Diamond Tiara walked into Starlight’s room, her belly filled with some of the best food she had ever tasted. Whoever Twilight had cooking for her was the greatest chef in Equestria, she was convinced.
Starlight was behind her, also looking stuffed. She was apparently only allowed this kind of food on special occasions. Princess Twilight was more content to eat fast food. Hayburgers and donuts had been staples of her diet since her early days of her education, and that had not changed much even after she had become a princess. In fact, if anything her dietary habits had only gotten worse, as alicorns had little to worry about from cholesterol, diabetes, or obesity. Starlight had bemoaned multiple times having to keep a healthy diet while her mentor had been seen downing junk food.
“The princess is really nice,” Diamond Tiara said.
“I think so,” Starlight said as she took a seat on one of the cushions in her room. When she had arrived, it had been plenty bare and sparse. Then Princess Twilight had taken her shopping. At first, she had limited what she wanted, but the princess had insisted that she get anything that she thought she would want. It ended with her having everything she ever dreamed of having, at least when it came to material things. A pile of stuffed animals, a desk with writing equipment and parchment, a large bed with a canopy, a bookshelf filled with books (something that Princess Twilight had helped her pick out), and much more.
Diamond Tiara took a seat on the other cushion. “Well... what did you want to tell me?”
Starlight paused, the reason she had asked Diamond Tiara over had returned into her brain. She took a deep breath.
“You need to promise to keep this quiet about this. You can’t tell anypony. Not the Cutie Mark Crusaders, not Silver Spoon, not even your parents.”
“I promise.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay... do you remember me telling you guys that I came from an orphanage a few towns over?”
“..Yeah,” Diamond Tiara said, suddenly getting a very uncomfortable feeling about the direction of this conversation.
“Well... that was the truth, but it wasn’t all of it...”
Twilight sat in her bedroom, writing to Flash. In some ways, she felt a little silly constantly chatting with her coltfriend like a pony five years younger. But she had passed over dating for too long, and there was a lot to catch up on.
So you sent him packing?
Yeah. At this rate, I can’t wait until I pass the divinity threshold.
Divinity threshold?
What Princess Celestia calls the point where average ponies think that immortals are untouchable. She said that once she hit five hundred, the suitors just stopped coming. She had completely forgotten about the laws until I ascended.
Cadance didn’t get any suitors?
Everypony forgot the laws. It wasn’t until after she was engaged to my brother that the laws were rediscovered, so she got off the hook.
And you’re not worried about losing one?
Not really. Even before I ascended, my magic was already better than any other mortal I knew, and Rainbow Dash can fly circles around everypony else. So don’t worry, you can keep me all to yourself.
Lucky me. You seem to have everyone wanting to get a piece of you. You told me that there was one pony in town that was trying to get her daughter to butter up to Starlight. Is she still trying to do something?
Spoiled Rich? Yeah, her daughter is over here right now for a sleepover.
You don’t think that’s a little suspicious?
Of course I do. But Starlight was the one who invited her over, and she really wants to get away from her mother. She probably has instructions to dig up some dirt on me. She has that reputation. But I’m not worried. Starlight knows better than to share anything secret.
Diamond Tiara’s eyes were wide. Everything she had been told was so unbelievable, even coming from somepony who had been raised in Ponyville.
“That’s... whoa.”
“I know, it sounds weird.”
“That doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Diamond Tiara said. “You’re telling me you’re from the past? And Princess Twilight traveled back in time to adopt you?”
“That’s what she told me,” Starlight said.
“Yeah, but... why? Uh, no offense, but why would she do something like time travel to take on a student? That seems like it could end pretty bad. Were you, like, a prodigy or something? I don’t think so, if you don’t have a cutie mark yet...”
“I think she’s keeping something else from me. Everytime I ask her about the whole thing, she tells me that I’ll know when she thinks I’m ready. I thought that was just the Princess knowing best. But if she’s keeping something like Sunburst from me, what else is she not telling me?”
Diamond Tiara was quiet for a moment. “Well... what did you do after you found all this out?”
“I... went into the Princess’s room...”
Diamond Tiara tensed.
“...And I asked if I could sleep with her.”
Diamond Tiara relaxed. “Okay... so you still love the princess?”
“I... I don’t know.”
“You went to Princess Twilight right when you needed somepony. You must love her. I think that means you know she can be trusted.”
Starlight looked at the ground, not saying anything for a few moments. She touched the carpet with the tip of her hoof and traced shapes in the fabric. Finally, she looked up at her friend, who was wearing an expression of concern.
“Diamond... do you love your mother?”
Diamond Tiara felt like she had been punched, and flinched accordingly. Seeing this, Starlight’s eyes widened in guilt. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, that was a horrible thing to ask.”
But Diamond wasn’t listening anymore, she was looking at the carpet trying to get her thoughts back in order. When she next looked up, Starlight was still rambling several apologies.
“Yes.”
That single word stopped Starlight dead.
“I love my mom. Even though she’s been terrible to me. I love her, I want to stay with her. I don’t want my dad to leave her. I don’t want her to go to jail. I want to make her proud of me.”
“...Why? After everything she’s done to you?”
“I don’t know. Well... she hasn’t been all bad. Once, when I was still a blank flank, we had a day out, just the two of us. We went shopping everywhere, and she bought me everything I wanted. We went to the spa, and it felt really good just being pampered.
“Another time, when I was worried that I’d never get my cutie mark after Silver Spoon got hers before I did, she gave me a hug and she told me that I would, and very soon. She told me that no matter what it was, I’d be great at it. If I was an artist, my work would in every museum in Equestria. If I was a soldier, I’d become a general. If I were a politician, I’d be Princess Celestia’s right-hoof pony.”
Starlight tilted her head. “She sounds... nice.”
“She is... sometimes. But she’s mean sometimes too. The counselor says I shouldn’t be expected to put up with the bad moments just because there are some good moments. But I can’t help it.”
Starlight didn’t know what to say to that. She had heard all the horrible things that Spoiled Rich had done, she had heard the other foals on the playground talk about her like she had been the bride of Sombra, but hearing all this from her own daughter, the one she had always heard had suffered the most, was completely unbelievable.
The silence hung for a few more moments.
“I think you should just ask Princess Twilight to tell you why she pulled you from the past.”
“I’ve asked her. She told me that she doesn’t think I’m ready to know that.”
Diamond Tiara opened her mouth to say something, reconsidered, then closed her mouth. “Well... the Princess has done so much for Equestria, so usually I’d think that she was right. But... this is a big step.”
“I thought about telling her I know, but then I’d have to admit I was snooping through her files. Can you imagine how angry she’d get?”
Diamond Tiara thought a bit longer. “What about Spike? Maybe you can get information out of him. He was with Twilight when they picked you out of the past, right?”
“I thought about that, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. Spike sits in on nearly every meeting the Friendship Council has. He’s keeping things from me, and if I try to get information out of him, Princess Twilight will hear about it.”
Diamond Tiara hesitated a bit before asking her next question. “Starlight, you live with Spike. What’s he like?”
The question caught Starlight so off guard that she looked at Diamond Tiara. “Huh?”
“Well, ever since he got here, he mostly hung out at the library and around the Princess. We rarely ever see him on his own. He never even came to school...”
At that, Starlight actually looked angry. “It’s all thanks to Neighsay.”
“Who?”
“Neighsay. He’s this pony that’s in charge of all the schools in Equestria. He says that no creature who isn’t a pony should be allowed to go to school.”
Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened at that. “Really? But... why? Spike and Zecora are really nice... I guess that bird thing that Rainbow Dash was friends with wasn’t, but... wait,” Diamond Tiara said. “I thought I heard she was a friend of hers from school. How could that happen?”
Starlight stopped. “Wait... bird thing?”
“Some weird pony that looked like a chicken... gr...”
“Griffon?”
“Yeah! That’s it!”
“I... don’t know. I’ll ask the Princess the next time I see her. But this Neighsay guy won’t let him go to school. Princess Twilight says it’s because he’s afraid of things he doesn’t understand. And he is, because Spike is nice, and he did all kinds of things for me before the castle staff moved in, and he lets me read his comic books...”
Starlight starting breathing deeply. Over the course of her rant, her voice had been rising. She was grateful that she caught it before her voice carried out of the room. The last thing she needed was any of the castle staff reporting back to Princess Twilight about this conversation.
Diamond Tiara could only look at her friend, wondering what to say. She wished the Cutie Mark Crusaders were here. They seemed to know what to say in situations like this. The whole “relating to others” thing was still new to her.
“I’m just... it’s not fair!” Starlight raised her voice again. She caught herself again and adjusted her volume. “It’s not fair that Spike doesn’t get to go to school. It’s not fair I had to grow up in that orphanage. It’s not fair that you had to put up with your mom for so long with nopony helping you. I just... I wish I could do something.”
Diamond Tiara now knew what she wanted to tell Starlight, but she didn’t quite know the right words. She carefully searched her brain before speaking.
“Starlight... you need to be careful.”
Starlight looked at her friend, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well... when my mom was being mean to me, I wished I could do something about it. The solution that I came up with was to be the filly that my mom wanted me to be. It ended with nopony liking me. If you want to do something, you might end up doing something that’s even worse than what you’re trying to fix.”
Starlight wasn’t sure what to say to that.
Spike lounged in his bean bag chair, reading the latest issue of Power Ponies. As he went through the latest adventure captured in panels, he dipped his claws into the bowl sitting next to him and pulled out another gem, popping it into his mouth. After chewing for a bit, he went back to reading.
The final panel ended on a cliffhanger. The Mane-iac had succeeded in brainwashing Miss Mare-velous into her personal servant, and was laughing as her teammates looked on in horror.
Smiling, he placed the comic in its bag and sealed it. He then moved on to his next new comic, The Adventures of Dr. Weird.
Sadly, on that night, he wouldn’t get past the cover. Drawn on the cover was a drawing of a large dragon menacing a pony with a black cloth wrapped around his head. The cloth might have been an inconvenience to his sight if he relied on his eyes for that particular sense. The tag line on the cover read The Demon of Manehattan Foils the Plans of the Wicked Claw!
Spike put down the comic in disgust. Suddenly he didn’t feel like reading.
He sighed, reaching for another gem, only to find his bowl empty. He sighed, knowing that Twilight wouldn’t let him have anymore. It was a lot easier to sneak junk food when he was in charge of the kitchen. It was a shame, he needed comfort food.
He loved comics, he really did. But about once a month, he’d get a reminder through them about how dragons were seen. There were no dragon superheroes, no heroic ones battling the forces of evil. No, they were the villains, the forces of destruction the heroes battled and stopped.
Eventually, he would read the comic to keep up with the story, then bag and board it and keep it out of sight. There was hardly any form of entertainment that didn’t demonize his kind in some ways. The children's book collections he read as a kid had to be censored by Twilight so he wouldn’t stumble across stories of brave knights slaying dragons. Just going across the posters at the movie theatre was enough for him to see that was true in film, even back when Twilight was screening every movie he saw.
He knew how the world saw dragons. Ponyville was a relatively safe haven, where everypony was nice to him. He had gotten a few odd looks, but after a few months he was a regular member of the community, and everypony seemed to treat him well. Even his greed-fueled rampage through Ponyville on that fateful birthday passed without much comment.
But any trip outside Ponyville reminded him how out of place he was among ponies. He remembered the odd looks he got among the elite of Canterlot when he had to attend a formal event. He remembered playing with foals in daycare, and their parents pulling them away in fear when they came to pick them up. Nopony dared outright confront him. He was under the care of Twilight Sparkle, which meant he had a direct line to Princess Celestia. But they barely hid what contempt they felt he could get away with.
It wasn’t all bad. Twilight’s Canterlot friends thought he was adorable and showered him with attention. Donut Joe had known him ever since Twilight brought him in during long nights of coffee and studying and was fond of him. And he ended up helping Hoity Toity whenever he stayed at the castle and gained an infrequent employer who had a soft spot for him. Even Prince Blueblood seemed to like him, even if there was some formality in their interactions.
Then, one day, while he was enjoying the massive amount of free time that came with Twilight getting an actual castle staff, something occurred to him. A question popped into his mind.
Why am I just accepting this?
Twilight had been the cause of this thought. As she took more responsibility as a princess, she announced that one of her goals would be to put an end to Chancellor Neighsay’s twisted policy. She went on in speeches to the senate about how foolish the rule was, how Spike was just like any other foal, and how he made good marks in his home-schooling.
He had been appreciative of the efforts, and had hoped that Twilight would be successful. He had always counted on Twilight for support, always counted on her to guide him through the hard times.
But he had never solved these problems on his own. Maybe it was time he fixed that.
The first thing he did was check the law and see if there was any rule against a non-pony holding office. As it turned out, there hadn’t been. Looking through the history, there had been a good reason. Celestia had successfully argued that the election system should be chosen by the citizens, and limiting who they could elect was an attack on voter rights. It hadn’t been fought too hard, as fear of the other races was enough to ensure no other creature could get elected.
But inevitably, as happened with all bad ideas, belief in it started to erode. But hate doesn’t die easily, and certainly not without a fight. Thus, seeing the writing on the wall, Neighsay had implemented his “Ponies First” policy, guaranteeing that no non-pony would get the education to get elected. As an added “bonus”, it kept non-ponies away from young foals, ensuring that they wouldn’t be “corrupted”.
At least, so he thought. He hadn’t counted on one dragon being born into a life of privilege. Neighsay could keep him out of public school, but he couldn’t stop Twilight from giving him a private education.
When he had gone to Twilight and announced that he wanted to start school again, Twilight had been ecstatic, learning that the dragon that she had raised from birth was interested in improving himself more. However, once her excitement wore off, around the time she had sent scrolls to the top three professors in Canterlot asking for private lessons, it did occur to her to wonder why Spike wanted to do this.
”Spike... what are you hoping to accomplish from all this?”
“Oh... you know. I just want to learn.”
“...Spike, please tell me what’s wrong,” Twilight said. “Are you feeling neglected because I have Starlight now? I told you it might take me awhile, but I’d keep making time for you...”
“It’s not that,” Spike said. “I know Starlight’s pretty... high maintenance,” he said, which was about the most diplomatic way of saying, ‘You need to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t become a super villain again’. “It’s... I want to do something.”
Twilight didn’t understand at first. “What?”
“You’re doing so much to help me. But... maybe I should start doing things for myself.”
“...Oh Spike,” Twilight said softly. She gathered up her little dragon in her forelegs. Then lay on a cushion in the middle of Twilight’s private study.
“Spike... you’ve done a lot for me. You don’t need to prove anything to anypony.”
“I’m not doing this to prove anything to anypony. I’m doing this to get what I deserve. I’ve seen you do so many things for Equestria and I... haven’t. I can’t just stay here forever while you’re doing all this hard work.”
“Spike, you work hard too...”
“No. I used to work hard. But now Celestia’s hired all these ponies for you. Calibri and the castle chefs are doing all the hard work. I just follow you around and read off your schedule.”
Twilight looked at him with what Spike would later realize was true empathy. No doubt she had been comparing his plight to her own initial feelings of inadequacy. During those first few months as Princess, before Tirek, where she seemed to be a mere ornament.
“Spike... if you really want to do this, I’m willing to help you. I’ll support you through whatever you decide. But you have to know that this is going to be very hard and very painful. Politics is... well, it’s stupid. Most ponies are desperate to be right, even when it becomes increasingly clear there wrong. They vote for candidates more than they’ll vote for issues, and they’ll turn a blind eye to horrible things as long as they can... ‘win’, for lack of a better word. Do you really want to get involved with all that?”
There was hesitation as Spike mulled over what Twilight had told him. But it only lasted for a few moments as he looked up at Twilight with conviction in his eyes.
“Yes.”
Twilight smiled, hugging him tighter. “Look at you. Even if you’re still a baby dragon, you’re growing up so fast.”
Spike blushed. “Twilight...”
“I remember when you would suck your tail. Now you want to study to be a politician...”
“Twilight!” he said, going scarlet and grateful that Rarity wasn’t around to hear this.
He looked at the comic again. The monstrous dragon was still there. But it wouldn't last for long. Not if he had anything to say about it.