//------------------------------// // The (Rather) uneventful trip to the castle // Story: Derpy's box // by Vidhwansak //------------------------------// The (Rather) uneventful trip to the castle Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sun; that is, to the sun that had just barely managed to pass through a crack in the blinds that were put up over her window and just happened to hit her eye. Figures; she groaned as she lifted a hoof up to block the offending light, and rolled out of bed. The sound of her hooves hitting the floor awoke Spike, who yawned sleepily as he snuggled into a more comfortable position in his basket. "Go back to sleep, Twilight...Rarity is about to invite me over for dinner..." Looking at her assistant with a mixture of amusement and despair, she two possible choices right now; letting Spike sleep in for a little while longer, or flipping over his basket so that he woke up already. Deciding that he could use a little more sleep, she resumed her walking to the bathroom, eager to take a shower and prepare for the day. After closing the door and locking it, she was about to enter the shower when something in the mirror caught her eye, and she looked up in curiosity. When she saw her bed mane, she couldn't help but guffaw loudly at the sight, holding onto her sides as she barely managed to stop from crying at the sight. After about two minutes of this laughter and rolling on the floor helplessly, which somehow didn't wake Spike up, she got back on her hooves, wiped a few tears from her eyes, and proceeded to take a nice, long shower. Once out of her relaxing shower and ready to start the day, Twilight noticed a grumpy Spike making breakfast; she could tell he was grumpy by the way the pancakes he was cooking looked. They were slightly lumpy, and cooked a bit too long for her taste; some of them even looked slightly burnt. Deciding not to comment on the pancakes, she sat down at the table, levitated her fork, and began to cut into the pancakes on her plate. "Something wrong, Spike?" "Yes, I was in the middle of a nice dream when a scroll came by for you; it's in your study, by the way." "Ah, good! It must be from Princess Celestia! If anypony can help me, it's Princess Celestia; she'll know what to do! Oh, out of curiosity, what was your dream about?" She had a feeling she knew who it was going to revolve around, though. "Diamonds. Lots of diamonds." "You sure like diamonds, huh?" "Mhm." When she saw the dreamy look on his face, she knew that he wasn't telling the whole truth and that her suspicions were right. She decided to tease him a little bit about it. "Diamonds, as in the ones that are a certain pony's cutie mark?" After nearly dying from laughter at how red Spike turned, she was in her study, reading over the scroll that Celestia had sent her. Once she was done reading, she set aside the scroll with a thoughtful expression. "Two days, huh? Bringing Ditsy along as well? That doesn't seem to be too hard, it's going to be Saturday in two days. I'm sure Ditsy won't have any problems or commitments preventing her from coming along. Still, I should probably ask." Walking downstairs and past a brooding assistant, she found herself walking through Ponyville at a rather busy time, where the market would be filled with ponies looking to buy the items they needed. She didn't mind, though; she got to say her hellos to her friends and take a nice little stroll around before she happened to chance upon Ditsy at Sugarcube Corner, buying...'Oh, what else? Muffins!' She thought idly to herself. Striding forward, she smiled at Ditsy, who smiled back, having just grabbed the bag of muffins. "Hey, Ditsy, do you mind if I took some of your time to talk to you?" The pegasus nodded, and pointed with a hoof at an unoccupied table that was recently washed. Twilight walked over to the table and was just about to sit down when she heard a crash, and looked over towards the source of it; she saw a gray pegasus on the floor, with a bag of some unknown treat in the bakery that managed to avoid getting squashed. It took a moment for Twilight to register that this was Ditsy, and with a stifled gasp, she walked over to her quickly and helped her up. "Are you okay, Ditsy?" Other than looking confused, Ditsy seemed to look perfectly fine, other than being a little dusty, but it never hurt to ask. "I'm okay, Twilight, and so are my muffins!" Well, that was one thing out of the way. She then guided Ditsy over to the table, and both mares sat down at a seat. Ditsy reached into her bag of muffins, and pulled one out; blueberry, none the worse for wear. The pegasus munched on it happily, and Twilight began to talk with her. "Are you busy in two days, Ditsy?" "Mm...No! Well, I do have Dinky to take care of, but I think Rarity could take care of her for me. Why do you ask, Twilight?" "I was wondering if you could go to Canterlot with me, to have some tea with Princess Celestia?" Ditsy looked up from her muffin, and frowned. "...Tea? With the princess? Will there be muffins?" "...I don't know. I could ask to have some on hoof for you when we have tea, though." "Then I have no problem coming along with you!" "Okay then, Ditsy. Meet me at the train station at roughly seven o'clock in the morning!" Two days later, Twilight found herself waiting for a gray pegasus that was five minutes late; admittedly the train was due to leave in another twenty five minutes, but she did like to be on top of things. Minutes ticked by like seconds, and the agitated unicorn was beginning to doubt that her friend was ever going to arrive. However, right when the train was beginning to accept passengers into the train cars was when she heard a crash and the shouts immediately after it. Naturally, her head turned around towards the source, and what else, but Ditsy, having crashed into a poor pony's luggage; a rather high looking stallion, a unicorn that looked rather infuriated with having his luggage knocked over by a flying gray missle. Sighing, Twilight galloped over towards the scene that was quickly getting out of hoof. "I'm sorry! I can't see well!" "Then you shouldn't be flying in the first place! Oh, I have half a mind to press charges on you!" "Nopony was injured, and I didn't knock over anything important! You said it yourself earlier that your more expensive gear was in the luggage bag that wasn't knocked over!" "I can still press-" Before the stallion could continue on with his tirade, Twilight ran into the middle, and checked Ditsy over quickly. "Can you stand, Ditsy?" The pegasus looked up to see a friendly, if worried face, and nodded meekly. "Yes, Twilight." "Get up then." Twilight helped Ditsy up to her hooves, and the stallion snorted in disgust. "I won't settle for anything less then reparation for what she has done!" Twilight sighed, and frowned; she disliked dealing with ponies of this type, and there wasn't time to argue with him. "Look, she's sorry-" "Sorry doesn't help me here." "-Also the train's going to leave soon so you better get somepony to help you quickly before it leaves." With that, Twilight teleported onto the train, much to the other unicorn's sudden surprise, and he shouted at the ponies around him to help him get his luggage onto the train. She looked over at Ditsy, placing the unicorn behind her head, and frowned. "I thought I asked you to come by here at seven o'clock, Ditsy?" The pegasus sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, and offered an apologetic smile. "Rarity wasn't available, to take care of Dinky, so I had to scramble around Ponyville for awhile until I could find somepony that could; thank Celestia that Colgate didn't seem to mind! I didn't think it would take that long, Twilight; I'm sorry." The unicorn sighed, and leaned back in her seat. "Twilight?" "Yes, Ditsy?" "Before we meet the Princess, can you take me on a little tour of the Canterlot gardens? "I don't see why not. Well, at any rate, it's going to be awhile before we get to Canterlot anyway, so we should get comfortable. Know any good stories?" "Oh, yes I do! There was this time when..." "...And that's how I got my cutie mark!" Although appearing to be calm and collected on the outside, she was hiding a subtle twitch, and a few strands of her mane popped out of place. She didn't know stories could be anything like...Well, what she just heard. She opened her mouth to talk about a nagging thought in her head when the conductor yelled out. "You are now in Canterlot, fillies and gentlecolts! Enjoy your stay!" Twilight wordlessly walked out of the train, followed by Ditsy, and frowned as she caught a fleeting glance of the unicorn that they 'met' earlier on the train platform at Ponyville. Deciding that now would not be a good time to restart that argument, she pulled Ditsy rather abruptly towards the train station exit, and began walking up the shortest path to the castle, while flicking an ear at the gray pegasus' inquisitiveness of the city. "Oh, Twilight, Canterlot is so pretty!" "Look at all these unicorns!" "Is that an airship I see?!" "All these products are so expensive!" "Oh gosh, is that a bakery store?! Without muffins?! The horror!" The unicorn would answer some of the pegasus' questions, but gave up upon realizing that she wasn't really paying attention and was too busy gawking over Canterlot to notice her answers. Thankfully, the castle was right up ahead, and she walked up to it...Only to realize that the pegasus wasn't with her. A quick look around her surroundings, and one pegasus with a bubble cutie mark was found about three meters away, gawking at the sight of the castle; well, she gawked at everything else before it, so she wasn't surprised. After gently nudging Ditsy and reminding her of why they were here in the first place, they continued on towards one of the entrances into the castle; this one wasn't as heavily guarded, and allowed one quick access into the Canterlot gardens, which Twilight had been asked to show Ditsy before meeting Princess Celestia. Once they reach the entrance, one of the guards, pegasus, presumably a newer one, raised their spear challengingly, but the guard next to them, unicorn, snorted, and smacked the spear away, then spoke in a heavy accent, male, one that Twilight recognized immediately, to her delight. "Hold it, young 'un, that's Twilight Sparkle, Princess 'lestia's student, best let 'er and 'er liddle friend go on by. The other guard, pegasus, a mare from the sound of her voice, huffed, and frowned at Twilight and Ditsy. "They could be changelings." "Ah doubt it." "You're the unicorn, you cast the spell and prove me wrong. Or right." At this, the other guard rolled his eyes, and lit up his horn; a light green beam of light began to scan across their bodies, and Ditsy squirmed uncomfortably through it, while Twilight smiled at the slight tingling of the spell. After an extended period of time, the guard dissipated the spell, and leaned back in a relaxed manner, looking at his companion with amusement. "Nope, Thin Mint, ah dun think so." The younger guard sighed, and resumed her stiff posture; her companion guard winked at Twilight, and waved a hoof. "Been awhile, miz Twilight. Or is it missus Twilight, now; that purdy pegasus thar yer liddle fillyfriend?" If she had been drinking something, Twilight was sure that she would've done a spit take. She was recovering her thought process while Ditsy, on the other hoof, shook her head, something the unicorn was grateful for. "No, just a friend of Twilight's! Are you one of her friends too?" The guard chuckled, and extended a hoof out, which Ditsy took, and shook with enthusiasm as she introduced herself; the guard to the side rolled her eyes, but continued her vigil where her partner was not. "Ya. Waz 'er caretaker when Princess Caddy couldn't take care of 'er, and what a job that waz! Watched 'er grow up as a wee liddle filly when she waz studyin' under Princess 'lestia." Twilight nodded slowly, smiling as she remembered the times she caused trouble for the now aging guard. Apparently the guard knew what she was thinking about, as he threw a wink at her before continuing to introduce himself to Ditsy. "Names Iron Hoof, by the way. Grew up on a farm; waz adopted by farm ponies who I now call papa n' mama. Bit rough 'round the edges, but I kin be smoother than a foal's rump when I need to be. Howsa 'bout yew?" "My name's Ditsy Doo! Some ponies call me 'Derpy' though, because of my eyes. I try to not let it bother me, but some days, it just..." He cut her off, understanding her plight. "Ah understand ya, lass, I really do. Say no mor', I kin figure out the rest." Although a bit peeved that she was cut off, she was grateful that she didn't have to go into detail. Iron Hoof's expression grew from casual happiness to something a little more serious, and he stared at Twilight with that familiar glare that she had come to dread when she was a filly. Apparently his glare still had that same effect on her today. "There a problem ya need handlin', Twilight? I kin take ya straight to the Princess if it's somethin' important." The unicorn shook her head, and began to explain why they were here. "I'm just here to give my friend Ditsy here a little tour through the Canterlot gardens before we have tea with Princess Celestia to talk about a story. Nothing big, Iron Hoof." The guard raised an eye at the explanation, clearly not buying it. "Fergive me, Twilight, but ar' ya sure it's jus' a story? Seems like yer downplayin' it, like several other problems yeh had over the years." Twilight frowned at this, and carefully formulated her next words so that they weren't denied access to the gardens. "I'm not 'downplaying' anything, Iron Hoof; it's not important, and probably won't be. I promise." "Well...Alright, yew two git on ahead; we'll jus' stand 'round 'ere." "Thank you, Iron Hoof." "Yay, the Canterlot gardens! Thanks Iron Hoof!" As the two mares passed on by, Thin Mint looked at her partner, and scowled at him. "What did I do to 'deserve' getting paired with you, the laziest, most relaxed, protocol breaching and most annoying pony in the royal guard?" "Do I really 'ave to answer that question? C'mon lass, dun tell me it's 'ard to do yer job with me." "I don't care that this isn't hard, I care that that I'm paired up with somepony that can barely do their job!" "Ah haven't had trouble with mah job fer twenny years!" "I can see why, being the old coot you are." "Now ya take that 'old coot' remark back missy, or things'll get real messy 'round 'ere." Ditsy couldn't help but gasp at the awe inspiring sight that was the Canterlot gardens; at least, from what she could see so far, anyway. Twilight had told her that this garden stretched on for miles, and that it took an army of gardeners daily just to water them, not including anything else. A sudden shout caused the pegasus to turn around towards the sound. "Twilight, what was that?" The unicorn she was talking to sighed, and rubbed at her forehead gingerly. "Iron Hoof gets into arguments easily; he's one of the more relaxed guards, however he's also old and...A bit off his knocker." Another shout was heard, and Twilight rolled her eyes. "That's probably one of his arguments happening right now." "I see." The pegasus looked behind her after awhile, then her attention went back to the gardens. "These flowers are very pretty, Twilight! So many of them, too! Oh, why do those plants have spiky things on them?" She pointed at a small row of plants with spike protruding from the surface, and Twilight gently nudged Ditsy away from them; she didn't want the pegasus accidently falling into them somehow. "Those are called cacti; I wouldn't get too close to them, Ditsy, they can hurt you." The mailmare backed off from the row of cacti, and flattened her ears in distress. "Suddenly I don't want to tour around the gardens anymore, Twilight. When do we meet Princess Celestia?" The unicorn was opening her mouth to reply when she realized that she never did get an exact time to meet her. Sheepishly, she rubbed the back of her head. "I...Don't know, Ditsy. I didn't get an exact time, so I guess we should go inside the castle now." A voice, not belonging to either pony, called out to them. "Or, my faithful student, you can join me for some tea here, with Luna and I in the gardens." Turning around towards the source of the noise, they saw Princess Celestia and Luna, both of them sharing a giggle as the two ponies immediately bowed at the sight of both princesses. "Now, now, Twilight, that's enough of that; come up here and share some tea with us, please. We may even share a story with you." Twilight shot a look at Celestia, who only winked at her. Both ponies began walking up to the royal sisters, and sat down, Twilight, next to Luna, and Ditsy, next to Celestia. once sat down, Twilight gently enveloped the tea pot with the soft glow of her magic, and began to pour some tea into a cup, repeating the gesture for Ditsy. As she poured Ditsy's cup, she began some idle chatter. "Have we kept you here long, Princess Celestia?" "Not at all, Twilight; Lulu had just arrived when you two showed up. I have to say, I didn't expect you to take a tour of the gardens first." "Well, I didn't, but Ditsy here asked to tour around the gardens first; and who's Lulu?" She took a small sip of the tea, and frowned; this wasn't a blend of tea that she had ever sampled before. Noticing her distress, Luna spoke up before her sister, giving Celestia a bit of an annoyed look on her face. "I, Twilight Sparkle, am 'Lulu'. It's a name she likes to call me when we were little, and still happens to like calling me today, it seems. I, myself, happen to like to call her 'Tia'. As to answer the obvious question that is being made clear to me by your facial expression, this is a form of tea known as Masala chai; it literally means 'spiced tea', and it is such a delight to drink, is it not?" "It's wonderful, Princess-" "Please, call me Luna, or even, I daresay, Lulu." "Also, Twilight, you know you don't have to add 'princess' to my name, either; just 'Celestia' is alright with me." "Erm...Okay, 'Lulu', and Celestia." Celestia giggled softly, and looked down at Ditsy, who has having a bit of difficulty drinking from the cup. "Do you require a straw, Ditsy?" The pegasus looked up at the solar princess, and nodded. "Yes, please! I'd like a muffin too, if that isn't too much trouble!" With a slight nod, Celestia's horn glowed softly as picked up a small bell, and rang it gently, letting it chime three times, letting the sound fade away completely before she repeated the action. Then, three ponies heeded the call of the bell. The first was an brown earth pony, with a dusty looking yellow mane, male, who had scampered up out of nowhere; he smiled at the princesses and their guests with a friendly smile, and a tray with clip-on holders attached to his back, presumably to leave him free to let him run on his hooves. The second pony, arriving only a second after the earth pony, was a sky-blue pegasus, sporting a light green and cropped short mane, female, with a loose tray held in her hooves as she remained floating in the air with a sour looked on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, when the third pony appeared; a buttery yellow unicorn, with a striped black and yellow mane that suddenly came down from the sky with a soft thump, a tray attached to her back similar to the earth pony. She winked at the princesses, and then stood at attention. Now that the three of them were there, the pegasus began to complain at one of the servants. "Runner, you're such a cheat, you threw my tray up in the air!" The earth pony looked at her innocently, and gave a soft chuckle. "I would never, Sky." "Don't play games with me, Runner!" "I'm not! Stop being fussy over being a second late." "No! My wings can beat faster than those legs can run!" "Hey, on the bright side, you managed to beat Popper." At this, the buttery yellow unicorn rolled her eyes, and began to stretch her legs out slightly, with an exasperated look on her face. "Heh, I wouldn't say that, Runner, my legs, unlike yours, need to be precisely augmented with enough magic for me to get here, and not too much that I accidently overshoot my target; I'm sure that if I was charged up when Princess Celestia called for us, I'd beat you both. Anyway, we aren't here to chat, ponies. What can we do for you, Princess Celestia?" The princess smiled at the three ponies, and cleared her throat to begin her instructions. "Steadfast Runner, I require you to bring a straw for Ditsy here; she cannot drink the tea properly without it, and I don't want to be accused of poor hospitality for not providing her with something so simple." The earth pony nodded, and dashed off towards the storage room, living up to his namesake. Turning her head to the pegasus, she relayed her second request. "Bounding Skies, I require a few muffins from the kitchens, preferably enough to fill up a medium sized plate." The pegasus gave a salute, and took to the air quickly at a speed that would even make Rainbow Dash envious. Celestia turned to the last servant, the unicorn, and smiled at her. "Sky Popper, I require you to 'pop', so to speak, into my court, and explain to the aristocracy that I will not be holding any sessions with them today, nor will Princess Luna; we think it more important to spend some time with a few ponies, namely, one Twilight Sparkle and her most esteemed friend about their problems." Sky Popper grinned at the thick, exaggerated sarcasm and winked at the solar Princess. After turning around towards the direction of the castle, her horn lit up with a lime-green glow, and seemed to travel down to her legs. "I sure hope you're ready to deal with aristocracy later, then, because they're probably going to be very annoyed about this." With a sudden 'pop' similar to a mini explosion, the unicorn jumped into the air. Twilight and Ditsy watched in amazement as the unicorn sailed through the sky and out of sight. "H-How...?" Twilight managed to choke out after awhile, pointing in the general direction at where the unicorn had jumped to. Celestia giggled, and took a sip of her tea before replying to her student. "Sky Popper can concentrate her magic into her legs so that she can 'jump' to places, similar to teleportation, but much less instant; she also needs to 'pad' magic onto her hooves so that she isn't seriously injured when she falls down on them, as well as some training in magical shields to prevent injuries to her entire body if she messes up her jumping. I must say, it's quite interesting to see the reaction of the ponies around me when she 'pops' in when I need her. Now, I don't think either Luna or I will be bothered for awhile, so what do you need, Twilight?" After taking a sip of the tea to recollect her thoughts, the unicorn spoke up. "Ditsy, as you probably well know, reminds me of a pegasus I remember being described in a story, however, I don't remember what story it was. I also can't find it anywhere in my library, so I wondered if you knew what I was talking about, Princess." Celestia nodded slowly, and looked over at Luna, who gave a knowing wink at her sister. "After some research, we both very well know the story of which you speak of, Twilight, and it would be an honor to recite an old, classical story to you. However, we might want to wait for the servants to arrive, in three...Two...One..." As if on cue, all three pony servants arrived, although Sky Popper landed with a much harder thump than last time, and with a disgruntled expression on her face. Trying to stifle his snickering, Steadfast Runner spoke up first. "Here is your straw, Ditsy, as requested." The pegasus giggled, and placed it into her cup of tea. "Thank you!" The earth pony nodded, and then subtly stepped back a step. Bounding Skies stepped up, and set down a tray full of muffins, smiling as she did so. "One tray of muffins, about half of them blueberry, a half of the other half chocolate, and the rest are banana nut. Freshly made from the kitchens, too! Cooks weren't so happy with me taking most of the batch, though." Sky Popper rolled her eyes at Bounding Skies, and began her report, which was 'interesting' to say the least. "Aristocracy told of both princesses not being able to attend to their respective courts for today, and, well, apparently that caused a bit of a riot. Don't worry, it wasn't anything big, just two houses of nobles throwing food at each other; I'm not even sure how that's even classified as a riot. That's all." Celestia and Luna stared at each other for a moment, and then looked over at the three servants. Clearing her throat, Celestia spoke up first. "That is all, ponies." Luna held up a hoof, halting the servants before they could leave. "Yes, indeed we require no more; although, how much food was...Ahem, 'thrown' to waste?" "Roughly an entire table's worth of refreshments." "I...See. Dismissed." All three servants left in their various ways, leaving behind the two princesses and two ponies behind to enjoy some tea. Twilight had just taken the last sip from her cup when suddenly, Luna and Celestia bursted out laughing. "Oh, how I wish I were there, sister!" "I wish I followed Sky Popper inside, Lulu!" After a few more comments shared between the two, the royal sisters calmed down, and wiped their eyes. "Okay," Celestia exclaimed, refilling her cup with tea, "We should probably get started on the story already."