Chapter 8: Encounters and Breakfast Chat
I woke up to the chirping of birds outside the balcony door, unprepared for the sudden light, I opened my eyes. The light blinded me and out of reflex I used what I forgot was my right hoof to cover my eyes, which I also ended up forgetting were big as said hoof, to block the light. The result, I poked my left eye out.
“Sonofafuckin’bitch!” I painfully exclaimed. Oddly enough, no one seemed to notice this. I just chalked it up to some magic shit until I decided to address the question properly.
I recovered five minutes later and was able to look around without issue. With that, I clumsily got out of the bed and onto my hooves.
“Well time to find where I can get breakfast,” I said to no one in particular. I walked out the door and down the hallway. Walking down the halls I took note of the countless hallways and how similar they looked to each other, they all were a polished white marble, I could see no sign of wear or any other damage. “Magic I guess.” I muttered, with that I continued to look around. I was greeted with tapestries of two Alicorns one white, the other dark blue circling around what seemed to be half a sun and half a moon connected together. Elsewhere in the labyrinth of halls there were multiple silver candle holders, with unlit candles sitting in each slot. This was only a portion of the items that were placed in the castles long halls .
I decided to see if I could find someone to ask for directions to the dining room knowing it would take hours to be able to walk these halls unaided. I continued to walk down the labyrinth hoping to get lucky and run into someone that knew their way around. It seemed that fortune smiled on me as I spotted a maid dusting off a display case. from where I was the maid was a mare, she was a sky blue earth pony with a light pink mane and tail, as I approached I saw that her cutie mark was a feather duster.
She looked over and to my annoyance and confusion bowed. With a sigh I waved my hoof in a rise motion and asked, “Ma’am where’s the dining hall? I’m having a bit of trouble finding it.”
The Maid got up from the bow responded with a string of directions, that I had to ask her to repeat parts three times, before finally being able to retaining them all. Once that was done, I decided to ask another question on my mind. “Why did you bow to me?”
The maid looked at me confused, cocking her head to the side. “Why your royalty of course.” She said as if it was the most obvious answer on the planet.
With that I go to a nearby mirror and examine myself, and there they are both my wings and horn visible to everyone. With a silent curse for my forgetfulness I reapplied the illusions to myself pleased with my work i turned around to the maid and said, “Please don’t tell anyone I was here or anything about the disguise.”
The maid nodded and replied, “Okay I’ll inform the guard and castle staff of your request.”
I heard this and just decided not to question how or why every staff member and guard stationed in the castle knew about the disguise after spending a single night or other inconsistencies. So with a thanks I made my way to the dining hall.
Ten minutes of walking through the halls and following the directions, I Mumbled them to myself to remember, and I still was not there yet. ‘How the hell does this castle even contain this much space? I swear to God that this place is physically too damn small to have this much room. Ponies and their magic.’
He reminded me of someone all the way back during my first field deployment he was the NCO for the mission. We were tasked to scout a Al Qaeda camp and report their movements every six hours for three days . No one even knew how he got so high up just guessing it was his wealthy status and prestige, due to his bragging about a mansion, car and “Bitches” waiting for him back in the US. Hell we even made bets on how he was gonna die.
Sure enough the second day of the operation, he was shot while he was supposed to keep watch but instead was beating off to some playboy magazine he sneaked in, well a passing patrol heard him and put a bullet in his head, fortunately for the rest of us we didn’t sleep too well with him “beating his meat”, so we dispatched to patrol, and reported to HQ that we were discovered, our NCO was killed, and to get us extraction ASAP.
No one won the bet, but we did laugh the shock away, I even commented saying, “It seems that we were saved by the NCO Jacking off, although it did not help him much.” and, “His ego went too far in his head.” The rest of the Fireteam and I laughed at the irony, and continued trading quips about it. Later that day we were given a new NCO. I darkly chuckled at the memory, suppressing the pain it brought.
Back in reality I this pony was shouting at me for my “Disrespect towards royalty” and other nonsense, I just walked past him and to the dining hall. A few minutes later I arrived at the dining room, the guards recognizing me, stepped aside with an annoying bow.
I entered the room and it was big, as it seemed that it could accommodate up to fifty guests. Looking around I noticed cabinets with China on display, the table was made out of polished oak same as the seats. Looking at the end of the room I could see Twilight, Celestia, and Luna laughing and talking like family. I felt my own sadness and anger well up but suppressed it.
They noticed me only a moment later, Celestia looked at me and smiled, waving a hoof in a “Come here gesture” I responded accordingly putting on my own emotional mask as I smiled and sat in a seat across from Twilight. I saw that there were pancakes in the center of where we sat along with some syrup, with this in mind I grab two and put them on a plate nearby.
Celestia finished a bite, and started the conversation, “So how is your day so far Marcus?”
I responded, “Nothing too eventful, I just ran into an asshole while coming here, he had an almost white coat and a blonde mane and tail.”
Twilight’s eyes gleamed with recognition and she responds, “I know that pony, his name is Blue Blood, he’s quite rude to those he doesn't see as worthy”
I chuckled, “I got that much when he spoke to me, but thanks for giving me his name I never caught it during his fit.”
Twilight, Luna, and Celestia laughed, a moment later Luna replied, “ Yes Blue Blood is quite Arrogant to say the least, to think he is even remotely related to my sister and I is quite shameful.” Celestia nodded in agreement.
“Enough of that, I have a question. Is there a way for me to regain my human body? Cool as both magic and flight are, I like my human body better.” I bluntly said, getting off the subject of Blue Blood.
Celestia lost her royal facade for a small moment seemingly taken off guard, but she still answered, “I believe Luna and I might have a way to revert you back, but we need to find it first.” Luna nodded in confirmation with all the timing of a yes man.
It was awkward for a moment before Twilight asked me a question with curiosity in her eyes I gladly answered and soon we had a big question and answer session between the four of us.
It almost felt like I was at home for those brief times on leave before redeployment. The memory brought a pain to my chest. I shrugged it off momentarily, not wanting to deal with it quite yet.