//------------------------------//
// Chapter four: The Royal Simulation 
// Story: How to train a Princess 
// by Foal Star 
//------------------------------//

It was another few days after Gleaming and Sunset initially started their study group, and Gleaming woke up groggily again to see that Sunset Shimmer was doing her morning yoga stretches. The white mare smirked as she slowly got up and trotted over towards her roommate and was still stunned at how well Sunset performed those stretches. The orange coated mare looked amazing, stretching her body out and spreading her wings. Sunset Shimmer looked dazzling, and Gleaming then turned to the Celestia on screen who looked rather perky this morning with the princess of the sun wearing the familiar cute yoga outfit and that sweatband around her head. 

"Don't just stand there; come on over and join me." Sunset Shimmer asked as she waved a hoof. Gleaming rolled her eyes and sighed as it seemed her roommate caught her staring again. The white-coated mare slowly walked over as she decided to join in, and soon the two were performing their stretches together as instructed on T.V. by the alternate Celestia. 

As the princess of the sun bent down in a dog pose and slowly stretched out her back and her wings from her side. Gleaming and Sunset followed suit, and the white-coated mare slowly did as she asked, "so, are you ready for the test today?"

"Of course, I am." The orange coated mare scoffed as she felt as this whole course was too easy for her. 

Gleaming Shield's cheeks grew pink as she responded, "Yeah, me too I'm finally ready for all of this to be over with. How about you?"

"Yeah, I can't wait to go start ruling Equestria. Honestly, this whole school was a waste of time for me." Sunset whisked her mane as she proclaimed quite boastfully.

Gleaming Shield's cheeks suddenly grew hot red as she got quite embarrassed as she responded, "yeah, you think so?"

"I'm sorry I've been through school before, and i've been taught by Celestia herself on how to rule a kingdom." Sunset Shimmer groaned as she replied, feeling her back and wings popped. 

Celestia then slowly stretched her whole body upwards while standing on her back hooves, and the two mares did the same following suit. They performed the final set of stretches for some time, going on their backs and stretching their legs. Gleaming pondered about what Sunset said, feeling unsure of her feelings about this experience as a mare and a princess.

The two continued to do their morning routine, stretching together and enjoying each other's company having a lot of fun together. Sunset then turned the T.V off and yawned, "I think it's about time we went and got ready, but thanks again for joining me with some yoga."

"Yeah, it's no problem; why don't you go wash up while I go cook some breakfast." Gleaming chirped while Sunset gave a nod and walked off to take a shower. 

The white-coated mare was busy cooking breakfast that morning, making some eggs sunny side up and toast with coffee and tea. The orange coated mare came back with her mane soaking wet and sniffing the air. "Wow, that smells so good!"

"Does it?" Gleaming asked with a cute smile as she helped sit her roommate down and presented her with a plate of eggs and toast. "There you go, breakfast is served!"

Sunset took a long whiff of the food and drooled down her chin. "This looks so good! Let's dig in!" She and the orange coated mare went at their meals, chomping down their food happily and eating their fill.  Sunset then looked up from her plate and snickered, seeing Gleaming getting food all over her face. "You have no etiquette for a princess."

"Sorry, I honestly just get so carried away with good food sometimes." The white-coated mare whispered with an embarrassed look on her face as she let her roommate then helped wipe the food off of her face. Sunset turned away with a blush feeling a bit embarrassed as she asked. "So, we're not going to be roommates anymore."

Gleaming thought about this for a second as she sipped her coffee and sighed, "yeah, I know, I'm actually going to miss you a lot."

Sunset sat back in her seat, thinking about the many exhausting days and nights of studying and gave a long sigh. "Yeah, I guess so. You think our friends will pass the next test?"

The white-coated mare responded with a smile of pride, seeing she and Sunset taught their friends well. "Yes, I believe, so we did enough training with them, and they have improved in their studies." 

Sunset shrugged, not feeling as confident about Trixie and Starlight's study habits as she responded. "I hope so, Winter might pass, but I have a bad feeling about Trixie and Starlight. They might struggle a bit."

The white-coated mare turned to face Sunset trying to be a bit more optimistic as she asked, "I guess they might need some help, but we taught them good enough, so try relaxing a bit."

The two then slowly got up, and Gleaming left to take her shower; then, when she got back, she and Sunset started dressing. The white-coated mare still felt so awkward dressing herself once again over her new feminine body and squeaked as her skirt came over her poofy tail. The orange coated mare laughed as she helped her friend adjust her friend's blouse and fixed her mane. "There you go, gosh, I have to do this every morning. You sure you were born a mare?"

Gleaming squeaked as her cheeks grew hot pink as she chirped. "Of course, I was!"

Sunset laughed and booped her friend's nose. "Stop being so overdramatic. Now come on, let's get going."

Gleaming sighed but slowly followed her friend down the winding hallways of their crazy school. They then both went to the classroom where the Teacher Twilight stood there proudly with a smirk. "Hello, you two early as usual?"

Time Hop looked at his pocket watch and shrugged as the mares both curtseyed. "Yes, Twilight, we're here to learn."

The two alicorns squeaked as they spoke in unison and snickered. Twilight then turned towards the giant clock over the chalkboard. "Well, since you're early, you can take your seats and study; the test will begin shortly."

The princesses gave quick nods and hurried off to their seats. The two mares went about taking notes as Twilight slammed a ruler on her desk, and the princesses in training both looked up in shock, seeing that most ponies were now in their seats.

The violet mare didn't give anypony a chance to settle as she shouted, "everypony! Are you ready for today's test!?"

Every student groaned as Twilight placed a pile of books down on her desk as she explained, "now, now you all knew today was going to be your final so go pick your partners." Sunset slowly trotted over to Gleaming Shield and asked, "may I join you?"

Gleaming, feeling a bit surprised that Sunset would ask her and replied, "of course, you can  roomy." Sunset nuzzled her friend as she sat right next to her.

Winter gulped, seeing no other groups to join, she slowly got up and meekly walked over to the two. "Hey, is it ok if I join your group too?"

Gleaming turned to Sunset and blushed and asked that being unsure of her roommate would be ok with their team's addition. "Is that ok with you?"

Sunset shrugged casually and replied, "I'm fine with her; I think she would make an excellent addition to our group."

Winter flew over and pulled the two into a tight hug and squealed excitedly. "Oh, thank you so much!"

The white-coated mare squeaked as three were then suddenly hit a burst of energy and were suddenly teleported into thin air. 







The three mares were all looking around the new room; they were teleported into a large ornate throne room. Gleaming looked around, seeing it looked precisely like the throne room princess Celestia had. A line of ponies was stretched out before them in front of them, waiting for them to help with their problems.

Gleaming was the most surprised, seeing so many ponies at once and shaking all over. She never felt so nervous in her life and exclaimed, "we have to hold court!?"

The crazy looking Twilight then suddenly appeared as she exclaimed, "that's right! For this test, you need to listen to what each pony has to say and try to help them in the best way possible. Good luck!"  

Gleaming's eyes went wide as they started coming forward, and one unicorn stallion walked in, wearing a fancy looking suit and held his head up and scoffed. "Hello, I have issues with my business. I believe I'm being taxed too much."

The white-coated mare shrugged, "Alright? Can we see your last bill?" The stallion took out a form, and the mares looked it over. Sunset Shimmer looked the form over with an eyebrow cocked. "Hmm, he's right. He's being taxed way too much. We'll pay you back how much we owe you next!"

The stallion nodded as Gleaming nuzzled Sunset and whispered. "Good job you're a natural at this."

Just then, another noble stallion came strutting forward and asked, "so I need assistance with my pool. The water is far too hot, and I need somepony to cool it down."

Winter beamed a smile and exclaimed excitedly. "Oh, I can do that!" She whisked her wings, and suddenly out of nowhere; she blew a blizzard through the air with snow piling inside the throne room. The stallion stood there with his eyes growing wide in disbelief, "Hey! Stop that!"

The two alicorns quickly flew upwards as the snow piled inside the throne room, and Gleaming stood there with her hooves wrapped around her body, shivering as he shouted," Winter stop!"

The mare squealed as she flew down on the ground. "Sorry about that?"

Gleaming rubbed a hoof over her face and gave a long deep sigh. "Ok...look, we can't just change the weather for anypony's issues."

"Right…" Winter squeaked as maids suddenly appeared and started shoveling the snow out of the castle.

Gleaming turned her attention to the noble. "Now, I know that your pool water might be too hot. But seriously, we can't change the weather simply on your behest."

The stallion nodded and gulped, feeling somewhat guilty as he stammered, "right…sorry about all of this…"

He then slowly walked away and then turned to the next pony that came; it was two earth ponies, one was bright orange and the other a tomato red. The orange coated stallion smashed a hoof down who asked, "so my pumpkins are growing just fine, and this hooligan is growing his tomatoes across my yard!"

"My tomatoes need room to grow!" the other earth pony shouted and got into the face of his rival. 

The mares got into a huddle as Winter blushed and squeaked. "I have to be honest; I don't know anything about farming."

"This is about farming, it's about a dispute over land." Sunset groaned as she turned to Gleaming and asked, "we need to figure out a solution to this dispute."

The white-coated alicorn looked up with this light in her eyes, nodded, and chirped, "right!"

Gleaming turned towards the two farmers with a smile and asked, "so, to settle this, how about you show us some pictures."

The earth ponies placed pictures of the farm with the tomatoes growing into the pumpkin patch. Gleaming rolled her eyes. "This is so obvious that your tomatoes are growing into this pumpkin pony's yard. Seriously!? How can you see this as anything else."

The orange coated stallion beamed a smile of pride as the tomato earth pony farmer stomped a hoof. "This is insulting! My tomatoes need more room to grow!"

"Those darn tomatoes are growing in my pumpkins!" the orange coated stallion roared back.

Gleaming came forward and explained in the most sincere manner possible. "look, pumpkin sir…"

"My name is Pumpkin Patch!" the stallion snapped and stomped a hoof on the ground. 

Gleaming squeaked and quickly replied, "yes, Pumpkin Patch, you see you have a lot of land, and we do need other fruits and vegetables to grow in Equestria, so would you mind lending some of your land for Mr. Tomato?"

Tomato looked over at Pumpkin Patch, who then sighed and waved a hoof. "Fine, I'll agree to those terms."

The two then left as Sunset squealed, hugging Gleaming. "That was amazing!"

Winter flew over and hugged them both. "Yeah, that was pretty amazing!"

Then they turned to see a battalion of pegasi burst through the throne room with trumpets blaring. Then a stallion flew in and bowed. "Princesses! We have an emergency! The yaks of Yakyakastan have declared war!"

The princesses all gasped except for Winter rolled her eyes and simply waved a hoof. "Oh, please, you're all over reacting. Bring in the envoy of Yakyakastan."

A burly thick-coated yak wearing a thick set of armor came stomping into the throne room shouting. "I am the ambassador of Yakyakastan and demand that ponies give us our land of ice and snow!"

Winter flew over and explained, "to be fair; not everything has to be ice and snow."

"What does ice pony mean?" The yak asked, scratching his horn. 

Winter casually pointed a hoof and explained. "The ponies can't live in a world of only ice and snow. They aren't as built like you yaks."

"I see, so we have to let silly ponies live in their nice flowery fields!" The yak chortled and laughed.

Winter gave a small nod. "That's right, and if you can please not go to war with us, it would be sure to show how amazing and brave you are."'

The ambassador smashed a hoof to his chest. "Right, you weak ponies can keep your fields, we yaks shall go!"

The yakyakistan ambassador stomped off with Sunset, and Gleaming blinked in surprise. Winter turned around with a blush on her face and shrugged. "What?"

The two other alicorns rushed over and hugged her as she laughed, "What's this all about!?"

Gleaming eyes lit up as she couldn't believe her friend Winter just stopped a war squeaked, "that was simply amazing! I can't believe you pulled that off!"

"Me too!? I never thought you knew how to trick yaks!?" Sunset exclaimed, being quite excited as she flapped her wings. 

The three were then suddenly teleported back to the classroom where the Teacher Twilight stood over them with a beaming smile, as she exclaimed. "You all passed!"

"What!?" All three exclaimed excitedly as Twilight nodded, "you three are doing excellent and have done everything I asked for! So for the next few days, I'm going to give you a break and send you to a dimension of your choice."

Sunset snickered as a thought came over her mind and asked,"Can we see where Gleaming comes from?"

Gleaming was quite surprised, and the mare was quite scared of anypony knowing who she was and exclaimed, "Wait, what!?"

Winter had a smirk on her face wanting to know more about her new friend and replied, "Ah, yes, that sounds like a great idea. I would love to see Gleaming's dimension."

The mare stammered, "W...w...wait! No, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Hmm, I say it's two against one. Well, go on and enjoy your time together. When you come back, you'll be having etiquette lessons with Celestia." Twilight proclaimed as she lit her horn, and three were then sent flying through a portal.