//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Masks // Story: Black as Sin // by BearstarSeraph //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Masks Dawn came, and Celestia returned to the bedroom. Celestia tapped the marble floor with her hoof outside the screen, “Dalibor? I have raised the sun.” “I am awake, milady.” Celestia folded the screen with her magic. Dalibor was sitting at attention. He bowed. Celestia nodded in response. “It is time to create your costume and choose a name.” She turned sideways and nodded towards the rest of the suite. “Now first off,” she said as they walked into the main room, “What are your favorite colors?” “Gold and red.” “And your least favorite?” “Green, yellow and orange. Do I get to have gold fur and a red mane?” “No,” Celestia said, “Nor will you be the colors you hate. These will be the ones that will draw attention to you. White and blue would also call attention, being the royal colors. Since brown is your natural color, it will also be expected.” Dalibor glanced at the ground. “So… gray tones?” he asked looking back up. Celestia nodded, “Would you like a light coat and darker mane or a dark coat and lighter mane?” Dalibor scratched his beak. “If I say one thing,” he thought, “She’ll probably want to do the opposite…” “I’d like a dark coat and a light mane and tail.” “Excellent,” she smiled, “Let’s head over to the mirror.” Dalibor slapped his forehead after she turned around. ~~***~~ Deep in the crystal dungeon, Vegeta was twirling the books in the air in a figure eight. “With this thing on my horn, this is so much easier. Bloody magic kept getting in the way.” “Prince Vege~ta!” he heard in a singsong voice. Vegeta dropped the books, laid his head down and faked snores. Luna came up to the bars, “You do remember as Princess of the Night we can tell whether or not you are asleep.” He opened his eyes. “Oh yeah…” “Perhaps if you had slept last night, you would not be grumpy this morning.” “Princess, if any amount of sleep could fix my grumpiness, my wife would have bought a spinning wheel a looooooong time ago…” “We assume from thy sarcasm thou meant it as a joke,” Luna said, “But we do not understand the reference.” Vegeta glared at her. “You’re here to take me to interrogation?” he growled. Luna stood proudly. “No. We have brought thou breakfast.” She turned her head down the hall, “Servants! You may proceed.” Two unicorns and a pegasus in white chef’s outfits carried several silver platters into view. Vegeta’s ears instinctively perked up as he raised his head. The door was opened wide as one of the unicorns floated a platter inside and set it next to Vegeta. He took a big sniff, then smiled. “Oh, that doesn’t smell like hay.” The lid was lifted off. Vegeta saw the omelet, then noticed it folded over a grilled fish. He looked up at Luna, “An egg roll? Really?” “Is… it not to your liking?” Luna asked, surprised. “Close enough.” Vegeta threw his nose into the omelet, completely ignoring the disgusted, cringing faces of the staff at his ungraceful chewing and swallowing. “Wis where moar fush im du ower wlates?” he asked with his mouth full. “No, fruit and hay. Doctor’s orders.” Luna smirked. Vegeta spat out the eggs, “Why didn’t you give me those first?! Now I’ll have the taste of hay in my mouth all morning!” “Do not fear,” Luna said, “We have multiple plates of egg rolls. The chefs could not discern its true recipe from what you spoke so they created several versions, though we assume they got it correct the first time?” “Actually, no. But this is still damn good.” Vegeta returned to his attempts to eat. Luna turned to the chefs. “Lay the platters on the floor,” she whispered, “We will lift them.” They nodded and quickly exited. Her guards glanced down the cell block when she was not with them. Luna nodded to the guards and they returned to attention. Luna turned back to Vegeta and saw him licking the plate. She cleared her throat, “Perhaps now would be an excellent time to teach thee the art of chewing.” Vegeta looked up with his tongue still on the plate. He draws it back into his mouth, “Don’t you mean table manners?” “No. We mean chewing. Thou art definitely a carnivore by the way thy turn thy head. But equines not only lack such teeth but possess a gap in our dentition.” “Trust me. I’ve noticed…” “No need to hiss,” Luna giggled, “We shall have thou mastered by lunch.” She took his plate and placed a new one in front. She lifts the lid revealing the hay, “Let us begin.” Vegeta groaned. “Thou may be a predator in thy natural state, but currently thou art an herbivore. Thou cannot survive this venture behaving as thy have. Thou must change, even if temporarily.” Luna was surprised when Vegeta looked at the ground and took a short breath. “Doest this anger thee?” Vegeta looked back up. “Let’s just get on with this,” he growled. ~~***~~ Above, Dalibor was looking over himself in a full-size mirror. He was a graphite gray pegasus with a blue-tinged silver mane and tail. His eyes were the same silvery color. “Are you satisfied this time?” Celestia asked, trying to mask how tired she was from casting the spell so many times. “Surprisingly… Yes,” he said, turning around for the first time in hours. He got a good look at Celestia. “Why didn’t you say this spell was so draining?! I would have settled for anything far sooner.” “You have a sharp eye… Under other circumstances, a spying glass of some kind would be your cutie mark. But it still needs to be something that lends your talent to working in the palace.” “And something that would lend me to acting with the foreign prince,” Dalibor added. “What about an abacus? I remember those being common as a cub. Or has the make-up of the staff changed?” “Wonderful idea, Dalibor.” Celestia tapped her hoof to her chin. “Oh I know,” she put her hoof down and spread her wings, “Your name shall be Bean Counter.” She zapped his rear and an abacus formed. She folded her wings, “There. Now let’s get you over to the internship quarters. Remember, watch your claws. You have hooves to the rest of us.” “Yes, milady,” Bean Counter followed Celestia to the door. “The first thing we’ll need to do is backdate your paperwork…” ~~***~~ “Thou art catching on faster than we anticipated,” Luna smiled, “Perhaps thou shall come to the banquet tonight!” The metal clang of the cellblock door opening interrupted Vegeta’s sarcasm. “Princess Luna?” Luna looked and saw four unicorns in white coats walk up. “Oh Dr. Cast. What are you doing here?” “It’s 9:30. What are you doing up this time of day?” he asked. “It’s 9:30 already?!” she turned to Vegeta, “Excuse us.” Vegeta saw her gallop away. Then four unicorns came up to the open door. They bowed. “Greetings your Majesty, I am Dr. Cast. Private physician to the royal sisters,” said the blue one, “And these are Dr. Statin…” the peach one nodded his head, “Dr. Brace…” the red one nodded, “and Dr. Gauze…” the lime-green one nodded. Dr. Cast walked inside, “Your eyes are a little red? Did the anti-pain spell not help with the bruises? Or was it the cloud fluff spell on the blankets?” “No, everything’s fine,” Vegeta said, “I spent all day yesterday sleeping though. Body can only take so much before it gets restless.” Dr. Cast nodded, “I see." Dr. Gauze walked in with a folder in his magic, “Dr. Stable forwarded your medical folder. You are one lucky pony. That poison joke most likely saved your life by stopping the internal bleeding.” Dr. Statin came in next, “We have also been informed of the shape-shifting magic and the teleportation spell…” “But the information was vague to say the least,” Dr. Brace interrupted, “There have been so many rumors flying around since yesterday…” Dr. Cast coughed, “Princess Celestia said not to ask him any questions.” “Oh…” Dr. Brace lowered his head, “Yes…” Vegeta smirked. “Well if you can’t ask questions, why don’t you answer mine? Her Majesty didn’t forbid that, did she?” The four doctors looked at each other. “Actually, she didn’t,” Dr. Statin said as they turned back to Vegeta. “Figures,” he thought, “As naive as a children’s story should be.” Vegeta smiled, “How about you tell me what you have heard about me?” He put his hoof over his heart, “It soooo hard dealing with pe-ponies. I don’t understand why everypony is reacting the way they are. It would certainly help me make friends.” Vegeta innocently blinked his large eyes as he mentally gagged. The four smiled. “Of course,” Dr. Cast said, “We will be happy to help. But first we need to change your bandages and recharge the healing spells. Now we know you’re sensitive to being touched with magic, but we will need to lift you. Are you ready?” “As I’ll ever be,” Vegeta said through his teeth. Blue magic enveloped him and he dangled in the air. Then red magic unwrapped the bandages. “Now this is going to tingle a lot,” Dr. Gauze said as a giant green square forms in the air. Then it moved forward. Vegeta clinched his eyes. The green square passes over him head to tail before fading away. Vegeta’s eye twitched. “And what was that for!” Dr. Gauze took a clipboard and pen in his magic and began to write. “It was a scanning spell. Your bones are healing much faster than they should be… but there is nothing wrong with that. Actually… Everything is healing far faster than it should be. At this rate, you’ll be out and about in a week.” “Are you sure about that?” Dr. Cast said surprised. Three more squares form, blue, red and peach. “No! No! No!” Vegeta flailed in the air, “My native species has accelerated healing abilities! It must have carried over!” Then he gritted his teeth while his eyes screamed. “Well, you won’t heal faster if you jerk around like that,” Dr. Cast said. Dr. Brace casted a spell on the wrappings turning them a shining white. Then he began to rewrap Vegeta starting with his front right leg. Vegeta flexed his wrist as he moved on, “This doesn’t hurt anymore?” “It’s the anti-pain spell,” Dr. Brace said, “We did say we were here to clean and recharge the bandages.” “And the blankets,” Dr. Statin said, fluffing the blankets in his peach magic. “I’ll put a softer spell on it.” “Oh, we should probably check the evacuation spell,” Dr. Cast said. Vegeta blushed, feeling his tail being lifted. He struggled to lower it. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” “The evacuation spell takes care of your bodily functions while you’re incapacitated,” Dr. Cast smiled, “Unless you want a lesson on how your new form works in that manner?” “No, no that’s perfectly fine…” Vegeta clinched his eyes, “Go ahead. Poke away.” The doctors tried not to laugh. “That’s not how it works. It’s an internal magic that teleports anything inside before it reaches that point,” Dr. Cast lowered his tail, “Everything’s clean.” “And everything’s fluffed,” Dr. Statin laid the blanket back down. Dr. Cast lowered Vegeta back down. He quickly shuffled into a comfortable spot. “So then, about my questions?” “Of course, Sire,” Dr. Brace nodded. The others nodded as well. “Tell me about this land. This is my first time here, obviously.” “Well,” Dr. Statin started, “what do you want to hear first? That is a very broad topic.” “How about history?” The four nodded, smiling. “Good,” Vegeta thought, “Past is Prelude after all.” Dr. Staten took a long breath. “In ancient times the three tribes, Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies, were enemies. Then a winter came that turned into an eternal blizzard. Food ran out, and the tribes unable to come together in this time of crisis, fled their homeland and began to wander. Each found a new home and resettled. Then they discovered the other tribes had stumbled across the same valley. The fighting started again, quickly followed by a new blizzard. This blizzard turned from simple snow to pure ice, feet thick covering the land with the speed of a storm wave across the beach. The tribes took shelter in a large cave. Fighting broke out, and ice quickly swept through the cave encapsulating the national leaders and their ponies. The survivors fled to the rear of the cave. These peasants had never met anyone from the other tribes and quickly discovered they had more in common than their leaders had led them to believe. When laughter broke out, the roaring of the wind turned to whinnies of pain. The unicorn sorcerer, Clover the Clever was with the group. She recognized the scream as Wendigos, ice spirits that gain their strength from hatred. Clover encouraged the joy and signing, and with a spell of love drove back the demons. First thawing the cave, and then the valley. Afterwards the tribes united as one nation and founded Equestria.” “Now that’s a legend,” Vegeta said wide-eyed, “I honestly wasn’t expecting anything remotely close to that.” Dr. Statin bowed, “The reign of Discord would be next.” “Discord? You mean that thing I met that’s been turned to stone several times?” “Yes,” Dr. Brace said, surprised. “You know this story?” “I heard it from Rainbow Dash and… ummm…” Vegeta hung his head, “Dang it.” He closed his eyes trying to think. He raised his head, “The yellow pegasus with pink butterflies on her rear back in Ponyville.” “Cutie Mark,” the four doctors said at once. “Excuse me?” After the four began to speak at once, the others ceded to Dr. Cast. He turned sideways exposing his flank, “These are called ‘cutie marks.’ All ponies are born with a ‘blank flank.’ Then, when they discover their destiny, a mark appears symbolizing it. As you see, ours are all varieties of medical symbols.” The other three also turn sideways. Vegeta nodded behind him, “Guess I have to put 'Find my destiny’ on the to-do list once I’m well.” “It’s actually simpler than it sounds,” Dr. Cast said, “Just do what you already naturally enjoy doing. Cutie Marks usually appear in the first few years of life.” “I hope the cutie mark for sarcasm doesn’t look stupid…” Vegeta said dryly. The doctors all laughed. Vegeta let out a held breath. “Good, they are back on my side,” he thought. “How about the current royal line? When did they come to power?” “The royal line?” Dr. Brace asked as the giggles died down. “Princesses Celestia and Luna. When did their ancestors come to the throne? From whom did they inherit power from?” “Oh…” the doctors’ mouthed. “The princesses are the first in their line,” Dr. Cast said. “They are war heroes. They came to power after defeating Discord and King Sombra over a thousand years ago.” Vegeta’s eyes-widened. “A thousand years? They are a thousand years old?” “Over a thousand years,” Dr. Cast said, “They were already fully realized alicorns when they appeared in history. Before that, only they and Discord know.” “And your calendar, it is 365 days of 24 hours?” “Yes,” Dr. Cast nodded, “They have definitely lived well over five times a normal lifespan. I understand your surprise since they look so young.” “How old are you?” Dr. Gauze asked. “53, of a race that lives 70 years.” “70?!” the four shouted at once. “That’s the average. Males usually die in their 60s,” Vegeta’s eyes widened and he glanced at the floor briefly. “I have a decade left…” he said slower. “And your calendar is 365 days of 24 hours?” Dr. Gauze asked. Vegeta nodded. Dr. Gauze collapses, “My baby filly just turned 70… so… young…” “Congratulations on your child’s birthday,” Vegeta smiled. He turned his gaze back to the remaining doctors who were not a blubbering mess, “So who was King Som-bur-a, was it?” “King Sombra was a powerful unicorn who single handedly conquered the Crystal Empire to the north,” Dr. Cast began, “Every unicorn’s magic is of the same element as their Cutie Mark, like how ours is healing magic. His magic was fear and hatred manifested as…” Vegeta was surprised when fear grips the doctors, even Dr. Gauze scrambled to his hooves and began to back into the bars of the cell. “… We should go,” Dr. Cast grabbed the files and papers and exited the cell quickly followed by the others. Dr. Gauze slammed and locked the door, and galloped after the others. Vegeta sighed frustrated. Then he laid his head down and lulled over the information. “Fear and hatred…” he thought, “This King Sombra is the reason I’m being treated like this in a frilly-fu-fu world… That also means I’m no different than a person Princess Celestia and Luna overthrew to become rulers of this land… but as an alicorn, I’m a super saiyan compared to him…” Vegeta's eyes widened and he forced himself to stand. “This is going to hurt in the morning…” he thought, feeling his bones and joints twist in ways they should not, although there was no pain. He came to the bars, “My daughter! Where is my daughter?! BULLA!”