//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Welcome To Canterlot // Story: Midnight: The story Of A Lost Princess // by CharlieHazbin77 //------------------------------// Midnight and the princesses reached the palace. As the filly stared up at the white towering walls of the castle's grand hallway, the young filly's eyes grew bigger and larger. Fillies considered it to be the biggest thing they have ever encountered. The halls echoed with her voice "Whoa!". As she ran ahead of the princesses, she ran past the stained-glass windows depicting key events in Equestria such as Nightmare Moon's defeat and the crowning of Twilight as Princess of Friendship. Suddenly, Midnight squealed in excitement again as she looked around the throne room, jumping in circles while laughing. Her gaze shifted in the direction of Princess Luna, who trotted beside her, "thank you, thank you, thank you!" Midnight turned to the princess, facing Luna as she gently laughed. "Midnight, I have some duties to attend to with my sister this afternoon, but before then I'd like you to meet someone you might get along with." Luna smiled gently. "Where are they?" When she turned around, she saw a light pink alicorn enter the throne room. Dark pink, purple, and yellow tones defined her hair. Her name is Cadence. The ruler of the Crystal Empire is pictured with a filly of Midnight's age and a coat of magentaish grey. The filly's mane is a gradient of light cerise to greyish violet with light arctic blue highlights, and her eyes are light opal. As Princess Cadence and Flurry Heart sat in the lobby, Luna smiled softly at them, "You girls can keep yourselves company while Cadence joins my sister and me for our duties this afternoon." She patted Flurry Heart on the head before she and Princess Cadence left the room. "I'm Flurry. Hi!" "Midnight" In a shy voice, Flurry said, "I know where your room is." Following Flurry out of the throne room and into the hallway, Midnight grinned happily as she got to her room "During our walk past the other stained glass windows, Mama showed me where it was. It's a great place, Midnight, I know you will love it here." Flurry explained. "Is this... a sign that we're gonna be friends now?" Midnight asked in a shy, hopeful tone. "of course... but don't you have friends from the orphanage you could ask Luna to bring for a visit?" Flurry asked with a small smile which faded seeing Midnight's ears flop "Coal and Blossom are slightly younger than me, ha, but they made the stay worth it. "I'm glad you're here, you're no longer there" Flurry assured the filly who simply smiled softly. "Oh, we're here, this is your new room, Midnight" singing Flurry opened the door to Midnight's room using her magic. Midnight looked around the huge room she now owned at the space she admired. Featuring ocean blue walls and a princess bed in galaxy colours, the bedroom was decorated with crystals, representing stars. Upon jumping into bed, the filly inflated into a pillow twice her size. She exclaimed, "it's so soft!" "PILLOW FIGHT!" yelled Flurry, suddenly hitting Midnight with one. Suddenly, the girls were hurling pillows at each other from the bed and around the room, covering the entire room with white fluffy feathers, which made two fillies look like chickens. "Is everything okay in here?" a man asked as a stallion with blue streaks through his mane poked his head through the doorway. "Oh my... Flurry, what's going on in here? This is supposed to be Princess Luna's new pupil's room.". "It's okay, Dad. We just had fun right Midnight?" Flurry asked the blue filly The stallion was a bit surprised to see Midnight. She introduced herself to the stallion as the new student of Luna "Midnight, I'm Shining Armor. Flurry's father and a captain of Canterlot's royal guard, so if you'd like me to assist, let me know" he said happily. "As a matter of fact... could you possibly help us with something?" Midnight asked hopefully "You may have a better idea of what you're going to say considering the condition of the room" A light grey stallion walked away to get some cleaning supplies with both foals watching nervously. Midnight said calmly, "that was fun! pity we have cleanup to do." "It's not like we're staying in your room to play all the time, I mean besides cleaning the mess, but you know what I mean... This is Canterlot's Castle, Ponyville. There's so much to explore and discover! Didn't you play explorers at the orphanage?" "Uh-uh, I'm a blank flank, and according to Fly Moss and Fungus Fuzz, blank flanks can't be explorers," she said, rolling her eyes in memory of the bullies' words. "It's not true! We black flanks can climb in the Himalayas! OR visit the yaks of Yakyakastan! Ooh or- or- AHCHOO!! " Flurry hit the ground under a pile of feathers after a feather landed on her nose while demonstrating what blank flanks could do. Midnight giggled as her new friend looked whiter than her coat covered in pillow feathers "we would have never been able to do this at the orphanage... at least not while the younger ponies were asleep anyway, Candlelight always caught us and... well we got in trouble ha" "but for the younger ones that's kinda understandable, I guess" "yea, Blossom is super cranky when she's woken up from her nap, haha trust me I've heard her screaming her head off in the middle of the night" "It's adventure time now! So where are we going? To a snowy wasteland in the Crystal Empire! King Sombra's old castle... they took over that...it might not work" "We can go into the deepest dungeon anyone has ever found in an abandoned castle! or we can build our palace!" Midnight became more and more excited as she jumped onto her bed. "Then the bullies would be sent to the MOON! I know you're a princess already, but what if we were BOTH princesses? "For a project like that to succeed, we need the elements of harmony, but I don't think my auntie Twilight would let us do such a thing, as much as those bullies deserve it." "Maybe not the real elements, but." Midnight grinned mischievously, sparks flying from her horn. "It is my duty as princess Midnight to banish you to the moon!" "Nooooo, hold on, but for how long?" "So... until dinner?" "that works! you can send me back afterwards" Both girls ended up laughing, Midnight almost falling off the bed and Flurry covered in even more feathers after rolling on the floor "Alright girls, I have the cleaning supplies..." Shining Armor announced as he came to the door again smiling hearing the kids' laughter "you two having fun?" he asked as he started sweeping the feathers off the floor and his daughter. "Midnight sent me to the moon!" Flurry suddenly hid under the bed, her voice muffled by the sheets. "so I'm not here until dinner! Okay, dad!" "I'm Princess Midnight and I beat you! Hahaha! You cannot run to me, foul villain!" "Is everything alright in here?" Princess Celestia asked walking beside Shining, chuckling a faint bit hearing the fillies "You're on the moon, aren't you? well, you definitely won't be craving pancakes then, right?" Celestia asked as the two fillies stared at each other then jumped on top of each other. "Hey Midnight, I'm still on the moon!" Flurry reminded her friend, grinning "I, Princess Midnight, have unbanned you from the moon! Let's get food." she said. As the two new friends hurried to the dining hall, they still played together While Midnight ran past Flurry stopping once they reached the dining hall, Flurry said, "we're racers in the Equestria Games!". Their eyes were glued to the food. There were apple fritters, pancakes, and cupcakes. There were so many delicious things to eat! "After dinner, we will qualify for the games!" The girls grinned as they trotted over to Cadence and Luna's table, happily announcing their agreement. A princess of friendship who had saved Equestria countless times sat across from the girls, Princess Twilight Sparkle. One other filly, a little older than Flurry and Midnight, was next to her. They were accompanied by an orange pegasus stallion with a blue mane sitting beside Twilight. Midnight knew that the princess was experiencing tension with the pegasus whose name was Flash Sentry. Greeting her cousin, Constance waved back, however, their reunion was short-lived after Twilight and Flash appeared to have begun an argument, leading Flash to leave. Flash watched as Constance wiped away the tears as she followed her mother down the halls saying, "Not again, Constance." "Do you want to sit over here with us?" Midnight asked Flurry as he looked at Constance. Constance immediately nodded in agreement. "Midnight" "Constance" "guessing Aunt Twilight and Uncle Flash is still having trouble..." Flurry asked in a sad quiet voice. "yea... it's been like this for a while now Flurry so... I'm kinda used to them fighting whenever we come over here to visit...... anyway how are you, girls? We heard you laughing from down the hall ha something about Equestria Games..." "oh right, we're qualifying after we've eaten haha not literally but you know what I mean" Midnight explained through laughter while using her magic to grab a pancake and a few other treats "but before that, I got sent to the moon! for like a few minutes" The girls laughed at the thought of the pillow fight they also had earlier that day. "it's only my first day out of the orphanage and I'm already loving it!" "you were in Canterlot orphanage?" Constance asked a little surprised "yep" In a soft voice, Luna explained, "but not anymore Constance, young Midnight is my new student" "The dance always cheers you up, Constance! We should show it to Midnight!" In a flash, both fillies happily joined together, performing a dance their mothers taught them "Sunshine Sunshine Ladybugs Awake Clap your Hooves and do a little shake!" The two fillies rolled around on the floor laughing after the dance "Never gets old!" Curious, Midnight asked, "what was that?" Cadence explained, "I made it up with Twilight when we used to foalsit" when they returned to the dining room minus Flash. As she realized what she feared, Constance looked sadly at her mother and Cadence, her ears bending back very slowly as she shook her head. "W... where is dad? she asked, watching Twilight hesitate "Where is Uncle Flash, Auntie Twilight?" "He's gone back to the Crystal Empire!" Twilight said to keep the girls from staring at her. Twilight choked back tears as she approached her daughter. "I'm sorry Constance... I tried to stop him, but he said he had work at the empire... so I've decided to return home..." "I don't want to go anywhere without dad!" Constance stomped her hoof on the cold floor in protest "Constance, we just have no choice! He is too busy to notice us, let alone spend time with us! I know you don't understand right now but one day you will... I will explain everything better then... I promise" Twilight promised the young filly. Twilight pleaded painfully through tears, her voice cracking through sadness, "I'm sorry!" she apologized as the two embraced into a teary tight hug. Both Flurry and Midnight watched sadly, unsure of what to do as they tried to figure out what had happened Grabbing whatever food was left on the table, Cadence advised the girls to return to Midnight's room for a bit, so Twilight could speak to Constellation. Flurry nodded, and soon both girls were carrying trays of snacks and pancakes in the hallway "I hope she'll be okay after that." "I am worried about Auntie Twilight moving back to Canterlot since I don't see her as much as I do now... She only stayed in the Crystal Empire because of Uncle Flash, but now she might leave for good" "but she'll still be able to visit you right? and maybe I might be able to tag along with Twilight next time, I've never been or ever seen the Crystal Empire so that would be so much fun!" "do you think Luna would let you visit?" "why not, it's worth a shot! oooh and then we could do more exploring" "yea! Don't tell anyone that I said this but there's an abandoned sector of the Crystal Castle back home! I don't wanna go in it alone cause we aren't technically supposed to, but you never know what we could find down there!" "So what's the plan if we do go down there? tell somepony?" "no, because my parents would kill us if they knew what we were up to... we'll figure it out but until then let's have fun here and not in some spooky abandoned part of the castle, deal" "deal" The girls hoofbumped before giggling and trotting back into Midnight's room with the treats they had collected.