Pastel Meltdown

And a side of what now?!

“What happened then?” Luna asked.

Celestia had lost herself in the story the four survivors were telling, so she didn’t see Luna walk up.

“Luna?! How did you get here?” Celestia asked, confused as to why she came.

“Sister, it’s already time for you to lower the sun, I came by to let you know.”

Realization hit Celestia harder than Mike Tyson could in a fight with a 90 pound weakling. Frantically, she looked out the window to see the sun halfway set, a beautiful twilight formed just barely at its top.

Celestia ran to the open balcony. With a glow from her horn, she lowered the sun.

Luna came up behind her and raised the moon as Celestia lowered the sun, the four humans clueless the entire time.

When Celestia had finished, Bill spoke up in a questioning tone. “Mind telling us what that was?”

With mischief in her eyes she responded, “magic.”

Accepting this as an adequate answer, Bill continued. “So how about we get something to eat before I continue the story?”

“Yeah, I’ve been hungry for some grub since I drank my last cola.” Francis blurted out as he absentmindedly rubbed his stomach.

Ignoring him, Celestia spoke up. “Then I’ll let my sister go inform the cooks we have guests for tonight's dinner.”

“Awwwww... but I wanted to hear the rest of the storyyyyyy...” Luna whined. Celestia just gave Luna a look. As soon as she did, Luna bolted from the room with a “Right away, dearest sister.”

“We shall continue the story another time. Until then, I shall have guards escort you all to proper rooms where you can await for dinner.” Celestia said, a thin smile upon her face.

“Shining armor,” Celestia called out. Shortly after she said this, a white furred guard stepped forth; he had a dark blue mane with a lighter blue streak going through it. He wore an outfit that suggested he was a higher ranking officer as he stood in salute to the princess.

“Yes your majesty?” He responded.

“Take these four and show them where they shall be staying for the time being.”

“Yes princess. Follow me, please.” Shining armor trotted past the four as he almost mechanically lead them through the long corridors.

After a while, they reached a long hallway with a set of six doors on each side. Shining silently opened the first door and turned to them. “This will be one of the rooms you shall be staying in.” Then he continued on to the next three doors doing the same thing.

“A servant will be back here to inform you four when the food is ready.” After that, he left the four in the corridor with the four open doors.

The four of them looked to see each of the rooms were the same with little to no difference in each of them. The beds were almost too small for them, but appeared to be extremely comfortable on first glance. Each room had their own bathrooms as well as a mirror, closet, and dresser.

“What’s gonna happen Bill? I’m worried.” Zoey softly said as she stood by him.

“Whatever it is, let’s hope it ain’t gonna bite us in the rear.” He said as he clenched his fist a bit. “Let’s just get some rest and hope for the best come dinner.”

********** 1 hour later **********

A unicorn dressed in a maid’s outfit cantered across the corridor. Merrily humming away a serene song as she dusted the walls and miscellaneous objects in the corridor.

She passed by and knocked firmly and softly against the doors the four humans were relaxing in.

With a cheery and almost sing song way, she pronounced: “dinner!” Then awaited in front of the doors.

The four wooden doors creaked open at a similar pace as the four came into view. The maid smiled a nervous smile as she saw them and their clothing.

She said in a less sing song and more nerve racked tone, “this way please.” She chuckled nervously as all Francis did was clean his ear with his pinkie, Zoey stretched, Louis yawned and almost skipped, and Bill nodded.

The unicorn took the lead as the rest followed behind. She increased her pace slightly out of nervousness as the others followed in suit, almost too close for comfort for her. She noticed as they walked that the one with the black (leather?!) jacket was cradling his shotgun in his arms. She nervously spoke up, “S-sir, I do believe you might not want to bring that with you.”

Francis looked at her as if she was insane. After a minute or so of this, he laughed like a madman before speaking up. “This? This is just my dinner partner. No one’s convincing me to let this baby go, it’s one of the few things I like!”

The maid refrained from debating about whether Francis could take his shotgun to dinner or not.

Bill only rolled his eyes at Francis and his silly antics. They silently made the rest of their trip to the dining hall silently, except for the small chit chat Bill unsuccessfully tried to make.

After they arrived, the maid departed in a hurry like-way while still trying to maintain a calm and composed look.

Two guards stood at the front of the door and when the maid left sight, they opened the door with surprising ease. It creaked and groaned as it let way to the four survivors. Inside, the princesses were already sitting there with a set of odd silverware and china set out. The seats were just as odd; they looked like chairs that were remodeled to fit ponies. Tt was basically a really short stool.

Shrugging, Francis was the first to sit down on one of them. It creaked and groaned in protest, but stayed nonetheless. The rest soon followed and sat as well. Once they did, Celestia rang a bell with her magic, eliciting a group of ponies dressed as cooks to come into the room with carts of food. The majority of the cooks were ponies, but Bill noticed as a gryphon placed the food down instead of the unicorns.

Bill looked over the banquet they have been gifted with and saw one thing that was missing. He remembered they were not carnivorous or omnivorous creatures; the ponies (at least he assumed so) were herbivorous; But that didn’t stop Francis.

“Hey, what about meat?”

The ponies all stopped what they were doing and stared at Francis as if he screamed murder, and he very well may have. The gryphon looked at him with a slight smile in the thing’s face, probably in a good mood to finding something other than him that eats meat.

The princesses didn’t so much as bat an eye at that question as they sat there, unphased.

Celestia lowered her fork before speaking up. “Apologies, but since we did not know your dietary habits, we hoped it was similar to ours.”

Francis fell back into his seat and muttered. “Fine, you are excused, because it’s a reasonable excuse.”

Celestia spoke up again, “but you may have to give up some of your dietary habits to blend in with the pony society even if only for a temporary time or permanent.”

After Celestia had finished her sentence, Francis’ face grew upset. He uttered a few things to himself and kept taking venomous looks towards everyone and everypony present. The chef’s had just finished placing the food on the table and were quickly retreating to the safe haven of the kitchen against Francis’ death glare. The Gryphon even did so but was a bit hesitant because of Francis and him having something in common; but he left nonetheless.

Francis ungracefully got up from where he was sitting, his face cold stoned upset as he stomped off. He muttered something inaudible to the guard and he just nodded and took Francis somewhere.

Bill coughed a bit and spoke up, “apologies, Francis is just sour about the fact he hadn’t had a good meal in months and even longer since he had meat that wasn’t rotten. He should get over it with time.”

Celestia nodded in agreement as Luna just stared off where Francis had stormed off to.

“Sorry sister, but i’m not hungry as of now, if you all will excuse me,” Luna said as she slowly got up and walked out of the room.

Looking over to where Luna just sat, Bill saw she had barely even touched her food. Shrugging, he went back to eating, oblivious of the night goddess’ plans for the evening.

**********

Luna was now trotting a bit. She assumed Francis would have had the guard lead him to his designated room, to which he can let his anger and frustration out in full force. She knew of what it was like to be misunderstood, to be troubled yet seemingly unnoticed in one’s own inner feelings. She knew of how it was like to go from her own time, like being a world away from it. To a new and different world that one was oblivious to.

She knew, and she didn’t like it...

Luna was now in front of Francis’ door and knocked on it. When she got no response, the Lunar Princess knocked again, this time speaking up. “Francis, may I have a word with you?”

Again no response came. She was beginning to get a tad annoyed but tried again. “Francis, open up.”

Again, nothing, so she finally just let herself in. But when she opened it, no one was inside. It was empty and almost untouched. As if to prove her point a passing guard came by.

“Sorry your majesty but the creature that used this room is out in the gardens. I just took him there myself.” The guard left after giving the regal sister a salute and continued on with his duties.

Muttering inaudibly under her breath, the Lunar Princess left the room and, in a less happy manor, went to the gardens.

Once she arrived, she was met by the sitting silhouette of Francis as he stared up into the night sky. She walked at a slower pace now as she snuck up behind Francis.

Once she was in arms length of Francis, he spoke up. “What happened to dinner?”

“I wasn’t hungry. What about you? I don’t know you, but you don’t come off as the kind of pony to do something like that.” She smiled warmly towards him as she sat down at his side.

“Maybe. Maybe you need to get to know me to find out.” Francis half grunted out. Luna saw him crack a smile slightly as he kept his eyes fixed upon the sky.

“So, care to explain the bout of immaturity you showed earlier?” She faced towards the direction of the sky as she layed down on her stomach.

“Just.. it’s hard to keep up with everything. Having damn near everything taken away forcibly. That’s one thing, but when you get the chance to have some of it back and it’s taken away as well, this time less forcefully, anyone would get upset.” He sighed as he laid down on his back; he yawned and stretched a bit before speaking up again. “I just need some time, I need to adapt if I don’t want to go back to before we ended up here.”

Nodding silently, Luna accepted his reasoning. She mused a bit on what he had said; how similar it was to her thoughts. It was similar to when she first was freed from Nightmare Moon’s control.

She thought of how mysterious Francis seemed, how thick headed he appeared on the outside. But she could almost see something more inside him, far deeper but just in reach enough to catch a glimpse of.

Before she could continue with her thought process, Francis spoke again. “The night here sure is beautiful. Lot better than our nights, even before everything that happened, happened.”

Luna blushed a bit. “Thanks. Many ponies don’t appreciate what I do with the night. It’s usually taken for granted, even days like today.” She looked towards Francis as he started to get up from where he was laying.

Brushing off the excess dirt and plant life from his clothes, he spoke up. “Well, it’s getting late.” He smiled a bit more openly towards Luna.

She got up and smiled back. “Yes, of course. May you have pleasant dreams Francis. Goodnight.”

The two went their separate ways as both of them seemed a bit more optimistic than before they spoke to each other.