//------------------------------// // Is It Awkward In Here // Story: Some Redemption // by Cupzy //------------------------------// "Shadow Storm? Hello?" Said a voice. Storm slowly opened his eyes, after adjusting to the darkness, he saw a Unicorn looking down at him from the side of the bed. Storm slowly sat up on the bed and looked over at the Unicorn, rubbing his eyes as he did so. He was surprised when he noticed that the Unicorn also had a pair of wings, and not only that, it had a red coat with a long flowing red mane. Storm quickly realized that he was looking directly at Redblade. He was so startled that he fell out of the bed, knocking his snout against the small cabinet next to the bed as he did so. He recollected a few seconds later and stood in his most formal stance, holding his hoof in a saluting gesture as his snout bled profusely. Redblade let out a small chuckle when he saw the state that the young Pegasus was in. "L-Lord Redblade!" Storm exclaimed, he quickly cupped his hoof over his mouth, he looked over to the bed, where Twilight was still sleeping peacefully, he let out a sigh of relief and raised the hoof in a saluting gesture once more, looking back at Redblade. "Hello Shadow Storm." Redblade said. "Y-Yes! Hello sir, an absolute pleasure to meet you!" Storm loudly whispered. "Please, call me Redblade, I hated it ever so much when I was called 'lord' or 'master'" Redblade said. "Y-Yes sir... Redblade..." Storm said. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I would be happy to answer all of them." Redblade said. Storm simply wanted to bombard him with questions, but he remembered that he was standing face-to-face with a prince of the banished. "R-Redblade... How have you returned to us? You were killed by..." Storm trailed off, did Redblade know about his ancestor being the one who killed him? Or did he even kill Redblade at all? "By your ancestor? Yes, I suppose I was... Decommissioned for a little while. But your current queen was nice enough to revive me using that magical capability of hers. She sent me to... Kill Celestia... In your place." Redblade explained. Storm was right, the entirety of the banished thought he was dead. "Y-You know about my ancestors?" Storm asked. Redblade gave a nod in return. "Yes. I dare say that your ancestor was one of the greatest warriors I had ever seen. I may have killed him, but we fought on even ground during the fight, I merely got the upper hoof on him." Redblade said. "I understand sir. But... Why didn't you kill Celestia? We could have easily overpowered Luna if you had completed the job." Storm said. "When I was about to kill Celestia... I got a good look at her face. I never knew that we were out to kill such beauty... She awoke and... Well, I expected her to end my life right there... But she outstretched her hoof to me... We talked throughout the night and learned of each others pasts... One thing turned into another and then..." Redblade trailed off and looked at the ground, shuffling his hooves nervously. "R-Redblade, you didn't do anything... Strange with Celestia, did you?" Storm asked. He was in complete shock. Falling for the enemy was one thing but... "No... Of course not, Shadow Storm..." Redblade said, trying to avoid eye contact with him. Storm knew something strange was going on between Redblade and Celestia. But before he could delve any deeper into the details. He heard a quiet shuffling noise behind him. He looked behind him to reveal Twilight slowly sitting up on the bed. She let out a large yawn and looked over to Storm's general direction. She jumped after a few seconds, almost suffering the same injury as Storm. He rushed over to Twilight, who was currently lying on the floor. "Twilight? Are you okay?" Storm said, with a slight sense of urgency in his voice. Twilight shook her head and rose to her hooves. She rubbed her head and looked over the bed, towards Redblade. "Oh... You must be Redblade!" Twilight said. She walked over to the opposite end of the bed and outstretched her hoof. "I'm Twilight Sparkle! Nice to meet you!" She continued. Redblade happily returned the gesture, he obviously had a much more open personality when it came to talking with other ponies, unlike Storm. "A pleasure, miss Twilight. I trust that you and Storm are well acquainted?" Redblade asked, obviously not knowing the relationship status between Twilight and Storm. "I... Uh... You could say that... I suppose." Twilight said, a small blush managing to kiss her cheeks. Redblade let out a small chuckle. "Well, I think we should get to the dining room, Celestia wishes for us all to have breakfast together. She also has a rather... Important statement to make..." Redblade said. "The dining room? I haven't been there since Jack was here... Wait... Who's Jack?" Twilight quietly said to herself. (Dear god I think I'm catching up to Pinkie in fourth-wall breaking...) "Yes. It would probably be for the best if we could recollect on yesterday together." Storm said. Redblade nodded. Twilight motioned for the two to follow her. Twilight led the two of them to an extremely large set of doors. "Sweet Celestia..." Storm said as he gazed upon the giant doors. Redblade also appeared to be amazed at the amazing architecture. The door was almost perfectly symmetrical, and easily stood taller than that of a fully grown dragon. Twilight looked around for a few moments. "That's odd, there's usually around ten guards who can open the door standing around..." Twilight pondered. Storm and Redblade sighed, they both knew where this was going. The two of them began to walk to the base of the humongous set of doors. "Hm? Storm? What are you doing?" Twilight asked. Storm merely let out one of his trademark dry chuckles as he continued walking. "You get the left door and I'll get the right one." Redblade said. Storm nodded and proceeded over to the left door. Twilight simply stood there and watched. "Surely they can't be thinking..." Twilight thought, she suddenly heard an ear piercing creaking noise that echoed down the hallway. After the initial noise was gone, Twilight removed her hooves from her head and looked over towards the door. Both Redblade and Storm had their hooves pushing against the doors, the strain was clearly visible on both of their faces. After a few painstaking moments of pushing. The door finally started to budge, once it had got into a rhythm, the duo pulled their hooves away from the door and let it slide open. Once the door was fully opened. It revealed an even larger dining room with a table that spanned the length of SEVERAL fully grown dragons. On either side was a Princess with an absolutely horrified expression on their faces. Storm and Redblade were panting heavily. And started walking inside the dining hall. Celestia ran over to Redblade, checking his body for injuries. "Are you hurt Redblade?" Celestia asked worriedly. He waved a hoof as an answer. "No... I had some help from Shadow Storm..." Redblade said in between pants. Celestia looked over his shoulder to reveal an almost collapsed Storm, using Twilight as a support beam. "I was about to send the regular guard patrol down... You didn't have to do all of this..." Celestia said. Luna was petrified in her seat, amazed at the raw strength that the duo produced. "Oh well... I suppose there's a first time for everything..." Redblade said with a chuckle that almost mimicked Storm's, partially sue to his lack of breath. Celestia and Twilight led their lovers on to the chairs next to them. They both sat down with a satisfied sigh. Almost instantaneously, several waiters carrying plates of food burst out of the kitchen doors in a formal line. They laid utensils on everpony's table and littered the entire table with a wide assortment of plants, salads, and candy. The waiters left almost as suddenly as they arrived, retreating to the kitchen. "That was... Certainly interesting..." Storm said. He could barely breath without the echoes ringing through the hall. "I do hope that all of you have a lovely breakfast." Celestia said. Everyone started to eat the wide assortments of food on the table. There was clearly too much to eat, by the end of it, everpony was full and only around 1/5th's of the food had actually been eaten. Twilight stifled a very unladylike burp. Celestia raised a glass in the air and tapped it lightly with a spoon, which caused the sound to almost erupt throughout the hall. "Everpony. I would like to make an announcement." Celestia said. Twilight, Storm and Luna all looked at Celestia with confused looks on their faces. While Redblade simply looked down without smiling or frowning. Celestia gave him a reassuring smile to no effect. She gulped. "A-Anyway. This is an incredibly important announcement that may well decide the future of Equestria." Celestia said. This seemed to pique the curiosity of everypony in the room. Storm even saw a couple of chefs from the kitchen stick their heads out to listen. "As you may know. Me and Redblade are in love with each other. We had established that last night. But... A more serious matter lies in the balance..." Celestia continued. Storm and Twilight now had slightly worried expressions on their faces. They feared that the news Celestia was about to deliver was going to be incredibly bad. "I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, leader of all lands apart from the Griffin Kingdom... Am pregnant." Celestia said. Redblade continued looking down while Storm, Twilight and Luna kept their faces frozen in an unimaginable amount of shock. Almost on cue, the three of them dropped the forks they were holding, allowing them to fall to the floor, making a large clattering noise as they hit the ground. "Pardon me, Princess?" Twilight said.