The beauty enveloped Derpy as she slowly walked into the large doorway. She didn’t realize that she had snuggled up next to the Doctor in sheer fright. She now backed away, her eyes in shock. The Doctor just stared with a quizzical look.
Derpy felt the softness of the red velvet carpet, snaking its way down the entire snowy floor. The towering columns of the same color glared down at Derpy; Derpy glared back. The beautiful tapestries drooped over the walls- though most of them were just plain red to match the carpet. Windows lit up the large hallway; they were set up in a fashion of tapestry then window, tapestry then window, etc. The dome-shaped windows were gateways for the sun rays to flood in. Derpy let the warmth tingle her skin.
“Wow! Now I could live in a place like this!” The Doctor exclaimed.
“How come I don’t get this? I mean, I am a princ-“ Derpy eyed Kacoonis, cutting her off. “I am a principal of… of the school. Basically I’m the- er- queen?- of the school. Yes. I deserve a castle. Definitely.” Kacoonis started laughing hesitantly.
Two unicorn guards came to the party. They wore the same attire; the only three differences were the gray coat, white hair, and horn. Again, these guards were identical to each other. “Come with us, the Princess would like to see you.” They said in the same, deep voice.
“Oh, goody! I can’t wait to meet her royal highness! Excuse me fellows, what is she like?” The Doctor asked. They didn’t respond. “I heard that she is very kind, oh yes. Very powerful too. I heard that she’s an alicorn! Now this confuses me. How come there are only a few alicorns? How did the Princess get here? If you are an alicorn, do you instantly become member of the royal family? How come-“
“Doctor…” Derpy muttered. She nudged the Doctor.
“How come there are only female alicorns, huh?” The Doctor continued, ignoring Derpy. “Usually, monarchies are ruled by kings. How can there be multiple alicorns if there is no way to reproduce pure-bred-“
“We’re here,” The guards said stone-faced.
Again, there was another large, purple door- this was a nice lavender. The two unicorns’ horns lit up to a golden color. Derpy’s throat developed a large lump that was hard to swallow. Her knees started wobbling. The Princess?! The most beloved pony in all of Equestria?! It has been Derpy’s dream since childhood to meet such a nice pony. She used to overhear stories of the great Celestia. She could move the sun and moon without even a bat of the eye.
She was supposed to be the tallest pony who ever lived, taller than buildings, as big as the sun. She was also known to be the most beautiful thing anypony had ever laid eyes on. Her flowing mane was said to be the heart throb of most stallions. Her tall horn and wings were both impressive and known to shine in the beauty of her day. She ruled Equestria with a graceful hoof.
The most stunning thing in these stories was her kindness. Derpy had never laid eyes on a mare or stallion that was gentle to her as a filly. Everypony that had passed adolescence had tortured Derpy; of course, not physically, no, but in a mental, secretive way, the way of adults. She- to this day- heard older ponies talking about her when she listened carefully. The way they talked about her eyes just made Derpy want to hurl. Just like Twilight Sparkle, everypony thought of her as stupid and clumsy, just because of the way she looked. Though the ladder was true, it still wasn’t right to judge.
When she was filly, she didn’t believe that adults could be nice. She thought that as soon as she became one, she would be a bully to all the little fillies. She dreaded growing up; she tried to still stay a kid. That’s when she moved to Ponyville, right after flight school.
She was at the brink of the end of being a teenager. She had moved with Raindrops and they both found suitable houses in Ponyville. This was only accomplished after they humbly took some money from Fluttershy and her parents, after they found out that Fluttershy was moving. Her parents were so thrilled that Fluttershy had gotten friends- what with her never getting the chance- they just couldn’t bear to see the four pegasi split up. They gave money to each pony and found homes near each other.
However, Fluttershy sold her house, for she wanted to live near the forest, in a small modest cottage where she would have room to take care of animals. This led her to becoming a vet/animal caretaker. Rainbowdash sold her house as well, going for an old, abandoned, tiny little Rainbow factory.
This had once belonged to Cloudsdale; them trying to help the pegasi in Ponyville make their own Rainbows. Rainbows (and snowflakes) were known to be tedious, and cost a lot of workers which didn’t help the economy at all. They had to give part of their product to each city- by law of Celestia- which caused even more money. The cities would pay for shipping, yes, but it wasn’t enough. The miniature Rainbow factories were a failure, sadly, due to the inexperienced ponies.
One might think that an abandoned factory would be a horrible place to live. Derpy thought so too, when she first saw the place. It was a bunch of gray clouds bundled up together and Derpy was pretty sure they were originally white. Lost in the bunch was a broken down cube of cloud bricks. These bricks, once polished and snowy were now blended into the clouds. It sure was run-down.
When Derpy visited again, after a while, she was amazed at how well it turned out. It was like the prized exhibit at a museum, everypony had been talking about it for a week by then. Derpy had finally come to visit. Fluffy, white clouds created a platform so clean, that Derpy would eat off of the clouds. A swirly, blue path led its way to the gigantic building that lay in front of her. It was a tall building with columns that towered above everything. Decorative clouds were scattered around the house; their curves jutting out in large, exquisite swirls. In some of the clouds, there were tunnels that led through that were connected to the house; streams of rainbow fluid flowed out. On the roof of the house, rainbow juice spewed out, causing a fountain-like effect. It fell down onto separate clouds that surrounded the house that were in a sort of step formation (descending). This created a beautiful river of rainbow. At the end of the river, there was a hole that acted like a funnel which made the whole thing circulate.
Derpy recalled Raindrops saying that she had taught Rainbowdash how to make excellent rainbows. Raindrops was one of the most talented rainbow creators in their year at flight school. Raindrops was a god at all types of weather making; especially those having to do with rain.
Rainbowdash had made her house a factory once again. Rainbowdash made a lot of rainbow fluid every once and a while. They circulated through the house so that none was wasted in the beautiful decoration. Whenever there was rain planned, the weather team of Ponyville would take some from her house and paint that beautiful rainbow up in the sky (this was okay, due to the fact that Rainbowdash was the leader of the weather team).
Derpy now looked upon the door, shaking her head, wondering how this door had caused her to start thinking of Rainbowdash. “You guys ready?” Derpy asked hesitantly. The two ponies nodded as Derpy pushed open the door.
***
“I’ve been expecting you,” A deep, majestic voice called out from the end of the long room.
The room had another red carpet running along the bottom. Lining the walls were stained glass windows depicting ponies. Recurring ponies included two alicorns and six seemingly ordinary ponies. The six ponies seemed to represent… wait, Fluttershy and Rainbowdash?!
“I’ve heard a lot about you three,” the voice continued, cutting through Derpy’s thoughts. There was an alicorn, sitting atop a tall, red and golden chair. This was most likely her throne. The throne was atop two layers of steps, shaped like the tiers of a cake.
The alicorn was tall with a pearly white coat that glimmered in the filtered sunlight of the stained glass. Her great wings that seemed to be able to stretch a mile long started to gently fold back onto her delicate back. Her pastel coloured hair was made up of a green, blue, and lilac. It was constantly moving, though there was no wind present. Her deep violet eyes were filled with a mixture of warmth and curiosity. Her golden crown signified her position. It was sitting right behind the tall horn, taller than any that Derpy had ever seen. Instead of a rounded top, it was pointed and seemed to be able to pierce anything. Her golden necklace- with an eye colour-matching gem- and shoes shined.
“Why, you must be the Princess!” The Doctor shouted in glee. “Why, I’ve heard so much about you!”
The Princess chuckled. “You are correct. You three interest me. Why are you all standing so far away? I won’t bite!” She jested. The three ponies hesitantly walked closer to her throne. Derpy snuggled up close to the Doctor out of sheer fright.
“Now, why don’t we start out with introducing ourselves?”
“I’m Rosetta,” Kacoonis bowed. “Rosetta Hooves,”
“What a lovely name! I, as you’re friend here have already guessed, am Princess Celestia.”
“Oh, what a fascinating name! Celestia! That’s pretty fetching, don’t you ponies think? Well, I’m The Doctor,” He said with emphasis.
“Doctor? Doctor who, exactly?” The Princess wondered.
The Doctor made a little jig as she said those brilliant words. “The answer is, only I know!” He giddily shouted.
“Alright… Doctor. Short and sweet. Now, how about you…” The Princess turned her head to face the frightened pegasus.
“My dear?”
“Derpy Hooves…” She muttered.
“What was that?”
“Derpy Hooves,” The Doctor intervened. “This is Derpy, one of my faithful companions.” Derpy looked up into those blue orbs as he sat down.
“Well, you three are probably wondering why I asked to see you.”
“Yeah, we were wondering that,” Kacoonis replied
The Princess chuckled. “I have heard that you three have been, somehow, jumping from city to city. Yes, you ponies are quite famous, now that everypony has gotten to meet you. I’ve been waiting for you guys to come to Canterlot! I have a lot of questions for you guys.”
“We have some for you too.” The Doctor said in a mischievous voice. “But, you know, questions are a pain; I really don’t feel like answering questions either. Let’s eat! I’m utterly starved! Derpy? Rosetta? Any of you hungry?”
“Famished!” Derpy yelped.
“Well, then, goodbye Princess! We are off to eat some lunch!” The Doctor promptly stood up and turned towards the door. It was certainly a long way to go.
“Wait,” The Princess called out. “You three are guests at the palace, please, have lunch with me!”
“Oh, why, I’m absolutely flattered! How ‘bout it?”
***
Seven ponies gathered around a circular, oaken table; three of which, were shrouded in mystery to Derpy. One was an alicorn. She was- well, Derpy assumed- Princess Luna, guardian of the night. She was a deep hue of blue, one that seemed to shine like the night sky. Her mane- like Celestia’s- danced in the absent wind. This really seemed as if it was made of stars; semi-transparent with swirling stars in that mass of mane, the purple outline making the whole thing seem like a strange blue aura. She had a lighter blue eye shadow gently painted on. Her black-as-night necklace and crown shifted in the light like shadows. She was, overall, a darker, smaller version of Celestia.
Then there was a couple. Yet another alicorn was present. She was a soft pink with a swooping mane. This however did not fly around in the air; it was solid, and was violet, pink, and a pale yellow. No, this alicorn seemed like a normal pony. The stallion was a pale white unicorn. He had a sturdy figure, with strong, powerful hooves. His rounded blue hair bounced with
every movement.
“Doctor, Rosetta, Derpy, I would like you three to meet my family!” Celestia smiled
“Ah, so this is Equestria’s royal family!” The Doctor greeted. “I’m the Doctor.”
“Doctor who, exactly?” The pink alicorn questioned
“Heh, I’m the only one who knows.” He grinned.
“Um, okay? Well, I’m Cadence! Very nice to meet you, Doctor.” Her voice was rather young, less majestic compared to Celestia.
“I’m Shining Armor, Cadence’s wife.” The stallion said. His speech didn’t seem to match his appearance. Such a strong looking stallion should have a deep voice, like Big Macintosh. His voice, however, seemed to be younger than it should have been.
Cadence snickered, "You mean husband right?"
The snowy coat became a deep hue of pink, "Did I say wife?"
“I am Princess Luna,” The dark alicorn greeted, drawing attention away from the embarrassment of her nephew-in-law. Her speech was like a normal pony’s, not exactly like it was back on Nightmare Night last year.
“I am… Uh, Rosetta Hooves! Please to be of your acquaintance!”
Everypony turned to Derpy, giving her urging looks. What would they think to her name? Her eyes already told her one thing, but her name? That would double the effect. She took a deep breath, “Hi, I’m Derpy,”
A stallion with a pure white coat and a well groomed blonde mane. If it wasn’t for his demeanor, Derpy would have thought that that pony was a mare. “Having lunch without me?!” He sounded incredibly surprised and disgusted. He spoke with an air of arrogance; Derpy didn’t like it one bit.
“Ah, Prince Blueblood, we were just about to get you.” Celestia said with a slight twitch. The rest of the family growled at him.
“Who are these commoners?” He questioned, looking down on the three like specks of dust.
“These are my guests, the Doctor, Rosetta, and Derpy.”
“Derpy! What kind of idiotic name is that?!” Prince Blueblood broke down laughing.
“You are the rudest person or pony I have ever met, you piece of rubbish,” The Doctor growled. “You know, you clearly are not royalty, though you may think and act that way, you aren’t even a close member. I suggest you eat lunch with somepony else.” The Doctor’s glare was as cold as ice. Derpy stared at him with surprise. She was flattered that he would stand up for her.
“Why, I never… Do you, princesses, have anything to say about this?!”
“Leave. This. Room. Right. Now.” Princess Luna said, her face turning blood red.
“Humph!” Prince Bluebood roared as he strutted out the room.
“Why, I’m starving, let’s eat!” The Doctor shouted, suddenly switching personalities.