//------------------------------// // Really, Universe? // Story: Elements of Resonance // by Daemon McRae //------------------------------// Author's Note: Ok, I have a small, modest goal with this story now. I kinda want to see it on a page of Equestria Daily. Which means I need to work on it more. Inspiration, HO! Chapter 2: Really, Universe? Octavia gave Gold dusk a stern, flat look. One he up till know had done a very smashing job avoiding altogether and had never had used on him before. So to say he was unnerved was an understatement. He felt akin to having been brought before a disciplinary committee. He made a mental note to not joke with Stockpile on the matter from now on. Who, at the time, was sitting in the corner of the break room, snickering behind his hoof with the rest of the group, as Octavia glared down her nose at the cowering Pegasus. "You're joking. We're going to… what was it, Ponyville? You have GOT to be joking. And you volunteered me for this assignment? And here I thought we'd finally gotten past the point where your absolute inability to gauge someone would cause problems, but no…" she rolled her eyes sarcastically, drolling out the last word in exaggeration. "We-well," Golddusk stammered, not really used to ponies upset with him, let alone his friends, "I-I haven't actually responded yet, but I thought you'd be excited to act as personal liaison for the Princess, and-" "I'm the court musician, Gold. Why in Equestria would I want anything to do with politics of all things?" she snapped. Gold felt slightly panicked now. "Um, because then you would have an entire village of ponies to swoon over your music and bow to you like the orchestral goddess you are?" he responded rather hurriedly. The ponies in the back of the room stopped at that, as did Octavia. It was quiet for a moment, as Octavia considered this. "You really think my music is that good?" she asked, slightly dubious. "Of course!" he answered, a little too quickly. "And I'm sure all of Ponyville would be ecstatic to hear you perform while we help prepare the Winter Moon Festival!" Octavia's eyes narrowed again. "We have to help prepare the festival?" she asked slowly. Golddusk flinched. He glanced over Octavia's shoulder to Athemare, silently pleading, Help, me, please? The older filly just shook her head, as if to say, "You're on your own, broski." Horsefeathers, he grumbled internally. "Um, yes? Like I said, I haven't officially answered the Princess yet, so it's not like you actually have to go with me…" he backed slowly into the door, only to be knocked unceremoniously aside as it was flung open with gusto. Where Golddusk once was, now stood to rather aggressive-looking guards in gold armor, staring angrily at the room in general. "We've come to receive a response from Mr. Golddusk in regards to the Princess's request. Where is he?" One of them barked dutifully. Octavia, at first rather taken aback by their prompt entrance, simply huffed and turned up her nose, trotting to the back of the room to join the rest of her group. The two guards looked rather peeved at this response, until Artemare gestured to behind the door. One of the guards eased it open, and Golddusk tumbled to the ground, having been propped against the wall by the door itself. "Errrrmmmm….. Muffin button?" he mumbled, trying to right himself. He staggered a bit, coming to just inches from one of the guard's faces. "Oh, hello Halberd. Poleax," he added, acknowledging the other pony. The two nodded, their expressions softening from slightly enraged to the generic unhappiness they usually portrayed as part of their stern image. "Here to take my response? I haven't written it out, but you could just tell her what I said, I suppose." The two guard ponies glanced at each other, and one shook his mane, falling out of step.. "Sorry, Golddusk," Poleaxe muttered, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof, "Gungnir would have our heads if we didn't make sure everything was in writing." Golddusk nodded. "Yeah, I know," he sighed, "Got a pen and paper?" Halberd simply nodded, staying in his rigid stance, except to pull out the requested items and hand them over. As Golddusk took quill to parchment, he called out, "Alright, so who all actually wants to come to Ponyvile?" Stallius and Stockpile traded glances, then practically teleported the distance between themselves and Gold. "Oh, Golddusk, you didn't tell us we could all come," Stallius all but chattered, his voice full of excitement. "There's this designer pony in Ponyville that does the absolute best work, why, she even made outfits for Sapphire Shores herself!" Golddusk nodded slowly, "Sure… Stallius, ok, you're going then…" he acknowledged, a little unsure as to whether taking the pony at all was a good idea. He thought even less, however, of the prospect of telling the unicorn no in the first place. Stockpile cantered up beside him. "So, Goldie, yer not goin to leave such a right awesome business opportunity slip away from yer old boy Stockpile, are ya?" he asked, stepping closer as he spoke, until Golddusk had to move to the other side of the table just to have room to write. "Ok, yeah, sure. You too…" he murmured. Octavia huffed yet again, and sauntered up to the table. "You two lay off. Don't bully him into writing your names down, Celestia knows what kind of damage you two would do if set on your own." She heaved a sigh, and nodded. "Fine, yes, it looks like I'm going anyway. I can't exactly leave you to watch these guys on your own. Don't worry, Artimare, I'll fill you in when you get back." The ex-soldier opened an eye and smiled slightly. "Actually, Octavia, I'm already going." "As am I," Kwan Do offered. Octavia was more focused, however, on Artimare's response. The musical filly did a double-take, then bumped Golddusk out of the way as he was finishing writing her name down. There, right below Golddusk's on the top of the list, were Artimare's and Kwan Do's. "What? But he hasn't even asked you yet!" Golddusk pulled the paper towards him to finish off the letter. "Actually," he noted as he was writing, "Artimare was there when I got the news. She agreed to go with before I even talked to you guys." Octavia's brow twitched. "And where were you when you heard about this?" she asked slowly. "His room," Artimare added. Octavia practically fell over. "What?" the grey filly shouted. Rather close to Golddusk's ear. "Ow. Anyways, it's not that big a deal. She just came to wake me up, we talked a bit, and she fell asleep in my bed while I was showering," he said offhandedly, handing the finished letter to Poleaxe, who up until that point had been rummaging the snack cupboards. "And Kwan Do ran into me mid-patrol, so I got a chance to ask him earlier. Why're you so uppity about this? That is the right word, right? Upptiy?" he asked, casting an inquisitive glance at the older filly. She just shrugged. "Right, thanks, Gold. We'll take this to Princess Luna right away-" he paused, having read through the letter while he was talking. "Um, Golddusk?" "Yeah?" the black Pegasus asked. "You've got 6 names on here. Your letter said you could only take 3 people," Poleaxe explained. "Oh…" he muttered, turning around to stare at the group. Octavia just turned her nose up and trotted off. Golddusk took that to mean she was generally unhappy with him. "Fine, fine. Stockpile and Stallius, you two stay here." The two colts practically jumped at him. "What?" they protested in unison. "Artimare and Kwan Do are the most disciplined ponies I know, and we're much more likely to get stuff done with them around than you two. And there's no way in Canterlot I'm leaving her by herself to deal with either of you," he said offhandedly, crossing out their names off the list. "The two looked beside themselves. "Oi, broski, you can't just toss us of like that!" Stockpile complained. "What about us? We're going to half to stay by ourselves in this big ol' castle with nothing left to do but…" he shuddered slightly before continuing, "…work." Stallius looked almost ready to cry, at least as much as a colt could. "And where else am I going to get the best fashion in Equestria? I can't exactly mail-order a custom outfit!" Octavia, now seemingly rather pleased with herself for Golddusk's consideration, however intended, just waved a hoof at them. "Oh, you two stop worrying. We'll bring you back souvenirs! Now, buys," she added, all but snatching the revised letter from Golddusk and pushing it on Halberd, who simply put it back in his courier bag, "Don't be late! Off you go!" The black Pegasus groaned. "Oh, I hope this goes better than I think it's going to…." Golddusk's first impression of Ponyville was that it was too… open. Way too much room to roam. No corridors, vaulted ceilings (unless you went inside, and considering they'd arrived in the middle of the night, most places were locked up), and a great deal many more plants and dirt than the castle could ever hope to boast outside of it's garden. Which he made a point to never visit anyway. "Why did we come to this place anyway?" he groaned quietly. It had been a long journey, and the sun was about to rise. The other three ponies shot him varying degrees of frustrated looks. Mostly, though, from Octavia. "Please oh please tell me you're freaking joking," she all but growled. Golddusk just sighed heavily. "Sorry, I don't do travel well. Or wide open spaces. Or trees. Let's just find an inn or whatever and get a good day's sleep. The group at large seemed to deem this a very good idea, and set forth to track down some lodgings. At least, until Artimare spoke up. "Hey, Gold? Aren't we supposed to be staying with somepony while we're here?" Golddusk didn't turn around, he simply nodded. "Yeah, we are. Problem is, I have no idea what she looks like or where she lives, let alone whether or not she'd be awake at this hour. It's not even dawn yet." Kwan Do spoke up, "So what is this female's name, exactly?" The black Pegasus's shoulder's slumped. "Her name's Twilight Sparkle. She's a student of Princess Celestia herself, but if I remember correctly, only one or two of us will be lodging with her. I know arrangements have been made for the other two or three of us that aren't bunking with her," he added hastily, seeing a rather agitated look on Octavia's face, "But I don't have those details yet. Sweet merciful stardust I wish I was in bed right now," he groaned. They stopped in front of a rather large building with a sign depicting a bed and a glass of juice. "This looks to be as Inn-ish as we're going to get," he conceded, and glanced at the door. The sign said open, so he knocked. An elder colt poked his head out of the top of the split door. "Well, good morning', there. What can I do you for so early?" "We're looking for a hotel or an inn, do you have a room available?" Octavia asked, cutting in front of Golddusk, who just took a few steps back. "Sorry, little lady. We don't rent rooms here," the colt explained. Octavia's brow twitched. "But your sign-" she started. "Sorry, darlin', this here's mattresses and juice cups. I can sell y'all a bed, but you can't set 'em up here?" Octavia's brow twitched harder, along with the respective lower eyelid. "Mattresses and juice cups? So what exactly do you sell?" she asked, keeping her voice to an even keel. "Why, just what it says- mattresses and juice cups.," answered the store keep, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to only sell two items. At this point the grey-coated mare started to twitch in small, but random directions, looking close to losing it. "Well, sir, do you happen to know where we can find an inn or hotel?" "We ain't got no inns or motels in Ponyville," he explained. Octavia stopped altogether. Not a twitch, not a flutter. Just stone still. "What do you mean, you have no inns or motels? How can you not have an inn?" she asked rather calm and somewhat quieter than normal. "Ain't nopony opened one up yet, I suppose. Guess stuff like that just happens now and again," the store owner mused, raising a hoof to his chin in contemplation. He appeared to never have thought about the subject before. "But, but where are we going to sleep?" she asked, rather sadly. She looked close to defeated. "Well, it's almost morning, so I suspect you got the whole day to figure that out," said the colt happily, like this was good news and she should take solace in his wisdom. Octavia heaved a mighty sigh, and simply walked away. The rest of the group, acknowledging that they wouldn't be getting any answers here, set off with her. About a block away, they heard behind them, "You know, if you're really in a pinch by the evening, you could always try the Bed and Breakfast a few blocks that away!" The owner of Mattresses and Juice Cups had never before backed away from anything so quickly, nor had anypony seen Octavia assault a newly closed door with such ferocity before. IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI "Are you sure you're going to stick to music," Artimare asked, as Octavia just drooped her head around her knees and walked in silence. "Because we sure as Celestia could have used somepony like you in the guard when I was around. I've never seen somepony turn around so fast to try to kick a door down from fifty yards." Kwan Do nodded in agreement. "Indeed. If you were willing to take some time out of your day, I would be willing to teach you some basics of control and form. You could be rather formidable. The musical mare simply trotted along in silence. At least, until she was stopped by running face-first into Golddusk's side, who had for some reason stopped in his tracks. "Gold, what the hay are you doing stopping in front of ponies like that?" she grumbled. "Oh, sorry, Octavia, but I think I found Twilight's house," he explained simply. His voice had a slightly dreamy quality to it, like he wasn't all there. "What makes you so sure you found it?" Octavia asked, following his gaze. Once she found what he was looking at, however, her eyes rolled heavily of their own accord and she let out an audible groan. Only about a block or so away stood a multi-story treehouse, fitted with several windows and balconies. A rather modest front door was adorned with a hanging sign of a stack of books. But none of this, Octavia knew, was what had drawn the gold-striped colt's attentions. On a higher balcony at the top-and-right-most corner of the structure, set against a still-black sky, stood a unicorn mare staring out at the sky, lighting the tip of her horn with a small, but singularly bright, lighting spell. In fact, aside from the basic outlines and some reflections that gave away the aforementioned details of the house, thanks to her horn, the mare was the only truly visible thing in an otherwise pitch landscape. And Golddusk's special talent, as everypony who'd taken to talking to him (I.E. the three ponies that had accompanied him to Ponyville) knew very, very well, was not only to find the light in the darkest of places, but it also included a rather uncustomary habit of fixating on said light in said darkness. And they knew, too, from experience, that if that light happened, just so happened, to be cast by a mare, Golddusk was right and well taken with them from the get-go. A trait they could all agree was responsible for him having accepted this liaison mission at all. Artimare heaved a sigh. "Is that?" she asked, not bothering to finish the question. "Yes," Octavia replied, rather exasperatedly. "And it's being…" "Yes." "And she's…" "Uh-huh." "So now he's gonna…" "Be a blithering idiot whenever she talks?" Octavia finished. "Oh, yeah." Artimare rolled her eyes, and knocked a fore hoof across the back of the drooling Pegasus' head. "Focus, kid. We still need a place to sleep. And don't think you can stare at her all night, cause she's gonna be asleep the whole time, and we got a job to do. Now stop filly gazing and go knock on the damn door. Rubbing the back of his head both in embarrassment and discomfort, Golddusk just nodded sheepishly and set forth. Knocking a hoof lightly on the door. The purple-coated mare glanced down from the balcony to see who had knocked, and let out a slight 'Oh' of surprise at seeing the group standing ion front of her house. "Just a minute, I'll be right down!" she called. A few moments later, she cracked the door open. "Well, hello! You must be the group from Canterlot, right? Celestia said you'd be arriving sometime this evening, I've had Owlicious keeping watch until I got up," she explained, somewhat unnecessarily, and gestured to a small owl on a perch as she finished her statement. Golddusk simply stood in place, and Octavia took the opportunity to introduce the group herself. "It's nice to meet you, my name's Octavia," she explained, gesturing to herself. "These ponies are my friends, Kwan Do," the other Pegasus colt nodded slightly, staring a little around the house. "Artimare," the wisened mare gave Twilight a brief shake of the hoof, and took a quick sip out of a flask the rest of the group hadn't even noticed until now. "And this is Golddusk, the official liaison of Princess Luna," Octavia finished, ending her sentence with a frustrated tone as the Pegasus continued to look starstruck. Upon hearing his Princess's name, however, he snapped to attention, much akin to the guards that had taken their letter a few days ago. "Yes, ma'am," Golddusk greeted, standing somewhat curtly. Octavia raised an eyebrow at him, and Artimare smacked him again. "Ow, hey… what?" he protested. The grey-coated filly just shook her head. "Please excuse him, he's unfortunately slightly socially defunct," she explained, slight desperation in her voice. "Twilight raised an eyebrow at both the spectacle and Octavia's explanation of the strange colt's behavior. "Then why in Equestria was he chosen as a liaison? That's a position that requires impeccable social aptitude," she mused, looking rather confused about the whole thing. Artimare spoke up just as Octavia had opened her mouth. "To be honest, we're still trying to figure that out. But anyway, we had a question or two for you before we turned in for the day." Again, Sparkle had to raise an eyebrow. "For the day? But aren't you-Oh!" she exclaimed, her memory serving fast. "That's right, you are all the night crew, aren't you! Yes, of course, what can I do for you?" Artimare smiled slightly as she continued, "Well, from what we understand, one or two of us are supposed to be bunking with you, and the rest of us are taking to the B&B in town. We were wondering if you had any preference or objection to these arrangements." Twilight looked slightly beside herself happy. "Oh, not at all! I've always wanted to have a house guest, I'm sure I have a book on it somewhere!" The older mare took her turn adopting a rather confused expression. "A book…" she said slowly. "Oh, yes, I've read a few on the matter, including etiquette, proper housing and furnishing arrangements, cooking and sleeping schedule planners-" she kept on, starting to ramble slightly about the extensive amount of subject matter she's taken to reading on the subject of having a guest stay at her house, as she trotted into her living room, motioning for the others to come in. Most of the small group looked slightly unnerved by the studious filly's enthusiasm for taking the written word for granted, except for Golddusk, who had adopted 'The Stupid Look', as most ponies called it. You've probably seen one like it before, that expression where somepony's eyes glaze over and they forget that their mouth has a function called 'closed.' As Twilight moved a few bookshelves about to reveal a door to a back room, presumably a bedroom, she turned to ask the group, "So, which of you will be 'bunking' with me, as the saying goes? I only have room for one other pony, so-" "Him." Artimare, Octavia, and Kwan Do all gestured rather quickly at a now very confused-looking Golddusk. Twilight clapped her hooves, set about asking Gold a series of questions that, under normal circumstances, he would have had trouble keeping up with. Given his propensity for becoming easily embarrassed around girl he'd become slightly taken with, he bore no hope of answering any of them. The other three ponies took this as an opportunity to leave, and waved their goodbyes as they trotted out the door. IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI It was only a few hours later, and after spending several minutes asking Golddusk all kinds of questions that he had shrugged off by saying, somewhat embarrassed, that he was too tired to answer properly, she had shown him to his guest room, and he'd gone to sleep for the day. Thus began Twilight's day, as she set out to continue oversight of the Winter Moon Festival. She had just gotten to the Main Hall to check on Rarity's progress with the decorations when she ran into none other than Ponyville's top party planner, Pinkie Pie. "Ooh, good morning, Twilight! Did you sleep well? Huh?" the pink pony asked quickly, bouncing about with a broad smile. "Yes, actually. The ponies from Canterlot I was telling you girls about earlier showed up just a little while ago, right after I'd woken up. Most of them are staying at the B&B, but one of them is actually a guest at my house now!" she explained, rather excited by the prospect. "Ooh, this is going to be such fun! I've never been hostess to anyone before, and thanks to all of you, I've really gotten to love making new friends! I just wish he wasn't asleep right now…" she trailed off. Pinkie, however, gasped in what normal ponies would assume to be abstract horror, and exclaimed. "Asleep? He's asleep? What kind of guest sleeps through the day? And such a beautiful day at that! He's supposed to be helping out with the festival, isn't he? How can he just snooze away while everypony is working so hard for this awesome party?" she ranted, obviously upset. Twilight set a hoof on her friend's shoulder to calm her down. "Pinkie, Pinkie, it's ok! He's part of the new night crew! They're all asleep, because they work after the sun goes down!" she explained, slightly panicked that the pink party pony might take matters into her own hooves. Pinkie Pie thought about this for, oh, a nanosecond, and said, "Oh, okie dokie Loki!" and trotted off. Her happy chant of "La la la…" followed her back into town. "Good grief, I hope this whole night shift business doesn't cause too much trouble for everypony," Twilight muttered, and stepped into the Main Hall.