The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

Chapter 11

Love Never Fails

“Why is everyone staring at me?” Ridge asked Celestia.

“My dear Ridge everypony just wants to see if the rumors are true. It’s nothing to worry about, you will grow used to it over time.” Celestia said as she took her seat in the center of the main dining hall table.

“It’s just weird, that’s all.” He said to the empty space immediately around him.

Ridge looked across the room and saw that nearly all of the ponies were trying to sneakily steal a glance at him. Deciding that it was no use trying to get the ponies from being interested in him, he came up behind the main table and looked for a place to sit. The table was carefully covered in various flowers and bouquets, and he couldn’t tell if they were there for decoration or food. There was a pattern to the flowered arrangements and Ridge noticed that between the leaves there were several small cards that identified where each pony was supposed to sit. As Ridge came up to the card that had his name on it he looked to the left and realized that Martha was supposed to be sitting next to him.

‘Martha…’ he thought.

He hadn’t talked to her since he had fallen off the tight rope and he was worried how she was doing. He never got to finish that thought before he felt the touch of something soft on his neck.

“BOO!!!” Yelled a voice from behind him.

“Martha!” He exclaimed and quickly turned around to face her.

“You were supposed to be scared, not surprised stupid.” She flatly said pulling him in for a hug.

“H..How have you been Martha?” Ridge asked nervously.

“Well pretty good considering that you haven’t come to see me all day.” She said separating from the hug then giving him a hurt glance.

“Martha I was busy all day helping the princess, I’m sorry.” He said while looking at the floor.

“Well…I guess it’s alright, now why don’t you introduce me to your new friend the princess told me about. Twibright was that her name?” She said looking around for Twilight.

“Her name’s Twilight Martha, and she’s over by Luna talking to her.”

Ridge turned toward the left wall and indicated with a hoof to the two ponies in question talking to each other.

“Oh! Okay well I’m going to go meet her, why don’t you get seated and I’ll be back in a minute.” She said trotting to toward the pair.

“Sure…?” He said raising an eyebrow.

Deciding that he would rather not get involved between the two mares, comet decided to go sit at the table and wait for the food. So turning away toward the table, he came up to his seat and sat down and realized that not only was Martha on his left but apparently twilight was on his right as well.

‘Buck, so much for not getting involved.’ He groaned inwardly.

Celestia saw Ridge take his seat and she gave a small smile and leaned across twilight’s empty seat and whispered to him.

“Is there something troubling you Ridge?”

“Huh? Oh no, It’s just been a long day that’s all.” He said looking across the dining hall which was starting to fill with ponies from all over the castle.

“Well after dinner you can retire for the evening if you wish, I had a room put aside for you while you stayed at the castle.”

Ridge snapped his head toward the princess, shocked at what she had just said.

“Staying? I thought whenever we finished with turning me back to normal I could go back with the Circus?”

“Ridge, finding the right book for whatever caused you to turn into an Alicorn can take several days, it can still take weeks after that to craft a spell or potion for you. I promise you can go back to the circus after all this is over, but for your safety I think you should stay here at the castle until said cure is found. There were thousands of ponies who saw your little incident yesterday and I would be worried if you were out there on your own with no protection from all the crazy ponies who would want to hurt you.” Celestia said calmly.

“But who would want to hurt me? I haven’t done anything to Anypony.” Ridge said trying to reason with the princess.

“How about somepony who saw that you suddenly turned into an Alicorn. One pony that may want to hoofnap that Alicorn and torture them until they told them how they magically became an Alicorn.”

“But I don’t know how it happened! I wouldn’t be able to tell them anything.” Ridge started to yell, but realized who he was yelling at and apologized quickly.

“Which is exactly why they would keep torturing you forever, or until they killed you.”

Celestia gently lifted his snout toward hers and with pleading eyes asked

“Please stay here until we can fix this, I only want to protect all my subjects. Including all those who happen to have accidents from time to time.”

“I…Bu…Wh…I just can’t abandon Circus and Martha, they need me with the circus.”

“I’ve already spoken with them and they are okay with it, it took some convincing but I promise you they are okay with you staying here until all this is over.” She said slowly stroking Ridge’s mane trying to calm him down.

“A..Are you sure..?”

“Yes Ridge you have nothing to worry about. I promise you everything will be alright.”

“O..Okay, it’s just for a little while I guess.”

Celestia inwardly frowned for just the briefest of moments before a thought struck her. Using her horn she magically produced a sheet of parchment and a quill under the table where nopony could see, and she quickly scribbled down some text and in a white flash it was sent away.

“Anyway let’s get dinner started then shall we?  Luna, come take your seat if you would please?” Celestia looked back toward the group of ponies conversing together and seeing them begin to make their way toward the table she leaned back upright in her chair, quickly patting Ridge on the head as she did so.

Dinner itself had been quite nice Ridge thought as he Circus and Martha made their way down the hallway toward the Main garden. He knew this was going to be hard saying goodbye to them and watching them ride away, but it had to be done if he was going to have any hope of getting back to normal. Martha so far had been quiet ever since they had left the dining hall and Circus had tried his best to keep the conversation going but ever since he had started complimenting the art style of the castle he had also chosen to stay quiet. As the trio came out into the clearing Ridge noticed that all but one of the carts had been moved into a line ready to leave.

“Oh, you guys already had everything packed up…”

“Yea, that was the princess she had everything packed up earlier this afternoon.” Circus said looking away from Ridge.

“C..Circus can you give me and Ridge a second to ourselves?” Martha suddenly asked.

“Um, sure I’ll just go get the last cart ready.” Circus quickly said then trotted behind the last cart.

“So..What did you want to talk about?” Ridge said feeling a lump forming his throat.

“I..I just wanted to say thank you. I wanted to thank you for being there when no one else was. For being the one I could come to whenever I needed somepony to talk to. You were the only pony I could call a friend.” Martha looked away and let out a choked sob.

Ridge leaned against Martha and quietly held her as she cried. After she managed to get her sobs down to small sniffles Ridge brought her face around so he could look at her.

“Martha you have been one of the best friends a pony could ask for. There are a million reasons why any pony would be lucky to call you a friend. Now I know that your upset with this but it has to be done, I didn’t ask for any of this if I could I would be right there with you and Circus when you leave but the princess thinks it would be safer here than out there where somepony could hurt anyone close to me.”

“I..I know it’s just I’ve never lost a friend as close as you before, it just hurts.” Martha confessed.

“You haven’t lost a friend Martha, we’re just going to be separated for a while. You and Circus can come and visit anytime you want.”

“Yea… I guess you’re right, it’s just going to be weird without you there Ridge.”

“Well you still have Circus to be your friend. From what I heard he likes you Martha.” Ridge said trying to cheer her up.

“Yea…I kind of got that from earlier.” She said trying to hide her blushing face.

“Earlier?” Ridge asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yea in the throne room he …um…said he thought I was …um…pretty.” Martha said he face practically on fire.

“He did? Well that certainly sounds like something he would say. Well good for you Martha, see there is always a silver lining.”

“Yea, I guess there is I don’t even know what to say. I’ve never had anypony like me like that before.”

“Now there is no way that is true, your one of the most beautiful mares I’ve ever had the pleasure to call a friend. What you need to do is just talk to him, I’m sure it’ll work out between you two.” Ridge let go of Martha and began to trot toward the cart where Circus had disappeared.

“Come on Martha you two need to get going don’t you?” he said with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Um…I don’t know. Why are you asking?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” He said while starting to run toward the cart.

“RIDGE!!!” she said running to catch up to him.

“You two take care now. Don’t be strangers, I still exist so you two come and visit okay?” Ridge said to the two ponies that looked at him through an open window on the cart.

“We will Ridge and you take care of your friend Twibright?” Circus yelled as the cart began to move away from Ridge.

“It’s twilight! And I will!” He yelled back.

“OKAY, BYE RIDGE!” Both Martha and Circus yelled out the window before going back inside the cart together.

Ridge just sat there on top of the hill watching the train of carts, he wished he was on, roll away to parts unknown. As the last cart finally disappeared over the last hill he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in.

‘It has been too long of a day’ he thought to his ponyself.

With only the quiet of the night to keep him company Ridge began the march back into the castle. He had to find wherever his room was and he didn’t want to spend all night searching the castle. Deciding he would rather ask celestia herself he reached out with his senses and saw that she was near the top of a tower, and in an amber flash appeared inside her room.

“Princess? Are you here?” he asked around the lavishly decorated room.

‘Yes Ridge, I’m out here on the balcony.’ Ridge heard inside his head.

‘how did you do that?’ Ridge thought inside his head.

‘like that’ she simply said inside his head.

Ridge quietly made his way outside onto the balcony where Celestia quietly sat looking out over the city below.

“Tell me Ridge what do you see?” Celestia asked as Ridge trotted up next to her.

“I see lots of ponies going about their business in town. Why do you ask?”

“Look closer.” She said leaning over gesturing Ridge to look over the balcony further.

As Ridge looked down at all the ponies below wandering what he was supposed to be looking for.

“I still don’t see anything. Can you give me a hint at what I’m looking for?”

“Lean over the railing just a bit more, I’m sure that you will see it it’s impossible to miss.” She said moving behind Ridge.

“Okay. Is it that building with all the lights?” Ridge was practically looking straight down the side of the castle at this point.

“Look just a little to the left of there…” She said sneaking up behind him with a sinister smile on her face.

“Is it the restaurant? Oh!!! Is it the stallion who is proposing to his Marefriend?”

“CLOSE ENOUGH!!!” she yelled before shoving Ridge off the balcony.

“ACK!!!” was all Ridge could manage before he began falling toward the ground.

As Ridge fell toward the ground he began to panic. He began flailing his hooves in all directions trying to grab anything that would slow his descent, only after he realized he couldn’t grab anything he instinctually flared out his wings hoping he could stop before he hit the ground. With each flap of his wings he slowed his descent farther and farther until he was at a standstill three or four pony lengths above the ground. Several ponies below him looked up at him and a few waved, several paid him no mind, and a select few bowed in respect.

For several moments he just sat there looking at them go on with their evening until he realized how he had gotten here. Angrily flapping his wings to gain momentum he raced back up to the balcony where the princess had been. Once he had gotten to the landing he flew over the top prepared to yell at the princess for what she had done, but all his anger turned to confusion as the solar Princess was nowhere to be found, and the only thing he saw was a note laying on the ground where she had been. Confused beyond all reason Ridge picked up the note and began to read it.

‘Dear Ridge

Next time please nock before you enter, I could have been indecent. Anyway your room is located in the south tower, unfortunately we had a mix up with something and you have to share a room tonight, another note is there explaining in greater detail. As for me shoving you off the balcony, you need to learn to use your wings better, that scene at the circus taught me you hadn’t used your wings before so I wanted to help you practice.  If you’re reading this congratulations, you succeeded in surviving the fall. Enough of me talking for now, so good night and I will send for you in the morning, Certain circumstances have come up since dinner and I will discuss them with you tomorrow.

Yours truly, Princess Celestia

After turning the letter over just to make sure there were no extra surprises in store for him he sighed wanting to get this day over with. All of his pent up frustrations from the day had taken their toll on him and he looked forward to a long nights sleep. As he left Celestia’s room he turned down the hall hoping his search wouldn’t take too long.

After several wrong turns and having to stop twice to ask guards for directions Ridge finally made it to the room he had been assigned. He slowly pushed the front doors open to reveal a moderately decorated room complete with a bed and a small couch inside the doorway. Ridge immediately trotted up to the side of the bed and without as much as a thought jumped onto the bed planning on forgetting the day altogether, but instead of landing on a soft comfortable bed Ridge landed on something hard and bony.

“AHH!! What is going on!?” Somepony yelled from beneath the blankets.

Ridge tried to jump off the bed as soon as he realized he wasn’t alone but the blankets had tangled themselves around his body and he immediately flopped back down on top of the pony beneath him.

“GET OFF MEE!!!”

Ridge realized from the sound of the voice it was a mare and he had jumped on top of her while she had been sleeping.

“Sorry!! I didn’t see you here, I’m trying but I’m stuck in the blankets.” He quickly apologized.

“I don’t care how it happened just get unstuck please!”

Ridge and this very surprised mare rolled over two times before finally he was able to free himself enough where he could pull the top blanket off of himself and the mare. As he pulled the blanket away he realized he was snout to snout with twilight.

“RIDGE! What the buck are you doing? Why did you jump on top of me? And why are you in my room?” She fired quickly at him a series of questions.

Ridge blushed quickly and tried to jump off the bed only to realize he was still partially wrapped in a blanket, and all he managed to do was fall face first on the floor dragging Twilight off the bed with him and on top of him.

“Sorry,sorry,sorry.” He stammered.

As the two stopped struggling against the blanket they realized their snouts were touching. Quickly pulling herself off of him Twilight turned back toward the bed hiding her red face. Ridge slowly freed his ponyself from the cursed blanket and once he got back to his hooves looked away at the far wall embarrassed.

“Twilight I’m so sorry about that, I didn’t know you were there in the bed. The princess said this was supposed to be my room, but I guess I missed it. I’ll just leave sorry…” Ridge quickly said before running toward the door.

“RIDGE! Wait!” Twilight yelled after him.

Before Ridge made it all the way to the door he stopped but didn’t turn back toward her.

“The princess left a note saying that somepony was going to have to stay here, but I didn’t think it was you.” Twilight said levitating a letter from the nightstand in her magic over to Ridge. He grabbed it with his own magic but still facing away from her read the letter.

Dear twilight

Due to a plumbing problem in a recently reserved room, I have to assign a pony to stay with you until this problem can be resolved. I hope this doesn’t inconvenience you in any way, and I apologize a million times in advance for this, but this is the only solution.

Yours truly Princess Celestia

After Ridge finished reading the letter he finally turned back toward twilight and tried to read her expression.

“Oh, well I guess that explains the other letter she gave me saying I had to stay with somepony in their room. I just didn’t guess it was you, or that you were already asleep in bed.” Ridge said returning the letter to the nightstand.

“Oh I wasn’t asleep I was just under the blankets reading a book.” She said grabbing a book from the pile of blankets that the two had dragged off the bed earlier.

“Well that explains why I didn’t see anypony in the bed.” Ridge said moving beside Twilight to try and see which book she had been reading.

“Didn’t see me? I was bunched up into a ball with a flashlight under there, how could you not see me?”

Ridge pictured her curled up with a book underneath all toasty and warm, but quickly pushed that thought out of his head.

“It’s been a long day Twilight; I didn’t look where I was going. The bed looked soft so the only thing going through my mind was sleep.” Ridge said while reading the title of the book.

‘Daring doo: The temple strikes back’

“Is that some sort of adventure book?” Ridge asked trying to put the incident from his mind, all he wanted to do was go to sleep.

“Yea, it’s about this mare who does all sorts of adventuring and death defying stunts. In this one the temple she had raided previously turns out to be an evil alien robot and chases her trying to get back it’s stolen treasure.” She said handing him the book.

Sure enough as Ridge looked on the back of the book, a giant temple robot could be seen chasing a brown clothed mare through a jungle.

“Maybe I could borrow this sometime? I love books that deal with aliens and all that robot stuff.” He asked twilight while skimming the book.

But before Ridge had a chance to read any words inside it was snapped shut by twilights purple magic, and she quickly whisked it away toward the nightstand.

“No spoilers, and sure you can borrow it any time. I’ve already read it three times.” Twilight said beginning to put the blankets back on the bed.

“Three times? So you already know how it ends?” Ridge slyly asked helping her tuck the blankets back under the mattress.

“Yes I have; and no I’m not going to tell you anything you’ll have to read it for yourself.” She said hoping back onto the bed.

Ridge quickly stuck his tongue out at her and turned toward the couch near the door.

“Where are you going Ridge?”

“I’m going to go to bed why?” he said hoping onto the couch. He desperately wanted to get to sleep he felt as if he could fall over at any moment for exhaustion.

“On the couch? You’re going to wake up more tired than you are now, that couch is not comfortable at all.” Twilight said.

Ridge did agree that it wasn’t the best thing to sleep on but he exactly didn’t have many options to choose from.

“Well you can have the bed for tonight, I’ll be fine over here.” He said moving the pillows out from underneath him.

“Ridge this bed is big enough for the two of us, come sleep over here. If you’re too tired in the morning you won’t be able to do good research when we get to the library.” She argued.

Deciding that she was right Ridge got off the couch and went around to the opposite side of the bed. As he got his ponyself beneath the covers he turned his back toward her and leaned over his shoulder to see her switch of the light with her magic.

“You had better not snore or I’m kicking you out onto the floor again.” Ridge heard through the darkness.

“I don’t snore.” Ridge said rolling his eyes.

“Can you hear while you sleep?”

“No I guess not.” Ridge said raising an eyebrow.

“I rest my case” Twilight said flatly.

“Goodnight Twilight.” He said rolling his eyes again.

“Goodnight Ridge.” She said laughing.

Before Ridge fully fell into the warm embrace of sleep he slowly moved around until he felt his wings were comfortable and realized that they were unexpectedly warm. Too tired to realize he was leaning against twilight’s back he reveled in the warmness beneath the covers, and one last moment before his eyes closed his mind briefly registered a waving blue shadow on the wall cast by somepony blocking the moonlight from the balcony.

“Hgnnnnn!”

“Wh…Why?....Test!....sorry”

“No…….please….no…don’t take them.”

Ridge began to slowly drift out of the fog of sleep.

“Please princess….”

Ridge barely registered these words in his mind before a sound fully freed his mind from the iron grip of sleep, crying.

Quickly sitting upright he searched the room for the source of the sound, only to realize it was coming from beside him.

Quickly using his magic to turn on a small lamp beside the bed he looked over to twilight’s side of the bed. She currently was twisting back and forth across the bed clutching the blanket in her hooves tightly. Ridge quickly put his hoof on her leg attempting to see what was wrong but she immediately shimmied away from his touch.

‘I..I..I’ll do it again, please don’t banish me!” She yelled with her eyes squeezed shut.

“Twilight! Wake up you’re having a bad dream.” Ridge called to her turning over facing her.

She continued to thrash about on the bed and Ridge was growing increasingly worried about her. Taking his hooves her gripped her shoulder and began to shake her trying to get her to come to. Quickly realizing he couldn’t get enough leverage from this angle he scooted up directly behind her and gave her one good knock to the snout.

“Wake up Twilight!”

This seemed to do the trick as after that she began to open her eyes. When she realized that Ridge was sitting over top of her she immediately shot away from him until she backed into the headboard of the bed.

“Wha…Ridge…Why…How?” she stammered out before she broke down into full sobs dropping her head into her hooves.

Ridge confused terribly moved up to the top of the bed and wrapped a hoof around Twilight.

“Shhh…It’s all over. It was just a bad dream, You’re safe here.” He cooed.

“It was terrible Ridge…she took them all away from me. Why would she do that?”

Ridge had no idea who she was talking about but he decided that he should just agree with her.

“I’m sure that whoever did that didn’t mean to, it was just a dream you shouldn’t believe what you saw.”

“It just felt so real, I mean the princess just walked in and made all my friends hate me. Just because I failed some stupid test doesn’t give her the right to do that.” She said her mind slowly starting to realize just where she was at.

“Now you know the princess would never do that to you. You’re her student and I’m sure she loves you a lot, and if you ever failed a test of hers I’m sure she would forgive you for something so small.”

“Yea I know she would, but I had the same vision happen to me whenever me and spike were trapped in King Sombra’s castle. I’m just worried about what it means, whether or not I have another big test I’m supposed to do or something like that.” She said looking at Ridge’s eyes.

“Well I’m sure it means nothing, the princess would have told you if you had another test right?” he asked.

“Yea, I guess you’re right.” She said looking out across the balcony into the night.

“Alright then, let’s try to go back to sleep we’ve got a big day tomorrow.” Ridge said beginning to scoot back down the bed.

“I don’t know if I can sleep after that dream.” She said curling into a ball.

“Ridge mentally berated himself for saying that he quickly looked around for something that he could use to help her. His eyes locking onto the nightstand an idea popped into his head.

“How about I read to you from that book you were reading earlier?” Ridge asked grabbing the book with his magic.

Twilight’s brow furrowed while she thought about that.

“Okay. I guess that’s fine, reading does always help me sleep.” She said uncurling her body.

Ridge patted the area beside him and he laid down on his side so his wings wouldn’t be pinned between him and the mattress. Twilight scooted back into Ridge’s grasp and he opened the book with his magic and began to read from the place she had bookmarked.

"and as Daring doo sailed past the sweeping column of stone that threatened to flatten her, she grabbed her whip and used it pull her body up and over the top of the robot…"

After about half an hour of reading Ridge slowly heard her soft snoring come from below him. Glancing away from the book he saw that she had finally fallen back asleep. After returning the book mark back to its rightful spot he closed the book and sat it on the nightstand. As Ridge finished putting the book over on the table he realized she had fallen asleep on top of one of his legs and he silently trying to remove his leg, which only caused her to grasp onto his other leg that happened to be draped across her side.

‘Buck… I’m stuck’

He thought trying to see if he could untangle his limbs without waking Twilight again, but he soon discovered that was impossible and he realized that he would just have to live with being stuck under her for the rest of the night. So he sat his head down in the crook of her neck, after getting himself comfortable his eyes suddenly began to droop before he fell asleep Ridge cast one last glance out past the balcony only to see something take flight up and away from the castle. One last thought bubbled up through his mind before the current of sleep pulled him under.

‘Luna…’