The Stallion in the Library

by leonidas701

A Meal For Royalty

Twilight and her friends were shocked into silence once more. This silence only lasted a few seconds before Card spoke up.

“It’s about time you got here, old man.”

“Sorry, fetus, work dragged on a little longer then it should have,” Solaris said as he walked over to take the seat next to Card. This presented his profile to the group at the table, revealing his cutie mark to be a black sun.

Twilight and Trixie shifted in their seats, intimidated by the king’s large form sitting so close to them.

Solaris grinned as he saw who he was sitting near. “You must be Twilight, and Trixie,” He pointed at each mare respectively. “My son has told me so much about you two!” he said as he ruffled Card’s hair. Card swatted at the hoof that was messing up his mane.

Each of the mares reacted to this news with varying degrees of shock. Applejack merely widened her eyes, Fluttershy was so surprised she straightened up in her chair, Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed, Pinkie had no visible reaction, Trixie recoiled, and Twilight’s jaw dropped. However, no pony had a reaction as severe as Rarity.

“What!” She sprang up so quickly she knocked over her chair. “Tha- Tha- That’s impossible! Princes are refined and elegant and chivalrous, like him!” Rarity pointed at Blueblood.

“Thank you,” the prince replied on reflex.

“Not that aloof, ignorant, crass, rude brute!” Rarity finished yelling, her face red as an apple.

“Technically you’re right,” Solaris said. “Officially he’s the Crown Prince.”

There was an audible crash as Rarity’s worldview shattered, followed closely by her fainting and hitting the floor.

“Is she gonna be okay?” Solaris asked.

“Yeah, she does this all the time,” Card said.

Rarity woke up and took her seat again. Her face was a picture of denial.

Then the food finally came.

After the ponies all got their food, Solaris noticed that Rainbow Dash was glaring at him, not touching her meal.

Solaris sighed, momentarily putting down his food. “You know, you might as well ask me any questions you have. If you don’t the food’s going to get cold.”

“Where were you when Nightmare Moon attacked?” Rainbow Dash said with a glare. “Why did we have to be the ones to stop her? How did she even escape?!”

The other ponies were all taken aback by how blunt she was in her attack, but Solaris just smiled.

“I like her,” he said to Celestia with a pleasant laugh. He turned his attention to Rainbow Dash. “You’re Loyalty right? Good to know the Elements are as discerning as ever. Well, in answer to your question, I was busy and I was sure it would be handled, as it clearly was. As for how she escaped, she didn’t. Her sentence was up and I let her out.”

“You let her out! How could you do that, do you have any idea what she did!?”

As Rainbow Dash was yelling, Luna started looking more and more downcast.

“Yes, I was there. And for her crimes she was sentenced to ten centuries of imprisonment.” Solaris noticed how sad Luna looked, and decided to cut off the line of questioning. “Any other questions?” he asked, leaving Rainbow Dash fuming.

“Ah’ve got one,” Applejack said in between bites. “If yer the king, how come Celestia has to do all the work? What do y’all do all day?”

“Good question. Aurora doesn’t do all of the work, she only handles the work that affects you all, which is probably why you haven’t heard of me. She makes sure everything in the kingdom is running smoothly,” Solaris said.

“Well why does she have to do all that?” Applejack asked.

“She’s better at it then I am,” Solaris admitted, “Aurora, for some unfathomable reason, actually enjoys the day to day tedium of internal affairs. Personally I can’t stand it. I’m much better suited to dealing with our neighbors.”

While Solaris was fielding questions, there were small conversations going on around the table. Everypony was talking to someone except for Luna. The Princess of the Night was keeping her gaze down firmly at her plate, pushing her food around as she slumped in her chair. Celestia noticed her little sister’s isolation, and decided to attempt to bring her out of it.

“Trixie,” the princess said, startling the young mare, “Twilight has told me that you are quite the illusionist, yes?”

“Huh? Oh, I mean… I’m okay. I guess,” Trixie said.

“I was wondering if you could give us a little example of your skills?” Celestia said. Her eyes flickered briefly to Luna, noticing that at the mention of illusions her sister had perked up slightly. Unfortunately, she was so worried about how her sister felt, that she didn’t notice how nervous Trixie became as everypony at the table gave her their attention.

“I… I don’t know, it’s really not all that impressive,” Trixie said, using one of her hoofs to fiddle with her hair.

Applejack overheard the conversation. “Why nonsense, sugarcube! Don’t sell yerself short like that,” she said, turning her attention to the Princess, “Why y’all should have seen her when she first came inta town, Ah saw her do thangs that near blew mah hat off.”

“Thank… Thank you Jackie, that’s… that’s really nice,” Trixie muttered out, by now so nervous that she had turned her face away from everypony else. She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves.

By now Luna was giving Trixie her fullest attention, and Celestia noticed. “Well, with a recommendation like that I must insist on a demonstration,” Celestia said, completely missing Trixie’s fidgeting.

Trixie swallowed. There was no way she could refuse the Princess. “O-okay then,” she said. She grabbed a small loaf of bread and a knife. With trembling hooves she slowly started cutting a picture of a pony into the crust as her horn dimly glew.

When the picture was finished, the pony made of crust sprang off of the loaf. It galloped around the table, running around the various plates, jumping over obstacles, even climbing onto Celestia’s hoof so the Princess could take a better look at it. Then, it came back to where Trixie was sitting and seamlessly reattached itself to the loaf of bread.

The ponies applauded.

“Well done!” Celestia said, glancing at Luna who was applauding alongside everyone else with an impressed smile on her face.

“Thank you.” Trixie turned to face her with a shaky smile as she continued to fidget with her hair. She quickly bowed before becoming very interested in her meal.

“Really, that’s some very impressive work, especially for one so young! How old are you anyways?” Celestia asked.

“I turn 21 in a couple of months…”

Trixie grabbed hold of Card’s hoof, squeezing it while she tried to calm down.

“Really? Wow! I have to know, where did you learn how-”

“Aurora, I think you’ve badgered the poor mare enough. Give it a rest,” Solaris said, noticing how close Trixie was to hyper ventilating. “Let her go back to eating.”

Trixie shot the King a grateful look.

Twilight wasn’t blind to her friend’s predicament either, and she seized the opportunity to change the subject.

“Why do you call Princess Celestia, ‘Aurora’?” she asked Solaris.

“Because that’s her name,” he said. “Aurora Celestia.”

“Oh. So then do you have a longer name?”

“Yeah, all three of us do. I am Corona Solaris, and she’s-” he pointed across the table at Luna, “Luna Nocturne.”

Twilight noticed the inconsistency and was about to point it out when Card spoke up.

“Wait, you told me her name was Noc-Noc?”

Luna let out a large groan and buried her face in her hooves, “Will We never escape the thrice-blasted nickname?” she muttered.

“Not if I have anything to say about it, no,” Solaris said in a teasing voice.

Celestia laughed at her siblings old routine, but then she noticed the clock on the wall.

“I do believe it’s time for dessert!”

“Oh?” Solaris said, his interest piqued. “What is it?”

“Chocolate lava cake! I made it myself!” Celestia said.

As soon as those words had left her lungs, Solaris started getting up from the table, “Oh wow, you know that sounds really good and all, but I ate so much I couldn’t possibly stom- eat any more,” he said hurriedly.

“Yeah, and I ate a massive cupcake right before coming here, I am stuffed,” Card said. “Hey dad, what do you say to a quick game of chess up in the observatory?”

“That sounds splendid, the party’s ending up there later anyways. Let’s go. Right now.”

And with that, the King and Crown Prince of Equestria hastily fled the dining room. The question on everyone’s mind was, “What in the world are they running from?”

That question was swiftly answered when the cake was brought in.

Here’s a neat little question for all you, how do you tell the Princess of the Sun that her baking tastes like a burned rock? The answer: You don’t!

Seriously, how the hell do you manage to burn frosting?

Comments

[chaos5367]

I am actually rather curious as to how she managed to burn frosting.

[Amethyst_Spark]

Your right it was short but well written as always, it still has that charm and humor that the story has possesed so far and its good. Its not the size of the ship it the motion of the ocean!!!!