Youngverse February Contest Entry
Chapter 1: A Good Morning
The midmorning rays of King Terra's sun seeped into a room through the blinds of one of the many living quarters inside the royal palace. While the sun made its slow ascent into the sky its rays creeped up towards a lump hidden under a blanket, like a predator stalking its prey. As the rays of light slowly got closer inch by inch, the blinds doing what it could to block them out, but only doing so much as to delay the inevitable.
Suddenly the blinds were pulled open and the sun’s rays pounced directly onto the eyes of a sleeping pegasus filly. The filly jumped at the sudden brightness assaulting her eyes and let out a high pitched yelp before falling off the bed.
"Rainy, come on it’s time to get up, mum's already gone on her shift." Said the one who had lifted the blinds. "You can't lay in bed all day and you better get going it’s almost time for the cooks to clean up breakfast." The culprit was an older unicorn filly, just a year or two shy of growing into adulthood, with a light grey coat and warm pink mane and tail.
The younger filly called Rainy groaned as she rolled out of the blanket. She sported a coat similar to the older filly’s, but her mane and tail were a warm jasmine color instead of pink. "You didn't have to wake me up like that, Sis." complained Rainy, rubbing the sand out of her eyes with her hooves before getting up and tossing her blanket back onto the bed and turn around to exit the room.
The older filly gave Rainy a pointed look. "Rainy, aren't forgetting something?" She asked.
Rainy looked around, not understanding what she meant. "What, sis?" The other filly pointed a hoof at the bed and Rainy turned to face it.
The bed was now wreathed in rays of sunshine, aside from that it was also very untidy, the bedsheets were set askew instead of being neatly tucked between the mattress and the bedframe, the blanket was unceremoniously crumpled on top, and the pillows were laying on the floor forgotten.
"That." She said flatly.
Rainy blushed slightly at the sight of the mess she made without her knowing. "Sorry." She mumbled, and with a quick flap of her wings Rainy jumped onto her bed and began to tidy it up, tucking back the bedsheets and her blanket into their proper places and placed the pillows back onto the bed. Rainy turned back to her sister who gave a nod of approval before going out of the room with Rainy jumping off the bed and glode after her.
The two sisters walked down the long hallway of the servant's barracks and towards the mess hall. The hallways of the servant's area were less extravagant than that of the main palace's. The walls were a plain sandy brown rather than the bright white marble or obsidian, and smaller compared to the high arching ceilings of the main halls. They reached a large set of double doors and the older filly opened one door with the pink aura of her magic. The mess was filled with the low muttering of the few ponies left within.
Rainy trotted inside ahead of her sister, the smell of food wafting out of the door from the kitchens urging her to get inside as quickly as possible. She trotted quickly to the table where all the food was laid out. There were beans in tomato sauce, toast with butter, simple daisies and dandelions and other such flowers, with fruits from the outlying countryside which were delivered just that morning, and a few other simple foodstuffs were also served.
Rainy picked up a tray from the stack and looked around for what seemed good. Her sister following behind shortly with her own tray held with magic. Rainy went up and down the table before asking for a bowl of oats, an apple, and some daisies on toast. Once her older sister had her own tray laden with food, they went and sat at one of the many long-tables within the mess.
"So what's the plan today, Feather?" Asked Rainy.
Feather swallowed her bite of toast and replied. "Well I'll be assisting Miss Dust today, I'm nearly old enough to start working in the main palace with mom. So I’ll need to learn how to do the job properly, so I’m gonna be busy for most of the day and can't keep an eye on you."
"Oh that's okay." Said Rainy nonchalantly, then gobbling down some of her oats.
"Really?" Asked Feather, a little surprised at her sister's answer. "What will you be doing today when I'm not with you?"
"I'm gonna hang out with my friends." Answered Rainy, smiling brightly. There were some pieces of oats stuck to the fur around her mouth.
"You mean, Bumblebee and Rose Petal?" Asked Feather, picking up a napkin with her magic and wiping away the mess from her sisters snout.
"Yup!" She replied, giggling slightly at the ticklish sensation of the magic that held the napkin.
"Hold still." Muttered Feather as she wiped the crumbs from Rainy's face. Once she was clean, Feather said. "Alright then, if you'll be with your friends. . . just make sure to keep out of trouble, okay?"
Rainy gave a mock salute, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth slightly. "You can count on me sis!" Then her eyes went to one of the doors that led to the mess and standing there were two fillies waving at her. Rainy quickly dropped her hoof and she wolfed down her breakfast with voracious speed, finishing it all within seconds. A few flower petals flew in every which way and the apple would have seemed to have disappeared if you blinked at the wrong moment. Rainy then jumped off the bench and galloped towards the two waiting fillies.
Feather chuckled quietly and ate her own breakfast at a more reasonable pace as she watched her sister join her friends. She remembered what it was like to be a foal and missed those times that she could be so carefree about the world. She smiled, glad that her sister was taking full advantage of her foalhood.
Rainy reached her friends at a near breakneck pace. At first the other two were excited to spend the day with their friends, but as she got closer with no indication as to slowing down, their eyes widened and they quickly turned around, their hooves working uselessly in their panic as the tiny pegasus barreled into them. There was a crash and the three fillies tumbled and rolled over each other before colliding with the opposite wall.
As the dust cloud settled around them the fillies were a tangle of legs. After a few moments of grumbling and untangling of legs, wings, and tails the three fillies dusted themselves off.
"So what are we gonna do today, girls?" Asked Rainy.
The tallest, though not by much, was a unicorn filly with a creamy white coat and pale rose red mane and eyes spoke up first. "We're going exploring!" She answered with a huge smile.
"Yeah!" Confirmed the earth-pony filly, she had a bright yellow coat, while her mane and tail were of the same color they had a few light brown streaks in them here and there.
"Well come on! Let's go!" Exclaimed Rainy excitedly and began running down one end of the corridor. She ran a short distance before she noticed that her friends weren’t following after her, sliding to a halt she turned her head to face her friends who looked at her confusedly.
"Um, Rainy. . . we're headed this way." Said the unicorn, pointing in the opposite direction.
Rainy tilted her head to the side and gave an. "Oh." and trotted back towards her friends and they began to walk, this time all in the same direction. "So where are we going to explore today, Rosie?" Asked Rainy.
The unicorn gave her a sly look and grinned. "We'll be exploring the Royal gardens." She answered.
~X~X~X~
In another part of the palace, in a secluded near pitch black room where the only light came from the crack under the door. The soft sound of hooves clicking on the hard marble floor outside could be heard, then the shimmer of magic. The large wooden door opened letting in a sliver of light, a pony slipped into the room. After the door closed, darkness once again ruled the room.
The pony who slipped in heard nothing but the high pitched snores of a filly who slept peacefully in the dark room. The mysterious pony gave a long sigh before her horn glowed with a light black magical aura and engulfed the curtains, which opened in one swift motion, banishing the darkness and allowing sunlight to flood into the room.
In the light the room was revealed to be a dark midnight blue color with furniture and drapes to match. The general style of the room was themed after the Night with the ceiling a dark, almost black shade of blue with the constellations painted on it. In one end of the room was a large four poster bed which also sported the nighttime theme with dark shades of blue and violet. At the center of the bed was a small lump, the source of the small high pitched snoring, which rose and fell with the noise.
The light also revealed the unicorn who had allowed it entry into the room, a black coated and grey maned and tailed unicorn, wearing a nanny uniform.
Nanny Blackberry sighed once again at the sight of the still sleeping form hidden under the sheets of the bed. Using her magic once again she pulled the sheets off of the the filly hidden underneath. The filly in question was none other than Princess Luna, she groaned as the light if King Terra's sun assaulted her eyes from behind her eyelids and shifted her position so that they would be spared from the onslaught.
"Now, now, Princess Luna it's time to get up, breakfast is already finished and the King and Queen have already returned to their duties." Said Blackberry. Said filly didn't respond, verbally anyway, but instead chose to give a low complaining moan and hid her head under a nearby pillow. Blackberry clicked her tongue in disapproval and once again using her magic, lifted the filly from her bed.
Luna struggled sleepily within the magical grasp as she was levitated towards Nanny Blackberry. Once she was level face to face with the nanny she gave a huge jaw popping yawn, assaulting Nanny Blackberry's nostrils with a full on Blitzkrieg attack of morning breath. An attack which would have left any lesser pony with a full mane of white hair. Fortunately Nanny Blackberry was no lesser pony, and she clicked her tongue once again. "Looks like somepony didn't brush her teeth properly last night." As Luna opened her eyes and seeing said nanny.
"Morning Nanny Blackberry." She greeted and another wave of morning breath charged in as she yawned.
"Good morning to you too, Princess Luna." Returned Blackberry as she put down the princess. "Come on let's get you cleaned up before getting you some breakfast." In a much kinder tone.
Luna rubbed the sand from her eyes with a hoof and nodded, half listening to what her nanny said. Nanny Blackberry guided her to her vanity and levitated her onto the stool. Using her magic, Blackberry levitated a brush and began to brush Luna's untidy bed-head until it wasfree of knots and cowlicks from a long restful night. Lifting another brush, Blackberry then proceeded to brush her coat, Luna giggled squirmed at the feeling of being brushed and feeling returned to her limbs and her sleepiness melted away so by the time she was done being brushed, Luna was wide awake. Blackberry then levitated a glass of water to Luna and Luna took it with her own magic, taking a draught, swishing the water in her mouth and made a exaggerated gargling noise before spitting it into the bowl of the vanity.
Blackberry set down the brush and Luna jumped off the stool, now looking more presentable than she was previously. They exited Luna's room and headed towards the main dining hall. On the way they were joined by Mr. Chives.
"Good Morning Mister Chives!" Greeted Luna.
"Good morning to you too, Princess Luna." He replied to the filly, then to Nanny Blackberry. "Good morning as well Ms. Blackberry." Giving her a small smile.
"A good morning to you as well Mr. Chives." She replied, returning the small smile.
They both escorted Luna to the dining hall. The huge double doors were opened by a pair of servants whom closed it behind them once they entered.
The dining hall was empty, save for Princess Celestia and a waiting servant. Celestia was sitting idly at one side of the huge table with a half eaten plate of salad. She was rolling a grape tomato back and forth with a fork a bored expression on her face before looking up and seeing Luna, the bored look quickly replaced by a wide smile.
"What would you like for breakfast Princess Luna?" Asked Blackberry.
"Waffles!" She answered without missing a beat.
Blackberry chuckled. "Alright, since you were so good this morning." She then looked over to the waiting servant who nodded and trotted quickly, exiting through a side door.
Luna sat next to her sister and gave her a sideways look and the corner of her mouth lifted. Celestia returned the small grin before going back to her food and ate her greens. Nanny Blackberry would have noticed at any other moment, but she was preoccupied talking with Mr. Chives.
Luna's waffles came not long after. The servant placed the still steaming plate down in front of her along with a small boat of syrup and bowl of sweet berries. The servant sliced a small square of butter, which immediately melted upon contact with the fresh hot waffles, before leaving.
Luna grabbed the boat of syrup enthusiastically and was prepared to pour the whole thing over her waffles when it was stopped midway by a now familiar black aura. Luna turned her head to see Nanny Blackberry giving her a look with an eyebrow raised before releasing her hold on the boat. Luna deflated slightly relenting to her nanny's wordless request and poured a more reasonable amount of syrup on the waffles. When Blackberry was satisfied and looked away, Luna quickly grabbed the bowl of berries with her hooves and dumped the whole thing over her waffles before Nanny Blackberry could stop her. Several of the berries that were not caught in the thick syrup spilled over the sides of the plate and onto the table, some even rolled to the floor.
She lifted one of the waffles with her magic towards her face, mouth wide open and ready to tear into the pastry when Blackberry gave a small. "Ahem."
Luna gave a sheepish grin then placed the waffle back on her plate, this time grabbing a hold of her utensils and began to eat her waffles. She and Celestia finished within moments of each other, Luna wiped her muzzle free of waffle syrup with a napkin. They then turned to face the other and without any sign of agreement, they both leapt off their seats and ran out of the hall.
Unfortunately for the pair of caretakers, they were slightly too distracted with their own hushed conversation with each other to notice the disappearance of the two princesses before it was too late. Neither of them panicked or looked in the slightest bit surprised, already used to the two fillies' shenanigans and proceeded to search for the two at a leisurely pace, continuing their conversation.
Celestia and Luna ran through the corridors with practiced ease, having long memorized the main wing of the palace. Turn left at the big blue tapestry, left again after two side corridors, turn right at the bust of the really grumpy looking pony, and so on and so forth, until the two princesses finally reached an open set of double doors leaking in sunlight and bringing fresh air as well.
The light pouring into the hall hid their destination for only a moment before revealing a huge expansive garden. Luna, quickly using her wings to give herself a small speed boost ran ahead of Celestia before turning around to face her sister.
"You shall never catch me, Dracony Celestia!" Shouted Luna, rearing up on her hind legs waving one hoof in the air.
Celestia quickly settled into the role play as well. "That's where you have it wrong, Box Queen! For I have brought you here so that I can finally capture you when you are at your most vulnerable, out of your castle without boxes or catapults to protect yourself!"
Luna gave an over- the-top gasp, as if she didn't think about that.
Celestia smirked. "Then all the cookies-" Stopping and catching herself giving a small cough. "Gold shall be mine!"
Luna's eyes then widened and shouted back her reply. "That's not fair!"
"Then I will give you a head start, Box Queen Luna. I'll count to a hundred then I'll come after you!" Celestia sat down and covered her eyes and began to count. "One. . ."
Luna turned and ran, giggling as she did so. Had no boxes to protect herself, eh? Well she'll prove to the Dracony Celestia wrong, oh so very wrong.
~X~X~X~
"Come on girls, it's just around this corner!" Exclaimed Rose, her tone made her seem very confident, but it was strained.
"That's what you said about the last three corners." muttered Bumblebee.
"Come on Bee, this time I'm sure of it."
The trio turned the corner and were faced with a fairly large hallway which at the end was a huge archway which led into one of the many outdoor paths of the palace. Rose's face lit up and she smiled widely, “see I told you guys that this was the one!"
Two out of three cantered while the one hovered a few inches above the floor keeping up with the other two towards the monolithic sized exit.
When the passed through the threshold they looked out to see a large open area with several stone paths coming from other archways similar to the one they exited from, all converging towards a central fountain decorated with three beautiful seapony statues spouting water from their mouths.
While the sight was beautiful, and admittedly to the pegasus and earth pony someplace they hadn't been to before, it still wasn't their goal.
"Um. . ." Voiced Rainy. "Rosie, this doesn't look like the Royal gardens."
"I know that!" Replied Rose happily.
"Well, where do we go from here?" Asked Bumblebee
Rosebud opened her mouth and was ready to point the way with a hoof, but then lowered it looking around at the various paths confusedly. "Um. . ." She was about to point her hoof down one path, before bringing it down unassuredly then gesturing to another path, then another and another, before putting her hoof back onto the ground altogether. Rose turned around, and scratched the back of her head with a hoof, chuckling nervously. "Uh, hehehe."
Rainy and Bumblebee gave her deadpanned looks. "You forgot the way there, didn't you?" They said in unison.
Rosebud blushed and decided to save herself any more embarrassment, she told the truth. "Yeah, sorry girls. Looks like we won't be seeing the Royal Gardens today after all." Her tone apologetic.
Though that didn't seem to faze the other two.
"Well if we can't explore the gardens, then why don't we explore around here?" Suggested Bumblebee.
"Yeah! And who knows we might find the garden anyways." Added Rainy.
Rosebud brightened at the prospect. They were right of course, they could find the gardens another day, today they could explore this place. "Okay, so where should we start?"
Rainy looked around the numerous paths that led away from the fountain, her eyes tracing one which led through a tall row of hedges. She pointed down the path with a hoof. "Why don't we try that way?"
The other two fillies looked to where she pointed and nodded in agreement. The trio then ran through the lawn, completely ignoring the stone paths laid down for convenience and went straight into the hedges.
~X~X~X~
Luna galloped through the gardens, knowing the perfect place to hide from her sister. She knew that her one hundred counts were already up and that the Dracony was already on her tail. Ever since their last game Luna had taken measures to ensure that she would always be ready for her. And by taking measures she meant hiding boxes in various bushes, hedges, and trees in the garden, with the help of Mr. Chives of course.
Though there was one flaw in her master plan. Although she did hide lots of boxes, she had completely forgotten where she hid them, so now Luna was running as fast as she could, poking her head into every bush she passed searching for any of the boxes that she hid.
Suddenly, nearby she could hear a muffled voice a short way away from her. Thinking that is was Celestia, finally catching up to her, Luna redoubled her efforts to finding her boxes. After three more bushes which held no boxes, Luna finally got lucky with the fourth bush, which revealed her salvation, a perfect cardboard box for her to hide in.
Quickly levitating the box out of the bush with her magic, Luna slipped under it and waited. Waited for the moment Celestia would come around the corner, expecting to find Luna, but instead only finding a box. Luna giggled at her mental image of Celestia's confused face.
She then heard a rustling of leaves and crouched lower under her box out of pure instinct. Her small smile widening into a grin as she saw a white horn poke out of the corner through the small hole on the side of the box. But her grin shrank in confusion as she saw what followed said white horn wasn't her older sister Celestia, well Celestia the Dracony at the moment, but a younger white filly unicorn with a red mane.
Luna guessed that she was probably the one she heard a few moments ago. Luna sighed in relief and relaxed inside her box. The filly didn't seem to notice her box yet, so she was safe if Celestia came looking for her and asked the filly if she had seen her.
Luna watched as the filly turned around and began speaking to somepony who was still hidden behind the hedge. She was too far away to hear what they were saying. She kept watching the filly as she spoke to her friend, and was starting to lose interest in them and had just started to wonder when they were gonna leave, until she heard the most wonderful laugh.
She froze within the box, her mind unable to comprehend what she was hearing. The laughter she heard coming from around the corner of the bush was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. She had been to orchestras and attended balls that her parents had organized, where the musicians who played were the best of the best, and though she was sometimes bored during the activities she always loved listening to the music, but they all paled at the music coming out of the mouth of the faceless filly. It reminded her of clear crystal bells tinkling and echoing during a calm quiet night in the Royal Gardens, and if one would close their eyes they might even hear the stars tinkling in a sweet duet with the bells. It wasn't loud, but it seemed to float through the air just to reach her ears. The laughter sent shivers down Luna's spine, and her wings ruffled unconsciously at the sensation.
The white unicorn walked a little more out in the open and was followed by a yellow earth-pony. Was she the one who had made such a beautiful sound? Luna's thoughts raced with so many questions, she was also slightly let down when such an ordinary pony might have made such an amazing sound, but her thoughts were quelled when the earth pony shouted.
"Come on Rainy, stop looking at the flowers! Rosie said that they keep flamingoes here!"
To Luna's disappointment she wasn't the one who she heard laugh. So Luna waited with bated breath for the filly whose voice had such an affect on her. And when she did she wasn't disappointed.
The filly whose laughter that made her feel so strange was, she didn't really know what other word to use apart from stunning. Her coat was just the lightest shade of grey, which had such a sheen to it that it reminded her of the way that the statues would shine in the moonlight after a light rain shower had fallen earlier that evening. Her mane was cut short and bounced gracefully with every step she took. It was a shade of jasmine yellow that when set against her coat it seemed to shine brighter. To say of her features, it was easy to say that Luna had never seen a more beautiful pony, and her mind was just a jumble of words attempting to describe her. But out of everything, Luna was enraptured by her eyes. Her eyes were a deep teal color, just barely a shade lighter than Luna's own mane.
Luna just crouched there frozen at the sight of the filly, her jaw hung open slightly and her heart fluttered inside her chest.
Who was this filly? Why hadn't she seen her around the palace before? Was she even real or was Luna just dreaming of everything that was happening at that moment? Luna didn't know what to do. Her mind was racing and yet at the same time stalled as she kept her eyes on the filly
The mysterious grey filly walked towards the other two and they started to talk among each other. Luna was tempted to shuffle her box closer to the group of fillies, but her body refused to follow as she was entranced by the grey pegasus.
After a short while the trio then walked away from the small clearing in the garden. The lunar princess only regained her bearings a few moments after the pegasus went out of sight.
Shaking her head to clear it, Luna decided to follow the grey pegasus and her friends under the cover of her box. All thoughts of her game with Celestia forgotten, her mind only held images of the pegasus and her musical laugh echoing inside her head.
