(AN: this chapter uses photos, so it’s best not to be reading this chapter in text document format)
Time: 8:45 A.M
Location: Riding a carriage to canterlot castle
Date: Oct. 12, 2013
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
I apparently dozed off on the ride and I almost paid the price, getting back into the carriage I grip on the edges ‘till my knuckles turn white. Scared shitless from my near-death experien- Aw, who am I kidding? I’ve had worse than almost falling.
Moving on, the ride was fairly eventful, I almost fell off three times, puked from sudden change of altitude, got cold and had to put on my jacket and gloves, I even tried to communicate with the Pegasi in front of me. No luck, but it turns out they are trained to follow a path according to the guardsman who’s driving the chariot. So it was a fairly unpleasant experience for about three hours.
Not to mention that half-way through the ride the sun came up and it nearly blinded me, I had to activate my visor as it is part sunglasses. I turned it off after the sun finished its rise and my eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light, did I mention it was the cause of my second fall? Bloody thing blinded me for a good thirty seconds.
Around the Third hour and thirty minute mark, we rounded a corner of a mountain and I came to see the castle in all its glory. After looking at it for a good five minutes my mood does a complete one eighty and it goes from awe to nervousness.
Most likely because I was heading to see one of Equestria’s goddesses you might say. Who has the power to send me to the moon and back. Needless to say my mind is giving off the warning that if I make the tiniest slip-up; I’m screwed.
My mind gets distracted for a bit as we fly past the countless streets and buildings canterlot has to offer, to be honest it seems pretty nice; excluding the people with their heads held high acting like they own everything, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them even owned a fraction of the city!
The city ended and was replaced with a pathway leading to a gate, the chariot landed and continued running down the path until we reached the gate, where we then got identified and let in. We continued moving on the ground until we came up to the front door of the castle itself. Where then I disembarked the chariot and it left, leaving me, the guards forming a semi-circle behind me, and the door.
Thinking I have no other choice, I began to make my way toward the two-story high gold trimmed door, nervousness begins to rush back up to me and every step I take my brain sends a signal saying:
‘RUN FOREST RUN!’
Trying my best to stay calm and ignore the signals, I step up to the door and take a look at the two guardsmen right beside it, I gave them a questioning look and all they did was respond with a nod while keeping their statue posture.
Taking a deep calming breath, I grip both doors and push as if I was entering a bar in a western movie. Original much? But worth it.
The doors swinging outward a good distance away from me as I enter the main hallway sorta gives me a sense of determination. Making my way toward the other side of the hallway to the throne room I notice the guards are eyeing me suspiciously. Understandable, but do they do that with everybody that they come across? Excluding the Princesses of course.
Reaching the second largest door I've ever come across in my lifetime I look at the guards for conformation once more, instead of nodding they decided to speak.
“You may enter, her majesty; Princess Celestia is expecting you,” the guard stated.
‘Celestia? I figured Luna would see me, oh wait, it’s daytime. She’s probably asleep…All right then.’
Taking another calm breath, I push the doors open western style once again, it’s a habit since I was twelve, get used to it.
The doors swinging outward blocks my peripheral as all I see is Celestia sitting in her throne in all her glory.
(Credit goes to Ninja-8004 for the picture)
If there was one thing I can say about Celestia in one word it would have to be; Motherly. She gives off a sense that tells me that I am safe from any outside threats, She has the power to protect her subjects from any harm that is to come to her people, all in all, it just tells me I can trust her. And that’s saying something considering the fact I have trust issues!
Making my way towards the center of the throne room Celestia decides to dismiss her guards and stands up to meet me at the center of the room.
As soon as I reach the center I take a knee and bow to Celestia, don’t know why, just felt like it as if she somehow deserves it, Instinctual magic maybe?
“Rise, you need not bow to me; as you are not one of my subjects,” Celestia said.
‘That’s putting it bluntly...’ I thought to myself, somehow taking offence.
Getting up I take notice of Celestia’s features, she’s two feet taller than me minus the horn that dwarfs me to three feet taller, Her body shows sign of exercise, leading me to believe at any given moment she can defend herself if needed. Too summarize; she just radiates order and prosperity.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Christopher, let me be the first to welcome you to Equestria,” Celestia offers a hand in which I accept…What? Did you expect me to give her a kiss on the hand? Come on, I've been corrupted enough by the modern world I didn't even know I was supposed to do that.
“Thank you, too be honest I find it nice, excluding the fact I had a hard time on the first two days,” I respond, breaking the handshake.
“Yes, Luna told me about your little experience with the Timber-wolves. She also told me of your little escapade from the hospital,” The sun goddess brought up.
“Ah she did? Then she also must of mentioned she was the one who told me to do it” Celestia stifled a light chuckle for unknown reasons, “Speaking of Luna, I sort of expected her to be the one to meet me here at the castle, no offence, just wondering what happened,” i stated.
“None taken, Luna wanted to be the first to see you, but I had to send her to bed so she doesn’t fall asleep on her duties,” She answered.
“Makes sense, to my understanding she IS the goddess of the night” I yawn for a moment, “Sorry, the chariot ride was eventful and I was woken up in the very early morning, no doubt I am tired”
“In that case I’ll have one of my people escort you to your room so you can rest,” Celestia summons a guard to her side.
“Thanks, I will be up at the evening at the latest, I’ll try to stay out of your way so you can resume your duties,” I follow the guard outside of the throne room to and into the main hallway, where we then exit the main part of the castle and enter a side door to a hallway consisting of multiple doors, leading me to believe that they hold storage rooms, bathrooms, and the guest rooms. At the end of the hallway I can see a large door that has a sun emblem embedded on the front, most likely Celestia’s.
The guard leads me to a guest room three doors away from Celestia’s room which is roughly two-hundred and sixteen feet away from me. A fairly good running distance, I could make the entire castle a physical training track. I enter the room to be greeted with a spacious feeling. There was a king sized bed on one side, sitting next to it was a door leading to a balcony, on the other side is a desk where I can take notes, or screw around with plans and crap, on the wall next to the desk is the bathroom doorway, don’t forget to mention the windows on the wall to the right of the balcony.
I set my backpack on the floor next to the desk and take off my jacket and gloves and set them on the chair facing the desk. Taking my pistol holster off of my belt I place it underneath the bed, don’t want anyone messing with it. I keep the knife and make my way to the bathroom; I give myself one look at the mirror and the first thought that came to mind
‘Who is this handsome devil?’
Just joking, however that didn't change at how surprised I was when I noticed my looks changed, my face was completely flawless, no blemishes or acne, no mustache or beard making its way onto my face, just a completely even toned skin colored fourteen year old face. My hair had grown a little longer than usual but I didn’t really care, the front portion of the hair only went down to half of my forehead, while my back portion only stretched down to half of my neck, the sides haven’t changed much still being at the half point at my ears, while the top was pretty slick, toned down so it didn’t stick up but keeping a spiked look at the front.
Quickly doing my business in the toilet I make my way to the bed and plop down on it, limp, I didn’t even bother to take off my shoes, I turn of my visor for a moment to check at the time; 10:26 A.M. I could sleep for a good seven hours before dinner at six.
Turning off the visor completely so it could rest at the side of my head, I curl up into a comfortable position on the bed and drift asleep
*Knock* *Knock *Knock*
I will never understand when you can only sleep for two hours and thirty minutes and feel like you can run to the other side of the world and back.
According to a quick check on my visor it was 1:02 P.M. getting up out of bed without much of a hassle I open the door to be greeted by a butler bringing up lunch to my room. Lunch consisted of Steak, served with a batch of rice, and a side of vegetables.
To be honest I never really had much of refined meat, mainly because I lived in a town where all restaurants are pretty much fast food. Not to mention that any fancy restaurants we went to were bloody expensive.
Setting the lunch tray on my desk I thank the butler.
“Give my regards to the chief and Celestia, thank you for bringing this here,”
The butler leaves with a bow and takes the lunch cart away back to the kitchen, I settle down on the desk and cut a piece of the steak and put it in my mouth…
“….”
I slowly get up out of my seat, go out to the balcony and let out the best scream in my life
“THIS IS THE BEST FOOD I HAVE EVER TASTED!!”
After that little incident I finished up my lunch, drank some mountain dew and begin making my way out to explore the castle, more or less, I was trying to look for the library so I can refresh myself on Equestrian history, it just lead to me being lost at a random tower.
Exiting the tower I make my way back to the main hallway where I pace around trying to find the library, or at least a map showing the castle. Giving up I turn on my visor to check the time…
Only to be greeted with a mini-map showing the castle…
And subtitles showing every section…..
Including the library….
Which is right next door…..
Well fuck you too universe….
Letting out a growl of annoyance I enter the library and instantly get awed by the sheer architecture of this library.
(credit goes to josh-5410 for the picture)
Staring open-mouthed at the design this library holds, I regain my composure after a few minutes and begin looking for a book on history, which is gonna take a while considering the fact that there is four stories of books.
After fifteen minutes of searching I was beginning to get irritated by the fact that it’s extremely hard to find a single book in this library.
I give up for a moment to check the time which is 2:06 P.M and I immediately get an idea, if my visor can find its way around the castle, then can it find its way around a library?
Keeping the visor on the main menu I send out a search command
“Computer, search, history.”
When I finished saying it my vision turned a dark shade of blue and every object has been outlined with white, every once in a while my computer would send a pulse of light blue, assuming it’s for searching.
Looking around I see the book has been located at the right side of the second story, making my way up there I keep the pulse on so I can find the specific book and be done with searching.
As soon as I was about to grab the history book I heard the door open. Acting out of sheer instincts I make my way toward the staircase and dig myself into the corner between it and prop my back into it, crouching down so I can look as small as possible I look over the staircase to take a look at how just came in.
I can’t seem to detect movement so I decide to re-route my search configurations.
“Computer, search, heartbeat”
Just as a figured there is one person in the library with me, apparently in my blindspot, which is near the fireplace room underneath me.
The sensor indicates that the person is sitting in a chair near the fireplace reading a book facing away from the doorway, which is perfect. Getting out of my hiding spot I quietly make my way to the door, stepping down the stairway I begin crouch-running quietly toward the door. I make it toward the doorway, open it, get out, close it, and make sure the person is not disturbed. After giving the all clear to myself I turn off the search function and bring up the mini-map of the castle, I look for my room which is in the hall way on the other side of the main hallway, which I’m in.
Quickly making my way toward the other side but not enough to arouse suspicion from the guards at the side of the castle, I open the door and enter the side hallway where my room is at the other side, near Celestia’s room, which is about the length of a track.
‘Screw it; I could go for the physical training’ I figured
Ignoring the guards stationed at the doors, I start a brisk jog, I speed up to a run, and make it about a quarter of the way before I turn into a dead-on sprint, it was only halfway when I realized the lightning emitting off of my shoes has remade it’s appearance, and it has given me another speed boost.
My tennis shoes pounding on the tile floor is making some noise that is bound to draw some attention, but I ignore it, almost reaching my doorway I put both of my feet sideways and start sliding. Slowly decelerating, I was able to stop a little past my doorway.
Turning around to head back to my doorway, I was surprised to see someone standing at the other side of the hallway where I started running.
It was a female, with rainbow colored hair, she was wearing a light blue hoodie and light blue sweatpants, also some light blue and white tennis shoes, she had blue wings that lead me to believe that she is a Pegasus and she has a tail matching the same colors as her hair.
Overall, she looks pissed.
We engage in a staring contest for two whole minutes, everyone, including the guards feeling the tension between us.
It was only a matter of time before I settled things like a man.
I open my door without breaking eye-contact, slowly walk in still not breaking eye-contact, and while my head is now horizontally sticking out of the doorway I say the one thing that throws everybody off the edge.
“Hai”
"HEY!!!" I heard her footsteps pound on the tiles.
*Shuts the door and locks it before the girl catches me*
“Always works,” I say, chuckling.