Solaris snorted as he paced around his room.
“How dare they question me!” he hissed under his breath. “I gave them so many years of peace and prosperity, and yet when the first signs of adversity hits, it all means nothing. I have been here for over a thousand years, of course I can handle this situation.”
Solaris’ hooves clicked loudly against the floor.
“And my own bloodline challenging me!? Do they not know where they come from, that everything they have is because of me?”
The alicorn stopped, panting heavily as his wings fidgeted. He bit down, grinding his teeth as the edges of his vision slowly tinted to a red color. Solaris’ mane and tail started to wave erratically as he could feel his blood starting to boil from his anger. His anger against the changelings attacking him, anger that his own bloodline would be so blatantly disrespectful to their patriarch, and anger that his own subjects would not trust his judgement. He raised his hoof, his muscles flexing and tightening, ready to crash into the floor beneath him.
Solaris closed his eyes and exhaled loudly, slowly lowering his hoof down. Not now, he thought to himself. Control it, I do not need another scene. The alicorn opened his eyes, slowly turning his head to the balcony window. The night had just started, and he didn’t want his sister to state the obvious.
But that did not change the fact his blood was still hot. Wings flicking in agitation, he walked towards the balcony, opening the doors and letting the night air in. The alicorn unfurled his wings and bended his legs slightly.
In an instant, he launched himself into the night, beating his massive wings. As his altitude increased, a few stray clouds passed him along the way, the night air getting colder. It took the large alicorn a while, but finally he reached as high as he possibly could. The air was extremely thin and freezing. His wings flapped hard to keep him up, and he could see his breath in front of him.
Most pegasi could not even dream to reach this altitude, while the remaining few would barely be able to get close. But this is what the alicorn wanted, alone with his thoughts. He looked down, able to see the tiny city lights below along with a few clouds.
It would be extremely unlikely for anypony to see him, unless they were using a telescope. Solaris chuckled at the thought of his prized student gazing at the night only to see him. If such a thing would happen, he would get a barrage of worried and stressed letters, highlighting the dangers of high altitude, freezing temperatures, and a detailed list of other hazards.
He exhaled, his breath condensing before his eyes. Solaris beat his wings, flying towards the horizon.
Luna stared at the throne room floor before her. The once immaculate floor now had large cracks near the base of her throne.
“Do I need to ask who did this?” Luna sighed as she rubbed her head with a hoof.
“Well…” a maid next to her replied, shuffling her hooves. “Not really…?”
The princess exhaled loudly as she tightened her night robe.
“Apparently, there was an issue with His Highness and Prince Blueblood,” the maid continued.
“That will do it.” Luna flicked her mane back.
“Yes, well reports say that Prince Blueblood—”
“No need, my little pony,” Luna said as she cut off the mare. “I already have a vague idea on what happened.”
The maid nodded. “Also, His Highness is not here at the moment. The last reports say that the city guards saw him flying off. We… well, we are confused on what we should do. Should I request a patrol be sent out for him?”
“That will not be necessary.”
“Are you sure, My Lady?” the mare answered with a slight bow.
Luna chuckled and smiled. “Family matters is a touchy subject for him. In addition, it is safe to assume what mood he is in right now, and well, we all know how he is when he is like this.”
“Of course, My Lady.”
“Well, good thing I do not have court today. Please inform the staff to take care of this floor. I want it repaired before court starts.”
“At once, My Lady.” The maid bowed again before walking off.
The princess looked at the once immaculate floor. Once again, she exhaled as she rolled her eyes. “What a waste of bits.”
Honeycomb held the tray of food in one of her forehooves. Her eyes scanned the packed cafeteria, filled with members of both the night and day guards, along with the castle staff. She was not used to seeing this many ponies here. Under normal circumstances, she would have been eating later due to her work where less ponies would be present.
The changeling was going to eat at her normal time, but the stress from her first day speaking at the court made her hungry. She was hoping to find a place for herself, but all the tables were taken. Now, Honeycomb was wondering if it was worth starving a bit longer rather than having to chance the giant crowd of ponies. Her eyes darted back and forth, wondering if she could sneak out with her food since it was prohibited to take plates and utensils out of the dining area.
The poor changeling was stuck in a predicament. Maybe if she just ate her food standing…
“Honeycomb!” a voice called out
The changeling’s ears flicked as she turned her head. A gray unicorn with a jet-black mane sitting in a table in the corner was waving her hoof at her. She remembered that pony from a while back but forgot her name.
“Honeycomb!”
The changeling’s eyes darted back and forth, trying to find any cover. Her ears flattened slightly as she realized she was stuck. She let out a small whine when she saw the unicorn rise from her seat and trot towards her.
“Yo!” the unicorn said as she walked up towards the changeling. “Seems like you are looking for a place to eat.”
“Err…” Honeycomb whimpered.
The unicorn blinked then smiled. “It’s me, Scarlet Velvet. Remember? We met a couple days ago.”
“Oh, um, hello?”
“C’mon, we can make room for you at our table.”
“No, that is okay, really. I don’t want to be a bother.”
The changeling gasped when she felt her tray of food taken away and her hoof grabbed.
“Nonsense,” Scarlet replied as the tray of food floated in a red aura and she pulled Honeycomb with her. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite.”
“N-no, that is really quite alright,” Honeycomb stammered as she was dragged through the crowded cafeteria.
“Aw, stop worrying so much,” Scarlet answered as she dropped Honeycomb’s food on a small table.
Honeycomb gave a gasp in surprise when she was quickly pushed into the seat right next to another gray unicorn. Her ears flattened as Scarlet Velvet sat right next to her, sandwiching her between Scarlet and the other pony. Honeycomb gulped from the contact.
The changeling looked around. On her right was Scarlet Velvet, while on her left was another light-gray unicorn mare with a silver mane and tail and green eyes. Across from her were two stallions. And they were all looking at her.
One of them was a day guard pegasus. To Honeycomb, he looked like every other pegasus guard. How they all look the same she did not know, given the variety of coat and mane colors that ponies posses.
Sitting next to him was another pegasus with a dark-gray coat and a silver-white mane and tail. He was wearing an extremely neat vest and a button-collared shirt, not a single wrinkle or strand of fabric out of place. His mane was combed to what appeared to be perfection, and his coat shined in the cafeteria lights. The gray pegasus looked more like the noble and elite class that she saw earlier.
“So,” Scarlet said as she wrapped a hoof around Honeycomb, “as you guys know, this is Honeycomb.”
“Hello.”
“Yo!”
“Nice to meet you.”
Honeycomb squirmed slightly from the additional contact. Under normal circumstances, the changeling would be having a mild panic attack. However, the recent events at court provided her some comfort, knowing that Solaris lashed out when other ponies threatened her. In addition, at some point, she was going to have to deal with a situation like this where she would have to talk to other ponies. Although, she wouldn’t mind if she did not have to talk to other ponies during her forced time here.
“As I already mentioned, I am Scarlet Velvet. Scarlet is just fine,” Scarlet said as she pointed a hoof at herself. She then moved it to the other mare. “You met my sister, Gleaming Marble.”
The mare smiled and waved at her.
“Here we have Rook.” Scarlet pointed at the guard.
“How is it going?” the guard replied with a smile.
“And last but not least, we have Silver Hoof.”
“Silver is just fine. Regardless, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Silver answered with a slight nod.
“Well, now you know the crew, so to speak,” Scarlet said as she removed her hoof from Honeycomb. “We saw you alone up there, so we decided to make some room.”
“Um, thanks,” Honeycomb replied. It was hard enough being alone with ponies she did not know, but the close contact was making it just that much harder.
“Yeah, sorry about the lack of room,” Gleaming said. “Next time, we will grab a bigger table.”
“We didn’t expect to see ya,” Rook explained as he finished chewing a piece of food. “You’re normally not around at this time.”
“Well, my schedule changed today,” Honeycomb explained as she adjusted the collar on her shirt.
“Regardless, it is still nice to finally meet you,” Silver replied as he sipped his drink. “You are one of the ponies others have been talking about for quite a while.
Honeycomb noticed the ring of silver fur around the base of his hoof. Well, now I know why. The changeling looked at her food then at the other ponies. “Why is that?”
“Well,” Silver continued as he put down his cup. “You are the new assistant of Lord Solaris.”
“Is it really that special?”
“Well, yeah,” Scarlet said. “Lord Solaris never had a personal assistant before as long as I can remember.”
“We found it strange that he would take one all of a sudden,” Gleaming added. “Not that we are complaining.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Honeycomb answered.
“Yeah, how did you get that position? You must have some amazing resume or something. Did you graduate from a prestigious school or something?” Rook asked.
“Was it Canterlot Academy, Manehattan Prep, or something like that?” Scarlet guessed.
Honeycomb shook her head.
“If you don’t mind, we are quite curious on how you got your position,” Silver said.
Honeycomb looked as all four ponies stared at her, wilting under their gaze. She rubbed her forehooves under the table. “Actually, that and my past is something I rather not talk about.”
“Oh, sorry about that,” Scarlet said quickly. “We didn’t mean to pry.”
Honeycomb sat there, staring at her food.
“Hey, Honeycomb,” Scarlet continued, “if you don’t want to sit was us, it is okay.”
“We don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Silver added.
“Look, Honeycomb, if you are worried we are trying to take advantage of you, that is not the case,” Scarlet explained.
Honeycomb’s ears perked as she looked up. “Huh?”
“We are not trying to get a favor or something like that from you because of your position or anything. To be honest, we wanted to hang out because it is rare for the staff here to have ponies our age. My sister, Silver, and I are rather young to be working as a staff member. Gleaming and I work here because of our mom, while Silver here is interning here.”
“Actually, it is common for cadets to be my age,” Rook explained. “But guards and staff usually tend to stick with their own groups. Silver and I are childhood friends, known each other since we were foals. He introduced me to Scarlet and Gleaming and have been friends since.”
“Yeah, we don’t want to give the impression that we are trying to use you or anything,” Gleaming said. “Just nice to see ponies our age, easier to talk to and hang out with, ya know.”
“Oh,” Honeycomb replied. I didn’t even think about that.
“Look, like I said,” Scarlet said. “You can leave if you want, we don’t want to intrude or give the wrong impression.”
Honeycomb sat there, looking back at her food. Her first instinct was to pick it up and leave. She took a deep breath. I am going to have to do this. Better now than later. “No, that is fine, I am just… a little shy, is all.”
There was a collective sigh of relief on the table as the other ponies smiled.
“Awesome!” Scarlet cheered joyfully. “If you ever need a seat, see if you can find us here, and we will make room somehow.”
“So, Honeycomb,” Rook said as he picked up his food again. “I heard you were speaking for Lord Solaris at court.”
“Y-yes.”
“I am curious, well all of us really, we all know Lord Solaris may have been a tad… what's the word, angry at court today.”
Honeycomb looked up.
“Don’t bring all of us in this!” Silver snapped.
“Yeah!” cried the two unicorn sisters.
“Oh yeah, like you guys are totally not curious as to what happened.”
The other three ponies turned their heads away slightly.
“Yeah, exactly, don’t blame me for saying what we are all thinking. Anyway, everypony pretty much knows what happened. We’re curious though if you know what happened when he sent everypony away.”
“Well, he sent me away too, so I was not there,” Honeycomb replied. She was technically not lying, knowing it would not be a good idea to tell she was eavesdropping.
“Huh, just wondering,” Rook replied.
Everypony went back to eating, making small talk with one another. Honeycomb sat there, slowly eating her food.
“Well, it is only natural Lord Solaris vented.”
“It has been quite some time since he last did that.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know Canterlot captured a changeling.”
Honeycomb coughed hard, covering her mouth with her hooves.
“Wow, you okay there, Honeycomb?” Scarlet asked.
“Y-yeah, didn’t chew my food well enough.”
“Hehe, make sure you chew food there, drink something.”
“Anyways,” Gleaming continued, “I didn’t know we supposedly had a changeling.”
“I don’t think it matters really,” Silver remarked.
Honeycomb looked back at Silver. “Why is that?”
“Simple, Lord Solaris said it was taken care of. No point in speculation or anything. I trust his and Lady Luna’s judgment. If they said no need to worry about it, then there is no need.”
Everypony nodded as Honeycomb took comfort in Silver’s woods. She was afraid more ponies would have shared Blueblood’s statement and try to actively locate her, but if nopony wanted to or was afraid of doing so, that was better for her.
“So you trust his judgement?” Honeycomb asked.
“Of course, we are loyal to both our rulers. I trust in their judgement.”
“That,” Rook added, “and they have done a pretty good job.”
“Yeah, that is a silly question, Honeycomb,” Scarlet said. “Of course we do. Why wouldn’t we?”
“Sorry,” Honeycomb answered, “I-I have not been here long.”
Honeycomb sat there, eating and listening to the conversations around her. She heard about the other four ponies’ day, something called hoofball, and other things about Equestrian culture. It was interesting for her to see and hear a completely different culture, even though she was not in the most ideal position to do so. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how common ponies acted rather than just Solaris.
The others asked Honeycomb a couple questions. Luckily, they were not that intrusive and superficial. Questions such as how long she has been in Canterlot, what she thought of the palace, and what she did for her job. She told them about how she runs small errands for Solaris, fetching and delivering things, and how she just started speaking at the court. That interested the others the most.
She did leave out how she can’t leave the palace without direct permission, is not really qualified for such a job, and the fact the she is a changeling forced to work off a sentence for being part of the invasion.
As they continued to eat, she would occasionally look at the gray pegasus. She found him odd simply because he looked more like a noble than some staff member. The changeling wondered if maybe he came from a higher class family, though it would not explain why he was eating in the castle’s cafeteria.
“Is there something I can do for you, Honeycomb?” Silver asked with a slight smile as he looked back at her.
Honeycomb blinked, her concentration broken. “What?”
“You have been looking at me for while. Is there something that I can do for you?”
The changeling blushed as she tried look away. “Well I…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t mean to be rude, it is just you look different from the others.”
Silver’s ears perked, and his eyebrow raised slowly. “How so?”
“Well, you look more like the nobles and elites that I see in court…”
There was a loud snort as Rook pounded the table with a hoof, his other covering his mouth as he tried to stifle down a laugh. Honeycomb looked in confusion as Rook swallowed the rest of his food.
“No,” he said, hitting his chest with his hoof, “he dresses like that because he is—”
The table jerked violently as Scarlet sat up a little. There was a loud yelp as Rook rolled over to the side, clutching his hindleg. He rolled on the ground slightly, hissing.
Scarlet sat back down as if nothing happened. She look back at Silver. “You were saying, Silver?”
“I take care to make sure I look professional for my job,” Silver replied with a slight chuckle.
“By the Sun and the Moon,” Rook hissed as he doubled over in pain, “that hurt!”
Honeycomb looked down at him before Scarlet tapped her on the back. “Oh, he is just being a foal at the moment, just ignore him.”
“What?! You charlie horsed me!”
“Nonsense, don’t know what you are talking about.”
Honeycomb looked back at Silver, a slight smile on his face. “Oh, that makes sense. Mrs. Feather Duster said something about looking professional.”
“Exactly,” Silver confirmed.
“Ow my leg, I think you bruised it.”
“I am an intern here at the Castle Affairs. It was extremely competitive for the single spot, so I want to make sure I have a good impression.”
“Castle Affairs?”
“Yes. Basically we make sure everything runs smoothly for Lord Solaris and Lady Luna on the political side.”
“Oh.” Honeycomb shifted her hooves. “I just thought they kinda do what they want.”
“Well they do. Basically, every week we give them a schedule for the following week. They approve what they want to do, and we just help with the timing.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Hmm,” Gleaming said. “I figured you would since you work for one of the them.”
“Well, he just tells me what to do and I do it. I thought he kinda just did what he wanted whenever,” Honeycomb answered.
“No, he keeps a tight schedule,” Silver said. “That and we do other things. Arrange meetings, look over things, and do some work for them in their name. If something requires either ruler’s attention, then we bring it up to them.”
“I see.”
“I am still down here… Yeah, a bruise is forming,” Rook said as he slowly got up.
“We don’t care,” Scarlet replied quickly.
Honeycomb looked at the guard before working on her food again. Eventually the others got up, cleaning up the table and stacking their plates.
“Well, Honeycomb, we got to head out and get ready for tomorrow,” Scarlet explained. “If you want, you can hang with us if you want to.”
“Yeah, take it easy, Honeycomb,” Gleaming added.
Silver nodded and waved a hoof.
Rook tried to give a smile as he limped off.
After the others left, Honeycomb sat there for a moment. She looked at her empty dishes, taking in what happened. It did make her somewhat nervous being around other beings that did not know who she truly was, and she did feel on edge making sure she did not say or do something that would warrant suspicion.
However, what was comforting from it was that it gave her something to do. Normally, when she was done working, she would eat alone then go to her room. She would sit there, alone and bored with her thoughts before she fell asleep. But being around others did take her mind off that and kept her occupied. It wasn’t the worst thing sitting with others, and she did find comfort that the other four ponies seem to be loyal to the crown, and thus not looking for the real her.
Honeycomb got up and put her plates away. It took her a while to realize how late it was and how much time she spent eating with the others. She yawned as she headed for her room.