I sat in the private carriage, staring out the window and absently tapping on the seat beside me.

Ta-ta-ta-tap.

My teeth were clenched, my entire body tensed up. The drumming was constant, now. When I was awake, when I was asleep, it just. Never. Stopped. It was driving me insane. I sighed and closed my eyes, the annoying droning eating away at my already frayed nerves.

Ta-ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-SLAM! I hammered my fist against the side of the carriage, resting my head in my hands. The bang startled Twilight, who stared with a worried expression from the seat across from me. "Just hold on for a little longer, okay? Hey..." I looked up, making Twilight flinch slightly. I knew I must've looked terrible. I felt terrible. "It's going to be okay, Harold."

I nodded with a noncommittal grunt, my head twitching from the pent-up energy. Oh God, it's so BORING! I sighed and shook my head. "We could've flown. Celestia offered to lend us a chariot. But noooo, we had to take the train. The five-hour long train ride."

"We'll still get there, okay? Just...take a nap, if you need to. We'll be there before you know it." I stared blankly at Twilight's forced smile. I knew she knew I couldn't sleep much, so there was no point in bringing it up. I sighed and continued staring out the window.

...Ta-ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-ta-tap. I smirked when I saw Twilight's ears twitch. At least I wasn't suffering alone. Ta-ta-ta-tap, ta-ta-ta-tap. Twilight took a deep breath, closing her eyes and pressing her ears back against her head. I grinned wider, pausing in my tapping. She gave a vaguely grateful glance, until she saw my Cheshire smile. "...Don't you dare."

My grin widened, threatening to split my head in half.

"Don't. You. Dare." She hissed, narrowing her eyes. Well, I thought, You should've given me something to entertain myself!

"This is the song that never ends..."

"I said NO!" Twilight snarled, to which I nodded impishly.

"It just goes on and on my friends!

Somebody started singing it, not knowing what it was!

And now they will keep singing it forever, just because:

This is the song that never ends!" I didn't have a good singing voice. Even still, I sang deliberately off-key just for Twilight.

"Somepony make it stop!" She wailed, putting her forelegs over her head.

"It just goes on and on my friends!

Somebody started singing it, not knowing what it was!"

I was roughly shoved out of the stationary train by an irate purple unicorn, narrowly avoiding splattering on the ground. "You are so childish!" I ignored the puzzled stares of the other patrons of Canterlot's train station, content to look back at Twilight with a mad grin.

"If you didn't react so well, I wouldn't poke fun!" I got out a single barking laugh before being shoved again, almost sending me off my feet.

"Shut up. We are going to see the Princess, and so help me if you even think about acting like this in front of her, I'll turn you into a toad!" I continued grinning through Twilight's tirade, waving at the puzzled pony passersby. "Eyes front, Harold!"

I rolled my eyes and sighed, walking just fast enough to keep a bit of distance between Twilight and myself. "I'm just bored, Twilight," I muttered, smile dropping from my face. "I've been bored since I came here." It was true. After reading the entire contents of both the Canterlot Library AND Golden Oaks, I had nothing to keep my mind busy. And with an idle mind came the drums. My mood instantly soured at the thought.

"...I know. But there's nothing I can do about that." If I didn't know better, I'd call her tone sympathetic. But wasn't she just furious with me not a minute ago? It was almost funny how quickly her mood could change. I smirked slightly. Ponies and their funny little heads...

It would be so much fun to watch them pop.

I stopped in my tracks. "Did you say something?" I stumbled forward when Twilight bumped into my back, releasing a frustrated groan.

"No...why?" She trotted around to face me, giving me a look somewhere between annoyed and concerned. I closed my eyes and shook my head, lightly thudding the heel of my palm against my forehead.

"No...nothing. Just my imagination." I sighed and continued walking towards the castle, suddenly feeling worse than I'd ever felt in the train. "Let's just get there so I can rest."

"Hearing voices isn't a good sign, Harold..." Twilight insisted, trotting by my side. "It's a good thing we got you here when we did, Celestia knows what'd happen if you hadn't said anything..."

"Well, I wouldn't have had to sit in a boring train for five hours, so there's that." There's no way I was letting her off that easy. I stared sourly ahead, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

"Would you shut up about the train?" Twilight harped, rolling her eyes. "We wouldn't have to come all the way here if you'd just gone to the doctor's like I asked."

My eyes hardened. "We've talked about this before. You know I hate doctors." And I did. They were arrogant, condescending, too-curious insufferable little know-it-alls.. I'm better off as far from them as possible.

Twilight shook her head and sighed, remaining silent until we were at the castle gates. We were let in with no hassle, and I avoided eye-contact with the guards as much as I could. The castle was as empty as I'd ever seen it, only punctuated by the occasional rushing maid trotting down the halls. As per usual, they stayed as far from me as they could. I hardly noticed; most ponies that didn't know me put a healthy amount of space between us.

Twilight magicked open the massive doors to the throne room, letting us walk in. I followed Twilight's purple butt with a sour grimace, trying to resist the urge to tap the infernal drum-beat against my thigh. As expected, Celestia had suspended any meetings so she could see us. I looked up at her and smiled slightly. What kind of ruler would put the entire country on hold for two nobodies?

Nonetheless, I was grateful. Celestia had been a mother of sorts since I'd arrived, or at least I saw her as such. I'm not afraid to admit that I relied heavily on her mercy in my first years. I stepped to the side of my roommate and knelt down, bowing my head. "Princess."

I hardly reacted when Celestia, abandoning all pretense of formality, enveloped me in her golden magical aura and pulled me forward for a bone-crushing hug. "HRRRK!" The air was driven from my lungs with a hoarse groan, and my head lolled back in the furry death-grip.

"Don't even think about bowing to your auntie, young man!" My eye twitched, and I'm pretty sure my face was turning blue. If there's a god, PLEASE let somepony distract her! No such luck. "Harry?" Celestia pulled away, letting me hang limply in her forelegs and wings. "You feel light. Has Twilight been feeding you?" She turned to the snickering unicorn. "Have you been feeding him?"

"Yes Princess, he's just scrawny." I pouted at the wholly inaccurate description. The word is 'athletic'. Twilight continued, "Princess, I think he needs to breathe." And with that, Celestia released me and set me on my feet, dusting me off and trying to smooth out the wrinkles on my suit. I made a show of gasping for breath, holding my throat with my hands.

"Air...precious...air...!"

I was then lightly slapped on the back of the head courtesy of a massive white wing. "Don't be a drama-queen, Harry."

I pouted, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "You named me Harold, auntie, it'd be lovely if you could struggle all the way to the end."

Twilight chimed in, "sure thing Harry!"

I turned and gave her my Angry Face, receiving a playful rasberry in return before turning to face Celestia. "So, you know why we're here?"

Celestia immediately sobered, schooling herself into her usual mask of infallible serenity. "I'm afraid so," she began, her expression betraying only a hint of her worry. "Unfortunately I can only delay the Nobles so long before they start asking questions, so I can't help you right away. I'm sure you remember Twilight's old room?" We both nodded. "Go and make yourselves at home. My sister will come by to help you tonight."

Twilight and I nodded simultaneously, bidding our farewells for the day. The walk out of the throne-room was certainly calmer, and almost uncomfortably quiet. I followed Twilight through the wide corridor, taking seemingly random turns through the interior of the vast castle. I let myself hunch slightly, sighing in exhaustion and trying to comb my fingers through my thoroughly mussed hair.

Twilight looked over her withers at me with a worried expression. "Is everything alright?"

I nodded. "It's Celestia. She seemed more...affectionate than usual." I shuddered slightly. "I haven't seen her like that since..."

"I know," Twilight quickly interjected, not wanting The Incident brought up any more than I did. "But think, she hasn't gotten to spend any time with you in months!" Twilight turned, almost leaning against me. "Anypony would miss their baby after that long."

My eyebrows furrowed. "She's not my mother, Twilight. You know that. She knows that. She only acts like that when something bad's about to happen."

"...There's no point in worrying about that now," Twilight finished, continuing down the hall. "Besides, that's why we're here! To stop something bad from happening. Now come on, you need to rest."

I grumbled incoherently and followed.

Twilight and I walked into our foalhood living-quarters, untouched since we left. Except for the conspicuous lack of dust and books strewn about the floor. I yawned, fighting to keep my eyes open. Twilight followed suite, muttering about contagious yawns before tromping to the bedroom. I shrugged and made to flop down on the sofa, but was caught midair in a magenta aura and pulled into the bedroom with her.

I squirmed and protested with several choice words and phrases of both English and Equestrian origin as my shoes, socks, jacket, tie, shirt, and trousers were expertly dropped from my airborn form along the way, until I was unceremoniously dropped into the bed alongside the exhausted mare. "No," she muttered, "you're the one that can't sleep. You are going to sleep in the bed."

"I'm sharing a bed with a mare, and I'm in my pants," I hissed, pulling the blanket up to my chin. I narrowed my eyes, glaring at Twilight. "Exactly what part of that is supposed to help me sleep?!"

Twilight rolled her eyes and pulled me against her barrel. "Just go the buck to sleep!" A flash of her horn, and the light was out. I knew better than to struggle. Even though I could physically overpower her as easily as I could breathe, she could just pull me back with her magic. I huffed and closed my eyes, trying to push it out of my mind and get some much needed rest.

...Thu-thump...thu-thump...thu-thump...thu-thump. Twilight's deep, muffled heartbeats drowned out the drumming. The warm fur against exposed skin melted me into a puddle of sleepy Saxon, and I was back home.

I fell asleep before I could register the drumming was gone.

Author's Note

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