Orchestra of Death

A Canterlot Symphony
Act 2

When I woke up the train had started to move again and was well out of Ponyville. I looked out the window as the locomotive entered the caves leading up the mountain. The moment all light was gone from the booth I felt my chest tighten. I don't know if it was from my new powers or if I got a really bad feeling about heading to Canterlot. It turned out to be Death taking the seat across from me. We exited the tunnels with him scaring the shit out of me.

"Hello again James."

"Would you please stop doing that." Death smiled and pointed to the castle that had come into view.

"There is someone I want you to meet in Canterlot once you get there, You'll know who she is right away." I was guessing it was the princess or something. I mean I was already heading for the castle anyways. "Oh and just so you know. It seems like you have a new friend following you." Death vanished and took with him the seat cushion he was sitting next to, revealing a very shocked and exposed Chocolate.

"Um....Hi?" I groaned as my face said hi to my palm.

"Choc? What are you doing here?" I stared at the colt as he shifted nervously. He couldn't see it but I was mildly panicking about the return trip if he was here. 'I hope that Chocolate asked his mom first, if not, Appleslice is going to kill me............ again.'

"I wanted to see if I could get my cutie mark somewhere in Canterlot. So I asked my mom if I could follow you." He smiled as innocently as he could. I narrowed my brow and looked him in the eyes.

"Was her answer yes?"

"Um..... Maybe?" I groaned and facepalmed again. Looking out the window, I could see that the city was almost upon us. I could already hear Appleslice yelling at me, but it wasn't like I took him with me on purpose or could take him back now.

"Well, it's not like I can just send you back..." Chocolate started to beam, but was quickly sniped in the bud "BUT!...You'll have to listen to me for the entire trip. Okay?" He gave me a wholehearted salute and sat in the seat next to me. It didn't last long as the train station was only a couple of minutes away. I stepped off the train and Chocolate followed. The moment that my feet hit the street I heard someone yelling.

"CUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNT" Me and Chocolate looked around and found many ponies doing the same that were either confused, offended, or both. Chocolate looked up at me and was really confused.

"Mr. James... what's a cu-?" My face went red and I quickly covered his mouth. I looked around again and saw ponies laughing or looking at me with mild interest, but most were still offended.

"Y-your mom will...tell you when your older....so uh... OH HEY! THERE'S THE CASTLE LET'S GET GOING!" The walk was mostly uneventful aside from the stares I kept getting, but I had gotten used to those. We were about a quarter of the way there when Chocolate pulled on my leg. He was pointing to some fast-food joints and was giving me the 'puppy-dog' eyes. It was super-effective, and I forked over the cash for his meal while I just got a magazine. It featured some article about a royals and it got me thinking.

'With my luck I'm going to get roped into something fancy, I'll probably get an invite from the royal themselves too.' I took a quick look at myself and noticed that my appearance was... less than appealing. I took notice of a clothing store and decided that I needed some more duds.

"Hey Choc. We're going to make a couple of stops before we get to the princesses, okay." He wasn't really paying attention and gave a muffled 'yes sir' through his hayfries. I got up and we headed to the establishment. Right as he saw that there were dresses everywhere, he tried to bolt through the solid wood door. "Nice try bud, but you wanted to come with me on this trip."

"But dresses are for girls!" Did he really just.... I need to laugh.....badly.

"We're not here for dresses bud. I thought that some new clothes were in order..." I looked down at him and smirked "... for me of course." I walked up to the pale, yellow coated mare who had walked in and was surprised to see me for all of three seconds before letting out a small giggle.

"I didn't think that I'd find another human in my shop so soon." Wait, another? I guess that means the chick I'm supposed to meet is another wraith.

"It's nice to meet you mam. I was wondering if you could make me some spare clothes, if it's not too much trouble."

"Not at all, I actually enjoy making clothes for you humans." She shuddered for a moment "Even if my last client was... frightening." I decided that it would be best not to ask. No sentient being shudders like that without a good reason.

"I'll take your word for it." She smiled and ushered me over. I complied while Chocolate sat in the lobby bored out of his mind. She asked me to take off my clothes (Not for that you sickos) and took some measurements. She was humming a little tune as she worked and it was kinda catchy.

"There! Now that the measurements are done, I'd like to know what kind of attire your needing."

"Well if my current streak of luck is anything to go by, I'll be needing a suit." She just stared at me and quirked an eyebrow. "Just trust me on this." She shrugged and went to work, making comments on how little scaring I had. (Which was VERY weird but probably has to do with some other costumer that was here) It didn't take her very long either. She was done in about half an hour, which was more than enough time for Chocolate to fall asleep.

"Your suit is done sir."

"WOW! This is... Amazing!" She blushed like mad, but I wasn't joking. It was one damn fine suit. It was also black but instead of a cross completely covering it, the cross was limited to the pocket on the front, and on the cuffs she had embroidered some wisp-like trails in, you guessed it, blue and red. managed to get the sides right too.

"Oh it really wasn't any trouble at all. Now that will be fifty bits for the suit please." I handed her the money while she folded my attire into a nice bundle and boxed it. After I reentered the lobby, Chocolate stopped what he was doing (which was reading some fashion magazine for some reason) and followed me outside. We got a little further when some guards stopped me.

"Is there a problem sir?" The guards narrowed their eyes at me and Chocolate. He didn't even say anything, he just pointed behind....

us....

oh.

The street from the dress shop back was a disaster area with carriages upturned and on fire among other things. Chocolate was beaming an innocent-as-a-crocodile grin as I overlooked the damage. I looked down at him and sighed.

"Did you decide to look for your cutie mark while I was inside?" He just kept grinning and started climbing up my leg, then my torso, then finally perched himself on my head. "Run?" Chocolate nodded.

And so we ran.