Fred Walsh's Adventures in Equestria

by Baguettedood

Chapter 9 - Lunch

Chapter 9

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice I hadn’t eaten in over sixteen hours! Although, I can generally go without breakfast or dinner, but I can’t go without lunch. Screw normality and breakfast, LUNCH is the most important meal of the day!

“Dinner back at the new years’ LAN party was alright; the power wasn’t spontaneously going out until we actually started playing our games. If I ever get back, I’ll definitely organise a redux, hopefully where the power won’t be screwing up. Mental note: Bring a generator.”

---

Fred Walsh followed the pony to the castle’s mess hall. He noticed the stallion was an Earth pony with the cutie mark of a rolled up scroll with some lines to the left. He guessed it signified a fast messenger. Fred could see how true that was. The stallion looked a bit jumpy, as if he was used to running quickly and often.

Throughout the escort to the mess hall, Fred continued adding to his mental map of the castle, so he could find his way around notable points, mainly so he could get to his room in a reasonable space of time, instead of stumbling senselessly as he did trying to find the library without Jenga’s help.

Fred and the messenger approached an open set of double doors after going through the lengthy corridors of the castle. “The princess wishes to speak to you. She’s at the rear of the room,” he gestured into the room. Fred thanked the pony before he walked into the mess hall. The messenger trotted the other direction to work on other duties.

Fred stepped through the frame separating the hallway from the cafeteria and observed the mass of guards and castle residents all conversing over lunch. He estimated around 350 inside the room at that time. They were all seated on tables in 4 rows, with some breaks between them for mobility. The entire area reminded him of Hogwarts. At the far side of the room, as the messenger stated, he sighted Princess Celestia by her multi-coloured, flowing mane. She looked up towards Fred, beckoning him over. He noticed she still looked fatigued, though not as much as the morning.

Fred began to walk the length of the room, feeling self-conscious, being the only non-pony in the area. He quickened his pace.

After he traversed the hall, the country’s monarch motioned him a seat near her before speaking: “Fred Wash, once again I’d like to apologise for my behaviour last night-“

“Princess, you were justified. I would’ve done the same thing in your position, having a completely unknown species fall out of a wormhole right in front of you,” Fred interrupted her. “Although, I find it strange that you apologised the first time right at the crack of dawn.” He stood next to a wooden chair, but hesitated to sit down.

Celestia was momentarily taken aback by his interruption before a frown made its way to her countenance. Her eyes looked down. “I don’t want to make the same mistake I made against my sister.”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “It’s something I’m not proud of; I wish it to remain personal.”

“I read the legends. It’s about your sister, isn’t it?”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it,” the alicorn calmly stared at Fred, but in the ‘don’t ask again’ way.

“Alright, alright,” he sat down. At this point, he realised that she wasn’t wearing any jewellery as he normally remembers seeing her in the show. ‘Better not ask about it. She probably doesn’t have it yet and I’m trying to avoid any incidents.’

---

A little bit North of where Ponyville would eventually be set up, there was a small encampment set up on the edge of a large area of dirt.

A unicorn in a black-and-red cloak covering his head and body mumbled to himself, “We’ve been here for half of this forsaken day. When are we going to find those-“

“Over here!”

The cloaked stallion moved over to the voice’s origin – a deep green unicorn, bathed in a purple glow from a recently dug hole. “Excellent, now we just need to find the rest and we can begin preparations…”