Blank Slate

Opening my eyes, I saw that the room was half lit as I got up and headed to the window, where I could see it was sunrise with the sun not just slowly coming up into the sky. "Okay, pretty certain that this isn't a magical sun or it wouldn't be in that position since it would be annoying to move it up bit by bit," I noted to myself as I turned towards the door just in time to see Blossom opening it and looking at the bed first before around till her gaze landed on me.

"Good morning Lady Misty. Are you ready to have breakfast with the others?" Blossom asked as she bowed.

"Wait, breakfast with the others? Isn't that a bit too soon for some of us?" I replied, especially since the last alicorn didn't seem to get used to things this fast when she was still processing her body.

"Stalwart believes that it is best to start having meals together so you all can get more used to one another, Lady Misty," Blossom explained, causing me to sigh.

"Of course, and knowing him, he would insist, so... lead the way," I said as Blossom bowed again and opened the door, guiding me down the hallways till we reached the dining room. Heading in as Blossom held the door open for me, I quickly noticed that, like the rest of the castle, the room barely furbished as it simply had a long table with some chairs. Though the table itself was three different tables pushed together and only had mismatched chairs.

This may be a problem, since I saw Star sitting at the head of the 'table', looking quite displeased at the arrangement before she saw me, causing her to school her expression to a more controlled one as she said, "It is a pleasure to meet you again, Misty. I heard that a third will be joining us?"

"Umm... yes, a third one wou—" I started to say until I felt a hoof on my back, jolting me to jump to my left side as I saw the stoner alicorn standing beside where I was with a dopey smile on her muzzle.

"Hey there, no need to be tense, didn't mean to scare you," the alicorn said as she slowly walked over to the table, where she spotted Star. "Oh, another one, hey there, enjoying the new experience like the rest of us?"

Frowning, Star asked, "New experience?"

"Yeah, being in a new body, in a new world, it is just something to enjoy," the alicorn answered as she took a seat next to Star, much to her apparent discomfort.

"Yes... new body... so who are you? I know Misty, but not about you," Star demanded as I took my seat opposite Star.

"Oh, yeah, never told my name to Misty too. You can call me Drift," Drift said, causing both of us to eye her.

"Drift... your name is Drift? What kind of name is that?" Star asked with a frown.

"Oh, because before I became this, I just drifted around in the sky... though there wasn't a sky since it was just all air and we always just floated around. So that's why that's my name," Drift said with a shrug.

"Makes sense to me," I said before Star could comment, causing her to glower at me till some ponies came in with wooden serving trays on their backs, placing them before us as I saw that we were being served a bowl of oats, a loaf of bread, and what looked like a mug of orange juice. However, one sip caused me to grimace a bit since it was rather pulpy. Star let out a sigh as was about to pick up her bowl till Drift just dunked her muzzle into her bowl of oats and started to loudly munch on her food, causing Star to just scowl at her.

Shaking my head, I just grabbed onto my loaf of bread and started to bite down on it when I heard some rather loud stomping, which drew all our attention towards the entryway where we saw yet another alicorn with a matching coat, but amber eyes and a black mane as she had a stern expression coming in as her gaze went over the room. "So these are the ones that awaken before me... not the best examples to go by," the alicorn stated as her gaze lingered on Drift, her disapproval quite apparent to us.

"Hey, welcome to the club," Drift declared after pulling her muzzle out of her bowl and waving a hoof at the newcomer. "Name's Drift, and this one is Misty and... I never got your name."

"You may call me Star, and since we're going over introductions, what is your name?" Star asked as she looked at the alicorn with some interest.

"For the time being, I will be known as Sarge," Sarge answered, as I widened my pupils and resisted the urge to groan. Sarge stiffly sat down beside me as one of the serving ponies provided a tray for her as well.

Great... one of us has a military background, I hope this doesn't cause some of these ponies to become warmongers just to please her, I thought to myself as I resumed having my meal, before noticing Stalwart coming into the room with his smile, looking more pleased with himself. Getting up, I said, "Excuse me, I need to talk to Stalwart for a moment," as I trotted over to him as the others glanced at each other before returning their focus to their meals.

"Is there something you need of me, Lady Misty?" Stalwart asked only for me to point my hoof out into the hallway.
Nodding, he followed me past the doors, and after they closed he said, "Is it something about the nightmare you had last night?"

Of course he would know about that. Do all the ponies report every single thing they see to him? I thought to myself as I collected myself. "Yes... it is. But I have to ask first, have you ever heard of a pony by the name of Sombra?"

Frowning a bit, Stalwart shook his head as he answered, "No, never heard of anypony that went by that name. Is there a reason I should have heard of him?"

"Not particularly... let's just say that I had a dream about him, and simply put, he is a rather evil po—" I started to say until Stalwart let out a gasp of surprise.

"You have? This could be an insight into the future of the nation! Tell me, was this pony well known in this dream," Stalwart exclaimed as he closed the distance between us till his head was mere inches away from mine. Until I put a hoof and pushed him back.

"Whoa whoa, calm down there. I would like some personal space still," I stated as he blinked and took a few steps back.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, I was just excited at the prospect of you having prophetic visions into our future. But can you blame me? You could become our guiding light if you continue to have them," Stalwart stated as he bowed for a bit. "Though, can you continue regaling me about your vision?"

Not being subtle about buttering me up, I thought to myself as I eyed him for a bit. "Okay... it's not much and it was a bit short, but Sombra was finished taking over an empire and was getting ready for a conflict with some princesses," I said as Stalwart rubbed his chin in thought.

"Never heard of an empire forming anywhere in the lands. This Sombra is a pony, correct?" Stalwart asked, to which I simply replied with a nod. "I see, not much we can do about it for now since ponykind hasn't united under the rule of you and your fellow alicorns, but I'll keep that in mind and pass it down to any of my successors to my position so we can keep an eye out. Anything else this vision entrails, Your Majesty?"

"Well, this Sombra has somepony that was teaching him dark magic..." I answered, only to see Stalwart's cheerful expression dropping as he took on a rather deep frown.

"That is... rather troublesome to hear. Do you know the name of his patron? Did this patron say anything?" Stalwart asked as I could see some steel in his eyes like this hit some personal nerve. Though one could say that anyone, or anypony, would react this way to dark magic, something about his change in mood sent a shiver down my spine.

"Unfortunately no, though he did call his patron 'your holiness' and it was a she. Oh, and that all dark magic obeys her," I replied, only to see Stalwart spit at the ground, causing me to take a few steps back in disgust. "What was that for?"

"My apologies Your Majesty, that was just a gut reaction. The average pony would normally have a similar one to anything related to dark magic, even more so to anypony that claims to control it. Though, you could easily understand such a viewpoint since it is dark magic after all," Stalwart answered as he schooled his expression into a calmer one.

"Alright, just was caught off guard. Anyways, that is all I had from my dream before I woke up," I responded, getting a nod of confirmation in return. There was more that I was tempted to say, due to my knowledge of the show, but I still find too many things off with Stalwart and the others that I'll just keep to myself, at least for now.

"Thank you for your forthrightness, Your Majesty. Rest assured, I and my compatriots will look into this matter, so there is no need for you to worry about this matter. Just focus on acclimating to your situation and keeping me or any member of the guard informed about any further visions you may have. But for now, please return to your peers and enjoy the rest of your meal," Stalwart said as he went to the door, opening it for me to enter.

"Alright, thank you," I slowly said as I came back to the room and took my seat, watching as Sarge and Star watched in mutual disgust as Drift chugged her mug of juice down.

Noticing me first, Star asked, "So, what was that all about? Anything you want to share with us as well?" drawing the other two's attention to me.

"Oh, it was just a bad dream that woke me up and drew a guard's attention. I figure that they might have informed Stalwart about it, so I wanted to nip it in the bud as soon as I can," I explained, not wanting to go into further detail. With two of them potentially being power hunger alicorns, I rather keep the idea of seeing into the future out of their heads until I know I can trust them, or if somepony ratted me out first.

"Oh, bad dreams are just more experiences to behold. You have to take the good with the bad," Drift said as she smiled at me.

"Bah, dreams are a waste of time. Instead, how about you regale us with your past? Sarge here was just informing us of her position of a lieutenant in an army of her original homeworld," Star stated.

"Yes, it was good times to serve one's liege. Though, finding myself as my own liege will... take some time to adjust to," Sarge admitted, making me wonder if she was just a simple soldier who followed orders. Though, with a mare like Star, that could still spell some trouble.

"I rather not. I didn't come from any particular background of import," I simply replied, causing Drift to let out a snort.

"Oh come on, it can't be bad Misty. I'm an artist, not like soldier mare there or miss government here," Drift responded with a shrug, causing said mares to give her an annoyed glare.

Letting out a sigh, I said, "Alright, I get the feeling that at least one of you would continue to pry, so this is my past. I worked in retail."

"Retail, you mean like working in some shop?" Star said with a blink of surprise.

"Yes, retail."

"What part of retail?" Drift asked, causing me to resist the urge to groan at her questioning.

"Customer service, now can you leave my past be?"

"Ohh.... customer service. Sorry, that must be really a bummer..."

"Oh, you have no idea..."