Reborn

by Pensive

Chapter 25 - Creepy!

Hm, Hm, Hm, Hm, Hmm

My head bobbed left and right, humming a song from home. Mark even joined in bobbing his head a bit.

With Celestia, we passed maids, well-dressed ponies, and guards everywhere. For some reason, I just felt more lively, and judging from Mark, he was the same. Perhaps it was the ice cream, but at least we're not on a wild tour of the castle looking for the kitchen.

I returned a smile to a maid who waved to us as we passed by. It was long until Celestia commented on my sudden cheeriness.

"What's got you two so lively?"

I looked up to see Celestia smiling down at us, "Dunno, I just feel like singing for some reason."

I continued to hum happily. I notice some of those stained-glass mosaics from before, and at this time of day with the daylight shining through. I didn't really take a look last time as after a trip, you tend to get tired, but now that I look again, it was all perfectly in place with red carpets going down to what I assume is the throne room.

Earlier, before we came to the hall, we passed by quite a large group of ponies, which I assume were waiting for the court to open as they prepared their cases. Celestia was swift at redirecting us around them before they noticed.

Ahead of us, were what could only be called the throne room doors. Guards were placed there, but two ponies were having a chat casually off to the side. One was a gray unicorn stallion who was busy writing on a clipboard as the other rattled off a string of something I could only guess to be a schedule. The other, another unicorn stallion who bore a white coat, blue main, and the ponies equivalent to a formal suit.

And to top it all off, he had a monocle. I'd guess he was either high society or some part of the nobility, which coming from Celestia aren't the best sort of people you'd want to know.

Once they noticed us, the white stallion sent off what was probably assistance of some sort before we came walking up to us.

"Ah, Duke Fancy Pants," Celestia called, "It's so good to see you, though I had thought you left earlier on a trip abroad with your fiancée?"

"Please, I do believe I said just to call me Fancy, yes?"

Celestia smiled with a little roll of her eyes, "Ah, yes, sorry, but I hope nothing has happened? I have Court to attend."

"No, nothing of too much importance. Fleur came down ill, so it's back to work for me. I'm just here to say that the train lines the crown helped fund near the Saddle Arabian border are being delayed due to bad weather. Though it won't have substantial impact, it does mean the material is just sitting in a warehouse, and the predicted cost is going to rise a bit."

"I see, that won't be a problem. I'll see to it that the cost of handling the material is handled, thank you. And tell Fleur I wish her well."

"Thank you; I'll let you three go now. I'm sure you're needed elsewhere."

And with that, Fancy Pants gave all three of us a nod and left. Not quite what I was expecting for the first encounter with a noble, but perhaps Celestia really did mean it when she said she was blowing this all out of proportions.

I looked back to see Fancy Pant walking off as I wondered before I got a small tap from Mark. Turning back, I saw them leaving me behind.

I sped up to them with a huff of annoyance, which meant that the throne doors were long opened with magic by the time I caught up. And my expectations of it did not fail me. Though it was softer on the eyes, it still screamed grandiose in its decor. The sides had glass mosaics featuring sun and moon themes.

"Well, can't say I didn't expect this."

I silently agreed with Mark as Celestia came forward to the throne. Up some carpeted slopes, left was a throne. It had no specific themes of the day, night, sun, or moon but was more so generic. To match both princesses without having separate thrones for each. 'It would be a way to save on cost, I suppose.'

Celestia leads us up and just had us sit off to the side of her throne. From the throne with the elevation, you could see the entire room. Off to the side, Celestia whispered to a guard who nodded and went off. This was only the beginning of what would soon be an exhausting session.

"Now, I know you're both mature, but behave yourselves. I do have a dungeon, you know."

"Y-you have a-," I face hoofed, "of course you do..."

Celestia titted while Mark found the wall suddenly interesting. I sighed at the good-natured laughs.

"Horrible! Horrendous, if I do say so myself," I exclaimed in my best evil noble accent, "I shall see to it that Court shall not tarry, onwards!"

---

After Celestia swiftly stopped court before it was even ready, she had taken a few minutes to read through the Court files before actually letting ponies in.

Which left me waiting, interested in how Court would go.

The doors slammed open. Well, not really; it normally opened like before, much to my disappointment to show a well-dressed pony, much like Fancy. There was only one problem; his pose screamed egocentric. Though not wanting to cause any trouble, I just stayed back.

"Celestia, why are there foals here. We have important matters that need to be attended to."

"Don't mind them; they're just here to sit along."

"Surely you don't-"

"No, that is final."

And I already hate this guy. Looking at him, I can't help by thinking about how much and why I hate him. Celestia sighed once more before bringing out the files even though she had already read them.

"You're here for... A crown for... Explain to me why you'd need five airships?"

"You see, Abyssinia has had a recent decrease in resources such as fine wool, which we have in abundance. This would be the perfect opportunity for trade."

Thinking about the offer, it wasn't so bad, but, still, I was not too fond of his tone.

"And the crown gets what exactly out of this?"

"Is it not obvious? Not only would we graciously be helping Abyssinia, but we would help Equestria's economy."

"That's... all?" Celestia's voice seemed oddly strained.

"Yes, after all, it helps all parties."

"Denied, next!"

"Wait, what?! You can't do that!"

Celestia held a hoof to the guards that were coming to escort the pony out.

"I can, and I did. Not only would the crown be unable to support itself because we'd get nothing, but most of it would, in fact, not help the economy as according to records," she flipped her papers around to show a bunch of technical jargon I didn't understand, "you have enough wealth to get industrial equipment for all of ponyville and feed them a dozen times over, and yet you, and several other nobles, have been holding your wealth for years doing nothing but invest and invest."

Celestia's tirade would have frozen me on the spot had it been directed at me, but somehow the noble remained indignant.

"It must be a mistake; I only do deals with quality items, worth my bits, which are rare to come by. If you're so worried about the crown supporting itself, I'm sure we can work out a deal. This is for Equestria, after all."

With a sigh, Celestia motioned the guards to escort the noble, "No need, I shall take it upon myself to talk and work out a deal with the Abyssinian diplomats. Don't worry, it'll bring all the benefits to Equestria, just as you wanted. You may go."

The noble, still indignant, left without a fuss. Clearly, he wasn't dumb enough to do anything stupid, as much as his attitude said otherwise. Now that the noble had metaphorically been given his arse, an almost tranquil silence came, though the mood was still sour.

"Well, I see what you mean," Mark said aloud.

"Yeah," I agreed, thinking of how much it'd hurt not only the crown but Equestria's economy if she had accepted outright.

I myself would have outright accepted and missed the major problems with the deal.

"And now you see my life... I deal with nobles, Every. Single. Day... I have to dig and dig through every last detail of their petitions. I do, on occasion, get petitions from the everyday ponies. But sometimes civilian petitions are... Well, civilian, mundane..."

"That... Sounds like a tiring job."

"You have no idea," the ruler of all Equestria, Celestia, added.

Soon enough, the next petition came in.

---

"Psst."

...

"Psst, Star."

A yawn forced its way out. Finishing that yawn, I could vaguely feel a hoof poking me. My blurry eyes took sight of Celestia.

"Star, Court is over."

My muddled brain took very little time to realize what happened before I just groaned with a face hoof.

' I'm becoming Mark aren't I?'

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Night is in a few hours. I'm sorry, I wish I had more time, but I'm late, and duty calls. If you ever have need of me, don't be afraid to ask."

I looked at Celestia as she hurriedly left before turning around to the windows to see the sun was dimmer and the room a bit more somber.

"You abandoned me," a calm voice spoke.

I turned to see the pouty face of Eclipse, "To be fair, you left first."

With a roll of her eyes, Eclipse smiled toothly, "Whatever, we've still got a good amount of light outside left to do something."

"Then I'll leave you to that," replied Celestia, "I'll be around if you need."

With a wave, Mark and I said our goodbyes as I swung around to Mark, "So, what do you wanna do?"

"Dunno."

My lip curled a bit, "Let me guess, you just want to sit down and read more?"

He smiled, and I sighed, "What else?"

"Eclipse, what do you wanna do?"

Eclipse seemed a bit surprised but nonetheless considered the question, "Well, on occasion, I jump off Canterlot and see if I can glide all the way to ponyville, though that'd be quite a problem if I did so now."

My expression dropped into a poker face, "You jump off of Canterlot, a big, giant, probably very windy and cold mountain... For fun..."

"It's more exciting than you think. Glide racing is a popular sport around Cloudsdale."

"Glide racing... As in, just gliding, and gliding and really just chilling in the air?"

"Oh, no, it's more difficult than you think. First, not long do you have to travel some frankly ridiculous distances without a single flap, but you have to be careful when trading between speed and altitude. If you're unlucky you have to drop altitude by a certain amount if you get tagged by another pegasus. The longer the game, the more the risk of being tagged out due to lack of space to drop."

She sighed as Mark and I wrapped our heads around this new sport, "Sounds quite difficult."

She wasn't done, unfortunately, "Then there are the occasional stray clouds in the way that nopony could get. You just deal with whatever weather. Oh, I could go on with the headache of annoyance you're just supposed to face from that once I joined a game from Canterlot all the way to Cloudsdale. That was, of course, after flying all the way to Canterlot from Cloudsdale."

I hummed, tuning out Eclipse a bit before I yawned again. 'Yeesh, what is with me being tired so often? This is almost becoming a concern with the diminishing amount of time I'm awake each day.'

Before I could expand on my previous Idea, Mark bonked me on the head.

"Ow," I plainly said, not out of pain, but just a random reflex, as I turned to Mark.

"You know, we could go catch Cadence, see if she has anything to do."

I mauled the thought around a bit, deciding that it wasn't a half-bad idea, "I suppose so. Hopefully, she's finished with whatever business she had to attend. What do you think, Eclipse?"

After a shrug from Eclipse, I sighed and began towards the throne room door. Walking with three hooves and one to my chin, I began to think, obviously leaving the two behind.

'Now, where would I not find Cadence?'

Before I could go any further, I was stopped by a tiny tug on my tail, and a hurried 'wait' from Mark who's tone told me something was wrong. Turning back with my hooves tucking my tail in a bit as Mark pointed up. Curious, my gaze followed before I could speak to the right above my head.

What I saw could only be an abomination of nature. It was black and brown, small and wiggly. Hairy and dreadfully mechanical with its crawling movements. The horrid eyes slowly spun as I felt its gaze price my dropping heart. Like when your cheerfully expecting something, but then you're immediately disappointed or even disheartened.

My eyes worked against me while a shiver came down my spine as it clearly took in every last detail of the angular legs and bloated, hairy body.

All this happened in the span of a second before my body caught up with a bloodcurdling scream.

"SSPIDDERRR!"

With adrenaline pumping, I jumped back with a flap of my wings, even if I could fly to provide a backward thrust. But before I had even landed, the throne room doors slammed open, tossing the spider the worst way possible.

It came flying toward me. Its legs opened up, spreading towards me as it wiggled towards me. I dropped as it flew overhead.

Something to note about ponies, their necks were extremely flexible, able to nearly do a 180 degree turn all the way around with the given length they had. Though in this situation, I had dropped to the floor.

The spider's flight course did not change. I didn't feel it land on my back, thankfully. I paid little acknowledgment to the pair of guards from the door that barged their way in, halberds at the side.

To my horror, the spider didn't land on my barrel but instead landed on my tail. I could feel the faintest movement of its creepy legs move into my tail. I screeched.

---

"Could you please get off my head?" Eclipse groaned audibly.

"B-but the creepy crawlies!"

Eclipse tried to pry me off her head with a hoof as the other three continued to clop down the busy halls.

"Nu-uh! There might be more of them."

I knew I was childish right now, but in my defense, it was a spider. And that's all the defense I'll ever need for doing anything like this.

Mark casually snickered as he looked at us.

"Star, please, this is getting embarrassing with all the maids and guards around."

"Embarrassing? Tell that to the spider!" I whined.

"That spider that I recall you smashed several times repeatedly with that poor guard's helmet that you knocked off while running around before throwing the poor guy out a window and clinging to me like an army of Discords was invading."

'An army of what..?'

Eclipse took advantage of my momentary confusion to pry me off her head with a yank of my tail. With a yelp, I fell from the rather uncomfortable position to the floor. Landing on my flank with a small 'oof,' I turned to Eclipse, "Meanie..."

Eclipse chuckled at my grumble before continuing her gait.

"I'm not the one who took down two well-armed and trained Solar guards, and by accident, I might add. Even I'd have some trouble."

Begrudgingly following, my dark thoughts stopped when I felt Mark wrap a wing around me, chuckling, "Don't worry if any spiders come around, just tell me."

Admittedly, while we do like to mess around a lot, spiders are something that does terrify me, yet Mark isn't. He's always saying nothing bad will happen, and worst-case scenario, all that'd happen is a spider bite. My thoughts turned to other things once I decided I'd think no more on spiders.

"So, what do you mean you'd have trouble with those two guards?"

Eclipse hummed a bit, thinking of a way to explain, "Well, you see, the Solar Guard and Lunar Guard may seem similar, but there are differences. For example, the Solar Guard is trained with teamwork in a group together, but the Lunar Guard is trained more towards independence. While we could work together with limited effects, we'd be better off in one-to-one combat, ambushes, and dueling."

"Well, if you're trained towards independence more, wouldn't you be trained to take on those two?" asked Mark.

"Well, you see, normally, if it were a single Solar Guard against a Lunar Guard, then the Lunar Guard would absolutely triumph. If it were an entire squad vs. another square, the Solar Guard would win. While terrifyingly effective in groups, the Solar Guard often lacks in other areas which the Lunar Guard tries to compensate for."

"If Solar Guards are most effective in groups, what's to stop them from gathering and making an unstoppable force?" I found myself agreeing with Mark's line of questioning.

Eclipse actually laughed a bit, "Oh Mark, there are more ways to fight. You could have ambushes, starve them of supplies and resources, pick off the smaller groups in multiple hit and run attacks, ranged and magical bombardment, and by simply forcing them to split."

"So how does the Lunar Guard compensate?" I questioned.

"Well, as I said, we're more fit for individual one-to-one dueling. We tend more towards swift tactics, intelligence, counterintelligence, basically just much more versatile than the Solar Guard, if a bit lacking in the areas they excel at."

"So, would you say that each Guard covers each other's weaknesses, making them together unstoppable?" Eclipse's happy and indulging tone died just the slightest bit as she turned to me for a few seconds before turning back. I wasn't sure if it was what I said or something else, but the tone in conversation died for those few moments.

"No, I won't say we're unstoppable. Even together, they have many weaknesses, though that conversation is for another time."

With that said, the conversation ended. I held back my question of which was more popular and just walked along. Passing a glance to the few windows, I saw the dusk light fall. If we don't find Cadence soon we might just head back to our rooms.

"So tell me, what'd you think of the ride to Canterlot yesterday?"

I blinked, curious at what brought Eclipse the random question.

"Well, you could say we're worried at first," answered Mark.

"Yeah," I agreed, "but, I suppose we trust you guys enough to not worry about things... At least, not too much..."

Livening up the conversation, Mark smiled deviously, "And what about you, Eclipse, got anyone... special in your life?"

It didn't affect Eclipse as much as he hoped, as she merely rubbed her chin in thought, "No, not really. I mean I have a family but thanks to my job I'm kind of all over the place."

Mark was a bit disappointed with the answer, that much I could see just from his expression. Though, I understand the curiosity since there isn't all that much to think about.

"Say," I started, "where are we going? I thought this castle was like a giant maze?"

This gave Eclipse pause as she froze to look around. All around it was just another hall, like the hundreds of others. The occasional maid or guard with the windows shinning a dimming color.

"Wait," she softly spoke, "where even are we?"

Mark and I collectively face hoofed at our thoughts being consumed by conversation rather than an actual direction.

---

"Oh dear, tis a late hour, should you not be going back to thine rooms?"

Being lost for a bit slightly expected, being lost for an hour was unexpected, and bumping into Luna even more unexpected.

"Oh, hello Luna!"

Luna smiled her usual smile to my response, "Hello, Star."

Eclipse took up the task of answering the question, "We've... Become slightly lost."

"I see, understandable as it is, the palace is oft-confusing. Could you not ask a maid to take you?"

'Ask a maid to take- Serious...? We could have done that the entire time instead of asking for directions?'

"To be truthful," I said, "We were looking for Cadence but got lost, and it had not crossed our minds to ask a maid to take us aside from asking directions."

"Cadence, you ask? She has been with Twilight and family I believe. If you still wish, I believe I have time to take you."

"Well, we wouldn't want to intrude, besides, it's getting late."

"If you're sure," she half-asked, "if you want, you could stay with me. I have not much to do, I would like to relax with friends before I return to my duties the following week my sister has left to me."

I turned back to Mark and Star, and the general tone I got from them was a unanimous agreement. At least if nothing else it would be something to do before we head to our rooms to sleep.

"I suppose that's fine," I replied, "though would there be much to do?"

"Of course, there have been many things I've requisitioned many items and games I've wanted to try but never got the chance."

"Games," Mark spoke up, "what kind?"

"Many range from cards to other interesting types. It has been difficult to acclimate since..."

My 'Something is wrong and I need to investigate' senses triggered as Luna's words died off and she gave a solemn expression.

"What do you mean?" I asked softly.

"Ah, tis a topic I had wished to avoid," she admitted, "but tis something you have a right to know. Come, we can talk over a game of Ogres and Oubliettes."

Despite Luna's many... Quirky traits I've noticed, I wouldn't think she'd have anything to hide. Though unfortunately, I can't understand, relate, or even begin to think of what she feels. So the best I could do is patiently allow her to speak.

I turned to the others in our group to gauge their thoughts. Mark, through his plain expression, looked back, raising a brow as to ask 'What are you looking at?' Eclipse's mood seemed to have dropped a bit but otherwise was unchanged.

I internally sighed at what was to come. Or at least, what I thought was to come. Though following her silently and the darkening castle, I only had one thought now.

'What tis it that plagues Luna so?'

Author's Note:

I blame writer's block for the late chapter

Comments

[Munro]

nice chapter, would have liked a litte more interaction in court with the nobles

the spider incident was funny and relateble "shudder"

[Feynna]

"Ah, Duke Fancy Pants," Celestia called, "It's so good to see you, though I had thought you left earlier on a trip abroad with your fiancé?"

The fiancé is the male partner in the relationship, or am I mistaken? *rubs her chin*

"That spider that I recall you smashed several times repeatedly with that poor guard's helmet that you knocked off while running around before throwing the poor guy out a window and clinging to me like an army of Discords was invading."

Rest in peace, innocent spider. *sheds a tear*
I mean... on one hand, I understand the reaction, having a phobia of insects of all types aside from spiders, but still... poor spider.

[The Weaver]

I returned a smile to a maid who waved to us as we passed by. It was long until Celestia commented on my sudden

Sudden... what?

I looked up to see Celestia smiling down at us, "Dunno, I just feel like singing for some reason."

period missing.

[Pensive]

10723199
Surprisingly, I had a bit of a hard time coming up with scenarios for court

Spiders... Funny part is, I randomly went on youtube and looked up a spider jump scare. Though I knew it was an animation, and it was a jump scare, I still jumped. My headphones have a small new dent.

10723247
I'll admit, I was tempted for a good five minutes to keep it as fiancé(), but I do like the Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis ship as seen in the show.

Yeah... Poor Mr. Spider. I wonder what Fluttershy would think... Accttuually, I wonder if the spider survived, to fall upon its next unsuspecting prey. That would be funny.

: Hey, Noble, watch out, there's a spid-
Noble: I don't need no roden-
Spider: Boo!
Noble: S-SPPIDDERRR!! AHHHH

10723289
Fixed, and f- what...? Period missing where...? Hmm... I suspect it was meant to be the same quote as above, in which case it's already fixed!

Thanks! I'm surprised I missed an entire word, but at least there weren't as many grammar errors after my editor went through it. And it's only after my editor finished with the most recent chapter I realize how badly I actually needed one

[Feynna]

10724943

Surprisingly, I had a bit of a hard time coming up with scenarios for court

I avoid writing about court like the plague because I can never think of any scenario that isn't absolutely ridiculous. xD