Chapter 26
I let out a small relieved sigh as I stepped out into the cool night. It might be getting towards summer again, but still not amazingly hot.
The nights were at least nice and cool, and that was something I really appreciated at this time.
“You seem uneasy.” Luna said as she exited along with me, frowning down at me.
Giving her an unhappy look, I shook my head, “I... would have appreciated a warning before ending up face to face with yet another royal.”
As it turned out, it was not actually a state visit. Princess Cadence was the princess of Love, not a actual physical place.
It was simply a personal visit. She was the adopted niece of Princess Celestia and nowhere near as old. She actually looked her age.
It didn't mean I liked being dropped in the middle of it though. I really wasn't used to socializing in these kind of circles.
Luna frowned, “...Sorry.” she apologized as we wandered through the garden, passing by where Discord had once stood. Now there was a statue of a frog in his place. “I didn't realize it would bother you.”
I stopped and eyed the frog before continuing along the path, walking along beside her, “It's fine. I'm just not used to this kind of thing.” I explained before I chuckled up at her, “Luna, everyone in that room outranked me so much I feel like I should have been getting a nosebleed.”
She looked a bit confused at that, “Nosebleed?” she asked hesitantly.
“An air pressure joke.” I said with a grin before I took a right turn off the path to collapse into the grass with a sigh, “Even so, I did feel rather out of place.” I admitted as I enjoyed the cool grass.
There was a ruffle of feathers and grass as Luna settled down next to me, “I believe you might be thinking of it wrong, Page.” she explained, “It was not you meeting a third princess and a captain of the royal guard. It was you meeting a relative of mine and her fiancee.”
I lifted my head from the grass and looked over at her where she way laying, next to me, looking at me in amusement.
“I suppose you have a point.” I admitted with a sigh, “But even so... a bit warning next time?”
She smiled at that, “As far as I know, there are only three Princesses in existence. So the situation is unlikely to come up again. But you did seem to enjoy yourself.”
When I stopped being nervous... or rather got less nervous... I started talking with Shining Armor. He found it interesting I was in the class for guardsmen but was annoyed that I used it as a sort of exercise and had no intention to actually join.
I'm not entirely sure how, but by the end we were discussing tactics for storming a building using sugar cubes to mark out the walls and cookies for ponies.
He was really rather good at it and was good at explaining. I think I did manage to surprise him a couple of times though, got to love growing up on action movies and real time strategy games. Also, they've not heard of flashbangs before, but I think he liked the concept.
I think the Princesses all found it rather amusing.
“Once I got used to it.” I agreed and rolled onto my back, looking up at the moon.
Luna chuckled and nodded, “Well, you better, I do intend to invite you to royal functions in the future. If only to have somebody else there I know and not just my sister.”
That caused me to look over at her in surprise, “You're going to start going to them?”
She shifted a bit uncomfortable, stretching her wings before folding them again before she shook her head, “Yes... and no. Not quite yet. I wish to become more accustomed to this world first, it would not due to cause an embarrassment.”
“Do you miss your world?” I asked carefully as I looked up at her. The last month her mane had started to become more animate. A bit more like her sister, sometimes it stirred despite there being no wind and it had started to darken, getting more sparkles, like stars in the night sky.
The Princess shifted again, this time to roll onto her back next to me, looking up at her moon, “This is my world.”
“You know what I mean.”
She sighed and for a long moment I didn't think she would answer before she finally spoke up, “...Sometimes. But I can see that it is much better now. Less tension, all of Equestria's neighbors are either peaceful or too weak to be a threat. There have been many hundreds of years of peace, the ponies of this age are much more innocent than back in my time. Celestia has been a good ruler.” Luna said quietly.
“Equestria does look like a really nice place.”
“Better than it used to be. I have looked at the history books, they make things sound a lot better than they were at times.”
I frowned at that. That was something that I did 'not' like. Forced to repeat history if you don't know it and all that. But I suppose history back home would be different for somebody that lived it as well. And it was not 'that' whitewashed.
There were plenty of wars written into the books I have read between the three tribes. Or subspecies as I liked to call them. And somehow I doubt Luna and Celestia's takeover had been as bloodless as it sounded in some of the books.
She had mentioned leading legions once.
I glanced to the side at her. Less... immortal moon deity and more Xena, warrior goddess, I suppose. Did I have a problem with that?
No. No I didn't.
I simply couldn't see either her or Celestia being cruel about it... and I did know the world they ended up with and it was a long time ago.
Equestria was a great and safe place to live. The people were happy, free and safe.
“Do you miss Earth?” Luna asked after a moments of silence.
Turning back to the skies, I considered that for a long moment before I nodded, “Yes, but not as a whole. I miss some things. Family, friends; The Internet, Books just don't measure up to the internet sometimes.” before I frowned, “And some things you don't want to hear about.”
Luna rolled onto her stomach to look down at me, “Such as?”
I groaned, “I just told you that you don't want to know.”
“Should not I be the judge of what I am to know and not to know?”
“Be it on your head then. I miss meat, perfectly grilled medium rare steaks.” I said, opening my eyes to look up at her.
“...Oh...” she finally answered, looking slightly queasy at that idea.
I chuckled, “Told you.” before I shook my head, “That's something I will never eat again. Even if cows were not thinking beings here, I'm a unicorn now. I can't eat meat.”
“It's easy to forget your previous species were omnivores.” Luna admitted and settled down again.
I nodded, “Mmm, I suspect that I'm having a easier time of going to only eating plants than a pony would have going to a more varied diet though.”
“Needless to say.” she agreed with a nod, “Gryphons and their fish is difficult enough for most ponies to accept. You may wish to keep that part of your past from most ponies.”
“Not like I'm telling everyone about it at all.”
I should most likely not mention to anyone, including Luna, that I had eaten horse in the past. Not that it was a favorite or anything, I preferred beef or pork. Or chicken.
We stayed silent for a while as I looked up at the moon before Luna spoke up again, “Page... you never talk about your family.” she said softly.
I swallowed and rolled onto my stomach, hesitating as I rubbed my right hoof at the grass, “It... hurts to remember, I'm never going to see any of them again.”
“It might help to talk about it.”
Taking a slow breath I nodded and started to talk. I told her about my mother and father.
My sister I never used to get along with until we stopped living under the same roof.
My friends I never really saw enough.
I wasn't sure when I started to cry, but it was just before Luna put her wing over my back and pulled me close, draping her neck across the back of mine in a sort of hug, letting me rest my head against the base of her neck as I leaned against her in return.
We stayed like that for a long time after I finished talking. My tears had stopped and dried when I finally spoke up again.
“...Thank you.” I whispered softly against her fur.
In response, she held me a bit tighter with her wing, “Thank you for trusting me.” she whispered back.
We stayed like that for what seemed like hours in comfortable silence before Luna let out a small giggle to herself, causing me to turn my head slightly to look at her.
“What?”
“I just realized that being spotted like this is unlikely to help dissipate rumors about us.” she giggled.
I couldn't quite bring myself to care at the moment as I relaxed again.
Stats
Page generated in 0.038 seconds
Total duration
915 users online
205,918 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Too cute!
Loving this!
Ha. And the Xena comparison is perfect in more ways than one, with the evil conqueror thing and all... I bet they'd get along. Love your story!
This is criminally good so far.
What is with the meat eating taboo? They live in a world of predators, for crying out loud! Why make them so darned sheltered?
6850997
Not really sure what they would be smelling, but i have a rabbit that hides under it's plastic hut and burrows into its bedding when my guardians cook meat. Could be that the smell of meat makes them queasy or something.
6850997
I think it has to do with ponies being a "prey" species, so the predators are above them on the food chain.
As a result, ponies tend to avoid associating with those who eat meat in order to avoid ending up as the main course for dinner.
6917852 Yeah but i guess eating meat could be shown as a way of saying they weren't prey or at least were a tier above in the food chain or whatever.
maybe they just can't process meat :/
7765654 If you don't eat meat for a while you won't recognize it as food anymore. I personally can't stand the smell or sight of even processed meat. It stinks from dozens of meters away.
After not eating meat for a rew years you should probably avoid it unless you enjoy indigestion.
Also, the concept of superiority is complete BS.
There is simply no such thing. Nature doesn't work like that.
Don't forget the
Winter Wrap-up episode. They take care of animals not murder them. It's an important part of pony culture.
Considering the nature of this story, the importance regarding major cultural differences and how I generally like to encourage the correct use of the words 'intelligence', 'sapient' and 'sentience',
I'm thoroughly disappointed that the main character didn't learn the meaning and correct use of these words and just throws them around, as the misuse of these words can lead to some blatant misconceptions, indirectly causing serious harm.Then again, he is not a very smart pony and some social religious and scientific dogmas linger much too long.
The 43 people who disliked this are crazy.
7942440 Now 45
7942440
There are a certain percentage of bronies that simply don't like Shipping fics with OC/[Insert pony here] because they're too shallow to see that they aren't always self inserts.
But I agree with you; this is actually a really good fic.
7998537
Know 49 butnwith thousands of likes
I ponder this sometimes. How much would I be willing to give up for Equestria? Family and friends? My responsibilities? My humanity? The closest thing I can think of to Heaven this side of eternity; what would it be worth? It would be so hard to forget, not that anyone would want too...
Luna needs more friends. A lover would not be bad to.
I have seen things.... horrible things.
Ichabod plots his revenge.
Princess Nyx: "How dare you forget about me, sister. I will have my revenge!" *skips off to her DIABOLICAL BOUNCE CASTLE OF DOOM*
But... The rumors are true!
I personally like medium-well steak.
EDIT: Wait... did someone really dislike my comment that simply said my opinion? Yeesh, go to show how rude someone could be over an opinion...
10343414
Around my area here you can't get medium rare-safe meat. Minimum is medium well, just to not get sick.
I really want to know what the hype surrounding them is all about, though.
10475087
If you have a good quality stake that is rare, it's melt in your mouth soft.
You know, I really can’t get over how cute Page and Luna’s relationship is...
10343414
Twitter user had attacked you.
Dawww... Stallion shows his feeling with his guard down. Snuggel that poor Stallion Luna
10475087
People say it makes the meat more tender and juicy, but its really a matter of preference
10475087
basically, better texture. Less dry as well, and ARGUABLY more flavor
10475087
I suppose you either like it or not. Same thing with liver - you can fry it until it's grey and brittle, or you can leave it red and juicy inside. Some people enjoy it (I enjoy it a great deal), and some... find it disgusting, I suppose.
I've noticed that people that like their meat "juicy" and "rare" tend to subtly exhibit more predatory behaviours in general, so it may simply be an expression of the more base sides of our genetic legacy.
Also, you can eat more of the chicken than just the legs or breasts. I encourage you to give chicken hearts a try. Also, see if you enjoy beef tongues (or hearts, too). I personally enjoy fish heads a great deal as well. Interesting tastes can be found in places you normally don't care to look.
10955068
A male generally only shows his feelings towards those he trusts. It’s not something that just happens like that…
They made contact, now only a little closer and we get litte Wonas
♡