5. Be Majestic
“Non!” Trixie insisted, though she kept herself from truly shouting in the confines of the carriage. She glared across at Fizzlepop. “‘I am Don Rocinante’ was the best song! It was just like Rocinante, it was big an’ loud an’ told everypony what he was about…”
Fizzlepop clicked her tongue. “Sorry, but no. ‘The Impossible Dream’ is definitely going to be the big song from the play. It’s more…” she spun a hoof in the air as she searched for the right word, “accessible. ‘I am Don Rocinante’ is just about Rocinante, but ‘The Impossible Dream’ is something that ponies can sing without necessarily thinking about the play.”
Trixie tilted her head. “But why would anypony do that?”
“Resonance with their own lives,” Fizzlepop said, then felt her cheeks flushing a little, though her uniform’s illusion at least hid the blush. She cleared her throat, looking out the carriage’s window and at Canterlot as it passed by. The two had been able to leave the theater without being accosted by anypony, noble or otherwise, and found the carriage waiting for them exactly as they’d left it save for a few crumbs from whatever sandwiches the two Castle Guard had eaten. Fizzlepop’s own stomach rumbled at the thought of getting a proper lunch. Or dinner. Or whatever the meal was supposed to be called in Canterlot, given that it was past midnight by now. Regardless, even Fizzlepop couldn’t live on root beer floats alone.
Trixie sat back in the carriage, hooves playing with the edge of her cape. “Well, the worst song was ‘Little Bird’.”
“Agreed,” Fizzlepop confirmed. Actually the song itself wasn’t terrible, but the scene that it was attached to and what happened in it…she shook her head. “Won’t be hearing that one sung around the city any time soon.”
“Oui.” Trixie fidgeted a little, scowling. “Mais, maybe by Prince – ”
Fizzlepop looked back to Trixie. “Trixie, I know you’re mad at him, but…”
“Ah know, Ah know, that was too far, Prince ain’t that bad.” She shook her head and sighed. “Ugh. Mah first date was with Prince…can Ah get a do-over? Ah want a do-over. Or it don’t count if’n Ah didn’t know it was a date, oui?”
“I think it’s something that you can decide on for yourself,” Fizzlepop said, though she knew she was absolutely not the mare to be asking, given her own inexperience in that field. “Though, I’m pretty sure that most first dates are terrible, so you’re not unique there.”
Fizzlepop realized too late that she’d left herself open to Trixie asking what her own had been like, but to her surprise the young mare didn’t jump into the opening – possibly because Trixie was too busy humming a few bars from ‘I am Don Rocinante’ as she jittered in her seat. Fizzlepop breathed out a sigh of relief – she had enough of her squadmates, particularly Nocturne, trying to hook her up with this or that pony, she didn’t need Trixie deciding to bring her own particular brand of “help” to the equation.
It wasn’t long before it transformed into a full, if seated, dance and rendition of the song. Fizzlepop was nearly certain every fourth word was wrong, and she remained the most tone-deaf pony Fizzlepop had ever met, but what she lacked in talent she more than made up for with almost infectious enthusiasm. The enthusiasm didn’t abate as they reached Canterlot Castle and disembarked from the carriage outside its main gates. Fizzlepop’s uniform and credentials allowed her and Trixie swift and unhindered passage into the courtyard, though the progress was slowed by Trixie, no longer confined to a carriage, spinning and dancing about as she went through her fourth repetition of the song – and dragged in other ponies.
Once again Trixie surprised Fizzlepop by not bothering on-duty guards or pages or other courtiers who looked like they were in a hurry, but plenty of minor nobles, castle servants, and even a tour-group were drawn inexorably in, joining the mare in her enthusiasm. It made the trip to Luna’s offices long, but hardly uninteresting. They arrived just as a cart with three covered trays did from the kitchens, and entered with them. In contrast to much of Canterlot Castle’s décor of stark blue, black, and white stonework that emphasized it being the demesne of the Alicorn of the Night, Luna’s office had wood-paneled walls, a thick, deep red carpet, a warm fireplace, and just generally a much more plush, homely feel to it. The desk from which Luna governed the nation was surprisingly unremarkable and functional as well. Luna wasn’t at it, however, instead she was already making her way over to a meeting table with sitting cushions around it.
The Princess – completely unadorned at the moment while she worked, all her normal regalia and even her crown sitting on a mannequin in the corner – nodded at the arrival of Trixie, Fizzlepop, and lunch. “I assume everything went well?” She asked as the servants who had brought the lunch cart began laying the trays out on the table.
“Yes – ” Fizzlepop began.
“Oui!” Trixie interrupted. “It was magnifique! The music an’ the actin’ an’ they did a real good job makin’ the story fit an’ Ah’m gonna be singin’ songs from the play for a month!”
Fizzlepop couldn’t quite keep from wincing at the thought of Canterlot Castle’s halls being filled with Trixie’s off-key singing for that long, though she was relieved to see that at least Luna winced too. But Trixie didn’t notice either expression, and Luna’s transformed into a warm smile as Trixie came up and hugged her. “Merci beaucoup, Princess,” Trixie said.
“Je t’en prie,” Luna returned, squeezing Trixie with one wing while she used her other to indicate the meal that had been set down. “But I’m assuming you got peanuts and mustard again, and that’s not a meal. I’ve had lunch brought up for us.” She looked to Fizzlepop. “For you as well, Officer Berrytwist, if you like?”
Fizzlepop wanted to say no, but she was hungry and the Princess had apparently already anticipated her acceptance if the third tray was any indication. Princesses did not make requests, even if they occasionally sounded like they did. “Thank you, your majesty,” Fizzlepop said. Trixie and Luna took up what must have been familiar spots for them, with Trixie taking off her cape and folding it up inside of her hat before setting that aside. Fizzlepop considered her own armor for a moment, wondering if she was supposed to dine in it, or else make a pile in a corner somewhere.
Luna noticed. “If I may?” she asked, waving a hoof at Fizzlepop. The unicorn nodded, and Luna’s horn glowed, lighting up Fizzlepop’s armor. There was a flash-pop, and the armor disappeared from about her, appearing in a corner of the room on a conjured mannequin much like the one that Luna’s regalia currently rested upon.
Fizzlepop couldn’t help but shift at the sudden lack of attire, rubbing at her chest where the fur had been matted down by her armor. Luna grinned slightly as Fizzlepop came over and sat on her left. “I know the feeling,” she said, tapping at her own chest where a dark peytral emblazoned with a crescent moon was normally fastened. “You should be glad this isn’t three hundred years ago, though. The armor was much more ostentatious.”
Fizzlepop found that difficult to believe as the servants removed the covers from the three trays, revealing steaming lentil soup with a multitude of vegetables and rolls of bread and butter on the side. Apple cider was provided as a drink. Fizzlepop glanced at Luna a moment, wanting to wait until the Princess had started eating before digging in, but Trixie had no such compunction and immediately began sopping the soup with her bread.
Luna rolled her eyes at the sight, and glanced at Fizzlepop. “You’ve probably noticed that Trixie is still learning proper manners,” she said, though she did begin eating herself so that Fizzlepop could be free to do so as well.
Trixie at least swallowed before voicing her objections. “Ah don’t think it’s right to let food go cold! In Neigh Orleans, somepony put a plate in front a’ you, you best dig in. Way Ah see it, it’s Canterlot ponies that ain’t got the right table manners.” She looked at Fizzlepop. “Ah’m right, oui?”
Years of living on her own, scrabbling to get any food she could into her stomach, certainly made her partial to the Neigh Orleanean way of doing things, but she nevertheless fidgeted, given that there was probably nopony more Canterlotian than the Princess that was sitting all of three feet away. She was keenly aware of the Princess’ eyes on her, and bought herself some time by washing soup-and-bread down with some cider. “My Army and Guard training calls for me to follow Canterlot custom,” she tried.
Luna chuckled. “Which means you agree with Trixie but didn’t want to offend me. Very diplomatic, Officer Berrytwist.” She glanced between Fizzlepop and Trixie. “But also that means that you didn’t want to side against Trixie, and that’s interesting – it means tonight really did go well and Trixie was able to get along with you. She actually left a good impression with you.”
Fizzlepop blinked, surprised that the Princess had gotten all of that from a simple answer to a question about table manners. “Yes, your majesty,” Fizzlepop said. She steadied herself. “There were some initial growing pains, but we moved past them quickly.”
The princess nodded, and looked to Trixie expectantly. The young mare, mouth full of soup, froze at realizing that she was suddenly on the spot, and copied Fizzlepop’s own cider-drinking-to-buy-time maneuver, adding on wiping her mouth with a napkin for a few more seconds of time. “Ah…” she said, and looked to Fizzlepop, a question in her eyes. Trixie wasn’t looking at her horn’s stump, but she nodded, granting permission.
Trixie looked back to Luna. “Ah really wanted to know what happened to Berrytwist’s horn,” she explained. “And…and Ah was too pushy at first. An’ Berrytwist didn’t like it…” she shifted in place. “B-but Ah apologized an’ said Ah was sorry an’ behaved mahself for the rest of the night.”
Luna looked disappointed, but Fizzlepop stepped in. “She’s leaving out that…that I lost my temper with her at one point,” she said. “Trixie may have nettled me, but my reaction was unbecoming of one of your Night Guard. I apologize.”
The Princess’ disappointment evaporated as she looked between the two. “Covering for each other?” She asked, and smiled. “Well, whatever happened between you two can remain something that you’ve settled on your own, then. I won’t pry. Is there anything else I should know?”
Fizzlepop wondered if Luna had been planning to turn this into a debriefing from the start, and had deliberately put Fizzlepop off-balance with the lunch. Probably, to be honest, it seemed like something the Princess would do. “There was an…incident with the young Prince Blueblood,” she said.
Luna’s scowl returned in full force and she turned on Trixie – the Princess must have been remembering that Trixie and Prince had a prior history and clearly wasn’t looking forward to hearing the latest chapter in it. Trixie raised her hooves defensively. “It wasn’t mah fault!” the young mare insisted.
“It wasn’t,” Fizzlepop confirmed.
“We met outside the theater an’ were polite an’ Ah apologized again for the sandbox thing without even bein’ asked! Ah was perfectly polite an’ nice!”
“She was.”
“But then Prince tricked me into askin’ him out on a date!”
“Odd as it sounds, that’s true as well, your majesty.”
The Princess’ scowl had once more disappeared, though she looked confused rather than amused this time as she glanced between the two other mares, head tilting to the side. Fizzlepop wondered how often the millennia-old alicorn was confused, and if she should count herself lucky as being one of the no doubt few creatures who’d inflicted the experience on her. “How…how does one get tricked into asking a pony out on a date?” Luna asked.
Trixie shifted, her desire to tell the story clearly tempered by the fact that she was the rube in it. She looked to Fizzlepop again, who nodded to her. Sighing, Trixie began recounting the night’s events, albeit with much less of her usual pomp – the first encounter with Prince, their initial experience and how it had gone well, but then the subsequent breakdown in front of the other young nobles when Prince’s manipulations of her were made apparent. “So…he wasn’t leavin’ me alone,” Trixie said, “So Ah, uh…Ah scared him off. Made a big – ” Fizzlepop flinched, putting a hoof on the table as her mind’s eye was filled with a roaring ursine for just a second. Trixie noticed and winced, but under Luna’s gaze she pressed on. “A bear. A big bear, an’ made it roar at him. So he ran off with his guard.” She held Luna’s gaze easily, but when she glanced over to Fizzlepop and saw that the Night Guard was gripping the table, she did cast her eyes down.
Luna shifted herself, and now it was her turn to use the meal before her as means of buying time to gather her thoughts. Her wings stretched and folded pensively as she ate in contemplative silence. “You have a temper, Trixie,” Luna finally said. “If you had reached the door to my private box, then there was no need to react as you did. A second’s more patience and Prince would have been out of sight and mind. But given the circumstances and how he was acting, I can’t blame you for not acting perfectly – he was pushing you, and so you pushed back.” She looked to Fizzlepop. “Is Trixie’s recounting accurate?”
Fizzlepop nodded, letting out a breath she’d been holding. Normally she wasn’t this jumpy about bears – she hated them, yes, but the mere mention of them didn’t trigger her. With Trixie’s illusion being so recent and so close to the Ursa Minor that had crippled her, however…she pushed past it, looking to her princess. “Yes, your majesty,” she said, “in every detail.”
Luna had to notice Fizzlepop’s hoof on the table, pressing against it to conceal a slight tremble, but she didn’t show it, instead looking back to Trixie. “Very well – then you did attempt to end the matter as peacefully as you reasonably could at first, and your overreaction was hardly unjustified. All I ask is that you learn from this, and are better next time. Agreed?”
Trixie nodded quickly. “Oui, Princess. Ah’ll do mah best.”
“That’s all I ever ask.” She turned back to her meal, and the other two did likewise, Fizzlepop using the food as a way of escaping the mental image of the bear. At least between the company, the other memories of the play, and the food, it was easy.
The conversation remained light, Luna asking both Fizzlepop and Trixie what their favorite parts of the play were – little surprise that Trixie chose Rocinante’s battle which earned him his knightly title, while Fizzlepop was much more partial to the initial singing of “The Impossible Dream”. Luna also discussed some of the current affairs of state with Trixie, seeming to seek her advice on how to handle this minor issue problem facing Equestria. The inquiries weren’t phrased like quizzes or challenges, but rather like Luna was genuinely seeking Trixie’s counsel, and Trixie was surprisingly sober with most of her recommendations.
At length, Luna looked to Fizzlepop. “And as for you, Officer,” she said. “You have been with my Night Guard for two years now, correct?”
Fizzlepop shifted a little at Luna’s question. “Yes, your majesty,” she answered. “I’m – I’m honored that you remembered.”
Luna smiled warmly. “I make it a point to know as much as I can about each of the Night Guard, though I hope that the fact that you are not unique in that regard doesn’t spoil anything.”
“Of course not, your majesty,” Fizzlepop said. She meant that much…but she glanced down at the meal that had been provided, and felt a twinge of phantom pain down her horn. If Luna knew…and surely she spoke regularly with the Captain of the Guard…the start of the night came back to her, her review. The fact that tonight was probably her last night in the Guard. Had this meal been the Princess’ way of –
“No,” Luna said. Fizzlepop looked back, but the Princess was waving a hoof. “I wasn’t reading your mind, if you’re worried – but based on your expression your thoughts were easy to guess. No, Officer Berrytwist, this was not a ‘last meal’.” She glanced wryly to Trixie. “I actually, based on Trixie’s interactions with Commander Armor and others in my Night Guard, had this prepared in anticipation of needing to clear grievances between you and my apprentice.”
Trixie opened her mouth to object, but then shrugged and nodded.
Luna looked back to Fizzlepop. “I speak with Captain Armet regularly, of course, but I do not micro-manage the running of the Night Guard. A captain who must worry about her authority being undercut, even if by the Princess she serves, would not be a very good captain. I trust in the ability of all my Captains of the Guard to assemble the best possible force that can be assembled. This means that while I know your review was today, and I know of Armet’s concerns, I do not yet know Armet’s judgment on the matter. I shall abide by it, however.”
Fizzlepop nodded. “Yes, your majesty,” she said. She hadn’t been expecting any intervention from the Princess, and hoped she hadn’t been giving off that impression.
“Still,” Luna said, “two years in my Night Guard is something to be proud of, especially given that your serving your country got off to such a, shall we say…rocky start.”
Fizzlepop couldn’t stop a surprised laugh from escaping her, and quickly had her hooves at her mouth, eyes wide. Trixie looked on in confusion, while Luna wore a mischievous smile. She glanced over to her desk, horn glowing, and a drawer opened up and something emerged from within it – a small rock, maybe half the size of Fizzlepop’s hoof, completely nondescript. Luna set it down on the table in front of her.
The unicorn lowered her hooves, staring. “Y…your majesty, this couldn’t be the same – ”
“It is,” Luna assured Fizzlepop. “I saved it. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you start to get a sense for the importance of certain things.” Luna used a hoof to push the rock over to Fizzlepop. “This rock changed your life, Officer Berrytwist. Well, that, and your excellent aim.”
Fizzlepop felt herself shifting, unable to get comfortable where she sat. “I – I didn’t hit who I was aiming at…” She felt herself blushing furiously in embarrassment, unable to look up at Luna.
“No, you didn’t – but only because a Night Guard got in the way.” Out of the corner of her eye, Fizzlepop saw Trixie looking increasingly confused, and also possibly resentful at being unaware of what was going on. Luna, meanwhile, stood and levitated over Fizzlepop’s armor. She lifted a hoof, indicating Fizzlepop should stand, and when she did so Luna started placing Fizzlepop’s armor atop her, using a combination of telekinesis to bring the pieces over but her hooves to fasten everything in place.
“Over the past four years – two years in the Army, two years in the Night Guard – you have served with skill and distinction, Officer Berrytwist,” Luna said, finishing with the helmet, then lifting the rock she’d saved and tucking it into Fizzlepop’s armor, under the peytral. “Continue to exhibit the same excellence in all your future endeavors, whatever they may be, and you will go far.”
Fizzlepop didn’t think of herself as an emotional pony, but she felt a tightness in her throat as she stood up tall under her Princess’ gaze. “I will, your majesty,” she promised.
Trixie was staring at Fizzlepop as the latter escorted her back to her room within the castle – not necessary at all at this point, but it would add a sense of completion to the night. Fizzlepop was all too aware of the stare, and the fact that Trixie was fidgeting, kept opening her mouth and closing it again, almost shaking with the effort of trying to hold herself in check.
Finally, when the two reached the doors to Trixie’s chambers, Fizzlepop looked down to the young mare. “You can ask – ”
“You lied!” Trixie exclaimed, though with a bit more surprise than anger. “You didn’t throw a rock at Shining Armor, you threw it at Luna!” She fairly vibrated in place. “You threw a rock at Luna an’ Ah guess you woulda’ hit her but Shining got in the way, an’ for throwin’ a rock at the Princess an’ beanin’ a Night Guard in the head you gets to be a Night Guard?!” She stared wide-eyed at Fizzlepop, expression at last turning to indignation. “Ah get in trouble if’n Ah steal a cookie from the kitchens! No wonder you said that was the best day a’ your life! Get away with assaultin’ the Princess…treason, Ah think that’s technically treason…”
Fizzlepop couldn’t stop from laughing as Trixie opened the door to her rooms. In many ways it was like a small apartment, with a living area, bedroom, study, and its own bathroom. It was a complete mess, of course, with books and papers and costume bits strewn all over the place – along with balls for juggling, playing cards, trick wands, but also mixed in were books on sociology, rhetoric, and Equestrian history. Trixie was serious about being both a noble and a magician.
Trixie whirled on Fizzlepop as soon as she was inside. “Hey, if Ah throw a rock an’ hit Shining, you think Luna will make me a viscountess? ‘Cause Ah got pretty good aim an’ practice throwin’ things at him!”
“I’ve heard,” Fizzlepop confirmed. She shook her head, one hoof going to her peytral, where the rock that she’d thrown five years ago now lay…somewhat uncomfortably, she probably wouldn’t make a habit of carrying it around. “It’s got nothing to do with my aim. I was just in the right place at the right time…or the wrong place at the right time…”
Trixie sat her plot down firmly on the floor – then yelped and stood up, moved aside the trick dagger she’d sat on, and sat back down, crossing her forelegs and glaring at Fizzlepop. “You said it was the best day a’ your life, so Ah won’t feel bad ‘bout makin’ a thing outta learnin’ what happened.”
Fizzlepop shut the door to the rooms behind her, taking off her helmet and taking out the rock, looking it over. She still couldn’t believe that it was the same one…come to think of it she hadn’t exactly memorized what the rock she’d picked up and thrown looked like, so it was possible that Luna had only said that it was the same one. Not that it really mattered – what mattered was the sentiment. Luna had certainly held on to the idea for the past five years…
“I…I lost my horn, was badly injured, by an Ursa Minor,” Fizzlepop said, deciding that she didn’t want Trixie bothering her constantly, and anyway, it wasn’t like this was a secret. “And afterwards, the only magic I could do was destructive.” She tapped at the stump of her horn, wincing at the jagged edges that met her hoof’s touch. “It…it scared all my friends away, and I’d never had real parents anyway, and…” she shook her head. “Look, the long and short of it is I ran off. I lived for years by myself. I fought hard to survive. Fought and stole and hurt others, survived by doing odd jobs…”
Trixie’s glared had softened, and she shifted. “Ah’m…if’n this is actually gonna be hard, you don’t have t’ tell me…”
Fizzlepop once again shook her head. “No, it’s alright. There actually isn’t all that much to tell.” She glanced up at the ceiling in thought. “It was…five, maybe six years ago. The country was going through this big downturn, especially down south near Caballeria. A lot of ponies lost their jobs, were hungry, poor, hurting. Anarchists spreading their ideals, convincing us that it was all the fault of the factory owners and the nobility and the Princess. Princess Luna went down to try and calm ponies. She was supposed to give this big speech…”
Trixie thought, then her eyes widened. “Ooh! The Cabeza Riot! The Princess had me study it not too long ago, said that…” she trailed off, wincing as she looked to Fizzlepop. “Uh…Ah guess you know more ‘bout it than me…”
“I doubt it – I don’t think I ever really bought into any of the anarchists’ rhetoric. I just know that I was angry, and they were angry, so I fell in with them and we were both angry. I just saw the Princess as this pony with all this power and age and wisdom, and yet none of that had been able to help me, save me, prevent me from losing my horn.” She rubbed at the back of her neck. “I was a dumb kid, and when Luna showed up to start her speech, well…” She shrugged, holding up the rock in her hoof. “Ponies started throwing rocks, and I picked one up and started throwing too. And yeah, Shining Armor got in the way. Then the Night Guard and the police sprang into action, and next thing I knew I was in a holding cell.”
Trixie’s head tilted to the side. “And then?”
“Then…”
He’d looked like an overgrown foal in a Nightmare Night costume. That’s what Fizzlepop had told herself when the Night Guard had first shown up at the city’s prison – one of dozens of Night Guards, but this one had a dent in his helmet and asked for her, specifically. She’d been taken with some resistance to the assembly area, sat down at a simple table across from the Night Guard.
He’d taken off his helmet, and the magic concealing his true form had disappeared. He had a white coat, and a two-toned blue mane. He’d introduced himself as Officer Shining Armor, but Fizzlepop had ignored everything past that, everything he’d said for the past hour, only grunting occasionally to give off the illusion of listening.
Eventually Shining Armor caught on. “I’ve been doing all the talking,” he’d said. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
Fizzlepop had a lot to say, all of it more colorful than a herd of ponies. Shining Armor had taken it all in stride, however, looking more amused than anything. That only made Fizzlepop angrier. “What are you even doing here?” She’d demanded.
“My job is to protect ponies. Right now, I’m trying to do that.”
“What? Protect me?” Fizzlepop demanded. She rattled her chains. “Keep trying to protect a pony like me and your head’s gonna end up a stranger to your neck.”
Shining Armor had shrugged. “That doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t know what matters,” Fizzlepop spat, “you have everything.” Her eyes had darted up to his horn, then she’d looked away. “E…e-everything.”
Shining Armor had shifted, for the first time looking uncomfortable. “You’re right. I won’t lie, I do have a lot. A mom, a dad…a little sister. She’s younger than you. I’d hate to think of her ever doing what you did today when she reaches your age, falling in with the crowd you have, looking at anypony the way you looked at me and the Princess.” Shining Armor had leaned forward. “Why’d you throw a rock at me?”
“I didn’t. I threw a rock at Luna. You just got in the way.”
“Why, though?”
“I wasn’t the only one. A lot of mad ponies today. Guess pretty princess speeches don’t always go over so well.”
“But why did you throw a rock?”
“My h-horn wasn’t listening to me today. I wanted to do something else. Something a lot worse.”
“What did Luna do to you?”
“She wasn’t there when I needed her.” She’d brushed her mane from her eyes and glared at Shining. He had to know what she was talking about, it was plain as day, staring him in the face. “And I know. There’s no way she could have been. She didn’t know. It’s not fair to expect her to have been there. There’s a hundred million ponies in Equestria, she can’t protect each and every one of us. But then this province gets a little slump and a few ponies lose their jobs and the Princess comes up here and tells us that everything is going to be better if we just stick together. But that’s a lie.”
“You think one pony can do more than many working together?”
“I think that ponies stick together until one of them can’t help anymore. Can’t do…what she used to be able to do. Gets h-hurt. Then everypony leaves you. The best way to survive is all alone. Everypony else…they don’t help you. They just use you. You use them. Then you move on.”
Shining Armor had looked her over. “Princess Luna decided to pardon everypony today. You’ll all be released tomorrow. I’ll meet you when you’re let out, make sure you get to your home okay.”
Fizzlepop hadn’t understood. She’d expected to go to prison. To be abandoned, left to rot. Instead she was being let free? They all were? Of course…it wasn’t like this was a true mercy. “You mean the flophouse okay,” she’d told him.
“Alright, then, I’ll make sure of that.”
She’d expected him to hear where she was staying and so offer to give her a better place to sleep. Maybe fix her with a lecherous grin. That had to be what he was looking for, right? Want her to just lift her tail? But instead he had just taken where she “lived” in stride. So, what, so he could just abandon her after offering to help her?
She’d snarled. “You…you just pity me ‘cause of m h…my h-horn. I don’t need your pity.”
“No you don’t,” Shining Armor had said. “But you do need somepony’s help. And I’m here, so that somepony is me…if you want it.”
“Why? There were more than a dozen arrests today. Why me? Why not one of the others? I’m not special.”
“No you’re not. Princess Luna is making sure that everypony today gets the help they need.” He’d shaken his head. “I don’t think anypony riots because they want to. I think you do it when you don’t see any other way to get what you need…and Luna thinks the same thing. So she’s going to try and fix that. She’s going to be staying in Cabeza until things are better, and the Night Guard are going to be here with her, helping whoever we can.” He’d lifted up his helmet, rubbing the dent in it. “But…I did ask specifically to get the mare who threw a rock at me.” He’d put the helmet back on, and looked like a stupid overgrown foal in a Nightmare Night costume again.
“Why are you saving me?” Fizzlepop had asked. She hadn’t meant to say “saving”. The word had come out on its own.
“Because it’s what friends do.”
“He did not say that,” Trixie insisted.
Fizzlepop shok her head. “Given how often you make a nuisance of yourself, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that you haven’t seen every side of Captain Armor. He’s…” She started trying to think of a good, acceptable, subordinate way to phrase it, but came up blank on how to say that he was a comic-book nerd. Come to think of it about half of what he’d said to her five years ago sounded like it came from a comic, had probably been paraphrased from one…
…though that didn’t mean that Shining hadn’t believed every word of it. “He’s got a lot of sides to him,” Fizzlepop finally said. She waved the rock in her hooves. “The point is, I was at rock bottom. Honestly going to prison for years for rioting and assaulting the Princess probably would have improved my life…but Shining Armor was there. He helped me put together a life for myself. He didn’t…” she shook her head. “He didn’t just throw money at me, buy me a new life. But he did help me move past my injury, finally. Show me that I could be more than just a unicorn with a broken horn.”
She paused then. Honestly, Fizzlepop had no idea when the last time she’d spoken this much was…mostly because whenever she started to voice her thoughts, they always returned to the same thing. She glanced up, at the broken, jagged stump she could just barely see, always hovering over her, taunting her. “But…but maybe I can’t be.” She looked back down, to the rock in her hooves. “Maybe that’s all I really am…”
Trixie fidgeted, hooves turning over each other. “Can Ah say somethin’ tanpri?”
“Sure.”
Trixie actually took a few more moments to think. “Five years ago, you were a homeless pony hangin’ our with anarchists an’ throwing rocks at princesses. Today, you a member of the Night Guard.” She looked pointedly at Fizzlepop. “Ah hear how you talk ‘bout Shining Armor, you think you owe him somethin’. But, mais, Ah think that debt is paid.”
Fizzlepop felt a slight scowl forming. “Trixie, five years ago I had…I had less than nothing. Now I’m in the Night Guard, all because of Shining Armor – ”
“Ah might not know every side a’ Shining Armor,” Trixie said, “but Ah know he wouldn’t bribe ponies. Maybe he paid for your officer commission but that only got you looked at, you had to earn it. An’ maybe he told Captain Armet that you’d be a good Night Guard when you applied, but ain’t no way he’d do more than that. You earned your way into the Night Guard.” Trixie shook her head. “You don’t owe Shining Armor anythin’. You done what he wanted the moment he held out his hoof an’ you took it.”
Fizzlepop stared at the young mare. “So, what?” She demanded. “I should just stop trying?”
Trixie shook her head. “Mais, you should stop tryin’ to prove yourself. You’re proven. You don’t need to push an’ push an’ push ‘til you break yourself.” She smiled brightly. “Luna told me that ponies should try to be like mountains, like the Canterhorn. It’s there, but it’s not tryin’ to be, it just is. There’s no need to prove your majesty – simply be majestic.”
Coming from Trixie, that probably shouldn’t have meant much…or did it? Fizzlepop’s head tilted somewhat as she considered Trixie, how she lived and acted – with total confidence, total surety in herself. Trixie certainly acted a lot, pretended, concealed…but with herself, in who she was and what she wanted, she never second-guessed herself. And certainly as her choice of attire and the way she spoke to others confirmed, she lived to no standards save her own, and maybe Princess Luna’s…but even there was a certainness that she deserved her spot as Luna’s apprentice.
Maybe it was just her youth. Maybe she hadn’t really learned the introspection she frankly should have by now, the ability to really look at herself and see her own flaws. Or maybe she had…and what she saw didn’t bother her.
“I’ll…” Fizzlepop finally let out after a moment. “I’ll think about what you said, Trixie.”
Trixie gave a single nod. “Oui, good.” She finaly took off her hat and cape, throwing them over a nearby couch with a nonchalance that made Fizzlepop’s inner drill sergeant fume, though she pushed it aside. “An’…thanks again for escortin’ me tonight. If’n Luna still don’t trust me in the future, Ah’ll ask for you.” She grinned. “Give Shining Armor a break.”
“As long as you keep behaving yourself, I won’t mind that,” Fizzlepop said, putting her helmet back on and tucking away the rock that Luna had saved. She opened the door to Trixie’s room, and left with a final wave.
As she trotted back towards the Night Guard offices, to find out what her assignment for the remainder of the night would be now that she was done playing baby-sitter, it occurred to her that Trixie, despite knowing what Fizzlepop’s review had been like, where it had been going…she had nevertheless talked about seeing her in the future – as an escort. A Night Guard. And Fizzlepop had agreed with her.
Now Fizzlepop just had to figure out how to make that happen…
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My brain, immediately:
Be majestic
Bee Eee Majestic
This can apply to so much, and really needs to apply to more: "Just be majestic."
For example, don't try to prove you're virtuous; just be virtuous.
Will any other movie characters appear in any of your stories?
I feel legit bad I had forgotten about this. :( Anyway, great chapter. Crest of the Stars, eh? Man, it's been a long time since I've seen that one. Be majestic, good advice overall.
I really hope this doesn't end with the two being enemies or some bullshit like that. Twilight got a brother and foalsitter retconned in. I think it's all right if Trixie gets a genuine friend retconned in, too.
"I myself had an ominous chanting choir attending me at all times. In hindsight, I was going through a phase."
A single rock changing fate... Puppysmiles approves.
I do love the idea of Shining bringing comic book superheroism into his guard work. It works on so many levels.
And Trixie helps inspire someone to be great and powerful. Or at least try to be. Looking forward to seeing what comes of this pep talk.
It seems to me Trixie kind of goes through these stages:
1. Childhood=Complete self confidence
2. Tennage-Season 1=Crippling self doubt with arrogance as a shield
3. Season 2= Starting to get a healthy balance but still has many moments of strong self doubt.
Anyway great chapter! I'm really enjoying seeing young Trixie and her Friendship with Fizzlepop
This is the second-longest chapter in the story and yet, I feel like very little happened compared to the previous ones. Perhaps because it is a mixture between a debriefing and a denouement, complete with Fizzlepop's past being revealed at long last.
I probably liked that bit most; but not because of the actual protagonists of that scene.
We only ever see firsthand Princess Celestia, the mentor in canon, with everything about Princess Celestia, the ruler implied, inferred, assumed and so on and so forth. To the point I don't recall any evidence that she cares about people whom she doesn't know personally.
Here, though, we see Luna actually do something for the anonymous, nameless masses of Equestria. She travels to Caballeria to deliver "this big speech" to the ponies there who lost their jobs. We never learn what she intended to say—Fizzlepop's jaded bitterness in her flashback makes me suspicious about her description of it—but Princess Luna proves that she, indeed, wishes to help.
She pardons all the rioters, which could actually be easily seen as a very much insincere PR stunt designed to show how merciful and understanding she is before instantly going back to Canterlot to sit on her throne and enjoy all the luxuries inherent to the
divine right of kingsharmonic right of princesses.But she shows that she means whatever was supposed to be in her speech, because she vows to stay in Caballeria until things get better, along with ordering her Night Guard to shift their roles to a relief agency of sorts for the time being.
This is the kind of ruling monarch of Equestria I'd have liked to see in canon, rather than an endless stream of everything I consider wrong with any mentor archetype.
Luna remains manipulative and unwilling to take no for an answer (at least as far as Fizzlepop believes), but she's still miles ahead of Celestia.
On the other hand, I found the flashback's ending quote to annihilate any and all gravitas the scene had, along with any respect I might have gotten for Shining Armor, but that's more on my thoughts on the canon show than on him.
Fizzlepop remains the star of the show for me, though. Seeing her not be an ultimate nametaker who shows everyone in Equestria how Real Life(tm) works is already a pleasure on its own, but even without taking her usual depiction in fanworks into account, I enjoy reading this version of Tempest Shadow. To the point that I've actually come to like the name Fizzlepop.
I'll admit I'm also looking forward to her review with Captain Armet, as much for her as for the captain herself. The mare did intrigue me, back in the first chapter.
Moving on to more technical matters, I still consider that the paragraphs could be rearranged into a better whole. The "“how…how does one get tricked into asking a pony out on a date?” Luna asked" at the end of a paragraph mixing an omniscient point of view with Fizzlepop's was particularly jarring to me.
I wasn't fond of the following, huge paragraph either. It could easily be split in two, and it just felt off to read Fizzlepop being referred to as "the Night Guard" when the story has always been in her point of view.
These are just two examples among others in this chapter. And it's just an explanation of why I don't enjoy this story as much as I could, not even a suggestion; I know you're already pleased with the way you write your paragraphs.
That said, I did find some typos;
past
beer
Fizzlepop
I'm also not sure the "much, much younger" here is necessary, even Luna being explicitly referred to as "the millennia-old alicorn" in the following paragraph;
Finally, I like these lines;
Particularly, I enjoy the concept shown here far more than I should;
Given how the noblity acts, ponies probably every reason to riot, and given how Luna had been treating the situation, she probably realized that
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Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to this - my work schedule sucks this time of year. From the top...
Luna being a politically active princess and the Night Court in general doing actual governing, is something I've tried to promote from the start of the Lunaverse. I was in to politics a fair bit at the time when I started watching the show, partially from starting to watch The West Wing, partially because of something non-pony I was writing at the time.
As well, Luna is sort of meant to be an idealized take on how princes ought to act according to Machiavelli. Obviously through the lens of colorful ponies, but basically I read The Prince and wanted to see if it was possible to take significant portions of that and create something actually good. In this case I'm deliberately referencing a passage of The Prince which says that should a portion of a prince's realm experience unrest, the Prince should go to that portion of his realm and reside in it while tending to its needs. Thereby the prince is on-hand to respond quickly to new problems and address existing ones, which also allows the people of that place to see that the prince cares about their needs. Of course in Machiavelli's case it was out of a cynical desire to seem beneficent, while in Luna's case her intentions were genuine. Machiavelli would not approve. Or, heck, maybe he would if he knew that the "prince" he was writing for was actually an immortal princess with personal power akin to Superman if he was also a 20th-level, 3rd-Edition D&D wizard.
Eh, "pleased" isn't exactly the right word, so much as I've found it to be an extremely difficult habit to break, particularly since I don't really notice myself doing it. I don't know where I picked it up from.
Getting to the spelling/grammar corrections now.
A lot of the times I wish I could draw worth a damn, as I think one of my problem when writing is that I'm frequently trying to convey exactly what I see in my head, even if it can break the proper flow of what I'm writing out. For example I was worried the "Trixie sitting on a trick knife" thing wouldn't work when written out. I'm glad to see it did.
10133550
Thank you for taking the time to reply, especially when you're so busy.
I imagine he'd write for the Night Court instead. I don't see much use in a guide to acquire and keep a status that, as far ponies know, can't even change hands in the first place.
And all the mirrors for princes in the world won't matter if Luna considers a princess must serve her people rather than the other way round. True, it does help that she needs to spend so few of her means and ends to ensure her own survival...
Luna: "Moncheval's The Princess is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."
Ah, yes, my apologies. I've not written in such a long time that I'd completely forgotten there was even such a thing as habits to break in the first place.
I'd offer to show where I'd break up the paragraphs in the story, but as I've never seen anyone else ever comment on their lengths—either in this fanfiction or in others—I'm not sure it actually even needs to be changed.
I certainly chuckled when I reached that part. It was in 'read too fast and you'll miss it' territory, but that also meant it didn't slow the story down in any way.
I'd even go as far as say drawing it would have been worse, because you'd need to add at least one panel to show it happening.
Some time's I hate FiMfic's alert system. Here I had been sitting around and patiently waiting on this story to update, never getting the notifications the final two chapters had been published.
Sigh... I know that feeling. I could say more, but well, that would only provide an example.
10129002
While they might be too few and too far between, I think the show has given us at least a couple examples of Celestia benevolence and desire to help ponies in need. Off the top of my head, all the way back in Season 1, at the end of Swarm of the Century, Celestia abruptly canceled her visit to Ponyville, siting an urgent need to aid Fillydelphia in cleaning up an "infestation". So the Idea that Celestia cares for her subjects seems to have supposed to have been there from the start, even if later seasons rarely followed up on it, and arguably even portray her as being less competent so as never to upstage Twilight and friends as the heroes.