Rocinante and the Wedding at Canterlot

by Charliemane

Chapter 8

Princess Celestia rose groggily that morning. Her fight with her sister had wrecked her thoughts all night and the morning was already carrying that feeling as though she should just stay in bed. Looking in the mirror at the mess that was commonly called “Princess Celestia”, Celestia breathed a tired sigh and reached for a brush with her magic.

She was going to skip breakfast this morning, not because she didn't want to see her sister, but because she wanted to get to the bottom of these changed orders that had her sister so upset. There wouldn't be much time for her to investigate however. There was a wedding rehearsal later that morning, dozens of arrangements, both for the wedding and for the kingdom's everyday rule, not to mention that she hadn't even raised the sun yet. Everypony wanted her attention for some detail here or there, but unlike the Gala, this time she would be the pony that would help her sister.

The more she thought about her sister's arguments, the more she wanted to look into this matter personally. After all, Rocinante did willingly challenge a draconequus, surely a pony dedicated enough to the dream of chivalric knighthood to face such danger without batting an eye would be willing to endure a little hunger and boredom for the sake of defending a princess from a most likely imagined threat.

As her sun began to rise, Princess Celestia looked towards the tower. Her sister had evidently already gone to the breakfast table, perhaps to talk things over more reasonably this morning. A frown slowly came across her face. Perhaps she should have gone to breakfast instead of rushing to find out what was going on. She didn't even know where Rocinante and his squire were. Quickly she checked the time. She didn't have long, but even if she couldn't find him before the rehearsal, she was certain that Twilight would have no trouble adapting to the role of best mare and she could resume the search afterwards.

Rocinante yawned and stretched as he looked over toward his tired squire.

“Well done, dear Sassa. We have lasted the night and no doubt our vigilance has dissuaded evil's cowardly approach.”

Sassaflash yawned and nodded as she watched the Princess raise the sun. Her eyelids felt unbelievably heavy as sat on her flank and contemplated what to say when her stomach suddenly spoke for her with a deep and distressed grumble.

“Can we go get breakfast, cousin?”

Rocinante shook his head with a smile as he pranced back and forth across the gate's opening. Where he found a colt's energy at his age and background was a mystery to Sassaflash.

“I fear that we have yet to receive relief from our lady. But fear not, dear Sassa. For I shall hold the line hear while you go and fill your empty stomach. This is the day of the glorious wedding, therefore be sure to eat up as we must be extra vigilant! No doubt the dastardly foes will try their utmost this day to take the forces of virtue by surprise, but we will be ready for them! Ha! I dare say I hope they strike soon so that I might use the phrase 'defeat villains for breakfast' quite literally!”

Sassaflash smirked at her cousins eagerness. Although she certainly lacked her cousin's enthusiasm, it did tend to be contagious to everypony around him.

“Do you want me to bring you back anything? Or should we let the enemy bring breakfast to you?”

“Ha! Well said, dear Sassa!”

A sudden rumble from the knight-errant's stomach interrupted his thoughts as he looked down toward the source of the unexpected noise.

“However I am certain as to neither the timing of the foes attack, nor the nutritional value of such cowardly villains. Therefore I must say...”

Another rumble came his stomach.

“Waffles please.”

Sassaflash burst out laughing as she nodded and began trotting towards the castle with a wave to Rocinante behind her.

Chrysalis could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she peeked out from between the closed curtains onto the grounds below. Today was the day and if she didn't play her cards just right, everything would be for naught.

Her plan for Celestia and the Royal Guards had been in place and carefully scrutinized for months before she came to Canterlot, even the sudden addition of the Elements of Harmony to the mix fell under a few of the contingency plans she and her fellow changelings had devised, but Princess Luna still imposed a significant problem.

She had hoped to be able to siphon some power off of her before the battle later today, but she couldn't risk delaying any longer. She had to get Luna out of the picture before she and her meddling escorts could interfere with the wedding any more.

Looking into the mirror at her new disguise, Chrysalis smiled and tilted her invisible horn towards the glasses of water she had gathered the night before. It had worked on the real Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, so she had little doubt that it would work on Princess Luna. A simple poison, not enough to do any real harm, but enough to render an alicorn unconscious for a few hours while a wedding took place, an invasion occurred, and a cocoon was wrapped around her.

Princess Celestia may have had too many cup bearers for her to use the trick on her, but nopony would expect Luna's most faithful and loyal knight to bring about his princess's undoing. With a smile on his face and a tray carrying its grim contents on his back, “Sir Rocinante” carefully exited the room and began making his way towards the Princess's chamber.

Sassaflash stared in wonder at the great hall before her. Despite the fact that she had been with Princess Luna for the past year, it still amazed her that she was not only having breakfast in the Royal Castle, but that she was having breakfast in the Royal Castle as a welcome friend of the Princess. A giddy smile came across her face as she bounced lightheartedly down the hallway. How many little fillies dreamed of being where she was now? Everything was like a dream as she trotted along the plush carpet and waved “good morning” to her cousin across the hall.

With a sudden jerk, Sassaflash came to a halt as she looked through a door to the side at her cousin, Rocinante, with a silver tray on his back, walking towards one of the towers with an intent look on his face. Her earlier excitement had been replaced by confusion and was the confusion was slowly being replaced by an unexplained nervousness as she approached her cousin.

“Rocinante?”

Rocinante jumped and turned to face her with an unnerving smile on his face.

“Ah! Ah... you... good morning! How are you?”

Immediately Sassaflash's mane began to stand on end.

“I'm doing fine. Where are you going?”

“Ah, I'm going to see Her Highness, Princess Luna. She said she was thirsty, so I thought I'd bring her some water.”

Sassaflash looked at the pony in front of her with a raised eyebrow.

“You thought what?”

“I... thought I'd bring her some water.”

A small bit of pride rose up in Sassaflash's chest as took a step back.

“You're not Rocinante. You're an imposter.”

Rocinante's eyes widened as they darted around, but seeing no other pony in this hall, he soon smiled and resumed the conversation.

“Oh? And what makes you say that?”

Sassaflash smiled as she narrowed her eyes. She had been traveling with her cousin long enough to pick up on a number of his more eccentric qualities.

“For one, even if Princess Luna had told him to leave the gate behind, there's no way he could have beaten me to the castle. But more importantly two, Rocinante doesn't use contractions.”

Sassaflash felt quite smug until the imposter in front of her smiled and began advancing toward her.

“I hadn't noticed that about him. Thanks for the tip.”

It was then that Sassaflash realized that they were alone in the hallway. Instantly her eyes went wide and she turned to run back to the last guard she saw, but the imposter was suddenly back in front of her. As she opened her mouth to scream, the imposter suddenly teleported next to her with his hoof conveniently over her muzzle.

“Now now, we wouldn't want anypony else no know our little secret would we?”

Sassaflash panicked as she tried to pull away from her captor, but the fake Rocinante had too strong of a grip. She tried to scream again, but nothing more than a muffled cry came out of her mouth. The imposter grinned as his eyes suddenly beamed with an unnatural glow and a bright green fire encircled the both of them.

“Don't worry, you're just going on a little trip to a little place we talked about yesterday.”

As a bubble began to encapsulate them, the imposter stepped out and smiled. Immediately Sassaflash tried to follow, but she bounced off of the bubble's wall. Placing her hooves against bubble's edge she screamed at the top of her lungs, but the imposter only shook his head and mouthed something inaudible to her. She was trapped and before long she saw the bubble begin to sink into the floor. Panicking, Sassaflash pushed against the top of her prison with all the strength her wings could muster, but it was no use, the world quickly grew dark as she disappeared beneath the castle floor