Sunset shimmer sat on the balcony alone drinking chamomile tea, she had not moved into the Royal chambers. Those weren’t hers and her chambers suited her just fine. She looked out from the balcony once again as she poured a new glass of tea, and the only question on her mind was what had she done to deserve all of this, and the answer was ‘Nothing’.
She neither deserved nor was ready to rule, that was even part of the deal if she lost she’d accept schooling until Celestia deemed her fit. Yet….The Rainbow didn’t feel that way they stripped Celestia of her Status in an instant, and she had taken it as a sign to leave. So Sunset was alone, ill prepared for the task of ruling….no she wasn’t alone she had Blue blood and Twilight but certainly even together they weren’t up to the task of doing all of Celestia’s duties. She may have made herself into the Pony she wanted Celestia to be, but as the Politician and Bureaucrat she was sorely lacking.
She really should have realized calling strength from others counted as conceding in a duel, but was it really fair to show it so….blatantly as ripping her Mother’s horn off? And did Mother have to take off, couldn’t she have stayed guiding and teaching, ruling de facto until Sunset was ready? Why did her choices always end up with such….extreme consequences, and why….why did she never listen when people warned her against charging head first.
“WHY ME!” She shouted to the sky. “I’M ANGRY, I’M PROUD, I’M A BUCKING FOOL WHO RUSHES IN HALF THE TIME. Why would you entrust me with this power, and now you arranged it so I’m Queen. I WASN’T READY!” The sky did not respond, but it wouldn’t Sunset knew, Blossom had told her only she had the answers now. Sunset couldn’t think of any, but there had to be a reason, there just had to be…. Finally after two days Sunset the Confidant, Sunset the Proud, allowed herself to cry.
There alone on a balcony the newly crowned Queen cried like a teenager who knew no one was there to see, especially not her mother.
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Twilight swirled the brandy in front of her before taking a sip. “We seriously have a changeling embassy?” She asked as if not believing.
“Yes, of course. Why is this so hard to accept?” Twilight could *feel* the changeling ambassador roll his eyes beneath his heart shades.
“Because you are love sucking parasites and besides thorax none of you are remotely nice?”
“Oh, is he alive? Excellent we can knock him off the casualties list. Always nice to know another brother or sister lived.” Mistletoe smiled before adding with a exasperated sigh. “And well yes we are love sucking parasites, we can’t change that, but you forget what else we are.”
“And what’s that?” Twilight inquired.
Mistletoe was engulfed head to toe in mauve fire, where before was a white unicorn with red & green mane she had never seen before, now stood Sunset Shimmer. The unicorn approached her not a word spoken and yet the body language was perfect her boldness captured in every movement, as she approached Twilight her mouth approaching inches from her ears, even her scent was mimicked perfectly. “Shapeshifters.”
“Stop.” Twilight said straightening up uncomfortably. “Please stop.”
“Of course princess.” Mistletoe reverted back to his normal disguise in a burst of mauve fire and returned to his position. “As shapeshifters we can acquire secrets from every nation on equus, only Ovis is said to be our rival and certainly not on current events.”
“So you just, trade away every nation's vulnerabilities to get at their own, so you can feed?” She asked.
“Pretty much.” Mistletoe nodded.
“Your kind are even more disgusting than I thought.” Twilight Sparkle stated.
“Every country trades something princess, we trade knowledge. And It isn’t our fault we have to eat love that’s just what we are, Griffons eat meat, Ponies eat plants, we Eat love.” He says bluntly.
“Why not do what thorax said and love *eachother*.” Twilight sparkle intoned through gritted teeth.
“Zero, Sum, Game.” Twilight tried to speak up but mistletoe kept talking. “Changelings are manavores, love is just the medium.”
Twilight chewed on that information for a moment before speaking. “So even with the most powerful kind of magic, love&friendship, you would need an incredibly strong bond to break 100% efficiency….and that’s not reliable….and that’s why ponies become drained after repeated feedings.”
Mistletoe nodded. “If we fed on emotional energy as directly as most make it sound like, we’d be running around promoting peace and harmony and living in equestria in secret, the ambient love of the place would keep us in tip top shape, and it doesn’t.”
“That’s...Fascinating...Wait if you are information brokers why are you telling me all this for free?” The Princess asked skeptically.
“Country already bought this info.” The ambassador explained with a smirk. “You could just ask Celestia, or Blueblood, or Sunset, so why not here it from the Horse's mouth, so to speak.”
“Of course.” Twilight sighed. “You aren’t going to just do something nice if you don’t get anything.”
There was silence for a moment. “I agreed when blueblood asked me to keep you company rather than gathering intel on your country.”
“I guess you did.” She looked over the extensive collection of the estate’s library. “Do these belong to the hive, or blueblood, or….”
“To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure.” Mistletoe chuckled rubbing the back of his neck. “But anything you want to read you are free to read.”
“Sure is a lot here on theatre, didn’t know blueblood was such a fan.” Twilight said looking over the books.
“That’d be me, Huge aficionado, Can’t keep myself away from the theatre. Even if you ponies are absolutely *dreadful*.” Mistletoe replied with clear enthusiasm.
Twilight sighed. “Heck maybe we should just go to the theatre, Some Princess I am, Princess Sunset and Blueblood are off doing affairs of state and I’m….” Twilight groaned. “Being babysat by a hostile nation’s ambassador. No offense.”
“None taken.” Mistle brushed it off. “Well I’d ask what affairs of state are you normally involved in, But Changeling ambassador to equestria, If a cockroach gets stomped in your country I know about it. So how about this, we go into Blueblood’s study, crack some mead and go over what parts of the state you would be good at running then you go ask the Queen for a real job.”
“That’s….A really good idea mistletoe!” Twilight’s demeanor brightened as she turned away from the bookshelf. “Ummm can I ask you a personal question?”
“Of course Princess, whether or not I answer is the real question.” Mistletoe responded while getting up and stretching.
“Why do you drink mead? Doesn’t it go against your whole….image.” She asked as she opened the doors.
“I’m a bug, if it isn’t made of 90% sugar I don’t want it…...Well 79% Sugar and 19% alcohol in this case.” Mistletoe chuckled following her.
“That’s….a pretty good reason.”
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“Next.” One of the guard’s stated, as the next petitioner called someone in.
Another petitioner, did mother really go through this every day? Well yes she knew that for a fact, The Sun court was a chance for anypony to make request of their Princess and now it was her place to fill the seat. It was exhausting, a lot of them didn’t take her seriously and she had assure them she had the ability to grant their requests but…..It really was the most fulfilling thing she had done as “Queen”.
A pair of earth ponies came in, they looked normal dark , but the little filly with them was a striking shade of white/blue for her coat and pure white mane, she looked sickly and weak and was sweating profusely, oh no they weren’t expecting a healing were they?
The little filly pulled one of the mare’s tail’s. “Mommy It’s hottt.”
The Mare replied. “I know sweetie, I know. But please be respectful In front of the Princess.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Sunset waved it off from her Mother’s far too large a chair. “Just….make a request like you would a neighbor ok.”
“Ummmm ok ma’am. Could you….enroll our daughter in Celestia’s school for gifted Unicorns?” The other mare asked and one of the guards sputtered trying not to laugh.
“May I ask why you make such a request, a practical demonstration would be better than an explanation.” Sunset stated.
The two mares looked at each other and then to the filly. “Ok sweetie, show the Princess what you can do.”
“But you always tell me not to…” The filly replied.
“The Princess asked so it’s ok.” One of them said reassuringly patting her head.
It didn’t take more than a moment and she just screamed “IT’S TOOOOOOO HOOTTTTTTTT!” as the fillies cries filled the room so too did the howling freezing blizzard. Every pegasus guard in the room tried to contain the blizzard to no avail, as if there magic did nothing.
“Guards, down. There’s nothing you can do against this power, that’s how it works.” Sunset got up and walked over to the little filly. “That is more than sufficient demonstration, what’s your name?”
“Winter Sonata, and It’s hard to make it stop, once it starts.” Where before she seemed sickly now she seemed the pinnacle of health, where before she seemed meek now she seemed confident, and there was an ethereal quality about her.
“I know how intoxicating power like that can be, and this just further shows your need to learn to control it.” Sunset nodded. “You need to let go, even if it will be too hot, ok?”
“Ok.” She said returning to her previously meek tone as the blizzard subsided.
Sunset proclaimed in a voice that demanded attention, a voice the guard’s knew well, because it was the exact same tone that Celestia took when she made a proclamation as God Queen. “Alright, This is my decree, I am renaming Celestia’s school for gifted Unicorn’s to Celestia’s school for gifted ponies. We are now taking applicants of all three races, their brightest and their most uniquely gifted. As for Winter Sonata here, I am using royal prerogative to approve her application as the First Earth pony applicant.”
Sunset’s tone returned to normal. “Will that be all you two?” she looked at the two mare’s.
“We can’t really afford….” One of the mare’s spoke up.
“Oh Celestia’s school has an *excellent* program for financial aid, just tell the people up front your daughter has been pre approved and you will need the full funding package.” Sunset smiled and waved them off as she walked them through the door.
“Wow that felt good. Lemme get back on the throne before the next one.” She said to the guards before settling herself on the throne. “Man, mom’s plot was big, I mean I thought it was big before.”
“Please your majesty do not speak ill of the old princess of the sun.” The guard to her right said.
“Awwww come on you thought it.” Sunset teased.
“Well yes, but would never say it.” The guard sighed.
“And This is why mom played pranks on you people all the time.” Sunset giggled.
“Seriously?” The guard raised an eyebrow.
“Yep. She wanted you all to actually call her plot fat, or a cake addict, or something. Why do you think she found my smart mouth and anger issues so endearing instead of frustrating?” Sunset smiled.
“So If I called you an Arrogant Bastard with No regard for tradition…..” The guard inquired.
“By bastard do you mean complete Plothole or Illegitimate child.” Sunset asked.
“Second one.” The guard nodded.
“I’d call you the first one for caring about the ill of my Mother for having a pregnancy out of wedlock.” Sunset said.
“Ok you are Arrogant with no regard for Tradition, I think you’d give your mom a heart attack if she heard your solution to half these petitions.” The guard replied.
“Oh...Still going to do your job right?” She asked.
“To the death my Queen.” The guard nodded. “Bring in the next petitioner!”
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“So how long will this train take Starlight?” The unicorn named Twilight Sparkle asked her fellow unicorn.
“It’s about three hours from ponyville to canterlot by steam rail.” Starlight glimmer responded.
“Your technology is just so weird, like I see you using things that I would call ancient and other things I would call modern and to you it’s just all the technology you use.” Twilight Sparkle says. “Why don’t you try to build on it? Like a good chunk of your population is farming why not make a more efficient ways to farm.”
Starlight shrugs. “Why would we need to? We have plenty of farmers, what would we do if we needed something else?”
“I Don’t know, something else? They could take up cooking or study and build new machines.” Twilight sparkle started.
“First off you have to out perform a pony with a cutie mark if you were going to do that. Secondly you can’t just change someone’s cutie mark….Well I can but That’s what I do is rip out what makes people special. So even if you found a way to out perform an earth pony with a farming cutie mark all the farmer’s without jobs would go crazy and it turns out farmers tend to be a good measuring stick for how strong earth ponies are.” Starlight glimmer replied.
“Oh….That’s not how things work in my world at all, everyone is just a blank slate and does what they have the will and learn to do.” Twilight Sparkle says.
Starlight gives an interested look. “Really? I’d love to visit sometime, it sounds wonderful. I mean a world where you can assign people the jobs you need and they can learn them instead of building society around people going crazy if their thing isn’t important.”
“Ummmmm….that sounds like communism, and we tried that...it didn’t work. We assign jobs based on market prices and fluctuations, So if you learned skills that are valuable you get paid more.” Twilight replied.
“Nevermind, Don’t wanna go there.” Starlight said putting her hooves up on the private car’s couch.
“Why not?” Twilight asked.
“What happens if you don’t have a valued skill.” Starlight glimmer questions.
“Wellll…..” Twilight says nothing for a moment. “So ummm…...Sunset and the other me how long…..”
“Well they were courting pretty heavily even before I moved into Twilight’s castle.” Starlight responds.
“You make it sound so formal.” Twilight says.
“They are Princesses.”
“Well she would talk about The other me being a Princess but…..Never herself.” Twilight said.
“Must have run away from home for some reason, maybe she has mommy issues.” Starlight offered.
“But she comes home and in a Week she’s wearing her mother’s crown…..What happened?” Twilight asked.
“Look Twilight, I don’t know...But we are going to find out.” Starlight reassured her.
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Blueblood looked over the laws and the equestrian constitution, there was no doubt about it. Sunset could not legally hold the throne, The supreme ruler of Equestria could not by law be an Earth Pony, Pegasus or Unicorn.
He had already heard the rumblings, that a *mere* Unicorn sat on the High seat, dared claim a title above Celestia, The Unicorns had engineered a coup. If this law got it out it would give every rumbler something to rally around, Equestria would fall back into tribal in fighting. He tossed the documents into the fire, they were millenia old no one would notice if they were missing.
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“Sir, this arrived for you from equestria with the royal seal.” A small white furred goat said as she approached, a towering black furred goat.
The towering black furred goat didn’t look up from his book. “It’s probably about the council of Peace & Harmony, Prelakka just open it and tell me if there’s anything I need to know.”
“Yes sir.” Prelakka nodded as she scanned the invoice. “Sir….They crowned a Queen and it’s not Celestia.”
“Oh did they, Intresting, who is it?” The towering creature almost registered some form of notice now.
“Her Daughter.” Prelakka stated. “Name is….”
“Sunset Shimmer, yes. Must be back, I guess she got a fancy pair of wings finally and Celestia finally foisted herself off that throne, making her Queen is a good way to give her legitimacy during the transfer of power the population will have to get used to her being first. My sincerest congratulations to her.” The goat said with some actual sincerity.
“Um well actually, by this picture, she doesn’t have wings my King.” Prelakka responded.
The goat king placed his book down “Repeat that Prelakka.”
“Sunset Shimmer, doesn’t have wings.” Prelakka repeated.
A twisted cruel smile grew across his lips. “Prelakka I need to confirm something, Find me a copy of the equestrian Constitution.”
“Yes my King.” The goat bowed and ran off, in a few minutes returning with an old and musty scroll.
The old goat read through it finally finding the passage he needed. “Oh, dear, dear, dear Celestia. It seems you finally made a mistake in our little game but I can’t blame you for forgetting a law that predates you and never mattered to you, but it seems to matter to your Daughter, and It seems I have finally between you.” King Grogar of Ovis began to chuckle to himself and the bell around his neck sparkled with an inner darkness. “But then Time may be my hated enemy, yet in the end it is enemy to us all isn’t it?”
Prelakka let out a groan groaned. “Haddddd to have signed up to be the king’s assistant when he actually gets off his flank didn’t you prelakka?”