//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: It's good to live in a castle // Story: Unknown Innocence // by MrPescanova //------------------------------// Chapter 2 : It’s good to live in a castle. Ten years had passed since Celestia found that little human baby named Heynriik. He lives now in the Canterlot castle with his adoptive mother and the rest of the royal family. Celestia took the responsibility of educate him since he was brought there. It wasn’t easy due the fact that unlike ponies Heynriik couldn’t do magic or fly and was from a species that were though didn’t exist, but she could still teach him all the basic things of Equestria’s history and society. She knew that he may ever be on a throne, but at least he would be a good and respected boy… “BLUEBOOD! GIMME THAT COOKIE NOW!” Heynriik said to his cousin while they were on the dining room of the castle, taking the breakfast. “And why I should give it to you? I saw it first, and my dear ape-like cousin, do you think that’s its right to ask it like that? always forgetting your manners....” “Oh you want me to be gentle? Then explain me, my SO POLITE AND GENEROUS cousin WHY YOU EATED NEARLY ALL THE COOKIES OF THE TABLE AND WHY YOU USED YOU’RE MAGIC TO DRINK THE HALF OF MY CHOCOLATE MILK!” “Well, I thought that sharing the cookies with you would be a lost of time, having in mind that you eat like a farm animal and you always make the table a horrible mess, so I had taken all for myself to prevent that”. “Heynriik, Bluebood, please stop arguing, you two shouldn’t be insulting just for something like this” said Cadance trying to make peace between them, but they didn’t pay any attention and continued screaming to each other. “You BASTARD NARCISIST!” Heynriik yelled to Blueblood angrily. “Hahahahh how funny that you call me a bastard when you are the only real “bastard” here!” “How did you…i…..em….YOU BETTER BE SORRY FOR SAYING THAT” “Emmmm…no I’m not sorry because it’s true, you’re a bastard” After that Heynriik stood up from his chair and ran to Blueblood's with an angry face. He tighten up his hands over Blueblood’s neck rabidly. “Agahstophafjfsfjhpleasehysahjadhstop” “HEYNRIIK!” Cadance shouted angrily, making him turn his head to look at his alicorn cousin confused. “It’s enough, you’re hurting him” “But…but….it’s no fair! He’s always doing whatever he wants! And his parents either mom never do anything to punish him!” Heynriik complained with his hands still on Blueblood's neck. "That doesn’t mean that you can grab his neck and strangulate him!” Cadance said moving to where Heynriik and Bluebood were. Heynriik lowered his head in shame and released the white unicorn. Blueblood breathed slowly regaining his consciousness and glared to Cadance and then to Heynriik. “You….you aren’t royalty……you are a barbarian” Blueblood looked Heynriik with bitterness. “I'll never understand why auntie Celestia brought you here” Blueblood leaved the room and left Heynriik and Cadance alone. “Look what you done, now he will tell his parents about this and get you in a big trouble!” Cadance said to the human unamused. “I…I’m sorry Cadance, I promise i'll never do that again” Heynriik looked up to Cadance eyes with a sad face. Cadance sighed and rubbed his hair with her hoof “It’s okay Rikie, you don’t need to get mad with Blueblood for something like that” Heynriik wiped out his sadness and smiled first but then he got a little angry after realizing that Cadance had just used the nickname that created Celestia for him years ago. “You know perfectly that I don’t like being called like that” Heynriik said with a face mixed of rage and joy. “Ohh but it fits so well with your cute face, your messy hair and your beautiful green eyes!” Heynriik blushed heavily on his face and looked away of his pink alicorn cousin. “I….errr….thanks….Cadie” both Cadance and Heynriik hugged strongly, then Cadance released her cousin and looked him directly at the eyes. “Heynriik, it doesn’t matter what that spoiled and shameless of Bluebood says, you are part of our family, and we will always love you “ “Thanks Cadie” Heynriik was now happy after hearing that and nearly forgotten his arguing with Blueblood. “Well, I have to leave you” said Cadance while moving towards the door. “Where are you going?” “I have to take care of Twilight; I promised to her parents that I would look for that filly all the morning” “You mean Shining Armor’s sister?, he’s always talking about Twilight but I didn’t see her yet” Heynriik asked inquisitive. “Someday, we can do something so you can meet her” Cadance suggested before leaving him. “Okay cousin, see you later” “Bye and, if you don’t mind, don’t get in more trouble” Cadance waved a hoof and leaved the room. “I’ll try” Heynriik quipped. He leaved the dining room later and moved hall to hall, passing through servants and guards, until he reached the gardens outside of the castle. He always goes there after breakfast or before night falls. Heynriik loves to lie on the grass and relax to take a sleep enjoying the silence of the nature, the leafs of the trees swinging with the air and the clouds moving slowly on the sky. All this made him feel a peaceful sensation inside of his heart that was impossible to describe, he liked all these things since he was little, there wasn’t a why, he just liked them. “Oh boy, this is life” Heynriik said laying aside a tree, looking up to the sky and closing slowly his eyes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkness, everything was dark, there wasn’t anyone or anything. He could move his legs, he could see through his eyes, he could hear but there wasn’t anything just him, or at else that was what he thought. Suddenly, he heard a sound difficult to recognize. “What is that?” he thought while walking slowly to the origin of the sound. “Hello?... Somepony there? ” instead of a response, Heynriik received a strong roar. It sounded like a monster, a BIG monster. “Wh- wha- what the …..what was that!?” Heynriik started to get nervous. He couldn’t move his legs due the fear, his hands were shaky and all his body was sweating. “Dur dierag…..dur dierag” He didn’t know what meaned that, but the voice was the same as the previous roar. “Emm..Do you speak Equish?” “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!” This time the roar was more loud and violent. Heynriik fell to the ground in surprise, his heartbeat was increasing with the time and his face had a really scared expression. “I…i….I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” He got up of the ground and started running to nowhere. He didn’t know where to go because there was nothing more than darkness and that monster, but he didn’t care, he wanted to return back to Equestria, to Canterlot, he had more fear than ever before. “Eu nak pod coriil….dax dur dierag…..dax kin eu zeriis….DAX VAF EU RALDIHEIN ZERIIS!” the ground shook with every step the monster did. Heynriik was trying hard to not lose his balance. “SHUT UP AND GET AWAY FROM ME WHATEVER YOU ARE!” Heynriik cried without looking back. “Heynriik… eu verhei deil vetrud…..ehul daine….eu verhei deil vetrud.” the monster replied in the same unknown language. After that, Heynriik wasn’t hearing the voice anymore. Silence surrounded him, making him stop to relax and take a breath. “Finally….he’s gone…” Heynriik put his right hand to his chest and sighed. The danger was over….or not. “Deil vetrud..” he heard that voice again, but this time was closer than before. He noticed something behind him, something warm, he turned and saw the monster's face. “Oh no….ple-plea-please d- do- don’t hurt m- me” Heynriik said with wide eyes and sweat over his face. He couldn’t move, he was completely paralyzed of fear. Heynriik started to look the face of the monster, that was the only thing he could see. It had a big jaw with sharp teeth, dark blue reptile-like skin, big green eyes and two large horns on his head pointing back. The monster opened the mouth, showing his scary teeth and a large tongue, Heynriik closed his eyes and put both arms over his head waiting for his end. “Konos deil vetrud….eon deil vetrud volu zergan friider” the monster stated while a stinky stench got out of his jaw. After saying that, the monster roared so strongly that Heynriik fell to the ground. Heynriik closed his eyes until he noticed that the roar stopped, he opened his eyes and saw that the monster wasn’t there anymore. Instead of him he started to see lights, flashes and images that he couldn’t recognize, they went faster and faster, he closed his eyes and started to cry. “I want to go home......please……..mommy……Cadance……I love you...” Heynriik raised his head and screamed like never before, and then everything went black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Heynriik opened his eyes and saw that he was back to the royal garden laying aside a tree; he was sweating hardly and tearing after all the things that he just saw. “It was….a nightmare….just a nightmare” He looked around to see all the plants, trees and statues. Heynriik was now sure that the monster and all the strange things that he saw weren’t real. Then he saw a royal guard in front of him, it was Silver Shield, one of the few royal guards that he really knew. He was a grey coated unicorn with yellow eyes plus black mane and tail. Heynriik knew Silver Shield because he was his personal bodyguard. He always was on the door of his bedroom when he was sleeping or at his side when he was going to any dangerous place. Silver Shield never got mad for the jokes and problems that sometimes Heynriik do, he was always calm and nice with him. Silver was looking Heynriik with concern, the unicorn stared a while at Heynriik until he finally talked. “Sir Heynriik, are you alright?” Silver Shield asked worried. Heynriik nodded and looked away trying to hide his tears, but Silver Shield approached to him and sat at his left side. “You had that nightmare again, right?" Silver asked looking at the human kid concerned. “Yes but this time was….different” Heynriik replied shyly. “Different? Why? What you saw?” “There was….a monster” "What kind of monster?” “It was….i think it was….” Heynriik was starting to get nervous and his hands were shaking. His green eyes were throwing tears again. Then Heynriik felt something moving on his face, he saw Silver Shield’s right front hoof clearing the tears of his face. “Don’t worry sir Heynriik, everything its okay” Silver smiled shyly and lowed slowly his hoof. “It was…a dragon….and he was talking to me” “What was saying that dragon?” “I…I don’t know, he was talking in a language that I never heard before.” “I see…” Silver placed his hoof in his chin thinking in what Heynriik just said, then the royal guard stood up and looked Heynriik. “Sir Heynriik, you must tell your mother about those nightmares, they’re starting to be a serious problem” Silver was right. Heynriik started to have those nightmares months ago and by the time they were becoming worse, but he didn’t tell anything to anypony about them except to Silver Shield. He discovered it one night that he was guarding Heynriik’s bedroom. He heard a scream coming from the inside, when Silver Shield opened the door he saw Heynriik with a scared face and sweat over his face, then he told him that he had a strange nightmare. This nightmares were all the same, flashes, images, sounds, no one of these things were easy to recognize because they pass very fast. Also in these nightmares he also felt cold, dry cold like if there was snowing, but this is the first time he saw that dragon on a nightmare. “Ok Silver, I’ll tell her about this” Silver Shield gave him a nodded of approval. Heynriik got up and was starting to go to the castle when Silver put a hoof to stop him. “I nearly forgotten….that friend of yours, the white unicorn with blue mane was asking for you to play in a hoofball match or something” “You mean Shining Armor?” Heynriik gasped and remembered that today he, Shining Armor and other young ponies of Canterlot were going to the Harmony park on the center of Canterlot to hang out all the day. They were going to eat in a picnic, play hoofball, hide and seek and a lot of things. “Well thanks for saying it Silver, now if you excuse me, I have to go!” Heynriik said cheerfully while heading to the castle again. “Enjoy yourself sir, but remember” Silver Shield pointed one hoof to him. “When you return, you have to talk with your mother about your nightmares” Heynriik nodded and ran to the castle. He passed all the corridors and halls until he reached the entrance and saw Shining Armor waiting for him. “Yo Shiny!” Heynriik calls him with joy. Shining turned and smiled when he saw his human friend. “Hey Rikie!, what were you doing? That guard told me that I wasn’t allowed to enter the castle, so I waited here while he was looking for you”. “Well I was….sleeping on the royal garden” Heynriik scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed for showing Shining Armor the lazy side of him. “Oh! That's so typical of you! I wish i was on your place, lucky ape” Shining Armor laughed and then Heynriik did the same. “Hey! It’s good to live in a castle, I have a big bed, I eat the best food made by the best chefs of all Equestria, the servants clean everything and i hardly have anything to worry about. Sadly, you never will know how it is” the human said trying to look cool. Shining rolled his eyes at Heynriik's selfishness. “You’re wrong Rikie, because when I grow up I’m going to be the Captain of the Royal Guard and I will live in the castle too!” “No, if I become Captain before you” Shining lifted a eyebrow after hearing those words. “Wait, you want to be Captain of the Royal Guard too? I'm sorry, but I don’t think that somepony like you who spends half of the day sleeping and the other half being lazy would get such a honor” Shining laughed again after saying that. Heynriik glanced at him and raise an eyebrow. “Yes, yes, laugh now Shining, because not only I will be Captain of the Royal Guard, I’m going to be the greatest hero and warrior that nopony has saw in Equestria ever!” “Well, if you say so….” Shining rolled his eyes and did like if he was disinterested on what he just heard. “Never mind, we have other things to do more important than making future plans, like winning that hoofball match!” Heynriik said in a cheerful tone. “Whoa! It sounds like you will take a match seriously......finally” Shining muttered. Heynriik ignored him and replied. “Of course! Because I’m the best and I have to prove it” Heynriik stated full of confidence. “Well, then let’s get moving!” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Well it was a good match, right Shiny?” Heynriik looked to his friend with a smile “Yes…of course…...or at least it would be if you hadn’t sent the ball to the moon in your last kick!” Shining Armor shouted slightly angry. “Hey! I was trying to kick it with effect! and in the end our team had won!” the young human said with joy and putting his left arm around Shining’s neck. “Hehehehe you’re right dude, but I guess it’s easy to win a hoofball match when in your team is a human that had twice the size of anypony of his age” Shining praised him. Heynriik replied with a chuckle. “Thanks, but it’s not my fault that I cannot be tackled by that pathetic excuse of defenders” Heynriik and Shining laughed at the same time, but they stopped when finally reached the castle’s entrance. “Well Shiny, I see you tomorrow” Heynriik extended his hand to shake it with Shining Armor's hoof. “Goodbye, Rikie” Human and unicorn separated, going to their respective homes. Heynriik entered the castle. It was late afternoon and he was tired after all the day that he had, he wasn’t hungry because he already eat with Shining Armor and other ponies before in the Harmony park, they played hide and seek, horseshoe throwing and of course the hoofball match, he had spent half day out of the castle. “I hope that mom don’t get angry for this” Heynriik said when he was already inside the castle, then he remembered the promise that he did to Silver Shield. “I have tell her about the nightmares…maybe she knows something” Heynriik started to look for his adoptive mother. First he went to the throne room, but it was empty. Heynriik knew very well his mother. At this time of the day there could be only three places where she can be: the throne room, her bedroom and the meeting hall where she always was meeting with leaders of other countries, important ponies or nobles in general. “Let’s see if she is on her bedroom” Heynriik moved to Celestia’s bedroom, but instead of her there was two royal guards standing in the bedroom’s door. “Hey guys! Do you know where my mom is?” Heynriik asked being friendly. “Her highness is on the meeting hall, sir Heynriik, but you shouldn’t molest her because she is in an important meeting and she gave orders of don’t being disturbed until the meeting ends” One of the guards replied serious. “Oh well…ok thanks”. After hear that, Heynriik walked to the meeting hall. He didn’t care about what the guard said, it was very important for him to tell her his nightmares, he was sure that his mother could know something that he didn't. Heynriik finally reached the meeting hall's door, but there was two guards on it wearing spears and looking completely concentrated on their watching. “Emmm guys could you, if you don’t mind, let me enter the meeting room?” Heynriik said smiling and in a shy tone. “We’re sorry sir, but there is an important meet inside and we are not allowed to let anypony to get in “. One of the guards said with confidence to the human kid, who was getting curious about all this “important meeting” thing. “But I must tell something to my mom! And it’s important too!” Heynriik said while doing puppy dog eyes. The guard sighed and replied. “You can wait here until your mother ends her meeting sir, but you can’t enter” “Well….ok” Heynriik sighed in defeat and stayed there with the two guards. He looked up to the one that talked, the kid smiled and said. “Can I ask you something?” Heynriik said to the guard. “Well emm…yes of course you can sir” the guard responded confused. “Why nearly all the royal guards are white with blue mane and tail or brown with white mane and tail? Are you clones? Are you disguised with some kind of ninja technique to look equal or it’s because there are two large families which all their members only want to be guards?” “Well..i….em….we….you know sir, the truth is that…” Before the guard could answer, the door opened and a figure walked out of the meeting room. It wasn’t Celestia, it was like a mare but bigger than the usual ones and with strange looks. She had black coat with some kind of brown carapace at the top of her body, holes in the hooves, insect like wings, blue eyes, large and grey mane plus tail besides the two fangs showing on her mouth. Heynriik was looking her with fear. Unlike the dragon of his nightmare, this thing was real, and was looking him directly to the eyes with an expressionless face. Then another figure appeared behind the other one. This time was Celestia who looked to her son with a smile. “Hello, Heynriik I haven’t see you in all the day”. “Hi mom, I was looking for you to tell you…something” Heynriik said with a shy tone to his mother. “Well, I just had finished my meeting, so we can talk now my dear” The black mare looked Celestia with interest. “It’s….your son?” She asked inqusitive. Celestia nodded silently and replied. “Of course, his name is Heynriik” “But….it’s not a pony” said the hole-legged mare. “He’s a human” Celestia said with a wise tone. “Interesting….” the black mare looked to Heynriik and lowered her head until her nose was near of the kid’s face. Heynriik looked at her with a raging face, he didn’t know why but he didn’t like that strange mare. “Little human you….are kind of cute” the black bug-pony mare giggled with a maliciously tone and rubbed Heynriik’s brown hair with a hoof. The human kid stepped backwards disgusted by her touch. “I supposed we finally have a….deal, right Princess Celestia?” said the black mare turning back her attention to the sun’s mare. “Of course, and if it works well, we’ll have a peacefully relationship between our countries and subjects” “Excellent, now if you excuse me I have to return to my kingdom, goodbye Princess Celestia”. Celestia nodded and the black mare started moving but stopped when she was aside of Heynriik. She looked at him and smiled showing her sharp teeth. “Goodbye to you too, little Heynriik”. Then she moved gracefully until she passed the corner of the corridor. Heynriik looked to Celestia with some fear on his face. “Wh- who was that…thing mom” Celestia looked his son with concern and replied. “She was Amanthis, queen of the Changelings; she came to Canterlot to make a….solution for a problem that was between Equestria and the Changeling Kingdom”. Heynriik was confused. He knew what the changelings were but he never had though that there was one like Amanthis. He looked up to Celestia who noticed something rare on her son’s face. “You look sad my dear, it’s something wrong?” Celestia put gently a hoof on Heynriik’s chin. “I…I wanted to tell you something..” Heynriik looked directly to his mother’s magenta eyes. “Don’t have fear Rikie, you can tell me any kind of problem you got, I’m your mother and it’s my responsibility to take care of you” Celestia smiled and rubbed carelessly Heynriik’s hair with a hoof. “I…I think it’s better if i told you later..” Heynriik said while blushing and taking away gently his mother’s hoof out of his hair. “As you want, my dear” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was late night; Heynriik was already on his bed going to sleep when suddenly he heard some knocks on the door. “Who’s there?” “It’s me Heynriik, let me get in, I want to talk with you” the human kid recognized quickly that was the voice of his mother. “Ok mom….get inside” Celestia opened the door and walked slowly to Heynriik’s side. “You told me that you wanted to tell me…something, so here I am, what's the matter?” Heynriik looked to his mother with sadness and talked nervously. “I..i wanted to tell you that sometimes when I sleep I had…..nightmares” Celestia raised one eyebrow and then giggled. “Oh Rikie!, you don’t have to worry for that, everypony haves nightmares!” “But these are….strange they aren’t like normal nightmares!” Heynriik said in a terrified tone that make Celestia change her expression. She sat on his bed and put a hoof on his chest. “Why your nightmares are different? Tell me, please” said Celestia who was starting to worry seriously. “Because i….i don’t know what they look like, I see images and I hear sounds but no one of them makes sense” Celestia hugged him and kissed his forehead. Heynriik was now more relaxed. “Keep going, there’s nothing here that can hurt you” Celestia said wanting him to face his fears. “Today I had one of that nightmares again, but….there was.....something more..” Celestia nodded and signed him to continue. “There was a dragon…and he was talking to me, but I didn’t know what was saying because he was talking in other language” Celestia put a hoof on her chin and started on thinking if all that have any explanation. “Rikie I….I don’t have an answer for all that right now, but I promise you that if I find something that can help you, I will tell you instantly” Heynriik nodded to his mother. Celestia got off of the bed and before she got out of the room she turned her head and smiled to Heynriik for a last time. “Sleep well dear, and don’t worry, there’s nothing that you should fear”. “Good night mom”. Celestia was gone; Heynriik put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.