It isn’t long before a newspaper is brought up for me. The headline is about me living in the castle, with the number of the page where the interview with Luna and I is written. I find the interview and skim over it. It seems that the reporter has put a fairly positive light on me living here. I’ll have to thank her sometime for writing it so nicely, if we ever meet again. Her written interview will probably help with my reception to the Equestrian kingdom when Luna and I make that announcement tomorrow.

I skim through the rest of the paper, not really much else of interest in it. Mainly gossip on nobles and rich ponies that I don’t know about. I am a little curious though with a short article about a show that the Wonderbolts are doing soon. Maybe after the announcement I can go and watch it with Luna.

There is a knock at the door and the usual thestral guard shows himself. “Travis, a servant has come with what she says is your dinner, may she come in?” Woah, it’s kinda weird having the guard ask me permission for somebody to enter. I’ll have to get used to this.

I smile and nod softly. “Yes, she can come in. Luna ordered dinner for me.” The guard nods back and leaves. I try to sit up a bit more straight in bed to have my dinner; it hurts, but I manage to do it.

It isn’t long before the servant mare comes in levitating a tray with my dinner on it. I recognise her, she’s one of the first servants I saw. She’s the one with grey coat and brown mane, along with eyes to match her mane. I wonder if I’ll ever learn or remember the names of all the servants. She gently sits the tray down on my lap and lifts the lid to reveal a bowl of fettucine pasta with pesto sauce. “Is this to your liking, Sir Travis?”

I nod eagerly, the scent making my mouth water. I swallow before I speak. “Yeah, it looks and smells great, thanks…” I then look up at the servant. “By the way, what’s your name?”

She looks at me with a nervous smile. “Oh, you don’t need to concern yourself with me, but my name is Shuffle Step if you want to know.”

I smile back. “That’s a nice name. I was just curious, since I want to see if I can learn and remember the names of the ponies serving me.”

Shuffle Step gives me a friendly nod. “Oh, thank you. I hope you enjoy your dinner, Sir.” She then heads off to leave me alone in my new shared chambers.

I grab the fork sitting by the bowl on the tray and start eating. My hand and arm hurt a little as I eat, but the pasta tastes good enough to keep my mind off the pain. Soon I become thirsty and realise that there were no drinks brought with my dinner. Oh well, I should have asked when Shuffle Step first brought the pasta. I put the tray on the bedside table when I finish and pick up the newspaper again, deciding to try the crosswords and puzzles. Oh, of course… I don’t have anything to write with…

Luckily, Shuffle Step comes back to take the tray. “Was the pasta satisfactory, Sir Travis?”

I smile and politely nod. “Yeah, it was… I was wondering if you could bring me a glass of water and something to write with?”

She nods back. “Oh, of course, I’ll only be a moment.”

“Thanks, Shuffle Step.” I look back at the newspaper to see what I can figure out before I get something to write with. In the corner of my vision, I notice Shuffle Step hurry out of the room with the tray. Focusing more on the crossword, it becomes obvious to me that it’s gonna be hard, since I don’t know much about Equestria. I read through the hints and hardly any of them ring a bell. Hmmm, a city known for its water treatment… That sounds familiar, didn’t Celestia tell me about some floating cloud city? What’s its name?... Cloudsvale or something?

Soon Shuffle Step arrives with a glass of water, a quill, and an ink pot, placing them on the bedside table. “Is this everything you need, Sir Travis?”

I put the newspaper on my lap and take a sip of water. “Yeah, thanks again, Shuffle Step.” I give her a smile, before looking back at the newspaper and dipping the tip of the quill into the ink. It feels kinda weird to use a quill though. I mean, I’ve really only ever tried using a quill once many years ago. It was when I went on a school excursion to some educational park about the gold rush.

I glance back up at Shuffle Step as she smiles back. “You’re welcome, sir.” She then leaves again, so that I can focus on the crossword.

Some ink drips off the quill as I hover it over the newspaper; blotching some of it. Whoops, I guess I put too much ink on the quill… I let it drip back into the ink pot for a bit, before I try writing again. I fill out a row of boxes with the word ‘Cloudsvale’ and it seems to fit. Maybe I got it right? I read another hint for a column going through the previous word. A group of expert flyers derived from the E.U.P. That’d be Wonderbolts… I fill it in, only to notice it clash with ‘Cloudsvale’. Oh, of course, it must be Cloudsdale. I read through more of the hints, but only come up blank. I should have asked for an encyclopedia or something.

I spend most of my time trying to figure out the crossword, but only end up getting a couple more words. My writing is also pretty messy, with some letters being splotchy from too much ink. I then look at a word search for a bit and it seems to be more of a children’s thing, but it’s better than nothing. If only I knew more about Equestria and its trivia… Anyway, I get to completing the word search and then put the quill and ink pot on the bedside table. I check through the comic section, but none of the short comics really interest me, so I put the newspaper down. This is getting pretty boring...

I drink the last of my water and look around the room idly for a few minutes, hoping for Luna to walk in soon. She’s probably still got a bunch of time left to stay at night court. I suppose I should just try to sleep; I do need to recover from my pains after all. I would like to wait for Luna to say good night, and to teach me how to make myself lucid in dreams, but I probably need sleep for that healing spell. I would take a guess that the more sleep I get, the more effective the spell will be. So, sooner would be better than later.

Now then, to turn off the lights… Right, I can’t get up from the bed… Maybe the guard could do it for me? I hope he can hear me while he’s at the bottom of the stairs. “Hello?! I can’t move, since I’m injured. Could somebody please turn off the lights?!”

After a short wait, I hear hoofsteps coming up the stairs, the door opens and the guard walks in. “Did you call for something, Sir Travis?”

I give him a slightly embarrassed smile; needing his help to do such a simple thing. “Yeah, I was wondering if you could please turn off the lights? I would do it myself, but I can’t leave the bed because I’m injured.”

“Of course, Sir.” The guard nods and turns off the light. “Anything else?”

I shake my head. “Nah, that’s all. Thanks.” I then hear the guard leave and close the door behind himself while my eyes are still adjusting to the darkness. I now finally relax into the bed and try to pull the covers over myself without causing my muscles too much pain. My tiredness catches up to me now that I've stopped focusing on the newspaper. It doesn’t take long for me to give in to my exhaustion.

Author's Note

I apologise for the long break, for the fact that I said the chapter was soon a while ago, and for this chapter being so short after how long it was in writing for. I was planning on finishing the chapter then, but things came up and life sidetracked me for a bit.