//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Thieves, storytime, and cake addictions. // Story: Era of Harmony // by Gambling_Sam //------------------------------// *Raiden POV* It was a Wednesday morning and I was cleaning up the kitchen when a maid walked in. "Princess Celestia would like dessert delivered to her sleeping quarters." The maid said. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Let me geuss, a big o' slice of cake for the lady." I said with a smirk as the maid giggled. "You betcha, Sir. Except this time she wants chocolate instead of vanilla." She said between giggles. "Alright, I'll get right on it." I said turning towards the cabinet to pull out the flour. Ever since I had started working at the castle, the princess had been using me as her own personal chef. It was quite easy to cook for her, since she didn't usually ask for anything too crazy. But there were times, like today, when her sweet tooth got the better of her. Even at 9 in the morning. ******* After making the cake, I put it on one of those wheeled things waiters use and pushed it to her room. An easy enough task, until you get to the stairs. Whoever decided to put the royal bedroom in one of the highest towers in the castle needs to have their brains checked, because carting a food trolley up those steps is absolutely dreadful! I finally emerged at the top and carted it towards the door. The guard's noticed my approach and looked me dead in the eyes. "Evenin' boys." I said with a smile. "Got Celestia's morning dessert right here." patting the cover over the cake, I lifted it up a bit and showed them the chocalate cake. They saw it and immediately went to open the doors when the doors flew open, sending all three of us to the ground. I looked up as a pony dressed in all black flew by, noticing his or her eyes were completey blue. No iris's or anything. Then I saw a necklace in its hoof. "STOP!!" I yelled, giving chase after the thief. The guards recovered as the princess walked out of her room. "Where did the intruder go?" She asked one of them. "The bugger took off towards the courtyard, with your chef in pursuit." The guard said gruffly. Celestia's eyes narrowed as she teleported to the courtyard in order to cut him off. Meanwhile, I was giving chase after the intruder. Even though he was flying, he wasn't moving that fast. It was as if he had almost no energy. It was still flying though, and I was being slowed down by maids, Nobleponies, and the occasional visitor that was wandering aimlessy through the halls. I turned a corner after him just to slam into a unicorn. This one, was different than most of them I had encountered before. Unlike most unicorns, he was well built. He was alabaster like celestia, yet he had this mix of light and dark blue hair. He also had this sheild with a purple star in the middle as his cutie mark. I noticed he had armour on that looked different than most. "Oooh, what the heck?" He said woozily as he got up. I stood up and hurriedly replied. "Thank goodness! you look like someone important among the guard here. There's a thief running around and he just made off with some necklace from Celestia's room. We got to hurry and catch him, who knows what that thing could do?" I said as I continued my pursuit after the thief while The unicorn started barking orders at other guards to close off exits. I ran pass an open door to stop in my tracks as i heard a noise inside. I walked in slowly, pulling a butchers knife off my side. Ever since I had started working here, I had decided to keep it with me at all times, just from simply not trusting everyone here just yet. "I know your in here! So you might as well come out and face me." I said as I opened a closet. Nothing. I turned around towards the bed to see the thief looking at me with his head cocked sideways, almost as if it was recognizing me. I saw its mouth form a smile, fangs popping out of its mouth, and he lunged at me. I swung up my knife in defense only for it to be knocked aside by magic as he plowed into me. We landed in the hallway and started rolling around. I delivered a right hook to get him off me and jumped to my feet. He recovered fast and we started to circl each other. "I don't know who the hell you are, but you are not leaving with that necklace." I said with a growl, bringing my fists up in a fighting stance. The thing laughed and removed its cloak. I gasped at what I saw. It looked like a mutated pony, with the holes in its legs and the sharp wings. Even its horn seemed unnatural. Those same blue filled eyes stared at me in a cold, emotionless way. It was honestly one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. "It seems you aren't like him at all."The thing said. "I can feel the disgust coming off you." I snapped out of it and charged him, focused on not letting him get away. He laughed and charged forward as well, just to be stopped by a golden glow of magic, causing me to stop and beckpedal a bit in suprise. "That won't be necessary, Raiden. I'll take over from here." Celestia said as she walked up, flanked by some guards and that unicorn from earlier. She turned to him. "Shining Armour, take him and put him in the dungeons for now, we will interrogate him later to find out why he stole that necklace." After ripping said necklace from the thief. The guards took the thief away, the whole time it looked me in the eyes and mouthed 3 words. Hail the queen I simply shrugged it off as the guard marched off. So that's that unicorns name, huh? I'll have to buy him a drink in thanks later for the assist. I turned towards Celestia. "What was that thing?" I asked as she sighed. "Walk with me, and I tell you their story." She said as we walked down the corridor. She put the necklace away somewhere in her regalia and turned her head to me, never losing step or pace. "What you just saw was a changeling. They are a vile species that can change their shape and feed off of the love of those around them. Our country has been dealing with them for centuries. But until now, we haven't seen or heard any reports about them in the past 30 years." I thought about my encounter with the thing, and something stuck out about it all. "Celestia." I started. "The changeling said that I wasn't like someone. It was like he recognized me. You don't think that he has seen one of my brothers, have you?" A chill went down my spine. What if they have Nicholas? Celestia thought about this for a moment, then smiled. "I wouldn't worry too much about what the changeling said, their kind is known to lie to their adversaries to get the better of them. As for your brothers, I just recieved a letter from my student in ponyville saying that she has found a younger human living there." I let out a relieved sigh. "So Nicholas is being taken care of." I said with of a smile. "Glad to know he's safe, but what of Ronin?" I asked as her smile disappeared instantly. "I have tried to reach out with my magic to see if I could sense him, but every time I feel like I have found him, the connection is severed. Its almost as if he knows I'm searching for him yet he doesn't want to be found." I frowned at that. Ronin always was headstrong. And if he got wrapped up in something, he usually didn't want to involve me or Nick on the off chance we'd get hurt. Hopefully, he stays away from these changeling things. "By the way, whats so special about that necklace?" I asked her. She suddenly stopped walking and looked out a window. I heard her sigh softly. "The necklace..... belonged to my late husband. He died while protecting our city from the same threat you saw back there." She said with ice laced into her voice. I immediately regretted bringing it up. "Im sorry, princess. I had no idea." I said softly. She just shook her head and turned back to me. "Do not be, you could not have known. Come, let us return to my bedchambers. I would at least like to try some of that cake you made." She said with a smile that seemed forced. We turned and headed back the way we came. *********** We arrived in her room, with me carting a new cake in tow. The last one had been knocked over in the fray, and from the looks of it, her room didn't fare much better. There was junk scattered everywhere, singe marks in several places and glass broken around a pedestal with an spot for a necklace to be hung. "Damn, this'll take hours for the maid to clean." I said, eyes wide at the mess. Celestia smirked. "Not necessarily, Raiden. Watch." Her horn glowed again as a light shined across the whole room. When it dimmed, everything was clean again. No marks, no junk, and the pedestal was completely spotless. My jaw hit the floor at this. "That magic stuff is insane." I said with a chuckle as I found myself a comfy spot on a couch to sit. She took a spot by the bed and uncovered the cake tray greedily. "So how are we splitting that cake? 50-50?" I asked just before celestia took a knife and cut a fourth of it off and gave the small part to me. I took a look at the big chunk in her plate. "One fourths it is!" I said with a laugh as I took a sugary bite. I wasnt the biggest fan of cake, but every once in a while wasn't so bad. I looked over to see crumbs where celestia's chunk had been and a very stuffed look on her face. My eyes widened. "Your already done?!" I said in wonder. She had to cover her mouth to keep from spitting out cake from how hard she laughed at my reaction. She swallowed the cake and grinned. "You have much to learn about my eating habits, Young one." She said as I finished off my own slice. I stretched a bit and stood up. "Well, your highness, I better get back to the kitchen before the head chef has my neck." I said as Celestia nodded. I bowed and left the room. ********* I was on my way to the kitchen as I passed by princess luna. I gave a quick bow as she stopped and turned to face me. "Pray tell, what hath occured while we were out, Raiden?" She asked me. I smiled a bit at her speaking habits but answered nonetheless. "Oh, just a break-in/robbery with a side of cake hoarding." I said as she looked at me with an eyebrow raised before narrowing her eyes. She walked up to me, face nearly inches from mine. "We shall be watching thy actions, Raiden. We do not trust you, and we will not have you hurt our sister in any way at all. Understood?" I nodded as she backed off. I took a step away and smiled. "You know, luna. I think I know whats bothering you." She raised an eyebrow at this. "What, praytell, would that be?" She asked. My smile grew wider as I slowly inched towards the door. "Your just jealous that your sister gets free cake whenever she pleases!" I said as I dived through the door, narrowly avoiding the spell blast that hit where I was once standing. As I bolted towards the kitchen, I could hear her yell out in a rage. "COME BACK HERE AND FACE US, YOU HAIRLESS APE!!!" I simply closed the kitchen door behind me, crying my eyes out with laughter at her reaction. The cooks and maids in the kitchen simply looked at me in fear. One of the chefs I had grown to have as a friend spoke up. "Raiden, are you out of your mind, teasing the princess of the night like that?!" he asked/berated me. I laughed and patted him on the back. "Relax, Gold spoon. She'll calm down after a while. I just got to avoid her until then. Gold spoon looked at me and shook his head. "Your dancing with the devil, friend. But for now, we have to focus on the newest order that just came in." He walked over and picked up a list with his hoof. " Lets see, Princess Cadence has ordered... oh no." He trailed off as his face dawned a look of horror/weariness. "What is it?" I asked as I looked at the order and nearly passed out from shock. "She wants FIVE 3 three layer cakes!?! What is she doing, hosting a party or something." Gold spoon shrugged as i huffed a bit. "Apparently, she was just proposed to in marriage, so its a celebration cake. But five of them? Oy vey!" He sighed frustrated as he picked up the ingredients. "Lets get this over with, before the princess has our hide." I nodded. "Yeah, but once were done, Im going on break for a weeeek!" I moaned as Gold spoon snickered a bit, almost dropping the cake batter in the process.