Origins of Madness

by Twi

Chapter 3 - The King, the Demon and a Planet full of life

Origins of Madness
Written by Twi

Authors Note:
I really liked writing this Chapter and I'm proud that it's 4,5k words long, wow! I will update the story as soon as I can, but dont expect a Chapter in the next two days, but I promise to finish it faster than last time :D

Chapter 3
The King, the Demon and a Planet full of life

Life Dreamer entered the Throne room where he would meet the King for the first time in his Life. He was Excited but scared. He was happy but sad that this couldn’t be a good sign. He stood at the entrance and took a quick look over the big room he was in. The room was over a hundred meters long and at least thirty meters wide. He walked on some sort of red silk that led to the throne where the King himself sat. To both his sides stood every ten or fifteen meters gigantic stone pillars that supported the rich decorated ceiling. Drawings of Ponies of all kind could be seen. Some of them he remembered as the parents of the Kings and some others as other great Ponies that became famous for one reason or another. He didn’t like it, but he felt a little bit happy that he attended school even if it was a hell as an outsider.

He started walking towards the throne and stopped five meters before it and bowed to the King. He was supposed to kneel before him until he was allowed to stand up so he did as he was told and didn’t move a hair on his tail. He didn’t dare to look up to the majestic earth Pony in front of him and the time he stood there felt like hours to the unguided Unicorn whose future lay in the hoof of the most powerful Pony in Equestria.

“You may raise.”

Without hesitating he got up on all four hooves and for the first time he got a good look at the Ruler of Equestria. King Starshine the third had a silvery white coat and a golden mane that seemed to float like there was a slight breeze even if it wasn’t there. History said that every pony in his bloodline had this special mane. His eyes where soft looking and had multicolored Iris. They ranged from red to yellow to green to blue. It seemed like his eyes partially resembled a rainbow with slightly paler colors. His Cutie Mark where two crossed golden Keys with a crown on top of them. On the pictures that Life Dreamer had seen he looked different. The King he knew from those drawings looked like he loved his subjects, but in his face was some kind of sternness that told you that you should never anger him. It was like some of the Pictures where hung up to intimidate criminals. But now that he stood in front of him, seeing him for real, he couldn’t spot this sternness anywhere. All he could see and feel was the soft gaze of a Man who loved his subjects to death and wanted them to be happy. There was no anger, no annoyance in his eyes. He didn’t look like he wanted to harm the Unicorn in front of him or even banish him. But besides this love, he could see concern in the Kings Eyes. But who was he concerned for?

“It´s nice to meet you, Life Dreamer.”

“You know my name, your Majesty?”

“Well, who does not?” he stood up and descended from the throne so that he and the Unicorn before him stood on the same ground. Like two equal beings, none better or more important than the other. “After all, you are the Demon of Equestria” he chuckled while he said the last three words.

“Please, let’s take a walk.”

Life looked at him and nodded, not knowing what was going on or why the King acted like he did.
They walked past the door and turned right. They didn’t talk, only walking down the corridors of the Palace, crossing the way of some of the Guards. Every time they walked past some of the patrolling Guards, the armored Stallions and Mares would immediately stop whatever they were doing and bowed down until their King wasn’t in their line of sight anymore. The brown Unicorn would from time to time look around, waiting for the Guards that would take him with them so they could get rid of him. But they never came. After a few minutes of walking they arrived in an open area full of flowers and bushes of all colors. It was the biggest garden Life could ever imagine. No matter where he turned his head, all he could see where some sort of plants. After some more minutes of silent walking, Life gathered enough courage to finally speak up.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but may I ask why we are here, your highness?”

“Please, Starshine will do just fine, no need for formalities. But to answer your Question: We are here because it is a beautiful day and it would be such a waste if we stayed indoors all the day.”

“I-I wanted to know, why I am here, at the Palace I mean y-your hi-highn….. Starshine.”

“It was the minimum I could do for you after my daughters Guards attacked you without any reason. And besides, I always wanted to meet you. You are one of a Kind, after all.”

Life Dreamers Eyes went wide as his head turned around to face Starshine, who had a smile mixed with a sense of guilt on his face like he meant what he said. Like he cared for what happened the evening before. But what stood out the most was that he mentioned the princess. So he DID run into her last night. Most Ponies say that she only left the Palace when she was disguised because she was different.

“Y-Your daughters Guards? That means th-that I really bumped into the princess…”

The Earth Pony looked around and locked his gaze with something that seemed to be far away, or like he thought about something. He took a few minutes before he answered Life.

“Yes, Celestia was quite surprised about that. I think you should apologize to her later when we meet her after her History Class ended.”

“Celestia… So is it true, that you keep her, even her name a secret as much as possible… But why, do you tell me something like that? As far as I know I don’t count as one of the more trustworthy Ponies in Equestria…”

“It is true, only a few know about Celestia, and even less know about my younger daughter, Luna. In my eyes you are not less trustworthy than anypony else. You didn’t give me any reason to distrust you so far, so why should I listen to the same rumors that betitles you as a hellspawn? I love my subjects, but they fear what they don’t know and you are something completely new, so, in the name of all my subjects I want to apologize for their behavior. I´ve seen what you did and why you did it, and I saw what happened to you afterwards and how you´ve been since then.”

‘Did the King just apologize to me? The KING?! Wow… this must be some kind of weird dream… I mean come on, the King telling me national secrets about his not only one, but TWO daughters AND practically telling me that he doesn’t think of me as the demon that I am?’

Life lifted his right foreleg took a look at it and bit as hard in it as he could. The King turned his attention back to the brown Unicorn to his right and gawked at him, seeing him hurting himself for no obvious reason. After a few seconds Life lowered his now slightly bleeding leg back to the ground and had a look of confusion written all over his face.

“I-I don’t understand…”

“You don’t understand what? Why did you bite yourself?!”

Starshine turned around and asked one of the Guards to bring a doctor and a first Aid kit. The Guard only nodded and trotted of. Even if it was a much more… personal place for the King, he was surrounded by Guards wherever he was. Sometimes he would command them to take a break but they always refused to. They were loyal as one can be. The Royal Guard was known for their loyalty before, but inside the Guard they followed one rule over everything, even if it meant to refuse a direct order from the King himself: Keep the King safe, no matter what. The King looked at Life Dreamer, confusion and worry on his face, waiting for the Unicorn to calm regain some composure.

“I should have woken up by that bite…. Ouch….”

He quickly turned his head as he heard laughter besides him, now even more confused than he was before. He could even feel frustration building up in him.

“Oh that’s a good one! No, you aren’t dreaming, this is really happening.”

“But why me? Why should I have the honor of meeting you and your daughter?”

“Because you, my little Pony, are without the guidance of the Life Stream.”

“Forgive me if this sounds stupid, but what is the Life Stream?”

Starshine turned around and started walking, leaving the quite confused Pony behind him.

“Before I tell you, how about we fix your leg and eat something? I bet you didn’t eat anything at all today.”

Just as on cue, Lifes stomach grumbled louder than the deepest growl a dragon could make. At least, it sounded like that for the brown magic user.

“Bucking Cliché….”

Starshine stopped a moment, not being used to hear swears at all. Only very very few Ponies would use the term “Buck” the way, Life did a second ago. After that, he started chuckling and waved his company over to follow him to the dining room.

__________________________________________________________________________

After visiting a doctor and patching his leg up, they walked over to the dining room while chatting casually about anything that came to mind. Like why the Palace needed to be so big or how it felt to have countless servants that would do anything for him. Well, the answer to the first question was because of prestige and to show his political power to non-Equestrians like the zebras or even the dragons (And if you asked Life, he could swear that there was a little bit of because-I-Can in the Kings voice). And the answer to the second question hit Life Dreamer totally off guard.

“They aren’t countless; we have 2.350 Servants who are working in three layers, so there are always at least 760 servants if you subtract the ill and the ones on vacation in the Palace running the whole place.”

The time rushed by and before they knew, they were already at their destination. The dining Room was in comparison to the throne room a small chamber, but for Life Dreamer it was the biggest “small Chamber” he ever was in. It was more or less a big room with a table in the middle that had enough space for twenty Ponies to dine at the same time. Starshine sat down on the upper end of the table and Life took place on the side right next to the King. Only a few seconds after they took place, a servant came into the room and placed a cup of tea in front of the Ponies. The silvery earth Pony told Life that they would wait for Celestia to join them before they ate so that he could introduce her to his guest without interrupting anything. And besides, it was plain rude to not wait for the mare before starting to eat.

Life Dreamer wanted to use the time to ask the King a little more about the so called Life Stream.

“So Starshine, what exactly is the Life Stream? I´ve never heard of it before and you made it sound so…”

Searching for the fitting word the Unicorn drifted off and before he could speak out again, Starshine beat him to it by continuing his sentence:

“…natural? Basic? Like it is the most normal thing in this world?”

Life only looked at him with a blank expression, nodding slowly.

“To put it simple? Because it is the most natural thing that exists. You see, the Life Stream is some kind of everlasting Magic. It is who we are, what we will become. The modern term for it would be our “Soul”. Every living thing, even Animals and plants are made of parts of this Stream. We are connected to it, sharing a bond with it and letting it guide us. It is the little Voice in our head that tells us what’s wrong and what’s right. Because of this connection we can feel peace and harmony. Without it, well, we would be like….”

Starshine didn’t notice the expression on Life Dreamers face, or how it changed from curious to confused and then to sad mixed with anger.

“…Me.”

Starshine only now realized how uncomfortable it was for his guest to talk about that topic, or at least to talk about it in the way he did.

“Yes, that would be right… I don’t know why you don’t have this connection, but I really want to find out and try to help you as much as I can.”

“But why? You don’t know me and all I did in my life was scaring other Ponies and hurting them!”

“Yeah running into another Pony is totally the fault of your lack of a connection to the Life Stream.”

Both, Starshine and Life Dreamer stopped what they wanted to say to turn their head towards the entrance, where a soft chuckle was hearable. Life Dreamer´s Eyes went wide at the sight before him. There, only a few meters away stood a beautiful white mare with a long, pink mane and tail, pink eyes. She was slightly smaller as he was and looked like she was only a year or two younger than he was. But the most noticeable feature about here where the beautiful, well groomed Wings and the long, sharp, Horn on her forehead. She simply stood there, looking in their direction and holding her hoof over her mouth while she chuckled. She had something around her, like an aura that surrounded her that just let him feel… carefree. Like no matter what happened, everything would be good in the end. She walked over to them, exposing her flank to Life Dreamer while taking place on the opposite side of the gawking brown Unicorn. That was the second most noticeable thing about her. Her lack of a Cutie Mark. He wondered why she didn’t have one, but she being another race he didn’t want to ask her now, maybe later after some smalltalk. Before he could even get the grip on one useful thought, his body decided to switch to autopilot, resulting him jumping up and bowing before her as deep, he didn’t even know he could. The Royal Ponies in front of him exchanged quick glances, before starting to laugh. Hard.

Despite the fact that his fur was mud brown, the blush on his face was clearly visible. Just in the moment he bowed he realized, how embarrassing it was and pulled up again, but seeing the King and his daughter nearly holding their sides from the laugh flash they experienced told him, that it was already too late. He sat down and waited for the both to finish their laugh and returning to the issue at hoof.

“Princess Celestia, my name’s Life Dreamer and it’s an honor to meet you. I’m so sorry for what happened yesterday, I had a bad day and was lost in my thought so I didn’t see where I was walking and….”

With another small giggle, Celestia interrupted him:

“It´s nice to meet you too, Mister Dreamer. As you already know, my name is Celestia and as you already stated too, I´m the older daughter of King Starshine. Sadly, Luna, my little sister, can’t make it in time today, so you probably won’t meet her before tomorrow. And don’t worry, there is nothing you must apologize for, it was an accident and no one got hurt, so everything’s ok.”

After that, her smile turned into a small frown.

“But what happened afterwards, I am truly sorry for and I hope that you can forgive my Guards for what they did, seeing that they did it only having my wellbeing on their mind…”

“They did what they thought was right and I’m still alive, so there won’t be hard feelings towards them. If I wouldn’t have been lost in my thoughts this wouldn’t have happened. Besides that, I was allowed to sleep in that awesome bed!”

At that time, a few servants came in and served their food. It was nothing special. At least nothing special for the Royal Ponies. But for Life Dreamer it was food paradise. Before him lay the biggest amount of food he’d ever seen in one place. Dandelion sandwiches, Hay burgers, Apple Pies, Apple fritters, sweet treats like Cupcakes and Muffins of all sorts. His mouth begun to water and after thanking his King, he decided to eat a Hay burger and a piece of Apple Pie. Starshine ate an Apple fritter and Celestia took a Dandelion Sandwich and a Cupcake. While they ate, Life could see a small grin form on Celestias muzzle while she eyed the brown Unicorn opposite her.

‘She's really beautiful…’

Life could feel his face heat up and blood rushing in his face. To his luck, he had a dark colored fur, what made it significantly easier to hide a blush, as long as it wasn’t that strong. He continued to look at her, seeing that it obviously didn’t mind her. She would have said something if she’d mind, wouldn’t she? After they ate their fair share, Life sat back and with a content sigh he looked around with a big grin on his face. He didn’t know why this happened, but he didn’t care. He wanted to enjoy this day, he could wonder about it later. He wanted to thank Starshine for his hospitality, but Celestia beat him to it.

“I’m happy that you found my bed comfortable enough.”

“huh? What do you mean, Princess?”

“Just call me Celestia, I never liked my Royal title at all. And you said earlier that the bed you slept in was comfortable and seeing as it is my bed, it makes me happy to know that you enjoyed sleeping in.”

“W-wha-WHAT? That was YOUR bed? But if I slept in your bed, where did you sleep?”

Life blanked out after hearing this, he hoped she didn’t sleep on the couch; he could never forgive himself for being so rude. Even if he was unconscious at that time.

“What? You didn’t notice me lying beside you?”

“Y-y-you d-did WHAT? I-I-I-I… you’re joking, right? You must be joking!”

At this point, Life’s head was a deep crimson red and way beyond recognition. If they didn’t know who he was, they couldn’t guess it anymore. He shuffled on his cushion and looked between Celestia and Starshine, who only looked at him with a look that said “Why do you look at me?”

A few minutes went on without anyone saying a word. His face still blushed like crazy and in his head, all kinds of images run through his mind and to be honest, some of them weren’t… family safe to say the least. He shook his head and banished the dirty thought s out of his mind, but before he could say anything, Celestia looked at him and decided to go one step further. He can’t die of embarrassment, so why not? Well, that’s what she believed anyway.

“If you don’t remember, you could sleep in my bed tonight again…”

They locked Eyes and Celestia gave him a little wink. Now, Life’s mind was full of dirty minds rendered with confusion and embarrassment. He couldn’t turn down an offer of the princess! But what would her father say? What would everypony say?

“I think you teased him enough, ‘Tia.”

“Awww, but dad!”

“No buts, dear. Don’t you see how uncomfortable he feels right now?”

“S-s-so y-you only t-teased me?”

He looked over to Celestia who in response only nodded, not saying a word. It seemed like she felt bad for teasing him like that. His mind raced at an incredible speed, trying to compute all the input he just got.
‘So I didn’t sleep in her bed with her next to me? And I won’t sleep with her in the same bed tonight?’
He felt himself relaxing, but deep in him he started to feel disappointed. It wasn’t every day that you get to be so close to one of the Princesses! But he was happy to be at the Palace in the first place, so his disappointment held itself in limits. Now, that he could think clearly again, he wanted to make her taste some of her own medicine.

“Wow that was cruel, Celestia.”

“Why so?”

“You had my hopes up…”

This time it was Celestias turn to blush. But she didn’t have the luck with the coloration of her coat. Even the slightest blush was visible on her fur and at the moment, she wasn’t blushing slightly. She tried to stammer some words while frantically looking back and forth between the two Stallions in front of her. Before she could say anything, she was interrupted by her father, who started to laugh heartily.

“Hahaha, that’s a good one, Life! I will really enjoy your presence here at the castle!”

Life was suppressing his laugh seeing Celestia acting like she was dumbfounded, but that subsided as soon as the King came up with that statement.

“Wait, what do you mean with “my presence here at the castle”? I thought I should leave after the dinner, I mean, I need to find a job and I still have to furnish my new home and I have a lot of other things to do…”

“You see, the reason why I brought you here, Life, was to offer you to stay for a while. As I told you before, you are one of a kind and I would like to get to know you better and study you. Maybe we could find out why you don’t have that connection to the Life Stream. And after all that you´ve been through, this is the least thing I could do for you. So if you want to stay, I would be more than happy to arrange you a more furnished room for your stay.”

Life Dreamer couldn’t believe this. He now was 100% sure that he was dreaming, but then he felt the wound on his leg again. But this couldn’t be real, could it? He, the most feared Pony in all of Equestria was allowed to live in the castle? The Pony that was literally considered a monster was allowed to be friends with the most powerful Pony and beloved Ruler of the Kingdom that hated him so much? He must be in some kind of coma. Yeah that’s it! That’s why he didn’t wake up from the pain earlier! But when this is a dream, he could also go with it and accept the offer.

“I guess my home will survive without me being there… If you really want me to, I would like to stay at the castle. But you don’t need to prepare anything for me. The room I slept in is more than enough for me…”

“Funny AND humble, I wonder how you ever got that ghastly title you have.”

The Unicorn turned his head to Starshine who eyes him curiously and took a deep breath.

“To be honest, I don’t wear this title because I act like a monster all the way. It´s more impulsive like an overreaction. In some situations I lose control and act the way the others describe me… I can’t promise you that this won’t happen here, but I will do my best to keep my feelings in check.”

The King put on that soft smile of him and nodded in acceptance.

“I believe you, Life. So, now that it is decided that you stay at the castle,” he turned his head to Celestia. “Why don’t you bring him to his room, my dear? I bet he wants to get some sleep after today.”

Celestia stood up, a hint of childish glee in her eyes. She trotted around the table but stopped to Life’s left. She motioned for him to follow her, what he of course did. They walked down the long corridors while he answered all the questions Celestia had. Like what is was to live in the City or how it was not to have to be in company of over twenty Guards just to leave the Palace. Well, most of his answers contained “It feels kinda…. Normal?” of an alteration of this, but the meaning was the same all the time. They reached the corridor that led them to his room but Celestia stopped at the door next to his room. She opened the door but turned around before stepping in and faced Life Dreamer once again.

“The next door will lead you to your room. I think you will live next to me for a while,” then, she pulled him close to her and whispered in his ear. “And just so you know it, my offer still stands.”

After that and a small giggle, she stepped in and closed the door. Now dumbfounded and red like a tomato, he tripped over towards his room. It where only a few meters but all he could think about was what the beautiful Alicorn had just said. He entered his room and wanted to get to sleep. But after hearing this, he really needed to take an ice cold shower first. Once he had finished and was dry again, he walked over to his bed and made himself comfortable on the oversized bed. He let the events of the past day rewind in his head and tried to figure out why he had the luck for this to happen to him. After some minutes he felt his eyelids getting heavier and he decided to call it a day. He snuggled under the blanket and closed his eyes. Only a few seconds later he drifted off to sleep.

Comments

[JeremyPunk]

Dreamer and Tia ship is best ship.