The ringing in the poor colt’s ears didn’t stop, and his daze left him to trot forward, barely aware of where he was going or anything around him. His fuzzy vision left him with two eyeballs full of pure white, shiny and reflective almost, his shadow underneath him reflecting the color of his orange coat in the wavy pattern of the polished stone under his hooves. He felt his weight more today than usual, which wasn’t being helped any be the luggage of a red saddle back slung over his back.
The noises around him seemed muffled as he lazily trudged forward, blinded by his own thoughts, lost in his own mind. The white floor seemed to hypnotize him, nose directly to the floor as he waddled along, following the sound of two sets of clicking hooves, one to his left, sounding small and very quick in its pattern, and the other just to his front, the steps of each hoof placed much further apart, each step having a much heavier, thumpy tone. Just under the percussive clicking of the hooves, he could hear a booming voice begin to speak up, one that he was always used to turning his attention to rather attentively.
“Wildfire.” said the voice, jumping out at him just over the ringing in his ears, shaking the colt out of his zombified trance.
“Huh! What?” said the colt, startled and confused.
With wide eyes, the orange colt primed up, straightening his posture, and fixing his tired gaze upon the one getting his attention.
“I was saying; how does the castle look to you?” asked a tall, muscular red coated stallion, looking down at him with his fierce blue eyes, gripping the little colt with a respectable and comfortable sort of intimidation.
The red stallion was also packing a large saddle bag, which sat upon his back just under his wings, which were just as neatly groomed as his black short cut mane and docked tail.
“Um… it’s nice.” said the colt, eyes wandering the room around him.
The room he was in was nothing more than a hall, but even the little innocent colt couldn’t deny the beauty of the architecture before him.
The main entrance of Canterlot castle; a long, tall hallway filled with beauty. The swirly patterns of the cool grey walls matched the ones in the white floors, and the rainbows of flower arrangements and the stained glass windows they sat in, arranged in patterns depicting a white alicorn raising the sun and a dark blue alicorn raising the moon, both radiated bright beaming colors under the sun showing high above the castle outside. The sweet scent of the flowers wafted over on the warm breeze of the summers day, which smelled even sweeter as it mixed with the scent of the water fall pouring down the mountain just behind the castle, giving the glorious town of Canterlot outside a very light and chipper feeling.
“Good.” said the red stallion, shifting the weight of his saddle bag around some, continuing down the long corridor of the castle. “’Cause this will be our new home for a while.”
“I still don’t get why we have to move all the way from home.” said a little green filly to the little colt’s right, who was looking up at the red stallion in frustration.
The little pegasus pony was green in color, with a mane and tail that both were a dark orange, almost brown in color, striped through with streaks of white, shimmering and silky looking with a few curls, her mane tied up in a bushy ponytail with her bangs hanging down in her bright golden eyes a little. She had a four leaf clover upon her hind quarters, its darker color giving her green coat a brighter tint, which was the same color of the saddle bag she was carrying.
“Because I’m needed for what’s been going on.” said the stallion, pausing long enough to turn around and face the little filly. “Your daddy’s a very important part of what is happening right now.”
“Still, why do we have to move out here?” said the filly, still looking firmly at the stallion. “I mean, it’s not like you can’t just fly back and forth, right?”
The stallion’s mouth hung open slightly in question, his pure blue eyes two pools of confusion as he looked down on his pouting daughter. The filly had just caught on to what he was talking about, but still didn’t seem to understand the importance of moving away from home.
With a sigh, the red stallion approached his daughter, lifting up his wing as he sat down next to her, looking kind upon her as he put his wing around her and pulled her closer.
“Look, I know we don’t spend a lot of time together anymore, but Princess Celestia and the royal guard are going to need me 24/7 sweetheart.”
The stallion lifted up his other wing and pulled the little orange colt closer in, putting his hoof upon his head and running it gently down his white mane, patting him between the ears.
“Like I said before, this job is really demanding right now, and that means that I might not have a lot of time with you guys.” said the stallion as he panned back and forth between the foals, absorbing their saddened stares as they lay their heads on his sides.
“If I were to fly back and forth all the time, that’d mean we’d have even less time together. I hope you understand that this is for the best.”
With melancholy expressions, the young foals looked up at the stallion, giving him a couple of nods in return. The stallion returned them another happy smile before standing back up and continuing on again down the hall.
“Alright. So let’s get going.” said the stallion. “The guards are probably waiting on us. They’re supposed to show us to our room.”
The two little foals followed, lagging further behind than before, walking both to each other’s sides as they marched.
“I still don’t like leaving home.” said the little filly, still acting huffy.
“I’m not sure I do either.” said the little colt.
A short silence fell between them as they trotted on. The filly looked over at the colt, noticing his tired stare to the floor, his uneven step sort of taking hold of his path forward, slightly swaying under the weight of his saddle bag.
“Are you ok?” asked the filly, letting go of her frustration for a moment to show concern.
The colt stopped for a second, lifting his hoof to his face to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes.
“Yeah… I just couldn’t sleep last night.” said the colt.
“Moving here was making you nervous too?” asked the filly, somewhat hesitant in her speech.
“Yeah…” answered the colt.
“Me too…” returned the filly.
A hush fell over them again as they picked their pace back up to catch up to the red stallion leading them along, still keeping some distance between him and themselves. The little filly smirked happily a bit, whipping her bangs out of her face as she turned to speak.
“Maybe it won’t be too bad.” the filly said optimistically.
The orange colt lifted his tired stare to the filly, perking up his ears and eyes in interest for what she had to say.
“Yeah! Maybe we’ll make lots of new Canterlot friends!” said the filly, growing in enthusiasm.
“Both of us! We’ll both make lots of new Canterlot friends!” she repeated, shouting it into the hall excitedly.
“And--and maybe, we’ll even get to meet the royal guard, and Princess Celestia too!” said the filly with a small skip in her step.
The colt smiled at the peppy filly, lifting both his head and his spirits as he replaced his tired scowl with a playfully sardonic smile.
“Yeah, if you’re lucky!” said the orange colt.
“Yep! That’s my name!” said the filly, smiling brightly at him.
The filly hopped over to the colt’s side and rambunctiously bumped her hip into his. The colt returned her with another bump, nearly shoving her off her step. She met him back with another shove, harder than her first, still hardly able to budge the colt. They both giggled at each other, leaning on one another as they continued to trot forward, their weight on each other displacing their step and causing their hooves to slightly slide out from underneath them as they continued to walk forward.
The orange colt, in the moment, threw his wing over the filly’s back to support each other, catching the image of their flanks mashed together as he did; the image of the filly’s four leaf clover and the marking of a while halo engulfed in a black flame both rubbing together in a carefree embrace under the warm summer sun.