//------------------------------// // Ch. 6: Meeting royalty // Story: A bard's tale // by Brotato //------------------------------// Chapter 6 Meeting royalty "We sure are up high," Deekin squeaked out. He had finally summoned up what little reservoir of courage he had to peek over the chariot. The rolling hills and forests all looked the same, and didn't help measure how far they've been traveling. If he had to guess, it felt like it has been at least half an hour since they left Ponyville. He silently wished that he had packed something more filling to eat besides the meager over-salted jerky in his sack. After not being able to eat since coming to this new world, his stomach was starting to grow restless. "Twilight..." She gave him a confirming hum so he knew she was listening. "How much longer?" "We should arrive in about ten minutes," she trailed off, giving a sense that she wasn't done speaking. "I suppose this would be a good time to inform you about several things before we meet the Princess. First: Always bow when you first meet. First impressions are important here. Second: Princess Celestia or just her title is fine, but never ever say her name only. It's too informal and is generally frowned upon. The third thing you need to know is that we don't eat... uh... meat. It's almost lunch time and I'm sure she will invite us to join her, so please try not to ask for it. You'll probably just scare away the servants if you do. "I... see." Deekin frowned. Even when obvious hints stood out, it still felt disconcerting to forbid his carnivorous diet while in Equestria. The equines back in his world were herbivorous as well and the resemblance with ponies were uncanny. Minus the colorful manes and coats of course. Deekin did his best to smile at the situation. "Good thing Deekin can still eat other things." He wrung his hand slowly. "Except carrots... Deekin hate carrots." Twilight chuckled in response. "Have you ever met any royalty wherever you're from?" He shook his head. "No. Deekin and tribe stayed inside masters cave most of the time; away from the awful blizzards that came and went. Sometimes master sends several kobolds out to gather or attack other gnoll tribe for supplies. Even if kobolds treated like dirt, we always respected master unless wished to be his lunch." Deekin finished with a tiny shrug. "He would eat you for disrespecting him?" Shock evident in Twilight's voice. "May I ask who or what your master was?" Deekin sat down with his legs tucked in and his tail curling around his clawed feet, keeping himself far away from the open back of the chariot. "Tyrmofarrar, a white dragon living with many, including mine, kobold tribes in the Nether mountains. We both worked together to survive. He scared off interlopers that enter cave, while in return we provided entertainment, food, and anything else he need." He glanced at his broken lute for a moment and sighed. Twilight took his body language as a hint. "I'm guessing you were his entertainment?" Deekin nodded. "Master was nice to Deekin compared to the other kobolds, leading to most of the tribe to hate Deekin. When blizzards keep us from leaving cave, he grew bored and looked for entertainment. That's when he found my talent to become a bard. In return of entertaining him he took me under his wing and shared years of knowledge and his past deeds. Maybe I could share them with you sometime, yes?" "I'd love to," Twilight's eyes brightened. It was obvious that she would never pass up this chance to learn something. Especially when it's from another world. Their small chat lasted long enough for the chariot to reach their destination. The landing was so smooth it took Deekin a moment to even realize there was a platform under him. Its polished marble floor jutting from the castle with golden double-doors leading inside. Deekin quickly grabbed his belongings and hopped off the chariot with Twilight taking the lead. They were half-way across the platform when the golden doors opened and a half dozen guards were marching toward them, their eyes gazing at Deekin with suspicion. Deekin cowered at the sight. Using his lute to hide behind, he managed to strangle out something intelligible. "H-hello." "You will be coming with us... creature," one of the guards closest to the left instructed. His firm tone held a message that was clear in Deekin's ears: Don't do anything stupid. Deekin could only nod and be escorted into the castle with three guards on either side. He took some comfort with Twilight staying by his side as they walked across a large courtyard. A tree sat in the middle with several benches surrounding it for any ponies who wished to rest. Three other doorways lead down other parts of the castle, making Deekin wonder how big Canterlot truly was. He imagined getting lost rather quickly if he didn't have a guide to help him. The amount of art and sculptures at least eased his mind and left him in awe. Most them had plaques to describe what he was looking at, but the brisk pace the guards chose barely let him read a word. However, what really stunned him the most was the amount of colored glass windows there were. They told of epic battles and other such important events that he didn't now about. Nor would be able to discern from the windows since all he saw was colorful glass. Twilight must have noticed his appreciation of such fine works because she began pointing out several of them. "That's a bust of Starswirl the Bearded," she pointed a hoof towards a pony with a rather large wizard hat with several bells hanging at the trim. "From what I've read he's the most powerful unicorn Equestria has ever known!" She didn't miss a beat while pointed out another painting. "Over there is a painting of Celestia at the battle of Stalliongrad." The artist who created it had, what Deekin assumed was Celestia, standing on a rock outcropping with dozens of troops marching below her. The rest of the painting had a slight smudged look to it so the focus was on the Princess, but not too much to make the rest of it unrecognizable. "Oh wow! I didn't know they-" Twilight was cut short when the guards stopped. In front of them was another pair of doors, except these were created with aesthetics in mind. Filigree ran across the entire golden frame. The left door held the form of a giant sun, while the other was a crescent moon. "Mind what you say," one of the guards grumbled dangerously, receiving a wide-eyed head nod in return from the kobold. The doors seemed to open on their own, revealing a long hallway with white pillars on either side. White was the most prominent color in the room and everything seemed to glow as light flooded through the rows of tall tinted windows. Deekin felt relieved when the guards left after escorting them to the throne room. They followed the red carpet leading to the throne, the only sound coming from the muffled steps of hooves and clawed feet. When they stopped several feet from the first step, Deekin stared in awe at the Princess. Her flowing mane entrancing him like an expert hypnotist. "Deekin?" Twilight looked at him with a sour expression. He had been staring at the Princess for a while now and had forgotten to bow, making Twilight annoyed at his break of protocol. Wishing to end this silliness quickly, she faced him and shouted in his ear. "Deekin, snap out of it!" Deekin jumped a foot in the air out of fright and fell to the floor in a pile of scaly limbs. "D-Deekin is sorry!" he apologized while standing up and looking at Twilight fearfully. She didn't say anything else, but was impatiently tapping a hoof as if expecting something from him. "What is... Oh..." He quickly got the clue and quickly bowed before Celestia. He dared not leave the position else risk Twilight yelling at him again. "Twilight, that was completely unnecessary." Celestia stood from her throne and made her way toward the pair. "I understand the need of making a good impression, but yelling at your friend like that is very rude." She stopped in front of Deekin and raised an expecting eyebrow at Twilight. "B-but-" Twilight started to defend herself, but simply hung her head in shame. Celestia was right. A simple nudge would've sufficed, but her anxiety and anger over Deekin failing something so simple as a bow caused her to snap. She always followed the rules of proper ettiquite whenever it came to visiting the Princesses. So when seeing Deekin not follow it after explaining it clearly to him was like a punch in the gut. "I'm sorry, Deekin. I shouldn't have yelled at you." She said while looking at the floor. "It's alright," Deekin responded while still facing the floor as well. Celestia nodded her head in satisfaction before returning her attention to the still bowing kobold. "Deekin was it? Why don't both of you follow me and we'll talk over supper? This way please." Celestia lead both of them out of the throne room and through several halls while escorted by two guards. It didn't take long to reach the dining room with its long table. A white cloth was draped over the top with several unlit candles spread out across it. Silverware and plates were already set as if the servants already knew they were coming. The Princess took her usual seat at one end of the table while Deekin and Twilight chose two seats to the right of where she was sitting. Just when they were all comfortable in their seating, three ponies appeared through a pair of swing doors beside one of the large double doors lead to a hallway. Each one stood beside each pony and gave a small book which held favorites and the 'usual orders repeat visitors chose. Twilight asked for a simple glass of apple juice and a daisy sandwich, while Celestia chose a large caesar salad with red-wine vinaigrette for dressing. Meanwhile, Deekin was furiously sweating over the pamphlet before him; utterly scared stiff on what to order. There was a section meant specifically for gryphons which held various different types of meats, along with any way imaginable to have it prepared. The thought of having a large juicy streak right now, medium-rare of course, made Deekin's tongue hang out. In a sudden poof of smoke, a smaller deekin wearing nothing but a long loincloth appeared on his shoulder. He had red bat-like wings and a demonic spiked lute was resting on his back. The small Deekin began to convince him to order something. "You see that? Meat! Delicious juicy succulent meat. What are you waiting for?" He threw his arms toward the meat section of the pamphlet in impatient frustration. "Don't even think about it!" Another Deekin rested on his other shoulder. This one had angelic white wings and wore a robe that matched Celestia's coat. His lute was a solid gold. "Did you not hear Twilight? She said no meat and that's exactly what you're going to do." Evil Deekin placed his claws on his hips and shook his head. "Listen buddy I'm gonna give you three good reasons why you deserve a piece of steak." He snapped his fingers and a parchment appeared in his right claw while small red reading glasses was held in his left. He cleared his throat and read off the list with the glasses on. "Reason number one: Look at that guy," pointing his right claw at Good Deekin while still holding the paper. "He's got that silly looking dress on." Good Deekin squinted his eyes in annoyance. "We've been through this before. It's called a robe!" "Whatever." Evil Deekin brushed away his comment and continued by burning his glasses and parchment in flames. He then jumped off of Deekin's shoulder and landed on the dining table. "Reason number two: Look at what I can do. Haha!" He started doing handstands, which to the other two Deekin's horror, the loincloth fell. Deekin covered his eyes in embarrassment. "I-I don't see how that is relevant to-" "No no," Good Deekin held up a claw to interrupt him, his other tapping his own chin thoughtfully. "He's got a point." "Is everything alright Deekin?" Celestia asked. Both images of Deekin's conscience disappeared in poofs of smoke afterwards, leaving a very confused kobold. Deekin checked both shoulders before answering. "Yes, Deekin is fine," he replied quickly. He was relieved that Celestia didn't push it any further and instead returned to having light conversation with Twilight. He returned to looking through the menu and settled for a potato soup with various vegetables. Even if the thought of meat was tempting, he couldn't bring himself to ignoring Twilight's request to not do it. After the servants took their menus, they bowed and, without a word, left the room. "So Deekin," Celestia began. "While we wait for our food, why don't you tell us more about yourself? Twilight has already informed me of Discord and his plot, but that can wait until after supper since you snapped the strings already. Thank you for doing so, even when he promised you a way home." "Y-yeah... disobeying," Deekin chuckled while fiddling with a silver fork. He might as well go along with them thinking that, rather than knowing it was an accident. He filled both of them in on how he got to Equestria and explained a little about his world, along with the strange world Discord was stuck in. "The Astral plane," Celestia muttered, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Huh?" Twilight's brow rose in interest. "What's the Astral plane?" "It's another plane of existence, dear student. I'm sorry, but I cannot say anymore as it could very well disturb your view of... well... everything." She looked at Twilight with saddened eyes. "I hope you understand why I hold this information from you. It's for your own safety." Twilight nodded. "Of course, but can you at least explain why Discord is there? I thought he was trapped as stone?" "He is, but he isn't." Seeing a confused look on her students face, she giggled. "Sorry, what I mean is his body is still stuck here, but his spirit is there. You see, when a god is destroyed or forgotten about entirely, their spirit is sent there." "S-so that means..." Twilight's eyes widened in fear. Her saddened look returned. "Yes, that means even Luna and I could be sent there if my little ponies forgot about me." She gave a small comforting smile. "But I doubt that will ever happen." The kitchen doors swung open and the three servants appeared with each dish carried with them. Once the plates were placed upon the table, the Princess and two guests began to eat while starting polite conversation. For now, it would be just a normal supper with friends. Hidden Aim found himself on a high hill overlooking the vast green land surrounding him. He was close enough for his optics to spot the front entrance to the city of Canterlot, and notice the droves of ponies leaving and entering the grand city. He was absolutely certain his prey was in the castle. A golden chariot with two forms upon it had zipped away from Ponyville and disappeared into the sky toward the city of Canterlot. The percentage that the one known as Twilight and his target was on that chariot was too high to not be true. He galloped toward the city as if Tartarus was behind him. Nothing and nopony would stop him now. Even if he had to search or destroy the entire city itself, his target will not be able to hide for long. They never do. For the Inevitables always capture what they came for.