Possibilites

Fluttershy got up and hesitantly slapped Twilight in the face, which seemed to snap her out of her drunken state. Her sudden violent action confused me; everything she had done so far lead me to believe she was shy, not aggressive. Even Fluttershy herself seemed surprised.

“Oh! I’m so sorry…are you okay…?” Fluttershy apologized as Twilight rubbed her pain-filled cheek.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I needed that…” Twilight consoled. It took a moment for Twilight to register what had just happened beforehand. When she did, her eyes widened and she ceased massaging her cheek.

“On no!” Twilight said, looking sincerely afraid. I think the sight of her being terrified made the rest come to. They all looked in angst, either chewing on their hooves or unable to keep still. I wish could’ve assisted in their sobering up, but unfortunately, such thing is beyond my abilities. Everyone’s gaze suddenly locked on me, making me feel uneasy.

“What?” I said. We all me jumped back when Spike’s face turned slightly green before he appeared to regurgitate another roll of paper. I jumped back at the sight of the paper, startled by what had just occurred but not the sudden action of it. Where in the heavens above did it come from? Fluttershy pat me on the back and said to me in that calming voice of hers,

“It’s okay, that’s just a letter system used to send messages between Twilight and Princess Celestia. We haven’t used it a lot recently though.”

“Never seen mail handed out that way before…” I said, thinking over several ways it could occur. Although without wormholes or some biological fax machine, it didn’t seem too likely it should exist in the first place. Fluttershy giggled.

“It’s not used by everyone.” She said. Spike handed the paper to Twilight as her horn glowed, unraveling it.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight read, her voice shaking. She cleared her throat before continuing, “I am not sure why you would bring my attention to such a matter. Nonetheless, I have gone over at my schedule and will pay Ponyville a visit this afternoon. I hope you will prepare for my arrival accordingly, but it need not be extravagant. And make sure you have your ‘handsome’ friend there. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.”

“Hold on a moment. Who’s this ‘Celestia’?” I asked.

“WHAT?” They all shrieked in unison.

“Princess Celestia is the main ruler over Equestria and she also happens to have been my teacher.” Twilight said.

“Oohhhh…” I breathed, still a little uncertain about a few details. “Why isn’t there a queen? Or a king? Shouldn’t there be at least one of them somewhere?” Twilight raised her hoof as if she was about to say something, but Rainbow Dash cut her off.

“How do you not know who Celestia is?” Questioned Rainbow Dash, Twilight shooting a nasty glance at her for interrupting.

“I don’t know… I just don’t get around much I guess…” I said, Spike narrowing his eyes at me. They all started clamoring about what to do and whose fault this was a voice suddenly crackled in my left ear, making me flinch.

“Saga AI unit still ready and operational,” a heavily modulated computer generated voice said. I almost forgot about that earpiece; I should probably clean it soon. Saga is an AI program I made a long while back to keep me company, being that I don’t handle human accompaniment very well. I forget exactly when I made him and how long it took, but I know it was at least over a year dwelling on the same subject. He’s still a little rudimentary, but he gets the job done. He’s currently residing in my bag way back at my camp. I guess he noticed that I had left him unattended for a relatively long time. I “accidentally” knocked a fork on to the floor and leaned under the table slightly and speaking softly.

“Saga, send out the drone. I want a map with a one hundred mile radius from your current position. Be quiet about it.” I whispered as I picked up the fork.

“Already on it sir.” Saga replied after a few moments of silence. I straightened my back and placed the fork back on the table. In about an hour or more, I should have a good sized 3D map of the area. Hopefully the people who watch the skies for a living won’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Someone suddenly grabbed me and forcefully turned my face toward him or her.

“What are we going to do Xavier?!” Exasperated Twilight. I thought about it for a moment and pulled her hooves off of my face.

“Well, the way I see it, you could just tell her the truth. Honesty is the best policy and we all make mistakes now and then.” I said reassuringly, eliciting a nod from Applejack and a few others. And maybe, just maybe, if she got in enough trouble, I wouldn’t have to deal with her so much. That seemed to calm her down.

“Maybe you’re right…” She sighed, letting her head sag.

“I know!” Said Rainbow Dash. “We’ll just say you misheard somepony else talking about Celestia, and you thought it was Xavier, and you wanted to surprise him. Not everyone gets to hang around a Princess you know.” Twilight perked up.

“Perfect!” Twilight exclaimed, causing me to sigh and bang my head on the table, startling Fluttershy.

Even with my vast knowledge of things, I’ll never understand women.

I rose my head back up and read a clock on a wall—almost 1 p.m. The letter said Celestia would be here in the afternoon, so by a technicality, she could be arriving at any time now.

“Well I don’t know about you guys, but I think I’ll go and gather my stuff and bring it here. See you in few minutes or so.” I said. I left the Corner, avoiding the gazes of the group behind me and various others as I launched off and into the sky. Flapping quietly through the sky, I looked for my original camp site, which wasn’t that hard; I have a pretty good memory.

I think.

I landed and morphed back into my humanoid form rather quickly. I stretched my arms and moved my fingers—it was great to have digits again. Although being naked didn’t make me feel very safe, it would have to do and I was going to be changing back soon anyway. I removed the sleeping bag from the tent and emptied it of my clothes, wrapping up everything and storing them in the bag.

I looked at the bag a moment, devising a structure that could fit atop my Pegasus form without restricting movement. I came up with a bloated saddlebag that would still fit all of my belongings and allowed for the use of wings. Taking out my knife and a small sowing kit, I refashioned my previous bag—which was getting old and needed replacing anyway—content with the result.

Once I had finished, a metallic probe flew down from the sky and landed back into the bag, snapping onto something metallic.

“Mapping complete. Data will be stored locally.” Saga said in my earpiece. Strange. It should’ve taken him much longer to map out the land than this.

“Why so quick? Did you omit parts of the land?” I asked Saga, hoping he wasn’t discovered while he flew the probe about.

“I had already begun mapping the landscape before I grabbed your attention. In fact, I was about to tell you I was doing so, but you interrupted me.” He said snidely. He was always rather quick at such comebacks, but not much else. I gruffed at his attitude.

“You know you don’t have to be so ill-mannered.” I told him.

“I’m aware.” He replied. I took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Thanks Saga.” I sighed. I crouched down and took out a decent sized panel hooked onto Saga I had fashioned myself out of a bunch of scraped computer parts with a screen that responded to touch. I booted it up and took a look at the new map he had created.

The landscape was absolutely gorgeous; hills and mountains, waterfalls and forests. There even seemed to be a large stagnant body of clouds about thirty miles northeast of here which seemed very much worthy of checking out. There was so much luscious land to explore and discover, I could barely contain myself as the tablet in my hands unwillingly trembled. I powered down the panel and placed it back into the bag, making a mental note to look at the map again and plan out an expedition across this new country later.

I morphed back into my Pegasus form, put my bag on and flew off back to town. It was a little clunky with the bag, but I managed to get back without losing anything.

Reaching the town once more, I landed not far from the Corner and saw the group of six hanging around outside the front doors. I also saw a very large pony—this one being more akin to a horse—with a rather long horn, wings, and a ridiculously long flowing mane. It was even waving despite the fact there was barely any wind.

The physics in this place was weird.

Her coat was a bright white and her mane mimicked a brightened up rainbow, albeit it was missing a few notable colors. Several armored ponies surrounded the large one, consisting mostly of pegai with a few unicorns scattered here and there, some of them tied to a gilded chariot placed off to the side of the Corner. There was a large and loud crowd encircling them, several of them bowing now and again, so it was understandable when the group didn’t seem to notice me as I walked up.

I envisioned everyone’s eyes burning out of their sockets as I ventured into the cacophony of voices to reach the front.

Pushing through the crowd to try and reach the others was no easy task. The people here were rather stubborn and wouldn’t move from their spots very easily.

And they kept looking.

However, after receiving several rude glances and vulgar remarks, I finally made my way to the front without breaking down.

“Hi guys.” I said as steadily as I could. They all perked up when I spoke and rushed me, save the large one—who merely looked with intrigue—and Spike—who was sitting against the outside of the building with his arms crossed.

“Xavier!” They all shouted as Rarity rushed ahead to guarantee an uncalled for hug from me.

“What’s this for?” I asked as she looked up at me.

“I don’t know…” Rarity said, letting go and fixing her hair a bit. Spike balled his hands up in fists and grit his teeth as he watched.

“Xavier, this is Princess Celestia.” Said Twilight, gesturing to the large white horse.

“Your majesty.” I said, bowing down. The guards watched me cautiously as this new face appeared before the supposed ruler of the land. One of them even seemed to deem me suspicious, whispering something inaudible to another guard.

“You may rise.” Celestia said in a commanding tone, but didn’t come across as too menacing. Raising back up, I merely saw the scrutinizing eyes of royalty, looking me over as if I was some new species she had never seen before.

Royal eyes are the worst kind.

“Twilight, may I speak with you for a moment? And without Spike please.” Celestia requested as Twilight bit her lip and avoided eye contact with the horse.

“Oh… O-okay…” Twilight stammered as she shifted on her hooves. They both went into the Sugarcube Corner and others in the crowd tried to follow. The guards blocked the door and prevented the crowd from advancing.

“They wish to speak in private, leave them their space!” one of them spoke authoritatively. A few guards entered the establishment and emptied it out, allowing Celestia and Twilight to converse in total secrecy. The guards then shut the doors and allowed no one to enter or exit. I took my bag off and set it against the building making my acoustic guitar clang against the wall, making me recall the sweet sound that it echoed when played. I took it off the bag and sat down, propping myself against a wall of the Corner. I brushed aside the chatter of the crowd as I played, immersing myself in my music while feeling the sting of the assembly as they watched me, which I ignored.

“It’s all in my head. This will help me feel better.” I thought in an attempt to justify my actions in front of the crowd. The bright sound of the guitar echoed throughout the area, filling it with a sort of homey feel and that sounded like “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.” I smiled to myself as I watched the strings vibrate on the neck as I plucked out the chords.

I ended on a nice high note several minutes later that rung out and bounced off of the nearby buildings, giving it a beautiful reverb. I looked up from my guitar to see most of the crowd quietly staring at me. I smiled nervously and put the guitar back in my bag, being careful not to hit it against anything or begin hyperventilating in the process. I looked over at the girls and saw a couple of them staring at me longingly, although Applejack was gone. I looked to my right and saw her sitting against the building a small distance away from me, looking up at the clouds. She noted I had ceased playing my guitar and shifted her gaze over to me.

“You play that guitar mighty fine, Xavier.” She complemented as I merely nodded in thanks. The rest of the girls sat down near me and propped themselves against the Corner, Rarity pressing against me on my right and Rainbow Dash on my left. I tried to move, but I was too squished to even break my arm free. Rarity kissed my right cheek and batted her eyelashes again. Spike stared knives at me, almost as if he was trying to blow up my head using some sort of cerebral stimulus. Cute attempt, but of course, nothing occurred. Rainbow Dash bit her lip and looked about the crowd, not knowing what to do.

Looking for something to do as I was quietly waiting, I twisted my head around and planted my right ear on the wall of the corner. The voices were muffled, but I could still make them out.

“…he is? I can’t merely go off of circumstantial evidence. Solid proof would be more preferable.” Celestia said.

“I don’t have anything that could lead to a solid conviction yet, but I’ve been looking rather hard. You see, he’s…” I heard Twilight begin before I was interrupted by a guard.

“You!” A voice boomed from in front of me, making me flick around to see a well-built and rather disgruntled Pegasus standing in front of me wearing what I hoped was iron armor painted gold.

“Yes?” I replied, attempting to keep on my best behavior.

“They went into a private setting for a reason. You have no right to listen in on royal on-goings without permission. This is a warning. If I catch you doing that again, I will be forced to arrest you for conspiring against the government. Do you understand?” He barked. I had never really liked any sort of authority to begin with a few marked exceptions. I respected them, but sometimes, they really didn’t know what they were doing and often abused their power. Whether or not this was true here, I would not know unless I had constant contact with such guards.

“I understand.” I said.

“Good.” He miffed, walking back over to an area more concentrated by those of his same stature. I puffed, forcing my arms free so I could cross them, completely forgetting the two ponies sitting by my sides.

However, the few sentences that I did catch. Who were they talking about? Was it me? Was this whole “drunken pony” thing a ruse? They both sounded rather professional in there, almost like it was a business meeting or other intelligent discussion. I couldn’t know exactly what they were scheming without listening in more, but I’d rather not be put to death by that one Pegasus who still seemed to be staring at me.

A few more minutes passed as I was pondering the implications of the current circumstances before the guards eventually shifted away from the door so as to allow Twilight and Celestia to walk out. Once outside, the two of them looked at me and all the others sitting around me. Twilight gave me a smile and joined us by sitting on my lap, wrapping her forelegs around me and tucking her head under my chin while she closed her eyes. The others seemed flabbergasted at Twilight’s action, myself included. I had no idea how to react to such a display of affection. It was rather nice and warm of course, a little comforting even, but it seemed too intimate for me as I squirmed underneath her weight.

The horse made her way over to the chariot, saying nothing despite Twilight’s rather uncalled for actions that a former instructor would surely disapprove of. Once she was in the chariot, she gave me one final look. It may have been one of confusion or anger, I couldn’t tell. The few unicorns that were present boarded the chariot with Celestia as the two pegai tied to the front flapped their wings and lifted the chariot off the ground and into the sky—which stayed parallel to ground despite their comparatively low velocity—the other guards surrounding it as she flew off.