Bearer of Misfortune

by Kitsunin

Meetings

Morning light shone through the leaves of the tree I had chosen. For a moment I tried to continue to sleep, hesitant to begin another boring day. A moment later the realization of where I was ran through my mind, and the excitement brought me to waking in an instant. I dropped out of the tree I had chosen to sleep within, landing clumsily and toppling over; I was not enough of an acrobat to be sleeping in trees.

This was it, today I would meet the princess. I wasn’t sure what I expected to accomplish, but I had a faint hope that maybe I could feel carefree in the way she was when I first saw her. The garden was still so calm...it felt like I was in a new era of my life; one without the chaos and sadness that I was surrounded by in the city.

I took a sandwich out of the bag of food I had brought. I had found a good haul of food the other day, with a surprising amount of wholly uneaten foods. It wouldn’t last more than a day or two, but hopefully that would be long enough to find somewhere in the castle to smuggle food from. I stashed the bag in a nearby bush, preparing to continue searching the castle. The garden could be my home base: it was quite large, contained plenty of hiding places, and appeared to be largely unused.

So now, where might the princess be? I had no idea what sort of schedule royalty, particularly young royalty, might have, and the castle was such a huge complex. It wasn’t used much outside of special events though, so it would probably be easy enough to avoid notice.

There would be a week before I could leave again, so I had all the time I needed. I could just scout the place out today if I had to; I hated to think that though, the anxiety was so strong that another day of waiting seemed impossible. I left the garden, heading back onto the path I had been using yesterday. Today I would take it the rest of the way around the castle, and work out what all of the buildings were; later I could use that knowledge to have a bit more informed plan.

After just a short period spent walking, I saw a group of wealthy ponies. They were conversing, waiting outside of a particularly large building. They were within the main area, and the servants’ path was still slipping by, mostly hidden. As I continued on, it became apparent that something was wrong; during the time I had been trying to get into the castle I found that usually only a few ponies would enter on any given day. Today, however, there were many ponies; there must have been some sort of event going on, if only I had a way of telling what day it was.

I couldn’t go to any of the main areas: with my disheveled appearance I would stick out too much and surely be kicked out. The population of the castle was becoming too much, and only more ponies would arrive. I would eventually be found if I didn’t go somewhere more concealed. I turned around, heading back to the garden. I accepted that I would just have to wait a bit longer before I could get this over with.

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As I hoped, the garden was still deserted. I couldn’t say for sure that it wouldn’t fill up as more ponies arrived; if it did, it would be quite a pain. I think I could hide well enough, the garden was quite big, but it would still be risky.

I entered the clearing I had stashed my bag within, and was surprised to find it was not entirely unoccupied. There was a young white mare riffling through the contents of the bag. Her pastel colored mane and combination of wings and horn made her immediately recognizable. It was incredible luck, yet didn’t feel like it at all. I wanted time to prepare, to think of just what I wanted to say. I realized that perhaps it was best, this was a more natural situation than I could ever conceive. “A-ah, hello?” I managed to say.

She quickly turned, kicking the bag away in an obvious attempt to hide that she had been bothering with it. “Hey!” she blurted out. When she saw me she sighed, calming down. “Oh, you’re not...?” she trailed off, looking at me suspiciously, “are you a servant? I swear I recognize you from somewhere.” she said, leaning in towards me.

“Uh...” I said, “well, no. Actually—”

“Well you certainly aren’t a guest. How very interesting.” she interrupted.

“I sort of...um.” I couldn’t just tell her I snuck in, could I? She appeared to be the sort of pony who might actually find such a thing exciting, but there was no guarantee.

“I bet you snuck in!” she said conspiratorially, “you wanted to meet the royal princess, so you snuck into the castle.”

That was exactly what I did, and exactly the reason I did it, but I knew she wasn’t serious when she said that. Nonetheless, I decided to roll with it. “That is exactly why I’m here!” I said.

Her eyes lit up as she laughed. “Of course! So what’s your name?”

“I’m...Diz,” I said. My parents were foreign ponies. Where they came from, rather than using words for a name, and shortening them into a more speakable nickname; they just started with a short name. That meant most names didn’t have much meaning other than what the parents liked the sound of, however.

“Dis,” she said. She couldn’t pronounce the Z sound, so it came out as an S instead; something that I found quite endearing. “Is that short for something?”

“Nope, just Diz. Weird, I know.”

“It’s very unique! I’ve never heard a name that didn’t have some sort of meaning before. I’m Celestia, by the way...but you probably already knew that.”

I laughed. “Of course: if I came here to meet you, then how could I not know who you are?”

Celestia shot me with a suspicious glance, but visibly shook the feeling away. “But call me ‘Tia!” she paused, her face forming an irritated expression, “eh, sorry, but I can’t stick around: I snuck away from my parents, and I’m supposed to be greeting the so called important ponies with them today.”

“Oh, well, um...” I wanted to say something else, but nothing came to mind, “...bye.”

She began walking away. “I hope I can see you again sometime!” she called back, “back here sound good?”

“Sounds great!” I called after her, grinning. Before she went out of my vision I noticed her posture become more coordinated; the amount of contrast between it then and when we were speaking was immense. I assumed that she had been much less inhibited around me than she normally was; she was royalty, after all.

That had gone far better than I could have possibly hoped. I still did not have the slightest clue what she thought of me, it was especially odd that she wouldn’t press for further information beyond my ‘jokes’. Regardless, the tough part was over, now I could just wait. Living in the castle would be much easier than any city, at least, if I could find somewhere to get food from. I fetched my bag of food, its contents had been mushed somewhat from Celestia’s examination; it was still perfectly edible though: a bit of crushing wouldn’t ruin food that had already been found in a dumpster.

I climbed back up into the tree that I had slept in last night. This time around, since I was in no hurry, I searched around for a little bit. At the present the tree was not bearing any sort of seeds, so I couldn’t tell what type of tree it was. I was able to find a very nice, concealed spot in the crown, perfect for laying and sitting in. For the rest of the day, I watched the nearby goings on from my perch in the top of the tree.

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The next day I was able to locate the castle’s kitchen, and, luckily for me, there was even a big dumpster that they used specifically for foods. A brief rummage through it found that it contained mostly ingredients that had been thrown out, either because they were excess or they had gone bad. By my standards it was all still edible, but I really had hoped to find something of a little higher quality. Maybe some extra uneaten food prepared for the royals. With my luck looking up I was starting to become a bit greedy, expecting things only to get better.

Still another few days passed uneventfully. By now, I had worked out what most of the buildings were, including the lodgings of the royal family. Unfortunately the majority of the goings on were inside of the buildings, and I was not going to risk going indoors. I had not seen any of the royal family during this time, it seemed odd that I would never have seen them go outdoors in all this time. It was bad luck, I suppose; that, or they actually never did go outside. I was starting to become a bit impatient, but Celestia had said she would meet me in the garden, and I had no reason to doubt that. She was busy, I was sure.

One night while I was sleeping I was awakened by an unfamiliar voice. “I know you’re around here somewhere!” it called. I tried to ignore the mare whom it belonged to, hoping she would go away, but she didn’t. “Come on out, seriously!” she continued, in a slightly exasperated tone. This time it was from directly beneath the tree I was in.

I peeked out from my nest, looking below. The young mare appeared to be hiding a feeling of distress, but also...I could not believe what I was seeing. She appeared to have both wings and a horn, just like Celestia. It was common knowledge that the king, queen, and their daughter were the only alicorns in Equestria, yet somehow not only was there a fourth alicorn, but I of all ponies was seeing her.

A branch rustled, not from me, but from a bird flying from somewhere else. It didn’t matter though, as it still caused the Alicorn to glance up. “You’re...in the tree?” she wondered aloud, “look, I guess I can’t blame you for hiding, but there’s no need to worry. I’m perfectly okay with weirdos like you living in the castle.”

I gave her a confused look, beginning to make my way down from the tree. “Um, who are you?” I asked, “I-I thought there were only the three alicorns.” I slid down onto one of the lowest branches, now I would just have to jump out without screwing up like I so often did.

“Those would be Celestia and her parents? Well, I’m the fourth, their other daughter: Luna.”

“But...I thought they only had one daughter.” I leaped down and once again my knees buckled underneath me, causing me to collapse pathetically, groaning.

Luna giggled, making me even more embarrassed. She quickly became serious, though. “No, I am the second, but they were supposed to only have one, and if it were known that they had a second...well, apparently it would cause problems, so I don’t get to go out much.”

“Huh...that’s kind of sad, I guess.” I said, standing up.

“You guess? Almost nopony even knows I exist and you’re saying it’s just kind of sad?” she said. Her words indicated more offense than her voice’s tone did; rather, she actually sounded curious. “Like...you know what it’s like?”

“I can’t say I know what it’s like to be ignored. It seems to me the less attention the better,” I said, recalling all the problems other ponies had caused for me. My parents being taken away by guards, my home being taken away by the landlord, then all the hatred directed at me for being lower class...it would have been nice if others weren’t so necessary for survival. Still, there were moments, like then, when the presence of others didn’t seem to be such a negative thing. “At the very least, I would rather no attention than bad attention,” I added.

Luna appeared thoughtful. “I disagree with you there, I think I would rather any sort of attention myself. I think it would quickly become unbearable if I didn’t know anyone at all.”

“Well, I suppose that isn’t something I would want to find out.” I did not really see any reason to think about it beyond that.

“Your thoughts are quite interesting, but I suppose before talking about these types of things we should get to know one another a bit better,” she said. Something struck me as a bit odd. Talking about these things she was speaking in an almost entirely different way than she was at first. Perhaps that was the difference between formal and informal speech for someone with a royal education. “My sister said she met you here, it sounded very interesting. I suppose you stay here, in the castle?” she asked, “You are Dis, right?”

“Um, n...” I paused, I actually somewhat preferred being called Dis to Diz. There was not much of a difference, sure, but Diz was a name that I had only bad thoughts of. My parents even rarely called me by it, preferring to simply call me ‘son’; I think it was because of their foreign accent. “...Yeah, that’s me,” I continued, “and, well...pretty much. There’s not much of anywhere else for me to be, and, weird as it might make me; it feels like at least it’s something to do. Otherwise I would just be in the city, surviving,” I explained, “but what about you? Do you really stay in the castle all the time?”

Luna looked down. “Well...I’ve never left, and everyone I know lives in the castle. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, most servants don’t work here forever, so I can’t make many friends. It’s not exactly easy to hide a horn or wings, which means I don’t get to meet anyone my family doesn’t really trust.”

“So then, why are you speaking to me?” I asked, “only one who knows me is Celestia, and even she just barely.”

“Well, I haven’t received permission to speak with you. My sister was telling me about the odd pony she met in the garden. She seemed to think you were quite interesting, so I thought I would visit. After all, you’re not somepony anypony would take seriously if you did say there was a fourth alicorn, no offense.”

“None taken, I’m willing to admit that I’m kind of...” I paused, considering how very strange it was that a pony in such a poor position could still somehow be meeting such important ponies. “...weird. It has a lot to do with luck though, you know.”

“I’m sure it does, but surely it took guts to actually sneak in here; guts, and a very strange sense of priorities.” she said. Her coat began to brighten just a bit, morphing from the black she had appeared to be in the darkness of the night into a deep blue. I turned my head, seeing the sky beginning to light up from the rising sun. Luna now looked a bit anxious, she turned away from me. “Sorry, but I have to go now. Everyone wakes up very shortly after first light, and I shouldn’t be gone when they do,” she said to me, trotting away without even first waiting for a response.

“Um...goodbye then,” I said, awkwardly looking about. I wasn’t sure whether meeting Luna was more or less strange than meeting Celestia. Luna did not give me the same strong impression that Celestia did, she felt more normal, like someone who would make a good friend maybe. Celestia on the other hand was made to be royalty, being within her presence alone invoked a feeling of awe. It was odd though, that Celestia would make more of an impression on me, as Luna’s personality was much stronger; not only that, but I was one of the only ponies who even knew the royal family had a second daughter, much less actually met her.

It felt almost surreal the way the things that were happening now seemed simply to be a part of life. It felt like there had to be some sort of conflict, some goal to have, but there just wasn’t. I had been drawn to meet Celestia, and that was as far as I had thought. Now I would only need to stick around and see where this took me. I did not really see where it could lead though...if I became a friend of the princesses’, what could happen after that? It was difficult to say whether it would be appropriate to be excited about the possibilities, or if perhaps it would just end there and things would continue on as they had been.

Comments

[Gypsy]

very good, I wonder how'll this turn out

keep it up

[Nazidash]

Love the story so far.

[Nero Darkard]

Good chapter. Though Celestia's behavior kind of irritates me.
I would have expected her to either be very exited or alarm the guards or anything like that... yet on the other hand... in the cartoon, she also just takes things as they are.

This adventure starts to take quite an intressting turn. I can see where the main character might end up.

Looking forward for the next chapter.

[Kitsunin]

96453
She is kind of irritating I suppose, looking back at it. I was going for sort of a 'youthfully naive' type of character for her, for now at least. She, and Discord too of course, heck, even Luna, might be out of character now, but for this story, character development is everything.

[Meta Knight]

fantastic

[Xandalite]

This is turning out well. I have high expectations for this story.

[Nero Darkard]

It kind of makes me sad you haven't updated this story for such a long time.
Im still eagerly waiting for the next chapter.
Hope dies last.

[Zervziel]

Any chance of this being updated at some point?

[Nero Darkard]

I think its official now.
This fanfic is dead and the author abandoned it.
I also lost my interest to see how this is turning out.