Chapter 14: Canterlot Problems
In between Canterlot and Ponyville
Local Time: 1300
One month since arrival
Nothing much happened over the next week except that every time I went to talk to Cadence she was either not around or said to come back later. Anyway, being true to her word, Octavia and the rest of the orchestra learned some of the songs on my iPod in seven days. She also sent me two tickets to the concert and one train ticket from Ponyville to Canterlot and back. Only one train ticket, weird right? I still had another ten minutes until the train reached the station so I went over my to-do list. "First, go the castle and get my amour, then talk to Cadence, go see Luna and ask her to come with me to the concert, attend said concert, go home, and if possible find out why I keep talking to myself." After departing from the train I walked to the castle. When I arrived at the gate I walked past the two guards on duty, they didn't say anything to me, but I could feel their eyes following me. After walking around the castle for about an hour, I concluded I was lost. I asked one of the guards where Princess Celestia was, and he told me she was in a meeting. She could not to be disturbed, but the guard escorted me to the room she was in. I waited outside for half an hour before she came out.
"Oh, hello Steel. I didn't expect to see you here." I gave her a slight bow, since, even though we're friends, she is still a princess. "Well, Octavia's having her concert today so I figured I'd stop her and get that amour you gave to me." She started leading me to the blacksmith so I could be fitted. "So how was your meeting?"
"Meeting what meeting?... Oh that meeting." She motioned for me to get closer. "Between you and me I have that meeting once a week and it's not really a meeting," She whispered to me, "It's just some time I put aside so I can relax. Believe it or not, being a princess is extremely boring." I nodded in understanding just as we arrived at our destination. "I believe you. I was friends with the leader of my country. We knew each other since we were kids, he never had any problem telling me about the boredom that is politics." This caused her and the blacksmith, who we walked up next to, to laugh. When she settled down she introduced me to the blacksmith and left to do some royal duties.
"So the princess told me to give you whatever type of amour you wanted. So what will it be, Light, Heavy or some custom version?" Perfect just what I wanted to hear, "I'll be taking a custom design, I already have it crudely drawn out." I pulled out the designs and my forest-camo poncho. Judging by the look of intrigue on his face while reading my designs he was looking forward to making it. "Interesting designs, armor plating attached to the inside of the poncho, very interesting. It will take most of the day to complete come back around say… nine o'clock. By the way, where did you come up with this idea?"
"I was part of a foreign military before I came to Equestira. Armor like this was used for cover missions and for guarding high priority individuals." He wasn't really listening to me and lost interest after 'foreign military'. He levitated measuring tape over to me while his assistant went and gathered the metals needed. He measured every part of my body, legs torso, neck… well almost every part of my body. "Alright I just need you to remover that poncho so I can measure your wings." Fuck, "Wings? Uh, what wings?"
"Don't play dumb with me. Princess Celestia already informed me that you were an alicorn. I believe I'm the only guard that knows and the princess told me not to say anything to anypony else. Now unless you want somepony else to find out about this, you'll let me measure you before my assistant comes back with the metal." I quickly removed my poncho and he measured my wings. I had just finished putting my poncho back on when the blacksmiths assistant came back. When they started working on the armor plates, I left to find Princess Cadence. After walking around for a half an hour I had been at three dead ends, the guards' barracks, and back to the blacksmith before I asked one of the guards to point me in the right direction. I walked through the many twists and turns of the castle, got lost some more times, asked a few more guards for directions, and after I got lost, I finally found her.
"Steel, it's good to see you. I'm sorry we didn't get any time to talk while I was in Ponyville, but I have some time now if you want to talk." I smiled and she led me over to a table that had a pot of tea. She poured two cups of tea and offered me one. "I'm going to guess you want to talk about what I mentioned at the party last week." I nodded, "I've seen the way you look at my aunt. You like her and I thought I'd help you win over her heart." Granted when she said this I started chocking on my tea. "Wh-what are you talking about?" My attempt at feigning ignorance only made her laugh. "Oh Steel, I know you like her. Love is my special talent so it's hard to keep things like this a secret from me. Now what are you going to do?"
"Nothing, I mean, it could never work." My answer seemed to surprise her, "What do you mean? Love can always work." I stood up and walked over to a window, "No, it could never work. Besides the fact that she's royalty and I'm not, there are still other reasons." She motioned for me to continue, I sighed. "She deserves to be with a pony, a normal pony. I'm not a normal pony. Hell, I'm not even a real pony. I have problems, scars that can't be healed. She deserves somepony who can go a week without having nightmares, somepony who can always be there for her, somepony unlike me. I've done many terrible things, things that would scare even the bravest ponies, things that made me a monster. I don't deserve somepony like her."
She had a look of horror on her face. "Steel, how can you say that about yourself? You are a kind pony, since you've been here you have only done nice things, helped others, and you saved Luna's life, twice. What other proof do you need to prove that you are a good pony who deserves to be happy?" She walked over to me and gave me a hug. "Steel, I've seen the way Luna looks at you, she likes you. She won't be happy dating another pony, she doesn't care that you're not royalty, or about your past. She likes you for what you've done since you have been here. You two have the makings of a romantic relationship, all you have to do to make it a reality is to try." I just continued to look out the window unsure of how to respond. "Steel, all I'm asking is for you to think about it." She left leaving me looking out the window thinking about what she said. Eventually, I left to find and ask her about going to the concert with me but I couldn't get what she said out of my head. Because I was so lost in my thoughts I accidentally walked into somepony. I fell on my ass and vision got blurry for a second. When it cleared, I saw two guards glaring at me and Luna on the ground rubbing her head. "Luna, oh I'm sorry! I was thinking about something, are you ok?" I went to help her to her hooves and the guards took a step toward me, but she waved them off.
"I'm fine Steel. What were you thinking about?" Shit, I can't tell her about the conversation I had with Cadence. "Oh um… I was thinking about a few things. One of them was actually places you should be." After I said that I could feel myself start to blush. "And why were you thinking of places I might be?" Damn, this is harder than I thought, "Well…um as you know, Octavia gave me two tickets to her concert and um… I was wondering if you maybe… wanted to go with…me?" She chuckled at how embarrassed I must have looked. "Sure. When is it?"
"In an hour." She shook her head in disbelief, "You should have asked me earlier." I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at the floor in embarrassment. "You're lucky I don't have anything planed. Lead the way." I lead her to the concert hall. The ponies in line moved out of the way when they saw her despite her many attempts to tell them she didn't mind waiting in line. We showed our tickets to the usher and she led us to our seats. Octavia really went all out for me, our seats were in the first row right in the center and I mean dead center, I counted the seats on both sides. On one of the seats was a note.
Steel and guest,
The orchestra is having a party after the concert and you are invited. Meet me at the rear entrance of the theater after the concert and I'll take you there.
Octavia
While we waited for the concert to start me and Luna talked about some things, nothing too important, but it was interesting enough because before I knew it, the concert was about to start.
Two hours later…
The concert went better than I expected. They did remarkably well considering they only had seven days to learn the songs. They only missed a few notes, but if I hadn't listened to each of these songs a hundred times, I probably wouldn't have noticed. When it was over, everypony clapped out of respect and as we walked out of the theater, I overheard many ponies talking about the performance. The reactions varied, some thought it sounded too much like ponies would play at clubs, others thought it was exciting and an entirely new sound they wouldn't mind hearing again. Overall the Canterlot ponies enjoyed it. When Octavia came out, she was speaking with the last pony I ever expected to be at an orchestral concert, Vinyl Scratch. "Vinyl, what are you doing here?"
"Hey Steel, Princess Luna. Tavi had another ticket to the concert so she asked me if I wanted to go." I chuckled, "You two should consider yourselves lucky. If I never came here, you two might never have become friends." They nodded and as we walked to where the party was, we talked about how things were. We didn't talk about anything of real importance, just whatever happened to come up. The only thing we talked about that really interested me was the talent contest Vinyl's club was having in a few days, she suggested I do it. She also recommended that Luna do it so she could visit everypony and practice her guitar skills. We agreed and she offered to do it with us, who knew she could play the drums? I guess you learn something new every day.
When we got to the party, I knew I would be bored out of my mind by the end of it. It was one of those fancy party somepony would throw to impress somepony else, aka the types of parties I try to avoid. As soon as somepony noticed Luna, everypony bowed and went to talk to her. After that, a few ponies continued to talk to Luna while the others went back to their original conversations. Octavia introduced us to her friends in the orchestra and after that I moved over to the food and made that my spot for the party. I chatted with a few ponies who wanted to thank me for giving the music, Luna was surrounded by the biggest ass kissers of the party, and Octavia and Vinyl spent the entire time with each other. Perhaps it was my boredom or my maybe my training, but I noticed that the table the ice sculpture was on (yeah it's one of those parties) wasn't flat, but whoever decided to put it on the second floor next to the banister should be fired. At first I didn't think much of it, but as I was talking to a pony named Fancypants, I heard some sort of creaking sound, he did too. We looked around for the source and I saw the table break. My training kicked in and I calculated that it would land on one of the only ponies at the party I actually knew, Luna. I ran towards her, since the room was too small for me to fly in. As I pushed her out of the way, I heard a ripping sound and felt the sculpture land on my hind legs. When I landed, I heard a collective gasp from everypony in the room. I assumed it was because it crushed my legs or because I saved the princess. When I looked back, I realized that wasn't why they were whispering. The banister had broken when the sculpture hit it and impaled the front of my poncho and exposed my wings. Shit. I heard them whispering to each other, the last time I was in a situation like this…
POV change: Luna
While everypony stared at Steel, I saw him tense up and get a look in his eyes. To eveypony else he look normal, but I could see the distant look in his eyes, he wasn't there. He was taken somewhere else by his mind and stares weren't helping him. I looked over to Vinyl and Octavia who had moved next to me. "I need to get him out of here, you two need to calm everypony down. And try to keep them from telling anypony else." I walked over to Steel and teleported us back to the castle. We teleported into the throne room and startled my sister. When she saw Steel's state, she trotted over to us, "What happened?"
"We went to a party after the concert. There was a problem with one of the tables and an ice sculpture almost fell on me and Steel pushed me out of the way. But his poncho got caught and came off. Everypony saw that he was an alicorn and he froze up. Octavia and Vinyl are still there trying to maintain control over the situation, but I would recommend sending somepony to help them." She gestured to a guard who went outside. She moved Steel's head so she could look into his eyes, "He seems to be in shock. I don't think it was caused by this, though. I might be able to bring him out of it, stand back." I moved away and she cast a spell a few seconds later Steel gasped for air looking around the room nervously. "Steel, are you ok? What happened?"
"I'm… fine. I just had a flashback, it's nothing." As I helped him to his hooves, I looked at my sister and could tell she also knew he was lying. "Steel it's ok, what was the flashback?" He walked over to a window and the entire time he looked at the ground and tried not to make eye contact with anypony. I walked up next to him and turned his head making him look at me, "Steel… tells us." It was like I hit a switch, tears immediately started to form in his eyes.
"I was back at one of the bases I was stationed at. It was right after that time I was saved by my friends, it was also the day after one of my friends died. After I gave my report to the general the rumors spread like wild fire. Everywhere I went, everywhere I turned everypony would stare at me and talk behind my back because of what I did." I looked at my sister and, like me, she didn't want to know the rest, but we had to know to help Steel. "What did you do?" That was it, he broke down and cried, "I killed Kingsley. We were captured together and they made me kill him. We went through basic training together…we did cross country together in high school. I remember our coach used to call him Kingston Alouitious the third," A bit of a smirk appeared on his face. 'It was ridiculous…King always used said that it was because he was black. We all laughed because it was true…I remember all the good times we had." I hugged him as he continued to cry. He cried until he had no more tears. Then he looked out the window remembering his friend. By now, it was far into the night and even if he didn't show it he must have been tired, "Steel, I think it's time you go home and rest."
"You're probably right." And for the first time in two hours, he got up. I walked him to the chariot we prepared for him and just before he got in it he turned to me. "If we're going to take part in this talent show, we need to practice. Would you be able to come over around, say eight?" I nodded and he smiled. I waved as his chariot left but, I couldn't shake the feeling that his smile was forced. As I walked back into the castle, I had an idea so I ran to catch up with my sister.
POV change: Steel
As soon as Luna was out of view I let my smile drop, I didn't want Luna worrying about me. I was still a little shaken by what happened today but I had my way of getting over it. Soon the chariot landed in front of my house I thanked the stallions pulling it and walked inside, I immediately went to my music room. It's not really a music room since the only things in there were my guitars, a speaker, and a chair. I had a song I always played when I was feeling depressed, I don't know why but it has always made me feel better.
(This Broken Soul by Rebecca Kneubuhl)
O holy land, come ancient spirits,
Take up my hand and guide me.
Pull me to shore, rivers are rising,
Look in this heart and find me.
I've lost my way, your voice is silent,
I need you here to remind me.
Show me now, how to find my home,
All I am surrender.
Let the water flow right thru this broken soul.
I'm by your side, ashes still burning,
I proved my worth, so tell me why
I've lost my way, your voice is silent.
I need you here to remind me.
Show me now, how to find my home,
All I am surrender.
Tell me that you can forgive.
Bring me peace, that I may live.
Show me now, how to find my home,
All I am surrender.
Oh sweet rest, oh sweet rest,
Find me at my home.
Stay with me forever.
Let the water flow right thru this broken soul.
"That was a beautiful song." I jumped when I heard that voice. Unfortunately, I also flapped my wings which drove my horn into the ceiling. As I struggled, I could here somepony laughing. When I finally got my horn out of the ceiling, I saw Luna rolling around on the floor laughing. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." After she stopped, I asked her a question, "What are you doing here Luna?"
"Well, I had a feeling that the smile you gave me when you left the castle was forced. So I thought I come over here in case you needed somepony to talk to. By the way, you left this at the castle." She hoofed me my now armored cloak. And I thought of something 'She's ignoring her royal duties to helping me with my problems, granted I'm not going to talk with her about them, but damn.' "Thanks, I didn't think you cared about me this much."
She blushed at my comment, "You're my friend and friends help each other." I smiled and lead her over to the living room and offered her some tea. We talked for awhile, I did my best to keep the conversation away from my break down today. After we ran out of things I wanted to talk about, Luna really wanted to talk about today, and I thought it was best if we went, or at least I went to bed. I said goodnight to Luna and went to my room, climbed into bed, and promptly feel asleep.
Authors note: Definitely not my best chapter, but it did what I needed it to do. The armor I tried, keyword being tried, to describe is the closest thing ponies can make to Kevlar. Kingston Alouitious the third is a reference to ItsKindsleyBitch on YouTube. For anyone who is interested in listening to the song This Broken Soul it is not on iTunes.