//------------------------------//
// 288 - New Crowns 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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Twilight sat upon a throne. It was a strange throne, the strangest she'd ever have to deal with. It belonged to the princess of Equestria. Her. An equally strange crown had been set on her head, a symbolic and mystical link to the power of Celestia and Luna.

"Your Highness." Silver was approaching with a soft clip-clop.

"We are already friends." Twilight skewed an ear. "You're teasing me."

"Guilty," he admitted, pausing a short distance in front of her. "You look overwhelmed. Can I help?"

"I'm not sure how you could." She looked him over. "You are pushing in new directions with magic, and have some experience with diplomacy, but this is neither of those things."

"Couldn't hurt to try," noted Spike, head poking into view from behind the throne. "Hey Silver!"

"Hello, Spike." He smiled easily at the dragon. "You know, you're royalty now."

Spike blinked rapidly, processing that fact. "Huh... wow, guess I am."

Twilight reached to gently tap his nose. "Let that inspire you to be good for the people. Royalty is a responsibility, not a privilege."

"Too true." Silver's horn glowed softly with a held arcane letter.

Twilight's eyes were on it instantly. "To draw closer," she stated as if reading from a dictionary. "Force. Origin, kirin." She huffed just as suddenly. "No sudden pop quizzes!"

Silver smiled gently. "If that is the law of the land, I have to obey." His tail swished left and right just over the ground, sitting on his haunches as he was. "I wanted to try something."

"Hmm?" She glanced beyond him, spotting a pony waiting both awkwardly and impatiently by the door. "Speak quickly, others want to pester me after you."

"I wouldn't want to get in the way of that." He smiled a little lopsidedly before nodding. "Dream teaching. I am the new dream walker. Would you mind if I stopped by?"

Her ears danced. "You're teaching during the day and walking dreams at night? This is not healthy!" She hopped up to her hooves, peering at Silver skeptically. "I will not have my assistants overwhelming themselves. Select one of the two and relinquish the other to another pony."

His ears fell, shot down, but they forced themselves back upright, his expression taking on a careful neutrality. "Of course." He started to turn away only to pause. "That didn't answer my question."

Twilight paused a moment before it came back. "Oh, yes, if you continue dreamwalking, you may stop by." She gently waved him off and gestured for the other pony to step forward. He left her there, doing her part as princess.





Fast slid up next to Silver as he trotted down the hallway. "You know, there's a small issue."

"Mm?"

"Proper spells don't always use proper words." She inclined her head faintly. "It's why your spells are so big and awkward."

Silver blinked, half turning towards her, his walking stopping. "What? When did you become an arcane expert?"

"When I started listening to you, and reading." Fast grinned with some amount of triumph. "I've been listening to your classes and I compared your spells to actual spells a lot and working out the differences. You make spells with whole words every time. Normal spells blend letters and words. 'It is like you are speaking this way.' Instead of 'it's like you're speaking this way.' So of course it's longer and harder."

Silver sank to his haunches, blinking gently. "You can contract these words?"

"You've already done it, but you were just following a spell," corrected Fast, looking ever so pleased with herself. "You never even realized you were doing it. Here." With a glowing horn, a scroll popped into being. "Your first spell, the fireball, optimized with proper contractions."

The glow changed to silver as he snatched it and unfurled it, his eyes sweeping left and right, his lips moving faintly as he read it. "It's... I have to try this." He glanced left and right. "Not here. Come with me?"

"Gladly." They both got to trotting. She gently brushed against him. "Proud of me?"

"If this works, which I imagine it will,  I will be more than proud. Fast! You... wonderful mare." He gently returned the brush and hurried up.

Soon they were outside the castle, in the garden. Animals watched them, but they paid them little mind as he kept reading the spell over and over, trying to capture it in his mind. The last time he said it, he played it on his horn at the same time, magic welling up rapidly in a contained orb over his head, compressed powerfully with violent fiery energy. He tossed his head, sending it flying into the air in a lazy arc before it exploded brightly, filling a small portion of the sky with brilliant reds and oranges.

It was his spell, but it had felt so much easier... "Fast?"

"You can thank me now."

"Yes, thank you! Yes, definitely that, but more than that... you're standing on the edge of greatness. Can you make a sheet of what contractions you've found and keep looking for more?" He turned to her, his horn faintly wisping smoke and a big grin on his face. "Look for more, keep them recorded. This will help ponies, all of ponykind." He inclined his head. "At least unicorns, but it'll spread."

She suddenly stepped in and pressed her lips to his. His words died as the kiss went on. Despite his not starting it, he seemed perfectly willing to continue it. Soon they were hugging and flopped over, that excitement turning into hot passion flowing between the two.

Just as Fast had started it, she ended it, gently drawing back. "Now that is how you thank your wife." She gently tapped his nose with the flat of a hoof. "I'll get to writing it down for you. Now, about that. What's this about your class being cancelled?"

Silver winced as he stood up. "Twilight ordered I give classes or walk dreams, not both. I don't know any other pony that can walk them, but there are a lot of ponies that can teach, so..."

"You know I've been there from your first class, right?"

He blinked at his wife softly. "You did mention paying attention... What--oh! Oh, right, of course." He put a hoof to his forehead. "You want to teach? Is that something you like doing?"

She lifted her shoulders. "I could learn to like it. Adapting is something I've been getting better at. What you're teaching deserves to be taught." She flashed a grin. "Besides, it's not that weird for professors to be studying what they teach, right? So the project you just gave me fits right in there doesn't it?"

"Not at all..." His sexy wife had a big brain too? "I thought you were perfect already, but you managed to reach higher." He suddenly kissed her nose. "I'll tell the school." He trotted off excitedly, his body language broadcasting how excited he was.

Fast spread her insectoid wings and lifted into the air. "That went well." She darted off with a satisfied smile.





"I have made my decision." The kirin softly dipped her head a moment. "I must go... I want to see my people, what has become of them... Perhaps, after that, I will return, perhaps not..."

"I can't ask for more than that." Silver nodded gently in kind. "You have been wonderful. Thank you for what you've shared with me, and for being there. You are welcome back anytime."

She smiled faintly, a subdued expression. "You are easier to quit from than the sultan, this much is sure... You have been kind." She turned away. "Perhaps too kind, Prince." Her tufted tail flicked as she trotted away.





Whiskers was standing on his bed with the twins. She was holding up a card comically large for her with a picture of an apple on it.

"App," announced Clear Twilight.

"Pull," continued Morning Glory.

Whiskers tilted her head at the two of them. "Close, put them together." She set down the card and brought her hands together.

"App."

"Pull." The two foals glared at one another before Morning butted heads with Clear.

"Apple," both said as one before they sank back to their haunches, looking satisfied.

Whiskers clapped her tiny hands. "There you go. You have it. Now a tricky one." She grabbed the next card in a stack and held it up. "What is this?"

"Pump."

"Kin."

There was a great gourd, vine trailing from it off the frame of the card. Whiskers set her whiskers askew. "That was cute the first few times. You are your own ponies. Come on."

Clear Twilight pointed at hoof at Whiskers. "Whiskas."

"Bed." Morning was pointing at the bed they were all on top of.

"Window," chimed Clear Twilight, looking so proud as she pointed at a window.

"Sister," one upped Morning glory, looking at Clear.

"Broter," slurred Clear, not getting it quite right.

Whiskers smiled at the two of them. They were learning words quite well, even with their strange habits. "You two are doing great. One more card and we take a break." She grabbed the next and held up what was clearly a dog, tongue lolling, tail caught mid-wag.

"Dog," both declared together before bursting into childish giggles.

"Got it in one." she set the card down and stepped forward. "Now who's hungry for some lunch?" With excited cries, she took them to get something to eat. More accurately, she was snatched up in a field of magic and they went dashing off with her floating behind them.

Close enough, right?





Night Watch sat calmly in the grass, her eyes taking in the statue before her. "This is what has become of you, the end result of your hubris... It need not remain this way." She raised her hooves. "I can feel your spirits, alive and alert. You are listening, imprisoned. Equestria grows stronger by the day, with allies around the world. With citizens more practiced in their own powers."

"We are not the helpless creatures you imagined us being. But we are also not the cruel creatures you now curse." Her eyes darted. "Even if one of you... You are a mystery to me. Why did you so eagerly betray your essence?" She lifted on leathery wings, hovering before the petrified face of Cozy Glow. "What drove you so far away from the herd that you had given up so completely? Will you tell me that story? We could be friends. You understand that power, I know you do. Perhaps you will even try to manipulate me through it."

"Perhaps I will manipulate you instead. Friendship can be risky, allowing another so close. The dropping of guard... You are a talented manipulator, a skill I have not honed. That tilts the odds. 40%?" She leaned in close, her eyes meeting Cozy's. "Do you want to risk it?"

She dropped to the ground. "I will return. We'll chat. No, you'll still be statues, I'm afraid. I'm certain you were hoping that. We will speak, mind to mind, soul to soul. One by one." She gestured at herself. "I'm not full of myself enough to think I can take you all on at once. Be patient. Patience is the only thing you have left." She began to trot away. "I will be back."

She left the statues behind to consider her offer. She had other business to tend to, and the time in quiet would make them more ready to listen when next she came.

The only real question was which of them to approach first. The pony seemed the most obvious. She would be the least likely to produce a sudden supernatural power she wasn't expecting.

Just a pegasus mare with delusions of global domination. What had shaped that young mind to such ends? It would surely be worth finding out, and perhaps she could be brought back into the light.

That would be a happy ending.