I whistled a jaunty tune as I trotted up to the door of Kristen's room. I knocked on the door and waited for a few seconds. When I didn't hear anything, I knocked again.
"Come on, Kristen, it's time to get up. We have a full day ahead of us."
I heard a groan coming from the other side of the door followed by the sound of somepony getting out of water. After a few moments the door opened and Kristen gave me a bleary-eyed look. She was still dripping wet from her pool.
"What time is it?" she grumbled.
"It just hit six-thirty. Time's a-wastin'. We have a lot to do today."
Kristen looked back longingly at her swimming pool. "Do I have to?" she groaned. "Can't I just sleep in for a little while longer?"
"I've already let you sleep in a bit. We have to get some breakfast before we head out to Vanhoover. It's a four hour train ride, so you can get a little sleep on the way there."
"Right. Right. Vanhoover." She let out a spectacular yawn and scratched her chest. "What were you gonna do there? Some school thing?"
"I'm giving a talk about our government to one of the schools there, yes." I lit my horn and quickly dried Kristen off with a spell. She grunted in irritation and waved her hoof at me. "But we can't be late. That's not very royal of us, Princess Kristen."
Kristen glared up at me and gave me a gesture with one of her wings that one should really never, ever, ever make to royalty. She's my sister though, so after checking to see if anyone was around, I returned it, eliciting a small smirk from her. She yawned again and walked out of her room, shutting the door behind her.
"You are not a morning person, TD," Kristen grumbled. "How on earth are you so chipper?"
"Possibly because I knew it would be irritating to you, but mostly because as an alicorn I don't really need that much sleep. Besides, I'm married to the Princess of the Sun. The day literally cannot start without her, so whenever I'm in Canterlot I tend to get up when she does."
"Yeah, yeah." Kristen yawned again as we made our way to the dining room. "You'd think I wouldn't need sleep either. I'm..." She stopped herself and looked around the hallway, shooting an uneasy smile to a passing servant. "Um... I'm me."
"Well, the best I can figure is that you're still making the transition between normal pony and what Discord was. Give it a couple hundred years or so and you probably won't need to eat or sleep." I frowned and tilted my head when a thought struck me. "Although, would you be able to sleep at all? Eating would be no problem, but would you have the power to make yourself fall asleep?"
"I hope so," Kristen grumbled as we reached the dining room. "Even if I won't need sleep, there's still nothing like going to bed after a long day."
"True."
Kristen collapsed onto her seat and rested her head on the table. I smirked, loaded up a few things for her, and pushed the plate next to her head. "Here. Eat something or you'll be grumpy the rest of the day." I prodded her with the plate. "Come on, you can sleep on the train."
"This isn't right," Kristen groaned, reaching a hoof out and snatching a piece of bacon off of the plate. "Why can't the day start at a reasonable hour?"
"This is a reasonable hour." I poked her shoulder. "Come on, once you get going you'll be fine. Here, try some of this." I poured her a big cup of coffee and placed it in front of her. She raised her head and gave it a bleary look before hooking her foreleg through the handle and downing the entire thing in one go. Guess godhood had made her more tolerant to coffee.
Kristen glared at the empty cup and stuck out her tongue before pushing it back to me. "Blegh. Is that how you drink it?"
Or maybe not. "No, I tend not to drink coffee." I downed my drink and took a few more slices of fruit for the road. "Alright, it's just about to hit seven. We should be at the train station by seven-thirty." I prodded her with my wing. "So up and at-em."
Kristen groaned and got up out of her chair, stretching like a cat before taking her place beside me. "And you said I could sleep on the train, right?"
"Sure can, though I'm not sure how well you will. That coffee is pretty much the most caffeinated beverage in Equestria. It's meant to wake alicorns up if we need it. It should hit you any second now."
Kristen raised her eyebrow. "Really? Well I don't feel like..." Her eyes widened and she flinched back, flaring out her wings so quickly they almost smacked me in the face. "Whoa! Yep! Feeling it now!" She roughly shook her head like a dog and lightly slapped her face. "Geez, what's in that stuff, nitroglycerine?"
I smirked and shook my head. "No, not quite. Like I said: it's specifically bred for us. Pretty expensive stuff, which is too bad considering how much of it Luna drinks. On the subject of nitroglycerine though, if you did drink it, it wouldn't kill you. At some point you're going to be able to conjure up a drink that's just pure nitro and down it like water."
Kristen stuck her tongue out. "Yuck, that sounds awful. Why would I do that?"
I shrugged. "Dunno, it's just a power you're going to have. Give it a few hundred years and you'll probably like it just fine."
"I think I'll give that a hard pass." Kristen frowned and tilted her head as a thought crossed her. "So, if that coffee was widely available, how much would it cost in the average, what, Ponybucks or something?"
I snorted and grinned widely. "Actually yes. In terms of cost..." I frowned and tilted my head as I did some quick calculations on the current coffee market, the price of the average cup at Ponybucks, the cost to the crown to buy it in bulk... "I'd say the average cup would be about two hundred bits."
Kristen's eyes widened and she actually stopped walking beside me. "Wait, that was a two hundred dollar cup of coffee I just drank?!"
"Bits, not dollars, but yes." I tapped my jaw as a thought struck me and I did a few more quick calculations. "I might be a little off, but from what I know of both economies, I'd say it's about one point six five bits to the dollar."
"Wait..." Kristen squeezed her eyes shut and started walking beside me again. "How would you even know all of that? You sucked at math."
"It is something I had to get better at, yes. I had to study a lot of economics when I first ascended. It helps with a lot of rulings if you know the supply and demand of different goods and services when the relevant cases show up in court." I shrugged. "I'd have to do a little more in-depth analysis of both economies to get the exact number, but I think I'm fairly close."
"Unbelievable."
The two of us were silent the rest of the way to my royal chariot. Kristen walked a little closer to me when we passed a bunch of my guards, all of whom bowed to me. We made it out of the palace and quickly went to the landing area for the chariot. We were a touch behind schedule, but nothing we couldn't make up during the flight to the train.
I stepped aside and motioned into the chariot to let Kristen get in first, but she grimaced and didn't get in. "I dunno, TD. Can't I fly alongside it this time?" She stretched her wings and gave them an experimental flap. "I do need to practice my flying and if I get too tired I could just go back into the chariot for some rest."
I grimaced and shook my head. "Not sure that's a good idea. You're not the best at flying straight yet, and you still have some trouble taking off. I promise that we'll practice your flying when we get back tonight, alright?"
Kristen grimaced, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." She poked my chest as she passed me to get into the chariot. "But I'm holding you to that, mister."
"A promise is a promise." I stepped into the chariot behind her and nodded to the pegasi pulling it. They nodded back and spread their wings as one of the servants closed the door to the chariot behind us. As usual, Kristen grabbed the side of the chariot when it took off as though she'd be thrown out from the movement. Once she felt steady, she laid down on her seat and tried to close her eyes. It only lasted a few seconds before she sat back up with a frown.
"Dang. Yeah, that's a strong cup of coffee. I feel like I've been hit with a baseball bat."
I smirked at her. "So you won't be partaking again?"
Kristen shook her head. "Not unless it's an emergency, but I can't imagine what that emergency could possibly be." She smirked back at me. "Aside from deranged mutant killer monster snow goons, of course."
I nodded sagely. "Of course. That hasn't come up, but I'll have to add it to their file in the Hall of Potential Villains as a good way to defeat them."
"So you and Celestia have a lot in the HPV department?"
I rolled my eyes. "In any case, we'll find something else for you for breakfast if you don't want that."
"Maybe just a cup of sugar since I probably won't have any negative health issues from anything I eat or drink." She stuck out her tongue. "Thank goodness."
"We'll see, I suppose."
Kristen peered over the side of the chariot as we approached the train station, once again gripping the side as we made our descent.
"I don't know how you get used to that," she grumbled.
"Says the pegasus," I pointed out.
"When I land I'm in control. With this..." She grunted and shook her head, stepping out of the chariot with wobbly legs once we'd landed. "Not quite as much."
"In any case, you'll probably get used to it soon enough. You do have an eternity to get used to anything, really."
Kristen glared at me. "Oh, yeah, that helps. Besides, if ponies are still using chariots ten million years from now, there are some serious issues. You guys have the technology available for cars, you know."
"We do, but at the same time I don't see them catching on very well. I'd want to create a car with less pollution before one could be released for general use."
Kristen shrugged as the two of us made our way onto the train, nodding to the various ponies who were bowing to us. "Dunno. They were working on self-driving cars before I got here." Kristen flopped onto one of the train seats and draped her foreleg over her eyes. "In any case, I'm glad we're on the train. It feels much more stable." Kristen stayed silent for a few more moments before groaning and flopping onto her stomach. "I really wanted to sleep on the train, but curse you and your coffee."
I chuckled and opened up a briefcase so I could get started on some paperwork during the journey. "Yeah, well, like I said: it's for waking up alicorns. We're ponies who need an entire brewery to get a little buzzed."
I picked up a quill and went to my giant stack of paperwork, so the train was pretty silent. Kristen was lying on the bench with her eyes closed, trying to get back to sleep but that wasn't happening. She groaned and grimaced before opening one of her eyes.
"That's a lot of paperwork."
I nodded and slid one of the pages I had finished with over to a small stack which one of my servants put back into a briefcase. "Yeah, it takes a lot to run a nation. A lot of this is tax stuff and court cases. The latter is obviously more interesting than the former, but it can also get a little petty. This for example." I took about five pages out of the pile and flipped it around to show it to her. "This is the case of two ponies who are arguing about what one of them is owed for a day's work versus the other one. One of the ponies did a full twelve hours while the other worked six, and the employer is mad because she signed a contract paying them both equally but feels she was cheated out of six hours of work."
"Okay, so what does she want to do?" Kirsten asked, taking the papers out of my grasp and scanning the front page. "Like you said: she signed a contract."
"Yes, but she's also claiming that there was a clause in the contract that said she didn't have to pay the full amount if there wasn't a full day's work, but the other pony is saying that there wasn't one when he signed the contract. Both sides have signed contracts backing up their story, but both are saying that the other's contract is false."
"So... basically you have to find out who's lying." Kristen flipped to the second page and tilted her head. "So what are you going to do with the liar, whomever that may be?"
"Well if it's the worker then he's obviously not going to get his money at all. If it's the employer then she's naturally going to have to pay the whole thing. However, whomever is lying is going to get into more trouble because falsifying a contract is a no-no. Around a ten thousand bit fine and ninety days in jail, depending on the severity of it. Something on the smaller end like this would probably have that penalty, while falsifying documents like IDs and passports and tax forms is a lot more severe."
"Hm." Kristen flipped to the third page and put it down in front of her to read it more easily. "So basically this boils down to who's lying. Do you have to deal with this stuff a lot?"
I nodded and started on another case. "Pretty much every day. Feel free to read through that one all the way if you'd like and give me your ruling on it."
Kristen looked up from the document and frowned at me. "What? You want my opinion on it?"
"Certainly. I'm curious to hear what you think. It's not a difficult case. Everything you need to know is right in those pages." I levitated the stack of papers I was going through and flipped through the pages. "If it was a little more difficult it would be sixty-five pages like this one is."
Kristen stuck out her tongue and looked back down at the case she had. "No thanks. I'll stick with this one."
She flipped back to the second page and frowned with a tilt of her head before going back to the third page. The train car was silent as the two of us read through our respective cases. Truth be told mine wasn't overly difficult either. It just had a few more working pieces to it, but other than that it was fairly straightforward as my cases went. I had faith that Kristen would figure hers out. I already had.
After a few more minutes of total silence, save for the sound of pages rustling, Kristen spoke up again. "So, I think I got it."
"Yeah?" I put my case down. "What do you have?"
"Well, I saw on page four that the worker had filed his contract at the local town hall the day he was supposed to be working, which is one of the reasons he didn't work the whole day. The employer didn't file anything, so of the two the worker has proof of the validity of his contract."
"Possibly, but the worker could have made his fake and submitted it."
"It does look a little suspicious that he took the time to immediately file the contract," Kristen admitted. "It's like he knew he wouldn't be working the whole day."
"Perhaps, but there's something you're missing. Something that blows this whole case wide open." I flipped to the back page which had the contracts on it. "It's fairly simple. The worker's contract is the one on the right."
Kristen peered down at the contracts and frowned, sticking her tongue out thoughtfully. "I don't..." Her eyes widened and she put her hoof up to her mouth. "No. No one is that dumb."
"'Fraid so," I admitted. "There's a public perception that all cases like this are difficult and both sides are really smart and it takes all of my intellectual prowess to figure it out. Not so here."
"Yeah, but misspelling the name of the farm you worked on?" She scoffed and shook her head. "That's... wow. That's... why not just work the extra six hours? It would be much simpler than all of this. He'd have to work harder to copy the contract, submit it into town hall's records, then fight the employer in court with you than to just pick peaches for an extra six hours."
"Yep. Some ponies will go to great lengths to be lazy."
"And in the end it's going to cost him way more."
"Most definitely. Hopefully he won't do it again. Equestrian prisons aren't the criminal colleges that they are on Earth, so he should come out the other side a much wiser stallion."
"One would hope, but you never know."
"Definitely." I picked up the paperwork and hoofed it over to my servant. "In any case, that's a fair portion of my job. Like I said: I handle cases like that pretty much every day. It's honestly not unlike watching children argue, except a lot of the foals I see are more intelligent and mature than some of the cases I get. My first ever case was two ponies arguing about who was at fault for twenty bits worth of wheat getting ruined." I shrugged and went back to the pile of paperwork. "In any event, you want to look at another case to pass the time? I've got two or three more like that in here."
"Yeah, sure," Kristen said, taking the papers I gave her and laying them out on her seat. I'm glad that she decided to do so. It would really help with the boredom of the train ride to Vanhoover.
The two of us were silent for the rest of the train ride except for the occasional question or comment from Kristen about the cases she was looking through. By the end of it I think she got better at spotting the small details that cracked open cases. Eventually the train slowed down and I hoofed the paperwork we were in the middle of to my servant before standing up out of my seat and stretching my legs and back with a satisfying groan. Kristen stood up beside me and cracked her neck.
"Finally. I thought we'd never get here," Kristen groaned.
"Well we do have to do the ride back in a few hours. I have a bunch more cases to read over so we won't have nothing to do."
"That's something then, I guess," Kristen admitted as the two of us were led out of the train and into a private carriage for our trip to the local elementary school. We chatted about nothing in particular for the half hour ride to the schoolhouse, and before we knew it, we had arrived.
Kristen and I looked out the window and saw the school, which was about three times the size of Ponyville's schoolhouse. That wasn't too much of a surprise, given that the population of Vanhoover was much higher than Ponyville's. They had put up a giant banner over the entrance of the school that said "Welcome Prince Antares!" in bold red paint. Students and faculty lined the sidewalk into the school, cheering my name and they'd even gotten the school's band to play the Equestrian national anthem...
Poorly, but it was the thought that counted.
Kristen and I stepped out of the carriage to rambunctious applause from the gathered ponies. I smiled and waved at all of them, gently nudging Kristen to do the same. She put on her best smile and gave her best attempt at the "royal wave" that she had been practicing. She... needed a touch more practice.
"Fillies and colts, mares and gentlestallions, I thank you for your warm welcome," I said once the crowd noise had died down a little bit. "My sister and I are looking forward to spending some time in your lovely school today. I'm certain that it will be a wonderful experience for us all."
The crowd began cheering again and a pony who looked like the school's principal, if the name tag she wore saying as much was any indication, walked up to me and bowed.
"Prince Antares, Princess Kristen, I welcome you. I am Principal Blackboard, and it is a great honor to have you in our school." She stood up and stepped aside, motioning to the entrance. "If you wouldn't mind following me to my office, Your Majesties?"
"Of course, Miss Blackboard. Lead the way," I said.
Principal Blackboard bowed her head again and led us into the school. I smiled and waved my wing at the various schoolchildren around me, some of whom were holding posters with simple drawings of myself welcoming me to the school. They had the usual quality of foals' drawings, some of them were just peach blobs with another blob for my mane, and an arrow pointing to me saying "Prinse Antaris", but I loved them. They'd put a lot of work into them.
Having said that, I could look into the crowd and see the foals who would probably have something artistic as their cutie mark.
We entered the school behind the principal and she led us straight into her office. She opened up the door and let us walk in first before taking her spot behind her desk as two of my guards took up spots beside the door. Kristen sat down on a chair opposite the principal but I, being bigger than anypony else in the room, merely stood. The principal glanced at the chairs and flattened her ears.
"Oh... um... my apologies, Prince Antares. I did not think to get you a chair you could sit on."
I smiled warmly at her and waved my hoof. "Don't worry about that. I rather doubt that you have a chair my size anyway. In any case, the assembly starts in fifteen minutes?"
Principal Blackboard nodded. "Yes, that should give the students enough time to file into the gym. I must say, they've been looking forward to this for a few weeks. I assure you that they'll be on their best behavior."
"And even if they're not, I doubt they'd do anything too bad," I said. "They're just foals."
"I do hope you're right," Principal Blackboard said, running her hoof down the side of her face. "But I'm certain that you know how they can be."
"For sure, but I'm also sure that you have a group of wonderful foals. Besides, I'm the prince of education. They should respect that."
"I hope so."
"One more thing, Principal Blackboard," Kristen began. "You, uh, wouldn't happen to have a cousin or sibling or something that works in Baltimare?"
Principal Blackboard smirked at Kristen and crossed her arms. "Is he the one tutoring you?"
Kristen grimaced and facehooved. "Yes. Yes he is."
"I'm sorry. I know he can be a bit... dry."
"That's an understatement," Kristen said through gritted teeth.
"Little late for me to change tutors now, I'm afraid," I said. "Trust me, it wouldn't go over well." Kristen groaned and facehooved while Principal Blackboard stifled a giggle behind her hoof. "In any case, we should be headed to the assembly soon. I'm sure they're going to get restless if they don't have anything to do."
"We have a little time, but I can see your point," Principal Blackboard said. "Do you have any plans for afterward? I'd love to give you a tour of the school."
"Let's see what time it is after the assembly," I said. "We have to catch our train back to Baltimare in a few hours. If I have the time, though, I'd love to see the school."
"Well we'd love to have you," Principal Blackboard said. "You have a lot of supporters here, especially after all of the strides you made to improve the educational system. Don't think the parents and the foals haven't noticed either."
"Oh, I figured that," I said, my gaze flicking up to a picture of me placed on the wall behind the principal's desk. I briefly wondered if it was there to intimidate the foals who were in trouble for whatever reason. If so, I didn't like the idea, but could also see the logic behind it.
"In any case, we should probably get going," I said. Kristen and Principal Blackboard both stood up from their seats, and I opened the door so that we could all head to the assembly. Kristen and Principal Blackboard both chatted about her relative while we made our way to the gym, and I heard the din of the chattering foals as we neared it.
Principal Blackboard put on some speed and passed us, lighting her horn to open up the metal double doors of the gym. I nodded in thanks and walked past her, Kristen and my guards following close behind her. The mass of foals had been herded onto the bleachers, and were all chatting among themselves about this or that. Likely the usual stuff that happens during the day at an elementary school.
Our group walked into the middle of the room and the foals all stood up and cheered the moment they spotted me. I smiled and waved at them again for a few moments before raising my hoof to about chest level to get them to calm down.
"Fillies and colts, I thank you for your welcome to your fine school. I am honored to see the support you are showing me." A knowing smirk crossed my face as I scanned the faces of the various foals. "And I also imagine that you're all happy to get out of third period math."
The foals all giggled and began chatting again, but I raised my hoof again and they stopped talking.
"Now, as I'm sure you've been told, I'm here to talk about how our government works, and also to answer any questions that you have. This is a time to ask me anything."
"Dude, you probably shouldn't be doing an AMA," Kristen muttered beside me. "You know how those can be."
"This isn't the internet, and I'm their ruler," I whispered back. "It'll be fine."
"Idiot," Kristen grumbled.
"Now, a lot of ponies when they talk about me say that I'm a monarch," I began, ignoring my sister. "They're not exactly right. Princess Celestia was a monarch back before Princess Luna came back because she was the only one ruling. When Princess Luna came back, they became a diarchy. Since I'm here, though, Equestria's government became what it called, and I know this is a big word, a triumvirate. So that's what Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and myself are. Princess Cadance can be called a monarch because she is the main ruler in the Crystal Empire."
I could see the foals were all staring at me with rapt attention, but I saw some confusion on their faces. I guess triumvirate is a big word. For the next half hour or so I went into some more details about the government, especially stuff like court and the obscene amounts of paperwork I did. I made it very clear to them that we all do a ton of work to make sure that they're happy and taken care of. They seemed to get it well enough. I finished up my lecture and then opened up the floor for any questions. Instantly the hooves of seemingly every foal shot up. Well, at least they were interested. I pointed to a filly in the front row. She slowly stood up and looked at the ground, scuffing her hoof on the gym floor.
"Um... hi, Prince Antares. I was just wondering about Princess Kristen. She's your sister from Earth and she was a human like you, so I was wondering if she's gonna rule, too."
"Well, Princess Kristen hasn't been in Equestria that long, and it was about a year or so after I came to Equestria that I became a ruler." I turned to Kristen. "It's up to her, really."
"Um... yeah, we'll see," Kristen said, rubbing the back of her hoof. "I mean, it's a big responsibility, like my brother said."
"She's right," I said. "It's a big decision."
"If she says yes, is she gonna get a horn, too?" the filly asked. "'Cause I heard that you can only be a ruler if you have wings and a horn."
"I mean... yeah, I kind of doubt it," Kristen said. "Like Prince Antares and I said, I have a lot of thinking to do. This is a new place for me. It's not like Earth, that's for sure." She gave the filly a warm smile. "But... um, yeah, you know. I like it here so far."
"Next question," I said as I scanned the crowd. I pointed to a colt in the back row.
"So my dad said that you married Princess Celestia," he said.
"That's right, I did," I said with a smile. "We're very happy together with our daughter Princess Nymeria."
"Yeah, so Princess Celestia is an alicorn like you, and you're the only pony that she's had a baby with. Are you gonna have a baby with Princess Luna since she's also an alicorn, too?"
"Oh, um..." I glanced over at Kristen who had a barely noticeable smile on her face. I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to the colt. "I mean, I'm married to Princess Celestia and I lover her very much. Princess Luna is going to be happy with somepony, I think."
The colt frowned and tilted his head, but nodded and sat back down, allowing me to pick somepony else. I decided on a filly in the third row.
"So, I heard my mom say that you fought Discord when he got outta stone."
My smile faltered, but I nodded at her. "Yes, that's right. I want to protect all of my subjects."
"Yeah, but my mom said that you killed him and he's not in stone anymore. Is she right?"
"Uh..." I let out a noise that was a cross between a chuckle and clearing my throat. "Discord isn't going to be a problem anymore. I'd rather leave it at that." I looked over at the group of foals again. "Anypony else have a question?" They all raised their hooves as a thought struck me. "Also, I'd rather you guys not ask questions about the war. It was a sad, scary time, and we're past that. We should be thinking about happy stuff now, right?"
Instantly about half of the foals put their hooves down. Yeah, that's what I thought. I pointed to another filly.
"So I wanted to ask you about Earth, if that's okay, Princess Kristen. I've always wanted to hear stories about it!"
"I can see that. Hmm..." Kristen tapped her jaw in thought. "I need to think of a good story. Well, there was this interesting time when the Canadian prime minister, Canada being my country, was kind of in trouble with his parliament and really didn't handle it right. They kept asking him if he'd met with this ethics committee..."
And so for the next hour or so we regaled the happy foals with crazy stories about our life and Earth. They all enjoyed it considerably, and my announcement that I needed to go back to Baltimare was met with a collective "aaawwww!" I promised them that I'd be back.
We made it to our train on time and spent the ride back mostly relaxing, but about an hour out I started up on paperwork again while Kristen dozed off a little bit on her seat after a quick lunch.
We made it back to Baltimare with a little time to spare, which just meant that I had a little more time to read over my paperwork before court.
"Alright, I have court in about twenty minutes. Do you want to just hang out in your room, or would you like to join me?"
Kristen tilted her head in thought as we went in the direction of my courtroom. She glanced down the hallway to her room when we passed it, but ultimately shrugged. "I mean, yeah sure. It'll be interesting to see what you do."
"Good, then you can be my consigliere for the day. Don't worry, it's not a hard job, and you even get a hat."
"A hat," Kristen said flatly as we walked over to my throne room. "And why would I get a hat?"
"All consiglieres of mine get hats," I replied. "It's just how things are done. It's a nice hat."
"Uh-huh."
We entered my throne room through the back door and even though the main doors to my throne room were closed, I could hear the din of ponies chattering among themselves as they waited in line for my court to start. I motioned for Kristen to sit down at the seat next to my throne and levitated the consigliere hat onto her head. She rolled her eyes but adjusted the hat so it fit more comfortably. I smiled and nodded at her before turning to the guards standing next to the doors.
"Alright, send the first case in."
The guards nodded and opened up the doors as I organized the small mountain of paperwork next to my throne, taking out the relevant paperwork for the case we would be starting with. I had to hide a smirk when I saw that it was the case that I'd been discussing with Kristen, which was good. It would ease her into things.
"This is the case of Miss Peach Tree vs Mister Great Idea," my guard said as the two ponies walked up to my throne.
Mister what now?
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kristen trying to hold back a smirk, but doing a rather poor job of it. Thankfully the two ponies were more interested in me than her. They both reached my throne and bowed low to me and agreed to go under oath.
"You may rise," I said, stomping my hoof on the armrest of my throne. "Now, I have read over the case and have my thoughts on it, however, I am willing to hear your perspectives on the matter. Miss Peach Tree, you may start."
"Thank you, Yer Majesty," Peach Tree said, bowing to me again. "Well, Ah hired Mr. Idea on the fifth of September of this year to work in mah peach orchard. Just a little extra help while some family was outta town. Hired him and another fella. The other fella did a great job and Ah even threw in a few more bits for a job well done, but Mister 'Great' Idea here decided he didn't wanna show up on time. Ah was gonna write him off as a no show, but at about noon he shows up and says he's ready to go. Ah wasn't gonna complain since we were a little behind schedule, and he did an okay job, but at the end of the day he comes up ta me and demands ta be paid as much as the other stallion!"
"The amount I was to be paid was specified in the contract we had signed the day before," Great Idea said a little snootily. "I had an unexpected emergency that I had to attend to. I assure you that I arrived at your orchard as soon as I could."
"I see," I replied. "Was your emergency you going to the local town hall to submit your contract?"
"Well... I didn't want to lose a fair sum of money because of something unexpected, Your Highness," Great Idea said, not quite meeting my gaze. "Besides, the extra bits would have helped me with my emergency."
"Which was?" I asked.
"Well... it was a... personal matter, Your Highness."
"And I'm a ruling prince of Equestria," I responded evenly. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"I... no, no, thank you, Prince Antares. That's quite alright."
"Hmm." I picked up the paperwork in my magic and flipped to the contracts. I levitated it over to Great Idea. "And the contract on the left is the one you filed?"
Great Idea examined the contracts for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I filed the one on the right. The one that says I get paid the full amount no matter what."
"Just to clarify, you mean the one that has the name of the orchard you were hired to work at misspelled?" I said.
"Prince Antares, I never..." He re-read through the contract and almost instantly his pupils dilated to almost pinpricks and his ears flattened. His mouth flopped up and down for a moment as Peach Tree smiled triumphantly. After a moment Great Idea cleared his throat and looked up from the papers. "P-Prince Antares, I... I can only assume that sh-she misspelled it somehow. I..."
"If that were the case then both contracts would be misspelled, ya dummy!" Peach Tree growled. "And do ya really think that Ah'm gonna misspell the name of the farm that's been in mah family fer hundreds of years?"
"M-maybe something was... I mean..." He let out a weak chuckle and looked over at Kristen of all ponies. "P-Princess Kristen, surely you can see that it was likely a simple mistake. No reasonable doubt is required in a case like this, is it not?"
"Hey don't look at me," Kristen said. "I can't speak for my brother, but I'm kind of on the side of Miss Peach Tree."
"Well that's... certainly you don't..."
"I think I've heard enough," I said. It was time to spare the cheating stallion more indignity. "As I'm sure you can imagine, Mister Idea, falsifying official documents isn't something to take lightly, nor is perjuring yourself by lying in a prince's court."
"P-perjury?"
"Yes. Unless you're willing to tell me what the emergency was that necessitated shirking six hours of a contract you had signed?" Somehow Great Idea’s ears pinned back even more and he was fully looking at the ground. He knew I had him. "Yes, that's what I thought." I turned my attention back to Peach Tree. "Did you actually give him any money for his work?"
Peach Tree shook her head. "No, Yer Highness. Got in a big argument when he asked ta be paid. If he'd just accepted the half pay then we wouldn't be here right now. He did six hours of honest work."
"Indeed. Well, I've heard enough. I find Mister Great Idea guilty of falsifying official documents and perjury. I sentence you to pay a five thousand bit fine for falsifying the contract, another five thousand bit fine for the perjury, and a sentence of two years in the Baltimare City Penitentiary with eligibility for parole after six months served." I stomped my hoof on the armrest of my throne again as my guards came up to arrest Great idea. "This case is closed."
"Thank you, Yer Majesty," Peach Tree said, bowing to me again. "Glad justice was served."
"You're welcome, Miss Tree. You are dismissed."
With one more bow, Peach Tree left my throne room as Great Idea was escorted away. When the room was empty of everyone except my remaining guards Kristen scoffed and shook her head as she adjusted her hat.
"Wow, dude. Harsh."
I shrugged with my wings and paused for a moment to order some water for the two of us before responding. "Not really. Yeah, it's gonna suck, but I'm not going to let him go with a slap on the hoof. I let him off relatively easy for his crimes. Now, if he does it again, things are going to get a heck of a lot worse for him. I really rather doubt it, though. Like I said: Equestrian prisons aren't the criminal colleges that they are on Earth. He'll see the error of his ways and probably come out the other side with behavior a little more aligned with his name."
"Yeah, that was the craziest part," Kristen said. "I mean, are there quotation marks around his name on his birth certificate?"
"Oh, I rather doubt that, but just because you have a cutie mark in something doesn't mean you're one hundred percent infallible. Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way."
"Makes sense." Kristen looked to the large stack of paperwork next to me and took a sip of the water that had just been delivered to her. "So, what's next? Anything as exciting?"
I checked the next case and grimace before shaking my head. "'Fraid not. This next one is about corn tariffs and their potential impact on rice imports. A little more boring, but I think you'll be able to follow it well enough."
"Um..." Kristen's ear twitched and she glanced at the back door. "S-sure. I'm sure I'll learn a lot."
"I'll try to fill you in on anything I can. On that note..." I turned to my guards again. "Send in the next ponies."
* * * *
"Are all of your court days that boring?" Kristen groaned as she poked at her food with her fork. "Seriously, there were times when I wanted to summon bats or whatever to make the day more interesting."
"Yeah, but you learn to get used to it," I said as I loaded more food onto my plate. "Once you learn all of the nuances things get a lot easier. Not completely simple because each pony has his own ideas, perspectives and motives, but even then you learn some tricks to make it go better. It'll still be a while before I'm as good as Celestia is, but I'm better than I was when I first ascended."
"For sure, but you've gotta be bored, too."
"Of course."
Kristen propped her head on her hoof and poked at a pineapple slice, turning it different colors with each poke. "Although next time I'm going to turn their tails a different color, or something. You know, spice things up a little bit. Or at least, I might if we weren't trying to keep my new... condition under wraps."
My smile turned a little brittle as I chewed on a bite of salad. I had to remind myself that my sister wasn't Discord. She was just bored and wanted to use her new powers, just like I would in her situation. It's not a big deal.
"So, does the taste change if you change the color?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.
Kristen frowned and picked up a piece of bright pink honeydew melon. She popped it in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully for a moment. "Yeah..." She swallowed and picked up a piece of dark purple watermelon. "Yeah, it kind of does. It has a bit of tangy blueberry to it. I'm not sure why since it was pink, but..." She shrugged. "Chaos magic, I guess."
"Makes sense." I glanced at a nearby clock and pushed my nearly empty plate aside. "Well, that was a good meal, but I think it's time I fulfilled my earlier promise and gave you some more flying lessons, what do you say?"
"Sounds good to me!" Kristen said as she shot out of her chair with enough force that she hovered for a few seconds. "Palace gardens?"
"It's as good a place as any. Lots of open space there. So we should--"
Just then the door opened up and a servant walked in with a scroll floating beside him. He placed it on the table in front of me and bowed.
"Prince Antares, I have a report from Ponyville. Miss Sparkle thought you might want to handle this one personally."
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention." I unrolled the scroll and scanned it. Hmm. Interesting. I rolled it back up and gave Kristen an apologetic look. "Um... so..."
Kristen's eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me. Something's come up."
"Yeah, something possibly big. I'm not totally sure. I should handle it quickly." A thought struck me and I tilted my head. "It's going to require a little travel. You up for that? We could fly there."
"So, instead of flying in the palace gardens we're going to go on an adventure?"
I nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."
Kristen grinned and happily flapped her wings. "Well then, what are we waiting for?"