The bed was still too big, and she didn’t care. Even if she drenched one side with her tears she’d still have plenty of dry mattress left. Stupid oversized bed. Stupid giant room. Stupid princess horn.
“Ssh.”
Cloud Walker jumped up at the sound. Princess Celestia was standing next to her. She rubbed the the tears away and tried to look remotely presentable.
“P–princess… I’m sorry I–”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Cloud Walker, unlike myself.”
“Please change me back.”
“Hmm?”
“Make me a pegasus again. I don’t belong here in all this splendor. I’m not worthy of being grafted into your family, I can’t even grasp basic magic. All I want is to serve the ponies in Cloudsdale, that’s where I belong.”
Celestia hung her head and, to Cloud Walker’s great surprise, shed tears of her own. “I believe it’s almost time for our meeting. Shall we begin early?”
“How to be a princess? I don’t think anything can help me. I don’t really want it to.”
A white wing wrapped around her. “We shall see.”
The room vanished. Cloud Walker’s heart started racing. They were back in her personal nightmare; the starry expanse that heralded her exile from the pegasi.
“No, not here! Not here again! Please don’t leave me!”
Celestia draped her neck over her shoulder. “I will never leave you. You have nothing to fear from this place, or from me. I’d hoped you’d be more acclimated to your new role before I brought you here, I see that that was yet another mistake on my part.”
Cloud Walker’s legs and wings flailed around. “I can’t move, I can’t move…”
“You can. You’re an alicorn and whether or not you have full control of it, there is great magic within you. Take a deep breath and then take one step.”
She held her breath. How many years had she been on the campaign trail before getting elected? She could steady her nerves and take one tiny step.
Deep breath. Calm. Move a hoof.
Her hoof touched something. Something solid. She looked down and saw a pathway made of shimmering glass. She was standing at long last.
“Where did that come from?”
“From you. From your will and your magic.”
“I don’t want magic. I don’t want to be an alicorn at all.”
“Tell me about your ascension.”
“Please don’t make me.”
“Not the bad part. Tell me everything that led up to it.”
“I… I was working late in my office. I was working on a revitalization project for downtown Cloudsdale, it was going to make so many ponies’ lives better. That’s what I loved about my job, taking care of them. For a moment I felt such a deep connection to all of them it’s like they were a part of me. I could feel their needs, their desires.”
“And then?”
“Then my office was filled with wind and light. All the paperwork went flying and… and…”
“Ssh, you don’t need to go on.”
“I do. Twilight told me about her ascension. You were there, she felt at peace, excited even… that’s why I know I don’t belong here. There’s no part of being a princess or an alicorn that I want, I just want to go back to my normal life. Can’t you take this gift away? Give it to somepony else.”
“Cloud Walker, you misunderstand how this works. Again, that’s no fault of yours, it’s mine.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t hoof-pick ponies for ascension. Most of the time I see the potential in the young ones and attempt to guide them along the path, like I was able to do with Twilight. Ultimately, she unlocked the gift within herself.”
“I did this?”
“Yes, and I consider myself personally responsible for all the pain you’ve experienced as a result. In my near-constant focus on the unicorns I failed to see your meteoric rise among the pegasi. I haven’t seen a pegasus or earth pony ascend in over five hundred years.”
Cloud Walker looked up at her and wiped away one of her tears. “Don’t cry for me. Wherever the fault lies I don’t need to see my beloved princess cry. Nopony does.”
Celestia smiled. “I see our lessons have begun already.”
“Excuse me?”
“I think you misunderstood my purpose in these ‘princess lessons’, they aren’t for you. They’re for me and, in time, for the other princesses as well.”
“What can all of you possibly learn from me?”
“What does your cutie mark mean to you?”
Cloud Walker frowned as she looked to her flank. Her pair of clouds being pierced by a ray of sunshine seemed like a cosmic joke now. “Well I thought it meant that my talent was pegasus leadership, that I’d see the rays of truth in Cloudsdale. Now that I’m an alicorn I don’t really know.”
“I think you had it right all along, all except for your focus solely on pegasus leadership.”
“I don’t see how I’m going to help anypony, sitting in a castle, eating brunch, sleeping in a giant room…”
“I couldn’t agree more. Whether we care to admit it or not, the role of princesses in Equestria isn’t what it should be. No number of royal courts, speeches, or meet-and-greets is going to change the simple fact that we’re far removed from the ponies we serve; myself most of all. We’re disconnected from the day to day lives of our subjects, and I sincerely hope that you’re able to change that.”
“Me?”
“I can’t apologize enough for not seeing your potential sooner, but as I’ve grown to know you over the past week it’s become blindingly obvious. You’re more than a leader among ponies, you have an empathy and understanding that rivals anything I’ve ever seen. What Cloudsdale lost in a mayor I want Equestria to gain in a princess.”
Cloud Walker stared down at the glass path they were standing on. She could see her reflection, horn and all. “You want me to be some sort of royal advisor.”
“No. An advisor can only make suggestions. As you see things in Equestria that aren’t right, you will have the authority to change them for the better. There is no red tape and no politics. I only ask that we continue to meet, you and I, to discuss your approach and your new ideas. I want all of the other princesses to learn from you.”
She was smiling now. She couldn’t help it. “I really could be a pony among ponies.”
“If you choose to be. I won’t force this on you.”
“Can I at least sleep in a smaller room?”
Celestia laughed. “As you wish, Princess Cloud Walker.”