• Published 10th Mar 2014
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The Monster of Canterlot - drnkntst



When a human child appears in Equestria, somepony will have to take him in.

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Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I was woken by Bunny, as per usual, the next morning. She seemed a little more upset than normal. She didn’t even speak to me for a while as she simply cleaned the room while I got dressed. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Did I do something wrong?” She didn’t say anything, but instead slapped a copy of ‘The Canterlot Star’ on the bed. ‘The Star’ was a local tabloid rag that not many ponies took seriously, most just picked it up for a laugh. “What’s this about?”

“Read it,” she growled.

I recovered from the mild shock and looked down at the paper. On the cover was an etching of a few buildings against the night sky. That most likely wasn’t what she was upset about. The most probable candidate was the ape-like creature depicted. It was black and had long claws and an open mouth showing sharp fangs. The headline was four words, ‘MONSTER SPOTTED IN CANTERLOT’.

“Hmm, interesting. Though I don’t see what this has to do with me”

“Don’t give me that. That’s you on the cover.” She saw the mild hurt in my eyes when she said that. “No, that’s not… you know that’s not what I meant. Look, I know you feel cooped up in here, but this is what your mother was worried about. What were you thinking?”

I sighed, “that maybe there was something else in this world other than this palace. I thought, maybe I could meet some new ponies and make some friends. Maybe even meet a mare. I could have a life. I could have friends. I could find something other than a room in a tower.”

“Maybe somepony would have seen you and panicked. They could have started a monster hunt.” Just when I was thinking she was exaggerating, she came up and hugged me around the waist. It was then that I realized she was crying. “You could have been hurt. I don’t want to see my friend get hurt.”

“Hey, hey,” I scratched behind her ear, “crying isn’t fair.” She let out a single chuckle. “Fine, I get it, I won’t sneak out of the palace anymore.”

She let go of me and wiped away the tears, “okay, now let’s get to breakfast. I’m sure the princess is waiting.”

We walked together through the halls, I could hear whispered conversations cut short every time a pair of guards came into view. When we entered the dining hall, Celestia was at her normal spot as was Blueblood. She didn’t acknowledge our entrance, but instead, continued to read her paper. Blueblood, however, did.

“Did you have a nice day yesterday, cousin?”

I ignored him and sat down for breakfast. A tray was laid before me as I turned to Celestia. “Good morning, Mother. Did you sleep well?”

The paper she was reading was laid on the table. It was ‘The Star’. “No, in fact. I was up quite late worried about this very thing.”

I looked down at the etching for the second time that morning. “Honest, I have no idea who that guy is.”

She slammed he hoof down on the table so hard, it split the wood and made me jump. “This is no time for jokes, Christopher!” She took a deep breath as I sat back down. “I will be holding a press conference to nip this in the bud. If ponies think there is a monster loose in the city, who knows what they’ll do.” Blueblood mumbled something under his breath that everypony ignored. “I will tell them a monkey got loose from the gardens.” There was a snicker from the other end of the table.

“Why not just tell them the truth?”

“Chris.”

“They might accept it.”

“Chris.”

“I might be able to go outside…”

“Chris!” I stopped. “I don’t think it’s a good idea at this time.” I felt like giving up at that point. She saw my look of total defeat and gave in a little. “I will think about it,” she lifted my chin with her hoof so I had to look into her eyes, “okay?”

I nodded and stood from the table. “May I be excused? I’m not hungry right now.” She nodded. As I walked by Blueblood, he decided to, metaphorically, cut me a little deeper.

“Don’t worry, cousin. I will bring you a banana later. After all, I know how much mon-”

I grabbed his ear and leaned down to whisper into it, “call me a monkey, ape or monster one more time, and I will sneak into your room while you’re sleeping, shave you bald, drag you to the center of town and hang you up by your dock. Call me an abomination, and I swear to everything holy, I will have my first taste of pony meat. You understand?” He nodded and I let go.

After Bunny and I left the dining hall, she asked me, “you… you wouldn’t really eat him, would you?”

“Nah, his meat wouldn't be any good,” I smiled down at her, “he’s spoiled rotten.” She actually giggled at that.

Later that day, Celestia had arranged a press conference to be held at the grand staircase. This way, she could stand on the first landing and be easily seen by everypony. What they couldn’t see, and I doubt even she knew, was I was hiding at the second landing behind the doorway. I could hear everything this way.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I’m sure you’ve all seen the report about the alleged ‘monster’ loose in Canterlot.” There was some babbling going on amongst the crowd. She raised a single hoof and the crowd silenced. “I want to assure you, there is nothing to worry about. I don’t wish to discredit any of the ponies that saw the alleged creature, but I believe that they were merely mistaken, caused by a trick of the light or something similar. What the supposed ‘monster’ was,” I begged in my mind for her to tell them about me, to let me have a life among the very ponies I was supposed to rule, “was nothing more than a large ape that wandered off from the palace gardens. He has been returned and I have been assured that it will not happen again.”

She had just screwed me. I would either have to spend the rest of my life within these walls or run away and leave everything I knew behind and probably wind up dead within a year. I was furious. She had hurt and betrayed me. My own mother had secluded me from the rest of the world. So I did what any teenager would do, I acted out.

I screamed with the best chimp call I could, grabbed a vase off the plinth right next to me and threw it as hard as I could. It exploded against the archway. I stormed down the hallway, smashing everything I could get my hands on.

“Ahem, well it seems they are getting him under control as we speak. I believe I had better go and help them. If you will all excuse me. There are refreshments in the foyer, please help yourselves.”

She walked up the stairs calmly and regally. That is, until she went through the archway, repairing the vase as she went. As soon as she was clear, she galloped straight to my room where I had locked myself inside.

“Christopher! Christopher, open this door!”

“Go! Away!”

“Chris, let me in so we can talk!” She said as she was starting to power up her teleportation spell.

“Don’t you know!? Apes can’t talk!”

She froze. Her jaw dropped as her power quickly drained from her horn. It hit her. She had not only denied the existence of her only child, but she had called him an ape. She had done what she had tried to stop everypony else from doing his whole life. How could she? Why must she always push away the only family she has.

“Oh, Chris, I’m… I’m sorry.”

Tears streaked down her face as she walked back to her room, her head hung almost low enough to drag on the marble. She ordered the first guard she saw to keep everypony away from her room except me. She canceled her court for the first time in centuries, claiming fatigue as the reason. The real reason was she didn’t want anypony to see her soaking her pillows with tears.

It was a full two days before she came out of her chambers, and another week and a half before I spoke to her again. That was also around the time of the next Summer Sun Celebration. I couldn’t just leave my mother to suffer through that alone, not ever again.

*****

After that debacle with the tabloid story about the ‘monster’, there were still a few stories of sightings. All of them centered around the palace, its gardens and the woods nearby. Admittedly, those were all places I frequented, but I fully deny having been spotted. Even that one film that supposedly captured what was being dubbed ‘Bighoof’, I still swear that was hoax and in no way footage of me walking near a river in the woods.

Two years, and ponies were still buying into it. Of course it was true, there was some unknown creature that was living in Canterlot. It was very elusive and ape-like. It walked upright, was mostly hairless, and was omnivorous. All those the legends got right. What they got wrong was I do NOT smell like rot and decay. I take pride in my hygiene.

Twilight had learned a lot from Celestia. Enough to be frightening if she ever got angry enough, she could potentially remove Canterlot from the mountain it rested on. However, she seemed unwilling to branch out among the populace. The only friends she had were myself and her brother, oh, and Spike.

Spike was an interesting case. Technically, Twilight would be his adoptive mother, but they didn’t see it that way. For the two of them, he was her assistant and she was his caregiver. At best, they seemed like brother and sister.

Shining had realized his dream, managing to become the youngest captain of the Royal Guard ever. Without my help too. We had trained every day in the gardens, just like always. Sometimes, Cadence would even show up to visit. Now, I knew she wasn’t there to just see me. She and Shining had been dating for a full year now, it took him that long just to ask her out.

After my blow up with Celestia, we managed to talk things out and put the whole ordeal behind us. She still loved me and I her. It had also only taken a month to get her to stop apologizing for calling me an ‘ape’. I had to forgive her, to this day, she kept allowing herself to be the target of nasty rumors about her personal life just to protect me.

I was nineteen now and still living at home. Dust Bunny and Iron Hammer had a foal last year, a beautiful filly unicorn, like her mother. I loved that little filly and Bunny made sure to bring her along to visit me often. It was Bunny’s attempt at making sure there was at least one pony in Equestria who was never afraid of me.

Today, it was a couple days before the Summer Sun Celebration, again. I was spending the day with Celestia, in the throne room of all places. I had wanted to stay close by, for her sake. Besides, court around the time of the Celebration was always light. So light in fact, that Celestia had toyed around with the idea of simply cancelling court during this time of the year.

“How you holding up, Mom?” I asked as I played with the water in the small pools by her throne. I had always wondered how she made them flow nonstop like that, but I knew what the answer would be, ‘magic’.

“I’m doing well, thank you.”

“Really?” I deadpanned.

“Surprisingly, yes. I have decided to visit Ponyville for this year’s Celebration and they are making the arrangements as we speak.”

“Ponyville? You mean that little village in the valley below the palace?”

“The very same. I’m very much looking forward to it.” She leaned down and lowered her voice. “I hear they have bakers there that would put even our own to shame.”

I chuckled, “of course. Just make sure you leave enough for them to sell to other ponies, alright.” She swatted my head with a wing. “Hey~!” We exchanged a smile and a laugh.

“Actually, I chose Ponyville simply because it is the closet town to my old home, commonly called the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It is where I lived with my sister exactly one thousand years ago and, I just wish to feel close to her again. Even if only for one day.”

She was still smiling, but I knew better. I stood up and wrapped my arms around her, nuzzling into her neck. She returned the affection. “I’m worried about you, Mom. I know how hard the Celebration is on you. Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I can hide away in your room or something, nopony will ever see me.”

She kissed me on the forehead, “thank you, Chris, but I’ll be fine.”

A few seconds later, a scroll popped out of a puff of green flame. It was a letter from Twilight. Celestia unrolled and read it aloud.

“My dearest teacher,

My continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that something really bad is about to happen! For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle”

She finished reading and I could see the hurt in her eyes. Twilight had just, inadvertently, reminded her of what she always considered to be her greatest failure.

“Mom?”

She sniffed and shook her head, “it’s okay, Honey. I’m fine.” She took out another scroll and a quill, then she started writing.

“My dear Twilight,

There is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville. And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!”

I chuckled a little as she read aloud while she wrote. I only wished I could have been there to see the look on Twilight’s face when she got that letter. My joy was short lived though.

Another copy of ‘The Star’ was laid in my hands. The headline was one I was all too familiar with, ‘BIGHOOF SPOTTED NEAR CANTERLOT’. It even had a blurry photo of me.

“What, I was careful and you said I could go into the woods. Besides, I was looking for those morning glories you love so much.” Morning glory is a type of wild flower. First time I picked some for her, I cried because she ate them. “It’s not my fault some pegasi foals wanted to go on some Daring Do adventure.”

That was how I became known as the Monster of Canterlot.