//------------------------------// // Say it ain't so, Royal! // Story: The Ballad of Royal Blue // by PonyWithAPen //------------------------------// Royal, cape and all, was chatting with Vinyl and Octavia on the train ride to Canterlot. He’d told them about everything; his childhood in Fillydelphia (Vinyl mentioned her first big gig was in Filly), and how he came to Ponyville and made so many wonderful friends, including an adopted sister. Vinyl and Octavia were both touched by his stories. “And now I’m on a train ride to meet with Princess Celestia. I don’t know what she wants with a nopony like me…” Octavia stopped him. “You? A nopony? After you nearly gave your life to protect Pinkie Pie? Hardly. You’re probably getting a medal of valor.” The refined mare said. Vinyl grabbed him by the shoulders. “Yeah! It’s gonna be like, hail the conquering hero! Da dadada dada!” she sang as she shook him back and forth, upsetting his still-aching back. Octavia saw the grimace on his face. “Vinyl, stop it!” Vinyl obeyed her friend. “Why, Tavi?” All “Tavi” had to do was point to Royal, who was clearly in pain. “Oh. The back thing. I forgot. Sorry, pal!” For what it was worth, Royal thought about the possibilities a visit with the princess could bring. Did he dare assume that he was getting rewarded after everything he had gone through? He never expected a reward for protecting Pinkie Pie and Scootaloo. He didn’t even expect a thank you, but he had gotten those. The question remained; what in Equestria would Princess Celestia, half of the royal sisters who ruled all ponykind, want with him? He was just a no one…a kid from the mean streets of Fillydelphia. He was tough, but there were tougher. He was fast, but there were faster. He was kind, but there were kinder. He could not come up with a single reason. Eventually, the train reached Canterlot. Royal was excited to go do some sightseeing. He wasn’t seeing Celestia until the next morning, after all. He was a bit star struck just being in the city. After all, this was the same city in which some very famous ponies lived. Rarity had told him about her encounter with Fancy Pants, perhaps the highest of Canterlot’s high society ponies. The new royal couple, Cadance and Shining Armor, also called Canterlot their home, residing in the castle. However, Royal’s highest priority remained his morning visit with the princess. “Hey, if you want, I could show you around some of my favorite hangouts!” Vinyl said. Octavia smiled for a moment, but then she shook her head. “Wait, don’t you have a gig tonight, Vinyl?” The DJ nodded. “That’s not until 8. We’ve got plenty of time!” Octavia sighed. “If you say so. Let the tour begin.” “And that’s what happened. I’ll admit I didn’t see who took the apples, but who else would bring them to this house?” Applejack finished telling the story of her missing apples. Rainbow and Scootaloo were still skeptical, refusing to believe their honest friend. “This doesn’t make any sense! Applejack, I know you would never lie to me, but Royal almost died last night. I know…I rescued him from the same griffons that kidnapped your sister, the squirt here, and Rarity’s sister. Please, you have to believe me.” Rainbow’s emotions got the best of her. “I don’t know where he’s gone, but I’m worried about him…he doesn’t have the strength to bring these buckets back here! Someone’s trying to set him up!” Her voice cracked as she finished pleading her case. “I guess I jumped to conclusions a bit too quickly. I’m sorry Rainbow. But, as long as Royal doesn’t own these apples, do you mind helping me bring them back to the farm?” Rainbow sniffled and nodded. “Sure.” After returning the buckets of apples to Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow left the farm and thought about what she would do that day. I can’t just leave squirt, I mean, Scootaloo all alone like that. I’ve got to find Royal. That kid has a lot of explaining to do! Leaving without explanation and making both of us worry! Needless to say, she was not happy with a certain blue stallion. While out, she decided to pay Pinkie Pie a visit, mainly to ask her if she had seen him. Rainbow decided to fly at top speed, which got her to Sugar Cube Corner in 10 seconds flat. She knocked on the door, noticing that the “closed” sign was still displayed in the window. “Pinkie Pie?” she yelled, “it’s way past time for this place to be open!” There was no response. After about 5 minutes of waiting, Rainbow went to open the door, finding it unlocked. “Guess it was open after all. Pinkie!” The mare continued to search for her peppy friend. She found Pinkie on the floor, nuzzling a fallen Mr. Cake. Obviously, this image horrified her. “Pinkie! What happened?” Pinkie looked up, acknowledging Dash’s presence. “Oh…hi Dashie.” Pinkie nearly whispered her words. She had been crying, Rainbow noticed. “Mr. Cake! Are you okay?” Pinkie’s father figure woke up, fluttering his eyes open. “Royal…Blue…” was all he could muster. Rainbow shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. The kid was too weak to do something like this; something he would never do in the first place. However, undisputable evidence would come from Pinkie…who showcased a bruise on her flank from smashing into the wall with so much force. “Royal…” was all Pinkie could whisper before she started crying all over again. Rainbow, not knowing what else to do, offered herself up for a hug, and was immediately wrapped up by Pinkie. As she comforted her friend, her thoughts went to him. Royal, I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it one bit! I don’t want to believe you did this awful thing, but I’m starting to consider it. Later, Rainbow left Pinkie and the Cakes, after helping Mr. Cake get set up for a hospital visit, of course. She didn’t get that far when she suddenly felt something smack into her leg. Actually, it was two separate parties: Spike and Angel. Rainbow looked down. “Uh, can I help you two?” The usual sarcasm was absent from her voice, in the face of current events. “Rainbow, Twilight won’t talk to me this morning, and I don’t know why. I’m her #1 assistant, and basically her son! I think something terrible has happened!” Spike said, pausing to breath between each word. Rainbow, without saying a word, flopped both of them onto her back and flew them to the Treebrary. She knew where she had to land, right outside Twi’s bedroom window. She knocked on the window. No answer. Spike took his turn, and got the same lack of response. Finally, Rainbow pried it open, only to see another horrific sight; Twilight was trying to gather together the pieces of her precious Smarty Pants doll. Rainbow got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Come on, guys. Let’s help her.” The trio entered through the window, surprised that Twilight seemed to not care that they had entered unannounced. Her attention was on her doll. “Twi…I’m sorry that…” the purple pony glanced up at Rainbow. She smiled weakly. “Don’t worry, Rainbow. I can repair her. I just can’t figure out why anypony would do such a thing!” Rainbow sighed with relief. At least there was no tangible evidence that her worst fears might be confirmed. “Hey…it’s kinda dark in here…mind if I turn on some lights?” “Go right ahead.” Twilight said; her concentration entirely on her doll. Rainbow went over and turned the lights on, making the room brighter. She reacted in shock. Written in red all over the walls was the simple phrase, “Royal was here.” “Twi…you might want to see this…” Back in Canterlot, Royal was having the time of his life as Vinyl tugged him along on her super tour of the city. “I tell ya, kid, there’s none better than Canterlot! Celebrities, awesome dining, the Grand Galloping Gala, it’s all that and a mega bass cannon, man!” Royal nodded, but kept silent. Octavia could tell something was wrong. “Royal, what’s the matter?” she nudged him. Royal turned to her. “Oh, I’m just thinking about Scootaloo. She would love it here. I wish I could share this with her.” Vinyl appeared touched by these sentiments. “Awww, why didn’t ya? I love kids!” “Princess Celestia requested that I come alone.” “Oh well, you’ll have to come back to Canterlot some time! Now let’s get back to the tour!” Octavia sighed as she and Royal were dragged along by her hyperactive pal. While along their way, they shared a glimpse of the newlyweds, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor. The trio exchanged glances with the royal couple, and both parties waved friendly, greeting each other. Back in Ponyville, Rainbow had left, accompanied only by Angel, as Spike stayed behind at the library. “Angel, why did you follow me all the way out here? Did something happen to…” she stopped. She tried to suppress the thought from her mind. Royal, if you did anything to my best friend, I am going to…to…! Rainbow could not finish her thought because she heard the sound of crying. Her heart sank. Oh no… “Hang on Fluttershy!” Rainbow grabbed Angel and tossed him on her back. She spread her wings and flew as fast as she could, until she saw Fluttershy, sitting in her garden. Rainbow landed and galloped over to her. The yellow pegasus didn’t even bother to look up at first. “Fluttershy? Are you okay? You’re not hurt, right? Please tell me he didn’t do anything to you!” Fluttershy slowly raised her head. At first, Rainbow sighed in relief because there were no signs of foul play. However, Fluttershy’s cheek had some blood on it. Rainbow couldn’t believe what she had seen. Her head was filled with so many emotions. “Fluttershy…who did this to you?” For the first time that day, Fluttershy’s eyes met hers. “Not to me, Rainbow…” She slowly stood up, exposing the body of one of her birds. Rainbow’s heart sank again. Fluttershy, who had only broken her sobs to speak to her best friend, started sobbing all over again. Faithful friend that she was, Rainbow immediately went to her side and provided her a shoulder to cry on. All the while, she grew angrier at a certain blue stallion that she thought was her friend. As the day continued, word spread about the mysterious actions of Royal Blue. All the while, Royal remained oblivious as he spent the day with Vinyl and Octavia. The next morning, Royal woke up early. He didn’t feel any adverse effects from the previous night, mainly because he had excused himself early from the party at which Vinyl performed her disk jockey duties. He’d stayed in a guest room at the castle, a service set up by Twilight after he had told her about the letter. Royal shook off the cobwebs and looked at himself in the mirror. He smiled. “You look all right there, Blue. Now it’s time to find out why Princess Celestia wanted to meet me so badly.” With those words, he trotted out of the guest room, and towards the main chamber of the castle. The mood in Swelter Canyon was very low-key. Preparations were just about finalized for the mother of all invasions. Queen Chrysalis yearned for the moment of attack. She had been humiliated at the hands of the young royal couple, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor several months ago. This came after she assumed her plan was perfect. She had even sung a song about her evil plan and not been suspected of a thing. Of course, the pony towards which she wanted revenge the most was Twilight Sparkle, the only pony that raised such suspicions; and the young unicorn had been completely right. One could argue that Twilight was the only reason the day ended up successful for Cadance and Shining. Chrysalis wanted to crush her this time around. Paulie, on the other hand, wanted to crush Pinkie Pie on his way to total control of Equestria and the surrounding areas. In recent months, he had also become obsessed with taking down a young stallion who had managed to foil his plans at every turn. He appeared to have finally done it. Royal was in terrible shape when Rainbow rescued him from the clutches of the evil griffon. If he had survived, Paulie figured it wasn’t by much. He and Chrysalis shared one common goal: the domination of Equestria plus other areas, and removing all opposition by force. Since that stupid kid was no longer around, he could plot and attack as he pleased. Royal’s heart skipped a beat as he walked up the steps of Canterlot Castle toward the throne room. I talked about it all day yesterday, but now it’s finally happening! I’m about to meet Princess Celestia, herself! He was met by one of the castle guards at the gate. “State your business, young pegasus. Who are you, and why are you here?” The guard said, eyeing him suspiciously. “I’m Royal Blue, and the princess sent for me.” The guard’s eyes lightened up. “Oh! So you’re the stallion the princess keeps talking about! Sorry for being so suspicious! We had to tighten up our security around here after that changeling attack.” Royal smiled up at the tall guard. Walking through the halls of Canterlot castle, the guard continued to escort Royal. “Wouldn’t you know it, it was my wedding day! My sister was the only one who suspected a thing! Yeah, Twily really saved us all that day.” Royal nodded, before shaking his head. “Wait, Twily? Then that would make you…” the guard nodded. “Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guards, at your service!” Royal could see another unicorn with wings walking down the hall toward them. Shining also noticed her. “Right on cue! Royal, meet my lovely wife, Princess Cadance!” The princess smiled as she approached them. “It’s lovely to meet you, dear. I’ll take you to see my aunt right away!” “Aunt?” Royal asked. “Oh, yes! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna happen to be my aunts! It’s a complicated family tree. If I was to explain it to you, you would need to stay here for another night.” “Oh.” Royal said, relieved that his question received some kind of answer. “I’m going to take him in, now. You should go back out front and guard the castle, honey.” Shining Armor obliged and left the room. Cadance turned back to Royal. “Come with me, dear. Your meeting with the princess awaits.” Royal gulped, feeling a little nervous now that the event was this close to happening. He was about to come face to face with the ruler of the daytime, the princess of the sun.