//------------------------------// // The Grand Tour // Story: Life, Death, and Ponies // by thunderclap //------------------------------// You stood out on your balcony and allowed the crisp night air to settle on your face. The sun had been lowered by Celestia a few hours ago and was replaced by Luna’s moon. You still had a hard time believing that anyone could pull off such feats. You had read somewhere that the sun was over five thousand times heavier than the Earth. Yet, there was a being here that could lift and lower it as she saw fit. And there was a being that could do the same with the moon. The moon may have been a lot smaller than Earth but it wasn’t exactly light either. You made a quick note that while the princesses may look kind and warmhearted you had a feeling that if they wanted to they could rip you a new flank without even breaking a sweat. You stared up at the blanket of stars in the sky for the first time since you had woken up in your new life. It had been three days since your first magic lesson with Luna, and you had made quite a bit of progress since then. You could now mend a broken object, change something’s color (or somepony as was the case with an unfortunate guard that had got caught in the crossfire of your first attempt at the spell), you could even render someone silent by creating a zipper over their mouth. But, no matter what you tried you couldn’t start a fire with your magic. Every time you tried something would always break your concentration. Most of the time it was the image of your father’s corpse, but sometimes the memory of your mother’s death would interrupt the image you used to inspire warm feelings. After a while you tried to use a different image in order to master the spell, but it was useless. Nothing in your life had made you feel as warm and secure as your parents. You continued to stare at the night sky expecting to see completely foreign constellations. But there were some that you recognized, like Draco, and Cassiopeia. Based on that you guessed it was roughly the beginning of spring in Equestria. At least that’s when those constellations appeared back home. Despite all of the distractions you tried to preoccupy yourself with, your mind continued to go back to what the princesses had told you after your lesson that day. They had told you that you should report to the throne room instead of your usual meeting place for a special surprise. Perhaps they needed extra room for a spell that they were going to teach you. Or they could be telling you that your lessons were over and that it was time for you to depart to that small town called Ponyville where Celestia’s other personal student lived. You remembered that her name was Twilight something. At one point Celestia had said that you reminded her of this other unicorn. You guessed that she meant that both of you were studious and learned quickly. Other than that you had never really thought about your own personality. You let out a quick yawn and realized that the answer to what the princesses had meant by “surprise” would only become clear in the morning. You climbed into your bed and slowly but surely went to sleep. You could see your father in front of you with a disappointed look in his eyes. You were about eight years old as far as you could tell. Your father sighed for a moment and then began to speak. “So, you got in another fight at school today?” He asked devoid of tone. “Dad, I had to. These bullies were teasing someone in class. Just because they thought he was weird.” You replied trying to justify the black eye you could feel throbbing as you spoke. “During recess they stole his toy and they wouldn’t give it back to him. I told them to stop but they pushed me down and said to butt out. Then, one of them tried to punch me and the kid and it turned into a big fight. I even managed to get the kid’s toy back for him.” You said with a small hint of pride. “Who cares about that?” Your father boomed. “Look at you, you’re hurt and you’re in trouble at school for doing this, and for what? Some kid that you don’t even know?” “But, you always said that I should do the right thing. And letting some kid get picked on just because I don’t want to get hurt isn’t right!” Your father looked at you with a wide eyed expression for a moment. His eyes started to water and he lowered his head. “You sound just like your mother right now. Whenever I came home from work and talked about some of the things my bosses did she would ask why I didn’t do something about it. I always said that I couldn’t or I’d get fired. She told me that doing nothing when I know something is wrong is worse than doing the wrong thing. She was always so strong willed and kind. Just like you, son. Please, promise me that you’ll avoid getting into trouble from now on.” Your father said with tears steadily falling from his eyes. You simply nodded and felt a lump form in the back of your throat. Your father tended to get a bit emotional ever since the death of your mother. You always hated to see him break down like this. What made it worse was that you were usually the cause of these breakdowns. You ran into your room to avoid seeing your father in such a state for a second more. The dream ended and suddenly you were left sitting in your bed with a bittersweet feeling in the pit of your stomach. You had hated seeing your father like that, but he had revealed a little something about yourself. ‘I can see the strong willed, seeing as I died because I didn’t like being threatened, but I don’t know about kind.’ The thoughts of your dream were quickly forgotten as you remembered that you had to meet the princesses for whatever news they had in store for you. You jumped out of bed and used your magic to get ready for the day as quickly as you possibly could. Outside your door was one of Celestia’s guards who led you through the all too familiar hallways to show you into the throne room where the princesses stood with an unfamiliar red Pegasus. You were just about to question this pony’s presence but Princess Celestia called out to you before you had the chance. “Ah Blackstar, one of my most faithful students, please come here. We have some news for you.” “What is it Princess?” You asked, your curiosity growing with every passing moment. “You have been here for almost a week now and in that time you have never left the castle. Princess Luna and I thought it would be for the best that you see the city and get some fresh air.” You let out a sigh of relief that you weren’t being forced to leave the castle permanently. “That sounds fair, but who’s he?” You said, pointing a hoof at the red Pegasus standing in-between the princesses. “You wound me, Blackstar. Don’t you recognize me?” You knew that voice and as quickly as he asked you responded… “Flarewing, is that you? I’ve never seen you without your armor on. What are you doing here?” “Isn’t it obvious? I’m gonna be your tour guide for the day.” “Don’t you have your guard duties for tonight?” “Today’s my day off so I elected to show you the sights and some popular attractions.” “Thanks Flarewing, you didn’t have to do this.” “Yes I did, if it was anypony else they would’ve just shown you the historical sights. And while I’m sure you would’ve enjoyed that, there are plenty of other things to see.” “Have fun you two, but make sure you don’t do anything too extreme, Flarewing. We don’t want you to traumatize Blackstar here.” Celestia stated with a warm grin and firm eye towards Flarewing. “When have I ever done anything like that, Princess?” Soon after that you were in the streets of Canterlot. It was definitely not your average city. It was like something out of a fairytale. The homes and businesses were all white with large golden spires coming out of their tops. Every now and then Flarewing would read off some facts from a card that you were sure that someone had prepared for you. Whenever you passed a group of dignified looking ponies he would roll his eyes and tell you to move quicker. You wondered why he would do something like this and questioned him on it. “Hey Flarewing, why do you keep avoiding certain ponies? “Because the rich ponies around here are really boring; and if you’re not careful they can suck you into their conversations just to talk down to you. Sometimes I let them do it on purpose just to tell them that I’m a Royal Guard. You should see the looks on some of their faces when I do.” He said with an impish laugh. You were about to voice your opinion on the matter when your rumbling stomach interrupted. “Come on, let’s go get some donuts, and then we can continue our tour.” Flarewing led you to a small shop close to the castle. You asked him why you were getting donuts when the city was filled with such an amazing variety of foods. He simply laughed and told you that you’d see. Once inside he ordered six chocolate and six glazed donuts. Then he ordered himself a coffee and you said that you’d take some milk. You dunked one of the chocolate donuts in your milk (using your hooves, Celestia had shown you a way one night at dinner) and took a bite. Flarewing almost busted out laughing when he saw you go wide eyed in amazement at how delicious the simple pastry was. You fervently finished the donut in a few bites and reached for one of the glazed. “Slow down there, buddy. If you keep that up then you’ll get sick.” “Sorry, these are just the best donuts I’ve ever had!” You exclaimed between bites. “I know they’re good, but you gotta relax and be cool.” “Why do you say that?” “Because there are a few pretty fillies that are checking us out.” As he said that he nudged his head toward a group of three female unicorns. One was a light green color with a green mane and eyes, another was orange with a red mane and light yellow eyes, and the other was white with a powder blue mane and eyes, you didn’t take notice of their cutie marks. Due to their placement on the pony body being in an area that was always covered up when you were human, you always felt awkward looking down there. You blushed quickly when you saw the look they were giving you and averted your gaze from the trio. “Oh girls, would you care to join us, there’s plenty for all of us.” He called with a wave of his hoof. “Sure, we’d be delighted.” Said one of them and soon they were making their way towards you. “Flarewing, what the hay did you do that for?” You hissed so that only he could hear. “What’s the big deal?” “The big deal is, is…” You didn’t have time to finish as one of the mares slid into a spot next to you. You immediately forgot what you were about to say and blushed once more. “Thanks for inviting us over here…” “The name’s Flarewing, and my friend here is Blackstar.” “Blackstar, that’s a really nice name. Are you new here? I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.” You looked up to see that it was the white one that had spoken. She was giving you a look that you weren’t used to receiving which made you feel even more uneasy. “Uh, yeah, I just got here a few days ago.” You said quickly, hoping to end the discussion. “That’s great. Are you planning on joining the magic school?” “Actually, Blackstar here is already receiving private lessons from the princesses.” Flarewing said with a devilish grin. You stared daggers at him for a moment before the mares started talking again. “No way you’re that new pony. You’ve got to show us what you know!” “I… I’ve only been learning for a few days, so I’m not all that good.” “Oh come on, pleaaase?” They all pleaded with begging eyes. You were about to decline when you heard the sound of rope snapping, and screaming from the crowd behind you. You turned your head to see a piano falling from the roof of a building as it went on into a collision course with a scared young pony directly beneath it. Flarewing rushed out of his chair to fly out and save the little foal, but you were faster. Dark blue energy surrounded the piano as you gently lifted it up above the foal and back into the broken restraints. Then you used the spell you had learned to repair objects and placed the piano back into the restraints, good as new. But you didn’t stop there, you continued by magically strengthening the ropes so that a similar incident wouldn’t happen again. You let out a sigh of relief and slumped down a little in your chair feeling a little tired after all the magic you had used. You had never chained that many spells together before so you rubbed your now slightly aching head. The crowd went silent for a moment and looked up to see that they were all staring at you with mystified expressions on their faces. You offered them a weak smile and a wave which was met with cheers. “That was amazing!” One of the mares from your table exclaimed. “Oh, thank you so much, sir!” Shouted an older mare that was holding onto the hoof of the foal you had just saved. “If it wasn’t for you, my little Dewdrop could’ve died.” She said with tears in her eyes. “It was nothing, really, I just saw the falling piano and I kind of reacted.” “Come on, Blackstar that was awesome. Now, show the crowd some love!” Flarewing cheered with his hooves outstretched. You had to put up with reactions like that for almost an hour. There were even people from the press that had wanted to take your picture. You had insisted that you didn’t want the photo to be taken, but Flarewing talked you into it. After that, you told Flarewing that you wanted to return to the castle. He relented and told the three mares that you had to leave. They looked disappointed as they waved you goodbye. “What happened to you back there?” Flarewing asked. “I already said I just kind of reacted.” “Not that, when I invited the girls over, you’re not shy are you?” “Shut up, I’m just not used to talking to girls like that. Especially when they looked at me the way they did.” “Oh my gosh, you are shy!” Flarewing exclaimed with a small fit of laughter. “You never cease to amaze me, Blackstar. You may want to get used to looks like that, hero.” He said, shaking his head. You were led back into the castle and you let out a sigh of relief as your head hit the pillow to your bed. You pulled out your journal and began to write. Hey, me in the future. I hope that you’re able to walk around without people… er ponies recognizing you. It’s been a few days since I’ve started learning magic here. So far I’ve made a lot of progress. The only spell I can’t seem to get right is the fire spell, but I don’t want to talk about that. The princesses decided that it would be a good idea for me to take a tour of the city. Flarewing showed me all these really cool sights and we ended up getting the best donuts ever! Then he invited over some girls over to our table. They were giving us strange looks. Was that the way someone looks at you when they’re attracted to you? People back home would usually just ignore me or look at me as if I was diseased or something because of the situation I was in. Was I handsome back then too? It seems odd that I don’t know that doesn’t it. I guess I won’t know, but I hope you’ve figured it all out when you or I read this. I’ll say more later.