//------------------------------// // Stories at Breakfast // Story: Lakeside // by Steadfast Bulwark //------------------------------// After everypony had bathed and readied themselves for the day, they all headed downstairs to the dining room for the promised breakfast. Upon arriving they found Sir Constance already seated at the head of the table which was already piled high with pancakes, waffles, and other various breakfast type foods. "Good morning everypony!" Sir Constance said cheerfully. "Did everypony sleep well?" "Like a log." Replied Applejack. Fluttershy nodded her head in agreement but said nothing while Pinkie Pie bounced excitedly beside them. "I slept better than a log, like an extremely sleepy log that got hit on the head with something really heavy!" "Um...yes." Rarity said after a moment. She glanced at Twilight who only shrugged in response. "Those of us who did sleep slept quite well, thank you for asking." She finished with a smile. "Say where's RD?" Asked Applejack as they all moved to take a seat. A pain filled groan came from underneath the table followed closely by a cyan hoof waving weakly. "Down...here..." The cyan hoof dropped with a soft thud causing Applejack to snicker. "How's the hangover?" She asked, pulling out a seat beside the spot Rainbow Dash occupied on the floor. "Shut....up...." She mumbled. Sir Constance chuckled to himself. "We got some food into her and Scyphos is whipping up a special herbal remedy for just such an emergency. She'll be right as rain in no time." He waved his right hoof in a sweeping motion. "Now do enjoy this wonderful breakfast." He quickly pulled several plates stacked high with waffles towards him. "Wouldn't want to disappoint Scyphos." The others followed suit grabbing whatever caught their fancy. Applejack spied what looked like apple pancakes and wasted no time in pulling a high stack close to her. Pinkie Pie was busy guzzling containers of syrup, much to the alarm of Fluttershy who sat beside her with a plate of honey biscuits. "I meant to ask." Twilight said, dabbing at her mouth with a cloth napkin. "The garden on the fourth floor has many rare and exotic alchemical reagents. Do one of you practice alchemy?" Sir Constance swallowed a mouthful of waffles before answering. "That would be Scyphos." Just at that moment, Scyphos entered the dining room through one of the side doors pulling a large cart stacked with glasses and various jugs of liquid. "Ah look who it is." Sir Constance said, motioning to Scyphos as he began to unload the cart. "I was just talking about you." "Nothing too embarrassing I hope." He responded, continuing about his task of pouring each of them a glass of tea. "You needed worry about that." Sir Constance said with a smile. He nodded in Twilight's direction. "Miss Sparkle was simply curious about your garden." "Yes." Twilight said. She paused when Scyphos placed a glass beside her plate and quickly filled it with a wonderful smelling tea. With a smile and a thank you, she continued. "I saw many different reagents that I've only ever read about. How did you manage to get so many different species to coexist together?." "Indeed. I spent many years traveling the world collecting various samples of both the plants and the soil they are native to." He came to the spot of the table where Rainbow Dash had crawled under and produced a small glass that was filled with a orange bubbling liquid. Placing a silly straw in the glass he leaned under the table. "Miss Dash? If you'd care to drink this you'll find your day will vastly improve." A moment passed without a reply then everypony heard a loud slurping sound from under the table followed by a loud cough. Seconds later a surprised looking Rainbow Dash pulled herself out from under the table and sat down beside Applejack. "It worked that fast?" Rarity asked in surprise, looking from Rainbow Dash to Scyphos who had already moved on. "I'm just as surprised as you." Rainbow Dash said slowly, looking around at her friends in bewilderment. "What did you give her?" Asked Twilight. Her eyes were lit up with excitement and she had leaned forward in her seat. "A simple herbal remedy." Answered Scyphos. He pushed the cart to the door directly behind Sir Constance where he left it to stand to the left of his chair. "Celebrations in the Griffin Kingdoms can become..." He paused looking towards Rainbow Dash who was busy wolfing down large quantities of food. "Rowdy. I developed many remedies through trial and error to help with the after effects of these celebrations." "Constance says you were in the military, is that where you learned about plants?" Applejack asked. "It was from my mother, actually." Scyphos said with a small smile. "She imparted onto me the skills and love of alchemy at a very young age. Though that knowledge did serve me well during my time of service." "Got any good stories?"asked Applejack. Rainbow Dash nodded her head past a mouthful of food. Fluttershy cowered somewhat behind her mane and Pinkie Pie was still busy eating anything within reach. "While my time in the military was certainly far from uninteresting, I'm afraid most of my stories are not appropriate for the breakfast table." Sir Constance burst into a fit of giggles suddenly, causing Scyphos to sigh and startling everypony except for Pinkie Pie who was now face deep in a apple pie. "Scyphos....tell...tell them how you first joined up!" He wheezed through his giggling fit. He struggled to calm himself down while Scyphos sighed again. "Very well." "Now then." He said, standing up straighter and gathering his thoughts. "For those of you who may not know. The Griffin military exists solely to protect the Kingdom from internal threats, be it monsters, magical creatures, or the occasional so called 'Freedom Fighter'." "I've never heard or read anything about rebellions in the Griffin Kingdoms." Interrupted Twilight. "You wouldn't have because there were never any rebellions." Scyphos said with a small smile. "The most we would get would be a small group of disgruntled Griffins who would head off into the mountains to establish their own kingdom." He raised his right claw to his chin to scratch it. "In fact there was a group not too long ago calling themselves 'The Free Birds'. If I'm not mistaken they were lead by a pair of brothers, Lyn and Skyn of the city Yard." Scyphos tapped his beak thoughtfully. "I believe they were originally an orchestra." He lowered his claw. "But I digress. You wish to hear the story of my recruitment." "It's about twenty years ago now. I worked the family business with my father. He had a small restaurant just outside the capital city of Griffonstone. Though small our reputation was widespread. We catered to all sorts, locals, travelers, visiting delegates, foreign royalty. You name it and they likely stopped at our establishment. One day business was rather slow so my father sent me out to collect ingredients in preparation of a celebration that was being held the following day." Everypony except for Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had stopped eating, their attention focused on Scyphos. "I made my way into the the forest a few miles to the north where the ingredients I needed grew in abundance. I began to gather what I needed and just as I was collecting the final ingredient I heard a cry for help followed by a mighty roar that could only come from a manticore. Without thinking I took to the air and headed in the direction the call for help came from. Bursting through the foliage I found a wounded griffin pressed up against a tree with a monstrous manticore looming over her." By this point Rainbow had ceased her gluttonous shoveling of food and was quietly sipping tea through the silly straw. "Just as it was about to lay its claws on her, I flew with all my might into its head, knocking it out and sending it rolling across the clearing." "Thats amazing!" Applejack said in awe. Sir Constance waved a hoof at her while using the other to cover his mouth. "Wait it gets better." Scyphos cast an amused glance at Constance before continuing. "When I turned to tend to the Griffins wounds I was surprised to receive a hard slap to the face along with the words 'You idiot'." "Umm...ok, huh?" Rainbow said pushing her empty glass away with a confused look on her face. Sir Constance fell into another fit of giggles and laid his head down on the table in order to muffle his laughter. Scyphos sighed with a shake of his head. "Turns out that I had inadvertently interrupted a training exercise being undertaken by the 'Steel Beaks', the most decorated company in the military. The manticore had been trained to aid with said exercise and the wounded Griffin was actually a member of said company." "Thoroughly embarrassed at this point I tried to apologize, to no avail. It was only after the leader of the company, Captain Heavenplume ordered her to calm down did she finally stop berating me. The captain then told me he had never seen someone knock a full grown manticore flat with one hit. He was so impressed that he wanted to recruit me on the spot. Naturally I agreed." "What did your father have to say about your sudden change in career?" Rarity asked, eyeing Sir Constance who was giggling uncontrollably. "He said so long as I had collected everything he needed for the next day I could go off and join a roving circus if I so wished." Sir Constance sat up and guffawed loudly. Tears streamed down his face as he did his best to keep breathing. Pinkie Pie had stopped eating and laughed along with Sir Constance. "As you can see, Sir Constance finds this story rather amusing." Scyphos bowed low. "If you will excuse me I must attend to the kitchen." With that, he righted himself and exited through the door behind him, taking the cart with him. The others looked between Sir Constance and Pinkie Pie as the two continued to laugh. After a full minute, Sir Constance was able to calm himself down enough to speak. "Sorry." He said, wiping tears from his eyes. Pinkie Pie fell from her chair as her laughter was reduced to hiccuping giggles. Rarity rolled her eyes before turning to face Sir Constance. "That's quite alright. It was an enjoyable story and I can see why you find it so humorous." "He's got a few more good ones but you have to get him really drunk before he tells them." Sir Constance leaned back in his chair with a smirk. "I'll see what I can do about those." He glanced towards the clock on the far wall. "I tell you, I've never seen that clock move so fast." He pushed himself back from the table and stood up. "If you ladies will excuse me, I have some chores to take care off. Make yourself at home and if you need anything, Scyphos is usually right around the corner." He chuckled to himself as he exited through a door to his left, closing it with a click. "Well I don't know about the rest of you but I think I'll go explore the garden." Twilight said, standing up from her chair. She wasn't surprised when Fluttershy did the same. "I'll join you." She said. The two of them left by the way of one of the side doors with Twilight mentioning stopping at the library first. "Well they'll be awhile." Applejack said. She turned to her left to say something to Rainbow Dash but was startled by two blue eyes staring back at her. "Gah!" Screamed Applejack, nearly falling out of her seat. Pinkie Pie beamed at her. The entire exchange getting a laugh from the others. "Don't do that Pinkie!" Applejack said angrily, readjusting her stetson. "Sorry but since Constance said to make ourselves at home we should totally do the mattress fort!" She said happily. "Yeah!" Rainbow Dash added excitedly. She leaned so she could see past Pinkie. "Let's do that!" "Oh no." Rarity said with a shake of her head. "We will not abuse Constance's hospitality by wrecking his home." "Rarity's right. Ah'm sure ya'll can find somethin else to do instead." Pinkie Pie's ears drooped a little. "I didn't think about that." Her ears sprung back to their original perkiness. "Comone Dashie, we can find something else to do!" She immediately jumped back from the table and ran towards a door, dragging Rainbow Dash along with her. "Whoa! Easy Pinkie! Can I at least take a bath first?!" Rainbow Dash's protest were muffled by the closing door. "How much trouble do you think they'll get into?" Applejack asked, turning back to face Rarity after having watched the pair exit the dining room. "Hopefully very little. We should make sure to check on them from time to time." Applejack nodded. "Good idea." She stood up from her seat and arched her back, eliciting several loud pops as she did so. "So what are you plannin on doing?" Rarity got to her own hooves. "I'm not sure. I had hoped the rain would have stopped so we could explore the grounds but seeing as that's not the case I'm left without an idea." "This is a big house I reckon we wander around long enough we're bound to find something that strikes our interest." Rarity smiled. "An excellent idea." Applejack moved around the table to join Rarity who had opened one of the doors. "Shall we?" She asked. "Indeed we shall." Applejack said, slipping back into her Manehattan accent. The two of them shared a laugh as they stepped through the door, closing it behind them.