//------------------------------// // Chapter 22, No escape // Story: An Unexpected Life // by alejin //------------------------------// Steel opened his eyes and looked his suroundings, he found himself in a very elegant room, obviously it was a room of the castle, he didn’t know why but somehow it looked familiar, a corner full of plushies and toys, a big stand full of books, pictures in the walls, some of. . . him, others with him and Princess Celestia. . .his mot. . .he chuckled to himself, he somehow felt pattetic, not even a day of being in Equestria and he already called that pony his mother, it didn’t matter if it was for the moment, there was no excuse, years of training and preparing himself and then he came to that? What would Onyx or Zahari say? This whole visit to Canterlot was supposed to be easy, bear with the stares of the ponies, ask some quetions to the rulers, maybe buy some souveniers for Mrs Margaret and Jilt and that’s it! but no, he had to fight one. . .two crazy rulers, one of them suposely is his mother, what’s next? Meeting an Asshole prince? Steel kept looking the rest of the pictures, almost all of them was of him and Princess Celestia and Cadence, some were with Twilight but there were also ponies he only recognized from his dreams, there was even some with him and a Phoenix, he liked that a lot, he always felt a fascination for phoenixes, they were extremely rare in Minus. His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed something, besides his shorts and ring, he was naked, at least his pride was covered, he immediately started to look for his clothes, they weren’t anywhere but then he saw his backpack in the corner of the room, he sighed in relief, at least they brought him his stuff, he searched for his spare clothes, they were a little torned but at least they were clean, he was about to put them on when he heard the door opening, he turned around and saw a unicorn maid entering the room, she looked really nervious and it was obvious she really didn’t want to be there, Steel had to admit that mare in a maid uniform looked very sexy. Gathering all her brave, she spoke: “ahhh, hi. . .sir, I’m bringing you some clothes, Princess Cadence thought you might need them” Steel raised his eyebrow, how they managed to make him new clothes in so little ti. . . he then wondered. “Excuse me Lady, for how long I’ve been sleeping?” “ahh. . .hmm, all night sir. . .after Princess Cadence and her doctors healed your body, she brought you here, she stayed for some hours” “Really? hmmm all night. . . well, at least I had a good sleep, thank you lady” “You . . you are welcome sir, is there anything else you need?” “Nah! I’m good, you can go out and please stop with all the “Sir” act, my name is Ste. . Steel and I’m not a noble or anything like that, feel free to call me by my name” “But. . .Princess Cadence order us to treat you like if you were royalty, I’m sorry but I must follow orders” (Sigh) “Ok, but know that I don’t mind if you don’t do it ok?” “Yes. . . Sir. . .Steel” “That’s more like it, now you can go out Sexy Maid” The maid blushed a little and went out the room, a smile present in her face. “He . . he is not that bad, he even is kinda cute, not to mention those muscles and scars, cute and dangerous. . . I like it” The mare thought while giving him a last seductive look before exiting the room. Steel looked at the clothes she just brought, a full pack of formal clothes, shirts with buttons and a tie, formal shoes and pants, he looked at them for some seconds and . . “Heck no! I’m not wearing this!” Steel immediately threw the clothes on a little table and put on his spare ones, they may be torned but they were clean and not lame. Once dressed, he proceded to lay in the bed again to wait for somepony else, even he knew there was not good idea to wander in someone else’s house. He was looking at the celing, he then sumoned his axe. An smile crosed his face. “Thanks partner, I don’t know what would I have done without you” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Some minutes later, Steel heard his door opening again, he expected to see the sexy maid again but this time it was Cadence. “Steel. . . are you here? are you ok? He stood up from his bed and answered. “Yes Cadence, I’m fine, please come” Cadence saw her little cousin and trotted directly to him to give him a hug, she stopped a few inches from him for she remembered he didn’t like ponies very much, Steel noticed her sad expresión, Sighing, he extended his arms and said: “Come her Cadence, you helped me to heal and brought me here, I think you deserve a reward. . .don’t missunderstand, it’s just for us to be even” Cadence face lightened when she heard that and without thinking it twice, she tackled Steel in a crushing hug, reluctant, Steel returned the hug, once Cadence felt his hand in her barrel, she started to cry. “Thank you Brig. . . Steel, thank you so much, you have no Idea how many times I dreamed for a moment like this, thank you for being alive, thank you for. . .finding us again.” “No problem Cadence, I hope I could say the same with such enthusiasm but. . . I can’t, I still can’t remember very much of you or everything else” Cadence tightened the hug and said: “Don’t worry about it Steel, you are here now and that’s what matters, we will find a way to help you remember, you’ll see” “Thanks Cadence, by the way, thanks for the clothes too but. . . after meeting me and see my personality. . . did you really think I would use those?” Cadence giggled a little. “Not really, since you were little, you never were so picky with your clothes, you liked them as plain as posible, you always hated formal clothes, I see that part of you never change, still, poor Rarity, she didn’t want to listen, she spent all night making those for nothing” “You mean the white pretty unicorn with the curved mane? She made those clothes in a night? Wow, she impress me but please next time tell her to ask first to know what kind of clothes I like” “Noted” (Chuckled) “Thanks, ok. . . now, how are everybody? how is. . . Princess Celestia?. . .my mot. . .you know” (sigh) “. . . . I think we need to sit, come” Steel and Cadence sat down in the room’s couch, once both of them were confortable, Cadence started: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (10 MINUTES AGO, CELESTIA’S ROOM) Cadence and Twilight were waiting for Celestia to wake up, she was sleeping peacefully considering everything she went through the past day, they were so excited, this day mother and son will be together again. Princess Celestia opened her eyes and adopted a worried expresión, she then saw Cadence and Twilight and said: “Twilight! Cadence! Is everypony alright? What happened with Chrysalis and the Changelings?” The duo didn’t expect that, did she. . . “Aunt Celestia, you know very well we managed to pushed them away from Canterlot” “Yeah! And then we foun. . . .” Twilight was silenced by Cadence, she was looking at Celestia with questioning eyes, she asked: Aunt Celestia?. . . how much you remember about yesterday?” Celestia nuzzled her head and answered: “I remember we were in the wedding. . .then Chrysalis revealed her true identity, I tried to fight her but she defeated me. . .I blaked out then I remember being inside some kind of coocon and blacked out again, and. . .that’s all, my head hurts a lot if I try to remember anything else, why? something happened? Please tell me my subjects are fine!” Cadence did her best to hidde her surprised expression. . .it had to be a joke! “No no, don’t worry Aunt, no pony is hurt, we had to postpone the wedding but we are all fine” “(sigh) I’m glad, I can’t believe I couldn’t do anything againts Chrysalis, I feel so ashamed” “Princess” – Twilight said – “ You can’t blame yourself for that, her power was not hers, she stole it from my brother” “Thanks Twilight, now. . . if you excuse me, I think I’d be in the gardens, after a good sleep and having and amazing dream about him, a walk in there would be nice ” “Him?” Twilight and Cadence asked. “Yes, I dreamed about. . . Bright! I saw him. . . but he wasn’t a kid anymore, he was a fully grown up teenager and so handsome, my dream wasn’t very clear but I can remember being in some kind of trouble and he came to my rescue! Like I never did. . . (sniff)” Celestia’s eyes started to wáter, Twilight panicked: “What is it Princess!?” “Don’t missunderstand me, I, I loved to see him. . .but at the same time I hurts my heart, it should be a happy dream but it’s also a reminder of my failure. . . just like with Luna. . .but at least she is alive!” Cadence and Twilight smiled and hugged Celestia, Twilight was going to say something but Cadence spoke first: “I’m sorry to hear you say that Aunt but please. . . cheer up, Bright wouldn’t want to see you like this, I believe a good walk in the park is a nice idea and who knows? Maybe today something amazing will happen” Clearing her eyes and raising her eyebrow, Celestia wondered what Cadence meant, maybe something about resuming her wedding. “Thanks Cadence. . . you are right, ok, I’ll see you later,” Both of them exited the room leaving Celestia alone to get ready for her walk. “Cadence? Why didn’t you tell her about Bright?” “You saw it Twilight, she doesn’t remember anything that happened yesterday, at least not the parts about Bright, maybe it’s an effect after being released from the dark side, Me or Celestia never told you, but it happened to Luna too, she couldn’t remember many things after you saved her as well, in this case I’m afraid it would be too much if we tell her about Bright in her current state” “You. . . may be right but we need to tell her” “I know Twilight, I promise we will think about something, we need to do it carefully, little by little, now go to see how are your friends, maybe they can help us, meanwhile I’m going to check for my cousin and tell him all this about Celestia” “Ok! But please, be fast, I want to see him too” Twilight said while smiling. Cadence noded and giggled a little, Twilight was so obvious, it had been years since last time she saw that part of her. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - STEEL (BRIGHT) ROOM After hearing everything Cadence told him about his. . “mother” Amnesia, Steel’s face was priceless. “. . . . . You are kidding right?” Cadence shooked her head – “I’m afraid not, she can’t remember anything about yesterday, at least anything about after the invasión” “Wow . . .First Mr Onyx and now. . .her? Why do I keep meeting people with amnesia problems? do we attract ourselves to each other or something?” Steel murmured. “You said something?” “No, nothing, soooo, what’s the plan then?” “I really. . .don’t know” Steel thought about it for some minutes until. . . “What about if we do nothing?” “What?” “Let’s just not tell her, I mean, she still thinks I’m dead right? why not leave it at that, there is no harm if she never finds out, she has been living thinking like that for these 8 years after all” “No! how can you propose something like that?!” “Sorry Cadence but I. . .really believe it’s a good idea, I came here to get some answers and I got them, I’m satisfied enough, besides. . .it’s not like I don’t have a life back in Minus” “But this is home! Your true home! With me! with your mother! With Twilight!” “. . . . why are you mentioning Twilight?” “I said Twilight? hehehehe, sorry, my point is that I. . .we want to have you here and . . .and remember you are a prince! Isn’t that amazing?” (sigh) “As I told you Cadence, being a prince is not exactly something that attracts me very much, besides, you really think Canter. . .Equestria will accept a nonpony as their prince?” “. . . .We’ll make them do it” “No you wont, you are not tyrants” “But we are your family, and family comes first!” “No! your kingdom comes first, that’s the mark of a great ruler” “But. . .” “Cadence please listen, I have a great life in Minus, I have friends, all of them know me and accept me for who I am, here I’d have to start over again, ponies will be scared and maybe some of them will try to do something stupid, I’m afraid what I’d do if that were to happen. . . I’m not exactly 100% a good guy” Cadence was going to protest but Steel kept talking. “To be honest with you, thinking Celestia already knew about my presense, I was thinking what to do or say to her. . . but then you came and tell me this, maybe it’s a signal. . . a signal that’s the best option is leaving the things as they are right now” “And what about me? what about Twilight? are you proposing we just should forget we saw you, WE LIVED 8 YEARS WISHING YOU WEREN’T DEAD! YOU CAN’T ASK US FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!” “At least you know I’m not dead, isn’t that enough?” “No it’s not! I want us to be a family again! Can’t you see that?” “. . . .sorry, I’m just doing what I think it’s the best, you can. . .come to visit me in Minus if you want. . .” Cadence was speechless, she was losing this debate againts her cousin, why he was so. . .stuborn, she needed to do something or she would lose him again, this time maybe forever, thinking as fast as the wise mare she was, she said: “. . . . what about if we have some breakfast? I think we can talk this better if we aren’t hungry” “. . . .That would be a great idea” “Great! Please wait here while I bring you some food” “Ok” Cadence exited the room, locked it with a powerfull spell and rushed to find Celestia, she remembered what she said about not telling her anything yet but the plans changed, Bright was really thinking about leaving, it was all or nothing, he had to see his mother, HE HAD TO! “I’m sorry my sweet cousin, but you are not leaving, not like that at least, if after meeting her you still want to go. . . I wont stop you (giggle) but she will” - - - - - - - - - Steel saw how Cadence rushed outside the room and casted a spell, he chuckled to himself and took his backpack, he then opened a window and looked below, his room was in a really high floor but that was nothing he couldn’t solve, he turned to see the door and sighed. “Cadence, you are so obvious, sorry for dissapointing you, some day you will understand” Saying that, Steel jumped out of the window, in the middle of the fall, he sumoned his axe and used his electricity to propel himself to land safely, once on the ground, he found himself in a huge garden, there were all kinds of flower, flowers he never saw before. “Well, this is an amazing garden. . . I don’t think they will notice if I take some roses for Mrs Margaret” - Steel walked to some bushes full of roses and started to pick up some, he then saw how the bush started to move, there was somepony in the other side, he prepared himself to whoever it was and said: “Who is there?” “OH sorry sorry, I didn’t want to scare you, I was just smelling the roses, the aroma is so nice” Steel immediately recognized the voice. “Oh damn!” he thought and before he could do something, Celestia raised her head to see her companion. “Are you here to. . . .” At that very moment, it felt like if time itself stopped for both of them, all their suroundings were like a void, no sound, no movement, just the two of them, Celestia’s eyes widened almost to the point they would fall from the sockets, she was close to faint but she didn’t, not saying a single world she flew above the bush and started to aproach the creature she had infront of her, Steel felt shocked as well, for some reason, after seeing her in person. . . he didn’t want to run away, just by looking at her, he felt at peace, he felt. . . happy?, Once princess Celestia was a few inches from him, only one word escaped from her mouth. “Bright?”