//------------------------------//
// 167 - Friends Revisited 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Silver finished playing with, and changing, his foals and emerged to find Samantha writing busily in a journal of hers. "Everything alright?"

Samantha perked an ear. "Would it be proper for me to report on the current status of NefNef and Night?"

Silver blinked at the pointed question. "Just how much do you monitor? Telling me they're alright and where they are should be alright, but not what they're talking about, if you can do that, unless you think it's extremely important."

Samantha pointed out to the hallway. "They're both in NefNef's room, condition optimal. Are you staying for the evening?"

"Can't." Silver moved over to kiss Samantha's cheek. "I have to see some ponies. Prince or not, there are things to do, forms to fill, and ponies to be alerted. I want to do this right."

Samantha returned the peck. "Go ahead then. I'll catch up with my work, but when you get back, I want to examine those wings of yours." She said words of science, but her tone implied intimacy, leaving Silver confused, and blushing mildly.

He nodded and slipped from the room, trotting past Nefertari's door with a momentary urge to see what they were doing, but he went on past it. The first pony he'd see didn't have an illustrious rank, but was still important. He opened the door to his office to see that pony sitting there. "Hey Tumble."

Tumble whipped his head around, looking over his shoulder at the young alicorn that easily met his eyes where Silver had been shorter. "What..." He stood up on shaking legs. "What happened?"

Silver turned one way and the other, letting Tumble see all of him. "I walked right into it, and I'm making the best of it, but we're not here for that. We're here for you."

"You're a princess!"

Silver peeked under his barrel briefly. "No, definitely not one of those."

Tumble colored at the peek. "Y-you know what I mean!" He approached Silver slowly, eyeing him with wide eyes. "You're royalty now, right?"

Silver stilled, allowing the examination. "I declined that. I'll earn it, through action, not just because I have some extra parts. Speaking of which, have you figured out what kind of truck you want?"

"You were serious?" Tumble circled around Silver before pausing. "Why do you have one horseshoe? Did you lose the others?"

Silver brought a hoof to his face. "Oh that's right! I have the other two in my pocket, one's on Night Watch, and I should have already given one of these to Samantha."

Tumble shrank a little. "I guess the other's going to that diamond dog?"

Silver raised a brow at that. "She's a jackal, not a dog, an anubian to be specific. Calling her a diamond dog seems an interesting way to challenging her to a scrap. She hasn't joined the herd, and nopony is until I've earned that title properly."

Tumble glanced around suddenly. "Does that mean... I have a chance?"

Silver started at that, even as he chastised himself for not seeing that coming a mile away. "There are specific steps to take, which don't begin with me. Night nominates new members, then we all have to agree, and that's the basics."

"Oh..." Tumble flashed a hopeful smile. "But it's not impossible, right?"

Silver returned the smile. "Not impossible, but, Tumble, I'm not the only one for you. You don't need this kind of complicated mess in your life. Let's get you on the path to independence. So, did you pick?"

Tumble sat on his haunches and rubbed his forehooves together. "I picked a few... I didn't think you were totally serious about it, so I just kinda picked what I'd take if I had millions of bits." He produced a magazine on the newest and greatest innovations in automobile technology and set it down, pointing at a beast of a machine displayed across two pages. Unlike Earth, there was no promise of 'available at your nearest dealer'. Only one had been built, and only one would be sold. The industrial revolution simply hadn't happened the same.

Silver let out a long and low whistle when he saw the price and all its many zeroes as his magic pulled the magazine over to look at. It was an enchanting machine, literally, powered in no small part by magic. Though it'd run faster with a unicorn powering it, it claimed to support a battery of sorts that a unicorn could charge up for mobility without one around. "Not bad at all, but I can't help but think you'd do better with one not magic powered."

"Too expensive?" Tumble sat beside Silver. "Like I said, I just kinda went for the best one."

"I'm not even looking at that. You're not a unicorn, which makes this not the best one." Silver flipped through the magazine and found another a few pages in. It didn't report as high a maximum speed, but it ran on a burning engine, the sort you could put in coal, wood, or even ,apparently, gasoline. How it managed to take such a wide variety of fuel was beyond Silver, but there it was, claiming to be efficient and powerful. "Look at this one. I think this is better for you, specifically. No matter how far you go, you can grab some fuel and keep it moving, but if you're in the middle of nowhere with the other one, you'd be stuck."

"Huh..." He leaned over a bit, pressing his side to Silver. "Guess you have a point there, but this one's expensive too."

"I'll talk to Celestia about it. You're going to put it to work, right?"

Tumble started faintly. "Princess Celestia?" He caught himself and laughed. "Oh, right. Ambassador, alicorn, I guess you can talk to her whenever you want."

"You avoided the question." Silver put a leg around Tumble and squeezed him gently. "What will you do with it?"

Tumble licked over suddenly dry lips. "I'll... drive it. I'll..." Suddenly something clicked. "I can move big things."

"How big?"

"The biggest!" Tumble flipped through to a picture of a huge trailer that could be attached to one of these vehicles. "Big, heavy, and long-distance, just the kind of thing that'd tire out a pegasus.

Silver smiled, not because it was a new idea, but because it was an old one he had heard once in his dream. He felt certain Tumble could make that work. "That sounds like you could make a niche for yourself, and do something that's not done much right now."

"So, is this serious?" Tumble turned to face Silver. "I mean, one hundred percent?"

"I'll propose the idea to Celestia, but I think we'll manage this, but did you remember the conditions?"

Tumble leaned forward suddenly and exhaled in Silver's face. It smelled of Tumble, but not of booze. "I'm clean, promise! Look, you do this, and I'll swear off the stuff forever!"

"That would make me happy. Tumble, I know you have a hard time believing this, but I know you can be so much. You're a special stallion." Silver rose to his hooves. "No time like the present, besides, Celestia's waiting to introduce me to some other ponies along the way. I'll be sure to get a letter to you either way with updates. If we can't do that truck for any reason, we'll find another. We'll make this work."

Tumble rose up on his own. "Yeah... I believe you..." He began trotting for the door. "So, Night first, huh?" Then he was gone.

Silver softly sighed, imagining Tumble clumsily propositioning Night. He wasn't sure if he should wish the stallion luck on that particular venture. "A nice husband that isn't a vortex of confusion would be ideal." He trotted from his office, closing and locking it behind himself before he went to meet with Celestia.

As he went, a pony tried to dash across the hallway and they bumped softly. "Excuse me, miss." He tilted his head, realizing it was Carrot Plate. "Oh! Hi there, Carrot. How are you?"

Carrot flashed a soft smile, glancing off. Silver heard a faint but harsh hiss. He let his magic spread and feel around. An older pony was watching them and was the source of the hissing. "So, uh, hi! We seem to be running into each other a lot." She gave a false laugh, as obvious as her nervousness. "We should hang out on purpose just once."

Silver leaned in a little, considering how to speak to her subtly. "That would be nice." He flashed a bright smile. "I know just the place."

Carrot blinked with obvious surprise. "Really? That quickly?" Another soft hiss came from the watcher. "I mean, sure! That'd be great!"

Silver put a hoof to her snout. "Go on and do what you have to do. I'll pick you up later and we can catch up."

She wandered off, and the watcher retreated back into the hallway they were hiding in. Silver snorted softly. He would visit Carrot, but it would be in a place no voyeurs could witness. A smile spread across his face as he moved alone, soon arriving at the room Celestia had asked him to visit. He clopped a hoof once on the door before opening it gently and proceeding inside.

Celestia sat with a scholarly-looking unicorn. That unicorn perked his ears with curiosity, eyes shining with amazement. "In the flesh... So it is possible for males to ascend..." He rose to his hooves. "Please, pardon my rudeness. I'm Sharp Quill and it's a pleasure to meet you, Silver Watch."

She smiled gently. "He's here to take notes and see the history that's been made. This is all new, so it seemed prudent to be thorough. Sharp, this is Silver Watch, as you know."

"Pleasure to meet you." Silver dipped his head a little at the scholar. "What's your specialty?"

"Oh? Oh! I specialize in noble etiquettes and laws, Your Highness."

Silver raised a hoof at that. "I'm no prince."

"But..." He tilted his head slowly. "Are you a princess then?"

Celestia hid her snout behind a hoof. "I think he would find that title a bit troublesome."

Silver settled beside the table. "You're a good pony to ask. I want to earn the title of prince 'properly'. I don't think ponies will accept a prince so easily, at least not like this. I mean, there's Blueblood, but he got it by birth."

Sharp frowned thoughtfully. "An interesting conundrum. The easiest solution that comes to mind is to win the favor of a noble house and be formally adopted, which would make you nobility and your title far less jarring."

Celestia smiled at the idea. "That seems feasible. Surely we can find one that would eagerly seek such an arrangement."

A chill ran through Silver and he thought back to the seemingly-coerced Carrot Plate. Was she noble? Was that how they hoped to get him, and others may as well. "Would marriage work?"

Sharp blinked and nodded. "Oh, yes. Marrying into nobility would serve much the same effect. You would have a claim to nobility then, but I'm to understand you're already a member of a herd?"

"Would that stop it?" Silver spread his wings a little. "I'm just exploring options, not suggesting that's the best way."

"Well, technically, no. Having a noble as part of your herd, antiquated as that is, would make the herd a part of the noble family. Please forgive the asking, but how did you come to end up in such an outmoded legal construct?" Sharp tilted his head, eyes shining with curiosity.

Silver waved a little. "Long story, but I think the first pony that mentioned it to me read too many bad romance novels, and the second was just old-fashioned and here we are. If it makes a difference, the world I came from was mostly monogamous pairs too."

Celestia quirked a smile. "You've come a long way."