Haydn and Vorak looked at each other nervously. A few days after the Queen’s Birth Ceremony at their home, they had been summoned by the King for an important meeting. They stepped up the steps and walked past the guards into a large office type of room. King Kai-Wreck was sitting at his desk staring expectantly at them. Their eyes lifted and they bowed clumsily at different times, making the pair look like idiots.
Kai-Wreck rolled his eyes.
“Have a seat.” He plainly. They both sat themselves on a chair whilst the guards and maids left the room and closed the door loudly behind them. He took a deep breath as his features calmed. It wasn’t as formal when the staff of the castle had left. “I-” He began looking worried and anxious.
Haydn and Vorak looked at each other with compassion as Haydn leaned over to Kai-Wreck and placed her hand on his shoulder.
“What is it, hun?” Haydn asked.
“Tell us!” Vorak added curiously. Kai-Wreck calmed.
“Son…” Kai-Wreck began. Vorak nodded. “The three other Kingdoms are requesting that we…” He paused and he looked away from his youngest son’s eyes. “Choose a son...around Princess Luna’s age…to...You know! Marry her. As an agreement to, er, never let anything come between us and share what we have and such-like.” He turned back to his sons sorrowfully.
“Yes? Are you saying you’d like…” Vorak looked nervously at Haydn.
“One of our sons...to marry little Luna?” Haydn finished. Kai-Wreck slowly nodded.
“Well...MEET Princess Luna.” He began. “You know how I feel about our laws of freedom! Marry who you love, whether they be a family of farmers or a Prince!” Kai-Wreck winked at the young pair in front of him. Haydn blushed and Vorak looked concerned, still. What came out of his mouth surprised Kai-Wreck and Haydn a great deal.
“...Well...If the Alicorns find OUR pair of nincompoops worthy It won’t shock me if Prince Cosmos ends up with Chrysalis…”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You excited, Luna?” Celestia asked, nudging Luna with her elbow. Luna’s hooves were crossed, to match her pout. The two fillied were in their front garden playing, but also waiting.
“No.”
Celestia blinked. “Why not? We get to meet new friends!”
Luna raised a brow at her sister. “Yeah, but they’re boys.”
“...So?”
The little filly snorted. “They’re just all rough-and-tumble. They have no sense of courtesy or anything like that! And they smell.”
“...Dissy’s a boy,” Celestia pointed out. “You’re friends with him.”
“Yeah, but Discord’s at least funny!” she retorted. “I bet you these two are gonna be nothing but rough-housing jerks!”
“What’s wrong with boys?” an older alicorn asked. Their older brother Cosmos was looking down at them with an offended, curious look.
“Hmm, Luna?” Celestia asked with smirk.
“Hehe…” Luna giggled guiltily. “You’re right! Nothing, I guess…” She smiled at their older brother who smiled back. Luna paused. “Are you excited Cosmos? They could be YOUR friends, too! Just like Discord!” Cosmos half frowned.
“Mmm...They’re a bit younger than me and Discord… They’re more around you and Celly’s age, Luna.” Cosmos smiled teasingly. “So that you can marry!!!”
“DON’T REMIND US!!!” The two younger, smaller fillies shouted in unison. Cosmos giggled.
Suddenly the three little Alicorn saw a large carriage come toward their HUGE castle. They both gulped nervously, even Cosmos looked a bit shy. They only came around when a foal was born. These weren’t even them! They were different gargoyles and centaur! It was a bit scary…
The carriage stopped in front of the front garden. Four large, armoured, male gargoyles were standing around it with amazed expressions. The world around them was so bright…. They were all in their own world. All mumbling to themselves.
“...Hello?” Luna said unimpressed. The gargoyles all looked worried and stood straight. Nothing happened. “Excuse me? Wha-”
“Duke Vorak and Duchess Haydn of The Terata Kingdom have travelled far with their two sons. They wish to meet with you and your family,” the gargoyle guard interrupted.
“...Yeah?” Celestia asked unsure of what to do.
“Could you go and fetch your parents, please,” the guard replied.
“Oh!” Cosmos ran inside, soon followed out by his Mother and father.
“We arranged this to be an informal arrangement, lads.” King Nova stated plainly, rolling his eyes. Queen Armonia smiled. The gargoyles looked at each other anxiously. One knocked on the carriage door and started roaring and growling at it. Luna scrunched her muzzle and stuck out her tongue. Ruffian, she thought. The guard opened the door and out stepped a very irritated looking Vorak.
“Well, if it’s to be informal, I suppose that means I can let these two loose right away!” Vorak grumbled. Celestia laughed as Vorak wiped himself clean and growled something she couldn’t understand. “Informal fool.” The guards laughed and so did Tirek, who was stepping out of the carriage with Scorpan on his back for some reason.
Luna feltintrigued, yet disgusted at the two little beasts...Tirek was 3 years younger yet larger than Cosmos, though, so she supposed “little” wasn’t the right word. The little rat on Tirek’s back was growling something in the language of the gargoyles. He looked kinda dumb and he looked like a ruffian...yet...Luna decided silently he wouldn’t be as bad as the grouchy centaurs.
“Hello!” Celestia called to the young beasts.
“Hello!” Haydn hopped out and went straight to hugging the foals in front of her. “Oh, you three are so little! Awwww!” Everyone smiled at Haydn’s simplicity.
“Hello Haydn!” Armonia and Nova beamed at her warmly. She did the same - of course!
Vorak, however, was not as comfortable and decided to stay silent.
Tirek and Scorpan however, were feeling rather confused. They looked upon the little four-legged ponies with confudlement. They had not seen these types of creature in a long while - ones full to the brim with magical properties. Tirek tilted his head at them and Scorpan hopped off of his older brother’s back cautiously.
“Tirek,” whispered Scorpan, leaning over into his sibling’s ear, “they look a bit like you!”
Tirek gave a dismissive scoff. “Pssh, even if they did, they’re nothing like me. Nowhere near as cool I am.”
“How do you know?” The little gargoyle tilted his head. “We don’t know them.”
“I know that this is gonna be super boring,” Tirek stated.
“How?” Scorpan asked again.
“Because girls are boring,” he replied flatly. Scorpan looked at him confused. Then he looked as his Mother all bright and happy. It made no sense.
“No they’re not!!!” He cried.
“No who aren’t?” A little dark blue filly with a mini horns and a mini set of wings asked curiously.
“My brother said that-” A hand covered Scorpan’s mouth swiftly, as the adults went indoors.
“We’ll be keeping an eye on you all, so don’t do anything you shouldn’t!” The old alicorn called.
“So Tirek, Scorpan, no touching anything or anyone but yourselves!” Vorak warned knowingly as he stepped into the castle and closed the door behind him.
The larger white filly approached behind. Tirek gulped. She was even more pretty up-close. I almost made Tirek think he had a ...Nah!
Then behind, there was a lilac colt, with a bright white sparkling mane. How queer, Tirek thought. He looked like he could be a little gargirl’s toy. However, this colt looked at Tirek like he could make money from him. Like Tirek had a hidden potential that would be ever-so helpful to this little gargirl’s toy. Tirek looked back with an eerie suspicion.
“What are your names?” The pretty pure white one asked. Tirek blushed slightly.
“My name’s Tirek!” He began.
“And I’m -!” Scorpan cut in.
“And this is my little brother Scorpan!” Tirek finished.
“You’re brothers?!?” The big lilac one asked in surprise.
“Yuhuh!” Scorpan replied.
“You look nothing alike!!” Luna exclaimed in shock.
“Well, he’s a gargoyle and I’m a centaur, so no: We don’t look very similar.” Tirek said impatient of the small one.
“What are your names?!?!” Scorpan asked enthusiastically. This made the white one giggle. Probably at Scorpan’s stupidity, Tirek thought.
“I’m Celestia! I’m 10!” The older filly cried. Tirek’s eyes rose. What an amazing name!! She was 10, too! That was his age!
“I’m 13 and my name’s Cosmos.” The big one about the same height as Tirek said. 13. That was a teenager...Tirek was aware that teenager were scary and had “hormonal problems” whatever hormonals were. It made him dislike “Cosmos” even more.
“And my name’s Luna. I’m 6” She stated proudly. Tirek stopped. That was the one their Mother and Father brought them there to meet? A SIX YEAR OLD BRAT!?!? She seemed to like Scorpan. She walked over and looked closely at him. “How old are you?”
“I’m 5 and a half!”
“Liar! Your birthday was two months ago!” Tirek was ignored. Luna looked happy.
“That’s almost my age!” She said. Cosmos and Celestia exchanged glances.
“Snap!” Scorpan cheered. Tirek smirked at the two, thinking they looked nice together.
“Let’s go play on my castle, Scorpan!!!” Luna squealed happily.
“Ok!” Scorpan giggled. “C’mon, Tirek!!” This made Luna stop.
“Huh!?!” She looked at the young but in no means little centaur. “He’s too old to play on me and my sister’s castle.”
“But he’s 10! Just like Cewstya.” Scorpan cried. All three alicorns looked shocked at one another. Tirek smirked.
“You’re my age!?!?” Celestia went close to him and he smiled.
“Heh...Yes.” He replied. Cosmos’ shock dissipated and he smiled.
“Are all centaur your age that tall?” Cosmos asked.
“Well...I don’t know...I’ve never met a centaur my age before...My Mum calls me “big, strong boy”, though...so I suppose they’re not.” Tirek replied surprisingly saddened by the thought. Celestia came closer.
“Aww, don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll meet a pretty lady centaur one day!” Tirek hadn’t thought of that either! Where would he be if he stayed the only centaur of his generation? “I have a good friend who is the only one of his species in his generation, too! Even so, he’s really great!” Celestia’s words chipped any chance of a crush in Tirek’s heart away. He sighed.
“Don’t worry Scorpan. You can play without me.” Tirek said glumly as he walked away. Scorpan smiled at Luna as she led him away to their castle. Cosmos and Celestia looked at each other unsure of what to do.
“Should we check if he’s ok?” She asked.
“I think he just wants to be alone, don’t you?” Cosmos soothed. Celestia nodded and they went to watch Scorpan and Luna play.
Tirek sat under a tree. He felt sad...but sadness was the only thing that ever really softened him.
Celestia. She was beautiful, but it was clear she was naive and was a fake gradient of kind. Raised by perfection, he was sure.
Luna. She seemed bright, particular and direct. She was also a strange type of spoilt brat he’d seen only in himself. A reasonable one.
Cosmos. Tirek didn’t like him...But he seemed quite lovely. And gentle. Little gargirl’s toy. He seemed somewhat used to neglect. Used to being ignored. It was strange he sensed this as there was nothing really to suggest it.
He sighed. Scorpan. He shouldn’t need to think about what he thought of his little brother. Scorpan was loyal and stupid.
Tirek wondered what the adults were up to. He had a feeling his mother was having a great time and his father was bored. It kinda made him smile. The thought of his parents. They were a great couple, he admitted.
Then he wondered why they had to meet these ponies. That was a very good point. They had never had to go and meet anyone new for no reason. Why would they? Their parents obviously weren’t friends, but for some reason, the occasion was informal. It just didn’t add up… It was obviously informal for the children. Why did we need to meet, though? Tirek sat up. He looked to the castle across a lighter green field. Lighter green than home - home’s green was deeper. He decided that he would go in and ask…