A King's Pride

"...so you want some time to make yourself pretty?", Turner asked Lasgro, who in turn simply nodded.

"The bathroom is through that door," at that he pointed to his left, "The soap and shampoo are next to the sink. You can change the water-temperature by turning the knob in the bathtub."

After Turner said that, Lasgro hurried through said door. Shortly thereafter, the sound of water running could be heard.

Turner sighed, before turning his attention towards his mainroom. Thankfully, the being had not messed with any of his inventions... yet. He had to get them out of the way, before it returned.

Mechanical spiderlegs with grabbers? Too heavy, he wouldn't be able to get them away quick enough, he will have to chance it on them.

Fireworks reacting to love? Those weren't in any risk, Time Turner deduced, before moving towards the next object. Electrical helmet giving immunity against mental intrusion? 'Huh, I forgot I had that,' Time Turner smirked, 'That might be useful.'

"Hey! Don't use that! How would I be able to talk to you then?", Lasgro asked him.

Turner sighed, knowing full well that was the reason he built it. To keep those with telepathy from prying into his mind. If he tried to put it on now, the telepath in the next room probably would give him a headache strong enough to keep him from concentrating on anything.

The next invention of his was a couple of electricity-grenades; Definitely something he had to stuff away before Lasgro could do anything with it. He grabbed them, and went through the door leading into his basement. He walked down the thin, cold, stone stairs. As he arrived downstairs, he looked around for a moment.

In the corner next to him, to his left, there was the mechanical golem he once worked on. However, after he had first activated it, it was shown to have huge personality-problems. Whatever he did, he could not fix that one detail. Even after completely replacing the electronics, and afterwards the hull, it still had that gruesome personality.

The basement was full of failed inventions. Besides the golem, there was a vacuum cleaner, carelessly thrown beneath a rotting table, which was supposed to have an internal recycling system. And it recycled what it cleaned, that was not the problem. The problem was, that it spew out a weird, green slime additionally.

A stretching rope that stretched, but did not tighten again was lying on the floor. Stuffed with other inventions into what was once a wardrobe, there was a pair of mechanical wings, the problem was that it sucked the magic out of nearby pegasi to work. A coffee machine that operated on the life-energy of nearby creatures was just beneath it. The inventions down here were failures, failures he could not explain. Not a single one of them worked exactly how it was supposed to, and none of them he was able to explain. No matter what he did, he could not change that about these inventions, even if he assembled a second version completely separate from the first. In the end, he had stuffed them down here, to forget about them.

Cobwebs hung everywhere, the stoney floor was cracked. Looking up, Time Turner saw that atleast the ceiling had no cracks, as did the walls. He laid the electrical grenades down at the entrance. 'I do not need to waste time bringing it into the middle of the basement', he told himself. 'It's not like the inventions down here creep me out or anything...'

He turned around to walk back upstairs, and was startled when he saw Lasgro carrying a bunch of his inventions.

"They are supposed to go over there, right?", Lasgro asked, before walking past Time Turner and dumping them into the middle of the basement.

Time Turner stared at him, before wondering: "Wait a minute... One of those inventions is the helmet against mental intrusion! I think that shou-"

"No. We won't need it where we are going, unless you believe that princess of yours will be trying to invade your mind," Lasgro interrupted.

"I was not saying that because I thought Twilight would invade my mind," Time Turner explained sighing, "Just... just keep yourself presentable... Speaking of which, is your cape wet?"

Lasgro grinned, before responding: "Of course! A true king such as I am would never allow those below him to catch a glimpse of his body, as such he never undresses. Not even to bathe!"

Time Turner facehooved.

The duo knocked at, as Lasgro insisted, Princess Twilight's door. You could hear the sound echoing throughout the building from outside. They waited a few minutes, before Lasgro knocked again, louder this time.

After that they waited a few more minutes.

Lasgro realised just how cold it is at night. He looked up at the moon. 'Beautiful,' he thought to himself, 'Just as everywhere. Usually I tend to be in a warm room though.'

After waiting for a few more minutes, the door opened, revealing a drowsy purple unicorn. Atleast, it looked like a unicorn at first glance. On second glance, Lasgro realised that they also had wings.

On third glance, Lasgro remembered that he actually already knew that because he scanned Time Turner's memories.

"My name is Lasgro," he proclaimed, making sure that fellow royalty had a good first impression, "The personification of Pride and Awe. I have come a long way here, and wish to take shelter in the house of this fine man," at this he pointed towards Time Turner, "however, I would not want to leave fellow royalty in the dark about my presence."

Twilight, not yet awake enough to listen, cocked her head in confusion, before following Lasgro's tentacle to Time Turner: "Oh, hello Time Turner. What has brought you here at this late hour?"

Time Turner glanced at Lasgro, before replying: "This creature is the reason I am here. You see, he just walked into my house, and proclaimed it his 'base of operations'."

Twilight sighed, before replying: "Come in, Time Turner and...," she needed a moment to remember his name, even though he said it a minute ago, "Lasgro. It seems we have much to talk about."