Chapter 4: Got 2 Know by Flux Pavilion
I HAVE A ROYAL DECREE! Is that the right word? Decree? I think it is, but what the fuck do I know? I'll tell you what I know, writing 6 stories at once is MOTHERFUCKING HARD! So I've decided to write 2 at a time and put all the others on hiatus. Seriously, it got to the point where'd I'd start a new chapter for a story and completely forget what was going to happen. So then I'd start writing, then be like 'Wait, what the fuck am I doing?', erase all that I worked on, start again, realize I like the first version more and next thing you know, I'm on draft #D. Because I use letters for numbers. Honestly, I forgot what's going to happen this chapter but I left it off at a cliffhanger so who needs memory? And thanks to jimenezja12, lilbutch, BigDaddieSora, and ReizemUr for following and/or favoriting or whatever the fuck people do.
"Oh sorry, I was-" Twenty-Three began. Then, a rolled parchment (because paper is for the poor now) appeared in front of him. He grabbed it in mid-air with his hoof. It was sealed with Celestia's iconic seal. He unrolled it and began reading it. Even Twilight was distracted from having her answer questioned… wait what? "It seems I've been asked to attend some sort of dinner at the palace grounds by Celestia."
He checked his wrist to check the time using the watch he didn't have. "Seems like I'll have to leave now if I want to be early."
He began to leave, but then Twilight regained her senses. "Wait, what about our lesson?"
"Sorry, looks like we'll have to reschedule. But don't worry, I definitely want to learn magic. I feel like it be very helpful with my situation", he said before walking out. Twilight couldn't even question what he meant by that last statement. Nor did she get the answer to his question. She sighed in frustration. That stallion was going to be very stressful and not good for her mental health.
"Did you finish your lesson with the cyborg?" Spike asked, coming down the stairs.
"He is not a cyborg, Spike. And he had to leave early to go to a dinner that Celestia wants him to go to", she replied going back to her studies on the theory of gravity spells
"Huh, I wonder what was so important that he had to go to but not you", Spike mused out loud. Twilight dropped the book she had grabbed and stared at Spike.
(Time skip to Twenty-Three's house)
"What should I wear?" He asked himself in the mirror. He brought the tie to his neck, stared for a bit and then put it back down. He stared at himself. He brought the tie back up. He repeated these gestures several times before throwing it into his bag. He grabbed his brush and brushed his mane slightly to the left. He brought a hoof and angled his head to the right.
"It's been awhile since I've presented myself-", he stopped, dropping his hoof and sighing. "I'm not presenting myself. I'm not presenting myself. This is just… not a presentation."
He looked back up towards the mirror and stared into his grey, lifeless eyes. He brought his hoof up to the mirror and placed it onto the mirror, feeling the cold mixture of glass and silver.
"Why… can I not be sad?" He asked himself. "I don't know. Why can I not be angry towards the one who did this to me? I don't know. Why can't I enjoy my freedom? I don't know. Why… don't I know anything… because I was told to not know anything. Être poney, d'être dans la douleur… so why is everypony happy here?"
He left his house to head towards the train to Canterlot. The train ride wasn't so long, but the entire time, Twenty-Three stared out towards the passing scenery. Though his eyes betrayed no emotions, he almost seemed to exude an aura of somberness. Though the train was moderately packed, nopony bothered him.
When he reached Canterlot he headed straight for the castle and didn't pay attention to any of the ponies who walked by him. He reached the front gates, which were unguarded this time around. In fact, Celestia was there to greet him. He bowed exuberantly in front of the Princess, acknowledging her status.
"Greetings, your Majesty", he said, though while his tone did not change, it was more formal than usual.
"Oh please, you can just call me Celestia", she said, laughing at the shift in his demeanor. "This isn't such a formal event."
"Then what is this?" Twenty-Three asked her. Celestia's smile grew.
"Consider this your 'Welcome to Equestria' party", she said.
"So… that means that I'm the guest of honor?" He asked her. She nodded her head and he sighed. "I wish you had told me that before."
"I just didn't want you to get cold hooves", she said, chuckling a bit. "Now come, everypony's waiting."
"What? I thought the event doesn't start till another 20 minutes", he said, following her as she led him through the castle.
"No, I just told you to be here at that time. I had everyone gather early for your big debut", she said. They came to the ballroom, which had about 20 ponies conversing. He sighed.
"How much have you told them about me?" He asked her as everypony's attention began shifting towards him.
"As much as I know", she replied. Then, she turned to the group of ponies and flared her wings. Twenty-Three had to dodge them to not get smacked in the face.
"Welcome all! Our guest of honor has arrived! I'd like to introduce you all to…" She suddenly halted, realization on her face.
"Twenty-Three", he whispered to her. She looked down at him and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Twenty-Three!" She said, turning back to the group of ponies. They clapped lightly. "I've only known him for a few weeks, but I already consider him a close friend. I hope you all can get to know him well during this little party."
She then used her wing to lightly push Twenty-Three forward. He took the rather demanding hint and began walking towards the group of ponies. Seven ponies came to greet him first. There were four stallions and three mares. He could tell immediately that the mares were all paired up with a stallion. The stallion who was seemingly left out had a white coat and a blonde mane. He carried himself with what Twenty-Three could easily tell was an abundance of confidence.
"Hello", he greeted them casually. This seemed to take the ponies by surprise.
"I thought Celestia said you were from Prance", one of the mares said.
"Yes, I am", he replied. The ponies looked between themselves, exchanging glances of confusion.
"Oh, well it's just you don't seem to have an accent", the mare said. "Why is that?"
"It was favorable for my job", he answered. But the tension in the group seemed to raise exponentially. Now the ponies seemed to almost be visually daring each other to speak. The silence was broken by the blonde-haired stallion.
"So is it true?" He asked, all eyes going to him. "You know, about your uh… occupation?"
"Yes", Twenty-Three replied.
"What was it like?" One stallion asked quickly, like he was trying to keep the conversation going. The mare by his side, elbowed him in the side so hard that Twenty-Three could have sworn he heard him squeak. Twenty-Three put a hoof to his chin in thought on the question.
"I don't know", he finally answered. It was obvious that was not the answer they were expecting.
"What do you mean?" Another stallion asked.
"I'm not sure… just that I guess I've been kind of desensitized to it all", he responded. The group fell silent. They all looked rather perturbed. The group dissipated and a new one took its place. But their experience seemed to be the same as the last. They started talking about him first and then the question of his job came up which would cause tension until they all seemed to awkward to continue. Eventually he found himself alone, watching all the other ponies.
"Why is the guest of honor by thy lonesome?" A voice asked him. He looked towards the voice to see Princess Luna.
"I imagine it's because I'm what others call 'socially awkward'", he said, almost falling over to do the air quotes. Luna nodded in what looked like understanding.
"But that's to be expected, consid'ring thy past, no?" She asked him. Twenty-Three then realized something. She talked as in an almost Shakesmarian dialect which made sense in a way since she had been banished. But Shakesmarian wasn't around till about 500 years ago, not 1,000. Interesting. "Is there a problem? Thoust been staring at me for quite a time."
"No, just thinking about something", he said, shaking his head. They stood there, in a pause of silence.
"Does though have nightmares of thy past?" She asked him. He shook his head. "Really so dost thou have no regrets?"
"No. I don't have anything to regret about my past", he answered, then he turned to face her. "What about you? Do you have any regrets?"
"Thou… thou could say that…" she replied, looking down.
"Well you must be an idiot", he stated. Princess Luna looked at him with an expression which seemed like she didn't know whether to be surprised, confused or angry. "I mean, you're worrying about something that happened in the past. You can't change it. What's happened, happened. It's not like you can go back in time."
Princess Luna was about to reply, but Twenty-Three cut her off.
"Wait… can you? I was told today that you could theoretically do anything with magic. Are there spells for time travel?" He asked Luna, now completely distracted from the topic before.
"Y-Yes. There are spells for traversing time. Though they are fairly complex and nothing permanent", she answered, now looking like she was still trying to process what was happening. Twenty-Three looked like he was in deep thought now. He stayed like that for about a minute before seeming to just dismiss it and went back to watching the other ponies. Princess Luna, stood there watching him, still processing. She shook her head as she remembered something.
"I believe this is yours", she said, pulling out the hair band and ribbon that he had used to give her a ponytail. He looked at the items before looking at her.
"Keep them", he said dismissively.
"But my sister said that thou came here with only memorabilia from when thou lived in Prance", she replied. Twenty-Three shrugged his shoulders.
"Some things are worth more to me than other things and some things can be worth more to others than they can be for me", he said.
"... So what do these mean to thou?" She asked him. He glanced at them again before answering.
"Charmeur Pacifique and Diamant Prisme", he said. They locked eyes. Luna's confused ones staring into his blank expression. After that, Twenty-Three left Luna and talked to Celestia a bit before leaving the event. The train ride home was uneventful and so was the expedition of finding his house from the train station. When he finally reached home, he beelined straight towards his room to grab his bag. He fished around before finding an earring. He set the earring on his nightstand and stared at it.
"Did I ever do anything to you?" He asked the earring. "Did I do something to someone you knew? Did my parents do something to invoke your wrath? Why was it me? Why not the others who were abandoned on the streets? Did I make you happy? Why did you never tell me? Why did you do what you did? Did you know it was wrong? Maybe it's the way you were raised. But you treated me differently… why? Why did I suffer so much? Why can't I be angry at you?"
With that, he turned off the lights and laid down in bed.
"And… should I be happy or sad that you're gone now?"
Oh shit. This chapter kind of got a little serious. I hope some more questions have been raised about Twenty-Three and his past. Is my writing getting noticeably worse? I just have that seed of doubt every time I write, especially this story, that I'm doing something majorly wrong. And I have to reply to some reviews. I'll just say now though, that I highly prefer doing this over a pm because my author notes are already hella long. So please, I'd prefer if you had an account so I could at least converse with you maybe on the story. So to reply to 'Guest' who reviewed in chapter 3… wait, I already answered this technically. But yes, I will update this story with hopefully more frequency since I'm just focusing on this and only one other story. And I'm glad that you're interested. And to reply to 'notabrony' … … … so… um, nevermind. I'm glad that you're lovin' the fic. I feel like I'm forgetting something… ooh well. This author's note is fucking huge :( sorry.
~djsoresupon3 signing out!