//------------------------------//
// 287 - Hello, Princess 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Twilight strode slowly down the hallway, her brother at her side. "It all feels... different."

Spike nodded lightly at that, a quill in his right hand. "Yeah. I mean, we're here to be in charge."

"Not exactly that, yet. There is the coronation to do." Twilight coiled towards him. "But, yes, exactly that! I can... do this though." She took a slow breath, showing the breathing motion Cadance had shown her with an extension of her hoof. "We have this... Now, let's review the checklist."

"Well, we're past step 1. Castle's fixed." He inclined his quill towards the lack of damage as they walked past a hallway that had once been open ceilinged. "Ah, here we go. Meet the locals."

"You mean local nobles?" asked Twilight with a lifted ear. "Well to-do merchants and movers and shakers of Canterlot."

"Well, those too." Spike shrugged as he walked with her. "But it says here specifically the ones working here in the castle with you."

A lunar pony trotted out of a hallway in front of them. The mare stopped on seeing them, eyes narrowing faintly before a smile spread on her face. "Princess Twilight?"

Twilight blinked softly. "Oh! Hello there." A thick index of cards appeared suddenly and flipped themselves until she spotted the right one. "Night Watch?"

"Got it in one, though considering the number of lunar ponies in the castle, you had at least a 20% chance, raised considerably if you filter for adult members of the species." Night nodded as she approached Twilight. "So you'll be the new princess of the kingdom?"

Twilight took measure of the pony approaching her even as she read the index card out of the corner of her eye. "And you are the reigning expert in all manners 'shamanistic'. Could you define that for me?"

"Isn't that what Zecora does?" asked Spike a bit helplessly.

One of Night's ears skewed to the side. "Zecora is an alchemist," she corrected. "Even if I never heard of her throwing a single bomb... Yes, I am a shaman in the jackal style of the arts." She raised a hoof to point at herself. "It is my duty, among others, to train others in the safe use of this magic."

Twilight offered a hoof. "And also wife of another pony I need to talk to. A pleasure to meet you, Night Watch."

The hoof was met with a soft clop. "Likewise. We will work together, for Equestria."

"For... Equestria, yes. That somehow feels strange to say despite my working for Equestria for quite some time." She moved the same hoof behind her head. "This is a new thing and I will do my best to adapt gracefully, but I do appreciate your help."

Night's expression softened into an easy smile. "Change can be scary. If I can help, please, let me know."

Spike stepped forward, offering a hand. A hoof was placed in it and they shook lightly. "I'm Spike, by the way."

"I've  heard of you," agreed Night with a nod. "You mentioned my husband, Silver. I imagine he wants to meet you both as well."

Twilight perked up. "Great! Where is he?"

Night turned in place and pointed down a hallway. "Head towards the school for talented unicorns."

Twilight started. "He's there?! I mean, not that there's anything wrong with there. I was a student there, once... I actually never thought I'd be visiting again." She softly coughed, calming herself. "I'll go see. Thank you."

"My pleasure, Your Highness." Night smiled, in part in seeing how Twilight tensed at being called that. "Little tip, you don't have to worry about formalities around him. Treat him as the pen pal he is and he will gladly return the favor."

Spike inclined his head. "Oh. That guy? We're visiting that guy?"

"Yes, Spike, come on." She led Spike away down the hallway, the conversation at an end.

Night watched them go with a soft shake of her head. "Long live the princess," she sighed out with a little smile, trotting off to her own duties.





"Summer Showers." Silver indicated a pony with an extended wing. "What do you think the answer is?"

"Oh, um..." The mare's eyes darted nervously.

"No pressure," assured Silver. "This is a new thing. If it helps, it took me quite a long time to get a grasp on this one." His horn colored in a strange way. "This is the note you have to play. It means to add heat. I want you all to practice it until you can warm a glass of water to a comfortably warm level. If it gets boiling hot, you're going too far. Do not experiment on anything but a glass of water. Water will give you time to stop. Water doesn't burst into flames. That is all your homework. Practice and feel the magic."

Soft murmurs began to rise as students got to their hooves. The giving of homework was apparently also a dismissal and they were moving to get to the next class and talking with one another.

Twilight slipped around the crowd, approaching Silver. On her back, Spike was riding along. "Wasn't heat your first magic?" she questioned quietly.

"Well, yes," he confessed. "But I didn't want to hurt her confidence. There are other symbols I tripped over."

"About that," pressed Twilight. "What are you teaching, exactly? 'Adds heat'? That was just one letter, not a spell. It doesn't mean anything."

Silver looked over the alicorn he was talking to and it clicked. He laughed suddenly. "Is that you, Twilight?"

Twilight blinked in surprise. "Yes, and you are Silver Watch, Prince, yes?"

"I am," he gladly replied, stepping closer. "There you are, in the flesh." After avoiding her for so long, it felt almost surreal, but there she was, with Spike. "Hey, Spike... You have wings. When did you get wings?"

Twilight inclined her head. "I didn't bring it up in the letters. It didn't seem relevant to what we were discussing."

Spike extended his wings to either side. "Cool, huh? They work too!" He lifted from Twilight's back, darting around the room in demonstration.

Silver's eyes followed the young dragon. "They're great, but that doesn't tell me how?" Had that been part of the show? Well, it...  had to continue after he stopped watching it on account of living in it, right? But was that in it?! 

"Apparently a normal dragon thing." Spike landed in front of Silver, grinning up to him. "It means I'm becoming an adult."

"Oh..." Dragon puberty, he silently added in his mind. That made sense enough. "Congratulations, Spike."

"About that not-spell," insisted Twilight. "What are you teaching these foals? The alphabet is not magic in itself. It's a means to an end."

"It is a means and an end," spoke Silver in correcting tone. "Each letter is a fragment of a command to the universe, and can do something on its own. When combined into a sentence, you do something far more specific. A spell. Some words do little. What can the universe do with the command 'To'? But as part of a sentence, it changes everything."

Twilight raised a brow high. "You are suggesting that just about every... Wait, no." She sat and brought a hoof to her chin. "There was another pony that had similar thoughts, come to think of it. They laughed her out of polite society some hundreds of years ago."

"Not a thousand?"

Twilight blinked softly. "No? As I was saying, this mare had a similar theory on the composition of magic, but it very clearly did not win her any friends."

"Will you turn your back on an uncomfortable possibility?" He inclined his head softly. "You are becoming the princess of the country. If you order me to stop giving these lessons, I'm here to help you, so I will stop."

"I... appreciate that." Twilight looked around the room from her seated position. "It really has been some time since last I was here..."

"Then now is a fine time for you to catch up on some classwork," teased Silver with a little grin. "Miss Sparkle, are you ready?"

"Yes, Teacher!" She snapped to attention, facing him directly before reality returned to her. "You're not my teacher, and I'm not a stu--"

"You could be, and maybe should be. The most fair way forward is to show you a little of what I have been teaching and you can decide for yourself."

Spike softly shrugged. "Sounds reasonable to me. So, hey, you're a princess and a dude. That mean any stallion could do it? What about a dragon? Asking for a friend, of course." He adjusted a collar he wasn't waring.

Twilight gently brushed him back with a wing. "Don't be rude, Spike. He's a prince. A prince that is challenging me." She fluffed herself up. "In a matter of academics and magic."

Silver's left ear swerved back against his head. "Are you mad?"

"Incensed!" She stepped up to her hooves. "But also fascinated. Very well, you've been an interesting conversationalist in our correspondence thus far. I will be here tomorrow for class and I expect to be impressed, one way or the other."

Silver raised a hoof. "That may be a bad idea. You being there with the rest of the class means everyone else in the class will be thoroughly distracted. Private lessons may be in order?"

Spike waved at Silver. "He isn't wrong."

"I know that, Spike." Her magic wrapped around him, placing him on her back. "Very well. I'll be back today then, after classes are over. I'll learn a 'magic letter' from you, though I will have you know I've already memorized every letter."

"Not every letter." He turned away with a smile, thinking of the most recent letter he had learned from a not-unicorn. "Tell me, have you met a kirin before?"

"I've heard of them," she allowed with some confusion. "My friends ran into them. Friendly creatures. Why?"

"They have words for what we take for granted. We'll go over it, later. I'm sure you'll find it fascinating."

Twilight glanced towards the exit and back to Silver. "I'm not... doing anything this moment. Perhaps you could share it now?"

"I have a class coming in ten minutes," he noted, smirking at the blackboard as he erased what was there and began new doodles on the board. "See you tonight, Twilight."

"See you tonight... Silver." She turned away hesitantly.

Spike was snickering wildly atop her. "He got you good." He hung forward, looking into her eyes from the side. "A little tease of mysterious new magic."

"Oh, hello." A new young mare was in front of them with bright green eyes and an equally vivid cyan pelt. "You're... the literal element of magic, aren't you?"

Twilight blinked at the barely-not-a-filly. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, former bearer of the element of magic. I couldn't say I ever was the element itself. It's a rock." Smashed to bits, she silently reminded herself. "How can I... help you?"

"Oh, I'm a bit of a fan." She sat down and clopped her hooves together. "Pity you couldn't help much with the changelings."

"Wha?"

The mare leaned forward. "You did so much with almost every other disaster, but the changelings were always just a bit out of your grasp." She tilted to look at Spike. "You did more for them in the end."

Spike seemed to consider that a moment. "Huh, when you put it that way..."

Twilight frowned with growing irritation. "I suppose that's true, is there a reason you're bringing that up?"

"Because I am one." The mare became bright and colorful in whole new ways, a reformed changeling, but no small one. She was as large as any ruler of theirs. "And I love teasing a friend, which I hope we will be. I am Fast Change, and it's my delight to talk to you today."

Twilight jumped back in surprise. "Oh! Wait, you're involved with Silver, are you not?"

"And I love sitting in on his classes." With a rush, Fast became a student once more. "So I'm going to go sit down and learn how he approaches magic. It's fascinatingly weird."

Twilight allowed Fast to slip past into the class, shaking her head softly. "Huh... Silver has odd company."

"And you don't?" snorted Spike. "We've made some interesting friends."

"True..." Twilight trotted away off to other business.