//------------------------------// // Chapter IX: To The Train // Story: A Love Beyond Worlds // by Viatorem //------------------------------// Arceus found himself wearing his light blue scarf while walking through the streets of Canterlot, following Celestia and Luna to the train station while been escorted by both Golden Spear and *Night Star*. He was amazed with the design of the city, it had certain elements of human cities he had seen in the past, as well as elements from pokemon build cities, that were starting to pop up around the planet, but Canterlot also had elements denoting that it had been built by equine creatures. However there was another reason why Arceus was looking at the city, he was trying to ignore the conversation of the princesses, as Luna was teasing Celestia after she took notice of how Celestia’s behaviour changed around Arceus, and even though the teasing was done in a playful matter, like sisters will do, both Celestia and Arceus were feeling uncomfortable with it. Luckily for bout the alpha pokemon and the solar princess, Luna stopped teasing Celestia after the group stumble across two white unicorns. “Happy new year, Princess Luna and Celestia!” One of the unicorns, who was wearing a black coat as well as a bonnet and a scarf of the same colour and also was sporting a monocle and a mustache, said, getting the attention of bout princess Arceus and their escort. As the two unicorns were walking in the opposite side of the street; the other unicorn, who was also wearing a coat, a bonnet and a scarf, but of a pink colour that matched the long pink mane of the unicorn mare that was wearing them, taking notice of the princess presence stud upright and made a military salute, before greeting the princess, “Happy New Year princesses” Upon taking notice of the two unicorns, Luna smile, before greeting them, while walking towards the two. “Happy New Year to thou too, my good friend Fancy Pants and lady Fleur De Lis!” “Happy new year to you too,” Celestia said, also making her way towards Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, before adding, “Fleur, you don’t need to salute us like that, you are no longer on duty, and please just call me Celestia”. “Excuse me prin- I mean Celestia, force of habit,” Fleur responded, before lowering her hoof and taking a more relax and casual posture. “Excuse me Celestia, but do you think you can introduce me.” Arceus, who was standing behind the two princesses asked, getting the attention of both Fleur De Lis and Fancy Pants, at the same time, Celestia moved a little to the right, making enough space for Arceus to stand between her and Luna, and allowing Arceus, Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis to get a good look of each other. Upon seen Arceus, Fleur De Lis try to get in from of Fancy Pants, as even though she hadn’t been in the royal guard core for almost 7 years, her training was still on point, as she had spent most of those years as Fancy Pants bodyguard; however, before she was able to get in from of Fancy Pants, he blocked her and quickly got infront of her, something that even surprised Fleur, but before she was able to protest, Fancy Pants began to talk, “yes princess, I think an introduction will be appropriated,” he said, without taking his eyes off Arceus. Celestia and Arceus took notice on how the two unicorns were a little intimidated by the presence of the alpha pokemon, so evidently they try to change said first impression, however, there was a problem, the two had different plans to do so, and the two acted in a sort of impulsive way. “Celestia I think it will- Yes, of course, this is-” Arceus and Celestia said at the same time, resulting in an untellable mess of words, that thankfully didn’t last long, as the two quickly stop to look at each other. “I’m sorry Arceus for- Excuse me Celestia for-“ Ones again the two when silence, however this time, a small smile appear in Celestia and Arceus faces, as humiliating as the whole situation might be, they found it to be quite hilarious, if not a little cliché. “Please you go first. Please you go first.” Celestia and Arceus said in another untellable mess of words, however this time, not only did Arceus and Celestia smile became a little wider, but they also chuckle a little. “No, please you go first. No, please you go first.” One’s again, the two said at the same time in another jungle of worlds, however this time, not only Arceus and Celestia chuckle, but Luna, Fancy Pants and Fleur also chuckle, although the latter two were a little more hesitant. “I- I-“ Arceus and Celestia said at the same time, stopping immediately, while their audience chuckled a little more, “all right this is getting ridiculous,” both said at the same time, and after realising the two had said the same thing at the same time, the two began to laugh, at wasn’t a long laugh, but that didn’t stop Luna, Fancy and Fleur to hold back a laugh as well. “That has been enough, do not thou think?” Luna said while holding back a laugh, making Celestia and Arceus turn to look at her, and hopefully ending the perpetual circle of saying the same thing Arceus and Celestia had been doing for almost a minute by now, “we think it will be better if Celestia introduces thou Arceus:” “I was actually trying to say that Luna,” Arceus answered before turning to see Celestia, he made a gesture to the princess, inviting her to talk, “Celestia, can you please introduce me,” Arceus added with a playful tone. “Of course,” Celestia answered with the same playful tone, before turning to see the two unicorns, “Fancy Pants, Fleur, this is Arceus, he’s a friend (its worth pointing out that Arceus was delighted that Celestia called him a friend despite only knowing him for just 2 day) of mine who is staying with me and Luna while his family travel through Equestria; and Arceus, these are Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, he’s the public event organiser of Canterlot, and Fleur, she’s a retired and honorary member of my solar guard, and she’s currently working as Fancy bodyguard.” It appeared that bout Fancy and Fluer wanted to add something to Celestia’s introductions, however, Luna talked before any of the two were able to say anything, “in addition to that, this two fine unicorns art good friends of us, which remains us, we have not had an opportunity to see thou since that play at Twilight’s school, it will be wise to take this opportunity and catch up with each other.” “Yes, in fact, there are a lot of things we need to tell you, princess-” Fancy Pants answered before he was interrupted by Fleur De Lis. “Honey as much as I will like to catch up with Princess Luna, we need to take a train, remember that my parents will be waiting for us at the train station on Vanhoover,” Fleur said while pointing at a clock at the other side of the street. “Oh! Right! Thanks for the reminder sweetheart,” Fancy Pants answered while looking at Fleur, before turning back to see Luna, “I’m sorry princess, but, as much as we want to talk with you, right now we are in a bit of hurry, I will hate to leave Fleur's parents waiting for us.” “Well, considering we are also trying to catch a train, I don’t see why you can’t catch up with each other while we walk to the station,” Arceus said, entering the conversation. Bout Fleur and Fancy Pants turn to see Arceus, “really?” Fleur asked. “Yes, we were going to take the train to Ponyville, we are visiting Twilight,” Celestia answered. “Well, in that case, we better get going, if I remember correctly the train leaves the station in 5 minutes.” Fancy Pants said, before making a gesture with his right frontal hoof, at this Fleur got next to him, and the two began to walk down the street that will take the group to the train station, Luna quickly got next to the two unicorns, with Celestia and Arceus walking next to each other while following the princess of the night and her 2 friends, as one will imagine, their escort was following the entire group. “Anyway, now that we have time, what were those things thou wanted to tell us?” Luna asked the two unicorns as they walked. “Well… where can we star?” Fleur asked Fancy, it was rare for her to search for guidance, but, considering the changes involved the two unicorns, she wanted for the two to agree in what they should talk about first. “Is that... there have been a lot of changes recently,” Fancy Pants explained to Luna after she looked the two unicorns with interest. “Well, if you want my advice, I will recommend you to star with the most important of those changes,” Arceus said, as he was overhearing, and have become interested in the conversation between the unicorns and the lunar princess. “That’s a good advice,” Fancy Pants answered, “but there also have been several important changes too, so it’s still difficult for us to choose where to star.” “Hmm, well, if you ask me, I think the biggest change has been that ‘little gift’ we received in Hearth’s Warming, but what do you think honey?” Fleur said while locking at Fancy Pants. “Hmm,” Fancy Pants said while scratching his chin with his right frontal hoof for a few seconds before answering, “y-yes, I think that will be the best place to star,” he then turned to address Luna, “princesses, this will make me look like an uneducated pony, but I need to ask you and your companion to please keep what were are about to say as a secret, I don’t want any newspapers to pester me, and especially pester Fleur or her parents.” Luna, who was looking at her friend with interest, as Fancy Pants was never known for being very secretive, hesitantly answered, “of course, we will keep this as a secret, is not that corrected sister?” “Y-yes, of course, I will keep this as a secret,” Celestia answered. Fancy Pants then turn to see Arceus, “What about you… eh-“ “If you want to refer to me by my title, then call me lord, although I prefer to just be called Arceus,” the alpha pokemon said after the unicorn made it obvious that he didn't knew how to formally address Arceus, “and yes, for my honour as the alpha pokemon, leader of all the legendries and father of my sons and daughters, your secret is safe with me.” Fancy Pants and Fleur, as well as Celestia and Luna, were a little estranged by Arceus rather curious oath, however, it seemed like the two unicorns accepted it, as Fancy Pants turn to see Golden Spear and Night Star, “What about-“ Fancy was interrupted by Fleur, who said, “don’t worry honey, us royal guards are experts at keeping secrets,” she then turned to see the unicorn and bat-pony and asked in a more militaristic voice, “isn’t that right!?" “Y-yes ma’am!” The two guards answered with a little bit of intimidation in their voices. Fleur then turned to see Fancy, giving him a warm smile and a small nod of approval, completely opposite to how she had address the two guards, Fancy return the nod and smile before asking, “well, now that that’s out of the way, Fleur can you do me the honour of telling our companions what’s that ‘little gift’ we received during Hearth’s Warming”. “Of course!” Fleur answered with a happy tone, before turning to see Luna, “I’m pregnant”. “And I’m going to be the father!” Fancy added in a cheerful tone, before hugging Fleur with his right leg and kissing her left check, who returned the gesture by kissing him. “T-that is wonderful!” Luan answered before hugging the two unicorns, although it was obvious that she was extremely surprised by the news, and that she was acting mostly out of courtesy. “Hang on a second!” Arceus exclaimed, getting the attention of the entire group, “I thought she was simply your bodyguard, not your mate.” “I was actually about to say the same,” Celestia said, looking directly at the two unicorns with interest. “Indeed,” Luna added, as she separated herself from the two unicorns, “we always thought thy relationship was one of an employer and employee, not anything more intimate.” “Well, we have been dating for over a year by now, however, we have been keeping it as a secret for almost every pony, with the exception of our parents,” Fleur answered. “We have been wanting to tell you, princesses, however with all the public events we haven’t had a chance,” Fancy Pants added. Luna rice one eyebrow to Fancy's excuse, Fleur noticed this and elaborated on what Fancy said, “we would have told you at the play, but there were too many ponies, and like we explained we want to keep our relationship as a secret, at least for the moment”. “That seems reasonable,” Luna answered, with a more relax and comprehensive tone, “however there art a few more things we want to know.” “We can tell you anything you want to know, as long as is in private, like we said before we want to keep this as a secret until we have all the details for the wedding cover, as it will be a nightmare to prepare it with all those pesky reporters spying on us,” Fancy Pants answered. “The wedding was indeed one of the things we wanted to ask thou, however there art a few more things I wish to know,” Luna said with a more friendly tone, she was about to say something more, when she was interrupted by a train whistle sounding at the distance. “I hope that isn’t our train,” Arceus shouted over the sound of the whistle. “Yes it is, and if we don’t run, we are going to lose it,” Celestia answered, also shouting over the whistle, before starting to run towards the station, with the rest of the group following her.