Fairy Tale

by Veck

The Royal Family

Royal Palace, Equestria
November 13th

If one were to, at random, pick a citizen from the tens of thousands currently residing in or near Wedgemare, and asked him or her what they thought of the royal palace—chances are that they’d answer by complimenting its beauty. With just one look at the thing, a sensible pony would find it difficult to disagree.

A pleasant departure from other structures like it made throughout history, the royal palace of Equestria was built with more than just ‘protection from sieges’ in mind. Instead of an unsightly moat and draw-bridge to surround the castle walls; bushes and flowers of reds, blues, and many other colors were planted around the exterior. And not only that—said flora was of the best quality to be found in the land, and was cared for each day by countless garden workers.

While the walls surrounding the castle were made out of a special granite enchanted for protection (it might’ve not been their first thought during construction, but safety was still a priority to them), the castle itself was constructed mainly of rich marble colored a grayish lavender. The rooftops completely abandoned that gray tone.

The interior of the palace had a strange look to it—to some, it seemed to look like two completely different buildings meshed together. Or at least with how the rooms were decorated. This unique look came from a decision that both the king and queen were going to have a say in how their home was to be designed—and to put it frankly: let’s just say that the two of them had much different tastes when it came to interior design. As a result of this, some rooms had simple, bright and sleek colored walls; with paintings and the occasional suit of armor as just a few examples of features. A simple stallion—and the king’s preferences reflected that personality trait. Other rooms instead featured elegant designs on their walls, each and every one of them one-of-a-kind, painstakingly crafted by only the finest artisans in Equestria. These, of course, were the queen’s choice.

One such location would be the throne room. It featured incredibly high walls, which stretched up to meet a pointed ceiling of glass. A thick blanket of the sun’s rays shone through the skylight, completely illuminating the large room and soaking it and its two inhabitants with warmth.

Said inhabitants, however, were so caught up in a debate that the temperature was probably one of the absolute last things on their minds at the moment.

“You know Gunther won’t like that, Hurricane.”

Keeping the partially rolled-up scroll in front of her with magic, Queen Platinum took her gaze off the paper for the first time in an hour to finally look back at her husband. King Hurricane shifted in his seat, the glare on his face never wavering as their eyes met. He snorted, quirked a brow and asked, “And why would that be?”

Platinum rolled her eyes and glanced back at the document. “You know why. Griffonstone just finished a very expensive war against a few of those zebra tribes. And seeing as King Gunther’s father gave us assistance with money back when Equestria was first founded—he expects us to at least return the favor.”

“And you know that that war was almost completely pointless, Platinum!” he shot back, throwing his hooves in the air. “That body of water they fought over isn’t even the size of the Verdigras—and I’ve SWAM across that—”

“Yes I know, Hurricane, I know,” said Platinum. She leapt down from her throne and set the document down on it, walking over to the stallion to nuzzle his cheek. “We just can’t really afford to risk losing what few allies we have, Hurricane—you know that.”

The king sighed, the expression softening on his face as he leaned down to return the unicorn’s nuzzle. “I know, I know...it’s just…”

“You’re worried about Celestia and Luna?”

Hurricane nodded, the crown on his azure mane sliding slightly from the movement.

“They do this all the time, Hurricane. I’m sure our little fillies are just having fun over in Wedgemare or at the lake,” said Platinum, readjusting her king’s crown with a giggle. “Celestia’s smart enough to make sure the two of them don’t do anything too dangerous.”

“...what about the time she accidentally lit Clover’s mane on fire a few years back?” The dark blue stallion’s smirk clashed strangely with the still-worried expression shown through his eyes.

Letting out a snort of laughter, the queen was shaking her head as she returned to her seat. “Oh, so my advisor’s pain is funny to you, hm?” she asked sarcastically.

“No—but come on, darling; Clover put the flames out quick enough.”

Platinum nodded, but put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Say, where IS that mare, anyway...? I sent her to get our children nearly twenty minutes ago now....”

“...so you were worried too, huh?” Hurricane asked, that signature smirk of his returning with full-force.

“Oh shush, will you,” the queen replied. Though the sternness of her voice was betrayed by a small smile on her muzzle. Still amused by her husband’s usual antics, she turned her attention back to the scroll from King Gunther. Just as she began to unroll it again, however; the main door to the throne room flew open.

King Hurricane’s eyes bugged out in pain when a blur, identical to him in color, nearly knocked him out of his throne in a tackle.

“FATHEEEER!” cried Luna, tightly wrapping her arms and wings around the stallion.

Hurricane wheezed. Regardless, he returned the hug the best he could and grinned down at her. In between pained breaths, he said, “Hello...little...Lulu. Where...have you been?”

“I was over in Wedgemare with Tia and our new friend!”

Having quickly recovered, Hurricane gave Platinum a quick glance before asking, “You two made a new friend?”

“Mmhmm!”

“Well...where are they?” Platinum asked, squinting to see if she could spot anypony through the still opened door. “And speaking of which—where’s Celestia, too?”

“She’s right here, your highness!”

Just then, three figures entered the room. Queen Platinum smiled as Clover and Celestia walked toward her and her husband. That smile faded slightly as she noticed that the two of them were being tailed by some unfamiliar, bipedal sort of creature. Looking over at the king, she could tell he was just as confused as her.

Celestia ran over to her confused parents and gave each of them a hug—which each of them returned, though their eyes never left the stranger still standing over by Clover. The unicorn respectfully bowed her head, shifting uncomfortably in her cloak. She cleared her throat before speaking. “Your highnesses, I apologize for getting your children back here a little late. They weren’t at the lake like I first anticipated.”

Platinum considered answering, but her husband beat her to the punch. “It’s no big deal, Clover,” he said, smiling down at her from the raised platform. “As long as they got back here in one piece.”

“We’re perfectly fine, father,” Celestia chimed in. “Luna and I were just showing our human friend Jonathan around Wedgemare when Clover arrived.”

What kind of name is “Jonathan”? Queen Platinum thought, her green eyes taking in the sight of the...human. That’s not really the...most urgent concern at the moment though, is it? With no prior experience with this kind of creature, I don’t have a way of really judging if he’s dangerous or not.

In spite of the previously stated example of Clover’s mane being the unfortunate victim of a misfired spell, the queen still wholeheartedly trusted her eldest daughter to not trust the wrong ponies. Sure, she was still in her very early years, but there was a genuine intelligence about her—Luna, too—that often betrayed their ages. Her and Hurricane had done the best they possibly could to raise their daughters right, even whilst already juggling the royal duties thrust upon the two only fifteen years ago.

Out of the corner of her eye, Platinum looked at the blank expression on her husband’s face and wondered, for a split-second, if he was sharing the same thoughts or concerns as her.

Suddenly, a warm smile broke out on Hurricane’s face. He stepped down from his throne and in a loud voice, said to the human, “As one of the rulers of Equestria, I— King Hurricane—welcome you to this land...Jonathan.” The name sounded strange on his tongue, but his statement still rung clear. “I trust Celestia and Luna enough to know that they wouldn’t befriend somepony who could be dangerous.”

It took a seconds for the words to register in Jonathan’s mind. When it did, though, a giant smile turned the corners of his lips upward. He opened his mouth to spew countless ‘thank you’s to the king, but it quickly became apparent to him that Hurricane had more to say.

“While I trust that you will harm none of our subjects, Jonathan, that does not mean I have no curiosities about you,” he said.

The queen spoke up this time. “That is true on my part, too,” she announced, her elegant voice easily heard throughout the large room. She stepped down from her throne and descended the stairs until she was on the same floor as Jonathan and Clover. As she walked a bit closer, she said, “Forgive me, as this may sound rude, but you do look quite...er, different, than most creatures I’ve seen in Equestria. Granted, I’m not much of an explorer, so that might not say all too much. ”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to bring up, Platinum!”

Clover face flushed slightly when Queen Platinum looked at her. “I-I mean—y-your highness….”

Platinum only shook her head with amusement, saying, “Clover, you’ve been my advisor since before that old conflict with the windigos! You have no need to refer to me with such formal terms.”

“B-but you’re royalty!”

“Yes, but I was royalty even back then. That, and you’re my friend, Clover. Please, just refer to me by my name.”

“A-alright. Heh, sorry, your hi—Platinum,” said Clover, quickly correcting herself.

“Now, as you were saying?”

“Right, right...now, as I was trying to say. I AM an explorer—or at least, I was back when I was still Starswirl the Bearded’s student—and I’ve never seen anything like Jonathan here.

“With further research, I could possibly find a select amount of creatures with similarities to humans, but even then the similarities are few and general at best. ...the closest thing that comes to mind is the maximus demonus, A.K.A. the minotaur, and even with those the differences FAR outweigh the similarities….”

While she wasn’t completely familiar with the exact scientifics, Platinum understood the gist of it.

“Excuse me, Clover?”

Attention in the room turned to Celestia. “From what he said, Jonathan over there originates from a whole different world from ours,” she said, oblivious to the effects of her words on Jonathan. She tilted her head, glancing at said human. “What was it called again?”

“E-earth,” Jonathan said, his voice break. If he wasn’t damn near-shaking in his figurative boots at the moment, he would’ve been deeply embarrassed about the voice crack.

Clover turned wide-eyed toward the boy. “You’re from a different world?!”

He nodded. The urge to run slowly started coming back to him.

“Oh my stars, this...this is amazing…” Clover muttered excitedly to herself. She started pacing around the throne room, with occasional glances at Jonathan. “This will be the scientific discovery of the decade if it’s true...an extraterrestrial being in Equestria…so much...hehe, so much DATA to be found….”

Trembling slightly, Jonathan took one step back toward the door. That look on the green-maned unicorn’s face was starting to freak him out. Noticing that his shoes made near no sound, Jonathan took another step back. Then another.

Luna noticed these small movements and flew over, standing in between Clover and Jonathan. “What do ya’ mean, data?” she asked, frowning at Clover. Jonathan saw this and...was shocked for a moment that somebody would actually defend him. Wait a second, no...friendship. Is this what having a friend is like?

Clover stopped her pacing, apparently shaken from her momentary daze. She blinked, then glanced at Luna, then at Platinum, then back to Luna, then finally—she looked over at Jonathan. At the terrified expression on his face. As she realized just how carried away she got with her reaction—a cold feeling of shame filled her chest.

“Sorry, sorry, I...got a little carried away,” said Clover, her gaze to the rug below her hooves. She sighed, then looked back up at Jonathan. “I knew you were an unusual creature, but...from a different world? Is that really true?”

Jonathan calmed down a bit, but still kept his distance from the mare. “I’m...pretty sure, anyway. I just woke up by the...by the…” he trailed off, trying to remember what the name of the lake was. He knew Celestia had mentioned it earlier. Back when they were near that one river. “...the...ugh—that one lake near the forest.”

“The Verdigras?” King Hurricane added helpfully, now sitting close by Platinum.

“Yeah! I just woke up this morning to find myself on the shore of the Verdigras.”

Clover quirked a brow curiously at this discovery. “Do you...recall what happened before that lead you to waking up there?”

Jonathan racked his brain, trying to recall what exactly he had been doing the day before he woke up this morning, but a lot of it was fuzzy. It had started off as most normal days did for him—waking up early in the morning. Several hours before his foster parents, thankfully, so he could at least watch some television before they woke up. After they had gotten up, Jonathan quickly left the apartment to get away from them and walked around outside. One thing lead to another out there in the city, and the next thing Jonathan knew—he was running for his life from some thugs.

How had he gotten them so mad at him? He couldn’t recall.

Gritting his teeth, Jonathan focused as much as he could into remembering the next few events. He remembered being caught, that’s for sure. You generally don’t forget a punch like that. After that, though…

“You having trouble remembering?” Clover asked.

Jonathan nodded, but kept his mouth shut. Things were becoming less cloudy in his mind as he looked deeper. He remembered climbing the ladder to the top of that building. The jump—even now—still gave him chills as he looked back at it. He...still felt sort’ve guilty about lying to the hotel worker, but desperate times call for desperate measures, no matter how dick-ish they may seem after the matter.

Suddenly it hit him.

“I...think I remember what it was that happened.”

“What was it?” Celestia asked. It became apparent then to Jonathan that quite literally everybody in the room was looking at him now. Even two guards in full knight’s armor, which had been standing posted outside of the throne room when Jonathan, Clover, and Celestia first came, were peeking into the STILL open doorway.

Ignoring the additional onlookers, Jonathan said, “These two men threw me into a lake. I could’ve sworn I had drowned, but the morning after I...I woke up here.”

It wasn’t really thrilling.

“How barbaric!” Platinum exclaimed after some time.

“What...could you have possibly done to make them do such a dastardly thing?” asked Hurricane, a concerned expression on his face.

“I...I really can’t remember.”

“Well, I’m sure whatever it was, it could not have possibly been bad enough to warrant such awful behavior,” said the queen.

Luna chimed in, saying, “Yeah!”

“Where...where were your parents during that situation?” asked Celestia, tilting her head in confusion.

Jonathan scowled. “Back at my home, probably—though I doubt they would’ve cared much, anyway….”

“What?! How could you possibly say such a thing?!” the queen asked, a hoof held over her muzzle. Her usually calm face was now contorted in an expression nearing horror.

King Hurricane looked much the same, though to a lesser degree. “I’m sure they’re worried sick about you, Jonathan.”

“Normal parents would be—anyway, uhm...Clover?” Jonathan asked. Avoiding any further questioning about them, he quickly changed subjects to (hopefully) divert their attention. “You were saying something earlier about using a—uhm, a ‘scanning’ spell, I think? When are you thinking of doing this again?”

“We just have to go into my laboratory to do it, so...whenever you would like, really.”

With one last glance at the other inhabitants of the room, Jonathan sighed and—with great hesitance—said, “Now is okay.”

“Great, great. I’ll show you the way then, come on!”

---

“So your height is 5’8. Would you say this is average height for young boys your age, or…?”

“Nope. Most boys I knew were only around 4’10 or 4’11 at most.”

“Early bloomer, then.”

Clover’s lab turned out to not actually be that bad. It sort’ve reminded Jonathan of the library in a way, what with the wooden shelves lining the walls and the countless books completely filling said shelves. Aside from those, though, it had a few features that Jonathan figured weren’t really standard-issue in most scientific laboratories.

In his world, at least.

On a desk that sat in the large room’s center; various pieces of what appeared to be equipment used for alchemy were set-up in a disorganized manner, though the glass vials, alembic, and retort were shined to near perfection. A safe assumption would be that the drawers of the desk were filled with ingredients used to create potions—Jonathan, however; didn’t feel it would be wise for him to do test that theory. At least not until he was sure that whatever was in there wouldn’t kill him from the slightest whif.

Another thing that mystified Jonathan within the room was this strange table off in the corner of the room. Its top was marked by these luminous, green patterns that seemed to glow with the steady rhythm of a heartbeat. Once again—Jonathan didn’t dare touch the thing. Maybe he’d have Clover give him a tour of this room at some point in the future.

Along with a tour of the castle, for the matter. That thing looked menacingly huge from the outside alone, and knowing what magic could do to buildings….

Author's Note:

Meant to get this out a couple days ago, but oh well.

Oh, and just as a heads-up: due to some school assignments, I might not be able to update this story next week.