I would like to apologize for how long it took for me to get this chapter out to you guys. I had my Eagle Scout project which took up a good chunk of my time and now that its spring my editor has started play lacrosse again so she doesn't have the time to edit my chapters Also expect less time in between each update but more grammatical errors.
Important pre-chapter notes:
1) As I said last chapter the bullets in Steel's cutie mark have been changed from .50 caliber rounds to 7.62x51 NATO rounds.
2) I feel like I have to talk about alicorn Twilight because of the mixed reactions to it. Making her an alicorn was a good idea just done at the wrong time, the best time to make her an alicorn would have been the season finally of the last season. Now that she's a princess she can't spend all day with her friends she has royal duties now and that changes part of the show, all her adventures happened while goofing off with her friends.
3) I'm saying this again since almost none of you read the last chapter's authors note. I've been playing the My Little pony mobile game and I'm looking for friends, my gameloft ID is Lord_Curly.
4) The other day I was looking at the list of My Little Pony stories and came across the story My Little Pony: A Marine's Life by Godwrites. I read a few chapters and made a startling discovery, so I'm putting a poll up I want to know if you guys think his story is a knockoff of mine or not.
Chapter 16: Introducing Purple Heart
Prancing Pony Club, Ponyville
Local time: 0005
One month, four days since arrival
Once I got over the initial shock of being invited to Luna's birthday party, I grabbed my piece of the trophy and went to find the girls. After ten minutes of moving thru the crowd of ponies that wanted to buy me a drink or congratulate me, I found Rainbow Dash. "Dash, I'm glad I found you, where's everypony else?" The crowd was starting to dissipate, but with so many ponies talking and the music blaring, I had to shout for her to hear me.
"They're at the library. We decided to go back there since it's hard to talk here. I stayed here to let you know where we went." I nodded and we started walking to the library. "So I didn't get a chance to talk to you the other day, now that eveypony knows you're an alicorn, when are you going to let me teach you how to use those?" She gestured to my wings, by now we were out in the street so I opened them and flexed them slightly. "I don't have anything planed for the rest of the day, are you sure you're ready to be a teacher?" She started laughing. For the rest of the trip, I couldn't stop thinking of Luna's birthday party. I know we're practically best friends, but three days isn't enough time to get her a good present. "Hey Steel, are you ok?"
"Huh... I'm fine." She gave me a look, "I'll tell you when we get to the library." After a few more minutes of walking, we got to the library. When I walked in I saw the girls and Cadence talking, she must have come back to see the show. When they saw me they started applauding, "Thanks now I have something for each of you." I levitated the other six letters out of my saddlebag and gave each of them their letter. At first they were confused as to why I was giving them something with Luna's seal on it, "Open it." As they read the invitations everyponies eyes except for Cadence, who probably already knew about the party, widened. Halfway thru the invitation Rarity fainted and when the others finished they were left speechless. After Rarity recovered she was the first to speak, "Did we all just get invited to Princess Luna's birthday party?" They all nodded slowly and I smiled and she fainted again. Pinkie started bouncing around the room, "Oh, this is going to be so much fun. There will be cake and music and we'll get to spend time with the Princesses. I wonder if they'll let me help set up the party!" While they started talking about how fun the party will be I was trying not to laugh… I failed. After I calmed down everypony, I noticed that Cadence was staring at me. "What?"
"Why were you laughing?" asked Dash. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cadence trying not to laugh. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it; you girls were just too funny." My answer just irritated her so I elaborated. "It's clear none of you have been to the birthday party of a government official. They're not fun, it's probably been one of the most boring things it has ever been my displeasure of attending. It's more of a formality, it's expected that other government officials, or in your case nobles, attend. If I had compare it to something…it's like the Grand Galloping Gala." This caused the girls to groan, "Don't worry, if she's like any of the important people I knew, she's probably going to have an after party just for her friends, which includes us." Their moods improved, but they weren't too excited to go. Suddenly a letter with Celestia's seal appeared in front of me, it read:
Steel,
Octavia and I have decided to get Luna a personalized bass and electric guitar.
Vinyl
I looked back at the girls, "Anyway, we have three days to get her gifts. Vinyl and Octavia are getting her personalized guitars so we need to decide what to get her."
"Well darling, I could have a dress made for her by then." They all talked about what they were going to get her and I tried to think of something to get her. I was having trouble thinking of a gift for her, I didn't want to get her something she could by herself, something meaningful to show how close we are and how much I value her friendship. "Hey Twilight, didn't Luna used to live in a castle near here?" She nodded, "Do you have a map that shows where it is?" She had a confused look on her face, "No, what's left of the castle is located in the Everfree Forest and since it's too dangerous for anypony to go in there, no maps exist, why?"
"I want to get Luna something meaningful not something from a store. Something had to have survived in that castle, like a statue or something. Personally, I think something from her past would be a great gift." They all agreed it was a good idea and Rarity shared a look with Cadence, but I was too tired to think about it. However, they didn't think it was a good idea for me to go in there alone. "Girls, I'll be fine. I was able to fight off assassins and a manticore. I think I can handle a walk through the forest." They tried to talk me out of going, but I wasn't going to give in. "Dash, later can you give me a quick flying lesson just enough to get me off the ground and moving forward." She nodded, "Twilight can you write down some directions for me?'
"Yes, but I still think it's a bad idea for you to go in there alone." I chuckled as I walked back to my house.
Approximately 11 hours later…
So much for Twilights directions, I thought. Not even an hour into the forest, I was ambushed by a pack of timber wolves. It turned out to be a good idea to wear my armored poncho and thankfully Dash gave me a crash course in flying. I got away, but now I'm way off course and if that wasn't enough I either broke or sprained my wing on the landing. Using the little sunlight that came thru the forest canopy I headed in the direction I thought the castle was in.
9 hours latter…
"This is perfect, just fucking perfect!" I've been in the forest for about ten and a half hours now and I still haven't reached the castle. "I cross the river and not even five minutes later I run into a ravine. Is there anything else that could possibly keep me from reaching the castle?" I shouldn't have said anything because at that exact moment it started to rain. "Fuck, the universe clearly has it out for me. Because of those damn timber wolves, I can't fly and now with this rain I can't safely climb down and back up the other side." I face hoofed, "This forest is driving me crazy, I'm talking to myself… again. Fuck it. I'll camp here for the night." After eating some of the apples and one of the sandwiches I brought I climbed a nearby tree, tied myself to it, and fell asleep.
Castle ruins, Everfree Forest
Local time: 1300
One month, five days since arrival
"Five hours, five fucking hours." After waking up latter than usual due to the lack of light I started walking around the perimeter of the ravine looking for a way across. "How come it took me five hours to find a way across? Not only have I wasted most of the day but I'm still talking to myself." After crossing the rickety and dangerously old rope bridge, I finally made it to the castle. It was worse than I expected. The ceiling was nonexistent, the walls looked like Swiss cheese and the whole thing looked like it could collapse at any moment. Needless to say, I started having doubts. "I can't believe this! I fought in a war and I'm afraid to go into some ruins. If my drill sergeant ever heard about this, he would beat me so hard that my skin would stay black." Taking a deep breath I started to calm myself, "Ok, go in, find something that survived the last thousand years, and get out. How long can it take?" With myself mentally prepared, I entered the ruins.
After a few hours, I began mentally checking off ever where I've already been. "Throne room: empty, Garden: buried by rubble, Courtyard: now a sinkhole, Dinning hall: empty, Room that my have belonged to Celestia: totally destroyed by something." After searching the remaining rooms and finding nothing I ended up in what, judging by the crescent moon on what's left of the door and above the door way, was Luna's room. Surprisingly, the room was also empty. "This is ridiculous, an entire castle and not one thing still intact!" Frustrated beyond belief, I slammed one of my hooves into the floor causing it to break apart revealing a hidden staircase. Unfortunately, the staircase was directly below me and I fell down it until I crashed through what was left of a door into a large room. I groaned, "Fucking hate this castle." When the world stopped spinning, I looked around. Judging by the few bits and jewels scattered around the room I was most likely in the castles vault. I picked up the few treasures around me, five bits, two diamonds, a sapphire, and put them in my saddlebag and walked over to the only other interesting thing in the room, an old statue of Luna. Her body was made of black marble and adorned in silver armor. "That'll work." As I checked the statue for any structural weaknesses, I began removing the blue plants that coated it. Once I had removed all of them, I checked over the statue one more time and tripped over what appeared to be a stone chest partially buried next to the statue. "What's this? Hum… appears airtight; if anything else survived it would be in here."
After digging it out and many failed attempts to open it, including one where I used my horn as a crowbar, I gave up. "Screw it, I'll bring it with me. Celestia or Luna should be able to open it." Placing my hooves on the statue and chest, I teleported to my backyard. After covering them with a tarp to cover them from any weather I wasn't aware of, I placed my saddlebags on the table in my room and climbed into bed.
Castle ruins, Everfree Forest
Moments after Steel left
"Master, are you sure it was wise to let him leave, what if he saw one of us? What if he returns for something?" Menacing laughter reverberated throughout the castle. "There is no need to worry and as much as I hate to admit it, we aren't ready. The parts of the castle we need haven't been fully restored. Keeping him would only bring the princesses here before we are ready. No, it was best if we let him go but we will see him again soon… very soon."
Steel's home, Ponyville
Local time: 0800
One month, six days since arrival
When I woke up something felt different, but I couldn't place my hoof on it. Still half asleep, I shuffled over to my bathroom and got into the shower. "Damn, that trip into the forest took more out of me than I anticipated," I thought. I don't know how long I spent in the shower, but the hot water on my tense muscles felt good. After getting out, I grabbed a towel and started to dry myself. I started by drying my face, then I moved the towel to dry my mane… wait isn't there supposed to be a horn on my head. Eyes closed, I slowly moved a hoof to where my horn should be hopping I was wrong, I wasn't. I screamed but that sounded wrong too; it was high pitched and sounded more like a mare screaming. Armed with the knowledge that my horn was gone and my voice had changed, I had a slight panic attack. Running over to the mirror I tried to get a good look at myself and see what else was wrong, but the mirror was foggy. Using my hoof, I quickly wiped of the condensation on the mirror, I was so freaked out that I didn't notice that the hoof wiping the mirror was a light purple not gunmetal gray. After seeing my reflection I almost passed out, my mind could not comprehend what my eyes were seeing. My entire appearance had change. My coat was now a light purple color, my mane gold, my horn was gone, my wings were gone too, my cutie mark was now the Purple Heart medal and I was significantly shorter. Add to that the change in my voice.
This realization caused me to stare at the mirror for a few minutes while saying, "This can't be happening," repeatedly and slapping my self in the face a few times. After about twenty minutes of me blankly staring into the mirror, since slapping myself didn't work, I felt the need to relieve myself. As I sat on the toilet, I saw some thing that made me curl up into a ball, stare at my groin, and scream so loud the princesses probably heard me in Canterlot. I was now a mare, the body part that defines a stallion was gone, replaced. My mind couldn't take it any more after everything that happened in the last few minutes I finally cracked. I stood up, walked over to one of the room's corners, curled into a ball, rocked back and forth, and silently cried. I still had to relieve myself, but I was in the middle of a mental breakdown so I ended up pissing myself. Eventually, I was able to calm myself enough to take another shower, clean the bathroom, crawl into bed and get a hold of myself, not necessarily in that order… I'm going to have to change my sheets. "Ok, the key is not to panic," I looked at my bed, "again. I'll just go see Twilight, she'll know what to do. But first I need a new name if I use my real name nopony will ever let me forget this… and I'm talking to myself again, focus priorities. Let's see new name, new name… might as well use Purple Heart it is my temporary cutie mark. I mean it's not like I'm going to be stuck like this for too long… right?" I quickly walked to the library doing my best to avoid eveypony. Once I got there, I started shouting her name, there was no response, and I was about to start looking for her when I remembered something that made me face hoof.
(Flashback)
"Steel, are you sure it's ok that we go to Canterlot early?" The girls all looked at me while I tried to catch my breath after my flying lesson. I dismissively waved my hoof, "It's fine. Go enjoy yourselves, have a good time, see the sights. I'll meet you at Luna's party." A few minutes later I waved at them as their train left the station.
"Shit, looks like I'm going to Canterlot like this. Uh, really wish I had a job right now." Since the money from the talent show is being sent to me in the form of a check I didn't have it yet. I had planed on teleporting to the castle but without a horn that is no longer an option, good thing AJ lent me a cart just incase I couldn't carry what I found. After putting everything in the cart I went over my list. "Statue: check, Chest: check, Suit in case they can fix this quickly: check, Hooked up to cart properly: check, looks like I'm good to go… great." After walking halfway thru town I realized something, this shit's heavy. I wasn't even out of town and I could already feel the first sings of fatigue, I guess my smaller stature isn't built for pulling heavy things. I still had to go thru approximately half the town, a two hour walk across flat plains, and a thirty minute walk up the mountain, plus however long it takes to walk thru Canterlot to the castle. Not to mention that with the added weight the trip is more like a seven hour journey. This is the worst day ever… of all time. "Looks like I'm going to be late to the party," I muttered.
"'scuse me ma'am, do ya need help?" Big Macintosh, great the last thing I need is other ponies. "No, I'm fine." I continued walking and he walked next to me. "Ah hope ah'm not outa line but ya clearly need help. An' from that look in yer eyes ah can tell yer as stubborn as mah sister."
"I'm not being stubborn. It's just that I have to bring this stuff to Canterlot and you probably have things you need to do around here." He shook his head, "It's no trubble ma'am, ah was actually goin' to Canterlot mahself." *sigh* I mumbled, "Fine," while unhooking myself from the cart. He hooked himself up to the car and we began walking to Canterlot. Along the way, he started asking about me, which was odd, usually he barely says two words to me. I created a back story to answer all his questions, it was pretty good, and he also told me about the Apple family. During the trip every time we passed another stallion, I could feel there eyes following me. A few times I thought I saw a mare do the same thing, but just ignored it and blamed it on paranoia. As we walked thru the gates of Canterlot I made a decision, if this ever happens again I'm not leaving my house, eventually one of my friends will come looking for me and they'll give me the cure, antidote, whatever… "So why are ya goin' to Canterlot?"
"An old friend of mine was invited to Princess Luna's birthday party. Unfortunately, he's having an emergency so he asked me to go for him. The cart has his gifts to the princess." He grunted as one of the wheels got stuck in a pothole, this gave me time to get a good look at the ponies of Canterlot. One word came to mind for them, all of them, snobs. "Well his gifts sure are heavy, what did he do make a statue of her? Who is he anyway?"
"Well, he kind of did… it is a statue. He just didn't make it. As for who he is, I think he's a friend of yours, Flamingsteel. You know him?" He finally got the wheel out and we continued walking. "Eeyup, ah know him. Wouldn't call him mah friend though, ah haven't spent enough time with him." A few minutes later we arrived at the castle and he started unhooking himself from the cart. "Hey, ah was thinkin', well more like wonderin' if ya wanted to have lunch with me tomorrow."
"I'm sorry, but my train for Manehattan leaves tonight," while he didn't say anything his ears drooped slightly, "but maybe next time I'm in Ponyville." I didn't want to lie to him, but over the past few hours we formed a bond and it kind of hurt seeing him depressed. He smiled and left, as I walked toward the gate I remembered the jewels and bits I picked up in the old castles vault. Fighting the urge to face hoof I walked up to the gate and was stopped by the guards on duty. "Halt! State your business."
"I'm here for Princess Luna's birthday party." I hoofed him the invitation. "Flamingsteel could not attend and asked me to go in his place." The other guard went to check the cart and the one I was talking to looked back at me. "Why isn't Flamingsteel attending?"
"That is a personal matter. I was instructed only to reveal to Princess Luna if she asked… why?" The guard looked behind me; the other guard most likely signaled that he deemed the gifts safe. "The princess told us to inform her when Flamingsteel arrived. If you'll follow me I'll escort you to the party."
"Hey! You escorted the last guest." The guards started arguing over who would escort me to the party. This lasted for about a minute until one of them pulled rank. As we walked away, I could feel the other guard watching us, more specifically me. After walking thru many of the similar looking hallways of the castle we finally arrived at the party. The guard led me through the crowd towards Luna. As we made our way to her, I could feel almost every stallion's eyes following me… again and most of the mares looking jealously at me, it freaked me out. I never liked being the center of attention, I was fine with the occasional stallion staring at me as Big Mac and I passed on the road, but this was a room full of ponies looking at me. The guard walked up next to Luna and whispered something in her ear. She and the girls walked over to me, "You are friends with Steel?" I nodded, "Yes, we met in Manehattan." She wasn't buying my story, which is a good thing since it is complete bullshit. "Why isn't he here?" I looked around at the ponies near us who had become very interested in our conversation. "No offense princess, but this is a conversation best held in private." I said gesturing to the ponies around us who quickly made it look like they were interested in anything else. Luna nodded and led our group to a side room and shut the door behind us. The walls briefly glowed indicating that a spell was cast on them; most likely it was a spell to keep ponies outside the room from hearing us. Next thing I know, I'm magically being slammed into a wall. "Who are you? We all know that Steel has never been to Manehattan! Where is he?!"
"I'm Steel," I mumbled. "What?" I said it again a little louder, but they still couldn't hear me. After a few more attempts, I took a deep breath and just shouted it, "I'm Steel!" They all gasped, Luna lost her magical grasp on me, and I fell to the floor and hung my head in shame. "Before you ask no, I don't know how this," I gestured to myself, "happened. All I know is that I woke up like this." I started to cry. They all tried to comfort me; Luna was the most worried about my condition. She pulled me into a hug and stroked my mane which calmed me down a little, "It's ok, Steel. We'll figure something out." I whipped the tears from my face and looked up at her, then to the rest of my friends. They all had caring smiles or sympathetic looks on their faces, "Unfortunately, it will have to wait until later. We must return to the party, appearances must be upheld." The girls were shocked by this news, but honestly I knew this would happen. "I understand, no rest for the weary, eh? I assumed this would happen, I was friends with the leader of my country and attended a few of these types of parties."
"You knew the leader of your country? That's awesome!" Dash said. She unlike everypony else, except Luna, had her mouth closed while theirs were hanging open. "Yes and I'd be glad to tell you about him another time. Right now, you girls have a party to attend… oh and close your mouths." They all closed their mouths; most of them blushing from embarrassment, and Dash flew up into my face. "What do you mean 'you girls'? You were invited to this party, too." They all looked at me waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going back out there, not with all the looks I've been getting."
"Oh, you noticed that huh?" asked Luna. I nodded, "Well Steel, how should I put this… whatever happened to you, turned you into a very attractive mare." She said that last part in a slightly different tone, I just ignored it, not like it's important… right? "Almost every stallion in the room was watching you as you passed them… a few mares too. But please, try to enjoy yourself at the party… it would mean a lot to me." Granted she mumbled that last part and I didn't hear her "Fine, but if another stallion hits on me I'm leaving." This surprised her, "Another? How many stallions, as you said, 'hit' on you?" I paused and did a mental tally, I didn't really need to, but I just wanted to be sure. "Well, there were the two guards at the entrance, they didn't say anything to me but they did argue which one of them would escort me to the party, and then there was the stallion from Ponyville. Nopony else had the courage to come and talk to me, so three in total." They all stared at me, "What?" Dash face hoofed and the others shook their heads. "We want ta know who he was, sugercube." Great AJ you had to be the one to ask this question, let the awkwardness begin. "Um… well… it was…um… your brother." They all gasped and Pinkies jaw hit the floor, once again defying physics. "Mah brother?" I nodded, "How do ya know he was hitting on ya?"
"Well, the biggest indicator was that he had a full length conversation with me. He asked about my past, which I had to make up on the spot, and he shared some of your family's history. He also offered to pull my cart to Canterlot for me, looking back on it I don't think he actually had any other reason to come to Canterlot." I decided it was best not to tell them he asked me out. I chuckled, "Maybe he's the reason all those other stallions didn't try to talk to me; he towers over practically every other stallion. Or maybe they thought we were a couple." I shuddered at the thought. While I was thinking out loud, AJ shook her head and muttered something about having a talk with her brother. "Well we better get back to the party… oh, and if anypony asks my name is Purple Heart. I can't exactly use my real name." They all nodded in agreement and we went and rejoined the party. I stayed with at least one of my friends at all times trying, and failing, to ignore the stares I was receiving from practically every stallion… and a few mares. Eventually the party ended and everypony left leaving just me, my friends minus Vinyl and Octavia who went back to Octavia's house, Luna and Celestia. While me and Twilight tried to figure out what caused me to become a mare, Luna and the others explained the situation to Celestia. Twilight and I had no idea what caused it, but Celestia had a look that made me think she knew what caused it or at least where to start looking. She led us to another room which was filled with Luna's presents, "Ok Steel, which gift was yours?" I began searching the room, I thought my gifts would be easy to find considering the size of the statue. After about five minutes of searching, I found them. "Ok, these are my gifts." Luna walked over to them and proceeded to unwrap them, which in the case of the statue was just taking the tarp off. They all gasped when they saw the statue. "I cleaned the statue the best I could but it still needs some work. I found that chest next to the statue but despite my best efforts I couldn't get it open so I have no idea what's inside."
Celestia walked over to the chest and touched her horn to it causing it to open. We all stared at her in shock, "I made the chest and placed a spell on it so only I could open it." She turned and looked at Luna, "After your banishment, I hoped that one day you would return to normal. So I took your most prized possessions and put them in this chest. I always intended to give it to you, but after a thousand years I forgot where I put it. I must have put it in the old vault for safekeeping." Luna started going thru the contents of the chest taking out pictures, books, and a really expensive looking chess set. While Luna was doing that I noticed another one of those flowers on the statue. I removed it and tossed it in the trash, "Swish… what?" When I turned around I saw Twilight staring at me. "Steel when you found the statue were there more of those flowers on there?"
"Personally I think looks more like some type of fungus, but yes. The statue was covered in them… why?" She shook her head and led me to another part of the castle. Everypony else came with us, including Luna which surprised me, I was sure she was going to stay behind and reminisce about the past. As we were walking, Twilight explained what was going on. "The flowers that covered the statue were poison joke." I face hoofed, funny how you remember something after it would have been helpful. "We just need to get a copy of Supernaturals and then the ingredients for the cure." After an hour of waiting the cure was finally ready. I slowly entered the bathtub letting out a sigh of relief; the hot water was very relaxing and got rid of some of the pain I had acquired from the trip. In fact, the water was so relaxing that I almost forgot why I was there. Luckily, Luna poked me and brought me back to reality, "Sorry, I was walking all day and this feels so nice." I took a deep breath and put my head underwater. I was underwater waiting for some indication that the medicine was taking effect when multiple hooves grabbed me and pulled me out. Once I got the water out of my eyes, I saw that Luna had a worried expression on her face, "Steel, are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" Looking around I saw that everypony else also had a worried look on their faces and I got a pretty good idea why they were concerned. "Was I really down there that long?" They all nodded. Qucikly looking over my body, I saw that I was back to normal. "Strange, I didn't feel any indication that the cure worked." By this time it was around midnight so we all agreed that it was time to go to bed. The princesses led us through the many identical hallways that made up the maze that is Canterlot castle while we talked about random things. Of course, Dash had to ask what it was like to be a mare, but I ignored her question even though she asked it about a hundred times. This continued until we reached a fork in the hallway. "Due to the party many ponies and foreign diplomats are staying at the castle," said Celestia, "unfortunately we don't have enough rooms left for each of you. As long as it's ok with everypony, I've split you all into two different rooms." Nopony said anything so she continued. "Twilight, you, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity will be in one room. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy will be in the other." Everypony agreed on the sleeping arrangements until I realized I didn't have a room. I was about to say something, but Twilight beat me too it. "Wait… princess, Steel doesn't have a room."
Celestia looked over to Luna and narrowed her eyes, "Yes it appears so. Luna you said you were going to take care of his sleeping arrangements and I know there are no more available rooms in the castle. So, where is he staying?" We all looked at Luna whose face now looked like a cherry. "Well I was thinking that he could um… stay in…" None of us heard the last part she said. She attempted to say it a few more time before we finally heard her, "…in my room." Celestia looked at Luna while my jaw, along with the girls' jaws, dropped. If my mind was a computer, it would have displayed, "Warning, system crash. Attempting reboot."
"Luna, after you have escorted Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Steel to their rooms, I want you to meet me in my room. Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity follow me I'll escort you to your room."
"Wait before everypony leaves, I would like to thank you all for coming. We didn't celebrate the day of our birth a thousand years ago, I honestly didn't know what to expect. Being surrounded by my friends helped calm my nerves, thank you." They didn't celebrate birthdays a thousand years ago? I wanted to know why they started celebrating birthdays, but decided it was best if I didn't know. Any reason to start celebrating living another year cannot be good. Celestia and her group walked down the left path while our group went the other way. I just blindly followed Luna, my mind still thinking about my sleeping arrangement. "Steel…Steel are you alright?" Luna's voice brought my focus back to the present. "Huh…?" Looking around I noticed that I was in front of Luna's room and the others were gone. "Sorry I was, um… lost in thought." Luna put a hoof over her mouth, probably to keep herself from laughing at how embarrassed I was. We entered her room and I noticed the chest I found was already in her room and the chess set was set up on one of the tables. There was also no couch, "I guess I'm sleeping on the floor then."
"Actually you're going to be sleeping in my bed." I was about to say something when she raised a hoof. "I am the Princess of the Night, my duties keep me awake while most ponies sleep. You can have the bed. Now I must go see my sister, but I was wondering if you wanted to play a game of chess when I return."
"Sure Luna." She left and I looked around the room for something to do. I examined the chess set and besides the color every piece looked exactly the same. Eventually I decided to lay on the bed and wait.
POV change: Luna
I knocked on my sister's door knowing that she was not happy with Steel sleeping in my room. The door opened and I walked in. (I'm not putting in Celestia's long and tedious rant) It took her an hour to say what I could have said in one sentence, "I'm not comfortable with Steel sleeping in your room and I think it's a bad idea." When I returned to my room I saw Steel asleep on the bed, his head resting on his hooves and pointed in the general direction of the door. I smiled; he must have tried to stay awake, "Looks like our chess game will have to wait until tomorrow." Since Tia took over my duties for the night, because it was my birthday, I lifted Steel off the bed and moved him under the blankets. I the turned off the light and got into bed next to him.
Authors Note: Longest chapter yet, about six thousand words. For those of you who may think I changed Steel too much when he was infected by poison joke well, fuck you I'm the author. You're not.