Canterlot [Canterlot Castle] Fantastic Field Trip for Foals!

[RarityDash]

"Oh that is a very nice tiara. It matches your cutie mark as well."

Diamond Tiara had always had a positive impression of griffons. They were fierce and ultimately proud creatures; noble and respectable. Seeing this ridiculous little creature now, Diamond half wondered if she could throw those perceptions out the window. The abrasive cheerfullness of the agresively adorable little grifflet certainly left a bad taste with all its sickening sweetness. Diamond couldn't even muster a response to the tossed off words; instead she just looked at the little griffon and fought the urge to roll her eyes relentlessly. Luckily, there was soon a pony big enough to capture even Diamond's fleeting attention completely.

​

"Welcome to Canterlot Castle everypony, Unfortunately, due to my busy schedule, I am unable to stay with you for very long. However I have selected one of my Royal Guards to act as my proxy, Private first class Flash Sentry, please listen to him as he is well aware of the castle schedule. He will be acting as a chaperon to this group. Please everyone enjoy the tour of the castle, and be sure to not unleash any beings of chaos."

Diamond had seen Celestia in the flesh a few times, but it was always an impressive experience. She was the ultimate symbol of authority in Equestria. Her word was the law. It was hard not to respect that kind of thing, even for a filly with very little capability for respect. With poise and grace, Celestia ruled over the land and all those under her cherished her for it. It was the ultimate dream, really. Seeing the princess had, in fact, been one of the few reasons Diamond had been excited for this trip. She was kind of dismayed to find that evidently the princess was too busy to chaperon them herself, though she supposed it only figured. Why would a pony with that power and influence even bother with them?

​

“Wait, you mean Discord wasn’t ‘da only one of ‘dose guys you trapped in stone?”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Diamond looked up. She smiled as her eyes focused in on the orange filly. Babs Seed. There she was, looking as ridiculous as ever. Diamond still couldn't believe how it had all went down with Babs. It had really seemed like she had gotten how the world was; in those times, it really felt like Diamond had found a new friend. But, no... she was just as lame as her dumb, ridiculous little Apple cousin and the rest of those blank flanks. Diamond couldn't help herself but have to approach her. She wanted to make it perfectly clear how happy this little reunion should be.

She started toward the filly, a sassy phrase on her mind, when suddenly a pony ran right into her! It was Bebop, the new girl from her class. Diamond snarled as she looked at the mute blank flank weirdo. It would have been excusable for any of these strange fillies she didn't know to, but a pony from her class should know better than to get in her way. it was absolutely inexcusable! Diamond leered at the filly, intent to give her a big piece of her mind. "Hey! Watch where you're going, Mu--"

Diamond cut herself off when she turned her head slightly.

​

"Right, so before we start off on the Front Lawn, do you mind giving me your names?"

Aside from Celestia, she hadn't really been paying attention to any of the adults around. Honestly, why would she? Unlike with Miss Cheerilee, there was no reason for her to suck up to these chaperons. They were nothing to her, so she didn't even glance up at them. That was until her eyes happend to trace across a certain stallion. Tall, handsome with luxurious mane, there were any number of reasons this stallion might have stood out to a filly... but for Diamond, she wasn't entirely sure why it was. Whatever the case, it caused something in her to lock up. Something buried deep in her mind siezed hold of her and caused her entire body to shake. She had seen this stallion somewhere before, hadn't she? Somewhere horrible... in a nightmare perhaps? No... it had to be real. Perhaps somewhere in the hole in her memory which surrounded the previous Nightmare Night.

Diamond faced a losing battle, fighting off her most horrifying of suppressed of memories. Her eyes glazed over and she lost track of Babs, Bebop and everypony else around her. She found herself wandering off in a daze, in a different direction from the rest of the group, toward the castle. She moved with quiet steps, but slowly, her mind as if miles away. It would likely not be long before somepony in the group realized they had lost one staggling aimlessly behind.

​

[tacobob]

"Now, who can remember from your history class whom this is intended to represent?"

Wind Walker couldn’t help but smile as Prince Blueblood took the lead over her silly brother and the strange Mister Cup-Head. She could never figure out why so many ponies disliked the good prince. He was pretty tough looking and rather handsome, and her sister Fire Walker generally had some things nice to say about him. She even mentioned that he attended the big awards banquet Princess Celestia held for all the heroes of the Changeling Ponyville invasion. He probably took on an entire army of those nasty bugs! She kept up her friendly little grin as the tour group finally started to move. The little filly always liked this side of the royal gardens. There were a series of statues that did not actually mean to portray an actual pony from the past, but instead were based off of positive virtues all ponies should follow. While she did not remember the actual wording she had heard before, she was rather sure the statues represented some form of honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality and maybe humility. All very important for a pony, or griffon or whatever to follow to lead a good and proper life.

Her ears perked up as Blueblood mentioned the famous sculptor known as 'Quartz'. Her sister's friend, who was also fond of chiseling into stone and rock had mentioned this fabled crafts-pony to her before. One statue she had noticed before in the past was gone, the one that always managed to give her a painful case of the willies. These willies were expanded even further when she heard the statue was an actual and very alive pony, or something called an 'Draconequus' which had been turned to stone by the royal princess sisters and was later freed many years later. She wanted to answer the prince's question, but she was not sure, and almost a little creeped out as she pondered if the nasty King Discord wasn't the only evil person imprisoned into living stone.

"Hey Windy. What am I?" She whispered to her friend before posing as one of the statues with a giggle.

Her smile returned as Glimmer made her way back to her side, "You actually set up your big brother on a date with Private Midnight Blossom? She's very pretty.", the filly politely left out 'and short like your brother' since she knew Razor was very self-conscious about this size, and Glimmer did look up to her sibling with the same respect she did with her own brothers and sister. "And I'm guessing you're either a silly birdie, or you're the matchmaker!", for no reason whatsoever, Wind Walker choose to sing, "Matchmaker, matchmaker. Make me a match, find me a find,catch me a catch.", she thankfully did not remember the rest of the song, "If they do date, you're gonna have to tell me how it goes. Like if there's a second date, and how many smoochies you catch 'em doing."

Wind Walker nodded her head as her friend Bebop Slide 'spoke' with the help of her useful notebook. She couldn't help but notice the unicorn filly was a little less shy than she was before, and even had a little bit of fun with her writing this time around. The blue Pegasi pony let out a chuckle as the good Prince was obviously 'pretending' to be scared of the notebook like it was some sort of bat, or ghost, or the ghost of a bat. He was obviously the type of a pony who would not be scared of anything. He was showing that he might be an very important royal pony, but he could still act funny. And speaking of funny, her big brother spoke up once again.

"I can't believe you did that!" He said while he chuckled. "No one told me that my little sister was such an awesome prankster!" Punk laughed and gave her sister a wink as he tousled her mane once more. "Haha, I knew you had some of your brother's humor below that cuteness, I knew it!"

"Oh yeah, I learned something from you...Although the teacher didn't refer to me as an 'awesome prankster', but more of a pony that was going to serve one week's worth of detention! And don't forget, Fire uses cinnamon shampoo. You're not allergic to that are, you?", she watched in near horror as her elder brother broke out into an display of amateur theatrics that even their brother Moon Walker would have thought was too much. Not only was he bouncing about in a rather important special place, but he was doing in front of a pony who could probably have him sent to the deepest and darkest of dungeons in Canterlot! Still, she loved her brother. While she had believed this day would have had her mostly chattering with her friends while occasionally looking at old castle stuff, he at least made things a little more interesting, and considering Punk was not being dragged away by military police, he was safe for now, but there was still the full tour ahead of them. As she watched 'Mister Cup' retrieve his silly hat, Wind remembered that there was another pony who wore a hat as well, or was it a crown? The same crown also marched her cutie mark, which was rather odd, but she not with the group.

"Wait a sec! We have a straggler!", she called out to the group as she took it upon herself to find the wayward pony, which thankfully after taking to the skies, she found rather quickly. "Hey there!", she called out to the filly, "I believe you're going the wrong way. We're moving this way.", she waved a hoof towards the statues, "If you need to use the little filly's room, you'll probably have to ask Mister Cup-Head." Wind Walker glanced down at Diamond Tiara and couldn't help but notice how much she resembled one of the little 'Pony-Princess' dolls she had when she was younger. Did she look like Princess Honeysuckle or was it Princess Sassyfrass, who was the same little princess who lost the battle against the 'Dreaded Lord Firecracker' who her dear brother Punk 'hired' to rub her out?

"Or whatever you need to do, you better come with me. Don't want to miss the rest of the tour.", the filly quickly added.

[Bellosh]

The straggler also caught the attention of PFC Flash Sentry, who still retained a watchful eye on the entire group. Even though his assignment technically only revolved around making sure Prince Blueblood didn't cause any havoc, his status as the only royal guard looking after the kids meant that the responsibility for their well-being on Canterlot Castle grounds ultimately belonged to him. One of the other fillies also noticed the little prim-looking girl and managed to reach her first. Flash soon followed, swooping in to prevent the wayward earth pony from heading off further towards the statue.

"I'm sorry little girl," the armored guard kindly explained; "But you're going to have to return to your tour group. You'll be able to head inside the Castle later."

OOC: Still lack a good way to reintroduce Babs into the RP in a meaningful way.

[Lux]

As the griffon chick expressed her success in a giddy fashion hooking up her brother with Midnight, Night Watcher stood watching the group while looking over at the private. The poor filly after her hasty reaction now looked like she made the worst mistake in her life as she fretted to the point of even asking the Staff Sergeant what she did.

"Well I'm surprised that you don't know what you did since you were there, but yes, I believe you did agree on a date with that griffon's brother. I must say it is a bold move to choose somepony, or in this case griffon that you haven't met before. You could however back out of it, but keep in mind that commitments should be honored. Maybe this will be a good thing."

It was the only thing she could do for the pony, always one to offer advice but not interfere with a pony's social life.

***

As a guard demonstrated the representation of the statue as actually part of three interconnected ones, Watermelon was surprised at the fact that her offering of what it could mean was unrecognized. Maybe she was too soft spoken, something that her parents would attest to never being the filly's problem. She merely shrugged about this fact and resolved to keep her best Princess side forward.

As she looked around the garden before the tour group would move onto something else, Watermelon caught sight of a pink filly about her age wandering away from the group. At first she looked like she was simply admiring the grounds, but then the green filly noticed her face, how it looked distant and maybe a little scared.

"Hey," she said walking over to her while still not wanting to lose sight of the group, "Are you ok? You weren't scared of that creepy statue, were you?"

[Shadowbolt0]

Midnight nodded her head, still coming to that term she'd agreed on a blind date. She shook her body quickly, trying to push it into the back of her mind. She was a guard, and needed to at least act like she knew what she was doing, even if she wasn't too sure herself. The deal with Glimmer and her brother, and the date, would come in time. First things, was she needed to keep up with the ground.

The mare proceeded forwards, into the castle's garden. It didn't take her long to spot the group, and heard a comment by a unicorn, wearing a fez? She hadn't noticed it before, but now she took a look at it, it looked ridiculous! Who would wear that, thing, in public?

Trying to stop laughter leaving her mouth, she covered it, before spotting the Solar guard.

She saw him with two fillies, one of them seemed, dazed? She couldn't tell from the distance she was at, and decided it was worth helping him. She walked up to the guard, looking across to him

"Is everything ok here?" While kinda obvious something was happening, the mare had no idea what it was, and felt asking was necessary.

[Blueblood]

Half-dazed as he still was at the pace of events that had pushed him along on their tide, Prince Blueblood was able to retain enough grasp of himself when addressed by Memory Lane. "Ah, right you are. There's a lot to see and we really should be moving on." He turned to face his audience, which he had left to their own devices for far too long. They were conversing amongst themselves, and a couple of them had strayed from the party. "Excuse me!" He called out in a slightly offended tone. "We really should stick together, miss- ah!"

He recognized the filly who strayed, and he could guess what had caused her, at least, to lose focus. He'd been with her on that day, and had been just about as traumatized. Still, she had been normal enough until a few minutes ago, so what triggered those memories now? Having no idea that a delayed recognition of him was responsible, Blueblood sought for another source of blame, and fixed upon the irrepressible Punk Walker with a severe stare. "A quick word while your colleague is gathering the fold?"

He threw a rather chummy arm around his shoulder, in an apparently friendly attitude, but his voice, at a whisper, was not friendly at all. He probably meant to be threatening, but the best the Prince could manage right now was petulant. "While your efforts may, in one respect, be admirable, they are disturbing my tour, and what's more, at least one filly here has recently undergone severe trauma, which I can personally attest to. Would you kindly take no actions to stir it up?"

After all the colts and fillies (plus one griflet) were gathered back together, the Prince loudly announced that they would be moving on. The next few minutes were taken up by a rushed tour of the garden, that became something of a blur in Blueblood's mind. He was dimly aware of assigning random names of sculptors to random sculptures, pausing only to note one that had been defaced by his initials. "They actually put me in the actual dungeons for that!" He said, still surprised at the effrontry after all this time.

At last, however, the gardens were completed. "Any further questions before we move into the castle?"

[Quillhart]

"Oh yeah, I learned something from you...Although the teacher didn't refer to me as an 'awesome prankster', but more of a pony that was going to serve one week's worth of detention! And don't forget, Fire uses cinnamon shampoo. You're not allergic to that are, you?"

Punk Walker had to stroke his chin before he could answer that question. "Well", he began, "I don't think so, but then I've never really eaten it or used a cinnamon shampoo before. Perhaps I am, or maybe I'm just that kind of-"

"Wait a sec! We have a straggler!"

Punk Walker hardly had a chance to say anything before Windy took off. "HEY!", he yelled but windy was already gone, "Don't run off like that!" Punk Walker looked around and noticed the little filly wandering off. He also noticed the rather big group of ponies that attended to the filly and he sighed deeply. If that filly was sad or anything of the like he was quite certain that what the filly didn't want was a huge group of ponies glaring at her, one guard had been quite enough. "Hey guys! Give the filly some-!"

"A quick word while your colleague is gathering the fold?"

The prince addressed him and Punk could feel his heart shrink a little. A gaze in the prince's direction made him gaze into some fairly venomous eyes and he immediately knew that he was on the edge. One foul step and he'd practically be done for. 'It's alright', he calmed himself, 'just agree and apology for everything.' Punk cleared his throat. "Certainly, your majesty." An hoof was laid around his neck and he braced himself to what he might be told while he tried to act collected.

He threw a rather chummy arm around his shoulder, in an apparently friendly attitude, but his voice, at a whisper, was not friendly at all. He probably meant to be threatening, but the best the Prince could manage right now was petulant. "While your efforts may, in one respect, be admirable, they are disturbing my tour, and what's more, at least one filly here has recently undergone severe trauma, which I can personally attest to. Would you kindly take no actions to stir it up?"

Blueblood sounded an awful lot like a sulky foal with a genteel accent when he whispered and Punk had to focus to not take his saying as purely a joke and burst out laughing. "I understand, sir. I'll definitely let you take care of it by yourself next time. I apology for anything I've done to wrong your highness." He tried to subtly remind the prince that he had actually saved him out of an awkward situation. Perhaps by pulling him into another awkward situation, but at least it looked a slightly bit more professional. The prince would hopefully be more forgiving with that in mind. A deep sigh was let out when Punk finally had distanced himself from Blueblood. The fancy stallion was silly and rather snobby but nevertheless dangerous towards Punk's freedom. He placed himself next to a brown filly who had asked about if there were more trapped chaos-lords in the garden and gazed in Blueblood's direction. "He's always like that." Punk said to the brown filly, feeling like he had to recover some dignity after apologizing to Blueblood. "One wouldn't find his brain even after spending days searching through all that golden mane he waves around. You know. The, much bloating, less floating, kind of pony." He looked down at the filly. Punk certainly didn't like Blueblood but he wasn't sure what the little filly thought about him, or other ponies for that matter. " Ya know what I'm saying?"

You're welcome Bellosh!

[RarityDash]

"Hey there! I believe you're going the wrong way. We're moving this way. If you need to use the little filly's room, you'll probably have to ask Mister Cup-Head. Or whatever you need to do, you better come with me. Don't want to miss the rest of the tour."

"Huh...?" Diamond Tiara started, lifting her head at the sound of a distant seeming voice. Oh yeah... she was still here... on the tour. The voice was that of another filly, a pegasus who went to meet her. "I-I..."

​

"I'm sorry little girl, But you're going to have to return to your tour group. You'll be able to head inside the Castle later."

Now it was an adult who spoke, a kind of guileless looking pegasus stallion. He was insistent, but Diamond wasn't sure how to listen to him. She felt kind of small and strangely scared. It was hard to move. "But... I...uh..."

​

"Hey, Are you ok? You weren't scared of that creepy statue, were you?"

More voices sounded, it seemed she was causing a scene. That wasn't cool. She liked being the center of attention, but not when it was like this.

​

"Excuse me! We really should stick together, miss- ah!"

"Ahhhh!" There he was again. She fell back at the sigh of him and shook somewhat. A series of images flashed in her brain--the spiders spiders, an ugly and twisted monster cackling with delight. A small yelp escaped the filly's mouth as she ran back in the other direction, past all the others who had stopped for her. No, no, no! She needed to not think about these things ever. They did not exist. Daddy had said so. it was all just bad dreams. None of it was real. She had to just not think about any of it. She needed something to distract her, something to absorb her attention... but what? There really was only one thing that would do, being as in your face as possible to a blank flank she had a problem with! She ran straight up to Babs, needing to confront her then and there just to ground herself firmly.

"Well, if it isn't my good friend, Babs!" she started, loudly, masking her manic nerves with as much vitriol as she could find. "It really feels like that day at the station when you left Ponyville was just yesterday. I know, after that I've been thinking a lot about the next time we'd meet at the very least" she continued, becoming increasingly firm in tone. She really did need this. This flip flopping blank flank who had the indignity to push her and SIlver in the mud was her ticket to keeping her mind sound through this. "Speaking of which, I suppose not a lot has really changed since then..." she said, looking the other filly over, focusing her eyes on her blank flank.

"A pity, isn't it? Blank flank," she added, moving in close to whisper near the other's ear. It truly was a relief, but with Babs there she had something she could focus on and continue along with the tour.

​

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro watched all the ponies going after the same filly and shook his head. Why were they all going? If the filly was having a problem, she probably didn't want to be crowded by a bunch of other ponies. One or two was plenty to direct her back to the group. And then Blueblood sent the filly off running by approaching. So either the filly had bad memories involving Blueblood, or she was simply overwhelmed by the amount of ponies paying attention to her. Judging by what she was wearing, and her cutie mark, Pyro didn't think the second possibility was very likely.

It really didn't matter though, as the filly had run right up to another filly in the group and began talking to her. He listened half-heartedly to the conversation, not really hearing anything that meant anything to him. Then his ear twitched as he barely heard the last thing the filly said to Babs. Frowning, he glared at the filly. If there was one thing he hated, it was a bully.

[ShadowWalking18]

Her smile returned as Glimmer made her way back to her side, "You actually set up your big brother on a date with Private Midnight Blossom? She's very pretty.", the filly politely left out 'and short like your brother' since she knew Razor was very self-conscious about this size, and Glimmer did look up to her sibling with the same respect she did with her own brothers and sister. "And I'm guessing you're either a silly birdie, or you're the matchmaker!", for no reason whatsoever, Wind Walker choose to sing, "Matchmaker, matchmaker. Make me a match, find me a find,catch me a catch.", she thankfully did not remember the rest of the song, "If they do date, you're gonna have to tell me how it goes. Like if there's a second date, and how many smoochies you catch 'em doing."

Glimmer giggled, "I wouldn't call myself a matchmaker. More like a concerned sister."

Glimmer had to say, the castle gardens were cool. Though some of the statues were odd. What she really wanted to see was the inside. She hoped they would get to that soon. She also noticed things were getting a bit crazy, and could not help but giggle at it. No wonder the pony with the funny hat seemed so nervous. This must be a natural thing for tours here.

Glimmer looked when she heard of the straggler, "Where is she going?" She asked herself, but let the adults handle it. It was probably nothing serious.

With Tiara back in the group, Glimmer really hoped they would go into the castle soon. She wondered if they would also see the princess again.

[Pretzelparty]

"Hey! Watch where you're going, Mu--"

The filly's ear perked a moment in Tiara's direction and bebop looked back at her with a roll of the eyes. She was pretty sure what she was going to say so after a moment she took a moment and flicked her tail in the filly's face and pretended she didn't notice. Before she could do much more she found herself distracted by the prince's display. Seemed like he must have been a bit nervous as not only did he fail to catch her notebook with royal grace and poise she expected from a prince but he also panicked as if her book had turned into a bat mid-throw or something.

*THWAP* "Yaaahahaaa! Get it off!" It would be hard to say, in his distressed state of mind, what exactly he thought happened. The vague impression of being swooped upon by something flapping had brought back repressed flashbacks of Nightmare Night and the Changeling invasion. Eventually, he did manage to extricate himself, not without a papercut, and read the legend upon the notebook. He stared at it dumbfounded, wondering briefly if the words had written themselves, before realizing the nature of the situation. "Ah, right, here you are, miss Bebop."

Once the prince came over and returned her notepad she smiled at him cheerfully and wrote something else for the prince to read, "Thanks, Mister Prince Blueblood! I'm sure you'll be a really fun guide, you're a really funny stallion."

As the tour went on it seemed that Tiara was having trouble keeping with the group, eventually the filly started to wander off and soon all the adults and a few fillies managed to catch her and bring her back to the group... where despite looking initially looking unusually flustered she quickly went back to her usual shtick of picking on "blank flanks". Walking over the filly quickly wrote something down and showed it to Tiara, "At least us blank flanks know how to stay with out group and can keep our cool in a crowd" was what it said

[tacobob]

Punk Walker had to stroke his chin before he could answer that question. "Well", he began, "I don't think so, but then I've never really eaten it or used a cinnamon shampoo before. Perhaps I am, or maybe I'm just that kind of-"

The little blue filly let out a snort, which sounded like a squeak, "You've never had anything with cinnamon in it?", she was very sure that her older brother was pulling her tail. "You've never had an Snickerdoodle? Or cinnamon-toast? Even most apple pies usually have it in 'em.", as she took off to catch up with the wayward filly, she quickly added, "I'm not running, I'm flying yah hoof-head!"

"Huh...?" Diamond Tiara started, lifting her head at the sound of a distant seeming voice. Oh yeah... she was still here... on the tour. The voice was that of another filly, a pegasus who went to meet her. "I-I..."

"I said I believe you're goin...", the filly was cut short as she started to repeat what she had said just moments before the guard-pony showed up to return the pair to their group. Wind couldn't help but wonder why there were so many guards looking over such a small group of fillies and colts. Before flying back, she glanced back at the formally separated pony and sighed. While she liked both Glimmer and Bebop Slide, she was really starting to miss her old school friends. She wasn't afraid to hurt their feelings, they were all tough! She could get into all sorts of horse-play with them and not worry about causing them to break out into a stream of tears! Sweet Cents had to attend her grandmother's one millionth birthday, or maybe billionth? Wiseacre was banned from going on these field-trips after the did something unmentionable to the castle's fountain during a tour of the gardens last year. Double Time had to attend junior Hoof-Ball practice, Fast Track was at a model train show with his dad, and the others were just elsewhere!

Wind flew back to the group just in time to catch the little interaction between the unnamed filly and Babs Seed, who had been strangely quiet so far. This was none of her business, so as she made her way back to solid ground, she trotted back to her brother and the other two girls. She smiled back at Glimmer and Bebop, "Hopefully we'll be able to move on. I wanna see Princess Celestia's room, and maybe even the throne-room!", she watched curiously as the mute-filly made her way over to the other ponies, "Wonder what that's all about?", she asked Glimmer.

[Bellosh]

Meanwhile, Babs Seed had only been paying half-attention to Prince Blueblood. The stallion gave off plenty of Valen Orange vibes in the way that he carried himself, except for how he seemed to express how he felt he was better than everypony else. Babs hoped that her cousin Valen wouldn’t grow up into somepony like Blueblood one day, or else he’d be totally lame. That’d be quite a heartbreak.

Sadly, Diamond Tiara finally decided to bother Babs. Right from the very onset, the Manehattan filly detected the loathing in the other’s voice; Miss Seed snorted on reflex upon being told of how much Diamond thought upon their last encounter. That had to be a complete lie, since Babs never heard anything from her Cutie Mark Crusader pals suggesting otherwise.

"A pity, isn't it? Blank flank."

Oh, not that again! Pressing right against Diamond Tiara’s face, Babs Seed growled a warning to her; “I’d shut up if I were you, or maybe I’ll throw ya’ into a fountain ‘dis time.” Babs would really love to perform a repeat performance of how she “ceremoniously” farewelled Diamond and that dumb friend of hers last time. Of course, it was probably better to just get an adult to deal with the jerk, but Babs lacked confidence in the chaperones. Especially Blueblood. Right now though, Babs trotted away as fast as she could, hoping Diamond got the point.....

[Lux]

Night Watcher could see that Midnight Blossom was conflicted with offering to date a griffon that she didn't even meet before, but there was nothing that the Staff Sergeant felt that she could do. Of course she could have concocted some plan like saying the private couldn't go on the date due to some special training, but the Lunar Guard knew not to use her position to pull ponies out of their own social problems. Although she was ever ready to help ponies, she couldn't hold their hooves.

Her attention was then drawn to a small group of ponies hiving off from the main group. At first the Lunar Guard thought that they were just curious at seeing the other statues more closely in the garden or the spectacular floral arrangements. It was hard to be on a tour of such a big place like a castle and a pony couldn't possibly see everything in one tour. But then upon further inspection there was a pink filly wearing a tiara who seemed to be staring at something with a look of paralyzing terror. The fact that a group had now formed around her made the filly feel even worse. Night felt she needed to step in.

"Alright everypony," she said to the subgroup, "let us continue on the tour. There is much to see inside the castle. Come on now and return to the group."

She then walked to Midnight Blossom and whispered, "I want you to watch this pink filly, to make sure she's ok, as I will be watching her as well. Don't make it look like you are following her, but just make sure she is ok."

She then walked to the pink filly who was frightened and with a friendly smile said, "Hello there miss. I'm Night Watcher. What's your name?"

***

Watermelon realized as more ponies joined her to see what was wrong with Diamond Tiara that the poor filly felt more uncomfortable. She could only imagine how she would feel if everypony was staring at her when she was upset.

"Well, I'm going to go now back to the group," she said to Diamond, "But if you, you know, want to talk, let me know."

With that Watermelon Gush trotted back to the rest of the group, her mind switching to the tour again while still thinking about the scared looking pony.

[ShadowWalking18]

Punk Walker had to stroke his chin before he could answer that question. "Well", he began, "I don't think so, but then I've never really eaten it or used a cinnamon shampoo before. Perhaps I am, or maybe I'm just that kind of-"

The little blue filly let out a snort, which sounded like a squeak, "You've never had anything with cinnamon in it?", she was very sure that her older brother was pulling her tail. "You've never had an Snickerdoodle? Or cinnamon-toast? Even most apple pies usually have it in 'em.", as she took off to catch up with the wayward filly, she quickly added, "I'm not running, I'm flying yah hoof-head!"

"Huh...?" Diamond Tiara started, lifting her head at the sound of a distant seeming voice. Oh yeah... she was still here... on the tour. The voice was that of another filly, a pegasus who went to meet her. "I-I..."

"I said I believe you're goin...", the filly was cut short as she started to repeat what she had said just moments before the guard-pony showed up to return the pair to their group. Wind couldn't help but wonder why there were so many guards looking over such a small group of fillies and colts. Before flying back, she glanced back at the formally separated pony and sighed. While she liked both Glimmer and Bebop Slide, she was really starting to miss her old school friends. She wasn't afraid to hurt their feelings, they were all tough! She could get into all sorts of horse-play with them and not worry about causing them to break out into a stream of tears! Sweet Cents had to attend her grandmother's one millionth birthday, or maybe billionth? Wiseacre was banned from going on these field-trips after the did something unmentionable to the castle's fountain during a tour of the gardens last year. Double Time had to attend junior Hoof-Ball practice, Fast Track was at a model train show with his dad, and the others were just elsewhere!

Wind flew back to the group just in time to catch the little interaction between the unnamed filly and Babs Seed, who had been strangely quiet so far. This was none of her business, so as she made her way back to solid ground, she trotted back to her brother and the other two girls. She smiled back at Glimmer and Bebop, "Hopefully we'll be able to move on. I wanna see Princess Celestia's room, and maybe even the throne-room!", she watched curiously as the mute-filly made her way over to the other ponies, "Wonder what that's all about?", she asked Glimmer.

Glimmer nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'd like to see the interior. The garden is nice, but I see a lot of them back at my house in Aquilla. Though certainly not as big as this, still..."

She gasped at the thought of going into the princesses room, "Oh that would be amazing! Oh I bet she has everything. Oh I would love to be a princess, what about you?

When Wind talked about Bebop and she shrugged, "No idea. Though I'm getting the feeling there is some hostility. Call it a predatory instinct."

Glimmer didn't really know what the reason was for the feeling she got, but she didn't like it. Why couldn't everyone just get along? Well while she was here she was going to make sure that by the time all the kids left here they would be the best of friends! Hmm, but how to go about it? She needed a plan and a cunning one.

[Blueblood]

It was an exaggeration, but not a lie, to say that Blueblood had a great mane where his brain should be. More time and effort over the course of the day were dedicated to the former than the latter, for most of his life, anyhow. Any subtlety on Punk Walker's part simply bounced off the Prince's skull, and any subsequent insults were, if noticed, tactfully ignored. Still, the unicorn knew that this guard was not like the others, and most likely to cause the most trouble.

Right now, what part of his brain was actually engaged with the world around him was trying to figure out just why the sight of him was causing a young filly to freak out. Well, actually, he could probably think of the answer, but he had no idea what to do with it. He had nothing of his Aunt's skill in helping ponies deal with trauma, so he mostly just stayed out of the way while the situation resolved itself.

At last, it was time to move on.

"All right, if you will now follow me..." With as much regal impressiveness as he could muster, Blueblood magically lifted the latch on the great doorway of the Castle, and opened it slowly onto the Entrance Hall.

It was one of the most common pictures of Canterlot put on a postcard, but the overexposure did nothing to diminish the sight of the marblework and tapestries when seen in real life. It was designed to be both impressive and welcoming, and the crowd of colts and fillies could see the gleaming staircase leading up to the shiny golden doors.

The Prince actually stayed quiet for a moment to let them drink it in. After they all came it, he spoke, "Impressive, is it not? This is the Entrance to the Main Hall section of the Castle, and is generally the first room any guest is shown to. It connects to the Gala rooms through the side corridors, and the Throne room and other Halls via the stairs. Unfortunately, Auntie's busy as the moment, so we can't go into the throne room just yet. Don't want to interrupt any important dignitaries, now, do we?"

Truth be told though, if they had all unanimously answered, "Yes, we do!" Blueblood would not have been able to stop them. Still, he forged on. "However, that does mean we will be able to see her chambers, since she isn't using them now. Not many tours get to see those. Just remember, Auntie Luna is sleeping, so don't wake her, OK?"

It might have come as a shock to the hearers for the Princesses to be referred to so casually, but to the Prince, they were family, however... rocky their relationship may be at any time.

[Quillhart]

Babs didn't answer Punk's question. Instead; they were both interrupted by the strolling filly, Diamond Tiara.

"Well, if it isn't my good friend, Babs!" she started, loudly, masking her manic nerves with as much vitriol as she could find. "It really feels like that day at the station when you left Ponyville was just yesterday. I know, after that I've been thinking a lot about the next time we'd meet at the very least" she continued, becoming increasingly firm in tone. She really did need this. This flip flopping blank flank who had the indignity to push her and SIlver in the mud was her ticket to keeping her mind sound through this. "Speaking of which, I suppose not a lot has really changed since then..." she said, looking the other filly over, focusing her eyes on her blank flank.

​

Punk Walker couldn't help but to arch an eyebrow at the filly's boldness. The hostility in her voice was poorly hidden and Punk could smell trouble like a huge heap of dung in every word she uttered. Why in the name of the sun would she ever say these things next to a royal guard?! Didn't she see him or something? He felt like he should interfere but he still had the prince's wailing voice in his head and the last thing he wanted was to get thrown in the dungeon. Instead he just watched filly and hoped that his presence would bring her high thoughts back to earth.

"A pity, isn't it? Blank flank," she added, moving in close to whisper near the other's ear. It truly was a relief, but with Babs there she had something she could focus on and continue along with the tour.

​

Alright, that was waaaay over the line. Punk couldn't contain himself any longer he simply had to stop this miniature push-over from hurting her fellow fillies. Some other ponies were quicker than Punk to her. While Punk was glad that they wanted to help the filly; he knew that it would probably cause more problem than it would solve. He lowered his head in level with Diamond Tiara and gave her a fierce glare. Punk poked with a hoof on her chest. "You really don't want to go there, young lady. Act your age, you're looking like a foal." He got back in his full length and flickered his eyes to Bebop and a smile cracked on his face. "I admire your eager to help your friend but I'm afraid that actions like that tend to develop issues rather than putting an end to them. Be advised, miss." Punk left them with that and trotted away towards Babs again to let her know that he got her back. Ugh, he had been more mature and wise than he felt comfortable with but he knew that it was necessary. They wouldn't have taken a jester seriously.

"Hey! PAL!" Punk shouted to the departing filly as he trotted in her direction. "Hey there!", he said when he finally caught up with her, "I just wanted to tell you that if you if you two go all loggerheads with each other, you just holler and I'll back you up. You don't have to take that garbage." A wide smile grew on his face and he gave the filly's mane a friendly pat and shuffle. Any thoughts of silly prince Blueblood was long gone. Punk had a new, more important task than to make that bloating mane-ball feel royally comfortable. He was gonna make the kids have fun!

[RarityDash]

"At least us blank flanks know how to stay with out group and can keep our cool in a crowd"

Diamond was kind of surprised when a blank flank she hadn't even engaged suddenly something in her face. She had whispered directly into Babs' ear after all, it really shouldn't have carried very far at all. Perhaps this Bebop had advanced hearing to make up for her lack of speech. Or was that just for blind ponies? Diamond didn't really know or care. Either way, she didn't really care if Bebop had heard her. She had heard worse at school. What did kind of get under her skin a little was her little retort. Didn't they understand what Diamond was going through? Considering she didn't understand it herself, she supposed that was pretty impossible. No matter though, it was a simple enough thing to brush off.

"You misspelled a word," she observed casually with a devious smile. "You'd think you'd be better at writing things considering it's what you do..." she added, turning up her nose slightly and then just looking away from Bebop back toward Babs.

​

"I’d shut up if I were you, or maybe I’ll throw ya’ into a fountain ‘dis time.”

"Ah,, that's not a very nice thing to say..." she said coyly, shaking her head and sighing. Ah, Babs. She certainly had more of a mouth and spine to her than her cousin and her lame little friends. Babs started to trot off immediately after that too. Diamond was up for a challenge though. An upstart blank flank like this certainly needed to be put in her place after all. She started past Bebop, after Babs. That was, until she was suddenly interrupted.

​

"You really don't want to go there, young lady. Act your age, you're looking like a foal."

Diamond blinked a few times at the site of the stallion who had approached her now. What? How could he have possibly hear her when he was nowhere close? No matter, she didn't care. Having some adult she didn't know in her face trying to intimidate her. Pfft! The only stallion who could tell her what to do was her daddy. and even he wasn't very good at it at times. She wasn't some silly little baby foal who was going to quiver and cry because some adult shoved their stupid face right up close to her and gave her a mean look. Following him as he went off after Babs himself, she could hear him saying in no uncertain terms that he would back up Babs if she escalated things. It was kind of odd really. All she had done was whispered a couple little words while Babs had threatened violence against her and yet she was on her side. How classy. She'd expect more from an adult. Not all stallions could be gentlecolts though, she supposed.

"Gee, Mister. You don't have anything to worry about, we're just kids playing around. There's no need for you to get involved," she said with a smile, batting her eyes as she moved along with the stallion. "Babs and I go back, you see. She's cousins with one of my favorite classmates and last time she was in town we had a lot of fun together," she said She loved when she could mislead without technically lying, it was just amusing. She wondered how Babs might react though...

​

[tacobob]

“Oh.”, Wind Walker’s opinion of the little gamboge colored pony rose up rather slightly as she observed the brief encounter between the filly and the Tiara-marked earth pony. "Maybe she's a bit more than a party-pooper and an tattle-tail.", she thought to herself as she glanced away from the pair. The two ponies obviously had some sort of relationship, although it was not a very positive one. For now, she decided to keep her snout out of this. Thankfully the always friendly and positive Glimmer was there to keep her distracted from all the drama.

"A princess? Eh.", she pondered this question for just a moment, "Maybe less on the frilly dresses and more for the awesome Alicorn powers.", the Pegasi replied with a smirk on her face, "While Princess Celestia is the Alicorn of the sun and awesome, I'd probably be the Alicorn of speed. What about you?", she asked both the griffon and silent Pegasi as they slowly continued the tour. As they walked along, Wind's mind filled itself with questions. Why do griffons lack cutie-marks? While both zebras and ponies could get them, their Equus-cousins, the donkey and horse could not. And why are they on the flank? Is there some sort of reasoning why these odd little symbols don't show up anywhere else? Like the face or stomach? Questions like this and more would probably have to be answered by her brother Punk later on tonight, possible around two a clock in the morning. While Walk Walker was a good deal smarter than his younger brother, he generally locked his door, while Punk's lock was currently broken.

[Pretzelparty]

"You misspelled a word," she observed casually with a devious smile. "You'd think you'd be better at writing things considering it's what you do..." she added, turning up her nose slightly and then just looking away from Bebop back toward Babs.

​

Bebop looked at Diamond in mild disbelief. That was completely ridiculous, Bebop took great pride in her penmareship. This prissy pink filly was surely just trying to get under her skin, at least that was what she thought before she checked her notepad. Almost immediately the filly's cheeks blushed as red as the little bow in her mane before she huffed and seethed at Diamond as she turned away from her and seemed to shift her focus on the other filly next to her. In the previous exchange between Babs and Diamond, Bebop could tell that the too had some sort of history... but the little filly had no idea how that could be since as far as she knew reddish maned filly didn't go to school in Ponyville.

"I’d shut up if I were you, or maybe I’ll throw ya’ into a fountain ‘dis time.”

...Although already she rather liked this filly. She definitely had quite a bit of spirit in her, writing something down quickly she showed it to BAbs. On the note it asked if she could help if she really does go through with it and under that question was a small sentence that said,"My name's Bebop, by the way. Wanna hang out with me and my friends back over there?" Once Babs hopefully finished reading she would gesture towards Wind Walker and Glimmer.

It seemed that Diamond was now trying to charm her way out of trouble with the guard who somehow had heard what the pink filly had said. She was a bit curious how he'd managed to hear her from where he was. Maybe he had Really good hearing, anyway, Tiara's excuse for why she should be allowed to get away with her teasing made the little blond unicorn raise an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Gee, Mister. You don't have anything to worry about, we're just kids playing around. There's no need for you to get involved," she said with a smile, batting her eyes as she moved along with the stallion. "Babs and I go back, you see. She's cousins with one of my favorite classmates and last time she was in town we had a lot of fun together,"[/bg]

Bebop had learned quite a while ago not to put much into anything Diamond Tiara said but for some reason Bebop found herself partially believing at least one thing she said; that Babs was a relation of somepony in class. Bebop couldn't figure out who exactly it might have been but she could see some sort of resemblance to maybe... Applebloom? Maybe it was the mane. Deciding to try and make sure that Diamond continued to get her scolding the filly levitated another note towards Punk walker that said simply that, "Diamond's a big fat liar, She'd never be friends with a pony who isn't a jerk."

[Bellosh]

"You really don't want to go there, young lady. Act your age, you're looking like a foal."

"Gee, Mister. You don't have anything to worry about, we're just kids playing around. There's no need for you to get involved. Babs and I go back, you see. She's cousins with one of my favorite classmates and last time she was in town we had a lot of fun together."

One of the guards decided to be a sneaky creep and eavesdrop on Babs Seed’s private conversation with Diamond Tiara. According to what passed for a code of honor for Babs, listening in on whispering was really really rude. As much as she detested Diamond Tiara and silently cheered that she got in trouble this time, Babs knew all too well that it could have easily been herself who got chastised. Diamond claimed a best friendship with Babs, prompting the other to simply roll her eyes, but otherwise say nothing. And when the eavesdropping guard offered his services as a backup, Babs offered; “Eh, thanks I suppose,” and avoided all contact with the intruding grown-up. Babs faced worse back home; she didn’t need help here today.

“Hey hey, cut down on the name-calling miss. Let’s be nice to each other, alrighty?” As the group entered the Royal Quarters, Babs Seed turned her head to see Flash Sentry looking down with disapproval at a brown unicorn filly. It appeared this kid wrote a note accusing Diamond Tiara of being a liar, which of course was completely true. Too bad she got caught red-hoofed. But maybe that filly was worth talking to later.

My name's Bebop, by the way. Wanna hang out with me and my friends back over there?

Another one of those notes floated in Miss Seed’s face, and she turned back to Bebop to see the other two kids by her. Come to think of it, didn’t Babs see that pegasus filly and griffon chick before? Maybe it was that one time where Apple Bloom dragged Babs off into a hide and seek game with a bunch of kids, which ended up taking the entire group into the Everfree Forest. Babs chose not to remember those events, explaining why those gals were not recognized at first. Anyway, the Manehattan filly saw no reason to decline Bebop’s written request, silently repositioning herself to be closer to Bebop’s gang.

[PyroBlaze]

The entire thing going on between the two fillies was making him angry. He really hated bullies, especially ones that would lie to cover up what they had done behind the guise of 'friendship.' There wasn't really anything he could do though, there were already enough ponies involved. He still kept an eye on the two though.

As he entered the entrance hall, Pyro looked around in contained awe. He expected the castle to look amazing, but this was probably the best building he'd ever been in. The experience was somewhat ruined by the anger still seething within him. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't. He could, however, contain it easily, and he did. He didn't want another episode with his magic like the one at that last Running of the Leaves. He didn't want to lose control, not inside the castle. That wouldn't be a good first impression, not to mention that it would endanger everypony in this tour. Of course, Flash already had a first impression of him, and he had met Celestia before, but it would help his chances to get a job with the guard if he could control himself.

Blueblood was being familiar with Luna's name, but that was to be expected when you were related to the princesses. He was familiar with everypony he met. Sighing slightly, he continued to follow the group. He had nopony he knew here. At least, nopony he really felt comfortable approaching at the moment. He had basically blown Flash up during Nightmare Night, and he didn't want to intrude on Bebop and her friends, so he continued alone.

[ShadowWalking18]

“Oh.”, Wind Walker’s opinion of the little gamboge colored pony rose up rather slightly as she observed the brief encounter between the filly and the Tiara-marked earth pony. "Maybe she's a bit more than a party-pooper and an tattle-tail.", she thought to herself as she glanced away from the pair. The two ponies obviously had some sort of relationship, although it was not a very positive one. For now, she decided to keep her snout out of this. Thankfully the always friendly and positive Glimmer was there to keep her distracted from all the drama.

"A princess? Eh.", she pondered this question for just a moment, "Maybe less on the frilly dresses and more for the awesome Alicorn powers.", the Pegasi replied with a smirk on her face, "While Princess Celestia is the Alicorn of the sun and awesome, I'd probably be the Alicorn of speed. What about you?", she asked both the griffon and silent Pegasi as they slowly continued the tour. As they walked along, Wind's mind filled itself with questions. Why do griffons lack cutie-marks? While both zebras and ponies could get them, their Equus-cousins, the donkey and horse could not. And why are they on the flank? Is there some sort of reasoning why these odd little symbols don't show up anywhere else? Like the face or stomach? Questions like this and more would probably have to be answered by her brother Punk later on tonight, possible around two a clock in the morning. While Walk Walker was a good deal smarter than his younger brother, he generally locked his door, while Punk's lock was currently broken.

"You really don't want to go there, young lady. Act your age, you're looking like a foal."

"Gee, Mister. You don't have anything to worry about, we're just kids playing around. There's no need for you to get involved. Babs and I go back, you see. She's cousins with one of my favorite classmates and last time she was in town we had a lot of fun together."

One of the guards decided to be a sneaky creep and eavesdrop on Babs Seed’s private conversation with Diamond Tiara. According to what passed for a code of honor for Babs, listening in on whispering was really really rude. As much as she detested Diamond Tiara and silently cheered that she got in trouble this time, Babs knew all too well that it could have easily been herself who got chastised. Diamond claimed a best friendship with Babs, prompting the other to simply roll her eyes, but otherwise say nothing. And when the eavesdropping guard offered his services as a backup, Babs offered; “Eh, thanks I suppose,” and avoided all contact with the intruding grown-up. Babs faced worse back home; she didn’t need help here today.

“Hey hey, cut down on the name-calling miss. Let’s be nice to each other, alrighty?” As the group entered the Royal Quarters, Babs Seed turned her head to see Flash Sentry looking down with disapproval at a brown unicorn filly. It appeared this kid wrote a note accusing Diamond Tiara of being a liar, which of course was completely true. Too bad she got caught red-hoofed. But maybe that filly was worth talking to later.

My name's Bebop, by the way. Wanna hang out with me and my friends back over there?

Another one of those notes floated in Miss Seed’s face, and she turned back to Bebop to see the other two kids by her. Come to think of it, didn’t Babs see that pegasus filly and griffon chick before? Maybe it was that one time where Apple Bloom dragged Babs off into a hide and seek game with a bunch of kids, which ended up taking the entire group into the Everfree Forest. Babs chose not to remember those events, explaining why those gals were not recognized at first. Anyway, the Manehattan filly saw no reason to decline Bebop’s written request, silently repositioning herself to be closer to Bebop’s gang.

Glimmer tapped her beak, a trait she realized that she and her brother did when they were thinking. Hmm, did that mean she was going to be like him more? Nah, she was always nice, and didn't see a reason to put on a tough guy act like Razor. Hmm, she had to figure out a way to make him stop that. The doctors say it wasn't healthy.

"Hmmm, I'd like the magic too. I think it be really awesome to have magic over love!" She said with a giggle.

"Actually. In older times, I'd technically qualify as a princess in the old griffon empire days. So does that count?" She asked, tilting her head.

Seeing Bebop and Bab's joining them, Glimmer quickly pulled them over, "Hey! How are you girls? We were talking about what we would be if we were princesses. What do you think?"

She then looked at Tiara. She didn't really find the filly to be nice, but she wondered if there was a reason for it. She wasn't going to judge her. Maybe all she needed was a friend. Still, it might be best to work her into the rest of their group slowly. Babs and Bebop didn't seem to like her.

As the tour moved through the castle, Glimmer looked at all the hallways. Not even her house was this big. Though she took note of several defensive lacking in the design. And the sheer size of the halls would have made it easy for larger groups to fight in should an invading force manage to penetrate the interior.

"Oh no!" Glimmer gasped in horror, faceclawing, "I'm starting to think like daddy now."