Chapter 56: Refresh

*BANG*

The doors to the throne room slammed closed as I leaned my back against them. My hair shifted and covered m eyes as I grumbled out of annoyance. I could still hear the chatter of the news ponies on the other side of the doors, slowly being pushed away by the guards.

I flicked my head to the right, causing my hair to move out of my eyes. ’Wow, my hair really grew while I was out’ I thought as I eyed the long brown hair that was now nearly reaching my mouth. ’Still shaven though... must have kept me shaved while I was in the hospital’ I thought as I ran my hand over the slight stubble starting to poke through my face.

My attention turned to the room ahead of me, where Celestia sat upon her throne and scribbled on a floating piece of parchment. Every few moments she would stop to read it over some more, roll it up and with trained precision... the scroll would be sealed and disappear in a flash of light. Not a moment afterword, another one was unfurled and the process continued.

Directly to my right, Luna walked past me and cast me a quick glance before training her eyes on her sister. Celestia seemed to flick her eyes up, and back down to her scroll before refocusing on Luna again. A large smile adorning her serene face.

“Good morning sister!” Celestia stated as her gaze sweeped over to me. “And to you too Jake.”

Luna didn’t really say anything except smile and give a small nod. She continued walking forward before moving past the throne and disappearing behind it. Moments later I heard a door click shut from where she went.

“Morning Princess.” I responded politely, giving a small tilt of my head towards her as I approached the throne.

Celestia gave a small smile, and slowly put down the objects she had floating in her magic before looking back over to me. “So, what brings you here so early in the morning?” She questioned as I fidgeted my hands.

“Well...” I began, looking over to a nearby window. “I just wanted to ask a couple of questions... like how are things going on that site we agreed on, and who had been commanding the Night’s Vigil in my absence.”

Giving a small nod, she got up from her throne and in a small flash caused a piece of folded paper to appear next to her. It floated in mid air, before moving towards me and stopping just short of where I stood. I reached up and snatched the paper from the air as she spoke up.

“A nice... man by the name of General Chase was overseeing the Night’s Vigil in your absence. Apparently he was just commanding it from your home planet as you apparently havn't appointed any co-pilots.” She finished explaining, not seeming to really understand most of what she just said. “Thinking it over though, I think I met him when I first visited your planet...” She said to herself a bit quietly.

Nodding, I continued to read the paper over. It mostly just seemed like a bunch of agreements on areas of land we were allowed to touch down on and make temporary bases of operation. Looks like we had one in Ponyville, Saddle Arabia, and Fillyfjell, along with the permanent base at the bottom of Canterlot Mountain. There’s also notes at the bottom of the page detailing possible ways to set up in Cloudsdale, with little success.

Right next to that was a scribbled signature of General Chase.

I folded up the paper and offered it forward, where it was surrounded in a yellow glow and disappeared in a flash. I let out a small huff, my hair once again falling down infront of my eyes and causing me more annoyance. Brushing it out of the way I looked over to Celestia and saw her giving me a bit of a smirk.

“Driving you mad?” She asked as I nodded quickly. “I myself prefer to keep my hair long...” She said as I let out a little chuckle.

“Could you even cut it if you wanted to?” I asked looking the ethereal mane over.

She took on a thoughtful expression, tapping her hoof on her chin. “You know... I never really tried. It always did a good job of staying out of the way.” She gave a small laugh as she waved her hoof, before pointing at me. “You know, why don’t you keep it long? With a bit of styling you could look rather handsome.”

Shaking my head, causing my hair to swing freely, I looked back over to her. “Well as good as it might look, I have to keep it short. Longer hair has been known to get caught in retractable helmets on our armors. And I’m not too keen on wearing a hairnet into battle.” I joked, getting a small snicker from Celestia.

“No, I suppose not.” She quickly responded while giggling.

“So, where did Luna go?” I asked getting Celestia to look behind herself for a moment towards the throne.

“Oh... she’s a bit tied up with some political nonsense with the Griffon Empire. We may not be at war anymore but lots of things need to be worked out before we’re on good terms again. If we ever will be.” She said as she looked down at the floor for a second with a blank gaze, before looking back up to me with a smile. “Anyway, would you like me to recommend you to some good places in Canterlot to do your mane- er, hair?” Celestia asked, getting me to shake my head again.

“Nah, it’s alright. I usually cut it myself anyway. I just didn’t notice it got so long.” I paused for a few seconds as I looked back towards the throne room doors, and back to Celestia. “You wouldn’t mind... teleporting me back to the room would you? I just came here to ask you a few questions and go back, but I really don’t want to walk through those bloodsuckers again.” I stated as I pointed towards the front doors.

Nodding a bit and giving a small chuckle, she lit her horn up. “Of course not.” She answered softly as he horn began to glow brighter. “See you soon.” She finished with a wink before a bright flash blinded me, followed by a feeling of weightlessness.

Moments later, I felt my feet touch the ground and all gravity return to normal. I quickly blinked the spots from my eyes and saw I was inside the room I woke up in at Canterlot. I let out a small content smile as I walked over to a nearby window and looked out at it. Far beyond the city walls, lay rolling fields covered in snow and a small town by a river in the distance.

One thing, however, caught my eye. The fact that many MANY unicorns seemed to be out and about, melting snow with their horn and pushing clouds away from the city. I raised an eyebrow at their strange behaviour, and watched them for a few more minutes.

’I mean... I get the whole control over weather the ponies have going... but why manually get rid of the snow? Can’t they let the sun take care of it?’ I thought to myself as I shook my head and pulled away from the window. ’Well... I suppose there’s a lot more to this planet I don’t understand yet’

Clearing the thoughts from my mind, I turned around and walked through the room and towards the front door. To the left of it was another door, leading to what I suspected was the bathroom. Upon opening the door, my suspicion was proven correct as I looked at the simple toilet and sink. It may not have been as fancy as the one in Luna’s room, not even close, but it’ll do.

’Time to clean up, there’s a lot to be done’

Author's Note

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