arrived, she opened the oversized double doors. “I’ll do my best.” and we entered.
The throne room had rows of benches, one in front of the other, only separated by a single path going through the middle of the room. In front of the rows of seats are desks, one on each half of the room. I followed Celestia up to the point where she took her spot on the throne. Making an assumption, because I forgot to ask ahead of time, I stood beside the throne. I assumed that I was correct by me not getting yelled at. The tension in the room was so thick that I could probably cut it with my horn. I eased as I remembered that the conflicts between nobles. Probably just fights over petty things, nothing serious. I watched as ponies came in and took their seats. I leaned over to Celestia and whispered in her ear. “Out from what I’ve seen and heard of the nobles, my guess is that these cases are probably going to be like sibling conflicts that would be settled by the mother.” she chuckled at my comment.
“They pretty much are,” she confirmed. We turned out attention back to the rest of the room as the last few ponies entered and took their seats. I glanced at the two desks stationed before the throne. There were two ponies at each one. In each pair, one’s probably the client and the other the lawyer.
“This is going to be boring as hell, ain’t it mistress?” I chuckled as Celestia nodded.
Day court lasted for most of the day. About seven or eight hours. Thank goodness for the intermissions. I used almost an entire notepad and two bottles of ink. I wasn’t the only one who was mentally exhausted either. I could Celestia tired as hell, along with her slow responses when asked something. After court, I followed her to her private study on the second floor. As she was reviewing some documents at her desk, some ashes flew in through the window, clustered together, and formed an unburned scroll. Celestia’s grew bigger than usual. I was still at a nearby table sipping on some tea.
“Who’s it from?” it was probably none of my business, but a little curiosity never hurt before.
Celestia levitated the scroll in her magic and unrolled it. “It’s from Twilight.”
“Anything interesting?” Celestia, after reading the scroll, shot me a look of disapproval. Shit! What now?
“Indeed. It’s quite rude to just disappear on Twilight the way you did.” that comment felt like a kick to the stomach. Didn’t think of it like that.
“Oops, forgot about that. I had to leave pretty early in the morning for a private matter and didn’t want to wake her up. Thought Spike would have said something to her.” I took another sip of my tea before levitating my teacup back down onto the table before my white aura around it vanished. “Let me guess, he did didn’t he?”
Celestia nodded her head. “He did. He also said that you wouldn’t tell him where you were going or what you were going to do.”
“Yes, well, like I said. A private matter. I’ll write her a letter when I’m off the clock, but I don’t have means of sending it though.” she smiled in approval.
“You can go ahead and write it now. As for sending it, just give it to me and I’ll send it though Spike. It’ll be faster.” setting the letter off to the side, she continued with the documents from before. Levitating a blank parchment paper, quill, and bottle of ink onto the table space in front of me, I thought: This will be the first letter I’ve written in Equestria.
“Thank you,” I replied, beginning to write.
Dear Twilight,
Sorry for leaving without telling you. Spike might have already told you, but I had a private matter to attend to and had to leave early. I didn’t want to wake you up that early because it seemed like it would be rude. I’m currently in Canterlot right now working as Celestia’s butler. I once almost got her flustered my addressing her as ‘My mistress’. I’ll start training with Shining tomorrow. I hope I didn’t worry you too much. Maybe one day I’ll be back in Ponyville for some reason. If that happens, I’ll be sure to pay you a visit.
-Spirit
That should do it. I rolled the parchment and levitated it over to Celestia. “That was quick. You’re getting better at writing.” I was trash at writing until recently.
“Thanks to this job. Had to get better at some point.” I took another sip of my tea. Celestia chuckled.
“Very true.” She sent my letter to Twilight with a flash of her magic. Must be great to have magic.
It’s dusk now. Celestia has sent me to wake up Luna again as my last task before retiring for the night. Thankfully, the guards didn’t harass me this time before entering Luna’s room, I said: “All right Luna, time for you to awaken once more.” I approached her covers. To my surprise, she wasn’t there. “Where the hell are you now?”
“Surprised?” I jumped at the sound of Luna's voice. It wasn’t that it came from behind that startled me, but how close it was. I felt her breath on the back of my neck as she spoke and it made me shiver. I turned around to face her. She just raised her head back up, I raised my eyes to meet hers.
“To be honest, you got me good with that one. Anyway, with you up my final task for the day is done.” after I used my magic to straighten my bowtie, I headed for the door. Before I could reach them, however, they locked with a blue aura signifying that my plans are to be put on hold until further notice. “Is there something you need princess?”
Luna looked down to the floor, looking slightly flustered with her cheeks turning a shade of red. What is she thinking? “Would t-thou stay here tonight?” oh. Wait, what? Na, she probably doesn’t mean it like that.
“Sure, but I was hoping to take a walk first before anything else,” I informed her as I passed the bed on my way to her balcony. Luna hadn’t moved since she made her presence known. “ Give me up to two hours. I’ll definitely be back by then. I also bet that you have some work to get out of the way in the meantime.” I wasn’t wasn’t looking at her the entire time I was talking, but rather the night sky. “I don't appreciate being locked in one’s room against my will. It can get rather boring after a while.” I could practically hear the guilt trip I just caused her. Fuck, I keep forgetting. Ponies are highly sensitive. “I don’t mean anything by it. I just have some things to do tonight. I don’t want to chance to wait because I might be to busy tomorrow. So can you please pardon me?” at some point while I was talking, she joined me on the balcony wearing a smile.
“We pardon thee.” Luna unlocked the door, but I had something else in mind. Lighting up my horn, I disappeared, only to reappear right outside the entrance doors of the castle. Don’t think she was expecting that. Before continuing, I took a moment to glance over the scenery that is the night time city of Canterlot. It looked completely different. Luckily, my destinations aren't too far from the castle, otherwise, I might have been slightly worried about getting lost. Oh, right, almost forgot. Lighting up my horn once more, my suit popped out of existence, replaced by my saddlebags. I feel more comfortable without formal wear but still felt cold without clothes. Must be fall. I should hurry. I trotted off to the street before I had to stop so my eyes could adjust, allowing me to read the shop signs. Good for me that my first stop was almost literally right across the street from me, it’s sign reading ‘Silent Tea Cafe’.
“Fuck me!” I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be open, but I thought I would try to check anyway. I slowly turned around, head hung low in defeat. Better not waste any more time. Need all the time I can for the next stop. Finding out that the cafe was closed was more than enough to make me not have the drive to speed back up to a normal pace.
That being said, it took about five minutes for me to just arrive at the private gardens. Gotta keep going. I picked up my pace. It didn’t take me long before I arrived at the entrance of my destination. Training grounds, finally. The doors were left unlocked, though I’m not sure if that was meant to be that way or not. Well, if anyone asks, I’ll just make up an excuse or just teleport away. The doors lead me straight into the grounds, don’t even pass through a room or anything. How convenient. I look around the training dummies and picked one labeled ‘for magic use’. Perfect. I levitated the fire spell tome out of my saddlebags, inserted my pendant into the socket on the back, and opened the book to the spell of interest.
Memorizing the spell took a long ass time. By the time I was done, I only had thirty minutes left to practice it. Goddamn it. With the book in my magical grasp, I went to the dummy. It took a substantial effort, but I attempted the spell. Aiming my horn at the dummy, I cast the spell but failed. Said failure was indicated by the fact that nothing but a shower of sparks raining down from my horn and landing around my hoofs.
“Fucking damn it, unacceptable.” I cursed at myself. Once more. Focusing more on the spell this time, I activated my horn again to cast the spell. Though it would seem that it wasn’t yet meant to be.
This would make me look like I’m terrible, but this is one of the more advanced spells. If I learn this though, I would be able to leave the targes covered in severe burns that could be fatal if left untreated.
The second attempt ended in more sparks that caught a patch of dead grass on fire I had to stomp out. This is pathetic. Better try again some other time. Besides, it’s about time to get going. Looking up at the moon, my heart almost stopped. “Fucking hell, I’m going to be late.” if I hurry, I might make it. Lighting up my horn, I attempted to execute the teleportation spell but my horn fizzled out. Apparently, Luna’s balcony was too far to teleport directly to. Well shit. Okay, new plan.
I decided on trying a Chain of teleports. Yes, I have done it before but that time only consisted of two or three teleports. If my estimation was correct, this would require five or six. Shit, out of time for thinking. I lit up my horn and began to phase in and out of existence. The first two times only gave me a hint of disorientation and got me half way past the training ground. This place is so god damn big. The third and fourth times intensified the disorientation to make it to the second floor of the castle. Executing the teleportation spell a fifth time got me to the staircase of Luna's tower at the price of absolutely no sense of orientation, intense dizziness, and obvious signs of mental exhaustion. Casting the teleportation spell one last time, I disappeared only to reappear at my final destination in the hall that had Luna’s bedroom door. At this point, was suffering from too much to identify everything going on with it.
My sudden appearance startled the guards stationed at the door. Before they could say or do anything, I said: “I’m h-here….under orders….to meet L-Luna at t-this time.” and I dropped dead.
Though I was still conscious, I couldn’t see or feel anything. My brain was too tired to operate any manual functions of my body. I could still hear somewhat though. I only managed to make out bit and pieces through the loud ringing going through my ears, but not much. Most of it was only half words and I couldn’t put voices to names.
“....et the…..Princess!”
“I’ll…..the doctor!”
*a few minutes later*
“What ha…..him?”
“We don….just…..nowhere.”
“.....et m…..him.”
Feeling started to return, somewhat, as I could feel pressure applied to various areas including my abdomen, chest, and horn. The pressure on the horn caused intense pain, but I could only release a small moan. This in turn not only return my ability to make out everything being said but also gave me a head-splitting headache.
“Horseapples, he’s suffering from magic withdrawals. He’s also conscious.” I heard a gasp coming from a few different directions. “Quick, the sedatives.” After hearing a few sources of panicked movement I felt something penetrate into one of my wrists and I was out like a candle in the wind.