//------------------------------// // Prize (10) // Story: Summoned // by BlackWing //------------------------------// Prize Princess Celestia awoke later that afternoon, finding that in her sleep, she had folded up her wing, effectively pinning Alex against her side. Luckily, he was still asleep. Carefully unfurling herself, she dismissed her guards, then lifted him with her magic, bringing him to his own room to save them both the awkwardness of him waking up in the princess's bed. Such a thing would NOT be helpful to their relationship, especially if anyone in the castle found out. It would scream scandal, because even if nothing actually happened, ponies would talk, it's what they do. Alex slept for the rest of the day, waking up when it was night. Luna had taken the opportunity to copy Celestia's floor circle to an empty room, to which only she and Celestia had the key. It would stop 'bedroom' gossip. After making sure he was actually awake, he got dressed, laid back down in his bed, and awaited being summoned. "Alright, now when I go back, I'll be laying in my bed. I have a massive headache from yesterday when I passed out and hit my head on the stone floor." "Ah, yes. Well Alex, the reason I have you here, is not for my own purpose, rather, at the request of my head guard." Luna explained. "Hello Alex, it is nice to see you doing well." Serenity said. She wasn't wearing her armor. "Ah yes, I suppose you're here for your prize, for winning our little game yesterday?" Alex replied. "Why yes. What I have decided I want my reward to be, is to take you on a date." "Ehm, what?" He said, staring blankly, tilting his head slightly. "Oh, just a night out on the town between friends, not like I'm your marefriend or anything. Just to get to know you better, have a bit of fun." She said with a smile. "Oh, well that's alright, except I can't leave the premise. Right now I'm bound to Luna, and I've got a 1 mile radius from the center of the castle. That, and I can't exactly have all of Canterlot knowing I'm here. So, maybe we could do this on castle grounds?" He offered. She accepted. "Since I'm taking you on the date, I expect you'll let me lead." The night guard captain said. "Of course. Lead the way." "Here we have the the observatory. While floor 4 is off limits to most, because it houses dangerous artifacts and the princesses quarters, floor five is the royal observatory. Since the princesses don't need telescopes because they can just feel the stars with their magic, it's used mostly by the eggheads, but is open to anyone to use, as long as they don't break anything that is." "Ah, mind if I take a look? I've got a telescope at home. Star formations here are even the same as back home. There's Orion, oh, here, take a look at that." He adjusted the telescope to the Orion nebula, located just below the belt, then began to snicker. "What's so funny?" Serenity asked. "Well, there's a joke from my world, known only to the geekiest of the geeks. You've got Orion's belt, and just below that, you've got the nebula. Given the orientation of the star cluster, what does the nebula add to the constellation?" Alex asked. Suddenly, the guard captain blushed and let out a laugh. "That's right, you're looking right at Orion's dong." "Ahh, you've got a much better sense of humor than that old grizzly bear leading the day guards. What do you say we raid the kitchen?" "Empty, good. Ladle is all bark and no bite, but Flay will chase us and throw knives at us if she catches us in here." The night commander said. "Oh, that won't be good, I don't even have the proper song." Alex replied. "Huh?" "Oh, never mind." He replied as he began humming the Benny Hill theme. "Want me to make us something? It won't take long. I've only made it once before, but I remember how. It's really good, and vegetarian no less." "Alright, I'll watch the door." Taking out some flower, an egg, and mixing into dough, Alex skillfully kneaded it to perfect firmness. Then, taking a vegetable broth, soy sauce, chili, ginger, and sesame oil, while adding some oregano, parmesan, and a pinch of cayenne, for flavour, he set it to simmer. Then he took the dough, stretched it between his hands, then spun it around. He repeated this over and over until the dough formed a mass of noodles, which he then put in a pot of boiling water. "What'cha making?" Serenity asked. "It's called ramen. I saw it once on a filler episode of a show about ninja's, and I just had to make some myself. I found some recipes, and there you have it!" Taking two bowls, putting the noodles in first, then the soup, and having some parsley float on top for decoration, he packed the rest of it in the refrigerator, placing a note from the pad, next to the revolving order wheel, (you know, they have em in really old diners, they stick the order on, and the chef spins it so he knows what to make next?) wrote 'From the food fairy' then stuck it on the two pots and placed them in the fridge. Leaving the kitchen, narrowly avoiding a sleepwalking Flay who had been drawn by the scent, the pair headed outside into the cool September night air. "Mmph, mmph, mmm, mmm, mmMMMmmmph." Serenity tried talking with her mouth full of noodles. "Pretty good huh?" Alex replied with a laugh at the antics of the commander of the guard. "Gah! It's really good! Where'd you learn to cook like that?" She said, taking a deep breath after she swallowed her mouthful. "It's my passion, besides woodworking." He replied. "So, what's your cutie mark for, cooking or carpentry?" "I don't have one. No human does. We have tattoos, where we ink something into our skin, but it's a choice. It's doesn't just pop up when we figure out what we're meant to do." "Then how do human's know what their special talent is?" She asked curiously. "We don't. We just kind of, I don't know, figure it out along the way. We might like something, then suddenly change out minds, hate it, and try for something else. Very few of us are blessed with knowing ourselves, something ALL ponies have. So, what's yours?" "Well, as you can see by the bat against a full moon, I was meant to be a stalker of the night. I always loved the night, and I was the best at tag and hide and go seek. I could blend in with shadows like nopony's business. One day, I took a game of hide and seek too far, and found myself in the forest outside Canterlot. I got attacked by wolves. I ran, I hid, but I just couldn't lose them. I saw a shooting star, and wished upon it to be safe. Then a swarm of bats appeared, taking the form of a midnight mare, driving the wolves away. Even though she was nightmare moon at the time, Princess Luna was still in there somewhere. She heard my plea, and used some of her power to save me. I knew at that moment that she would one day return, and when she did, I would serve her with my life, something she gave to me." "That's, amazing. Being looked out for like that, knowing that you're safe. It must be nice." Alex said softly. "Don't humans have somepony looking out for them?" Serenity asked concerned. "Well, kind of. There are many different religions on earth, and while nobody know's who's right, we still believe that somewhere out there, someone is looking out for us. We have faith. Problem is, a lot of bad things happened, and a lot of us lost our faith, having nobody to believe in but themselves. We can't just beg for something to happen, we have to make it happen ourselves. If I was getting chased by wolves back home, if I prayed to be safe, I'd probably get eaten. I'd probably have to ask for strength, so I could kill the wolves myself. That's the thing. Whatever god looks out for my people, he only helps those who are willing to help themselves. He works THROUGH us. Just wanting something to happen won't make it happen, we have to do it on our own." "That's, kind of sad, but empowering at the same time." She replied thoughtfully. "So, why'd you call me out on this 'just a friend' date. We've only known each other for what, a week now? And we've only seen each other on two separate occasions." "Well, for one, you're interesting. There's a whole different world out there will all sorts of different things. For two, you call yourself average, but you 'assassinated' over 12 of my guards. If you had been trying to get into the princess's room, you would have succeeded. You crossing to your own gave me the time I needed to catch you." Serenity explained. "How DID you find me anyways?" Alex asked. "Smell. You were sweating, and I picked up on it. I followed it to a window, where it just stopped. I went outside, and there you were." She replied. "Oh geez, you can smell that? I didn't smell anything. How did the other's not find me? I must have REEKED." "Relax, not all ponies have a sense of smell like that, just me, because I specifically trained to smell supposedly odourless poisons in food and stuff." "Well, that's a relief. I didn't want to go stinking up the place. The prince would have a hell of a fit. Wait, scratch that, he'd just avoid me, and that would be in my favour." The bat winged mare just fell over in a laughing fit. "Well, I should go to bed. It's back to work tomorrow for me." Alex said. "Want me to fly you up there?" Serenity offered. "Are you okay with that? Are you sure I won't be too heavy?" He asked. "I think I can handle it, although, I'm not sure how I should carry you." She replied. "Well, um, in my world, humans normally ride on the backs of ponies. Then again, in my world, ponies can't talk or use magic, so I have no idea what's considered disrespectful here. That, and I'm kind of big. Ponies in my world are all at least the size of the princesses, or bigger. Maybe just wrap your hooves around my stomach and chest like I was giving you a piggy back ride?" "That's a much better idea. It's actually considered insulting to be mounted like that, and very few would allow it. Reverse piggy back is much better." Wrapping herself around him, she flapped her wings hard. No kidding he was heavy. Finally lifting him into the air, she slowly flew him up to his room, sweating and panting once she got him up there. "Maybe you ought to be in a couple of Griswold's training sessions. I hear he's a delightful chap when he's had a good cup of tea." Alex said in a British accent, bringing a giggle from the tired Serenity. "I had a good time tonight. It was nice to get to know you. Now I just hope I Flay doesn't figure out we raided the kitchen and I wake up with a knife in my arm." Well well, shipping? Maybe, maybe not. Not going to say. Also, Serenity likes fireflies.