Chapter 2: New Pecking Order

Weird looks and hushed whispers accompanied them all the way to the palace. Blueblood didn't even seem to notice, the same laid-back grin on his face the entire trip, not a care in the world. It was nice not being frisked when entering somewhere important for once, doubly so when the pony that brought her there was allowed to waltz right in.

Not that her new boss was actually waltzing, but he definitely had a spring in his step. The moment they were alone in one of the long, decorative hallways, Gilda reached over to tap him on the shoulder with a talon. "Alright buddy, what's going on here?"

He didn't slow down, but turned his head slightly. "Hm?"

She narrowed her eyes, keeping her voice low. "Everyone back at the gazebos was looking at me like you were planning to serve roast griffon at the next big shin-dig! What the hell was that about?!"

He actually seemed to tinge green, stopping where he stood to stare at her for a moment, aghast. "Th-that... Are you suggesting I plan to eat you?"

The hybrid shrugged, an eyebrow raised. "I'unno, you tell me! Did you see the looks we were getting all the way here?"

The prince seemed to shake off his revulsion, raising his snout slightly. "For one thing, Miss Gilda, we do not ingest flesh of other beings here."

She knew that. Damn shame, too, one of her earliest memories was of catching a tasty rat.

"For another, I imagine they're simply unaccustomed to a specimen of your stature roaming the city."

Specimen of my...?

He smiled again. "That will change, rest assured, but in the mean time you'll be needing somewhere to stay, I should think?"

Gilda blinked, flapping her wings once as she adopted a more casual stance. "Those, uh, 'top of the line' accomodations?"

Blueblood nodded, the two of them continuing down the hallway until he saw another white unicorn coming down the opposite end, calling out to get her attention. "Miss Raven, a moment?"

Raven, her brown mane and tail both set in a bun, a white neck-thing different from the prince's with a red ruffly thing hanging from the front, visibly tensed. Gilda could see her blink twice behind her black-rimmed glasses. "Y-yes, Prince Blueblood?"

He gave that same relaxed smirk, but something on Raven's face said it made her uncomfortable. Or maybe it was the griffon behind him. "That guest room I've never used, make sure it's in tip-top shape and see to it that my new bodyguard is comfortable."

Her eyes shot back and forth between Blueblood and his new protection, mouth open just slightly as though dying to ask the question that her eyes practically screamed. 'what's going on here?'

Gilda, standing behind her new boss, shrugged lightly, which she hoped would communicate, 'you're asking me?'

The exchange took less than a second, Raven locking onto Blueblood. "Right away, sir." She trotted off, presumeably to go do... Whatever preparing a room meant.

"So," Gilda probed, "I take it you don't get a lot of new hires in here? What happened to your last bodyguard?"

He chuckled. "Nothing, the position has always been vacant, but with recent events I'm feeling compelled to amend that." The grin disappeared as he raised a hoof to his chin in thought. "Not that all the royal guards at once would stand up to a threat like Tirek or Nightmare Moon, should we ever see either again for any reason, but what's the harm in preparing, no?"

She very briefly contemplated whether it was better to get out now or risk death at the claws of a super monster. Remembering her bravado from earlier, she reached a decision. Bring on the freakshows. If I'm dying, I'm dying like a badass!

None of this registered in her face, however, prompting Blueblood to continue the conversation himself. "So, would you like a tour of the palace? It usually takes quite some time," his head-spike lit up again as he levitated a little stop watch from his neck-thing, which she made a mental note to find out the proper name for, beaming proudly, "but I've managed to shave it down to one hour and fifteen minutes showing foreign dignitaries and honored guests around. Two hours, ten minutes if you include the Royal Garden!"

Gilda deadpanned. "I couldn't care less what this place looks like or what ancient, cheesy crap you've got waiting to get knocked over and broken in the halls."

Somehow, he smiled wider, which was starting to annoy her. "Of course, shall I point you to the dining room? I'm sure you'll find the palace staff have perfected culinary-"

"Um, Your Highness?" Raven popped up behind him at some point, tapping his shoulder with a hoof. "Your bodyguard's quarters are ready."

The wide, slightly creepy smile faded to a calm, neutral expression. "Hm? Oh, yes, show her the way, would you? There are some matters I should probably attend to myself."

Gilda irritably flapped her wings once as she called after him, startling Raven. "Wait a second, aren't I supposed to be guarding you?"

Trotting away, he glanced over his shoulder. "Not to worry, while in the palace, the chances I'll come to harm are virtually non-existant. Be seeing you!"

She scowled, this whole thing stunk of funny business. Raven's hoof was waving in front of her face. "Pardon, Miss Bodyguard?"

"Gilda." She remembered she was supposed to be crashing in the fanciest bed she'd likely ever see tonight. "The room, I guess?"

The pony with a feather and ink pot on her butt smiled. "Right this way, please."

It was, without a doubt, the swankiest room Gilda had ever been in.

Shimmering silver and glittering gold were on almost everything, furniture, walls, ceiling, and the edges of the floor, shaped into all sorts of crazy-intricate patterns. In the center of the roof was a chandelier so bright it hurt to look straight at it, not helped by the light being reflected off the many, many, many gold surfaces to illuminate the room even further. Mirrors of various shapes and sizes, almost none reasonable for actually looking at yourself, were apparently welded to a few things in the room, mostly on the ceiling around the chandelier, the floor was mostly done in white carpet so soft she might have paid good money to sleep on it, and there were classy paintings on every wall, encrusted with the gold and silver patterns, of course.

She looked at Raven, an eyebrow raised. "So, how dead am I if anything in here gets busted?"

What Gilda guessed was some kind of secretary blinked once before giggling. "Ohh, not to worry, everything in this room has been destroyed at least twice."

"..."

"Since I started working here, I mean."

She asked for elaboration in the form of a confused head-tilt.

Raven adjusted her spectacles calmly. "Strange things happen here at the castle, Miss Gilda. Not copiously so, but enough that we have well-paid maintenance staff at the ready when destructive forces should strike. I think the most recent was due to a visit by a friend of one of the regular musicians."

No worries if I break something on accident, then? She smiled. Right-on! "Cool. So, where can I grab some grub around here?"

Cash's chefs might've given her funny looks every time they saw the griffon, but they also gave her some halfway decent meals, sometimes even warm. Stumbling through Canterlot palace with a lightly swollen stomach, she was sure things were different here. She ate several things she couldn't identify and something that smelled like Prench toast, shaped like a star. Details were lost somewhere in the binge, but a few things stuck in her memory; good food, cheery ponies bringing her the good food, and a LOT of good food being brought by cheery ponies.

She half-expected them to burst into song. For reasons she wasn't quite up to asking, there were instruments lined up along one of the walls.

They were nothing like Cash's flimsy 'friends' and cronies, they smiled, asked what she would like, gave suggestions when she realized she had no idea what the cluck anything was called here, and then brought them to her without a trace of condescension or that 'ew, I'm serving food to not-a-pony' look she sometimes got, even if only rarely.

If I had the kinda money some of those ponies do, she thought, sluggishly scraping a talon along the floor as she went, I'd be... An unpleasant thought hit her like a hammer to the back of the head. I'd... I'd be just like them, wouldn't I? Selfish, smarmy, egotistical? Wasn't that just how she and Dash used to be, when she didn't have to worry about keeping herself fed? The ashamed bully hung her head as she wandered the palace alone, quietly hating herself.

It had gotten late, and it was while wandering the halls in search of the room with all the shiny crap and a bed to slip into a food coma in that she bumped into someone, her usual fallback of 'watch where you're going' in such situations coming out as a dull mumble.

"Oh," the taller figure she'd collided with giggled in a friendly tone, "pardon me, I didn't see you there."

Gilda was far too stuffed to be mad at the moment, settling for drowsily gawking at the speaker, the sight immediately snapping her awake.

"Hello," Celestia said softly, "I haven't seen you around the palace before, what is your name?"

"I, h-hi, uh..."

"Ai'h'hia?" She giggled. "I don't think I've ever met a Saddle Arabian griffon before, but salaam alaikum none-the-less, effendi!"

Not-Ai'h'hia shook her head. "I mean, Gilda, my name's Gilda."

The pony that controlled the clucking sun nodded. "Nice to meet you, Gilda. What brings you to the castle at this late hour?"

She composed herself as best she could, trying not to think about where she'd be banished if she ticked off a princess. "I work here, I mean, I work for your son and-"

Celestia's eyes opened widely in shock, her ethereal mane taking on more fiery hues for a split second. "My WHAT?!"

Gilda cowered behind her talons, held up in a weak defense, "I-I mean, uh," her brain was scrambled, what was her new boss supposed to be again? "Th-the guy with the long head-spike, neck-thing, keeps a flower-pen in it?"

She went from a mix of horrified and outraged to just confused, blinking twice. "...What?"

Whatwashisnamewhatwashisname?! "Uhh, white pony, blond hair, blue'n yellow star-thing on his ass, hasn't had a bodyguard in forever?"

The mouth of the most powerful being she'd ever met twitched before curving into a smile. She closed her eyes, giggling for several seconds, then started laughing, loudly. Gilda could only stand there feeling increasingly uncomfortable as the princess went from rearing up on her hind legs to flopping over on the ground and kicking her legs in the air, laughing like she'd lost her mind the whole time.

She eventually started to catch her breath, standing up again and wiping away tears with a hoof as she got up. "F-forgive me-hee-hee-hee! It's been..." She took a deep breath. "Ohh, at least a few decades since somepony has made a mistake like that."

Gilda gulped, but maintained eye contact.

The princess paused, brushing a hoof against her chin in thought. "Well, that I've heard about, at least." She shrugged, her voice very, very calm, even friendly. "Prince Blueblood is my nephew, not my son." Celestia's smile sent a weird, warm tingle through her chest. "You say you work for him now? What do you do, if you don't mind my asking?"

The near-panicked hybrid felt like she was dodging arrows by scant centimeters, each question the one that might do her in if she didn't provide a good enough answer. "Bodyguard."

She felt a lead weight drop in her gut when the princess's face grew mostly neutral, apart from a little frown. "Bodyguard? ...Is he being threatened by somepony? Does he not feel safe anymore?"

Bullseye. Dead. She had no answer for this, only able to stammer incoherently while desperately fumbling for a reply.

Celestia smiled apologetically, reaching out with a massive, white wing to gently brush the feathers atop Gilda's head. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to worry you, but you can understand my own concern, can't you?"

She nodded once in reply, possibly the only thing she could do at the moment before the alicorn turned her head in the direction of a voice about a split second before Gilda heard it.

"Ohh, there you are, Miss Gilda!" It was Raven, who apparently also made a habit of wandering around the castle right after sunset. "You weren't in your chambers, so I wished to make certain all was-" She stopped, quickly bowing to the pony with an even longer head-spike than her new boss's, if only slightly. "Good evening, Princess!"

Celestia replied with a pleasant grin. "Good evening, Raven." She quickly looked to Gilda. "I'll be seeing you, Miss Gilda, please take good care of my nephew."

Standing on her paws and delivering a crisp salute, wings folded, might not have made the most sense at that moment, but it was the first thing that came to mind. The princess's smile didn't go away as she trotted off, so she figured it was a good call.

Right up to Raven's lightly bewildered look.

Her avian eyes quickly shifted about before locking on what she guessed was the castle secretary. "What?"

She chuckled in response, offering a friendly smile. "Please don't worry, I've seen much stranger shows of respect for ponies of Her station." She looked away somewhat nervously. "The rain-dance has to have been the most perplexing to date..."

Curious, but also wanting to get some shut-eye, Gilda changed the subject. "Right. So, where was my room again...?"

All things considered, she slept well that night.

Author's Notes:

Raven is a background pony that sometimes pops up as somepony's assistant. Sometimes she's Celestia's aide, sometimes she helps Mayor Mare do stuff, sometimes she cowers before Luna while dressed in a devil costume. She also switches between unicorn and earth pony, as ponies we're not supposed to pay attention to kindof do. For simplicity's sake, I'm going with Celestia's unicorn aide.