Shining Armor looked upon Sunburst with new eyes and saw a pony that shone with brilliant radiance. The effect only lasted for a moment, perhaps it was a trick of the eyes, because when Shining Armor blinked, the brilliance went away. Sunburst was looking at him in a most curious manner, head tilted off to one side, studying him. That was the way of it; ponies—little ponies—loved to gawk. It was their nature and something that had to be tolerated, endured.
“Must’ve been some vacation,” Sunburst said with a great deal of dry wit.
“I had one perfect day,” Shining Armor replied, “and then several more. Don’t tell anypony, Sunburst, but Flurry saved me. She helped me to see the mistake I was making. Too bad she had to break the rules to do it, however.”
“That’s kind of what Flurry does.” Sunburst squared his withers, lifted his head, and leveled his bespectacled gaze upon Shining Armor. “Though in Flurry’s defense, when she does break the rules, there is usually some good to be had after the fact. Flurry, for all of her many faults, has good intentions.”
“Always the optimist, Sunburst?” Shining Armor allowed himself a rare wry grin.
“Always and forever.” Sunburst took a moment to adjust his spectacles and studied Shining Armor’s wings with scholarly interest. “Fascinating… white wings with blue feathers. Very much like Gosling. Princess Celestia said that, long ago, male alicorns had contrasting wings in comparison to the females. Plumage displays, no doubt.”
Shining Armor nodded and then asked, “How is my empire? More importantly, how is my apprentice? How did she hold up as Temporary Empress?”
At this, Sunburst squirmed in place and averted his gaze.
“Sunburst… tell me what happened.
“Uh, Sir… I, uh, well, um, your apprentice, she uh…”
“What did she do?” Shining Armor’s jaw firmed and his neck muscles stood out in sharp contrast beneath his skin.
“Well, she almost jailed Princess Celestia, for one thing and—”
“She what?”
Fearful, terrified, Sunburst went rigid and did not—perhaps could not—move.
“I’m still a pony,” Shining Armor said to the spooked little pony, while also enduring a strange, confusing moment of supreme annoyance. Why, oh why, did Sunburst have to be so scared of him? This had never been the case before. “Sunburst, deep breaths. Tell me what happened.”
“Princess Celestia arrived for the meeting you arranged… the test. Chartreuse was taking all of this quite seriously. She was the Empress and she was doing rather well. Everything was going as planned until all of a sudden, it wasn’t. Princess Celestia offered Chartreuse the finest cookies that Canterlot has to offer in exchange for more favourable trade terms. Chartreuse ended the meeting right then and there and Princess Celestia was almost jailed.”
“And neither you nor Dim tried to stop this?” Shining Armor asked.
“We couldn’t.” Reaching up with his hoof, Sunburst tugged at the collar of his cloak. “Dim and I found ourselves silenced and paralysed. We could do nothing while Chartreuse laid into Princess Celestia and demanded accountability.”
“But it was resolved?” Shining Armor’s eyebrow arched.
“Princess Celestia pled guilty and was granted leniency.”
Shining Armor facewinged and almost gave himself a concussion.
“Chartreuse sentenced Princess Celestia to a public shaming for the attempted bribery of a public official. The princess had to wear a sign saying that she was a bad pony and was forced to walk the districts. Princess Celestia was also put on the list, Sir, the list of disturbers of the peace.”
“Oh… my… goodness.” It took a moment to recover and Shining Armor had to blink several times before he could regain his senses. He needed to have a little chit-chat with his apprentice, that was for certain. “Sunburst, is there any chance that you are pulling my leg? I mean, I know I pranked Chartreuse by leaving her in charge as the Temporary Empress, but this… this is nothing to joke about. Did this really happen?”
“It’s in the newspapers, Sir.”
“Oh fronk.”
Sunburst winced at the profanity and averted his gaze.
“Well, Sunburst, at least we know that Chartreuse is loyal and cannot be bribed.”
“Indeed we do… Sir.” Sunburst tugged at his cloak again and shivered, even though the room was quite warm. “Sir, your apprentice also used her authority to pass a law. She issued a royal decree.”
“Oh, did she now?” Intrigued, Shining Armor wondered just how much of a train wreck he had come home to. “Out with it, my friend. Cease being so timid and just tell me.”
“When Princess Celestia was walking the districts while wearing her sign, Chartreuse observed a pony littering. A wrapper was thrown down into the snow. Or maybe a paper bag, I’m not sure of the specifics. Chartreuse had the guards seize the perpetrator and he was put on trial right on the spot. Charged with uncouth behaviour and littering. When Chartreuse found out that littering only carries a minor penalty, she became quite disturbed.”
Nodding, Shining Armor said, “She would. That filly is wound a little tight, if you know what I mean.”
“Littering now carries a penalty of one thousand hours of community service.”
For the second time, Shining Armor facewinged and this time, he almost knocked himself out. The pain was exquisite and in between waves of dizziness, he wondered how his wing knew how to move on its own. His apprentice, for all of her seeming perfection, held herself to ruthless standards, something that was on the list of things to address over time. Chartreuse needed to learn flexibility so she would not be so rigid. For a brief moment, Shining Armor thought of his sister, and a fond smile appeared upon his face.
“Sunburst, go say hi to the girls. I’m sure they’ll want to tell you all about our trip and all of the times I crashed into the ocean trying to learn how to fly. I’m going to say hello to the Empress.”
“For the love of Princess Celestia, don’t try to bribe her!”
It took Shining Armor a moment to realise that Sunburst wasn’t joking.
“The aristocracy has taken to calling her the Iron Duchess and they thoroughly appreciate her ironclad rule.”
Unable to help himself, Shining Armor smirked. “Thank you, Sunburst. I’ll keep that mind.”
On the throne sat a twitchy, jerky filly with eyes filled with vivid crimson spiderwebs. She wore the tiara that Shining Armor had placed upon her head before he left, and in her right fetlock, she gripped her iron fireplace poker, very much as if it were her sceptre of rule. It was obvious that she hadn’t been sleeping well, and through some strange, unknowable instinct, Shining Armor knew that Chartreuse understood the weight of the crown. She felt it, bore it, and strained her neck beneath it.
As he approached, her face took on a crazed look of utter relief and the whole of her body trembled. At the foot of the throne, Chalcedony sat on the floor and beside her, Nomination was reading aloud from a book. Or he had been, before he went silent. The colt appeared to be quite alarmed for some reason and brushing himself off, he rose so that he could stand at attention.
“I hear that you’ve had a busy two weeks,” Shining Armor said to his apprentice and he saw her nod in response to his words. “It is nice to come home and find that my empire is safe and secure. Thank you, Chartreuse.”
Head bobbing, Chartreuse licked her lips, cleared her throat in the most unassuming, most polite way that one might imagine, and then with total fearlessness, looked Shining Armor right in the eye to say, “I think your nose is sunburned.”
That was it? Nothing else? No other comments? Was Chartreuse completely unphased by what she saw? She had to be. Squinting, he studied her with a well-practiced eye and saw many familiar sights, things he had observed in his sister too many times to count. Jaw firming, he asked, “Chartreuse… when was the last time you had some sleep?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, quivering. “Thousands of lives to worry about. The prosperity of many. Each one of our subjects is owed a meaningful, prosperous, happy existence, and I tried to think of ways to give it to them.”
Guilt washed over him and he felt terrible. He had done this to her as a prank, but his serious, studious apprentice had thrown herself into her duties. Chartreuse could be trusted—this he already knew—but this just went to show how much she could be trusted. Though feeling guilty, his heart warmed from a bright, burning sense of optimism that welled within his barrel. There were good ponies in the world, fine ones, ponies like Chartreuse.
“You are relieved of your duties,” he said to her, his words soft, gentle, and proud.
“Oh, thank you, Master.” She slumped over, her ears sagged, and she allowed exhaustion to overcome her. The fireplace poker fell from her grasp and would have hit the floor, had Shining Armor not caught it. Chartreuse’s tired eyes sagged behind her triangular spectacles while tears welled up in the crinkled corners.
“I am going to take you home,” he began as a flood of strange paternal instincts overcame him. “When we get there, I am going to fix you some tea, we’ll talk a bit over tea, and then I’m going to put you to bed. How’s that sound?”
“Oh, I’d like that.” Relief could be seen on Chartreuse’s face.
“Before we go… would you mind explaining to me what your reasoning was involving Princess Celestia?”
Chartreuse inhaled, a sharp gasp, and her ears went ramrod straight. Nostrils flaring, withers rising, the filly underwent a curious transformation, going from limp noodle to Iron Duchess. Everything about her bearing and demeanour changed, and did so with a drastic, austere severity. It was scary to witness and Shining Armor took a step backwards without realising that he was doing so.
“We are a nation of laws,” Chartreuse said, her voice hitching, “and not a one of us is above them. Things have been a little… lax, as of late. The aristocracy has been downright squirrely. You know of what I speak. They are lazy, and some of them are even insolent!”
Nomination, hunched over in submission, nodded.
“So I took the biggest fish in the pond and I made an example of her!” Chartreuse’s voice was almost keening now, strained, and the filly struggled mightily to remain rigid. “She thought that I would betray the better interests of the empire for cookies… cookies! It was insulting. Uncouth. Uncouth! So I made an example and in doing so, I brought the aristocracy in line! Now they bow and behave as proper supplicants! They are reminded of their place as public servants! They have been made properly afraid and behave in a manner befitting their station!”
Right away, Shining Armor understood exactly what had happened, he understood and he knew. Chartreuse had been manipulated—used—and no doubt had responded in exactly the way that Celestia had wanted. This sense was new, this quirk was new and somehow, Shining Armor knew that this understanding of the situation had everything to do with being an alicorn. Chartreuse was rigid to the point of being predictable, and that had been exploited, used for the greater good.
Senses overwhelmed, he needed a moment to get his thoughts under control.
When the cat went away, the mice would play, and Celestia had used his vacation time to bring the aristocracy back into order. Opinions had been divided since the Crystal Cotillion and the invasion of the ice orcs. There had been an enormous rift that had split the governing body right down the middle. He would need to investigate this matter thoroughly to determine what had happened, and how much things had changed.
Much to his relief, the Iron Duchess went away, and Chartreuse hunched over on the throne. Chalcedony was staring at him in some weird, sightless way, which could only be described as creepy. So, little Chartreuse was a dominating authoritarian; which made sense, really, because he had observed how she ruled over the lives of her friends.
As Shining Armor, he was most pleased with this student—but something else within him, some other part of him, some separate part that made itself known—it was already calculating and scheming, thinking of the best possible way to exploit this newfound asset.
“Come, little one. Let me take you home and put you to bed.”