“GAH!” I fall off from my bed not knowing why I was screaming. I hit the floor with a soft thud as I was gripping onto my bedsheets to slow down my descent.
Instead of getting back up I just sat there. I tried to recall the dream the best I could so that I might write it down. However, lately, I haven't been able to recall anything, and it was starting to worry me. I wanted to ask mom to look into my dreams since she would always ask me what I dreamt about, but I always told her I had forgotten. Now I was asking her, but every time she tried she couldn't find my dream. She has centuries of experience entering other beings' dreams, but this has been a first since she first learned to do so.
I lay on the ground, listening to the ticking of the clock at the corner of my room. I look over to my desk and see all the stacks of paper containing homework assignments, and documents that I’m somehow now eligible to read and sign.
Being a prince sucks sometimes.
Finally getting up I make my way towards the desk. I pull up my chair, sit on it, and begin my grueling tasks. Most of my homework consisted of reading assignments and various books to read. So half of my time consisted of trips to the library. I found my royal duties surprisingly easy. I was put in charge of one area of the castle on the third floor. It was the living quarters of a few maids, like the ones I first met when I first arrived. I would approve or deny their requests, have a budget, and decide where it would be spent.
A few hours pass by and I hear a knock on the door. Seeing it as an excuse to get away from all this work I hop off the chair and make my way towards the door. I stop, however, before opening it. I look off to the side and see a crown sitting on a pedestal. The crown is silver with a single purple jewel stone in the middle.
The metal was forged by using dragon fire, why they didn’t just use regular fire I will never really understand. The royal blacksmith spends weeks working on it, taking little to no breaks. Or so I’m told. I’ve seen the blacksmith and from what I’ve seen, he was taking a few days worth of “breaks”. He’s more loyal to Celestia, so when he leard that he had to forge something for the other princess’s son, I don’t think he was too enthusiastic.
The jewel was mined deep in the mountains of the barren wastelands, home of the dragons. But I’m willing to bet they just took it off the least desirable headpiece and just placed it on.
To make it worse, It doesn’t even fit. When I put it on the first time it slipped down past my head. The only reason it didn’t go further down was that my muzzle stopped it. Mom told me that I would eventually grow into it.
Hesitantly, I pick it up and placed it on my head. I give myself a good look in the mirror. I have my ears balancing it. If I were to tilt my head too far in any direction, it would surely fall off.
Before answering the door I make sure I have a good poster in front of the mirror. I make my way over to the door.
Let’s see who it is.
I open the door and I’m greeted by a gray unicorn. The unicorn is well known around the kingdom. His blue cape is hard to miss and his horn would poke your eye out if you stood too close to him. If those weren’t obvious enough to tell you who it was, then his long white beard would definitely. If not, then were you just born yesterday?
“Hello, thy majesty. How art thee this fine night?” Starswirl spoke.
“Cannot complain,” I said because saying anything else would backfire on me somehow.
Lately, he’s been wanting to know my activities. At first, all if the red flags went off, but then I overheard a conversion one night between mom and Starswirl. He explained that I was giving off a magical aura that he would usually expect in unicorns. It wasn’t always there, but when it was it was very noticeable. Which is why he wanted to keep a close eye on me until he reached a conclusion.
“Surly thee've has notice something.”
“I have not.”
He stood there waiting for me to at least say something.
“Very well. How has't thy studies been?”
“Now THAT I could use less of.”
He chuckled at my answer. I guess he was expected THAT from me. No pony wants a large amount of homework. I think I can recall having tacks of paper once when I was human. I think I cried for a few hours.
“Very well. I shall leave thy studies then.” He said before stepping back and leaving.
Finally, he’s gone!
I felt like exploring the castle again. The little rebel in me is demanding I give the homework the bird and flock off. Even though I don't have fingers.
“Thy entire room is surrounded by guards. So nay escaping.”
Buck!
Dinner was nice
I had just finished eating and I had finished whatever homework or duties I needed to do, so I had the rest of the night to do whatever I wanted. Not that there was much to do anyway. Most ponies are asleep right now.
Guess I’ll just explore the castle for the billionth time again. And get lost for the billionth time too.
You think I’d discover something new every night at the rate I poke around. At first, I was finding all sorts of things left and right. They could range from boring old vases to weapons that looked like they’ve seen their fair share of battles. Now I was finding the same things.
I made my way down the hall, passing a few guards here and there.
“Evening your majesty.” A voice spoke to me then followed by the same voice, but coming from a different direction, “Yes, hello your majesty.”
I stopped to see who these voices belong to. To my left was a white unicorn with a purple mane and green eyes. And to my right was an identical unicorn to the previous one. They were both wearing the same uniform, making them almost impossible to tell apart. The only difference between them was their mane. Their mane was combed in opposite directions, one going to the left and the other to the right.
“Hidari, Rīt, it is a pleasure to… see you both.”
“No, the pleasure is all ours, young prince.” They both said in unison.
So damn creepy.
“Where are both of you... heading off?” I ask.
“We are on our way to eat.”
Oh, that’s right, once mom and I finished eating it’s the servants turn to eat. It’s always just us two. Sometimes I wish we could eat with every pony else so that we would feel less alone.
“Then I leave you two to do that. I have already eaten with Mother.”
“Then if you will excuse us, your young majesty.” They said together.
We went in opposite directions. I only made it a few feet before Rīt said something.
“Please pay attention to what lies ahead of you. You may know these halls, but you do not know their obstacles. Especially to what may be around the corner.”
Rīt continued to make her way to the dining area, but Hidari then said something of her own.
“You can know the outcome of a book by skipping to the end, but the ending is bland if you do not enjoy the build-up.”
They turned the corner, vanishing from sight and leaving me confused. I knew that they could be weird at times, it's not the first time they’ve given me an obscure message, but this made me uneasy for some reason.
I shake my head to get rid of the uneasiness.
There’s nothing to be freaked out about, Lun- I mean Silent. I’m even starting to forget who I am.
I wonder how long I can keep this up. Keep up this lie. I need to wait for the end. As soon as I somehow find myself at the edge of where the EverFree forest will be, I’ll be home free. Back to my old life, back with… with...and…
My thoughts are interrupted by bumping into something or some pony when I turned the corner. The impact caused me to fall on my rear. The sound of metal clashing with the floor echoed throughout the hall.
“Watch It!”
I stared up to see a bat-pony looking down at me. Their mismatched colored eyes were a dead giveaway to who it was.
Oh. It’s her. ...Great.
“Well well well, what do we have here?” The bat-filly said with a grin.
“Hello… uh?” I said.
“You are still not going to get it.” She said referring to her name.
“I figured,” I said with a small grunt getting up off the floor.
Maybe this is what she meant by, “...may be around the corner.” Wait. Why is she here?
“Why are you… here? Should you not be with the rest of... your group?”
Her face turned bitter. She looked away to avoid eye contact. Instead, she looked down at the ground and right at a shiny object. I quickly reached above my head and noticed that my crown was no longer there. I glanced down to see that it fell onto the marble floor.
“This yours?” The bat filly asked.
Before I could answer, she swiped it and placed it on her head.
“Look at me! I’m so important, I’m a prince! Pay attention to me.” She said mockingly. The crown was big for her too, so it slipped down, blocking her vision on her right eye.
“Haha. Give it back, please.” I extended my hoof for her to give the crown back to me.
She repositioned my crown back onto her head then placed a hoof on her chin to think. She then looked at me with a mischievous grin.
“Nah.” She then flew off down the hall.
Without needing to think I immediately chased after her. She was fast and every time I gain some distance she would dart to the left or right at every turn. I lost sight of her a few times, but her mockingly laugh pointed me in the right direction.
She flew without needing to rest her wings. I know us pegasus can go for long periods of time without needing to land, but she’s a small filly. How is she not tiring out? My short legs were becoming heavy and my breath was too. I felt like I was about to collapse any second.
She then took a left turn and when I followed we found ourselves in a small section of the royal gardens. The moon was out, reflecting its light down, illuminating the garden in a light blue hue.
I looked around to see where she was. This part of the garden didn’t have many places to hide unless you could fit yourself in the hedges or in the trees. See that those were my only options I began inspecting them.
I searched in the hedges that were shaped into various figures. Most of them were unicorn-shaped, or pegasus-shaped. When I looked into one of them I was attacked by a chipmunk that didn't appreciate the early wake-up call. The next one I checked was empty and so was the one after it. Then when I checked one that was shaped like a dragon I saw a batwing, thinking it was her I spread the branches apart, but was greeted by a guard staring intensively at an illustration. He quickly blushed and flew away.
That was weird, I'm not going to go any further into that. Now, where are you?
My left ear twitched when I heard the sound of giggling up in one of the trees. It was pretty loud for giggling. For a race that has sensitive ears, you would think that they’d be want everything to be quieter when they could.
One look at the tree and I could make out the filly hidden within the leaves of the tree. While it was dark out, her eyes stood out like a sore thumb. They looked like they were glowing.
Got you!
I jumped up expecting to tackle her off the tree, but I only made it a couple of feet before falling back down. I landed on my face and my misfortune caused the bat-filly to bust out laughing.
“What was that!? Gahahaha! *Gasp* That was pathetic!” She then moved higher up the tree. “How bout’ this? Better?” She was now poking more fun at me.
I tried again but failed as well. She laughed even harder. I was still out of breath and energy after trying to chase her down earlier. There was no way I was going to get her down.
I need a way to get up there.
“I’d be in another tree by the time you get up this one!”
Buck!
I paned my line of sight above the tree. If I could find a way to get up higher I could knock her down without her expecting me.
I found myself staring a little too hard. The filly was starting to find it a bit creepy as she had stopped laughing. Then I felt a cold sharp tingle on my back. Before I could question what that was about, my vision shifted from looking at the treetop to the clear night sky.
OH, what fu-!
I no longer felt the ground beneath my hooves. In its place was empty space. I began to fall down due to gravity. It didn’t last very long as I felt branches brushing and scratching against me as I fell down through a tree. I hit something else on the way down which slowed down my fall a bit.
I hit the ground, but I landed something soft for a change. Well except when I landed on Octavia when I first arrived in this pony land. I wonder what I landed on this time? As I look down my face went white.
Oh no.
I looked down to see a pissed off filly.
“Get off ya pervert!” She used both her legs to buck me off her. I hit the same tree that we just fell from.
Feeling a bit hazy, I stand back up with a wobble. So when they land on me it's fine, but when I do it I get called a pervert?
“How the hay did you do that?” The filly asked.
“Do… what?” I responded. My senses not fully restored from the impact of the tree.
“What do you mean!? You were standing there like a moron and then the next, poof, you’re gone! Then you knock me off the tree!” She said first pointing at where I was beneath the tree and then at the top.
Hold on. I just disappeared? Can- can I teleport again?
With the ability to teleport I can get around the castle a lot faster! No more at getting lost, especially in my own bathroom! I look at the filly, if I say that I can teleport, she might rat me out to some pony. What would Starswirl do to me if he found out? Would I get tested on? Dissected? What would mom think?
“I-uh… don’t know.” I lied.
She was about to say something else, but the ringing of a bell was heard. Her ears perked up. She looked back at me with a snarl.
“This isn’t over… your highness.” She flew into the sky. She quickly turned around and threw something at me. “And take this back!”
I saw my crown get tossed at me. I would have thanked her for finally giving it back, not that she won’t give it eventually. It was still a royal crown and mother would not take kindly to a thief stealing something she had given to her child personally. However, it was heading straight toward my face.
Again!?
My vision went black.