//------------------------------// // Falling So Slow // Story: Out of the Shower. Into the Storm // by Funkyfresh //------------------------------// One would expect the memorial site of a major battle would be a certain way. That the air would be still, the sky would be grey, and the colors of the world to be muted... That's not what a grave or a memorial is truly like though as one comes to learn after visiting enough of these places of death. People may build structures that reflect mourning and loss in some attempt to show what all should feel at the memory but the rest of the world cares little about that. As I stepped onto the gangplank that lead from the airship I had traveled on for a time I could feel the warmth of the sun surround me and Celestia wasn't even giving me a hug. "Strangely pleasant day for mourning the dead isn't it?" I remark to my traveling companion with a sad smile, a bit of familiar morbid humor that my old home had instilled in me resurfacing. "Hmm while you are correct Anonymous I think it's best to give the Neighponese the benefit of the doubt in the current circumstance. After all if those Storm Sirens you helped calm the other day had been roaming their skies then it's unlikely they could keep any concrete weather plans. Furthermore I-" "Princess I was only joking." I see Celestia's face scrunch up as I interrupt her before it softens at my next few words. "It was only a bit of the ol' gallows humor swinging about." Her eyes soften out of her diplomatic mask that she had donned before departing the ship as she approached me. "Pardon Anon, but did you say, 'gallows humor?'" She begins to unfurl one of her wings as if to wrap me in another embrace before hesitating. She must have realized that her mask of perfect calm had begun to slip and quickly straightened before the nearby ponies could notice. "Yeah it's just something that you pick up on after a while in my world, it's a usually futile attempt to add levity to a morbid or hopeless scenario." I give a dry laugh as I shake my head. "Well while I am sorry that humor like that is necessary in your world, I am glad that it is less so needed in the world that you now call home." She gives a polite nod with her political mask firmly in place as we both notice the group of Neighponese officials approaching in the distance. Seeing the minute tells of worry in her that I had come to understand due to our recent closeness an idea blossomed in my mind. "Well while I'm glad the world you've nurtured for millennia is bright enough to be unfamiliar with the humor, it's not so cheery that you didn't know what a gallows was." I remark dryly as I see her stumbled internally behind her mask before she gazes at me from the corner of her now twinkling eyes. "Oh my already trying to sharpen my wits and give me a measure of my defenses before the foreign diplomats arrive? Maybe you were truly the right choice to bring on this voyage, even if you can be a tad blunt at times." Celestia speaks aside to me as I watch the corner of her mouth fight the urge to smirk. "Of course dear princess. For after all is it not the blunt stone that gives the blade its sharpness?" I speak aside to her as well as I sink further into my 'aloof accent' before turning my head towards her and speaking plainly, "Besides who else would you have brought, Twilight and her friends? You would have been stuck with at least fives times the annoying friendship songs during the time it would have taken them to deal with the Storm Sirens." "I don't see why not dear Anonymous, their songs can be quite enjoyable to listen to or take part in." I see her smile mischievously with her eyes as she leans in to whisper, "Though I do think I enjoyed your wonderful voice during our voyage too." If her inner grin was much wider I'm sure that a certain stripped cat would have to throw in the towel as I look away, my face adorned with a small blush from her praise. "Alright, alright Celestia you've had your fun. We can get back to grinding on each other later, for now we- Celestia?" I notice that she had stopped in her tracks with a small tint of rose on her own divine visage as I look and think back confusedly. "Is something the matter your highness? Wha-OH... oh my... Uhh well that was a slip of the tongue to be certain. Forgive me?" I rub the back of my neck in embarrassment before she slowly nods her head and clears her throat before we continue on in awkward silence. Putting the idea of throwing myself into the harbor to rid myself of the embarrassment I felt out of my head I instead focused on the approaching Neighponese diplomats and guards. Noticing that we lacked such an entourage of guards I looked warily between those approaching and Celestia. "Is there a particular reason that they have those boys in lamellar with them when we don't even have one of your plated ponies on this trip?" I try not to show too much distress incase any of those approaching have a keen eye. "While it is abnormal to have that large a retinue on what is currently supposed to be neutral ground for our stay, I'm sure there is a good reason my little human." Suddenly Celestia fully focuses on them as we finally reach speaking distance. "Greeting honored council members, will any of the imperial family be joining us soon?" A female pegasus with vibrant, almond shaped eyes at the head of their group of apparent councilmembers to the imperial family is the one to respond, "Yes honored ruler of Equestria. We must apologize for the guards and lack of the imperial princess's presence for your arrival but we have been greatly harassed by a herd of Storm Sirens as of late. As I'm sure you know we couldn't risk her majesty's safety so she has been patiently awaiting your arrival at the village." Both the council members and Celestia bow lightly to each other as greetings are then exchanged. Afterwards another council member, this time a male unicorn with similarly shaped eyes speaks up. "Princess Celestia who or what..." his eyes narrow towards me with suspicion as I notice the guards are also tense at my presence, "is your traveling companion that you would bring to the meeting with the princess?" Before I could go into a little song and dance about being a murder ape that can grant wishes to mess with the uptight unicorn Celestia spoke up. "Anonymous is one who I deemed worthy of aiding me as a honorary diplomat and he," I both feel and see the pointed look that she gives him as she stresses the word, "is a human. The only of his kind in all of Equis as far as we know. Not to mention he is the reason that you no longer have to worry about those Storm Sirens." I notice that the unicorn councilor has begun to eye me up in a different manner, as one warrior might size up another. "I apologize for my earlier rudeness honored diplomat Anonymous, we were all a bit on edge as of late but now that you have bravely driven off the Storm Sirens we can relax once more." He and the other ponies begin to bow to me as I quickly reciprocate with a deep bow of my own before answering him. "It's okay honored councilmember, we are both a tad alien to one another so a few misunderstanding are bound to happen." I try to brush off the insulting manner of his initial reaction to me and focus on helping smooth things out. "However I did not fend anything off really, the Storm Sirens ended up leaving on their own." This causes the surrounding ponies to look at us in confusion as the pegasus mare who had first spoken looks between me and Celestia for an answer. "We did not see any maelstrom departing though, the storm was calm so you must have defeated them." Celestia gives her one of her signature soft smiles before explaining. "That is not entirely true, you see Anonymous has only recently begun to embrace the powers of his own Voice and used it to calm the Sirens whilst they were assailing our vessel. Once calmed they departed with little more than a drizzle." The group of ponies were no longer confused but were rather staring at us in complete shock until the pegasus councilmember whispered reverently, "No one has calmed a Storm Siren since the days before the Age of Unification though..." This caused those gathered to speak amongst themselves in their native tongue as even the stern faced guards began to look between each other. Meanwhile the pegasus began slowly moving towards me with a look on her face that did not mix well in my mind when combined with her pink hair, I was half expecting her to say 'Yuki' to me before Celestia cleared her throat to gain all of their attention. "Now then I do believe it is time for us to meet the imperial princess is it not?" This causes the previously stern and uptight unicorn to resume his self control as he orders his guards to about face so to give time for the other councilmembers to collect themselves before heading out. As we start to head out though he looks back to me and gives me another bow. "Thank you again honored diplomat... my younger brother was caught in the storm that you calmed that day, if you had not stopped the Storm Sirens then who knows what might have happened to him. I swear that I will pay this debt back to you one day." He says this and pounds his chest with a hoof as I run my hand through my hair and sigh. "H-hey it's okay man, I mean I didn't even know he was down there so..." My words trail off as I could see that I have pretty much no chance in Tartarus that I could change the stubborn pony's mind so I shook my head and simply fell in line beside Celestia. "Well at least he's not looking at me like I'm a threat anymore." "Oh don't mind him too much Anonymous for he is only doing his job as you have done yours." Celestia beamed at me as I could see her laugh a little on the inside as I breathed a sigh of relief now that I wasn't the center of attention for a host of foreign diplomats and guards. "You have gone above and beyond what I was expecting of you on this voyage, maybe I should give you a full time position as one of my formal diplomats?" I groaned internally and maybe just a bit externally as I gave her a withering look that failed to faze her in the slightest. "Ugh can we please go back to the hurricane now please and thank you. I would much rather be flailing around on the deck of a sideways airship than right here." "I'm afraid not dear diplomat for we have the entire day ahead of us and besides I can assure you that the airship is quite level right now. Not to mention there are quite a few fantastic tea shops on the island that we could visit if you behave." She looks at me pointedly. "Fine... I won't throw anyone out of a window without you say so Princess." The pegasus mare looked back at us for a moment in question. "Wait did he really do that on his last diplomatic mission?" "Oh no my dear..." I see the pegaus sigh in relief. "This is his first diplomatic mission, you see while he was staying at my castle a rather rude noble said some very... disparaging things about my sister and I that Anonymous happened to overhear and well the rest is history as they say." The pegasus looks between us to see if there is some sort of joke going on while I mumble under my breath, "You talk the sheet you get the yeet..."