//------------------------------//
// The Grand hall 
// Story: Filia Noctis 
// by Storylover-Vodhr 
//------------------------------//

Dash stared at Le' Snoot. And Le' Snoot, as usual, completely ignored Dash as they slowly walked from the royal airship docks and to the main gate. Dash wasn't really sure if that was a good or bad thing, but she really wasn't dumb enough to speak up and find out.

But after a minute or so of walking, they arrived at front of the main gates, and Le' Snoot turned around and faced them once more.

"Before we enter the castle grounds proper, do any of you have any questions?"

Several hooves shot up at that, including, to Dash's surprise, Fluttershy's. Huh. 

"You, Miss Glammer Blitz."

There was a moment of pause from the pony, probably because she didn't expect the elder Unicorn to actually know her name. Dash didn't blame her though, Le' Snoot was a terrifying monster who ate fun and dreams and one time, a poor little unicorn's doll. 

"Uh, how do-"

"I memorized everyone's names before you arrived; Did you think we wouldn't research the ponies who we would be welcoming into our halls?"

Yeah, because that wasn't a totally terrifying idea. In fact, a lot of students seemed to agree, because several hooves went down at that. Except, shockingly, Fluttershy's. She seemed to have a bit more backbone than Dash gave her credit. Not a high bar at all, seeing as she thought a stiff breeze would knock the girl down for good, but still.

"But, your question, Miss?"

"Oh, uh... What are we gonna do for the tour?"

Le' snoot didn't answer immediately, instead staring at Glammer, judging at her with all the power of the head butler for several moments, before finally nodding just slightly before the poor mare collapsed under the weight of his sheer snoot. Dash could feel for the girl; She had been on the receiving end of his stares more times than she could count.

"We will start our tour with the grand hall, followed by the first floor art gallery. After that, we shall go through the hall of history and legend before going to the royal library. It is then that we shall break for lunch in the main dining room. We shall continue from there. Next question, Mister Flexlock."

From there, several ponies asked a lot of dumb and pointless questions, like if they would get to see the royal chambers, (No,) If they would get to look at any of the books in the royal Library, (From certain approved sections, yes,) and if they would get to see Princess Twilight. (A very hard no, to Dash's disappointment.)

Eventually, however, the hooves were slowly put down as questions were answered, until all that remained was Fluttershy who had somehow managed to keep herself from wimping out the entire time.

"You, Miss Fluttershy Softwing. Your question?"

Fluttershy didn't immediately answer; nah, she was actually frozen in place. But Le' Snoot proved to be surprisingly patient, and after half a minute, she finally managed to spit it out. 

"Um.... will we get to see the gardens?"

Le' Snoot didn't answer immediately; he just sort of stared at her as she stood there, frozen in place. But instead of his cold normal stare, he seemed rather... not cold. 

"If we have time, I shall forward your request to the Princess."

And like that, he turned around and started walking through the main gate. 

"Come along, we have much to see and do, and we do not have a wealth of time."

With that, the crowd of school ponies and the teachers moved forward, following behind the elder butler as they finally made it past the main gate. The grounds were, like always, pristine, the grass looking like they were cut only a couple minutes ago, and the statues, sculptures, and hedge-things were all awesome and flawless too, like they always are. Groundskeepers rushed to and fro, royal guards patrolled atop the walls and through the grounds themselves, and the occasional delivery pony moved through, bringing something to someone somewhere.

The road was a very clean white, and a long line of guards, all wearing the standard golden armor and facing in toward the group of students as they followed Le' Snoot down the half mile of road to the actual front door. Everypony, or everybody that wasn't Dash or the teachers anyway, all looked at the guards like they were gonna smack them with their spears. Wusses; the guards were pushovers. Usually.

Sometimes.

Heck, she should probably just show everyone that they had nothing to be afraid of. So, without a thought, she looked at the first guard that she recognized and moved to them.

"Hiya, uh, Blazing blade?"

The guard did not react to her in the slightest, and continued looking forward, even as she got up close and waved a hoof in front of his face. Yeah, she probably shouldn't have chose Blazing; the guy was a complete flankhead at the best of times. She had a better chance of getting a statue to react to her. 

"Pfft! I told you guys that she was a fraud."

Dash felt her wings tense at the colt's words, and it took everything she had to not turn around and smack the idiot as she heard several ponies giggle and laugh behind her. No, she would just ignore the complete tool; if fighting on the airship was a bad idea, fighting in front of Le' Snoot and the guards was even worse. So, even though she really wanted to hit the idiot, she ignored him and his group of giggling idiots and instead turned away from the guard and rejoined the crowd, her pride wounded and her irritation obvious.

The rest of the walk to the doors was pretty straightforward; they walked past a fancy shaped bush or something, a pony would wow or ooh or aww, and they would pass through another set of gates or pass another set of guards looking like they'd been cut from some very grumpy stone. 

It took only five minutes to get to the front doors, but it felt like a whole hour by the time the doors were pushed open and they were ushered in by a pair of guards, this time in the black armor, that followed them in and closed the doors behind them.

And wouldn't she know it, it was the same grand hall that she had walked in practically every day for the past five years. Same stairs, same floor, same walls, same- Actually, the flower arrangement in the wall thingies was different, but that was it.

Yeah, she called it. This was totally boring. It only took a whole five seconds of walking through the main doors, moving past the royal guards and moving into the grand hall before the whole group of ponies ooo-ed and awww-ed. Yeah, sure, the castle was amazing, but they weren't even in the cool parts yet. They were literally just in the front door. Not even the teachers lasted more than five seconds.

If they thought the first stinkin' room they went into was so amazing, they'd probably pass out from sheer awesomeness once they got to see any of the really cool places. 

"Welcome to the Grand hall of the Light and Dark. The polished granite floors you trot upon are just a scant six years short of half century; the stone was sourced from a quarry outside Abyssal falls that has long since run dry. This particular section of the castle is particularly unique; it is very rare to see a White and blue granite mix in-vein, and it is there that the Grand hall gains its name. The material was provided as a gift for the Princess's five hundred and fifteenth birthday, from the noble house of Dark Dancer , who owned the quarry at the time."

Yeah yeah, it was a pretty floor. That didn't mean they needed a whole history lesson on rocks and junk. But apparently nopony else agreed with her, because everyone else was staring at the ground like it suddenly saved the universe. Heck, even Fluttershy was staring at the ground like she wasn't worth walking on it.

"The hoof rails are made from black marble, which has been sourced from many locations throughout the years. In fact, the have been replaced recently."

She could swear that Le' Snoot was staring at her when he said that, and Dash scowled. She literally had nothing to do with that one. She hadn't even been here that day.

"And lastly, the main chandelier is a mix of fine silver and platinum, forged over nine hundred years ago by the legendary smith Hellfire over the course of three years. It weighs over one ton, and is worth over fifteen million bits in materials alone."

And now everyone was looking up like the sky was falling. At least they had a decent reason for that one; Dash had to admit that the chandelier was actually kinda cool. But still, it wasn't so cool that they had to worry about swallowing bugs. No chandelier was that cool.

"Now, let us move along. The art gallery is next, and it is far more impressive than the grand hall."

It was all Dash could do to avoid groaning aloud as the group started moving forward. This was gonna take forever.