Daizy Hooves starts her training to work as special mail mare.
Daizy Hooves lived her whole life in Manehattan, but now she has the opportunity to live the dream and go to Ponyville to train for her new job! A shame that no one told her who would be teaching. Or better yet, what whould be teaching.
Today is the day for Daizy Hooves! The little unicorn could barely hold her giggles to herself as she looked at the train’s window. A mere week ago she was barely surviving on her own in a minuscule rented apartment in Manehattan, but now she not only had a new job, technically, but a new temporary place as well! And to top things of, it was in the great city of Ponyville!
Oh, Ponyville, the ever-growing metropoly, the only city other than Canterlot to hold a Princess. The capital of science, magic and knowledge, the paradigm of harmony and friendship. It would be the most perfect of cities, where it not for its treacherous neighbour, the Everfree Forest. But the happy mare couldn’t care less to the proximity with the forest, the simple idea of living in the same city that a Princess more than exhilarating.
So many sights to see! The Grand Animal Sanctuary, The First Carousel Boutique, the only Sugar Cube Corner in all of Equestria with all its unique cupcakes, and most important of all, the great palace of crystal, the home of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the only, the magnificent, The Friendship Castle!
Even in the middle of the train travel Daizy could see the silhouette of the castle in the horizon, shining brightly with its crystal walls. It wouldn’t take very long now to reach her destination, the edge of the city could already be seen in the distance. But even with her happy anxiety, she couldn’t help but to feel a little scared as well.
Her whole life she had lived in Manehattan, the city that never sleeps. With all of its tall buildings and gray style. Where everypony that was out had something to do, someplace to be. The city that buzzed with activities under Celestia’s Sun and Luna’s Moon, both. But Ponyville, even with it being a little bigger than Manehattan, seemed so much more alive, so much more colorful. Daizy couldn’t help but feel like she wouldn’t fit in. Around her, in the train, there were so many ponies with so many colors while she had a plain gray coat, and not a light and shiny gray like her mom’s and grand-grandmother, but a dull and boring one. And her mane was a pale brown that could most likely blend with the soil of a farm and— No! She would not start her first day like this! She wouldn’t even be there for long, just enough to complete her training before assuming her new profession.
And besides, she was on her way to a new life, and her new life would not start so depressing. She had enough of that in her old life. Her dull, and boring old life.
Daizy Hooves had woke up with her alarm clock, and started her day as usual. A mug of cheap bitter coffee held in her magic to quick-start the day, and a cold shower to wash the sleepiness away. She walked to the door, her saddle bags already on her back with her resume, ready to find a new job. She had gotten to the lobby of her apartment and checked her mailbox, not really expecting to find anything, when she found the best thing she could have hoped for in that week.
The post office had received her resume and wanted to make an job interview with her! That very same day! That very same hour— oh no. She was almost late! And so, she started running. If she had the time she would have wondered why that interview was scheduled with such short notice, and she would’ve realized that the letter had actually been delivered three days ago, and for three days she had forgotten to check her mailbox. But she didn’t have the time to think, she only had the time to run as if her life depended on it. Her apartment surely depended.
When she finally reached the post office she was 14 minutes late. Running through the doors and inside the building she talked in between breaths of exhaustion with the first employee she found about her interview.
“Through that door, then turn right. It is the second door on the left” She said pointing in the direction with a hoof. “Good luck with the interview!”If the exhausted unicorn had heard her incentive the mare would never know, since Daizy started running away as soon as she got the directions. Following the instructions was easy enough and soon she found herself in front of a white door with no clear indications on it to show her if she was or not in the right place. After taking a second to breath and clean a little of the sweat that coated her, she tried knocking in the door, but was interrupted by loud voices.
“But why don’t you just do it? You are the boss! You are supposed to do this kind of thing!” Shouted a old masculine voice in the other side of the door.“Ink Spot, you know as well as me that it is your obligation to find your own substitute, as is established in the Comprehensible Colle—” The feminine voice was cut off by a the one apparently called Ink Spot.
“Comprehensible Collection of Standards and Protocols and blah blah blah. You know as well as me that that book is just a exaggerated guideline. Heck, even the author think it goes overboard sometimes, and I know this because I was there when this was being written!”
“Yes, it is a guideline written by our own princess and I will follow it until the end! Now if you want your retirement you better find yourself a substitute. After they are trained and working here you are free to do whatever you want.” The mare said and opened the door, making Daizy, who was totally not prying the conversation, jump away from the door. The mare eyed her for a second before speaking. “And who are you? This area is for employees only, lady.”
“I-I’m Daizy Hooves.” She said while trying to compose herself. “I’m here to—”
“Daizy, huh? Ah, right. The job interview. Sorry but I already gave it to a—” The mare stopped herself before finishing the sentence. Daizy could see a glint in the mare’s eyes that made Daizy start sweating again. “Actually, you came right in time!” She said with a grin.
“I-I did?”
“Why, yes! Here, come in.” The mare stepped aside indicating Daizy to go in. “Daizy, meet Ink Spot, he will be interviewing you today.
“Wait, I will?” Said the unicorn in the other side of the room.“Yes, you will.” She said as she silenced him with a glare and sat Daizy down on a chair. After searching through some drawers on the cabinet in the room she found some papers that she gave to Ink before leaving the room. “Good Luck~” She sang as she closed the door.
The stallion sighed, grabbing Daizy’s attention. “Right… You’re Daizy, right? Just give me a second and we will start.”
He started reading the papers that were given to him and Daizy couldn’t help but notice that they were actually her resume. After some seconds reading he just started flipping through the pages barely trying to read it. After finishing it he just threw the stack of papers onto the floor before igniting his horn again and burning the papers with green flames, much to Daizy’s dismay. “This is his problem now.” He said to nopony in particular.
“Wh-What?” Daizy’s mouth moved as she tried to form words but her brain was too preoccupied with trying to understand what was happening. She just stared at where her resume, that she had spend a whole week working on, was burnt into nothingness, leaving not even ashes or burnt marks on the floor. She was so focused that didn’t even noticed that she was being asked a question.
“Do you have family in the city?” The stallion asked again impatiently.
“Wh-what?”
“Family? City?” He repeated.
“Uh. Eh. No. No, I don’t.” She finally answered. “My parents moved to a smaller city some years ago.”
“And close friends? Do you have many?”
“Uh. No, I don’t think so…” She answered, feeling a little down by her own response.
“Huhm. Harsh life, ain’t it?” Ink Spot said somewhat sympathetically before talking again. “Float that stack of letters over the desk to here.”
“What?” She asked, startled by the sudden command.
“Letters. Magic. Horn. Float. You can do that, right?” He asked in a neutral, almost bored voice.
“I-I think so.” Her horn lit up and soon the stack of paper started floating in the air. She almost dropped the pile as she lifted it up, the weight of paper being surprisingly heavy. As she focused on her task, she didn’t even noticed her eyes misaligning themselves, one going a little up while the other went down. When she finally dropped the pile in front of them and her eyes aligned themselves, she let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding.
“Huhm… Well, good enough for me. Congratulations, the job is yours.” He said with forced fake cheer obvious in his voice.
“I what?!” She asked, eyes wide as she tried to figure out if what she heard was right.
“The job is yours. Well, technically not but”— he sighed —”I guess I will also have to explain this…”
As it turned out, Ink Spot was the unicorn responsible to receive and send letters through a thing called ‘Dragon Fire’. He had explained to Daizy that it was a spell created some 30 years ago that allowed to send letters through grand distances in instants. She had already heard of it before, and knew that the prices to send letters through it was way to high for someone like her. It turned out that the spell that he had used on her resume previously was the Dragon Fire spell, the green flames probably being the reason to why it had that name.
But much more exciting than that, was the fact that she, Daizy Hooves, was selected to become Ink Spot successor! When he told her that, she couldn’t help but to jump around in happiness. The only problem was that he could not teach her the spell for some reason, and she would have to travel in order to learn from his master. The good side was that she would have to travel to Ponyville and live there until she learned the spell. And best of all, everything was paid by the crown! Since post offices are administered by the government, her training also was. So she could enjoy her staying without worrying about the bits!
She still didn’t know how much time it would take, nor where she’d be staying, probably some cheap hotel, but she didn’t care. Just the fact that she didn’t have to pay for the ride there was more than enough to make her happy.
Just as she finished remembering how lucky she was, the train brakes started to screech and they came to a stop. Taking her gaze away from her window, she looked at the other side, and got just a glimpse of the city. She rushed the door but was stopped by the flood of ponies that tried to do the same as her.
After tripping on herself and others ponies sometimes and some rushed apologies, she finally reached managed to get out of the train and into the train station. The sight before her was . . . surprisingly underwhelming. The station was as bare as a train station could be, the only noticeable thing being a large flag depicting a purple alicorn surrounded by 5 gems that stood proudly at a medium sized pole.
As the flood of ponies started to disperse away she looked around and found the scenario to be quite lacksome. The station was in front of a common road that led to a bunch of houses with nothing particularly espetacular about them, except maybe the amount of vegetation, a clear contrast with Manehattan concrete streets and walkways. Everything seemed so… Peaceful.
Daizy just stood there, enjoying this new feeling when she noticed two fillies, one golden and the other yellow, by the station’s platform holding a sign with “Hello Daisy” written in it with large letters. They were probably send to show her to her new place, and so Daizy walked to them.
The yellow fillie seemed to notice her and looked at Daizy and spoke with a smile. “Howdy, are you Daisy?”
“Yes.” She answered with smile of her own before eyeing the sign. “Although it is spelled with an ‘Z’”
“What?” The fillie gave a look at the sign before face-hoofing. “Aw, shoot. Sorry ‘bout that. Anyway, the name is Aurora.” She held a hoof out. “A pleasure to meet y’all. And this here is mah’ sister, Golden.” She said giving a side hug to the other mare who just waved.
Daizy took her hoof and shook it. “My pleasure. Uhm, are you here to show me to my place?”
“Eeyup.” Said Golden.
“You bet! But first, they told me to present y’all to good ol’ Uncle Spike while Golden here is going to take your bags to y’ah place.” She said as she took the bag from Daizy’s magic grasp and put it on Golden’s back.
“Oh, thank you very much.”
“It is nothing. See y’all at the farm, Golden?” She asked her sister.
“Eeyup.” Golden said as she started going on her way with Daizy’s bags.
After that they just started walking, Aurora just showing the way while Daizy looked around, taking in the 'small city'. The city was actually pretty big, from what she could see, and the enormous castle seemed to dot its center. Only after some streets around the castle itself, it seemed, the city started to take its modern style and shape with crystal like constructions right beside common old brick and hay houses that made the district that she was currently in.
“Enjoying the view?” Aurora spoke suddenly.
“Ah… Y-yes. It is pretty… interesting?"
That comment just got a chuckle out of Aurora. “Pretty weird, uhn? Granny told us that before the castle the city was small like a apple blossom. But then the castle appeared and ponies started coming from all Equestria to live here. And they build those weird houses of crystal to look like the castle.” She said as they reached the top of a street that ascended, giving Daisy a good view of the rest of the city. Although there weren’t as many tall buildings as in Manehattan, there were houses for miles on miles for all to see. Many of them shining brightly under the sun, reflecting its rays in all directions with walls of crystal.
As Aurora continued walking, Daizy couldn’t help but notice that they were walking away from the city an into open fields.
“Where are we going?” She asked.
“We are going tah’ see Uncle Spike, ‘course!” She said happily. “Wait, y'all mean where he lives, right? He lives just east of the north orchards.” She said pointing to a bunch of apple trees.
They continued walking into the orchards, making a quick stop to pick some fresh apples to eat on the way. After several minutes of walking Daizy started to get worried that they might be lost, since there were no buildings to be seen, only a big hill in front of them. Maybe the house was after the hill?
“We are here!” Aurora spoke, coming to a abrupt stop before the hill.
“We are?” Daizy looked around confused, searching for a house or something and failing.
“Eeyup!” The filly said as she started digging at the ground. After some seconds and a lot of flying dust she stopped and pulled a large emerald from the dirt. “Here, if he’s still sleeping just put this in front of him and he’ll be up in a flash. He is in the cavern right there.” She said as she pointed at a dark spot at the side of the hill and started running away. “Good luck. I’ve gotta go. Bye.” She said, disappearing inside the orchards with audible giggles, leaving a very confused Daizy behind.
Shrugging the weirdness aside she took the emerald in her magic and walked in the direction of the cave. She couldn’t help but to be impressed with its size, almost as tall and fat as two hooves. She wondered why Spike, like the filly had called him, was inside the cave. Maybe he collected rare gems?
Reaching the entrance of the dark cave she took a deep breath to steel her nerves and stepped inside. Her horn provided some light, but not much since she was also trying to carry the gem in her magic. With careful steps that echoed through the cave she slowly crept inside, but the further she got, the more she noticed something strange. The walls were flat. And so was the ceiling. She started looking around, trying to understand how could a cave have this format, eventually starting to walk backwards while reaching further deep in the cave, trying to analyse some pillars that seemed to be sculpted into the walls.
Eventually her rear bumped into a wall. She turned around to inspect it and was fascinated to see a purple wall instead of the regular dark gray of the rest of the cave. More peculiar yet were the two holes on the sides of the wall. More surprising was the sudden gust of hot air that blowed into her face from the holes, making her take a step back. More terrorizing than the darkness in the cave, was the realization that she did not face a wall. In fact, she faced something that she had only seen in her nightmares.
In front of her was a enormous purple dragon.
For a second her magic flickered before going out entirely.
Too paralyzed by shock she didn’t notice as the emerald fell to the floor with a loud *clank*.
The dragon opened his eyes, before blinking sometimes. His eyes adapting to being awake.
The dragon opened his mouth as far as it would go.
Daizy also opened her mouth as far it would go.
Daizy let out the loudest scream she had ever heard.
Aurora giggled to herself as she watched the unsuspecting mare walking down the cave. She had no idea on what surprise laid ahead of her. The earth filly was almost jumping in her hiding spot behind a big boulder.
“I can’t wait to see her face after she finally meet him!” She said without taking her eyes off the cave. “Don’t you feel excited too, sis?”
“Eeyup.” Said the golden earth filly coming out of her own hiding place behind a tree next to the boulder. Without making a sound she laid beside her sister and started watching the cave waiting for something to happen.
After some time the wait finally paid off, as a loud scream resonated from the cave.
Daizy screamed her lungs off as the giant beast before her opened its gaping jaws, ready to devour her whole. It took less than a second for Daizy to start turning away in order to run, but it felt like ages. She was still screaming when she took the first step. Right on top of the gem she had dropped previously. Her hoof slided below her, making her fall head first on the floor with a loud thud.
She tried her best to get on her hooves, but kept falling everytime, the world spinning around her more and more with every attempt. But she kept trying no matter what. After some seconds of not dying, she finally got enough hold of herself to figure out what was up and down. Before she could properly raise herself from the floor, a loud deep voice echoed through the cave.
“Are you okay?” The voice said and a glint of hope spread through Daizy’s heart as she heard it. And so, she did the only thing that any calm and reasonable pony would do after hearing a friendly voice: She screamed as loud as she could.
“HELP ME! PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”
She heard a groan and, to her horror, she realized that it came from behind her. Before she could run for her life she was pinned to the floor by the dragons enormous claws. She tried to struggle, kicking the monster paws and lighting her horn in order to throw small pebbles into the dragon, but all to no avail as she continued trapped. She was about to undo herself in tears when the voice spoke again.
“Stop! Calm down.” The voice commanded and she tried to find its source when suddenly she was lifted from the floor by the dragon. The giant held her like a doll and brought her to his eye level, more than meters from the floor. The creature then opened its mouth again, and Daizy finally accepted her fate, not even trying to force her already rough throat to scream again nor trying to escape. But her doom never came, instead a terrible smell of burnt oil and old milk filled her nostrils, making her almost gag.
The dragon then closed his mouth from his yawn and clicked his tongue sometimes before speaking.
“Are you okay?” It spoke in a clear voice. But even with its clarity, it took Daizy several seconds to process that the voice that she thought to be of her saviour was actually from the dragon. When she didn’t respond the dragon spoke again. “Hello?” He waved his other paw in front of her. “Did you hit your head?”
Finally, she gave up in trying to understand anything and just answered with a shake of her head.
“Hmm, good.” Said the dragon while rubbing his eyes with a claw before putting her down.
When her hooves finally touched the floor she, again, did the reasonable thing. She turned around and start running. Before she got 3 steps away she was again pinned to the floor.
“Wait!” The dragon spoke. Daizy was sure that this time it would be her doom, that the dragon was only playing with his food before eating. Then something green filled her vision. “You forgot your emerald.”
“I-I what?” She said. Wasn’t the dragon supposed to devour her? And then steal her gems and gold? Isn't that what dragons do? She took the gem in her magic and looked at the dragon with a confused expression.
“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?” He said with a expression that managed to convey both concern and playfulness.
“H-hum, I think.”
“Well, good. But what are you doing here, miss…?”
“Daizy, Daizy Hooves.” She completed, out of instinct. ”A-and I’m looking for somepony called Spike. They told me that he would be here.”
“Well, I don’t know anypony called Spike.” He said with a playful expression. “But anyway, what would you want with him?”
“Hmm. H-he was supposed to teach me a spell.” She said, her eyes darting around, not sure on what was happening.
“A spell you say? What spell? Wait, wait! Don’t tell me! Let me guess.” The dragon finally let go of her and sat on his haunches, putting a claw in his chin in what was supposed to be a thoughtful expression were it not for the big grin plastered on his face. “By any chance, would it be… This spell?!” He said throwing his arms wide.
And then nothing happened.
“Hmm, sir?” Daizy was confused. Did this dragon tried to do a spell? Or was it just pulling her leg?
“Of all days for she to get late.” He said putting a claw to his face. “I swear that the next time I f—” He suddenly stopped talking while his eyes gone wide. Before Daizy could ask what was happening, the dragon belched a huge cloud of fire that filled the ceiling of the cave with green flames. She threw herself in the floor, putting her hooves on top of her head. When the heat wave finally stopped, and she had not become roasted steak, she looked around again and she could barely believe in what she saw. Surrounding her where dozens and dozens of papers falling on the floor cave.
“Aww, great. Now I’ll have to organize this.” The dragon said with a sigh. Before Daizy could say anything the dragon swept his claws around the cave, expertly taking all the paper on his claw, even the ones still in the air. He then formed a fan with the papers and start shuffling then around. Before long he had a neatly made stack of papers on his claws. And with a breath of fire the stack was gone again.
“W-what was that?” Daizy asked in amazement.
“Those papers? Just some tax related documents from Vanhoover, they always send their documents on time. It the middle of the morning. Other cities are usually a day or two late but they at least send them in more reasonable hours.”
“T-taxes from Vanhoover? B-but how?” She asked, the first of thousands of questions on her head.
The dragon looked at her with his head tilted before humming to himself. “Where are you from?”
Although she felt a little offended that the dragon had dismissed her question, she answered anyway. “Manehattan, but how did you do that?”
“Manehattan? Well, if I’m right, then that explain things.” He said while face-clawing again. “Knowing Ink Spot, I know he probably isn’t even getting a laugh out of this.” He shook his head. “Well, let me introduce myself.” He said while bowing to her. “My name is Spike, The Royal Delivery Dragon. I’m at your services, Lady Daizy.”
“Wait, y-you are Spike? B-but— What?” If she had thousands of questions before, now she had a question for every leaf on the orchards.
“He really didn’t tell you anything, did he?” He sighed, but before speaking again he looked at the rest of the cave behind him where, Daizy noticed, stood large piles of gems and artifacts, probably Spike’s things.After taking a glance at the large round clock on the wall he quickly got up. “Dammit! We are almost late!” He half-shouted while picking Daizy off the floor and throwing her onto his back.
Before she could ask, or scream in this case, what was happening, Spike darted from the cave and in less than a second they were both outside in the orchards. And with a leap, and much to Daizy’s horror, he unfurled his wings, both easily larger than a house, and started flying away. Daizy held as tight as she could on a spine that was almost as big as her, not for a moment daring to open her eyes.
“You okay back there?” The dragon shouted, trying to overcome the sound of the wind.
“NO!” She shouted back, holding even tighter on his scales.
To her surprise she felt herself going forward, her grip almost faltering due to the sudden change, but to her relief she realized that they were actually stopping and descending. When they finally landed they were on the edge of the city.
“I’m sorry.” Spike spoke, trying to look at the mare on his back. “I forgot that most ponies are not used to flying so fast. Even some pegasus.” He chuckled but got serious again and looked forward. “But we are still late, so hold on.”
“But where are we goi— AHHHH!”
And with that, he started his mad sprint through the city. Each step leaving a noticeable mark on the empty dirt road. Daizy was not sure if she prefered being shook up and down at the risk of throwing up over flying in the sky with the risk of falling down. And things only got worse when they reached the more central area of the city.
The concrete roads made each step even more powerful, making her bounce even more. And the streets weren’t empty anymore, even at this hour of the morning there were some ponies around. Those lucky enough to be at the sidewalks only stared at the behemoth running through the streets that were barely big enough to fit him. On the other hoof, the unfortunate souls in the middle of the road became quite familiar with the sensation with having the shark jumping over them. Or dragon in this case.
The only solace for Daizy was that the dragon made no sudden turns, always going straight. This gave her enough confidence to look ahead of her and see that they were going… Straight to the Friendship Castle. Daizy’s grey face went white for a second, having all its blood drained in panic. ‘By Luna what is he thinking?! The guard is going to arrest us and throw me in the prison and they will think I’m attacking the princess and I’m going to lose my job and—’
Her panic was cut short when she heard a loud Bang! and shouting. Just then she realized that they just crashed into the castle through the main doors. ‘I hope the dungeons are clean’ was all she could think as she looked behind her and saw some guards shouting and trying to keep pace with the dragon, not even the pegasus succeeding in doing so.
Finally she heard another loud Bang! and the dragon came to a abrupt stop. Unfortunately to her, her resumé did not include ‘Dragon Riding’, a fact that she became acutely aware as momentum launched her forward, screaming all the way.
And then everything became purple and fluffy. For a second Daizy wondered if this was what happened after death; Everything becomes purple and fluffy with the smell of… lavender? After a full second of peace and almost achieving Nirvana, everything came back to normal as she fell on her back. The crystal ceiling of the castle brought her back to reality, and as soon that her misaligned eyes stopped spinning she focused on what she had hit. And immediately froze in place.
In front of her was no other than Princess Twilight Sparkle herself. Although a little stunned, she stood tall in front of the little unicorn, who immediately got up and tried to fuse her head with the floor in a bow, not even flinching as her horn struck hard in the crystal floor of the throne room. She stood there for what felt like an eternity, just waiting for her divine punishment, when she finally heard a voice.
“Raise, my little pony.” The princess spoke in a calm and collected voice.
Daizy immediately complied, raising herself on all fours in a tense and straight posture. The princess eyed her for a second before walking past her. Daizy couldn’t help but follow her ruler with her eyes. She watched as the princess approached the dragon, both wearing firm and stern expressions.
“You are late.” She said simply.
“So are you.” He answered.
“How would you know that?” She asked with a millimetric raise of a eyebrow.
The dragon eyed her for a second before answering. “You are using your regular regalia instead of the extra comfy one that you ordered some years ago, meaning that you just came out of court or a meeting and didn’t have the time to change. You are also still using your perfume with the calming enchantment which also means you still haven’t bathed and was probably on your way to.”
Both of them eyed each other for seconds that, to Daizy, seemed to last forever. Then they both broke into laughter and Daizy watched in astonishment as the princess approached the dragon and affectionately nuzzled his muzzle while he put a claw over her.
“It’s nice to see you, Spike.” She said as they finished their embrace.
“I know.” He answered and promptly got himself a well deserved smack of the wing in the nose. “Hehehe. Sorry, nice to see you too.”
The princess then turned to Daizy that still watched in barely repressed confusion and tried to process what was happening.
“And you must be Daizy Hooves, I assume.” She said with an smile.
Daisy again bowed quickly, again strucking her horn against the floor. “Y-yes, your highness! It i-is a honor to m-meet you!”
Princess Twilight eyed the little pony before her before letting a sigh. “Please, raise.” She said while using magic to lift the mare’s chin. Before she could speak again, the doors of the room where thrown open again.
“PRINCESS TWILIGHT!” Boomed a loud, deep voice. “STAY CALM, WE’LL TAKE CARE OF THE INTRUDERS.” He said, and at his command several guards clad in purplish silver armor stepped into the room. After having them surround both the dragon and the small mare, the owner of the voice ran to the side of his princess, wings flared as if trying to cover her. The pegasus had a pearl white coat and a 3 toned fiery hot-colored mane.
“Captain Calhiver, there is no need to—” The princess tried to speak but was cut by the stallion.
“Run princess! We will distract them!” He shouted and was echoed by agreements from the other guards.
“Captain Calville Blanc d’Hiver!” The princess boomed, her voice filling the room and blowing the captain’s wings and silencing everyone present. “While your loyalty and dedication are appreciated, they are not required right now. You know full well that Spike is a friend and that their visit was scheduled.”
“B-but princess, they just—”
“I will have none of that, captain. Now, apologize to both of them.” The princess said sternly at the stallion who visibly deflated.
Looking at the floor he approached Daizy and muttered a apology.
“I didn’t hear it, captain. Perhaps you would like some motivation?” The princess said, lightly lighting her horn.
The pegasus immediately stood in a firm position before bowing and talking again. “I am sorry, miss!” After that he glanced with a firm glare around the room at the other guards who promptly did the same.
“I-it is alright, I’m sorry too...” She replied.
He then tried to walk away but was interrupted by a purple barrier in his way and a loud cough from a dragon.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, captain?” The princess said with something dangerous in her voice.
The stallion sighed and without looking up he walked to the dragon. “I’m sorry, Lord Spike.” He said.
“Aw Calhiver, I already told you to not call me ‘Lord’.” The dragon said with a grin on his face. “After all, I know you since you were tiny enough to fit in my claws. Wait!” The dragon quickly lifted his claw and swept the captain into his arms, cradling him like a foal. “You still do!” He exclaimed before blowing a raspberry on the captain’s belly.
The captain started laughing hard with tears in his eyes and wings flared while he struggled to escape his captor’s embrace. After tortuous moments of painful laughter, the dragon finally let go and dropped him onto the floor. The pegasus proceeded to run away in a flash, not even bothering to fly, and disappearing behind a set of doors while the other guards did the same after apologizing to Spike.
“Ahahaha. He is still all ticklish.” Spike said in middle of some laughs. “Was that what you meant by ‘motivation’?”
“You know me so well, Spike.” The princess simply answered before looking at Daizy who stood there, jaws wide open, trying to understand anything that just happened. “Now, I think we should proceed, Daizy. Please follow me.” She started to walk in the direction of a set of doors but then stopped and looked at Spike. “Are you coming too?”
“I’ll try, but keep the teleportation at ready just in case.” He said and closed his eyes.
Daizy watched as the giant dragon before her took in a deep breath. She was trying to figure out what he meant by what they said, even though the main hallway of the castle were big enough for him, there was no way he would fit through the normal halls. Before she ask, though, before her eyes, Spike started shrink. She watched in amazement as the enormous beast became barely larger than Twilight herself.
Letting go of his breath, he spoke. “Alright, let’s go then.”
“What the buck just happened!?” Daizy almost shouted. It was too much stuff happening and she needed— no, she demanded an explanation to at least this mystery! Then she realized that before her stood Princess Twilight and a powerful dragon, both of which could burn her to crisps in a mere second. And she had used foul language in front of both of them. “I-I mean— I—”
“That?” The ever so familiar with panicking ponies dragon cut her off while putting a reassuring claw over her withers. “It was just a mental exercise. I just suppressed some of my greed and some other stuff too.” He said.
“A dragon’s growth is not determined by their age only, but by their emotions, too. Greed being one of the main factors.” Princess Twilight added as she walked through the set of doors and into a large corridor.
They walked mostly in silence most of the way. Spike and Twilight talking casually while Daizy tried to keep hold of herself. She was in the presence of one of the very princesses of Equestria! Any error could led to the dungeons! Or worse! She watched her step and could hear her heart pounding on her ears. She was so tense that she almost bumped into Twilight as they came to a stop in front of a room.
The princess opened its door and pointed inside, a wide smile plastered in her face. “Welcome to your new room!” She said happily.
Daizy looked inside. There she saw a large room with a desk, a bookshelf, a princess size bed, a door that probably led to a bathroom and a wardrobe. In the middle of the room were her bags that Golden had picked up at the train station. Her old, dirty bags. In the middle of the pristine room. In the Castle of Friendship. With a princess at her side.
Daizy’s mind gave up and she fell to the floor, the sweet embrace of sleep taking her mind away from this absurd reality.
Twilight stared at the sleeping mare, not sure on what to do.
“Manehattan.” Spike said while he picked her up and brought her to her bed.
“Manehattan? Wait, Inkspot?” She asked, already connecting the dots.
“Inkspot.” He affirmed.
“Well, that would explain why she felt so overwhelmed. I’m not sure if I would have lasted this long in her place, back then.”
“You would have had a meltdown before even getting to the castle.” He said with a grin while getting out of the bedroom and closing the door behind him. His smile was immediately met with the familiar sensation of a feathered slap to the muzzle.
“Come on, let’s get something to bite. I’m starving.” The princess said as both she and her number one assistant walked down the hallway.