The Breaking Straw

by Shinzakura


The Prisoner of Ruritania

Sterling looked out at the beautiful vista that lay underneath her balcony.  It was lush and green, greener even than Hawaii when her father had taken her and Athena last summer.  It was so green that her heart ached just to see it in the distance.  It was real, more real than she had ever known.

And all of it was hers, in a manner of speaking.

She forced herself to turn away, her hoofsteps clopping one after the other against the expensive Maretanian marble tiles, walking past the finely-crafted Zhuongganese tapestries and exquisitely-hewn Ponyvillian oak furniture, finally approaching the custom-made cloudbed imported straight from Cloudsdale.  She then changed into her human form, and collapsed against it, bored.

She lay there for a few minutes, looking at the salmon-colored ceiling, apparently made from the finest heartquartz taken from the Crystal Empire.


She was here, in the lap of luxury, with fineries that Becky Carlisle could only hope to dream of, and she was bored.  She walked over to the computer, and brought up her journal, practicing typing with her telekinesis.

Day Three.

I don’t know why I’m here.  Mom won’t tell me, and I haven’t seen Dad.  I don’t even know where here is.  None of the staff will tell me and they’re too busy speaking to me as “Your Highness”, “Princess Luna the Younger” or even “the Little Lady” when I’m not being addressed.  They all look at me with awe and wonder, a new alicorn, and none of them will acknowledge I’m human, too! 

I’m lonely, I only see Mom once a day and I’m afraid.  All I can do is look out the window, and I can’t even fly, even though Aunt Tia taught me how – the energy field around this place prevents it. 

I’m a prisoner and I don’t even know why.

There was a knock at the door, and Sterling got up and changed to her human form, opening the door to see a pony maid standing there, carrying a tray in her magic field.  “Good morning, Your Highness.  I’ve brought you some tea, as you’ve requested.”

“But I didn’t—”

“I, however, did.”  Sterling turned to see her mother, standing there in alicorn form, looking at her with a smile.  “Hello, my little Starlight,” Luna said, going over to embrace her child in her wings.  “How are you?”

“Mom, where are we?”

“I can’t tell you.”  Luna looked sad.  “But please, understand I wouldn’t do this unless I had to protect you, dearest.”  Luna turned to the maid.  “Thank you for all your troubles, Squeaky Clean.  I appreciate the extra effort.”

The mare curtseyed.  “Anything for my dearest princesses, Your Highness.”  The maid then saw herself out, leaving the two princesses alone.  Luna changed to her human form and sat down on the couch.

Luna took the tea and poured.  “Sterling, please understand that we are worried that your life is in danger.  I haven’t even told your father where we are, because your safety is paramount.”

“Mom!” Sterling shouted.  “That’s not fair to Dad!”

“I know, but you have to understand, Sterling, you are a Princess of Equestria and the Alicorn of Language.  You have responsibilities now, and your life is paramount.  We will teach you how to use a variety of magic, sweetheart, but until then we must protect you!”  Luna took a drink of her tea to calm herself down.  “You are my life, sweetheart.  I would be distraught if something happened to you, and so would your father.”

“I’m sure he’s worried now!  And why am I trapped in a single room?”

Luna nodded.  “I’ve been meaning to tell him anyway.  And I think there’s been a miscommunication.  You’ve been given the run of the hotel, dear.  You just aren’t allowed to leave the premises.”

“Why not?”

“Trust me, dearest Starlight, you don’t want to know.”  The look in Luna’s eyes were fragile, and the moment Sterling saw that, she turned away.  “The price is too high.”

Please, stay innocent for just a little while longer, Luna thought to herself.  She couldn’t know her sister had thought about those same words in regards to Cadance so long ago, a pair of mothers wanting what was best for their foals even as they grew up.  Please don’t ask.

“Please, Mom.”  Sterling took her mother’s hands.  “I want to know.”

“Please don’t ask this of me,” Luna told her daughter and tears formed in her eyes.  “I am already beset with regret. I don’t want the same for you.”

“I’ll be okay, Mom.  Trust me.”

Luna looked at her daughter with a mix of hurt and pride, then snapped her fingers.  A magiscreen appeared before the two, the recorded image being of hatred and threats and culminating in an eerily-familiar looking girl.  The words at the end: “Luna Kirkland…you are next.”  The video then broke to static as it ended, and Luna banished the screen.  By the time it was over, both were crying.

“Why?” Sterling asked her mother, and the look the younger alicorn gave the older would forever haunt Luna for the rest of her life, she knew.

“Because her name was Sterling Kirkland,” Luna explained.  “She was only sixteen, and lived in Waihi Beach, in New Zealand.”

Hearing that, Sterling’s eyes widened in shock and horror.  “I…I didn’t….”

Luna embraced her daughter.  “It isn’t your fault, Sterling.  It isn’t at all.  They are madmen and don’t deserve to be called human, much less civilized beings.”  Luna held her daughter as she cried, the elder alicorn weeping as well.  Sterling cried for the death of an innocent girl, while Luna cried for the death of an innocent girl, and the death of a girl’s innocence.

The two held each other until, exhausted, Sterling fell asleep in her mother’s arms.  Luna went over and carried her daughter to the cloud bed and set her down, gently kissing her on the forehead.  “This is a nightmare for you, dearest, but I am the warden of dreams, and you are made from dreams.  This will all be over, soon, and we will be together once more.”

Luna’s face contorted into a scowl as she walked over to the now-cold tea.  She picked hers up and, glaring at it with blazing red eyes, heated it in an instant.  She then summoned her phone from nowhere and quickdialed a number.

“Luna?” Cadance spoke on the other end.

“Tell your friend to find those bastards that did this to an innocent girl and are hurting my foal,” Luna said in a dangerous voice.  “Tell her to find them, Cadance….

“…or I will.

The teacup in Luna’s other hand boiled, burned and then vaporized into component atoms.


Day Six.

I have looked around the hotel, and from what I can tell, aside from my room, it looks as if this place was built with humans in mind, or at least a bipedal race.  The hotel reminds me a lot of my father’s favorite movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel.  While it’s not the same as that movie, it has that same bygone era feel, the posh and elegance of a time long gone.

The ponies – and there are a lot of them – have adjusted to both my human and alicorn forms, though they treat me as if either fragile, or as if I think they are fragile – I’m not sure which one is worse.

There are a lot of guards here.  Mom told me that they’re directly from the Palace Protective Division, which explains the Ceremonial Barding.  But just in case, there’s a hostage rescue team on standby, and apparently some of the hotel staff here are also REG personnel undercover, not that I can tell the difference.

One thing’s for sure, they won’t tell me what this place is, or where it is.  They only tell me it’s “Ruritania”, which is kinda odd.  The only Ruritania I know is from a type of genre that, again, references bygone eras and such.  One mare told me that Ruritania means something else in Equestriani English, but she never said, and I haven’t seen her since – I hope she didn’t get in trouble because of me.

Maybe that’s just me – the Princess of Ruritania…or maybe the Prisoner of Ruritania, more likely.

I’m just bored and lonely and I haven’t talked to Athena in ages.  She must be worried about me, or worse.  I bet Becky Carlisle knows what I am now and wishes that poor other Sterling was really me, that bitch.

Mom said Dad went to go visit the other Sterling’s parents and offered any help he could.  I wish I could’ve gone as well, but Mom said that would only make things worse.

She sat by the pool, looking at its crystal-clear waters.  She’d already gone for a swim several times, so much so that Panic Button (that probably wasn’t her name, but it was how she acted), worried that she would catch the feather flu or worse the regular flu, nevermind that as an alicorn, Sterling knew she was hardier than the average pony or human.  But then Panic pointed out that as the child of a human and an alicorn, she was not a purebred and likely susceptible to both.

After that, she got out of the pool and decided to sun herself.  She got to wear the extra-risqué bikini she bought, because neither of her parents were here to scold her, nor were there any humans around to worry about.  But that also didn’t matter, because she didn’t have her friend Athena to share it with.  They had been as thick as thieves, two girls up against the villainy that was Becky Carlisle and her clique, and were practically sisters.

And now she was all alone in a cavernous hotel, with furry robots (that’s practically what they were) who rarely spoke to her, and rare visits from her mother.


“You know, I don’t recall clothing standards being that lax, even for the pool.”  Sterling turned to see a white alicorn standing there, looking at her with a glance somewhere between amused and parental.

Sterling sat up.  “I’ll change, Aunt Tia.”  She still wasn’t sure how she felt about her aunt.  When they’d first met, she hadn’t exactly been the warm, supporting figure her mother had described; in fact, she’d been practically an antagonist.  But later that night she’d tried to make up for it and while she wasn’t the female role model Sterling’s Aunt Zoe was, it was clear that Celestia was trying.

Celestia chuckled.  “It’s okay.  It’ll be our little secret.  Besides…”  There was a flash of light and Celestia was in her human form, wearing something even more revealing.  “…when you’ve got it, flaunt it.”  When Sterling dropped her jaw, Celestia laughed.  “We’re a species that doesn’t wear much clothing to begin with, Sterling, so I can hardly see how this is scandalous.”

The younger alicorn crossed her arms.  “Not helping,” she pouted.

“Relax, dear.  You’re an alicorn.  When you reach adulthood, you’ll be catching the eyes of everyone – and everypony – as you go.  Besides, I’ve been around long enough to know things are different with other species.  Did you know, for example, that it’s the custom of Minoans – the minotaurs – to dress in the national style, wherever they go?  So in places like Equestria and Griffonica, they don’t wear much clothing, while in places like Inari, Zhuanguo and Earth, clothing is the norm.”

“Really?”

She nodded.  “Yes.  The kitsunes wear clothing, as do the pandas.  There’s two whole worlds out there, Sterling, and we want you to live long enough to see them all – that’s why we’re doing this.  I know it hasn’t been easy for you.  Anyway, I came by to see what I can do to improve the situation for you.  There’s not much I can do right now, but I’ll do what I can to make it easy on you.”  Celestia then dived into the pool and said, “But for now, I just want take time to relax with my niece.”


Dinner that night was private between the two, with the other ponies curiously absent.  Sterling wondered if her aunt could conjure just about anything that existed within seconds, and she wasn’t surprised.  Still, there was an odd feeling the teen had before around her aunt that she hadn’t had prior, one that felt a bit unusual, though she couldn’t put her finger on it.  She thought that maybe she was sensing something else she hadn’t before, and maybe her alicorn powers were on the rise.

One Chinese dinner later, the two were seated in the hotel’s theater, watching movies and eating popcorn.  From the general silence, Celestia said, “You either really love this movie, or something’s bugging you.”

“I’m thinking,” Sterling admitted.  “Something I felt earlier…a presence.”

“Oh, so you feel The Force now?”

“The what?”

Celestia waved it off.  “I guess your generation really isn’t into Star Wars.  Anyway, did you want to talk now?  You can ask whatever; I’m not going to be offended.”

Sterling was silent for the longest time before she spoke.  “Do you hate me?” she asked plainly.

“Why would you think that?”

“I’m a prisoner here, and not even my mother will let me out.  I haven’t seen anyone other than ponies who won’t talk to me or who are pulled away if they do, and suddenly you come out of nowhere offering to make things easier for me, which is not going to happen,” she said sadly.  “And a girl is dead and that’s my fault, which probably gives you even more reasons to hate me.”  The look on Sterling’s face was of a broken girl, a child just on the boundary of womanhood and already slapped hard by life.

“No, I don’t.  I’ll admit, I could’ve dealt with it better—”

“You imprisoned my mother for a thousand years.  A thousand years!”

“There’s more to it than just that and I had the lives of countless innocent ponies to think of,” Celestia said in a sad voice.  “I have never forgiven myself for what happened that day and I don’t think I ever will.  And unfortunately, it’s put a distance between your mother and I and I let that bleed into my relationship with you.  Inexcusable, but I don’t hate you, Sterling.”

“But you hated the Tantabus.  And she’s me.”

“No.  You’re not the Tantabus, Sterling.  You’re part of it, but you’re not it.”  Celestia turned and looked into her niece’s eyes.  “The Tantabus was part of Luna and it was overeager to please its mistress, so much so that it….”  Celestia blushed and prevaricated with, “Well, I’m sure you know the next part.  But you are not the Tantabus.  It is part of you, but if anything, think of it is as the ovum that was fertilized.  It read your father’s genetic code, did what it had to do to create new life and became that.”  The sun alicorn reached out and touched her niece’s face.  “You get your looks from your father’s side of the family, at least in this form.”

“Yeah.  Aunt Zoe says I look so much like her that people have asked if I’m her kid.”  Sterling then turned back.  “Okay, so you don’t hate me, I guess.”

“No guessing.  You are my niece.  I could never hate you.”

“Okay.  Next question then: why do these people hate me?  I mean…I know what racism is, I’m not dumb.  My stepmother was Fillipina and one of the girls at school thought she was my maid, which pissed me off.  But…I didn’t ask to be a princess or an alicorn.  I didn’t even know what I really was until the day I first changed.  I don’t consider myself a ‘princess’,” she said, doing air quotes, “and my best friend is Chinese-American.  I don’t hate anyone – or I didn’t until I found out about these jerks.”

Celestia sighed.  “How to explain this?  I take it Luna explained that we are not goddesses, but we are Avatars, correct?”

“Yeah.  I’ve been reading up on Hinduism to get the idea, but it’s not really the same, is it?”

The sun alicorn shook her head.  “We can die, if enough force is used against us.  I almost died in Singapore, because a bullet with enough force took out my tiara, and could’ve hit my horn.  Horn damage is dangerous for our kind and while I’ll spare you the details, even alicorns are subject to that.  Unlike regular unicorns, we could grow our horns back, but even then, there’s still a chance we can die.”  Celestia looked at the screen, watching the beginning of the Death Star run.  “These new bullets – if that’s true – carry something within them that can kill us instantly.  Call it anti-magic, call it the leftover radiation of a supernova, I don’t know.

“But I know this much: would I go to this much trouble to protect somepony I hated?  Even with you being the daughter of my dearest sister and a dear friend of mine, would I do it?”  Celestia shook her head.  “I’ve lived thousands of years, Sterling, and so will you.  And one thing you’ll learn over those ages is that life is what can be best called ‘orderly chaos’.  Things will be both logical and insensate.  And people will both hate you and fear you for what you are, especially given that you are the daughter of the Alicorn that Fell.”

Sterling grimaced, then took a drink of her Coke before adding, “That doesn’t make sense at all.”

“Of course it doesn’t.  Just be glad you’ve never encountered Discord.  He lives for this stuff.”

“Um…okay.  Next question: where am I?  Am I in Equestria?”

“No.  You’re in Ruritania.”

“That’s a fictional country.”

“Yes, and no.”  The look on Celestia’s face was enigmatic as she gestured to the room around it.  “This is Ruritania.”

“The hotel?”

“It’s not a hotel.  It only looks like one to you.”

One beat.  Two.  Three.  Then….  “Huh?”

“I suppose the time has come to show you.  It will probably be part of your responsibilities as an alicorn anyway, so….”  Celestia changed into her true form, and then looked wistfully at the movie screen, muttering, “And we just had to leave during my favorite part, too….” before looking at her niece and nodding slightly.

Sterling took the hint and changed as well.  “Still not completely used to this,” she admitted.

Celestia laughed and put a wing around her niece.  “The universe will astound you, if you just let it!” she quoted.  “It’s a line from an old Equestrian poem, but it still rings true.  Anyway, are you ready?”  The younger alicorn nodded, and they flashed away in a bright flare of teleportation.


The two alicorns reappeared on what looked to be the moon, had the moon been made from a dull, sandy color.  There was starlight in the sky, but no actual sky, and in the distance, a green star flickered.  Sterling looked around, and saw, from nowhere, a delicate coral-hued, art nouveau-inspired hotel sat in a thin layer of atmosphere, a literal oasis on this dead world.  A few more seconds went by before Sterling realized that the hotel looked exactly like the fictional Grand Budapest hotel, save that it had no name on its grand façade.

“Where are we?”

“This world doesn’t have a name that we know of,” Celestia told her.  “It was one of the ones found during Project SANDALWOOD’s operations.  From what we can tell, this world once held life, but life has been gone for thousands of years…except for Ruritania.”  Celestia commented.  “A creature, captured and enslaved by the previous residents, forced to be used as a facility for their purposes.”

“You mean like the Farpoint creature?”  When Celestia looked at her niece oddly, Sterling added, “Always been more of a Trekkie than a Star Wars fan.”

“I suppose,” Celestia mused, making a mental note to research what the younger alicorn was talking about later.  “Ruritania told us that eventually the star went nova, cooking everything on the world and it barely survived.  It then spent a miserable few million years by itself healing both physically and mentally, when we arrived.  At first, Ruritania was terrified of us; thought we were going to enslave it again.”  Then a bright smile came over the alicorn’s face as she said, “And then Pinkie reached out to it, assured it that we were here for friendly purposes and spent three months getting to know it.  By the time we realized this world wasn’t of any use to us, Ruritania insisted on coming with us, telling us that it wanted friends and a life and knew it would be safe with ponies.”

“I still don’t get this talking to you bit.  How does it talk to you?”

“With a voice, Your Highness.”  Sterling turned to see Squeaky Clean standing outside the atmospheric bubble Celestia created for them.

“You’re Ruritania?” Sterling asked, but the mare shook her head.

“I am a part of Ruritania, the part that likes being Squeaky Clean, just as there’s a part that likes being Soapy Suds the dishwasher, and one that likes being Aqua Sentry the pool lifeguard and all that.  I suppose you could equate us to neurons in a hive mind, but we have our own independent thoughts and actions.”  Squeaky sat and smiled.  “And we love ponies – some so much that parts of us have broken off and become true ponies in their own right.”

“So you’re like changelings?”

“No, milady.  Nothing so harsh.  All you need to do is think of me as me and the others as themselves, and we are Ruritania, as is the hotel and everything.”

“Thank you, Squeaky,” Celestia said, and the mare curtseyed before vanishing.  “As I was saying, Ruritania came to live with us in Equestria, and it spends most of its time being the grounds and staff of the Mt. Canterhoof Resort.  But when you were in danger, Luna asked Ruritania to take you somewhere safe, and even though it didn’t want to return here, it felt a duty to protect its princess – you.”


“But we couldn’t tell you, because we weren’t sure you were ready for that, given that you’ve had a hard time adjusting to all this.”  Sterling turned to see her mother approaching in alicorn form, followed by an unusual looking white mare.  “And I never took into account that Ruritania has the mindset of an adult and really doesn’t remember how to be a foal, much less a teenager.  And that was my fault, dear.  I hope you can forgive me.”

Sterling went up and hugged her mother.  “You did all this for me, Mom.  How could I be mad?”

“Still, I should’ve thought about it.  And so I thought you might want somepony your age to talk to.  This is your cousin, Dawn.  Shining Dawn, this is your cousin Sterling.”

Dawn offered a hoof to bump.  “Hi,” she said, somewhat shyly.

Sterling returned the bump.  “Hi yourself,” Sterling said.

“Well, let’s get back to the theater, because I want to watch the rest of A New Hope,” Celestia said.  “Plus, it’ll give time for the girls to get used to each other.”

“Sure, but…why A New Hope?  Why not start with the prequels?”

“No.”

Luna frowned.  “What’s wrong with the prequel trilogy?  I liked them.”

Celestia facewinged.  “Sister, I love you dearly…but please don’t be stupid in front of the girls.”


Day Fifteen.

If Dawn calls Squeaky Clean “maidbot” one more time, I swear she’s going to blow a fuse, even though she knows Dawnie’s just joking.  Plus, it helps that my cousin is a prankster – she said she learned a few tricks from our aunts Rainbow and Pinkie, and if I wake up to have my hair turned green one more time, I’m going to scream!

But it’s more than just that.  The fact that she’s half-changeling and she was afraid at first that I wouldn’t like her…I guess I know how she feels.  And the fact that she’s spent all this time in a human form just for my sake when I told her she didn’t have to.  Plus, she tells me that until I appeared, the only ones she’d had a chance to be around on a regular basis around our age are the twins and from what I get, they’re a handful, a hooful and half over each!

Plus, I’ve been able to talk to her about a bunch of things, too.  Like how I’m afraid I’m going to be a screwup as a princess, and how I don’t know how to handle all this.  She just hugs me (she does that a lot; I guess that’s part of the changeling in her) and tells me everything’s going to be okay in the end.

Lastly, I’ve been getting to know Ruritania a lot better, now that it’s opening up to me.  Besides Squeaky Clean, there’s Porridge, the head chef; Speedy Service, the bellhop; and Brass Keys, the hotel manager; as well as several more.  Based on the conversation I’ve been having with it, Ruritania says that it’s considering making a human neuronode, but that it would need more practice with other humans, first.  I’ll have to make some plans to get some friends out here and such.

“Girls!  Girls!”  An excitable royal-red pegasus mare wearing the burgundy uniform of the Mt. Canterhoof Resort rushed up with towels.  “Your mothers are here.”

Both teens turned to see Princess Luna and Knight Commander Twilight Sparkle approaching.  “Hello, girls,” Twilight said.  “How are things going?”

“Oh, it’s going great!” the pegasus chirped.

“I think she means us, Speedy,” Dawn told her.

“Oh.  Sorry, still getting used to that part of my subroutine.”

“You’re doing fine, Speedy,” Sterling said, hugging the pony closer to her briefly.  “So, Mom, Aunt Twilight, what’s up?”

“We just got out of a meeting with the ISPO and REG,” Luna commented.  “Based on the current investigation, you should be able to come out of heavy security.  We’ve already let Ruritania know and in about a half-hour, it’ll be making the teleport back to its normal spot.”

“Yup, looks like vacation time’s over for you two,” Twilight added, which was quickly punctuated by a disappointed groan from both teens.

“But we were just having fun,” Dawn mourned.

“You didn’t tell them the rest, did you?” Luna said to Speedy.

“I don’t have that authorization level, Princess.  That would have to be at least the assistant manager, if not Brass Keys or the main mind,” Speedy told her.

“Okay, then we’ll tell them.”  A smile came over Luna’s face.  “When Ruritania came over here, it left something behind…fissile.”

Dawn looked at her aunt oddly, but Sterling figured it out in an instant.  “Ruritania budded?  It had a baby?”

Twilight nodded.  “Yes.  House Shetland has bought some land in Bohemia, a few dozen hectares in a secluded valley just outside of Prague.  If what Ruritania told us is correct, little Sylvania will grow up in about five years, and we’ll teach it how to be a resort of its own.  That way the species will have a chance to grow again and make new friends.”

Dawn and Sterling both squeed and hugged Speedy.  “That’s great!”

“Well, maybe great for the main mind, but I’m my own neuronode!” the pegasus gasped.

“But first, we’ll have dinner and say goodbye to the staff,” Luna told them, and the girls gasped.  Seeing their heartbroken faces, the lunar alicorn added, “It’s only for now.  Sterling, from now on, your first duty as the linguistic alicorn will be to oversee the two resorts.  The managers will report to you and you’ll swing by both often to see how it goes, okay?”

Sterling nodded.  “Absolutely!”