Princess of His Dreams

Sky had heeded Bonbon's advice, and went back to his room to start packing as soon as breakfast was over. The worries that he had somehow done something quite wrong were soon alleviated by the simple fact of the invitation; if Princess Luna wasn't pleased with him, or wanted to incarcerate him for whatever reason, then he was pretty sure there would have been E.U.P. guards at his front door, instead of a mailmare with a formal invitation.

So what did one pack for meeting royalty? There was absolutely no etiquette guidelines included in the letter. Would he get those or at the very least be advised when he got to Canterlot Castle?

He was getting ahead of himself; that was step seven, and he was on step two. Finish packing and get to the train station by eleven.

He decided to start with his nicest, and only formal clothing that he had; a white dress shirt, black velvet vest, and bowtie. It was about as formal as one could get for a 'classy' event in Ponyville, and an outfit that he hadn't worn in quite some time. He went over to his closet, and side open the right side door. He wasn't much for clothes, same with most of the rest of Ponyville, and only had one or two sets of formal clothing, while the rest of the space was used for storage. After grabbing his chosen outfit, he took a quick look into the left side of his closet where the door was still closed, getting a glimpse of his ageplay supplies.

He didn't know exactly how long he would be up there, or how long he would be waiting once he did get up there... Should he... Maybe...

'No, are you nuts?' he almost immediately thought to himself, shutting that idea down almost instantly. He was going to be a guest in Canterlot Castle, and behind closed doors or not, he wasn't going to let the castle staff clean something like that up, even if it was as something as simple as just taking a bag of trash out of whatever room he would be staying in.

Foaling out would have to wait until he got back; whatever Luna wanted with him was immensely more important. He took his formal outfit over to the bed, got them off of the hangers, folded as best he could, and into the small suitcase that he almost never used. With one of his only sets of clothes packed, he went to the bathroom, grabbed his toothbrush, toothpaste, a brush for his tail and mane, and his mane gel. He had always liked wearing it up instead of letting it drape down either side of his neck. With the essentials packed, he returned to his bedroom, and carefully set the letter, which he had carefully refolded and returned to its envelope, neatly on top, before closing the top of the case and zipping it closed.

Now that he was more or less packed, he strapped on his set of cloth saddlebags, grabbed his small bit bag out of his nightstand drawer, put it and the crescent moon seal into the right pocket, and put the suitcase up on his back as he left his room, shut off the light, and headed back down to the kitchen, where Bonbon was just finishing putting away the dishes that had dried. He went into the cabinets and grabbed a small bag of cookies, putting them in the left saddlebag for a snack on the train.

"Lyra leave for work already?" Sky asked, helping her put away the last two glasses.

"Yep, I'll be out of here in a few minutes myself," Bonbon replied.

"Alright. I can't exactly say when I'll be back, because I have no idea what she wants with me up there, so give her my best, and I'll be back, hopefully soon."

Bonbon smiled at him.

"Don't worry. We'll have no trouble holding this fort down. Go up there, have fun, and I hope whatever Princess Luna wants, that it's good news," the earth mare told him.

"Yeah, me too. Alright, catch you later!"

With that, Sky headed down to the front door, and stepped outside into the late Ponyville morning. He was a little bit ahead of schedule, so it was no surprise that after the ten minute trot to the town's train station, that there was no train in sight yet. Due to the close distance, the line from Ponyville up to the city of Canterlot ran several trains a day. The origin point was always Canterlot, so boarding was a bit longer up there before coming down the mountain and arriving in Ponyville at 6am, before going back up the mountain, and thus the day's round trips began. The 11am train would be the second trip up the mountain for the Canterlot-Ponyville line.

Sky stepped up to the ticket booth, and dug into his saddlebags for the moon seal.

"One ticket to Canterlot please. I believe I'm supposed to show you this..." Sky told the ticket agent, setting the seal down in front of the window. The black-bearded ticket agent, All Aboard, adjusted his glasses, and quickly determined the seal to be genuine just by looking at it.

"That's the real thing alright. Royal summons, eh? Don't get too many of those," he commented as he got Sky's ticket and slid it under the window to him. "There you go, the train should be along in a few minutes. Have a pleasant trip, sir."

Sky nodded at the ticket agent with a smile, before picking the seal back up and returned it to his saddlebags. He spent the next few minutes slowly pacing up and down the platform, still wondering what the Princess of the Night and Dreams could possibly want with him. He was glad this trip was happening now, because trying to possibly fathom it on his own was going to drive him nuts.

The pegasus was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard the blowing whistle of an approaching train, coming from the northeast. The Canterlot Express began to apply its brakes and slow as it closed in on the platform. The steam engine pulled just ahead of the platform before the brakes brought the cars to a halt with a hiss, and the doors to the passenger cars opened, and a few ponies exited, before almost double the amount boarded the train. Sky picked the car that looked like it was the least populated, and stepped on board, going to the closest window seat and sat down, taking a deep breath before leaning back in his seat, removing his saddlebags and putting them in the seat next to him, ready to move them if anypony else came along. But it looked like it was a sparsely populated car for this trip, and a couple minutes later, he heard the conductor call for any stragglers. Afterwards, the doors shut, and the train whistle blew again as the engine pulled away from the platform, taking them towards the loop that would take them back up the line to Canterlot.

Sky reached into his saddlebags, and once again pulled out the metallic moon seal, looking at his reflection in the shiny black surface.

'Well, I'm on my way...'