adventure Elements of Equestria: Chapter 2

[DivineMist1000 71,097]

Chapter 2: Fitting In

Lee woke up very early the following morning, to the point where he refused to even move from his bed for the first few minutes, but after awhile he decided to slowly but smoothly get up from the bed. Lee stretched out and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and brush his mane and as he finished, he looked himself in the mirror and simply gazed at his own reflection and observed every detail on his face.

He lowered his head down and sighed as he looked away from the mirror.

"Well, if it has to be anypony, I can't think of anypony else worse than me" Lee laughed a little as he exited the bathroom.

Lee entered the kitchen and was prepared to make himself some breakfast before he realized that Celestia and Luna were probably waiting for him at Canterlot already and he, of course, didn't want to keep the princesses waiting for him. Lee felt his stomach growling as he went to his room to pack some essential items for his stay at the castle.

He grabbed a bag from his closet and started packing things like snacks for snacking on, a pillow and blanket to sleep with and a few books in case he got bored. As Lee reached to the top shelf for more items, he made something suddenly fall off the shelf and onto the floor, which luckily didn't make its contents fall out. It was a white box with the words "For Lee" on the front of it, but Lee was confused as to where he got this box from and had realized that he had never seen it before now. Before Lee decided to reach over and open the box, he suddenly heard knocking at his door and quickly placed the box back in the closet and closed it.

"Be right there" he said as he went to the door.

A familiar sight greeted Lee as he opened the door and saw the same royal guards from yesterday standing at his door.

"Oh, it's you guys again! How're you two doing?"

"Good morning Mister Lee, we were told by Princess Celestia and Luna to escort you to the castle for the first day of your "assignment". I trust you are all set to depart?"

"Yeah, I'm all ready to go! Just let me go and get my bag, alright? Won't be long, promise!"

Lee went back inside and retrieved his bag from his bed. Before he left the room, he glanced toward the closet and thought about that white box he found, and slowly took a step towards the closet. But his thoughts were broken by the sound of the guards yelling for him and quickly went back outside and locked his front door.

"Alright, I'm good to go! Let's get going"

Lee and the guards quickly took off from the ground and made their way toward Canterlot. Lee attempted to make conversation with the guards but they ignored all of his attempts to get their attention. He then decided to give up trying and just flew with them in silence.

Sigh... Twilight was a better companion than these two...

Lee and the two guards landed next to the main castle gates and made their way inside and back into the long and winding corridors that Lee was still unfamiliar with. Lee continued walking behind the guards until they came to a large door decorated with torches and a sun painted around the top of the door.

The guards stood at each side of the door and held their position there.

"The princesses await for you within, Mister Lee. If you would leave your bag with us, we'll make sure that it's delivered to your room" Lee did as he said and handed his bag to the guard and bowed to them in respect.

 "We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, sir!" One of the guards actually glanced at him and smiled a little, which made Lee surprised and smile in return.

"Uhh, yeah. You too! Thanks you guys!"

Lee went past the guards and opened the large door.

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Lee entered a very large chamber, which was also very well decorated and made Lee look around at the room in awe. Large drapes emblazoned with a sun and moon hung down the large windows, Multiple chandeliers and torches brightly lit the room, and in front of him was a very long table decorated with candles, bowls of apples and a long cloth that spread out the entire table. Lee continued to be awestruck by the scenery until he heard somepony in the room call his name and realized that Princess Celestia was walking towards him.

"Lee, it's so wonderful to see you again! I trust all is well for you on this fine morning?" 

"Yes, everything is just fine, Princess! Thank you again for having me here. So uhh... when do I start?"

"Oh no no no, we're not having you do anything yet, Lee. There's no way were going to have you perform your duties on an empty stomach. Come, follow me!"

Celestia pushed him towards the table with her wing and saw Princess Luna setting the table with three sets of plates, napkins and silverware. She turned to Lee and greeted him with a happy smile.

"Hello again, Lee! How are you doing this morning?"

"Princess Luna! I'm doing just wonderful, thank you."

"That's so good to hear, my friend. Come, come sit with us and breakfast will be ready shortly!"

Celestia and Luna both took their seats and Lee slowly seated himself next to Celestia, but this only made him nervous as he found himself constantly looking back and forth between her and Luna. He looked and saw multiple royal chef ponies coming into the dining hall and wheeling in a cart full of delicious choices for breakfast. Celestia looked at Lee and noticed how he was eyeballing the food, which only made her laugh a little.

"I can assume you're quite hungry, correct?" 

"Y-yeah, I'm starving! All that food looks... so delicious!"

As Lee continued to look over the food, he made very careful he wasn't drooling onto the table before he straightened himself out. The chefs made their way around the table and took the princesses' orders for their breakfast. Celestia had asked for pancakes (extra syrup and butter) and some tea to drink, while Luna had simply asked for some toast with grape jelly on the side and had some orange juice to drink. When the chef reached Lee, he actually had a hard time deciding what he wanted to eat, which made the chef impatient.

"Uhh, yeah... I'll have... some scrambled eggs with some juice on the side... I guess" Lee looked at the chef and saw a very baffling look on his face as he walked away in a huff.

"Was it something I said? D-did I offend him?" Lee asked.

Celestia laughed as she tried to calm Lee's worries. "Don't worry about that, Lee. We'll be sure to speak with him if he decides to... do something drastic! He usually does." 

The chefs returned with the food and sat each plate next to the corresponding recipient. Lee carefully examined his food to make sure nothing was wrong with it, as he could see the angry chef silently judging him nearby and then decided to taste it, which only made his eyes light up in amazement.

"W-wow! This is so delicious! This is incredible!" The chef who was "offended" heard this and actually smiled a bit at the comment as he and the other chefs bowed to the princesses and returned to the kitchens.

As Lee and the princesses finished their food and the chefs returned to take the dirty plates away, Lee thanked the princesses for the delicious breakfast.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all really! We want you to feel comfortable on your first day, and what better way than such a fantastic meal with the two of us?" 

Lee laughed a little as Celestia and Luna both smiled happily at him. The two of them then stood up and asked Lee to follow them out into the hall, making their way down the corridors together and Luna conversing with Lee as they walked.

"Your room is right down the hall here, Lee. We made sure you had the proper commodities in place and make you feel more at home"

Celestia and Luna entered the room and Lee noticed how spacious it was. The bed was fairly large, a large window which actually opened up onto a balcony and a large collection of paintings of the Royal Sisters.

"Well, here we are! We hope that the arrangements are fine" 

"It's perfect! Thank you princesses for offering me this opportunity and I'm happy to be at your service, but aren't you at all worried that I might... mess this up?"

"No, absolutely not. We have faith that you will do your best to perform your duties, so you will not hear any grief from us." Luna nodded in agreement to her sister's words, but Lee remained to look worried.

"And... what about everypony else? All those fancy dressed up fops? I'm fairly certain they won't be as generous as you two are" Lee started pacing the room nervously and started talking to himself.

Celestia and Luna looked towards each other with a worried look for a second, only for them to nod at each other a moment later. Celestia placed a wing around Lee as she brought her face closer to his.

"Lee, listen to me. Yes, some of these ponies may try to dissuade you from doing your job, some may even take to insulting your well-being, and with this in mind, it is your duty to take these "insults" and clear them your mind to the best of your abilities. And, should that not be enough to turn them, you need not worry, because I and Luna will be there and we'll know when somepony tries to do you wrong."

"Be yourself, Lee. That's all you need remember!" Luna smiled once more, which made Lee lift his head and smile at the two of them.

"Yeah, you're right! I'm not going to be brought down by them! Celestia, Luna, I promise that I will not fail you" Lee had a determined look on his face now.

"That's wonderful to hear, Lee. Now that you're settled in and had a delicious start to the day, I believe it's time for you to begin your first task."

Celestia then looked toward the clock on the wall. "We will be having our morning meeting with the ponies of Ponyville in about thirty minutes. All you need do is make your way there when the time comes, find your way inside and try your best to place yourself closest to the thrones as possible, that way we can keep an eye on you... just in case, you know."

"I'll be there, don't worry! I'll see you two there!"

Celestia and Luna waved goodbye to him and left the room, leaving Lee by himself finally. Lee walked to the window and opened it to go out onto the balcony, which he could see overlooked a large courtyard that had many ponies roaming around and sitting next to the giant fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

Lee walked back inside and started unpacking his bag. He placed the books he brought onto the desk and laid his pillow and blanket on the bed, then decided to start pacing around the room as he tried to figure out what to do next.

"Hmm, I'm sure that it wouldn't hurt to get there early" Lee gathered a notepad and a quill from the desk and walked outside into the hallway.

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Lee made his way to the throne room and saw a large group of sharply dressed ponies conversing near a window, which Lee did his best to avoid due to the nature of these kind of ponies and not wanting to start anything with them. As Lee came closer to the group, and trying to move as quickly as possible in the process, one of the ponies saw him go by and called to him. Lee sighed in regret as he faced the ponies.

The one with a mustache started examining him and scratched his chin in confusion. "You there, who are you? I don't think we've ever seen you here before"

"My name's Lee. I'm here to help the princesses with a task"

Lee heard the pony laughing at him, as well as the other ponies around him, and then cleared his throat again.

"Well, if the princesses know anything, it's that they know how to have a sense of humor. I can't honestly believe that they'd ever even speak to... well somepony like you." 

Lee looked at himself as if something was wrong with him, but he immediately became irritated by the pony's comment.

"S-somepony like me? What's that supposed to mean?" Before Lee got an answered, the group left the area as they continued laughing at him. Lee decided to just forget about it and continue making his way to the throne room. When he finally reached the door, all he could see was a very long line ponies that stretched all the way down the hall.

"Oh geez, look at all these ponies! How am I supposed to get in there with all of them in the way?"

Lee knew that the only way was to go through them and he knew that they probably wouldn't take to kindly to him cutting in line. He breathed in and out and quickly made his way through the long line of ponies, apologizing to every pony he cut in front of. And of course, many of them were cursing at him and calling for the guards, but he managed to squeeze through the door and finally enter the room.

He looked around the large sea of ponies that occupied every tile on the floor and tried to figure out how to get closest to the thrones, which were at the very back of the room. Lee continued to push through everypony and made his way to the farthest corner of the room, where he could easily see the thrones now. Celestia and Luna were talking with one another, until Luna nudged her sister and pointed toward Lee.

Celestia and Luna both waved at him and he happily waved back, but he still had a very nervous look on his face as he looked around at all the other ponies in the room. As he started to write things down on the notepad, he heard somepony talking to him.

"Must be nice, huh?" 

"Excuse me? What are you talking about?"

"The princesses. You must be here to apply for the new butler if they have YOU here. What a joke..." The pony walked away laughing as Lee's anger started to grow at the comments. Another pony went past him and wondered why "somepony like you" was here, and Lee started getting more worried.

Lee started frantically panicking as everypony around him ridiculed and called him horrible names. "Peasant. Nopony. Jester"  These were only a few of the words Lee heard as he looked around at everypony in disbelief. He held his ears as he tried to block the noise, but he could still hear the laughter, the embarrassment, the absolute horror of what was going on around him. Lee fell to the ground as he held his head in agony and screamed into the stone. 

Celestia and Luna immediately heard this commotion and Celestia quickly made her way to Lee's side, telling everypony around him to step aside at once. Celestia knelt down next to Lee and tried to get his attention.

"Lee... Lee, can you hear me? What's happened?"

Lee could not answer her, for his whole being started to shake with fear and started breathing heavily trying to hold back the tears welling up in his eyes. Everypony in the room had their eyes on Lee now, and many were whispering to themselves about what happened.

"Come, come with me. I'm getting you away from here" Celestia magically lifted Lee onto his feet and helped lead him out of the room, but Lee stayed speechless and continued shaking in fear. Celestia looked toward Luna and she nodded as Celestia left the room with Lee. 

"Alright, everypony, let's not discuss this matter any longer. Let's postpone this meeting until we say otherwise, shall we?"

 

A/N: Chapter 2 is finally completed! Lee's first day on the job starts with a delicious breakfast and ends in disaster! Will Celestia and Luna be able to set things right? Find out next time.