Trapped In Canterlot

by TartarusFire

C19 - Aware

"Strange. I was unaware that a letter could be a legal last name. Most ponies just use their race if they could not have thought of one. No matter, you are Caedes, young filly." He placed the document stack on the tiny nightstand next her bed.

Arrayed in a concave pattern, the beds were spaced by a small table, about half a square meter of table space.

He left, planning on calling in the next nurse, since his cousin accidentally moved her up into the next timeslot as well. "Really, Whooves. Next time check who is being notified, so ponies like her don’t have to blamelessly suffer."

***

Walking through town was always a hassle. Ponies would, bow, greet with title and overall just be sticks in the mud asking for ‘royal’ favors. Today though, today Princess Celestia was almost glad an incident occurred with enough walking space for several blocks cordoned off by guards.

She had her walking space without the bustle of ponies; she could truly enjoy the serenity. Stopping to nod her head to the left, she reminded herself that this was caused by something no luxury was worth. A piece of darkness seeded the area, having caused turmoil in her city.

Ignoring the quaint scenery, she trotted upon the ending of the journey. Being the most heavily guarded spot by over eight ponies to rebuff any citizens from entering, an area was specifically marked off in front of the posh garden.

To the untrained eye, the cobbles were ordinary. However, if one were to look hard enough, there were smudges on their dim opalescent surfaces, further clouding them with dark red, nearly gray. An even more expert eye would have to notice the speckles further out, where one would have summarized where she was thrown.

Currently thrown for a loop, Celestia wondered if the documents have already been processed by both offices. Taking leave, she worked backwards along the trail, noting the positions of strewn objects. At the main intersection of East Street, a tree was specifically sanctioned away, which bore the deep mark of a cut.

Ignoring the stares and calls of the passersby in the street, she flew over them, continuing to the end of her journey. There was markedly less of any disturbance here, but when she asked a guard they had replied that it was necessary to keep the entire scene away from public eyes.

And her eyes finally gazed the building. It was white on the outside with a tiled roof. Everything was neat and orderly, the lawn showing no signs of being molested by hooves; it embodied the word pristine. Except the wall.

It was charred and blown apart. Remnants were strewn outward with debris moved into the hole in the wall from the fight. She was going to approach the destruction, but several guards came out with objects enclosed in the standard quarantine unit, a metal box.

"Princess," A thick browed guard acknowledged, "How may we serve you?" He bowed slightly, making sure not to drop the four boxes he was levitating.

"Ah. Strongbrows, my faithful caption of the guard. I have come to directly investigate and learn what has transpired. Bureaucracy will likely make this into a mess before it gets to me, so I have decided to become directly involved in what can be summarized as a momentary crisis. The nobles and parliament have already asking questions, and I need to provide answers and reassurance."

"Understood Princess." He bowed further, placing his boxes on the ground while his subordinate rose and took leave with the contained objects. "Now that we have a moment of peace, what would you like to know?"

Silently thanking her apt guard, she responded with a small but bright smile. "I understand the events of what happened, but I do not know the identities of the ponies involved, nor do I know the reasons behind such actions. I need to know whether or not this affects us beyond this event."

"The last night shift passed in the paperwork for the identification. It should be processed faster than the other documents submitted later, so we’ll know the exact ponies living here, but I believe I know at least one of them. My guard who had been missing is still gone and I summarize from his employment documents is that he lived here at one point—"

She cut him off with a curt nod. "Thank you. I only needed to know the rank or title of the pony; your suspicions have been noted. As for the reasons.. have you found any of the belonging inside the home to be of significance?"

"Well, some of them are strange and others are normal. My guess is that something just wasn’t quite right in the household, like distrust or something. Although, we did find a smokehouse in the basement along with some quack alchemy items, so I suspect some pony was not quite sane in the head. I bet it was the mare, possibly the filly’s mother." Strongbrows shivered.

"I – I understand that feeling, captain. Madness is not a path any pony should trot down."

He took a bit of reassurance in her words. "We’ve found some interesting and possibly condemning items of significance though."

Strongbrows whistled toward a guard with a red marked metal container. The default white guard passed it over on a wing to his commanding officer. "Here. I don’t know what it is, but it just feels.. wrong."

Celestia picked the cube up, sliding the top off. The contents took her breath away and made her magic flicker. "But ..How? I thought this was destroyed when we..."

***

A rapturous sound needled her ears. A slight thrum of magic buzzed around the room. A faint smell she could not place made her muzzle scrunch in disgust. And something was stuck to her hoof.

She moved, trying to peek at herself, failing to move or to open her eyes. The crust around her eyes was nearly impossible to dislodge. Using her free hoof, she rubbed the crusty substance off of her eyes only to find light blinding her. Rolling over, she peaked ever so slowly at her leg.

It wasn’t stuck to her, it was in her.

Author's Note:

Eeey! 100 Views. Pretty Good If I say so myself.

Thanks to all of you sticking around for the read, and appreciating this random story!