The air was thick with the sounds of shouting as Sky waited beside Princess Celestia. The graceless, awkward Pegasus with a horn felt incredibly uncomfortable, like she was waiting in the doctor's queue and her mom nearby wasn't helping matters. Her starry eyes glanced around the crowd, and saw so many angry ponies. Reporters, journalists, and the worst of all... fancy ponies with dumb head-decorations. They hated her. It was like looking out into a sea of angry sharks, and there was fresh meat about to be thrown into it: Her.
The only thing that kept her from running off was how she could see her friends in the crowd.
"Princess Celestia! Why is everypony and their mother an Alicorn now?" A reporter asked.
"Can I be an Alicorn?" Another reporter asked.
"There is a perfectly good reason for that. Also, no." Princess Celestia stated. "I have many plans for this country's defense, some of them require more Alicorns. The situation with Tirek proved that some monsters are too powerful for us to sit idly by and do nothing. For this reason, effective immediately, I am placing additional funding into magical education, so the next generation may face these monsters without fear."
With that statement, the crowd metaphorically exploded, and from their bodies crawled out angrier sharks. Dire Sharks. Darks.
"This new Alicorn will RUIN EQUESTRIA!" A male reporter shouted, his 'reporter' badge written in comic sans.
"Why don't you ever fight monsters any more?!" A different male reporter asked.
"This new princess is ugly! Her existence promotes an unhealthy body image!" A mare reporter screeched.
"Is this where our tax bits are going? New Princesses and their endless parties?" Another male reporter asked.
"Why do you put so much faith in magic? Why do our armed forces never solve the problem?!" A Pegasus demanded hatefully.
"The new Alicorn is eating... ponies." A reporter mare wrote on her paper notes. "Alive."
"Wait, you've actually seen her eat people?" Her assistant asked in surprise.
"No, we're just reporting it." The reporter said with a grin.
Stroke appeared in the crowd behind these two, and that was the last anypony ever saw of them, or the one that had called her friend ugly.
Sky Stormer started to shake nervously.
Princess Celestia turned and left the stage, to the surprise of Twilight and Sky. They and Princess Luna left, and they went back into the castle.
"What was that?" Sky Stormer asked.
"Ponies will hate you and your Princesshood for a while." Princess Twilight said reassuringly, patting her back. "But they'll forget about how much they hate us in a week or two, then they're back to complaining about every little thing ever. It's all the reporters are good for these days."
"How do you know?" Sky asked, glad she got to talk to her second-best idol."
"I became an Alicorn a few months ago." Twilight said. "Apart from the Cult of Faust who think it's her fault for abandoning us so long ago. Which means the sane ponies have gotten over it. Give it a week or two, and they'll be kissing the very ground you walk on."
"You really think so? Ponies might... like me?" Sky asked, amazed.
"Sure!" Twilight chirped cutely.
Sky hugged Twilight a bit too tightly, making a squeaky sound. "Too tight!" Twilight gasped.
"Sorry!" Sky said frantically, letting go.
"Wow... your Earth Pony power is coming in already, huh?" Twilight asked.
"My what?" Sky asked.
"Your power. Alicorns are the combination of all three pony tribes. Unicorn magic, Pegasus wings, and Earth Pony power. And your Alicorn magic enhances the power of all three. If Princess Celestia or Luna wanted, they could beat every flight record in existence in a weekend, before starting on the harder magical and physical ones." Twilight explained. "Princess Celestia, do you know where Sky Stormer might be safe for a few days?"
Princess Celestia smiled. "I know a place where she can go. But 'safe'... is putting it rather mildly."
Sky gasped.
"Our armed forces serve literally no purpose in this day and age, save to keep up appearances, discourage weaker evils from attacking us, let us sell soldier propaganda and toys to the stupider colts, antagonize the small countries that deserve it, due to being evil and worshipping evil, and population control." Princess Celestia said bluntly. "Though... that is not entirely true. They keep the ponies who become soldiers... away from the better ponies. The entire thing is one giant carnival scam designed to ensure the poets, musicians, and scientists breed, while the soldiers take their gung-ho 'Star of their own action comic' attitudes to their graves. Seers find out what will happen and adjust their plans accordingly, ensuring those destined to commit crimes die early deaths. The better soldiers are filtered out and put into positions less likely to ensure their deaths, separating the wheat from the chaff that gets burned like the expendable resources they are. Honestly, when a pony's Cutie Mark turns out to be 'Hitting things with a sword', where else are they to go? What are they to do in life, save take out 'enemy cells' under the control of myself or my sisters, and throw themselves bodily at any monster guaranteed to kill them?"
Sky gasped. She could not believe what she was hearing. The entire military complex was... a lie? "R-really?" Sky asked, hoping it wasn't true.
"I'm sorry. But the sooner you learn this fact, the better. It will prevent you from thinking, or doing, anything stupid, like giving them a budget or feeling pity for them. If we need something done, we will do it ourselves, and watch our soldiers weep as they struggle to ignore the fact that with our magic weapon capability, my sun's power could burn away anything we actually wanted dead. Our current enemies only still live because they give our soldiers something to do, besides repeating endless drills." Princess Celestia said. "And now that you know this... you're going to Magic Camp."
"What is-" Sky Stormer was about to say, but Princess Celestia teleported her away.
"...Did you really have to tell her that-" Twilight asked.
"Part of the test." Princess Celestia said with a smile.