Both of the immortal sisters sat at the far end of an enormous hall. At the other end of this spacious room stood a large pair of solid stone double doors that were currently spread open to their fullest extent. It took both sisters and a slew of unicorn guards to open the inconceivably heavy rock passageway after it was closed, for this reason the doors usually remained open. The purpose for such a room even existing in the first place was for an event that both sisters had seen as important before Luna’s banishment and continued to do so now, one which was currently taking place inside its walls.
This event happened every week and was the time when the various citizens of Equestria could pose their questions and concerns directly to the princesses. This was the first time that such an event was held with both princesses in attendance together since Luna’s banishment. The two sisters had started to act more like family after the incident in the dungeon two days prior where they had felt the encircling companionship that came from the intermingling magic spell.
So it was that during this time of open discussion with the diarchy a noble was currently giving an introductory speech about the matter of traffic and how a new road should be constructed that rose above the normal roads to allow more pedestrians to travel freely at a time. Both sisters were intrigued with the idea and were about to start an open discussion about it between themselves and the pony when one of the employees of the castle’s kitchen burst in shouting loudly about monsters.
Luna quickly and silently teleported from her the simple throne she sat in to the mare who had just entered. “Calm down.” She stated simply in a tone of voice that made it sound like a command and not a suggestion. After the mare had taken a few calming breaths and was once again able to speak coherently Luna asked her the important question of just what was so important that she felt the need to interrupt this weekly event.
“It’s that creature that has been in the castle for the past few days. It barged into the kitchen and threatened to eat us if we didn’t feed it.” The mare said, then paused briefly to sniffle before she continued. “Please help, the chef is worried sick and managed to sneak me out while it scarfed down any food we put in front of it.” The mare pleaded as she looked to Luna, her eyes starting to brim with tears.
Murmurs had already began to spread from the ponies who had heard it to the ponies behind them and Luna sighed, realizing this would rumor would get out of hand quickly no matter what she did. “I’ll take care of it.” The blue alicorn said to the mare before turning to her sister. “Seems Inventor woke up and scared the chefs into making him food. I trust you can handle this without me?” A few more murmurs spread through the group when Luna spoke the name of the creature but the lunar princess merely ignored them and looked to her solar opposite.
“Of course, go ahead and take care of him.” Celestia responded with a nod. Luna returned her own nod and began to channel her magic about her. Unlike Celestia who had to grip her magic through willpower Luna merely urged the strings of magic into the correct formation with a soft guiding mentality. When they were in their correct form Luna moved the thin strands of magic into her horn and channeled the familiar teleportation spell.
In a brief flash of light the blue alicorn found herself in the kitchen standing across the table from the man who was currently tearing his way through a stack of pancakes. He glanced up at Luna and swallowed the confection that he had decided to shovel into his mouth. “Hey Luna, I guess I’m not being the best guest that your kitchen has ever had, hmm?”
Luna sighed in resignation before speaking to the man, “First things first then, I was informed that you threatened to eat the chef if you didn’t get food? Isn’t that a bit much?” Luna said as she sat herself across the table from the man and signaled for the waiter to bring her one of the fresh salads that the kitchen prided themselves on.
Inventor continued to scarf down the stack of breakfast cakes in front of him as his mind ran through what he had said when he came in. After about six pancakes worth of thinking time the man swallowed and smiled. “Ah yes, well you see we had a saying on earth when you were extremely hungry. You would say, ‘I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.’ I guess that that probably isn’t a good saying here eh?”
Luna shook her head at the antics that the human displayed, occasionally he reminded her of Discord when he was younger and before he went evil. While Luna pondered over the similarities between the two beings the salad that the lunar princess had ordered arrived at the table along with a second plate of flapjacks for the ravenous human who only had a few left on the original plate.
“Next question then, want to tell me how you managed to survive getting a spike stabbed through your throat?” Luna asked as she levitated the fork and began to pick at the salad in front of her. She wasn’t really all that hungry herself but decided to munch on some kind of food while she was here anyway and avoid a snack trip later.
“Right well, you see.” The man said through a mouthful of breakfast. Realizing this was immensely impolite he took a moment to quickly swallow the food in his mouth. Afterwards he speedily slid the now empty plate to the side and brought the second, still steaming, stack of pancakes between him and Luna. The empty dish was collected almost immediately by a waiter and taken back to the sink.
With his now empty mouth the biped continued speaking, “I’m not entirely biological, I have a few life support systems hooked up to my vital organs. In addition to this of course I have my mechanical arm to help regulate the biomedical systems that crisscross my skeleton.”
The man took the opportunity to take another large bite of pancake as Luna cut into his rant when he went to catch a breath. “Yes I noticed that your right arm was different than your left when I bathed you those few days ago.” She said simply. At her words the man spat bits of pancake at Luna’s face, the act of which garnered many an astonished look from the kitchen employees. Unamused, Luna magiced over a napkin and cleaned her face of the offending pieces, with her face clear of the disgusting debris she looked to the man with a cold glare.
The man apologized profusely as he wiped his own mouth clean of the tiny morsels that clung to his lips. “Did you just say that you bathed me?” The man said hesitantly, unsure of if he wanted to receive the answer to the question.
“Of course I did, you were covered in blood and gore. I wasn’t going to let you sleep like that.” Luna replied, her voice still cold.
“Riiight, could you not do that again? I would prefer to avoid being seen naked by a pony.” The man said, an embarrassed tone creeping into his voice.
“Why do you care so much? I understand that you wear clothes so that you seem dignified while you're here but surely where you come from you walk naked occasionally.” Luna said with a curious tone.
“Nope.” The man quickly responded as a red blush started to cover his face. Before Luna could continue on the topic of nakedness Inventor quickly changed the subject back to the original question through a clever technique known to most as ‘ignoring whoever is trying to talk about the subject and talk about whatever you feel like instead’. The alicorn, unfamiliar with this style of changing the subject, was caught off guard with no defense and quickly lost the fight.
“Anyway, using the systems of wires I have throughout my body I built an emergency protocol in. If it senses that I’m close to dieing it will essentially put me into stasis. In this stasis it will utilize the innate energy that I would normally use for second tier priorities that are essential to my live, such as say; breathing, for example. It takes them and converts them into a kind of medicinal force that can boost my own healing processes to the point that I can survive most non severing wounds that would be deemed ‘lethal’. This is provided of course that my body is currently in such a state that I can heal. If something large enough is lodged in my wound it will prevent me from rejuvenating.”
The man dug into the pancakes once more with renewed vigor as Luna pondered what she had just been told. “So if I stabbed you in the neck with a spike right now, you would be just fine?” She asked as she glanced at the man. His eyes widened in shock as he looked at the blue alicorn. “Not that I’m going to, I was just curious is all.” She quickly reassured.
“That depends on how long I’ve been unconscious. If it has been more than two weeks then yes, you could. If however it’s only been a few days then the system is still resetting and I would most likely just die.” The man responded nonchalantly as he slid the now mostly empty plate away from himself. “Man I kinda wish you ponies weren’t vegetarians, I could really go with a plate of salisbury steak right now.”
At his words the nearby ponies backed slowly away from the man and Luna had to fight the urge to sigh once more. “Regardless, I have one more question. After what happened to you two days ago my mind has been on edge and I was wondering... did you come to an answer on what I suggested? Would you like to be my bodyguard?” Luna asked as she continued to pick at the greens that sat in front of her.
“Of course I did, though I would like to save my answer for when both you and your sister are together so I don’t have to repeat myself.” The man paused as he glanced around, “Speaking of which, it is daytime still right? Where is your sister?”
“I believe she is still speaking with the citizens of Canterlot in the Discussion Chamber.” Luna said with a glance to the man. After hearing the words he abruptly stood from his seat and began to make his way to the door. “And where do you think you’re going Inventor?” she asked as he made to leave.
He turned and smiled to the blue alicorn before speaking, “Why I’m going to go speak to your sister of course. I hope you’re coming along as well, otherwise I’ll run out of things to say very quickly.” With those words spoken the man left the immortal to herself in the kitchen.
Luna gathered her nerve and nodded once to the empty air and made to leave when a call from the chef caught her attention. “Your highness, thank you for getting the creature out. And, excuse my assumptions, but you two seemed to know each other. May I ask as to what that thing was?” The chef hesitantly asked the lunar princess.
The lunar princess smiled sadly at the question and waited for a moment before answering. “That creature is a human. The last human. And one with a good heart and a troubled soul.” The chef was unsure what to make of Luna’s words but she didn’t elaborate, instead opting to leave the kitchen in pursuit of the biped who had wreaked havoc on the kitchen.
Luna trotted through the castle at a light pace, she wasn’t too worried at what would happen to Inventor when he arrived in the Discussion Room. Celestia would be able to handle the situation should things get out of hoof, Luna hoped. And besides, the man probably had no idea how to get to the room and would show up late after he either stumbled in or received directions from a guard.
With these thoughts running through her head Luna subconsciously began to pick up speed until she practically busted down the door to the Discussion Room as she charged in. Several ponies looked her way with raised eyebrows before turning once more to Celestia who was discussing the physics of the overhead pathway with the noble who had been talking to her earlier.
“So you see, if we add these supports every few feet the bridge should be able to span the entirety of the city with short tributaries that go down to the street level so earth ponies and unicorns can access the roadway.” The noble said as Celestia looked at the diagram he had presented.
“Yes, but what of the locations where the pillars are supposed to be placed? There is little to no empty space around roads and even then to put them at such frequency would disrupt the pegasi flight patterns.” Celestia said as she tried to work her mind around a solution for the roadway.
The noble began to speak once more but Luna’s attention was dragged away as the mare who had run in in a panic earlier ran up to the lunar princess with a glowing look of hope shining off of her countenance. “Did you do it? Did you remove that creature from the kitchen for us, your highness?”
Luna glanced at the mare with relief, “You mean he hasn’t shown up here yet? Whew, we might be able to damage control this still.”
“You mean i-i-its coming here?” The mare said as sudden worry flooded her voice. “Did it manage to slip away under your watchful eye, your highness?” she said as she looked to Luna.
“No, you have it wrong. Inventor means no harm to anypony he just spoke a bad choice of words.” Luna said as she glanced to the mare who returned a skeptical expression. “Just give him a chance ok? That’s all I ask.” The mare nodded stutteringly at the request but stayed silent as Luna returned a thankful glance and began to make her way toward Celestia.
She never reached her however as a loud crack echoed through the room. With a glance skyward Luna saw a crack in the ceiling starting to spread, another cracking sound and the stone completely gave away leaving the entire gathering to witness Inventor falling from the ceiling as dust and small rocks exploded from his chosen entrance. All the lunar princess could do was mirror the expression of all the other ponies present and gaze slack-jawed at the descending human.
After a few seconds in freefall the man pulled a sheet of thick cloth from under his jacket, the cloth snapped taut from the air rushing up from underneath it and the man’s hands clenched tightly around the impromptu parachute. This caused the madman to begin a light descent towards the ground.
Luna’s keen eyes were trained on the man when a movement from the new hole in the ceiling caught her eyes. It was only a glimpse of an outline but the lunar princess recognized it as a pegasus. The mysterious pony was gone faster than it appeared and the blue alicorn wondered if she had started to imagine things.
The man finished his slow drop to the ground and carefully folded the cloth before handing it to one of the serving mares. After the mare levitated the bundle from his grasp the man turned his gaze to his entrance and held his right hand above his eyes to block some of the sunlight. By this time all the attention in the room had been drawn to the odd creature that had just entered via roof and now stood between the immortal princesses of the land.
“I’m going to have to fix that aren’t I? Dang and I was hoping to escape without having to destroy property.” The man said in a low, resigned voice that only Luna could hear. With a light sigh he dropped his gaze from the new skylight he had abruptly installed to look towards the gathered ponies. His vision flickered across the confused and bewildered ponies until at last it came to rest on Luna.
“Ah hey Luna, sorry about that. I just felt like I should drop by.” The man said with a slight smile. After receiving not a word from the stunned princess he continued his scan of the room until it came to rest on Celestia and the noble that stood next to a chalkboard with the depiction of the bridge upon its darkened backdrop. Both of the ponies next to the board looked at the biped incredulously. Ignoring the looks of the gathered ponies and intrigued by the picture the man started up the stairs until he was next to the board as well.
“Ah, I see the issue. You want to create an overpath that would allow for better traffic management but you have no place to put the pillars that would support it. Quite a dilemma, quite a dilemma indeed.” The man began to murmur lightly as he picked up the chalk that sat next to the board and started to spin it between his fingers. After a few seconds he snapped his digits in realization as a smile began to spread across his face.
“If you can’t go over the roads why not go under? Surely there is enough space below the city to allow a project like this to be installed.” The man said as he began to put down a rough sketch of a subterranean tunnel on the board.
This epiphany snapped the noble out of his stupor. “Yes, that would work quite well now that I think about it. But of course it comes down to Celestia, what do you think of this adaption, your highness?” The stallion said as he glanced to the white alicorn. She quickly recovered her own senses and nodded her own agreement.
“It seems that that would fulfill all goals and ambitions that this project was planned to have. I’m sure that if we called in a few miners and tunnelers we could have it finished within a year.” Celestia said, her voice growing back to its usual, sure, tone.
As her words grew in power the remainder of the crowd came back to their senses and began to chat with one another.
“Now Inventor, would you like to explain why you suddenly felt the need to help with the air circulation of my and my sister’s castle?” Celestia said as she glanced at the man.
“Ah well, that is, you see..” The man sighed as he dropped his head in defeat. “I thought that I should make a really cool entrance. You know; explosion, fall from ceiling, cool music in the background, make a bad pun, roll on snare drums, curtains. I hear it's actually quite funny if it’s done correctly.”
The white alicorn merely returned a glare and Inventor subconsciously gulped. “If you point me to the stone and mortar I could fix that for you.” He said hesitantly, realizing that he was walking on thin ice.
“There will be no need for that, but if I find out that you did something like this again not only will you fix that damages but you will also be helping the maids with their duties for a month. Am I understood?” Celestia said in a commanding tone.
“Y-yes your highness.” The man responded.
The answer elicited a nod from Celestia who closed her eyes for a moment. Inventor was about to ask what she was doing when a yellow glow shone off her horn and the ceiling began to piece itself together from the dust and rocks that had fallen to the ground. Only a minute later the deed was done and the roof was once again in one piece. This act of magical power made several of the unicorns look up in awe at the power that Celestia had just shown to them.
“Now then I believe you came to actually tell me something today?” Celestia asked as she slowly opened her eyes and looked to the human who was also looking at the act of magical prowess that the solar princess had just demonstrated.
“Hmm, oh yes.” The man nodded briefly once to Celestia before turning to look at Luna. “Miss princess of the night, would you mind joining us up here? I would like to give my answer to both of you at the same time.”
The blue alicorn gave a slight nod before swinging her wings wide to her sides and flying up to the side of her sister. After she flapped a few times to land gracefully she looked expectantly to the man who stood smiling at the two sisters.
“I decided to accept your invitation. It would be my honor to be your bodyguard princess Luna.” The man said jovially as he swept his arm before him and bowed to the lunar alicorn. His words were greeted by several gasps from the other ponies who had overheard and a few murmurs that spread through the crowd.
Even from this distance Inventor could make out one specific stallion with a gruff voice mumbling about how the princess was probably safer with ‘that odd creature’ guarding her than she would be if all the guards surrounded her wherever she went. Despite himself the man couldn’t help but smile at the implication and the praise towards his power. Of course, he had just destroyed a chunk of the ceiling with two punches so the praise was probably deserved.
“Well then Inventor, let me be the first to congratulate you on your new job as my bodyguard.” Luna said with a childish smile pasted across her face.
The response from the man was short, “It my pleasure to take a job of such importance, I only hope that I’ve learned enough from my previous mistakes to bring honor to such a job.”
(Get over my videogame addiction in order to get addicted to music, because why not. HEY! LOOK! A SHINY! -N64Fan)