I would’ve preferred to wait a lot longer before going back to the Council’s chambers, but I had to be here for Strumming’s plan to work. Besides, even if he’d be wearing a mask, I could at least imagine the look on Cold’s face when we pulled the rug out from underneath him.
It felt a bit weird walking into the chamber with only twelve of them standing on the raised dais instead of the usual thirteen, especially when there was a rather conspicuous open spot just waiting for someone to come in and fill it. However, a moment after I stepped into the chamber the first problem came up. The ceremonial door guards crossed their halberds behind me, blocking the door before Puzzle could follow me in.
I’d expected they wouldn’t want him tagging along. The Council liked their secrets, and inducting a new member was about as secret as it could get. “Let him in,” I told the guards. “He’s with me.”
“No outsiders,” one of them grunted.
“He’s with me,” I repeated. “You know who I am?” The guard nodded. “You know why I’m here today?” He nodded again. “Then let him in.”
The two guards traded a look and slowly took a step back. Hard to blame them for not wanting to annoy the newest member of the Council on their first day. Plus the rest of the Council could always overrule me, at which point I couldn’t blame them for keeping Puzzle out.
Sure enough, the one I was reasonably certain was Cold Comfort objected as soon as Puzzle came in. “Why are you bringing an outsider to an induction ceremony? Have you no respect for our traditions?!”
I did the most infuriating thing I could think of to Cold. I ignored him, addressing my remarks to the center of the table. “I invited Puzzle to accompany me for reasons that will become clear shortly. As for secrecy ... did anyone honestly expect me to never speak with Puzzle about this?”
Platinum chuckled behind her mask. “As I recall, during the debate about inviting you to join our ranks certain parties made a point of your close friendship with Puzzle and how it would likely influence your decisions on the Council. Who you chose to entrust with your own identity as a member of our ranks is of course your decision.”
“Though if you reveal the identity of any other member, we would take a dim view of it,” one of the others warned.
“Naturally,” I agreed. “So, how exactly does this work? Is there a ceremony, oaths, anything like that?”
“If you were expecting pageantry, you’ll be disappointed,” Cold answered, the mask’s enchantments unable to completely hide the contempt in his voice. “Our traditions come from simpler times when we could ill afford to make such a production of replenishing our numbers. Take your robes and mask, and join our ranks. We have much business to attend to, and we’ve wasted enough time on this matter as it is. At least Silver Cane saved us the trouble of putting her on trial for her crimes.”
“How thoughtful of her.” I had my doubts about Silver Cane’s supposed suicide while in Council custody, considering everyone on the Council had good reason to want her dead before she could talk. Even if Cold had destroyed most of her blackmail material, nobody wanted to take the risk that she had backups. I would’ve preferred to have her put on trial for her crimes, but I wasn’t going to shed any tears over her death.
“The proceeds of her estate will at least provide some compensation to her victims,” Platinum pointed out. “However, let’s not focus on such grim business. We have a new member to welcome to our ranks and quite a bit of business to finish before the day is out. We do need to approve next year’s budget as soon as possible.”
One of the guards stepped forward and placed a set of robes in front of me with a silver mask on top. I picked up the mask, and I could almost hear the whispering voices coming from it as the other Council members communicated amongst themselves.
I cleared my throat. “I am honored to join your ranks. However, there is something I feel is important to discuss in the interests of transparency—an urgent matter regarding a child recently came to my attention, and as Archmagus of Freeport I must attend to the problem at once. As such, I have asked Puzzle to serve as my proxy on the Council until such time as I’ve resolved the issue and am free to rejoin you.”
It was hard not to smirk at the stunned silence in the chamber as I passed my mask and robes over the Puzzle.
Unsurprisingly, Cold was the first to break the silence. “You can’t step aside from your duties on the Council on your very first day! Our condottieri can see to a single missing child”
“Perhaps they can,” I agreed with a shrug. “But considering what happened the last time someone came to me about a missing child I’m not inclined to take any chances. I thought it best to be clear with the Council that I will need to call upon on my proxy at times: my duties as Archmagus of Freeport will make it hard to attend every Council meeting. However, I believe that Puzzle should be more than capable of representing Freeport’s best interests in my absence.”
“Unacceptable!” Cold snarled.
“The use of proxies is a long-standing tradition,” Platinum pointed out. “Not every member of the Council can attend every meeting. We all have our personal affairs, not to mention those times when the business of government takes us away from the capital. Archmagus Shimmer has frequently operated both within and outside of our borders, and we all knew she would likely continue to do so after taking up her post. I certainly feel much safer with her confronting and eliminating threats like Chrysalis and Blackfyre, even if it means leaving her vote to a proxy.”
One of the others joined in. “As a matter of fact, one of the objections certain parties raised to adding her to our ranks was that her duties would take her away from us at times, and Puzzle was likely to serve as her proxy when she was absent. The matter’s already been discussed, and I don’t see any point in revisiting it now.”
Cold said nothing more, but I could practically feel him seething as Puzzle took my robes and mask, and my place on the Council. The one in the middle turned to me. “How long do you anticipate this particular matter taking?”
I shrugged again. “It’s hard to say for sure with these cases. I might figure it out in an hour, or it could take weeks like Sour Sweet’s disappearance, not to mention whatever else might come up while I’m resolving that matter. I wanted to be transparent about who my proxy was because he will likely be here quite often.” In fact, I had no intention of ever taking a seat on the Council.
“This is preposterous!” Cold snapped. “She’s obviously abusing the rules to effectively appoint Puzzle to the Council! We voted for her to take the post, not him! I demand a vote to put an end to this farce, revoke her membership and replace her with someone who will not flagrantly disregard this Council’s procedures!”
There was a brief silence before Puzzle turned to me, his voice concealed by his mask. “For the Shimmer-mare’s benefit, that motion failed quite decisively. The Council has no wish to seek out a new member moments after settling on you, especially when certain individuals are merely sour over being outmaneuvered. Do not worry, this one will keep your seat warm until you are ready to reclaim it.”
“Thank you.” I walked out of the chamber before any of the Council could say anything more.
While I wasn’t actually looking into any missing pony cases, there was a matter regarding a young lady I needed to resolve. Sunny Flare looked very nervous when I called her into my office, especially since Kukri and Indigo weren’t here. I’d half-expected Strumming to come back empty-hooved, either because her parents refused to let her leave or Sunny wanted to avoid the consequences of her actions. I guess neither of those things happening spoke well of her; not many girls her age would be willing to walk to their own sentencing.
Still, being brave didn’t change what she’d done or what I would have to do. I waved towards the empty seat in front of my desk. “Take a seat.”
She settled in, doing her best to fake confidence and determination despite the fact that nervous sweat was already beading on her forehead. I let her stew for a bit before I broke the silence. “You know why you’re here.”
Sunny nodded, and swallowed her fear for long enough to answer. “I lied to you. It was all my own idea, nobody—”
I didn’t let her finish. “You already lied to me once, don’t make it worse for yourself. I know it’s either your father or General Platinum you’re trying to protect. It really makes no difference to me which of them it was.” Especially since if her father was the one who told her to do it, he was almost certainly acting on Platinum’s orders. “This conversation is only about the two of us, and the future.”
Sunny shrank into her chair but a second later her ears perked up hopefully. “Just the two of us? So you won’t tell Kukri what I did?”
“I won’t.” A second later I crushed her hopes. “But you will.”
“Oh.” She slumped down like a puppet with cut strings.
“I expect you to tell her the full truth.” I waited for her to nod her understanding before I continued. “I’m sure you also understand that I won’t tolerate anything like this ever happening again.”
“M’sorry,” she mumbled miserably.
“Don’t be sorry, be better. Speaking of...” I passed a bit of parchment over to her. “The girl you lied about being friends with lives at that address. She’s been through a lot in the last several months and she could use some good friends. Maybe you’re not the right pony to be her friend, but I think you at least ought to try.”
Sunny sighed and nodded once more. I was starting to feel a bit guilty about laying down the law so firmly. Sure, she’d lied to me, but only because adults she’d trusted told her to. If Celestia told me to lie to someone when I was Sunny’s age, I would’ve. At the very least, I wanted to end the conversation on a good note. “Why did you come to my tower when I sent Strumming?”
Sunny took a deep breath. “Because ... because it was wrong to lie to you.”
I stepped out from behind my desk and put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “And you wanted to make things right?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a good answer.” I did my best to give her a reassuring smile. “Everyone makes mistakes, Sunny. Not everyone owns up to them and tries to do better in the future. That’s a rare quality in adults, let alone a girl your age. I know it’s hard to tell what the right thing is to do sometimes, especially when people tell you different things. If you care about doing the right thing, and try to fix it when you do the wrong thing ... that’s a very good start. I’m proud of you.”
She turned up to me with a cautiously hopeful grin. “So ... does that mean Kukri and I can still be friends?”
I shrugged. “That’s Kukri’s decision, but I won’t object to it.” And even if I would let Kukri make her own call on that, I knew my opinion and advice carried a lot of weight with her.
I felt pretty good about how the conversation went as Sunny walked out of my office. Then Strumming came in. She got to the point a lot faster than she usually did. “So that’s the kid sorted, but she was the easy one to handle. What’re you gonna do about Platinum for putting her up to it?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t like what she did, but it seems like her goal was to take down Silver and hurt Cold in the process. Right now she’s the lesser of two evils. And really, the problems in Freeport go a lot deeper than any individual members of the Council. They’ve gotten way too comfortable with cronyism and a system that enables zero accountability.”
“So what’re you gonna do about it? Strumming pressed. “Overthrow them all and declare yourself Princess of Freeport?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Hopefully with Puzzle on the Council he can start cleaning things up without extreme measures. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now...” I sighed and ran a hoof down my face. Figuring out how to fix the problems of an entire nation was a huge job, and one I honestly wasn’t sure I was up to. “For now, Silver’s been dealt with, Puzzle took over her seat on Council, and a whole bunch of kids who were enslaved are free. That’s still a pretty big win.”
Strumming grinned. “Yeah, it is. Sure, we didn’t solve every single problem overnight, but Sour Sweet went from being in chains to free, happy, and with a good future in front of her. The little wins count for a lot too, and if you rack up enough of them...”
“Exactly.” I sighed and flopped back into my chair. “But I think for now, I’m gonna enjoy a couple days off. Unless the Council needs me for anything, I have urgent business that I can’t get away from.”
Strumming shot me a cheeky salute. “So noted, boss-mare. Urgent conference with Ambassador Pillow, can’t get away.”
I was tempted to joke about how there had probably been an Ambassador Pillow at some point in Equestria’s history, but that would’ve meant dragging out the conversation. Getting some rest sounded like a great idea; despite feeling like I’d earned some rest, with the complications from the Council and all the other problems of Freeport it was a pretty safe bet that there’d be a new crisis sooner than I’d like. All I could do now was make sure I’d be ready for it.