A Second Chance

by 0-Blazing Sun-0

After tragedy strikes, Blake Marshall finds himself faced with a choice; go with the two mysterious beings offering him a second chance among their people, or allow his story to end. Will he be able to overcome the consequences of his decision and find happiness as he faces a lifetime of new adventures? Rated M for violence, sparse swearing and clop.

47. More Surprises

PSYCOPATH - Can't say that I do, I usually don't play many computer games, save for I Am Bread and The Forest

KillerWoW - Hmm... Yeah, I don't think hacking a wagon would do much good...

Yorkmanic88 - Maybe something will come of them, maybe it won't; you'll just hafta wait and see :P

xel101 - Oh don't worry, they're all going to be getting 'screen time' soon enough.

noah2x4 - That will all be explained in the near future. Though I agree that Celly deserves someone to love.

DragonLovingBrony - But was it really filler, or a lead-up to something more...?

Kyguy - If my assumption is correct and you're talking about Ruby... Luna didn't do anything to her, it was the residents of Sunny Town (except Mitta) that did that. The curse she put on the town was a punishment for their crime. If you're referring to Mitta, she's not a filly, she's a full-grown mare.

Mallory Shadowielder - They will be, soon enough. Why does Filthy Rich have magic, indeed...

A/N - Howdy everypony! I hope you're all ready for another installment of A Second Chance! Not much to say this week; it was just wake up, eat, work, write, sleep, and repeat for me... "Well that doesn't sound like fun at all!"

"Gah! Pinkie?! How did you get in my house?!"

*Giggle* "Silly billy, if I told you that, it wouldn't be any fun now would it? Anywho, I just dropped by to say 'Hi' to all your awesome readers; So, Hi readers! Bye readers! La la la la-la" *Hops out of room*

"Well... that was random... Anyway, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly-"

"Enjoy!"

"Gah! Dammit Pinkie!"

Celestia and I each filled our plates with whatever looked good to us, though we both seemed to agree that the fresh scrambled eggs and hashbrowns looked especially tasty. Once we had what we wanted, and after Celly had shooed away the kitchen staff that had tried to wait on her hoof and… hoof, we began eating. "Y'know, the types of food your chefs serve always amazes me."

She swallowed a bite of her eggs and turned her attention to me. "Oh? And just what would you expect my staff to serve me?"

I shrugged and took a bite of toast smeared with blackberry jam. Mmm… that's good. "I dunno to be honest… I've always just thought of royalty eating nothing but fancy foods, like… well, I don't suppose you'd be caught dead eating that…"

She quirked an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be 'caught dead' eating what, pray tell?"

I chuckled nervously. "You umm… you don't want to know…" She gave me a look that said otherwise. "Alright, fine, but you asked for it. Royalty and other well-off people on Earth are often depicted eating… caviar…"

She kept looking at me, and I knew she didn't know what that meant, but I didn't want to tell her, especially while she was eating. Unfortunately for me, she had several thousand years of practice getting others to tell her what she wanted to know. Finally, my resolve cracked. "Fine. Caviar is fish eggs, taken straight from the fish's stomach and served up in little dishes." I hoped telling her quickly like that would have the same effect as quickly pulling off a band-aid.

Fortunately, if she was bothered by that, she did a good job of hiding it. She took another bite of her eggs, chewing deliberately and swallowing before saying anything else. "That sounds like a dish the griffon nobility are fond of. But you're right; you would not find that in the courts of Canterlot unless we were entertaining said griffons. No, my sister and I have always preferred to eat the more 'common fare', though much of Canterlot's… *ahem* 'elite' do not feel the same way. They believe that we should dine in decadence, as they feel our station justifies."

"Yeah… I couldn't deal with that day in and day out… I'd smack somebody…" That got a good chuckle out of my brunch-mate.

Unfortunately, that chuckle came right as she was swallowing a bite of food. I patted her back as she coughed the food back up. She daintily wiped her mouth with a napkin. "As much as I agree with you… please don't go around smacking my subjects, especially with that armor on."

I chuckled for a moment myself before a thought came to me. "Oh, that reminds me; did your dad happen to say how I'm supposed to get this off? Not being able to take it off is getting really annoying. I mean, I got the helmet off, but I have no idea how I did it; it just kinda happened."

"I don't recall him saying so, no; but, there is a hidden wing of the library that few know about that contains several works concerning your species, perhaps we will find something in there. I can show you the way as soon as we finish eating if you'd like."

We finished what little remained of our meals and left the dining hall to the servants. "What about all that food we didn't eat though? I mean, it seems a shame to waste so much…"

She nudged me with her flank. "Don't worry; all that food will go to feed the underprivileged of Canterlot." She sighed at my confused look. "Yes, I'm afraid that even such a beautiful and prestigious city as Canterlot has those who can't afford to put food on the table. I do what I can for them… in fact, every servant you see within the palace walls was once such a pony, but I reached out to them and offered them fair wage to work in the palace and earn a decent living for their families; some of whom even live here with their loved ones."

"I bet your guards had a field day when you started doing that…"

She giggled. "No, they do not appreciate 'vagabonds' serving their princesses," She gave me a playful smirk. "But that is one of the many perks of being royalty; my word is final, and they know it. You would never believe it from the way our guards act, but my sister and I are quite capable of taking care of ourselves. Ah, here is our destination." I had been so wrapped up in our conversation that I didn't even notice that we'd arrived at a set of wrought-iron gates closing off that wing of the library.

A unicorn guard stationed outside the gate opened it for up wordlessly and we walked into the suddenly familiar section. "Uhh… Celly, isn't this the Starswirl the Bearded wing?"

She nodded. "Indeed it is, but what we are looking for lies beyond."

I looked around. "But… there aren't any doors here…"

She smirked knowingly. "I did say the wing was hidden, didn't I? Our ancient home in the Everfree isn't the only structure in Equestria with hidden passages and secret rooms." She pulled on a torch sconce, and a section of the wall shifted away as if to illustrate her point.

I facepalmed. "Duh… Why didn't I think of that?"

Fortunately, Celestia didn't comment. "The Humanus Wing lies just ahead. Some of my old friend Starswirl's works even reside within."

She trotted ahead, casting a light spell at the tip of her horn, bathing the hallway in a faint, golden glow. At the end of the hall was a set of wooden doors, reinforced with wrought-iron fittings. A small hole was set in the middle of the crease between the doors. Celestia cast another spell, surprising me as her horn was wreathed in a baby blue aura instead of her normal, pale golden one.

Leaning down, she inserted her horn into the hole in the door. "There are only three ponies in all Equestria that know the spell to unlock this door; myself, my sister, and Princess Cadance, whom you will hopefully meet soon." She removed her horn and straightened up as the door swung open silently.

The other side of the door was littered with scrolls and tomes, some of which seemed haphazardly stacked on their shelves. A few even looked like they might fall over at any second. "So… who is this 'Princess Cadance', exactly? I don't think I've ever heard of her before."

She rolled her eyes. "That does sound like my student; smart as a whip, but she can be the most forgetful mare I know at times. Princess Cadance is married to Twilight's brother, Prince Shining Armor; the two of them are looking after the newly-reappeared Crystal Kingdom, far in the north. Twilight tells me you are progressing well in your studies of magic, so I've asked them to tutor you further."

I stopped with a scroll halfway unrolled. "Why would a prince and princess come all the way here just to tutor me? I mean, I kinda get this Shining Armor guy, but why would this Princess Cadence come? And what is it they specifically need to tutor me in anyway?"

Celly giggled as she read through a tome. "They will come because I am Princess Cadence's adopted aunt, and I asked them to do this as a favor to me." I gulped as memories of my last encounter with one of Celestia's relatives came to mind. She giggled louder. "Don't worry, she and ex-prince Blueblood could not be more opposed to one another. In fact, I believe the two of you shall get along quite well. As for why they are to tutor you, it's because they both possess innate magical abilities, as you do. Princess Cadence can foster love in ponies and Shining Armor can create a shield of magical force, much as you can. I have asked them to come here to teach you how to harness your own innate magic."

I started reading through the scroll. "Hmm… sounds like a good idea to me… I wonder why Twilight never mentioned that her brother was a prince of all things. I mean, doesn't that make her royalty too?"

"Since you didn't know of her to begin with, I'll assume that Twilight also didn't tell you that Princess Cadence used to foalsit for her when she was a filly." She put the tome back and grabbed another book.

I snickered as I put the scroll, which turned out to be about ancient human culture, back on its shelf and grabbed a tome myself. "I bet Twilight got into all kinds of mischief as a filly."

Celestia rolled her eyes with a nostalgic giggle. "You have no idea. She nearly blew up the palace on more than one occasion with her experiments… but you didn't hear that from me."

We spent the next hour or so combing the hidden section of the library for any clues on how to remove the armor, coming up with dead end after dead end. I grabbed one of the few scrolls I hadn't yet read and leaned against a wall to read it. "I really hope we find something soo- AAH!" I yelped as the wall behind me suddenly gave way and I tumbled backwards onto the floor.

I reflexively reached back to rub my head, but froze when I felt resistance through my armored fingers. "What the… How the hell did the helmet get back on?!"

"Blake, are you alright?" Celestia was by my side in an instant, using one of her swan-like wings to help me back to my feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine; I just want to… know…" I stopped as I looked around at where we were; the wall had given way to another hidden room, though this one was fairly small and was lined with neatly shelved books. "Of all the cliché… just what the heck is this room supposed to be?"

Celestia slowly shook her head. "I have no idea… this room was never a part of the palace designs…" She stepped over to one of the shelves, pulled a book from it and began reading. "This is one of my father's private journals… I didn't even know he kept a journal… This one details the beginning of his friendship with a young Starswirl. Hmm… I wonder why I never knew about this room…" She placed the journal back and picked up another.

We searched the ancient journals, and I had to force myself to stop several times when I caught myself getting engrossed in the tales they had to tell; I couldn't help myself, Celestia and Luna's father kept a surprisingly detailed record in these journals, and each one was more like a story book than someone's personal thoughts

I closed one book and grabbed another one. I skimmed the pages and stopped when I came across a passage that looked promising.

Woe unto us and the entirety of this world; the humans, long friends of all the races of Mythis, have suddenly disappeared! The disappearance was so sudden, that one moment I was discussing the expansion of trade routes with my old friend King Malick, and in the literal blink of an eye, he had vanished! I ordered my soldiers and servants alike to search for any clues… a single sign of what happened.

I realized shortly after it began that the search was in vain as reports began flooding in from the surrounding territories that every living human had mysteriously vanished with nary a trace. My heart is heavy with grief at the loss of an entire species. I can tell that my Queen also feels the loss, though she would not allow her own feelings to interfere with her ability to care for our little ponies, fledgling species that they are; their race is so young in fact, that they are not even ready to know of the existence of the Alicorn race.

I skipped ahead a few entries before I found one with even more promise.

I have just returned from the vault, where the newly-crafted suit of armor Galaxia and I had spent the last decade forging as a gift for our human friends, is stored. The suit still remains in all its splendor, though now there are no humans now to bear it into battle… When my gaze fell upon it, I felt such rage at my own personal loss that I nearly destroyed the armor, but instead restrained myself from doing so, for my heart still bears the hope that our friends shall return someday. Should Galaxia and I ever parent a foal, I believe it to be in their best interest if we were to tell them that the armor was in fact destroyed this day.

"Have you found something?" I was so wrapped up in reading the ancient passage that Celestia's voice ringing out so suddenly nearly made me jump clean out of the armor. "Oh! I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you… You were reading that same book for so long I thought you might have found something useful."

I held my hand over the part of the breastplate that was over my heart and got my breathing under control. "I think I did actually; here, take a look." I held out the journal for her to read along while I continued, starting with the next entry.

It is such a shame that our gift must remain unused. We imbued it with several properties beneficial to its wearer; the first and possibly most useful of these being the ability to fly and manipulate clouds as a Pegasus would, allowing for travel to the many cloud kingdoms of Equestria. The armor also fortifies the strength, and subsequently the speed, of its wearer by half-again what they are naturally capable of. The final enchantment we placed upon the armor itself allows for the breathing of water as air, allowing whosoever bears it free roam of the many kingdoms of the world, including the undersea kingdom of Aquestria.

There is also an amulet that is bound to the armor, thanks to Galaxia's ingenuity, which truly knows no bounds. She spent over a year enchanting the amulet and the armor, binding the two together in a fashion I had not even thought of. The enchantment she placed upon the two allows the amulet's wearer to call upon and dismiss the suit with a simple thought, allowing whoever might have worn it the freedom of donning the armor whenever they wish instead of being forced to wear it at all times.

I looked up from the book. "That's it!" I looked back down to the amulet, which was now set into the breastplate of the suit, and thought about not wearing the armor.

The metal shell seemed to be dissolved in a pale, white light, and in a mere moment, the suit no longer encased me. The only sign it had ever been there to begin with was the sapphire and gold amulet, once again hanging from a slender chain around my neck, with my half of the pendant Scootaloo had given me hanging above it on a shorter golden chain.

"This is wonderful! I cannot wait for Luna to return so I can share all of these glad tidings with her." Celestia closed the journal and placed it back in its empty spot on the shelf. "Not only have you returned unharmed, but you have done so with a relic that I had thought long since destroyed; and now we have this room, a veritable treasure trove of knowledge…"

She levitated another book from a shelf and gingerly brushed a hoof across its cover. "For so many centuries I have wondered what our parents lives were like before I was born. And now, thanks to you, I shall finally have the answers my heart has yearned for." She looked around the small room. "To think that this room lay undisturbed for all this time, with neither myself nor my sister knowing of its existence… though now I'm curious as to how, and more importantly, why this room was hidden from us…"

I chuckled. "Maybe Starswirl had something to do with it; he does seem to have his… hooves…" A thought seeped into my head as I spoke, and without another word, I sprang over to the bookshelf and pulled the book from it. "Did that say I can fly?!" I flipped through the book, looking for the passage I had just read.

Celestia read the passage over my shoulder. "And breathe underwater as well it would seem…" She rested her head on my shoulder, and I could practically feel the nostalgia wash over her. "It would seem that our parents were amazing beings… They disappeared shortly after Luna was born, when I was a mere nine hundred, but it feels like I barely knew them…"

I snickered. "Only nine hundred…"

She chuckled mirthlessly. "Yes. You and I do not count years the same. Every hundred years from mine and my sister's perspective can and often does seem as a single year does to you." I let out a low whistle. So… what does that mean for Luna and I? "Don't fret; I know that my sister cherishes every second she spends with you… and besides, the two of you shall have quite a long time to spend together." She must have read the frown on my face.

"Speaking of Luna, How long do you think it'll be until they get back?"

She lifted her head off my shoulder. "Judging by the distance between us when last I contacted her, I would guess she is either in Appleloosa or Baltimare. Either way, the train ride will likely take around six hours… and that's not including anything else they may have to do before returning. You're welcome to wait here in the palace… I certainly wouldn't mind some friendly company."

I nudged her playfully. "You said that the last time I was here. If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a crush on me." She looked away, but I caught the blush lighting up her cheeks. "… You do… don't you?" The mood seemed to sober up in an instant.

She turned back to me with pleading eyes. "Please Blake, you mustn't tell my sister… I want her to be happy, and if she finds out I have feelings for you, she may become jealous…" She paused and looked down at the tile floor. "I can't help but envy my sister… I… I can't even remember the last time somepony saw me simply as a mare instead of… well… this." She gestured at her crown and jewelry.

I wrapped an arm around her neck and hugged her. I felt her body shudder when I squeezed her. "Hey… I can understand why you don't want to get involved with the same man as your sister, but just remember; even if we aren't involved, I'll always be your friend…"

Celestia smiled weakly at me. "Thank you Blake. It may not be my heart's desire, but your friendship still means more to me than you know. I cannot tell you how difficult it can be to constantly bottle up my emotions and act as my little ponies expect me to. With you though, it's… different; I can let my emotions out and actually be a mare when I'm around you."

I squeezed her a little tighter. "That… That's almost exactly what Luna said… You girls really don't get to be yourselves very often, do you?" She shook her head slowly. "Wow… that sucks… I'll tell you what Celly; we can always do stuff together. Even if it isn't a date per se, at least we can have fun together as friends. Like we did at brunch earlier."

Her smile brightened. "I'd like that..." Her wing wrapped around my shoulders. "Thank you again; I couldn't ask for a better friend than you, Blake."

The praise was honestly a little embarrassing. "Heh heh… You're welcome. Now, enough of the mushy stuff; how about we go find something fun to do in the city?"

She grinned cheekily. "If you want to do something fun with me… you'll have to catch me!" She took off before she even finished her sentence, leaving me to eat her dust as she giggled like a filly down the empty corridor.

I shook my head and took off after the solar princess, even as her laughter caught on and I started laughing too. She ran faster than I could, but not so fast that I couldn't keep up. I managed to gain a bit of ground each time she would round a corner as her slippers lived up to their name and slipped on the polished floor, causing her to scrabble her hooves just to stay up. We passed bewildered guards and servants alike, all of which stopped what they were doing to watch their princess run by, chased by me, the two of us laughing madly the entire way.

She rounded one last corner, making a break for the throne room, but lost her footing almost completely in the turn. Seeing my chance, I lunged, tackling her to the ground before she could get her balance. She laughed even harder for a moment before wrapping a wing around me as we lay there. "I haven't had that much fun since I was a little filly…" She panted lightly while I gulped down air into my burning lungs. "You seem tired, perhaps we should do this more often; it won't do to have an out of shape knight after all."

I chuckled as I stood up. "Look who's talking; I've seen Rainbow Dash do more work in less time and still be less winded than you are…"

Celestia puffed her cheeks out cutely. "I'll have you know I get plenty of exercise, mister."

My chuckle became a playful laugh. "Oh really? Doing what, sitting your royal tush on the throne all day?"

A low growl was all the warning I got before she scrambled to her hooves, barely giving me enough time to realize what was coming. My feet started carrying me away from the playfully angry mare before it even clicked in my mind that I was being chased. "I'll get you for that Blake Marshall! You come back here!"

I wove through the corridors of the palace, having no idea where I was going, and not really caring either. The laughter of the mare behind me as she gave chase was sweet music, and I wanted to heat more of it. Even though she and I had agreed to remain friends, hearing the pure notes of her laughter made me happy.

I could tell she wanted the game to keep going, since she could have easily caught me before I even made it to the first intersection in the white marble corridors.

A guard a short way down the hall I had just turned into dutifully readied his spear for an intercept when he saw his princess chasing me down the hallway. He was wrapped in a golden aura and gently but quickly scooted aside. "There is no cause for alarm!" I heard her tell the guard as we went rushing past him.

I made a quick right and happened on the slightly ajar doors to the throne room. I ducked inside and hid behind Luna's throne. "You're trapped now Blake… It would be easier if you just gave up now…" Her playful smirk had a slightly devious twist to it.

"Never!" I stood up straight and put a fist to my chest. "I am a Knight of Equestria, and I will never surrender!"

Celestia's smile grew. "Is that so… Well I suppose there's no choice then… I'll just have to put that resolve to the test!"

She leapt forward and we started dancing around the throne as I did my best to keep it between us. Finally, she zigged and I zagged, and we met in the middle and went tumbling to the ground, with her on top of me.

She panted lightly as we looked at one another. Her expression softened slightly, and before I even knew what was happening, I tasted the sweet vanilla of her lips on my own.