I had just been beamed down into the royal castle of the Equestrians. Finding myself in a small room, currently unoccupied. As luck had it, it was a room intended for a guard to sleep, when not on duty.
Standing on all fours, like any guard Pony in the castle, I'm wearing the shiny silver armour, going with my rank. A mid level rank had been chosen, since we felt it was the easiest to slip in, and still have a chance to actually see the princess within reasonable time. What's the point of hiding away, without ever seeing her.
I had to allow my long training and practice guide me, since I knew nothing of how they were to react, or what arrangements they had, but at least, I do have a few updates on the location, from time to time. Just hoping they wouldn't come in inconveniently. Just the same, I had the sound level set on as low as I dared, in hope to hear them, without being heard in return.
After a while, I managed to find, not just the armoury, but the mess hall. Figuring they were serving the guards throughout the day, but was dumbfounded by my luck, it is apparently lunch just as I entered.
Entering the large room, moving towards the line of highly expectant Pony guards. It is lunchtime, so everyone is hungry. Oh gee, what a shock.
After a few minutes, I found myself at the end of the line, another Pony in his armour standing idly before me, slowly moving forwards, step by step.
What could they have served me for lunch, on a day such as this. Not as if there was anything special, so there would just be a regular lunch, whatever it may be.
“Have you heard of that large ship, just entering orbit, an hour ago?” the Pony before me asked his friend before him.
I tried to fain oblivious, not looking too curious, as to what was discussed, just a few feet before me.
“I never heard of a ship, as large as this one. The configuration so bizarre, our engineers can make neither heads, nor tails out of it. What kind of Ponies would fly a ship such as that?” the other Pony guard pointed out.
“I heard that the Harmony was hailed by a shuttle of the new ship!” Gleaming Shield pointed out.
“The shuttle was apparently piloted by a lone black Pony, a stallion and apparently an engineer. I was told he had been interested in looking over our ship!” Blue Daggers responded.
I tried to make out any distinct features on the Ponies around me, but could see only the one detail, a pictogram on the flank turned towards me. All wearing a grey armour, but they themselves are just white Ponies with a Mohawk for mane.
“What was the Engineer calling himself?” I interjected.
“Gleaming Engines!” the guard named Blue Daggers responded.
“He was wearing a strange device over his eyes!” Gleaming added.
“I hope he is good. With a name like that, it would be a running joke if he wasn't, right?” I pondered.
The line finally had moved up to the food, and I noticed a salad had been the choice of the day, even if I didn't know the name, but it does look delicious, nonetheless. There is also a dessert, Cup-Cakes, as it turned out. I could at least guess part of what they ate, just by looking at the lunch served.
“Yummy!” I pronounced.