Author's Note

WARNING! THIS CHAPTER GETS DARKER THAN A BLACK HOLE

.... Don't say I didn't warn you.

Royal Talks and A Dark Past

Three hours after I left the cave, I found myself sitting on a cloud staring at the most inexplicable thing I had ever seen. “How the fuck is this city staying there!?”

I had seen a city stuck to the side of a mountain and, thinking it was just a mirage, decided to investigate. What I saw almost convinced me I was in a VR.

It was a huge city made of marble and gold. Towers dotted the skyline and nearest to the mountain I could see a castle and gardens. In fact, the castle and gardens were the only part actually on the mountain! Everything else was just... hanging there off the cliff, not supported by anything.

I shook my head, marveling at how it was still in one piece after me staring at it for so long. “I have to know how this place is staying here.”

Taking off, I flew over to the edge closest to me and landed on the edge, not really fond of how hard the landing was. “Damn thing....” As I walked away from the edge I made sure not to show any of the fear I was feeling as I looked around at the buildings and at the ponies who stood and stared at me.

The ponies in question were wide eyed and I could see fear in their eyes, however, it was clear they were frozen in place by their fear. It reminded me of the ponies at that other village, Rainbow falls, I think Cyril had called it. As I looked at the ponies and the city itself one detail made itself known to me. Rainbow falls while seeming like a well off little village, didn’t have the sort of style and luxury, that this city had, if anything Rainbow Falls could be considered poor in comparison to this city, and yet, I couldn’t see a guard anywhere.

“Halt!” Came a sudden voice to my right, making me turn. I wondered if it was upon thinking about the guards that made them show up or if it was by chance, but whatever the reason, running down the street headed straight for me was a small battalion of guards dressed up in gold armor. The guard who had shouted, and was currently leading the battalion, was a mare with a white coat. Honestly it was almost to hard to tell that she was a mare, her white coat made her look exactly like the stallion who ran just behind her.

I stopped and turned slightly towards them saying, “Hello there. By any chance, could you lead me to someone who knows how this city is... well, frankly how it even exists.”

To say that the guards were shocked was an understatement. As they left the street they had come from in favor of the one I was in, they all stopped to look at me in confusion, and fear. The moment passed however as the mare quickly barked out orders and I found myself surrounded by unicorns and regular ponies, while pegasi hovered around me. Turning to the mare who seemed in charge I saw her level a hard glare at me.

“You are in violation of the Eques/Dragon treaty. Unless you are here as a designated ambassador from the dragon territories, you must leave immediately or we will be forced to drive you out of our city. Speak now dragon.” The mare said, her tone all business and no play.

Sighing, I shook my head. “I only came here to learn how this city was hanging off the side of the mountain. I didn’t want any trouble.” I sat down, trying to make it seem I was non-threatening. “Besides, I am not part of the dragon territories. I’m not even part of this world.”

“A spy!” A voice hissed.

“Crazy.” Another replied.

More and more hushed whispers went through the guards, some even seemed scared enough that they took a half step towards me, spears getting way too close for comfort. “Quiet you lot!” The mare in charge barked, getting absolute silence from the other guards, before she turned back to me. “I’ve no time for games dragon, so you're going to answer a few questions before we answer any of yours.” She said, it was clear there was no arguing with her.

“Alright,” I said, relaxing a bit more even though I should listen to my gut and just take off.

The mare nodded and seemed to relax a bit. “Good, first, how old are you? You look like a bit too young and in over your head.”

“I’ll be turning thirty-three in seven months and four days. I don’t know the actual date is on your calendar, though.”

“Bullshit!” A guard said as he moved in closer.

“Hold!” The mare yelled at the offending guard, making him slowly move back in position, though he was glaring at me still. “You don’t really expect us to believe that do you? We’ve not seen a lot of dragons but even the dullest of my guards know that a dragon at that age should be half your size.”

I shrug. “Well, I didn’t have much of a choice with what size I am. Didn’t even have a choice of whether I wanted to come to this planet either.”

The mare eyed me suspiciously before speaking again. “Are you touched in the head or something or are you trying to play us for foals?” She asked venomously.

“Neither.” I thought for a moment before saying, “Are there any lie-detecting spells?”

The mare again eyed me suspiciously. “There are, but the only one strong enough to cast such a spell on a dragon is Princess Celestia.”

I smiled, making sure to keep my mouth closed. “Why don’t you have one of your guards try anyways?”

“It would be a waste of time and energy, and I’m done with these games of yours. Tell us why you came to Canterlot now!” The mare said suddenly getting very aggressive, in response her guards took another half step forward, those with spears quickly aimed them at me, while the unicorns all charged their horns ready to cast a spell.

My smile faded faster than it had appeared, replaced by an almost hurt expression. “I told you, I don’t know how this city is physically staying where it is and I’d like to find out.”

The mare didn’t seem to accept my answer because she quickly turned to her guards. “Prepare to drive the dragon out, non lethal spells and watch your spear work.” She commanded, the guards all nodded and several unicorns readied their horns to fire their spells.

“That won’t be necessary Major. I think our guest has more than proved she’s harmless,” a new voice said. Turning, I watched as a mare twice as tall as the one in front of me, walked down the street. She had both wings and a horn, and her mane reminded me of the aurora borealis, and it seemed to flow in an invisible wind.

“Princess Celestia!” The mare squeaked out as she watched the new mare. Princess Celestia moved with grace and authority and right away I could tell, this mare, while holding a kind smile, was greatly respected. “What are you doing out here Princess?” The mare asked.

“A dragon shows up in my home, and scares my little ponies and I’m expected to sit on my throne and watch?” Celestia asked, a small smile played across her lips and I could swear I saw a twinkle of mischief for the briefest of moments.

“N-no, o-of course not P-Princess,” The mare stuttered as Celestia came to a stop beside her. Looking at the rest of the guards she frowned briefly.

“Please lower your weapons, if our guest has not yet attacked, it is unlikely that she will do so now.” At her request, the guards quickly lowered their spears and look to her in confusion. “Thank you, now..” She said as she turned to look at me. “Allow me to welcome you to Canterlot …” she paused.

“Angelus. Angelus Martin,” I said as I stuck out a claw for her to shake.

The guards tensed and nearly leveled their spears at me again, but with a single wave of her hoof they froze. “A dragon with a last name? Most peculiar, but nonetheless, welcome to Canterlot miss Martin. I am Princess Celestia, of Equestria.” She said as she raised her hoof to my clawed hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

I smiled, keeping my mouth closed like before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Princess, and please, call me Angelus. Miss Martin is my mother.”

The Princess smiled. “Only if you call me Celestia. Between you and me, being called Princess for the past 2000 years gets so annoying.” She whispered, so her guards wouldn’t hear.

I nodded almost imperceptibly. “So how is it this city is staying where it is? It doesn’t have any supports underneath that I saw.”

At this the princess seemed to giggle. “That you can see,” she said suggestively.

I paused for a moment, thinking that over before both of my claws met my face.

The Princess giggled more at my reaction before she finally spoke. “I must say you’re most unusual for a dragon, most would have attacked my guards by now.”

Sighing, I put my claws back on the ground. “It helps that the idiotic... stallions are following a mare.” I then muttered, “I doubt I’ll get used to that terminology.”

The Princess looked at me with a question in her eyes. “I’m sorry I’m not sure I follow.”

I shook my head. “Just something that happened at the last town I tried to visit.”

“Ah I see. You wouldn’t happen to be the reason I got a report from Rainbow Falls are you?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately I have a severe dislike of males and... may have let my temper get the better of me.”

A slight frown worked it’s way on her face, and for a moment I saw something dangerous in her eyes, before it faded. “Yes well, I have many questions that I’d like to ask, however the fact still remains that you are violating an important treaty. Dragons are suppose to send word of their arrival a day or so ahead of them,” She said. She didn’t sound unkind but it was clear that we had quickly left the novelty of the situation and the Princess was no longer giggling.

“I didn’t know of that treaty until the guards at Rainbow Falls mentioned it in passing right before they proceeded to try driving me away.” I shrugged and continued, “I hadn’t been doing much more than trying to get treatment for my wounds before they showed up.”

“Wounds?” She asked, her tone changed and she began to eye me more closely, stopping at certain points of my body. “Were they fatal?”

“No, but they were bad enough that I couldn’t move for a few days after I received them.”

“There was no mention in any of the reports that you were seeking medical aid, or that you had even received it.” She said her tone taking on a mystified tone as she tried to figure something out.

“I did get aid, though not from the town. See, a few days before I tried to get help from Rainbow Falls, I had gotten into a fight with a green dragon. I was new to my body, so I was clumsy with my movements and I had to have help from Cyril to finish the fight.”

“Cyril? One of my ponies?”

“No, he’s like me. A visitor to this world.”

“Interesting. Perhaps you can tell me more about this other visitor and yourself? Back at the palace perhaps?”

I smiled and stood. “I’d be honored to be your guest for the evening.”

“Princess you can’t be serious?” The mare from before said as she tried to argue.

Raising a single hoof the Princess silenced the mare. “I am serious. Angelus is a guest, not only in Equestria.” Turning to me she smiled again before addressing the rest of the guard. “Please escort her to the palace.”

The guards hesitated for a moment before they sighed and nodded. The pegasi that hovered above my head took up a formation around me, while the ponies on the ground did the same. Princess Celestia smiled for a moment before her horn lit up and she was gone in the flash of a light, the guards meanwhile began marching up the streets towards the large castle which sat near the side of the mountain.

The walk was fairly uneventful, a few ponies peeked out from their blinds and from alleys to watch as we moved by but otherwise nothing exciting happened. Arriving at the main gate the guards who stood watch quickly opened the golden gate door and stepped aside. Looking at the large entryway I was glad to note that I’d be able to fit through it, but only just barely. It wasn’t long before the guards led me to a second pair of large doors and I was quickly ushered inside them as well, again I was glad I didn’t have to struggle to fit through.

The room I entered was large, larger than the hallway we had just left behind, where I had to lower my head somewhat so that I wouldn’t hit the support beams near the top, this room however I could stand at my full height and my head was nowhere near the ceiling. Looking around I saw the long red carpet with golden trim which led up to a set of stairs where a throne sat at the top. The Princess sat atop of the throne and flashed me a warm smile before dismissing my escort.

“Welcome to my throne room Angelus,” Princess Celestia said as she ruffled her wings a bit to get into a more comfortable position.

I glanced at the stained glass windows and said, “Oh, hey. Those two look like the ponies I met before the incident at Rainbow Falls.”

Turning to look at the window I had gestured to, she instantly recognised who I was talking about. “Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Yes, they were headed out to Griffonstone around the time of the Rainbow Falls incident.”

“Yeah, I accidentally stopped their train since I was almost standing on the tracks. I hadn’t ever seen a train that required actual tracks before that day since they were all decommissioned except in museums or historical places.” I gestured to the base of the stairs leading up to her throne. “May I?”

“You may.” She replied giggling a bit.

I smile and sit down at the base of the stairs. “You said you wished to know more about I and Cyril, yes?”

“Yes that was true, though maybe we should start with you first.” Her calm tone while still there now held a sense of seriousness. “I overheard you saying to my guards that you’re not from this world? Could you tell me what you meant exactly?”

“I mean exactly that. I was at a convention and had just won a tournament when I was... somehow transported to a valley over near Rainbow Falls somewhere.”

Celestia nodded her head in understanding. “I see, your race of dragons must be very different than those here in Equestria.”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t even a dragon before I came here. I was a human,” I said, hoping that she knew what they were. Her blank look told me she had no idea what a human was.

“Um.... Think like a hairless Minotaur with feet and only a little shorter than you at their tallest. And without horns.”

“I see. We don’t have these humans in Equestria, though your description leaves me intrigued, but onto another question. If you were not born a dragon, how is it you became one now?”

“I have no idea. I was stepping up to receive the set of coins that were the prize for winning the tournament from my father when I was suddenly in that valley as a dragon.”

“So how long have you been in Equestria then?”

I thought back to when I first arrived, counting the days that had passed. “Fifteen days. Most of that time was spent with me healing from my wounds in a cave.”

“Yes you mentioned something about being injured, how did that happen again?”

I shifted a bit and looked down towards the stairs in embarrassment. “Well, I had thought I was in a game when I appeared in that valley, so I had thought that since I was a dragon that meant that I was supposed to defeat other dragons and build up a hoard.” I chuckled a bit. “Imagine my surprise when I felt actual pain from my wounds and could really taste my blood on my tongue.”

Celestia seemed a bit confused at my mention of a game, but she didn’t question it, just as well since I doubt I could really describe it to her. “Now this...Cyril was his name?” She asked rolling the name on her tongue as if it was a new flavor. “How did you come to meet him, and why is he important to you?”

“He isn’t important to me at all, except in the capacity that he helped me heal and helped me defeat that dragon I foolishly attacked in my delusion." I looked back up at Celestia, a scowl on my face. “I owe him my life several times over and I hate that fact. But... I guess you could say I’m at least halfway tolerant of him.”

Celestia openly smiled at that. “I suppose you’ve made a friend during your short stay here. So who is this Cyril? is he a pony, or Gryphon?”

“Neither. He’s a human, though he has green skin and can turn into any animal he wishes.”

“He’s...green?” She seemed to ponder something for a second before she spoke up. “When he transforms into an animal, his fur wouldn’t happen to be green as well would it?”

“Yes, it is.”

Celestia didn’t speak for several seconds as she seemed to process what I had just told her. A moment later a piece of paper, a Quill and an inkwell appeared before she began to write something down. Once she was done the quill and ink disappeared while she touched the paper to her horn. The paper caught on fire turning to green smoke before it quickly flew out of the nearby window, which was for some reason open.

“Sorry for that, but I needed to write my student a letter. Please tell me more about Cyril.”

“Well, when I finally got bored enough to actually talk with him, I found out that he was one of the people who disappeared from the very same building I had about a hundred thirty years earlier.”

Celestia gasped in surprise as I began to go into detail about the difference in time between Equestria and home. I told her how Cyril had told me about the month he had spent in Equestria before he found me. “Such a difference in time between our world would mean…” She started to say before she stopped and thought about her words carefully. “I’m sorry for your unfortunate situation.”

I shrugged and scratched my chin. “I didn’t have any real friends, and my dad and I had never been close, what with him having to run a business that was worth well over four hundred billion. The only real thing I had were VR games.”

“Still, to lose family, must be difficult, and to enter a world you know nothing about with a body you are unfamiliar with...it is not something I can understand.” She said, somberly.

“Actually, the VR’s I’ve played were almost as immersive as real life. We’ve managed to keep a firm line between physical and fake, but my experience with them helped me with coping.”

Again she looked confused about what I mean when I said VR’s but she choose not to question it, instead she cleared her throat to collect her thoughts. “And what about Cyril? Did he accompany you on your trip?”

I snorted in amusement. “Staying with him for two weeks while I healed was almost more than I could stand. We went our separate ways a few hours ago.”

Celestia seemed a bit confused by my statement. “So you left the only person who might understand what you’re going through all because why again?”

“He can’t understand what I’ve went through.” My expression darkened and I shifted my gaze to Celestia’s right. “If I hadn’t needed his help, I would’ve sent him on his way without so much as a fare thee well.”

Celestia gave me a hard look, her warm smile now gone, replaced with a dissatisfied frown and a hint of...disappointment? “In my many years of ruling, I’ve seen a lot of things that would cause my little ponies great discomfort, and through that time I’ve gained several lifetimes worth of wisdom, some so simple that it baffles me how I did not see it before, and how ponies...and yourself it would seem, cannot see it now.”

I closed my eyes and calmed myself before I looked at her again and said, “What do you mean by that?”

Her frown was replaced by a motherly smile. “You need to trust someone if you want to make life easier. I run a country but I do not do it alone. I have my sister, my neice and my student to help me and I trust them all.”

“Try giving others trust after you’ve had someone close to you rip away the one thing that could give you what you wanted. You’ll understand why I trust no one but myself.”

“Believe it or not, I have had someone close do what you’ve described.”

I raised an eyeridge and thought, .... Really? I can’t see her ever having a boyfriend. I glanced around to see if there were any guards in the room, seeing none I looked back to Celestia. Y’know what? Screw it. “Is there a way to make sure we have complete privacy?”

Her horn lit up for a brief moment and the windows and door were enveloped in a golden glow. “Go ahead the room has been completely soundproofed.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, letting it out slowly as my head tilted downward. “Aside from the initial investigation, I’ve never spoken of what I’m about to tell you. Please don’t tell anyone about what I’m going to tell you.”

“A Princess must have the trust of her entire kingdom if she ever hopes to rule in peace. So long as anything you tell me doesn’t endanger any of my ponies I can assure you that it will not be repeated.”

I swallowed and raised my eyes to meet hers. “I had a boyfriend once. Twelve years ago he and I got together and for two whole years we had a wonderful relationship. He was the first guy I’d ever loved, but the night I decided to sleep with him he drugged me, cut out my womb, and then kept me in his basement for almost an entire week with four other girls whom he had done the same thing to-” My voice cracked and I could feel tears running down my face as I slowly sank to the floor. “He’d had those other girls down there since far before he met me.... He raped all five of us, and when any of us struggled he beat us....”

The look of surprise and disgust on Celestia’s face said it all. She’d never seen or heard of such cruelty before. The implications of such an act against not one, but multiple people spoke degrees about the individuals depravity and instability. Taking a moment to collect herself, her mask of calm and serenity having slipped during my story, Celestia used a wing to wipe away a few tears of her own. “I’m so sorry you had to go through such a thing. I can see how you would be hesitant to trust someone after such a thing.”

I chuckled mirthlessly. “Oh, I’m not done. You see, where I’m from we have technology that can keep things such as a heart or a lung frozen for transport and once the lung is thawed, it’ll still work if it’s properly attached inside of someone. It’s mostly for trying to save lives, but.... Anthony used that tech to keep our wombs as trophies and as a way to prevent us from trying to escape.... I did though, and because I did he burned my womb in front of the other girls.”

“I’ve witnessed cruelty before, but none like what you’ve described, however if I may since transforming into a dragon, it could be possible for your womb to have grown back. A simple spell is all it would take to be sure, if you wanted to know?”

I gave Celestia a glare through my tears. “And give me a reason to hate males even more? No. It’s bad enough that I lost my temper in Rainbow Falls, I don’t want to burn the next guy I see that looks at me wrong to ash.”

“I’m only saying that with time, you may come to change your mind, and if that is the case wouldn’t you like to know for certain? As a dragon your life expectancy should be much longer than what you’re used to.” She replied calmly, not at all fazed by my glare.

“If there comes a time when I like a guy, then I’ll ask if you could.” I drop my glare with a sigh, rubbing my temples. “Could I get something hard to drink, please?”

“I don’t know how well it would work for you, a dragon of your size would have a large tolerance, but I could have a barrel of hard cider brought if it would help?”

“I forgot about that.” I sighed in frustration. “Dammit, the one time I really need a drink it’ll take too much for me to ask for!”