Chapter 1
Princess Celestia calmly walked down the grand hallways of the Royal Palace in Canterlot, early in the morning. Instead of heading towards an early breakfast, however, she calmly headed towards the guest quarters.
She cantered through the polished halls, eventually arriving at a large public balcony, overlooking the front face of Canterlot Mountain. There, leaning against the railing to enjoy the grandiose view, was a human.
This human was an older gentleman, certainly. His curly hair was almost a pure white, as was the stubble that coated his face. He had dark, wrinkly skin, and wore suit pants and shoes, as well as a white dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled to the elbows.
He looked out over the view of Equestria, and gave a long sigh, savoring the cold morning air in his nostrils. Celestia trotted beside him, to enjoy the view as well. Neither turned to face the other.
“Mr. President.” The princess spoke with a calm, friendly tone.
“Your highness.” He responded similarly.
Another short silence.
“Richard.”
“Tia.” The man turned and gave a small smile to the Alicorn, before returning to the view.
“I have never tired of this view, Richard. Not in the many thousands of years.”
“It is quite astounding. I could almost swear I see Appleloosa.”
“That’s almost two thousand miles away.”
“I did say ‘almost’.”
Celestia let out a small chuckle. “A politician to the very end, I see.”
“Good Lord, I hope not.”
More sightseeing. The pair was silent for several minutes, merely enjoying the morning air. “You should be raising the sun in a while, yes?” The President asked.
“Not for another hour. It begins getting lighter automatically.”
“I see.”
“And you? I believe this is the day you break the news, yes?”
“Well Tia, I’ve only been talking your ear off about it for two weeks, so I dare say you’re right.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “Richard, I’m serious.”
“So am I. How’s Luna?”
Sighing, the sun princess allowed the subject to change. “Brushing her teeth, probably. I have never seen anypony so frightened of cavities.”
Richard laughed. “Can you even get cavities?”
“Oh, believe me, we can.”
“Heh, Celestia Sweet-Tooth, I’d forgotten. You know, I always reminded the kitchens at-“ The president was interrupted by a severe bout of coughing.
Celestia grimaced, as her friend seemed to almost cough his lungs out. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, it’s just the- koff! It’s the… the…”
“I know. Still, it must be painful.”
The President of the United States clutched his stomach with one hand, and the patio railing with the other, as his violent coughing fit continued. When he finished, he groaned, and shook out his hands. “Stiff fingers.”
This surprised the regal alicorn. “New symptom?”
“Oh, probably. I am in perfect health, despite what that confounded concoction is doing.”
“Don’t tell your fans, they might get mad.” She joked.
Richard gave Celestia a stern look. “That’s not funny, Tia. There is nothing I regret more than what I’ve had to do in that regard.”
The sun princess took on an apologetic look. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I forget that you had never lied to your public before.”
“A fact I was damn proud of. A fact… A fact I never thought would change.”
Celestia chose to remain silent. The President continued. “You know, I don’t believe that the ends justify the means. Even after this. But sometimes…” He sighed, turning to look out at the view, again. “Sometimes what is right isn’t the same as it used to be.”
The princess put a hoof on his shoulder. “You saved nearly a billion people, Richard.”
He laughed, cynically. “And I would do it again, Tia. In a heartbeat. But I could do it a million times, and it would still kill me. Every time.”
Celestia did not respond, and they sat in silence again. The president was seized by another coughing fit, but didn’t mention it. The two leaders merely enjoyed the slowly brightening world together.
They stood in silence for more than half an hour. Finally, the princess excused herself. “I need to go attend to the sun. I hear the sunrise is quite beautiful, from this angle.”
“You’ve never seen it?”
“And I never will.” She nodded and left, leaving the president alone with his thoughts.
After enjoying the sunrise, President Richard Weiss sat down to a small breakfast. The buffet selection at the Royal Palace was excellent, and Celestia had even ordered down a small selection of meats for the human delegation. The flamed rats, (the favorite of another foreign delegation the princess frequently hosted) were not to his liking, but the bacon was excellent.
Before he had finished his meal, yet another friend joined him. “May I sit down?”
“You don’t even have to ask, Luna.”
The night princess swiftly occupied another chair. “Why do you always eat by yourself?”
Richard sighed. “I don’t, usually. It’s always some dinner party or another. Breakfast, thankfully, is still casual enough that the paparazzi doesn’t care who I sit next to.”
“So, it’s free time?”
“I guess.”
“I see.” A pause. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how are the rooms?” They continued a casual conversation as the president finished his meal.
A young man in a neat suit slowly approached the table. “I am sorry to interrupt, Mr. President, but there is an outlying ship, requesting transit through the barrier. They need to arrive at Horsehoe Bay by 3 pm to be processed appropriately. This requires your signature.” The man proffered a clipboard and pen.
Richard nodded, taking the clipboard and reading the documents pinned there. “I thought there was no land mass left on our side?”
“There isn’t, Sir. They’ve been adrift for three weeks.”
The elder man sighed, and then signed the papers, slowly. Luna noticed his laborious progress. “Arthritis?”
“Stiff hands.”
She let out a small laugh. “How do you think we feel?”
Richard gave her a curious look. The princesses’ eyes widened with realization, and she stopped talking. The young man took his clipboard, thanked the President, and promptly left.
When the pair finished breakfast, they got up to leave, walking together down the hall.
“It seems both princesses broke their sleep schedules to speak to me.” Richard said.
“Oh?”
“I spoke to Celestia this morning, before surise.”
The blue alicorn rolled her eyes. “Contrary to popular belief, Richard, we do not follow so tight a sleep pattern. Do you sleep for a full twelve hours?”
“I suppose not.”
“Precisely. I also tend to sleep during the night if there is an important event the next day, which would require my attendance.”
“Like today?” Richard grew somber.
Luna nodded. “Yes… like today.” She stopped walking. “Richard… We can still-“
The princess was stopped by the president, who had just broken into another violent coughing fit. She stood there awkwardly as he clutched at his sides, waiting for him to finish.
An onlooking pony rushed to his aide, but Luna shooed her away. She obliged, continuing down the hallway. Off to spread gossip, I’m sure, The princess thought, bitterly.
Richard again stood upright, the back of his hand to his mouth. “I apologize. What were you saying?”
“I… It was nothing.” The regal alicorn turned to continue down the hallway.
“Liar.”
Luna started, then abruptly turned to look at her friend. There were only two beings in either universe that could make such a bold statement to her face, in terms of both distinction and friendship. Here was one of them. “E-excuse me?”
“Luna, you’ve a terrible poker face. Just tell me what you were going to say, I’m not in the mood for more politics.”
The princess gulped, and then complied. “I was merely going to remind you… of our other offer. We could spin this as a mistake, made by the scientists.” She gave him a faint smile. “But I realized the futility of my suggestion.”
Richard closed his eyes, nodding. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For knowing me well enough to realize that.”
They continued down the hall.
Richard sat in an armchair in Celestia’s office, glancing nervously up at the flat-screen television mounted there.
Pictured on the screen was Celestia herself, standing upon the balcony. The balcony of the same office he was in, as a matter of fact. He could hear her voice from the other side of the room, a moment ahead of the live feed. He preferred to look at the television.
Celestia was speaking of the great integration of the two worlds, and the unprecedented success of the Conversion Bureaus. The president almost nodded off as she segued into a motivational slideshow.
He couldn’t let himself sleep, though. Instead, he once again rehearsed his speech in his head. The human felt that rote memorization was necessary, for a speech of this magnitude. That, and he was anxiously awaiting his name to be mentioned by the voice behind him.
Before his name could be mentioned, however, someone else interrupted him.
“Mr. President?” Or rather, somepony.
Richard turned to face the source of the voice. A young unicorn mare with a lavender coat smiled at him, calmly. “It’s almost time.”
He nodded, and stood up. He listened to the speech that Celestia was giving, and recognized the denouement. Just a few more moments, he thought.
“My condolences.”
The president whipped his head around, to face the sound of the voice. It was the lavender mare. “The princess told me what you’re doing, a-and what you did. I just wanted to offer my support.” She smiled, weakly, before hastily adding an honorific. “M-mister President.”
Richard thought back to the list he had seen, of ponies with security clearance that high. Besides the princesses, there were two names, one of which, Armor, did not seem to suit this pony. “It’s… Sparkle, right?”
“Yes sir.” Twilight Sparkle bowed her head, weakly.
The elder of the two paused a moment, before speaking. “Thank you, Miss Sparkle.”
The sounds of Celestia introducing him, followed by ceaseless cheering, drew him outside. He turned and went out on the balcony.
The roar was deafening. Thousands of cheering ponies and humans had gathered below, selling out all of Canterlots hotels, and the hotels of the surrounding towns. Everyone had gathered to celebrate, and to hear the president’s special announcement.
Richard stood behind the podium, allowing the sound to wash over him. The crowd loved cheering him on, of course. He was the most successful president in nearly a century.
That didn’t make him feel any better.
The President of the United States raised his hands, and the roar died almost instantaneously. Camera bulbs flashed endlessly through the crowd, and a soft murmur could still be heard from the excited citizens.
Richard approached the microphone. “My friends.”
The new address, (which had replaced ‘My fellow Americans’ as the president’s most widely-used introduction,) rang through the entire crowd. He continued.
“My friends. We stand before you today, a united nation. The exodus of humanity to their new home has had unprecedented success, due in no small part to the efforts of the United Earth Government, and the Conversion Bureaus.”
More cheering.
The president sighed. “Still, not too long ago, we were panicked. Ponification was not the option many people desired, and there were still more than a billion people who would have been lost, destroyed with our dying world. We were almost without hope.”
Murmurs, a few cheers.
“And yet, a miracle. The combined efforts of scientists from both sides of the barrier resulted in Preservation Serum, allowing unaltered human transit into Equestria.”
Again, cheering. More cheering than he himself had received. The news of Preservation Serum had resulted in widespread celebration from all over their world, a renewal of hope.
“You yourselves watched me, as a measure of good faith, drink the world’s first Preservation Serum, and step, unharmed, through the barrier.”
The most beloved president in a century to be sure, as the din of the crowd certainly confirmed. Richard Weiss was famous for his honesty, for his values. ‘The First Human in Equestria’ was a hell of a title, and the media had had a field day.
Richard paused, rubbing his eyes. “A billion people. An entire tenth of our population .” He spoke shakily, as much to himself as to his people.
The camera flashes in the crowd went wild. The entire population of Equestria, both human and pony, was suddenly concerned for him. Why, they asked themselves, does he sound like he’s sad?
The president himself realized this. He straightened his back, taking on a stern poker face. “In all the decisions I have made in my life, I have always tried to do what was right for the nation. And so… And so it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that I have not been entirely truthful.”
Silence. Several thousand people and ponies, gathered together, all with conflicting opinions and arguments, did not utter so much as a single word. Another notable achievement for Richard Weiss: He had stunned an entire world silent.
“I present you with a fact, a fact that I, and I alone, have known from the very beginning. A fact that the Princesses themselves did not know until not long ago. The Preservation Serum… “
Richard remembered when he had first seen the serum, as just a failed project at the R&D center of the Conversion Bureaus. He had had the idea, he had convinced the scientists. He had orchestrated the most closely-guarded secret in history. It would have been too late, but a billion people were more willing to drink Preservation serum than Conversion serum, and those people wouldn't have made it on time, otherwise.
“…The Preservation Serum is temporary. According to our research, it will be less than two years before every human in Equestria is ponified.”
Outrage. The entire crowd went ballistic, hurling insults and foul cries at the president. The humans were the most vocal, but the ponies in the crowd were just as disgusted.
Honestly, Richard hadn’t been expecting anything less. He allowed the pandemonium to continue, just for a moment. I wish I had never laid eyes on that blasted potion. He raised a single hand into the air.
Remarkably, unbelievably, there was once again silence. The weary president thanked his lucky stars that he still, for the moment, had at least that much respect. “The long-term conversion process is painful, to be sure. I myself have already begun to experience the symptoms, a fact which many of my cabinet may have noticed.”
“Thankfully, there is a simple solution. To drink a standard, regular ponification serum will still have the same, almost instantaneous effect, and is an easy way to bypass the more painful transition.”
Murmurs. Mixed feelings. A shouted accusation. “Coward!”
The president arched an eyebrow. “Sir, please, you misunderstand. I will not be drinking any more serum in the foreseeable future.”
A hush fell over the crowd, and a weary smile played over Richards face. “There is nothing in my life that I regret more than this deception. I single-handedly stole from one billion people their humanity, and there is nothing I could ever do to redeem that. However…”
His face one again grew serious, “…However, I could not sleep at night if I knew I caused a single person to suffer at my expense. So long as there is one person who suffers the full effects of the Preservation Serum, which there inevitably shall be, so too must I.”
Richard grew silent, stretching his stiff left hand. A gesture that did not go unnoticed by the many photographers in the crowd. Finally, President Richard Weiss offered his final statement.
“To conclude, a thought: I have broken the moral code I have held myself to my entire life. It doesn’t matter the reason, nor the billion lives saved. I have betrayed myself. It is for this reason that I must tender my resignation as President of the United States. Good evening.”
Mr. Richard Weiss turned and departed the balcony, leaving behind the uproar the crowd had erupted into.
He had already done what was necessary.