//------------------------------//
// Chapter 24 - Tea? 
// Story: Reborn 
// by Pensive 
//------------------------------//

"You see, when chemical reactions happen, the end product will have-"

"No, no, you get your definitions remixed, the passive voice is-"

"Then you isolate x here. Doing that, -52x on both sides you get y = -52x + 63. With the x iso-"

"UGHHHH."





Thump

Mark looked at me in surprise after I had fallen onto my pillow for the fifth time. Twilight was long gone, and I had been complaining for the last half hour.

"You alright?"

"How," I replied simply.

"How what?"

"How did you survive that? Yes, learning about magic was fun, I admit, but everything after became so boring."

"Usually that's me saying that."

'Yes, I know," I groaned.

"Oh c'mon Star, that was only a couple of hours at most, and most of it was just a refresher, really."

"So... repetitive..."

"True, but that only made it easier."

I shoved a pillow to my face and screamed in frustration.

A few seconds later, I felt a pillow hit me.

"Not really in the mood," I called, using the extra pillow to snuggle.

"Well, then you two wanna go out and do something?"

Upon hearing the question, I got up, turning to look at Eclipse, who was chilling with Mark. 'Let me anguish in my mental conundrum,’ I mentally called.

"What is there to do," I questioned.

"Well, we could head out to Canterlot. So long as you stay close to me."

I ran ideas through my mind before I turned to the window. We had a good half a day left, which meant it shouldn't become dark for too long. 

Turning back to Eclipse, I perked up just a bit, "Ice cream?"

Eclipse turned to me for a bit before answering, "I think the castle already has some ice cream. We could go get some if you want, but truth be told, I don't really know my way around, so it'd probably be a bit of a walk there, not including the being lost part."

I turned to Mark, who had gotten comfy a copy of the runic magic thingy book Twilight gave after our refresher course. 

"Sure, I'm up for a little adventure."

"Yay!" I exclaimed.


Two minutes later


“Excuse us, but  do you know where the kitchen is?”

The guard suspiciously eyed Eclipse, and her armor. It had an insignia that probably meant something, but to us, it was completely foreign.

After a glance to myself and Mark, the guard simply pointed out a direction, “Down the hall, take the first right and you’ll find stairs. Go down two floors, until you find a four-way intersection. Head down the south hall, pass three other hallways, and take a right. Go down that hall until you see the garden windows to the left. Keep following the window until the first left turns out to the Gardens.”

Why do I feel we should be writing this down? For that matter, where’s my pen?

“From there, find the main Garden trail, don’t get lost, some lead to a magically enchanted maze. Follow the trail throughout the Garden past the banquet hall doors to the west end and you’ll find another entrance. Once in the south wing, take a right and keep walking until you reach the end of the hall in a T intersection. Take a right and another right on the first door. You’ll find yourselves in the main kitchen.”

“Though, if you're looking for something to eat I wouldn’t recommend the main kitchen. They only serve fine cuisine, which I personally don’t know how the noble stomach, let alone survive off such small amounts.”

At the momentary pause of the guard, I made sure to clamp my mouth shut preventing the accumulated drool in, then went back to trying to process the information dump.

“There is another kitchen which often visitors and off duty guards goto instead. To get there, follow the same path, except instead of turning right into the kitchen, head straight down until you see a storage room to the left, then take a right upon the next turn. You’ll find stairs, head up two floors, and go down the south hallway again. Then take the third door to the left-”


Eight guards, three maids, and Twelve minutes later


"We're lost, again, aren't we," I asked.

"Yes," Eclipse dejectedly sighed, "we are."

"We could ask another guard, you know," Mark called from behind me.

Eclipse blanched, "And make it nine guards? Trust me, I may not have been one of the castle guards, but they are well known for rumors popping out of the blue, it’s all in good humor of course, but one a rumor of this stallion sank during basic training when all that happened was he got the lowest score out of his class."

"Are you sure he didn't actually sink?"

"Yes, I'm sure. They even say when his drill Sergeant was doing mouth to mouth; the trainee tried to punch the DI straight in the..." Eclipse faltered, "in a... uhh..."

Eclipse visibly blushed for a few moments as she came to a dead stop looking at us, "uhh... his well, package. "

As Eclipse whispered the last word out sheepishly, I blushed and hard. Mark cringed. Though I wasn’t sure how ponies mature, I know that I could have gone without hearing that story, even if it was fake. Though, I‘ll admit to no one that it was a bit funny.

"Oh, no, that very much did happen," a new voice added, "I even have the incident report."

We all paused, turning to our left. We were too caught up in conversation that we overlooked Celestia to our left side of the intersection.

"How are you three this lovely day?" she asked.

We all stood frozen in silence after being caught with... That topic.

Celestia waited a bit before her calm, serene expression dropped and titted. It was after she had finished I mustered up the courage to answer, "W-well, today's been fine. Mostly, we're just bored and trying to find the kitchen."

I faltered a bit, almost whispering reassurance to myself that she would buy that excuse after being caught talking about... 'Well, that.'

"The kitchen? If your hungry, you could've just asked a maid-"

"Oh," Eclipse finally spoke up after her brain had finished restarting, "no, they just wanted some ice cream and the chance to explore a bit. But it seems we've gotten lost."

Eclipse cutout that part where we got lost more than a few times when we thought we were on track, but more thankfully, she didn't bring up the earlier conversation.

Celestia hummed a bit, "Well, I was actually going to relax with some tea if you want to join me; I have a small stash of ice cream there."

'The princess's personal ice cream stash? Count me in!'

I turned to Mark, "What do you think?"

He shrugged, "You're the one that wanted ice cream."

'YASS!!' I mentally screamed before I cheerfully turned back to Celestia, "In that case, then I think we'd be happy to join you."

"Perfect," Celestia clapped her hooves together, "it isn't far, just come with me."

A moment after, she continued walking down the hall she was going as the rest of us followed, and true to her word, the tea room was two doors down.

"So... Uh, how much of the conversation did you hear...?"

I was surprised at Eclipse's forwardness. I mean, she is a princess. To my greater surprise, Celestia smirked, "Oh that, why nothing much, just all of it."

'Is she a troll? She's a troll, isn't she?'

I quickly rid myself of the external thoughts and hastily focused on the princess letting us in through to her tea room.

Inside, it was rather nice. A few windows around, what looks like to be a mini kitchen to the sides, and a small rectangle table. It was all rather homey.

"Go ahead and relax while I get the tea."

Mark nods while I snapped out of my observations before taking a seat. Eclipse, Mark, and I sat in silence, watching as Celestia got all the things she needed to make tea. And with what I suspected to be subtle uses of magic, she got it finished within moments. And while she was at that, she got out some ice cream, and bowls from what seemed to be an odd small refrigerator.

Before she set it all down, she turned to us, "Eclipse, would you like anything?"

"Oh, no thanks. Actually I have a question, how long do you think you guys will be here?"

Celestia politely smiled, "I have about an hour or so before I must return to my duties."

"Oh, I see. So, I was wondering if I could go for a bit? Since the Star and Mark are here with you, I thought I would take care of some business with the school for my new position as an 'assistant' there. I should be back within the hour."

I was a bit saddened to hear Eclipse had to go, but it was what it was.

"I suppose that is fine."

At Celestia's approval, Eclipse turned to us, "Well, I suppose that's my queue, see you guys."

"See ya," and "have a good day," was the response she got from Mark and me, respectively.

With that, Eclipse hurriedly left, leaving Mark and me behind.

With her gone, we didn't notice Celestia had come up from behind, setting our bowls of ice cream down. Each had a very generous amount of ice cream of multiple flavors. Vanilla, chocolate, pecan, and all dressed in some caramel. I honestly almost began to drool once the smell hit my nose.

The smell wafted through my nose with all its goodness. My body relaxed and my wings drooped a bit as I eyed the tantalizing bowl.

With one swoop, a spoon of heavenly ice cream melted on my tongue. It was absolutely amazing, as I rushed back in for another bite. Mark's reaction was much calmer than I, but I didn’t care.

"Careful, you might get a brain freeze," Celestia chided, "but I'm happy to see you enjoy it."

Hearing Celestia, I was snapped out of my daydream. Looking back up,I  saw her sat on the other side of us, just relaxed, sipping her tea. I went back to the ice cream, but more slowly. 

Unfortunately, a minute later I had to resist the urge to shy back when I realized Celestia was just staring at us with a smile. I looked back at her, and she just looked at me.

I froze a bit, looking left and right, before looking back at her to see her just smiling to the point where it was getting a bit awkward. Mark was just enjoying his ice cream, oblivious to her.

I returned a sheepish smile as Celestia took another sip of her tea. I went back to my ice cream, but the silence began to gnaw at me. I did my best to ignore it.

Looking to Mark, who was completely focused on the ice cream, I tried to think about the day's events, but it became hard to come up with something to think about with the silence.

My wings ruffled a bit and pressed down tighter as I felt the coolness of the ice cream wash over me. I shivered in delight, even if It was a bit cold.

Celestia, for her part, just looked and smiled. I still had a good bit of my ice cream left, and it wouldn't melt anytime soon, so I looked to out of boredom and the awkward silence and threw out a conversation-starting question.

"So, what's on your mind?"

She didn't even blink as she responded, "Oh, nothing much."

I didn't take that as an acceptable answer, mostly because I'd rather not sit in silence, so with my super social skills I asked again, "Nothing? Surely, you must have something on your mind; I'm all ears."

"No, really, it's not of importance."

"I insist; it's not every day I get to hear the inner thoughts of a princess."

She took another sip to consider my question before sighing, "Well, I do warn you it's all very mundane."

"Even if so, I'm rather curious," curious my butt, I just didn't like the silence.

The ‘supposedly’ regal princess pondered her thoughts but sighed, holding up her head with a hoof. Much like Mark would do when he was half falling asleep in class. But for her, she had a look of annoyance.

"Well, if anything was on my mind the most, it'd be the nobles."

At her silence, I raised a brow for her to explain, "You see, while I was a princess, I held a lot of power over the nation. But I don't control the entire nation. Our nation is split into two groups, the royals and the nobles. Both groups hold power over the nation, and if you'll excuse my language, but they're a pain in my flank."

"How so? If they hold power, shouldn't that help you rule?"

"Yes, you're exactly right, but you see the problem is... Well, the nobles aren't really... Noble, so to say. They've grown privileged with power, and now they look down upon others. They see themselves at the top, and others simple peasants to do in their way. An inconvenience even. They flaunt their power on a pedestal and think it means they deserve everything. While I still hold far more influence, they still hold a sizable amount."

"So, why hasn't anything been done to remove them from power or replace them? Surely if that's the case, then they are unfit for duty and violate some kind of law."

"I can't; I don't have the rights to do anything. And neither can I spare longer than a week, leaving them unchecked, because when I do so, they go out and abuse some loophole or their titles. Money this, money that, they barely even care to rule."

"Can't-"I cut myself off, almost falling back onto the laws of our own world, which probably don't apply here, "If they're such a problem, why not make changes to the laws? With the royal house's power, surely you can pass at least some laws to regulate them?"

At this point, she paused a moment looking up at me, "Well, I've tried and failed. I'm sorry, I'm probably blowing this all out of proportions, this is all really mundane, and I'm just complaining about my daily problems."

"No, no, it's no problem at all, really if anything, it's nice to talk with you even about small things," I did not know whether it was an actual problem or she was truthful that it was more of an annoyance, so I settled on a topic change.

Celestia smiled, but for just a tiny moment, something was off. It was not a normal smile of kindness but mischief. It disappeared moments later, so I decided not to ponder it.

"So, how was your day?"

"Oh, nothing much, just the usual," she answered nonchalantly with a sigh, "my schedule and planned events being altered and falling apart, even though I had planned weeks in advance. If it wasn't for Raven, I'd have a headache."

"Raven?"

"Oh right, you don't know her. She's my advisor and helps me with my scheduling. Without her, I'd be a wreck. I simply don't know how she does it all..."

"Why not simply make her a princess," I joked.

Celestia laughed along, "Oh, I wish I could."

I smiled and decided to go in for my ice cream. Unfortunately, all that came back was air. I looked down to see my ice cream was gone. Puzzled, I looked to Mark, who was...

"H-hey!"

My hooves fly out, attempting to retrieve my heavenly dessert! I was held back as he made a show of slowly eating it in front of me.

"Ahhhh," he added as it slowly flew to his mouth.

"Nuuu!"

And it was gone, just one chomp, and gone. I glared as he snickered before I remembered Celestia's expression. Snapping my head around, she was trying to hide her mirth.

"Traitor," I harshly whispered.

At my admittedly childish act, her mirth increased. With some magic, a new bowl of ice cream found its way to me. I was a little surprised at the amount she's letting us have, but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to point that out.

My hooves protectively wrapped the bowl as my magic furiously began shoving it in my mouth. Celestia watched, amused, though I didn't care so long as I got my ice cream.

As the heavenly dessert came to me, I was already planning my next bite. ‘No one will take this from me! I swear it upon all of the ice cream in the world!’ Of course, this backfired.

"Ow! ow-ow-ow."

My hooves and wing now hugged my head, trying to ward off the incoming brain freeze. I heard the other two snicker at my impending doom. I sat back and waited.

But instead of waiting it out, I felt a sudden warmth through my body. It was gone.

Looking up, Celestia's horn was sparking with the use of magic moments before. I lightened my glare, but I still harrumphed.

"I told you to be careful, did I not," Celestia lightly chided.

"Wouldn't have happened if you told me about Mark," I grumbled.

Celestia only giggled, 'She is a troll...'

In the few minutes of conversation, Mark had stolen my ice cream, and after I got a new bowl, I got a brain freeze.

Creak

My head turned to the door as a pony, white-coated unicorn mare, brown mane done up in a bun, and light brown eyes. 

"Oh, Celestia! There you are, I've been looking for you. There's been- Oh... I see you have company there."

The mare seemed to be in a hurry, so I just sat quietly and waved.

"Ah, Raven! What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, unfortunately, Mayor Mare canceled her appointment. Word got out and the nobles are pushing to extend court to normal hours again."

"Can you not just tell them no? I'm sure I was planning this weeks ago."

"Yes, but unfortunately one of the Giffin ambassadors decided that they were going to drop by later today despite being told we would not be able to receive them for the coming weeks. They're using him as an excuse, because I quote, 'If she can spare time for the feather brain, she can spare time for us,' and you know how it is."

Celestia sighed, "And not complying would, 'force their hoof' wouldn't it?"

A nod from Raven got a groan from Celestia before looking at us, unsure of what to do.

"You know, you can go if you need, we can handle ourselves."

Ah, Mark's first words in a while, I was wondering whether he was even listening or sleeping.

"Be it so, I still would not leave you to get lost, and Eclipse likely won't be back for a while."

"Well," I offered, "We could go along with you. Don't worry, we won't cause any trouble."

She pondered my proposal a bit, "are you sure? I could have a guard or Raven take you back to your rooms or elsewhere until Eclipse comes back."

I looked to Raven, who smiled and waved and thought. There honestly wasn't anything to do, so being with Celestia would be fun. Looking over to Mark he shrugged. Really, how am I supposed to know what to do if he just gives a 'Do whatever you want' shrug?

With a frown to Mark, I sighed and turned to Celestia, "A-huh, there isn't actually much for us to do, so it'd be nice to spend the time around familiar faces."

I wouldn't actually call Celestia a friend, at least not yet since we barely know each other beyond a conversation and dinner.

"Well, I suppose if you really want to," she hesitantly said, "I guess there wasn't really anything I could do, but the nobles would find out about you two one way or another. Let's just keep your nature a secret yes?"

I nodded, to Raven's confusion.

"Well then," she said getting up and putting all the bowls and tea away, "let's get going."