However, before we could reach our destination, Starlight was caught off-guard when a scroll magically appeared in front of her head.

"What the–" I nearly blurted out, but quickly stopped. 'Equestrian Magic,' I reminded myself, 'Equestrian Magic.'

Starlight, confused at the arrival of the scroll, unfurled it in her magic and began reading. Seconds later, she gasped. "Princess Twilight wants to see you immediately, Graff!"

I gawked for a moment. The Princess of Equestria wanted to see me?!

Then my eyes narrowed. "Wait, are you sure you're not misinterpreting the letter, like Sunset did?"

In response, she moved the scroll so that I could read it.

Nope, she was correct. Freak-out time.

"Wha-wha-why does the Princess of Equestria want to see me?! How does she even know I'm here!?"

Starlight shook her head, "I don't know, but we'd better get over there. It's not nice to leave her waiting, after all."

I took in a breath. "Okay, at least I'll have some–"

And suddenly, in a flash of light from Starlight's horn, we were inside the entrance hall to some castle.

"–preparation time..." I trailed off as I registered what'd just happened.

Starlight, realizing what I was saying, mouthed an 'Oh...', but before she could do anything, a nearby door opened. From the other side of it came a small purple dragon, carrying several scrolls and whistling.

As he passed, he glanced over, nonchalantly said, "Hey, Starlight; hey, new guy I don't know," and kept walking.

It took a clearing of Starlight's throat to get Spike to take a second look. "Wait, 'new guy I don't know'? Who are you?"

I was still in a catatonic state from having been teleported directly into a Princess's Castle, so Starlight answered, "This is Graff, and he's visiting from the human world."

Spike jumped, dropping all the parchments he was carrying. "What!? Does Twilight know?!"

"Actually, she asked to meet him personally, and that's why we're here," explained the pinkish-purple unicorn.

"Well then, what're you waiting for!?" Spike quickly moved behind us and began pushing us towards the door he'd come from. "Go in and see her already!"

The sudden movement jostling me out of my shocked stupor, I panicked, "N-n-no, I'm not ready! I'm gonna mess this up for sure, I just know it!"

Starlight pshawed, "Relax, Graff! Twilight's chill; she won't care if it isn't perfect."

Spike went to say something, but Starlight covered his mouth with a hoof.

And so, without further delay, we were scooted into the Throne Room.

The first thing I noticed was the serious amount of construction work happening. Three of the four walls were lined top-to-bottom with scaffolding, supporting unicorns that worked efficiently to repair... Something, I wasn't entirely sure what'd happened to warrant this much construction.

And standing in the middle of the room, managing the construction efforts, was a lavender pony with dark blue hair, wings, and a horn.

I gawked. So that's Twilight? Honestly, she looks less like the 'Ruler-Of-A-Country' type, and more like the 'Principal-Of-A-School' type.

"...and the Nightmare Moon Stained Glass Window should be third from the throne on the south side," she was telling one of the contractors. She wasn't holding anything in her magic or otherwise, so she must've memorized the blueprints or such. Impressive, if I do say so myself.

Spike finished pushing us forward, called out "Twilight, you have visitors!", and retreated back into the hallway (presumably to resume whatever he was doing when we arrived).

Twilight turned, caught sight of us, and her perky exterior somehow grew even perkier. "Starlight, welcome! I see you brought our guest." She teleported the distance between herself and Starlight, giving her a friendly hug.

"Good to see you, too, Twilight," Starlight smiled, then broke off the hug. She addressed me, "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

"I-I-I'm Graff Gribble. It's, um, it's an honor to, er, meet you," I stuttered, forcing an awkward bow that nearly caused me to fall over (still not fully used to the whole 'quadruped' thing yet).

The Princess giggled, "Graff, you don't need to act so formal; I may be ruler of Equestria, but I'm still just a pony."

I blinked, then moved to point out the flaw in her logic, but she beat me to it: "It's just a figure of speech, Graff; I know you're not used to ponies yet."

I took in a few deep breaths, but couldn't get over my nerves. Looking for something to get my mind off it, I let my eyes wander around the room. "So, uh," I began, "what's with all the construction?"

Twilight sighed. "We're still rebuilding the Castle after the last attack."

I gulped, "A-attack?"

Twilight nodded. "Thankfully, we've taken care of the perpetrators."

I looked around again, eyes wide. "Who could've possibly caused this?!"

Starlight filled me in, "Three creatures that hated us – a shape-shifter, a Centaur, and a school-age pegasus – got access to some incredibly powerful magic, and attacked all at once."

I blinked. "Wait, a child was part of it?"

She nodded. "Cozy Glow may have seemed sweet and innocent, but she was one of the best manipulators I've ever seen – maybe even better than me, and I brainwashed a town!"

Excuse me, what?

Twilight, reading my increasingly frightened expression, quickly stepped in. "But! Starlight's learned the error of her ways, and has already made up for her mistakes twice over by now."

I calmed down a bit at that, though I still subtly moved to put some distance between us. Just in case.

"But enough about us," Twilight moved to steer the topic back to something positive, "tell us about you! What's your life like? How'd you end up here? And what do you think of your time here so far?"

I shook my head to get the paranoid thoughts out of it. "Well, I suppose I live a normal enough life; I rent an apartment, sell art online for a living, recently graduated from Crystal Prep Academy..."

Twilight blinked. "I think Sunset told me about that school once; isn't it supposedly full of snotty rich kids?"

I shrugged, "Yeah, more often than not. But we're not ALL bad; my world's Twilight, for example, used to go there. I think she initially got in because her brother's dating the dean or something, I dunno; her incredible grades were what allowed her to stay until she transferred."

Twilight blinked. "Is the dean Cadence?"

I nodded.

"That sounds about right."

I chuckled at her bluntness. "Yeah, well, anyways, I only got in because I got a scholarship with my art."

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. "It's that impressive, huh?"

I couldn't help myself; I puffed out my chest feathers a bit. "Well, I'm no Picasso, but I like to think I've got skill."

She smirked mischievously at me, and I started to get a sinking feeling. Her horn lit up, and she summoned forth a notepad and a pencil. "Why don't you show us, then?"

I faltered, "W-well, I would, but I'm not exactly in the right, er, state to do it – y'know, physically, what with the species transformation?"

Starlight, catching on to Twilight's game, played. "Oh, nonsense; if anything, a claw is more dexterous than a hand."

I looked anxiously around, finding no escape from the corner I'd backed myself into. "Alright, fine," I finally acquiesced, taking the drawing resources from Twilight's magical grip. "What should I draw?"

Twilight thought for a moment, before replying, "How about you draw your human self?"

I blinked. Really, she wants me to draw that? I know myself like... Well, myself! "Challenge accepted!"

"Argh, why won't it turn out the way I want it!?" I screamed in frustration as I balled up the fifth failed drawing, tossing it into the pile with the others.

Twilight and Starlight were now looking on with concern. "They really weren't that bad, Graff," Starlight reasoned, "I should know; I've actually seen your human self."

I grunted out, "But it's not perfect!"

Twilight began, "I've struggled with obsessing over being perfect bef–"

"I'm not obsessed!" I snapped back, then turned back to the pad and, once again, began to sketch out the rough outline.

"Wow," Twilight whispered to Starlight, "do I really get like this?"

Starlight chuckled sardonically, "Nah, your freak-outs are much more cartoonish."

Author's Note

Edit (2/23/2024): Corrected Dean Cadance's title.