Excerpt from La Principesa, translated from the original Neightalian. The copy from which this excerpt is taken was found lying in the dirt on the former site of the Canterlot Palace hedge maze, with the page folded down on this passage.
I do not wish to leave out an important branch of this subject, for it is a danger from which Princesses are only with difficulty preserved. I speak of the flatterer, whose mouth is full of sweetness and lies, and who is an especial pest in the courts.
The flatterer seeks to deceive the Princess, and ingratiate himself to Her will. He desires nothing save to advance his own position, and to use his talent with words to do so. For this reason, a wise Princess should appoint a council of wise ponies of whom she can ask advice, and who have the permission to speak the truth to her. In this way, when the Princess grows unsure, she can gain true and wise counsel, untainted by greed or envy, and thus frustrate the desires of the flatterer with honesty and wisdom. For the flatterer, and those like him, pose a special danger to the Princess, one of which she may not be aware.
To illustrate this danger, I adduce an example from history:
Her Highness Celestia V, the Eighteenth Princess of the Sun, fell prey to a flatterer. By the age of twenty-eight, she had not married, nor had she a child. She desired both with all her heart, and yet, no suitor of sufficient quality could be found. Just as she began to despair, a new face appeared at court: an earth stallion named Lapis Philosophorum. Lapis was a skilled orator, and gained Her Highness’s ear. He persuaded her that he loved her, and that they would always be together; by this means, he was able to execute his plan.
Lapis was skilled with his words, but even more skilled with his potions. One night, as he and Her Highness shared a meal, he filled her cup with a brew of his own devising. Afterwards, the court physicians could not discover what it was she had drunk. Many assumed it was a draught of Aqua Amortis, a love potion; many others said it was a special poison that had driven her mad. It took them several days to discover that both were correct: Lapis had smitten Her Highness with love for him, love so fierce and deep and powerful it dulled all her other faculties. It was only by the meanest chance that Lapis was captured before he could escape Equestria with all the Palace’s treasures in his saddlebags.
And yet, even after she was cured, it is said that Celestia V still cared for Lapis. He was imprisoned in the dungeons, but was made comfortable in ways that many found unbefitting a criminal of his stripe. And, when Celestia V, still unwed, gave birth to a filly eleven months later, few were surprised she was born an earth pony, like Lapis himself.
Hence it follows that a flatterer may be the greatest danger to a Princess there ever was. Lapis used his flattery to reach Her Highness, and once he reached her, he poisoned her. But his flattery proved a danger not only to Her Highness, but also to all of Equestria: for among the treasures found in his bag was the Peytral Aurum. He was a thief, to be sure—but he had not stolen the Peytral, for such cannot be stolen. Under the influence of Aqua Amortis Malus, Her Highness had willingly given him leave to take it—the Peytral, and her wings with it.
Thus is the true danger of flatterers to a Princess. For a skilled flatterer can convince a Princess to part with much: her power, her riches, even her virtue. But most of all, a flatterer can convince a Princess to give up her Peytral. This is the true danger of flatterers, for a Princess can be parted from her Peytral by only one of two means: by death, that pale mare which parts us from all things, or, even worse, by willing another to take her glorious burden from her. There is no shame in the former, but great dishonor in the latter; even now, the artist paints Celestia V but without her wings, because she, the Princess, gave her right to rule away.
Be she parted from the Peytral, no matter how distantly, the Princess possesses it still. That is part of its power. Yet, if she lets it go willingly, even by deceit or trickery, then it slips forevermore from her grasp. Such is the danger of the flatterer, even to even a wise Princess.