Society as We Know It

by Comma Typer

Royal Kindness

"I cannot believe it," Nastic said as the sounds of cutlery being laid neatly on the long table accompanying dainty plates of scrumptious foods that emitted smells that were perfumes and colognes of the culinary kind. "I just want to say those words again: I cannot believe it."

The cutlery and the plates stopped glowing yellow. Princess Celestia's horn stopped glowing yellow, too. She yawned, covering a mouth with a hoof.

Windows, both normal and stained, embellished the tall walls, giving a view to a stormy, darkening Canterlot—the sky was now grayer than before, some buildings already had their lights on, and pegasi were hovering in the sky, flapping their wings as their eyes went from this cloud to that cloud, from this portion to the sky to that portion of the sky.

The floor was tiled—black and white were its colors, giving the room a homely feel that made it safe from being too royal. Most of the chairs were wooden but they were carved elegantly—intricate designs were embedded in them, all of them abstract and pretty. Two chairs at one end of the table stood out—they were carved with metal. One had a symbol of the sun, the other had a symbol of the moon.

"I would like to stay and chat, but, it's almost sunset," Princess Celestia said, looking upon the five changelings and her sister who were all seated at the table. "Think about five minutes."

Then, Princess Celestia exited the room.

Silence was in the room.

The changelings looked at each other. Surprise could be seen in their faces.

"So, will you eat?" Princess Luna asked, turning a fork around with her magic. "Look!" She pointed towards a plate of pancakes. "Did you know that my sister made these pancakes?"

"Really?" Long Winded and Eucalypti said in unison as they eyed the stack of pancakes.

The pancake on top had a smiling face made up of blueberries and strawberries.

"It's so cute!" Long Winded yelled. He brought up his fork and scarfed the pancake down and gulped it and drank a glass of water. "I would do that again!"

"Don't you realize the gravity of, well, what we're dealing with?" Nastic said, raising his voice. "We just got freed by the Princesses from a punishment—we should've been in jail or doing some community work or, well, doing something that we wouldn't have liked!"

"Yes, Nastic," Princess Luna said, "we know about that. However, what's done is done. I thank you for saying such words about us, but do not let that distract you from the festivities you should be partaking in."

"You heard the Princess!" Arthtropod yelled. Then, he took a slice of apple pie and downed it with a single gulp. "Let's eat! Chow down!"

And all the changelings except Nastic raced to get the first slices, the first pieces, the first of everything before it was gone in their tummies.

Luna's eyes went wide; the Princess witnessed the speed and the agility that the changelings expressed in their mission to grab the choicest of parts, the freshest of the fresh, the top when it came to the scale of deliciousness.

Lightning flashed and the room was brighter for a second.

Then, thunder.

Yet, the changelings went on eating and feasting. Eucalypti even went up from his chair and hovered over the plates to pick each food he wanted with hsi fork—from fresh fruits like apples, oranges, and strawberries, all the way to the more complex foods like the pies and the eclairs and the cakes.

Nastic merely picked a slice of apple pie and slowly chewed on his food, eyeing Long Winded as he plunged himself into the frenzy of eating. He finally gulped down his first slice of food. "Well, this is going very well."

"I...have not seen such behavior at the royal table before," Princess Luna blurted out.

Nastic caught a glance of Luna's face. "Oh, no. We're going to jail for sure."

Luna smiled.

Nastic looked surprised. "The Princesses...they're not as I thought," he muttered. He looked at his plate that now had crumbs and a fork. He looked at the Princess again. "I...think I should've asked more ponies about how the Princesses were like."

He grabbed the fork.

He turned it around, inspecting it.

The fork was shiny and a little reflective. He could see his reflection on the fork.

He eyed the apple pie in front of him.

Nastic smiled.

"Alright, might as well jump in!" He looked at the Princess. "Thank you for the invitation, Princess Luna!"

"You are welcome, Nastic. Join your friends in...this kind of eating." Luna hesitated, observing the chaos that was going in front of her at the table as the changelings yelled and shouted, their yelling and shouting punctuated by times of eating and gulping food down. "I shall eat at my own pace."

The Princess grabbed an apple with her magic and took a bite out of it.

Nastic, however, happily grabbed a slice of apple pie and chomped it down.

Luna chortled; she quietly got another apple with her magic.

Then, the sky darkened, becoming grayer until it was decidedly very dark, dim. Outside, all of the buildings of Canterlot had their lights on, although the storm and the fog made the lights a little hard to see, a little blurry.

Luna looked at the window. "Oh, it's almost time for me to perform my royal duty of guarding the dream realm." She contemplated and surveyed the disorderliness that was on the table—glasses were shaking, close to being spilled but not quite; crumbs were flying everywhere as pieces of food were being held on precarious grips of both utensil and hoof; the changelings talked to each other about which food was better than the other, often fast.

"I shall leave you to your food," Luna said, smiling subtly as the Princess went off her chair and walked out the room.

---

The unicorn stood on the red carpet.

Inside the long hallway, a clear view of the outside could be seen through the windows on both walls. The sound of rain continuously pouring on Canterlot was louder than before, the wind howled with more force than it ever had before. Although there were lights in the distance, they were hard to see. Then, there was a flash of lightning quickly followed by the thunder.

The unicorn checked his bag.

Then, he walked towards the big double doors at the end of the long hallway.

The doors opened.

"Princess Luna!" The unicorn bowed down to the blue alicorn with her ethereal and flowing mane.

"You do not need to do that, Opinion Editorial," Luna said.

"You don't need to call me that, Luna," the unicorn said as he stood up. "My close friends just call me 'Op Ed.'"

"Alright," Luna said, nodding. "Do you have any pictures to take inside? There are some changelings eating at the royal table."

"Interesting," Editorial said as he scratched his chin. "I should tell Press Release to cover for me tomorrow. She has more than enough resources for all of Princess Celestia's goings then." He paused. "Wouldn't you want me to take some pictures of you?"

"Doing my work?" Luna asked. She giggled. "I don't think you would be able to go to the dream realm that easily."

"It was nice meeting you, Princess," Editorial said as the Princess walked away.

"It was nice meeting you, too."

---

"And, we're only halfway done with the food, guys!" Eucalypti yelled as he held up a fork that contained a slice of bread. "Sandwiches for every changelings in the room?!"

The rest of the changelings, even Nastic, held up their forks with pieces of bread.

"On the count of three!" Eucalypti announced. "One!"

"One!" the rest of them yelled back.

"Two!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

The double doors opened.

Eucalypti dropped his fork.

The rest of the changelings looked at the newcomer.

"Uh, this is the place where the Princesses eat in the castle, right?" the unicorn said. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Opinion Editorial, but you can call me Editorial. Yeah, some ponies tease me for my long name, but I'm making something of myself, at least!"

"And, what are you doing here?" Arhtropod said. "Are you here to take pictures of us and place them on newspapers for all to see, for all to know that we ate here once?"

"Maybe twice if I can manage to get you there again," the unicorn said, smirking a little. "Anyway—" He brought out a camera "—why don't you just ignore me for a while and get on eating?"

"That would be perfect," Nastic said, placing a hoof around his friend Long Winded.

"Woah, I didn't see that one coming," Long Winded said in surprise and shock.

"What I want to hear," Editorial said.

The five changelings went on feasting on the food in their chaotic, disorderly way.

Editorial brought the camera close to one of his eyes using his magic.

---

The guards stood outside under the intense rain. The rain hit their armor hard, making a loud noise as it did so. They stood firm, their faces unflinching in the face of such extreme conditions, their stances as hard as concrete and stone despite the storm.

"Any idea why they decided to delay the storm?" one guard said to another. "They should've had it on schedule—if they had, we wouldn't have a downpour this large."

"It's all about the elite ponies here," the other guard responded. "Especially the unicorns—most of them. Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee are the only ones I know of that aren't all pompous, aren't all flashy about their things and about what they own. Always entitled to have the perfect day, so when they get some dirt on their hooves, they're going to complain to the guards here, to the police in Manehattan, to the Princesses, might even write a letter—hoof-written, not typewritten, I'll add."

"I don't think that's how big the problem is," the first guard said.

"I can't blame you," the other guard said. "You're new. I've been guarding the Princesses ever since I first joined the forces several years ago. Sometimes, it's wonderful—you get to escort the Princess to various places. So, you get to go, say, Appleloosa and you get both the excitement that Appleloosa gives you and the privilege of guarding the Princess. But, usually, it comes down to just standing here, making sure nopony does something bad."

Then the double doors opened.

The unicorn walked out of the castle and held his hat in the fierce weather, covering half of his face.

The guards eyed the unicorn as he walked down the stairs and to the road.

---

"Done!" Long Winded yelled as he held his two hooves in the air.

The table was in a miserable state. Plates were scattered everywhere, glasses weren't in their right places, crumbs were spread all over.

"I think we pretty much ate everything that was edible back there," Arhtropod said as he hovered over his seat. "Now, let's get back to—"

A flash of lightning. And then, thunder.

Arthropod remained silent for a while.

"Alright," the changeling said. "We can still manage to get out of Canterlot, right? The train is still available, right?"

"If we can even get to the train, that is," Nastic said, his demeanor dimming. "Who here brought umbrellas?"

The rest of the changelings looked at each other.

"No umbrellas, then? Then again, we don't need umbrellas, anyway. Who's ready to fly fast against the wind?"

Nastic smirked.

---

The train doors opened.

Several ponies went out of the train, hurrying to get to the staion. Most of them were quick to check their belongings—some of them placing a hoof over their bags to make sure they wouldn't get wet.

Then, a few ponies were yelling and screaming.

The train conductors looked out the doors.

Five changelings finally crashed into the train, making a dent on the wall.

"I told you we could make it!" Arthropod yelled as he raised a hoof in the air. Before he brought his hoof to the floor and closed his eyes and slept.

The rest of the changelings stood up. "I hope that we made no certain damage to your train, mister," Nastic said, facing one of the train conductors.

"Look at the wall!" the pony yelled as he pointed a hoof at the wall.

The four changelings looked at the dented wall.

"Oh, we're awfully—"

"Just take a seat!" the pony yelled as he held up his yellow watch.

The changelings carried Arthropod and quickl took their seats.

Comments

[Comma Typer]

8296687
That's good. I fixed it, now. :) Sorry for any inconvenience.