Apologies for the delay but in consolation I'm going to give you the longest chapter so far. I hope this sacrifice temporarily sates the unstoppable hunger of the Story Sharks.
Have fun everyone, also thank JayGraphite as his comment gave me the idea for the final scene of this chapter.
Please comment if you notice any mistakes that need editing, it really helps as I never seem to catch all the errors in my terrible writing.
Thank you,
Barrel-of-fun
“…and that’s how Wonderland was saved!” the Hatter finished happily
The six ponies and two alicorns that sat around the table stared at him, absorbing not only the amount of information that had just been given to them but the manner in which it had been delivered. The Hatter’s story had jumped all over the place, often going off on tangents as he explained various aspects of the Red Queens rule or the personality of Alice. It was obvious to all the mares sitting there that he was very dedicated to her. He appeared to view her as a sister.
“That’s quite a tale you have there Hatter, I’m very sorry that you had to go through such an ordeal” Celestia finally managed to say
He waved one hand through the air, as though brushing away his troubles. “Ah it’s all in the past now, and I don’t have a tail, that’s just my coat”
A whimper came from the other side of the table, drawing Hatter’s attention to the trembling pony seated next to Celestia. Luna was trying to hide her tears behind her mane, which was limp and lacked the starry glory it usually held. Her tears dripped down her face and began to form a pool. Seeing this, Hatter’s face grew serious. He lifted himself from his seat and walked around the table to approach her. The fact that he did not travel in his usual ridiculous manner, as well as the grim look upon his face, scared the girls. This appeared to be a completely different person than the fun loving madman they had seen so far.
Finally reaching the distraught lunar princess he knelt down before her and wiped one of the tears off of her face with a finger. He then stuck the finger in his mouth, grimacing at the apparently bitter taste of her tears.
“Luna, what is wrong? What did you do that would make your tears taste of guilt?” he asked, his voice significantly deeper than usual.
“Oh Hatter! Your going to hate me!” she managed through her sobs “I betrayed my sister. A thousand years ago, I grew jealous of her and allowed hatred to enter my heart. This hatred transformed me into a terrible monster called Nightmare Moon. I tried to take over Equestria! I attacked my own sister…I wanted to kill her!” she was breaking down now, her anger at herself evident in her shouting tone “I almost hurt innocent ponies. Celestia saved them from me though. She used the elements to seal me away in the moon for a thousand years…I only recently returned and was purified by the young mares you see before you now. They are the true wielders of the Elements of Harmony and they managed to defeat my dark side…something I could never do”
As she finished her tale all eyed around the table turned to the Hatter. His hat cast a shadow over his eyes, making them appear darker and angrier. His face was set into a completely neutral expression. The tale of Luna’s betrayal was far too close to the Red Queen’s betrayal of her sister, the White Queen. Luna had paid the price though. She had spent a thousand years trapped on the moon. She had atoned for her sins and appeared to be truly repentant. He suddenly dragged Luna into an embrace, shocking her and all the others at the table.
“Luna, you betrayed your sister and threatened the safety of your subjects. But you have suffered for you crimes and you regret your bad decisions. Promise me that you have learnt your lesson. Promise me that it will never happen again…and I will forgive you. Will you accept this offer of a continued friendship between us?”
“…I do. I promise I will never let hatred control me again. Thank you Hatter, thank you for being my friend” The Princess was crying once again, however her mane had returned to it’s former glory. Hatter wiped off some more tears and tasted them again. This time he smiled in delight and grabbed a nearby teacup. He wiped off some more tears and placed them into the tea before taking a sip.
“Mm, Earl Grey and joy, nothing tastes better” He set the cup down in front of Luna and faced the rest of the table “it appears that we have quite allowed the day to get away from us, we shall have to catch it tomorrow. In the meantime I believe I must find lodgings for the night. I shall have to get ambassadorial affairs sorted tomorrow”
“Girls, I wonder if one of you would be able to provide Hatter with a place to stay for the night. I shall have a pegasus-drawn carriage sent to pick him up tomorrow.”
“Thank you princess, so then, who will it be?” Hatter said. The mares seemed hesitant to offer their houses to these fun yet still strange creatures. They glanced at each other a few times, waiting to see who would speak first.
“Come now, no need to be shy. It’s not like we bite” Cheshire stated whilst he grinned to reveal his sharp, glittering teeth which, contrary to his words, looked quite capable of biting.
Twilight was considering offering them a place at the library. After all it was her duty as Celestia personal protégé was it not? Although it might be a bit cramped and she certainly didn’t want to scare Spike with the newcomers. Despite these qualms she was just about to open her mouth and offer them a place to stay when she was interrupted.
“I have plenty of room at the Boutique and I would love for you to stay over. I must admit that I am curious about you Mr. Hatter. You wear such a marvellous outfit, you must have the most remarkable fashion trends in your world. I would very such like to discuss them with you. And Cheshire, there is someone I would like you to meet” a smile crossed Rarity’s face as she began to scheme, completely unbeknownst to the oblivious Wonderlanders.
“That is a most generous offer, my dear, which I gratefully accept”
Satisfied that their guest had suitable accommodation the two alicorn princesses gave a farewell before teleporting back to Canterlot with a flash of light. The girls around the table began to disperse. Applejack excused herself, saying that she had a lot of work to do. Pinkie Pie gave a tearful farewell to Hatter but was excited about meeting up the next day. Fluttershy quietly explained about how she had animals to feed and flew away whilst Rainbow simply flew into Hatter’s face and stared into his eyes. However her intimidating glare was completely lost on the pale yellow orbs of the madman. After a moment of awkwardness she whispered,
“I’m watching you…”
To which the Hatter just smiled benignly and nodded. This left only Twilight and Rarity. Twilight was about to depart when she turned to Hatter and invited him to meet up anytime,
“I would very dearly like to know more about your people and your world. It’s all so fascinating! I hope that we can visit your world sometime. I understand that you will be busy with your ambassadorial duties but whenever you have some spare time, do you think it would be possible to meet and talk?”
“All time is spare time, it simply depends on how you spend it. And of course such a thing is possible, it barely takes any believing in. Ah, but to believe the impossible, that is a truly great trick, perhaps even trickier than doing the impossible”
Twilight looked confused at his response, trying to wrap her scientific mind around the seemingly nonsensical lines he often spouted.
“So, is that a yes?”
“Indeed it is, however did you guess?…did I just make a rhyme?”
The purple unicorn shook her head, thanked the Hatter for the wonderful tea and departed. The human then turned to Rarity, who was looking at the decorations and the long table that they had just been sat around.
“Perhaps I have been spending too much time around Pinkie, but how did you set this up so quickly? And how are we going to clean it all up?”
“Oh? Simplicity in itself my dear,” Hatter approached the table and grasped the large cloth that covered it’s length. With a swift jerk he pulled the cloth away from the table. Rarity squeezed her eyes closed, expecting the crash of tea ware and the splat of cakes hitting the ground to be the result of the Hatter’s actions. Instead, when she managed to open her eyes, she saw the town square back in pristine condition with the Hatter in the centre folding up a large tablecloth.
“How in the…You know what? I don’t even want to know, it’s just far too mad for me”
Hatter smiled at her whilst continuing to fold up the tablecloth which, although it had once covered an inexplicably disappeared table, was now the size of a napkin. Hatter pushed the tablecloth-turned-napkin into his sleeve before replying to Rarity’s remark.
“If that is all the madness that you can handle then we have a lot of work to do. You have to build up a tolerance to this sort of stuff”
He strode past Rarity and into town, ready to head to his temporary accommodations. After a moment he returned, realising that he had no idea where Rarity lived. He swept into a bow and indicated with an arm in the age old gesture known as ‘Ladies first’. Rarity nodded in appreciation for his manners, far superior to that horrid Blueblood, and set off for the boutique.
As they travelled through town ponies began to leave their barricaded houses and stare at Hatter in curiosity rather than terror. The reason for their newfound bravery was twofold. Firstly, cowering in terror is actually very tiring and, since the tea party had taken so long, they had been at it for most of the day and as a result didn’t have the energy to flee as they saw the monster approaching. Secondly, word had spread that the creature had dined with the princesses’ and the Element bearers and, since there wasn’t a new bipedal statue in the town square, they must have approved of his presence.
After a short walk and a long shower of curious stares and cautious glares they arrived at the boutique. Hatter marvelled at the building. Much like it’s owner, it exuded a grace and beauty that he rarely had the honour of viewing. As the entered the building he was stunned by what he saw there, he thought that nothing in this world would be able to shock him as it seemed so…tame compared to Wonderland. But this…this was something else.
The shop was filled with ponyquins that each wore the most splendid outfits that Hatter had ever seen. He had been royal hatter to both the White Queen, by his own free will, and the Red Queen, whilst in shackles, and had thought that he had seen everything that fashion had to offer displayed by the nobles of both courts. However what he saw in Carousel Boutique changed everything he thought he knew. Garments of indescribable beauty adorned the dolls and, although they were on the unfamiliar equine form, he could see that they were designed to enhance the beauty of any who wore them.
He struggled to contain his tears at the sight of these wonderful outfit. A single tear escaped and slid down his face. A tear that he assured himself was manly and therefore perfectly alright.
“Rarity…I find myself awestruck…are these your designs? They are beautiful! Stupendous, amazing! completely mind-blowing! Why, I’d say that many of these would make the White Queen herself green with envy. Of course then we would have to call her the Green Queen which doesn’t have quite the same regal tone but it does rhyme, so that’s nice”
Rarity processed this and then blushed at the rather circular compliment. “Oh, yes I’m a fashion designer by trade. One day I hope that my designs will be accepted among high society, maybe even seen at court. Alas ponies of high class are rare in Ponyville and my designs do not always receive the fame that I hope”
“Nonsense! Why anyone who overlooks such beauty deserves to be stuffed into a teapot”
“Well, that may be a bit excessive but thank you Hatter. Despite your unusual appearance you are quite the gentlecolt.”
Their conversation was interrupted when a loud yowling came from the divan sofa that Rarity had in the shop for customers to relax on and to cushion the occasional dramatic faint. The sofa was currently occupied by a pampered looking white cat who was hissing at the floating form of the Cheshire Cat. He was staring at her show of aggression with his usual grin, but there was something off about it. He looked almost embarrassed. Cheshire was never embarrassed, he barely even had a sense of shame. But now he appeared to be quite flustered to be confronted by the female feline.
“Oh…I’m sorry my dear, I didn’t realise that I was trespassing on your territory…you see, erm, I was invited in by your owner…I mean your friend!…yes, your friend Rarity and well…this is terribly embarrassing…it seems I neglected to ask your permission…so please, if its alright with you of course, may I stay for a night?”
The cat stared at Cheshire for a moment, clearly suspicious. She looked over at Rarity and Hatter, who were observing the feline interaction with baited breath. She looked back at Cheshire, eyes roaming over him before resting back on his wide eyes and nervous grin. Finally she moved one paw to pat the area next to her on the divan, clearly indicating where she wanted Cheshire to go.
“Next to you?…not that that’s a bad thing of course! In fact it is a very good thing…not in that way though! Unless that is you…I must apologize I haven’t talked to someone as beautiful as you in such a long time…ever really, for your beauty has no match in either world. It would be an honour, my lady”
Opal seemed to be pleased by his compliments and started to purr. Cheshire lay down next to her, his larger body subconsciously circling her protectively. After a moment he started to purr as well, comforted by the warmth of the body next to him.
“Compliments will get you everywhere” Hatter whispered under his breath
“Aww, they are adorable. And I believe that we should follow there lead and get some rest, there is a spare room across the hall upstairs that you can sleep in. it has a double bed for when my parents stay over so it should be large enough to accommodate you” Rarity said, who thankfully hadn’t heard Hatters words, her eyes still focussed on the cute cat couple.
“That will be quite alright. I must thank you again for your hospitality Rarity. It is most gratefully received” and with that the two headed upstairs to their respective bedrooms.
-Later that night-
Cheshire awoke to the sound of creaking wood. His eyes flew open and he scanned the room for any sign of a threat towards both himself and, more importantly, the molly that lay beside him. He saw a large figure creeping through the darkness and the flash of metal in the moonlight that seeped through the window. He moved away from Opal, careful not to wake her, and floated silently through the air, claws flexing in preparation to face his foe.
As he approached the stealthy figure, which was still absorbed in it’s dark work, he noticed that something was off. This was no pony. This was something far more dangerous. Something that could kill him easily and would if given the motivation. This was…
“Hatter, what are you doing at this time? You should really be asleep”
Hatter looked up from his work, the metal needle with thread attached still held high above his head reflecting the moonlight as it swung through the midnight air. He looked at Cheshire with a guilty look upon his face.
“erm well…Hatters gotta hat?” He said nervously, causing Cheshire to sigh.