Gleaming Shield rubbed her head as she tried to adjust to her surroundings, who was quite dazed from the sudden teleportation. The mare saw that she was now in a fancy looking lobby with the entire room had white tiles with suns printed on them with a gleaming gold carpet rolling down over the stairs and spread out through the center of the room with columns down the lobby. Classical music flooded the room with vases with all kinds of flowers bursting forth that surrounded the grand room. Her classmates were also slowly getting up, groaning and rubbing their heads as they also tried to gain their bearings.
"Ugh, you think they would warn us before randomly teleporting us!?" Sunset Shimmer shouted into the air with her voice reverberating around the lobby.
Winter was looking around in awe and whispered, "if we get teleported to places like this, I wouldn't mind doing this more often?"
Gleaming Shield was also quite starstruck, looking around the empty lobby wondering where they were. She gazed around, not recognizing this place at all, looking like a hybrid version of Canterlot palace's grand hall but with a more elaborate design. Then they turned to look up the steps and saw Princess Celestia above slowly walking down the steps. She was different from a beautiful golden gown that flushed around her, making the princess look like something from a fairy tale. Her mane was much more curly and done up in braids, making her look more proper with her light rainbow-colored tail tied in satin ribbons. The princess looked over her students and started her lecture. "Good morning, my new students, I do apologize for the abrupt teleportation spell, but we do have a schedule to keep. Now, I am sure you all know my name, but I should explain that for the following week, I'll not be your princess, but your teacher in proper etiquette and refinement."
She waved her mane about after and continued to strut around the three mares seeming to be gauging them. Gleaming has only seen Twilight's friend Rarity a handful of times, but this version of Celestia reminded her of that fashionista with a dose of that aristocratic pompous flair. After circling her students for a second time, the princess of the sun stood in front of the three and continued, “this class will only be a week, and I don't expect you to turn out as proper as me. However, I do expect you to pass your final test, which will be a simulated ball."
The "princesses in training" all groaned as Sunset Shimmer got quite angry and snapped, "come on, Celestia, this is ridiculous!? When have you ever acted this regal?"
This version of Celestia gave Sunset a disgruntled look and continued, "yes, many versions of me can be quite liberal in how they conduct themselves. But as for me, I am quite more refined than my counterparts, and proper manners are important in certain situations."
She then looked over the mare with a smile, "now, I don't know what time it was where you're from; however, it's rather late here, and I do have a strict schedule. So I'll have you three adjust to your new room before we start your classes tomorrow."
Princess Celestia led the mares through the halls with doors on every side. Gleaming Shield looked around the halls, and there were fancy-looking lights and vases. They eventually came upon one of the doors, and the Princess of the sun opened it. All three mares gasped upon seeing a few canopy beds, a fancy wardrobe, a lush fancy white carpet, with golden silk curtains hanging over the wide window. The mares turned to see that the bathroom door was opened, showing off a luxurious looking hot tub. The ponies all blinked at what looked like a room from a five-star hotel. Gleaming was quite astonished looking over their accommodations and whispered, "I don't think that even the palace back home in my dimension had guest rooms that were this nice."
Princess Celestia seemed to be quite pleased with this compliment and asked, "now is everything up to your satisfaction?"
The three students bowed and whispered, "yes, Princess Celestia."
"Good, now if you're hungry, please order anything on the menu, and if you need anything at all, my servants are a call away."
Sunset Summer pointed a hoof at Gleaming Shield and snapped, "Actually, I have a problem. Gleaming was a stallion before hoof. I think she should get her room."
"What's wrong with you, Sunset Shimmer!" Gleaming shouted with her eyes wide in disbelief at what she just heard. She was furious with her former friend while Celestia held a hoof and exclaimed, "girls calm yourselves!"
They all paused and turned towards the Princess of the sun with respect as she continued, "now it doesn't matter if Gleaming was a stallion before. She's a female now and will be so until the end of this course, now behave yourselves. I'll leave you three to settle; however, I expect you three to be ready tomorrow morning as soon as I raise the sun at seven A.M sharp, and that is when your first class begins."
She then left shaking her thick rump under her luxurious golden gown and when the door closed behind the Princess Sunset Shimmer scoffed, still quite angry. "Well, I'm taking dibs on the hot tub!" She stomped off as Winter came over and whispered, "Hey, don't worry; just give her some time."
"Fine, but she better stop with this crap." The angry Princess in training grumbled under her breath, still clearly irritated.
Gleaming and Winter both came to the small table to look over the menu looking at low-calorie foods that didn't look filling at all. Gleaming Shield grumbled as she threw the menu down. "Even my wife doesn't eat stuff like this; this is just ridiculous."
Winter pointed at a small pasta meal. "This looks rather good." She then picked up the phone, looked over at Gleaming, and asked, "you sure you're not going to order anything?"
Gleaming sighed, throwing the menu aside. "Just get me a caesar salad and a bottle of wine."
The goddess snickered as she dialed the phone and then placed their orders. Gleaming decided to walk over to the wardrobe and got a look at a bunch of fancy gowns. This was almost like a weird fever dream, or she was stuck in a fairy tale. It was all too surreal as the door opened, and a cute maid wearing an adorable prench maid uniform stood with a silver platter waltzed into their room with a smile plastered on her face. The maid placed the food down along with the wine bottle; the maid then performed a curtsey. "There you go, princesses in training, please enjoy."
She walked off with the two drinking their wine together and eating their food when Sunset Shimmer came back, drying herself off with a towel complaining, "ugh, have you seen the bathroom!? So much makeup and frou-frou shampoos, soaps…"
She turned to her classmates, still angry at Gleaming, as she sat across from them while ordering her food. After a few minutes of silence, Gleaming glaring at Sunset across the table finally snapped, "Listen, I get your still angry at me for lying to you, but it's not like I asked for this to happen to me."
Sunset gave a long deep sigh. "Look, I thought things over...I may not trust you, but I can understand why you didn't tell us about your true gender. So tonight, you're going to get drunk and tell us all about you."
"What!?" Gleaming squeaked, absolutely stunned, and even Winter was intrigued by this proposal.
The former stallion turned towards the mares. At the very least, Gleaming did feel like she owed it to them to be honest, and grumbled, "fine," She took the bottle of wine first and chugged it down her throat, lapping up every drop. After drinking all that wine, Gleaming did start to feel tipsy, but she felt ready to talk. "Alright, alright, I’ll explain who I really am. My name is Shining Armor, and yes, I was a stallion before I read that stupid book Twilight had in her room.”
Gleaming grumbled under her breath, wishing she never picked up that book before she continued. “Anyways, I was captain of the royal guard for my version of Princess Celestia for about ten years before I married princess Cadance."
Gleaming chuckled under her breath as she sipped some more wine, starting to feel more drunk with her vision blurring as she continued to ramble. "Changelings attacked our wedding if you can believe it. But I chased them off and later took down the spirit of the tyrant King Sombra and saved the Crystal Empire, where princess Cadance and I were crowned Prince and Princess not long after. That's about it..."
Sunset rolled her eyes, crossing her hooves, and snapped, "seriously! Nothing else!? What a boring life."
Winter burst into laughter as she sipped her wine. "Oh, I think it was rather interesting!"
Gleaming scoffed at Sunset, now having the wine being through her body, she was quite drunk as she wobbled back and forth, unable to keep her balance as she rambled, “oh yeah!? Did you ever meet somepony who not only took down an army of changelings but defeated an evil spirit!”
The mare then slammed her bottle down and splashed wine all over the place, and shouted, “I mean buck! I had to fight changelings on my bucking wedding day!"
Sunset was also getting tipsy now and snickered, "I think you're exaggerating. Weren’t you the blushing bride who was captured by changelings waiting for your prince to save you!?"
Winter stood by laughing and kicking her legs. "Oh, we should dress Gleaming up in a wedding dress!"
Gleaming couldn't help but laugh as she wobbled to the wardrobe and sug around before pulling out a wedding dress, "would this do!? I bet I would look great in it!”
Winter and Sunset both burst into laughter as the orange coated alicorn got up and wobbled over to Gleaming and whispered, "you're so beautiful...to...too bad you're already married…"
Sunset then wobbled off to one of the beds and collapsed, as Gleaming looked down at the mare and was unsure what her friend meant by what she said. Winter even got the hint that things got awkward as she got up and whispered, "why don't we get going to bed, huh? We probably have to get up super early."
The white-coated alicorn nodded as she hobbled to her bed and pulled the sheets; she looked up at the ceiling of her bed, wondering how she'll have to deal with Sunset knowing now that she did have a crush on her.
The three mares slowly woke up the next morning as Sunset was up first, Winter and Gleaming next. The orange coated alicorn turned to her friends. "So...I...I want to say whatever I said last night was just the wine talking…"
Winter slowly got up, chirped, "Hey, don't fret! I get it you were just drunk!"
Gleaming merely nodded her head, not fully agreeing with Winter but too embarrassed to say much else. She and Sunset went to the middle of the room and started to do yoga. Sunset was stretching her back out as she stammered. "I...I didn't mean what I said last night...pretend it didn't happen."
Gleaming, stretching her own back, looked over at Sunset with a smile, and replied. "Hey, don't worry about it; seriously, I knew you had feelings for me...but...yeah, I am married."
"Right, anyways...did you really have sex with your wife?" Sunset asked with a smirk on her face.
The quite flustered white-coated alicorn squeaked out loud. "Seriously, I don't want to talk about that!"
Sunset was now on her back, stretching her legs, and whispered, "oh come on, you're not telling me you didn't like having the feeling of being a mare with another mare on top of you."
The former stallion got into the same position and stretching her legs. She thought things over for some time, and the time she had with Cadance was definitely an experience that she enjoyed. "Fine... I'll admit it was quite interesting...however, I do miss having...a...um...you know the thing that makes me a stallion between my legs."
Sunset burst into laughter as she got up the hoisted Gleaming to her hooves. "Oh, come on, enjoy having the thing that makes you a mare for a bit longer."
She and Gleaming both sweaty headed to the hot tub where Winter was getting out of the tub, which now had sheets of ice floating around in the water and icicles growing on the pipes. The mare slowly got out with a blush, "sorry, I prefer the water cold…"
Gleaming snickered while Sunset snapped, "seriously Winter!? it's called a hot tub for a reason!" She turned on the faucets letting the hot water burst from the pipes melting away the ice. Gleaming helped, using her magic to pour in some bath salts and soaps, making the tub’s waters bubble and froth with sweet smells coming from the water. When the tub’s waters began to steam, the two mares slipped into the steaming tub. Gleaming moaned as the steaming waters hit her most sensitive parts of her body. She stretched her wings out and gave a relaxing sigh, and laid her head back while her body was engulfed in the suds and soaps. Sunset looked over at her friend and asked, "so...are you going to just go back to being a stallion after you graduate?"
"Yeah, I have no reason to be an alicorn princess," Gleaming grumbled, still set on turning back into a stallion.
Sunset shrugged as she continued, "alright, but I think you haven't explored the option of staying as a mare. You're never going to get another chance, so you should think things over."
Gleaming turned towards Sunset feeling a bit peeved at her, and snapped, "I assume you had to go through a similar position?"
"Yes, I have; I easily could have gone back to being a human anytime I chose while living in Equestria. But I just made a lot more friends in Equestria than I had back where I came from, so I decided to remain there." Sunset explained as she started to scrub herself.
"Well, my position is different; as soon as this school is over, we're never going to see each other again; So again, I have no real reason to stay like this," Gleaming replied as she started to do the same scrubbing her own body with soaps. Sunset seeing the sexy mare trying to scrub her body, couldn't help but wave a hoof. "Oh, come on, let me do your wings now."
Gleaming was taken aback by the proposal, but she did enjoy being preened by the alternate version of Cadance and slowly swam over, being quite nervous. Gleaming had her wings stretched out before Sunset, who then took her mouth and began to slowly preen Gleaming's wings gently with the white-coated mare's face glowing a bright pink. Gleaming kicked and moaned as Sunset hit all kinds of sensitive parts in her wings and squeaked each time she pulled out a bent feather. The white-coated alicorn kicked and squirmed about, splashing water all over, never feeling so squeamish in her life. However, Sunset was struggling with the squirming mare, but she managed to continue to smooth out Gleaming's feathers. The white-coated alicorn, who was now starting to relax near the end, sighed, “How do pegasi and alicorns not do this all the time!? This is so exhilarating!"
"Well, preening does take time and, as you see, can be quite sensual. From what I've learned, pegasi and alicorns only let those they trust preen their wings." Sunset mumbled under her breath as she finished up the last few feathers.
Gleaming (now feeling quite embarrassed) decided to get out of the hot tub, and Sunset followed after her. They then started to dry themselves with towels. Not long after brushing their manes and teeth (both Sunset and Gleaming decided to skip the makeup), they headed back to their room. There they saw laid out before them a breakfast of fruit tarts and small cups of tea were on the table. Gleaming was looking at her food with uncertainty feeling the sense they were enchanted. "Girls, I sense something odd about these tarts."
Sunset Glimmer and Winter were also hesitant, with the mysterious food seeming to have appeared out of nowhere.
The orange coated mare sniffed the warm tarts on the table. "I also sense the magic that Celestia is starting to piss me off."
Winter whispered meekly. "I think that maybe we should at least eat them. I have a feeling there's a reason they appeared."
The mares all sat down together as Sunset Shimmer looked over at Gleaming with a devilish grin and asked, "why don't you try them first?"
"Oh really, why don't you try them first then!?" The white-coated alicorn shouted right back.
Soon the two alicorns were bickering amongst each other. Winter rolled her eyes, having enough of their bickering, took one of the pastries and bit one and squeaked as she sat up then and adequately dainty dabbed her lips with a napkin. Winter snickered and chirped, "they just make you eat more properly; that’s all?"
The mares shrugged, and they ate the pastries and sipped their tea as they ate like proper princesses. Gleaming's face was red while eating like a proper princess, with her posture as straight as a stick and taking small bites of her food and sipping her tea. All the while, Sunset watched and couldn’t stop snickering. "Ok, this is actually hilarious; you look like somepony just shoved a literal stick up your rump."
"Oh, so unladylike you must be punished for such awful manners!" Gleaming Shield joked back, throwing her tea at Sunset making her gasp as she did the same with both mares bursting into laughter. But after their small breakfast, Celestia came bursting through the door and clapped her hooves together. "'Hello my students, did you enjoy your breakfast?"
The three mares all performed a curtsey and proclaimed, "yes, Princess Celestia!"
The alicorn gave a nod and looked down at the three. "I am pleased to hear that you all are well refreshed now; I don't expect you to be dressed today, as I would rather not get your dresses stained with ink. However, you will all be properly dressed and have your makeup applied before I arrive each morning here on after."
"Yes, princess." All three mares whispered once again. Celestia gave a nod as she led the three down the halls of the castle once again. Sunset was the most reluctant, grumbling insults under her breath; even Winter seemed to have a distaste for this pompous version of Celestia. The princesses in training followed her to the end of the hall and entered a fancy looking classroom. Inside it wasn't much different than the dorm room except for the only furniture being a marble podium at the front of the class, and desks made of rich oak were lined up in rows, with other "princesses in training" already sitting down in them with quills and scrolls laid out on their desks. The three mares sat down quietly, and Gleaming looked upward nervously at this strutting peacock that was the Princess of the sun came to her podium. "Now, for many of you, this will be your first time here, so that I will make this quick. This is a class on fixing your penmanship and to make it look proper."
Celestia took a piece of chalk and wrote out "Princess Celestia" in a fancy looping cursive. She then turned back to her students and continued the lecture, "the quills on your desks have been enchanted to help your hoofwriting improve, and you will be here all day until I feel that your writing is as adequate as mine. However, you are not prisoners here; my maids will come by, and you will be fed and have any selection of tea you like. Also, if you do need to use the restroom, please do so. Now everypony, pick up your quills."
As everypony in the room lifted their quills with their magic, Gleaming lit her horn as with a quill now within their magical grasp as the Princess of the Sun turned to face her students. "Now, let's begin first by writing your names."
They groaned but did as asked and wrote their names. Gleaming realized her writing was getting fancier and more cursive like with each stroke. It must've been an hour or two of writing her name nonstop, but soon she looked onto her page and saw "Gleaming Shield" written in fancy cursive on the scroll. She turned to see Celestia scolding Sunset for her writing. "This looks like a foal's letter; please redo this."
Sunset growled under her breath as she started to scrawl angrily, splurting ink all over herself. Gleaming watched, and she wanted to help; however, the pompous alicorn then walked over towards her. Gleaming quivered nervously as Celestia nodded in approval at the former stallion's writing. "Well done, Gleaming; you did well for a former stallion."
"Thank you, princess, " the former stallion mumbled angrily, a little peeved at this Celestia's tone but knowing she couldn't talk back.
The princess of the sun then went back to her podium and exclaimed, "alright now, let's move onto official forms; I will give you fake official documents and have you read and respond to them as such. From your classes with Twilight, I'll assume you will know how to respond properly. So take your time and make your responses as if they were real documents."
The white-coated alicorn went about doing as Celestia asked, writing letters for dignitaries and nobles regarding boring things like taxes, trade deals, and various letters regarding galas. It must've been hours of non-stop writing only taking short breaks to drink tea, eating small sandwiches, and using the bathroom. But near the end of her stack of scrolls, Gleaming was amazed at her writing, looking so pristine and "princess" like. She turned to see Winter's penmanship was quite pristine as well, and she wasn't surprised to see that the mare who was thousands of years old had perfect penmanship. She then turned to her left, seeing Sunset struggling the most of the three. The orange coated mare was sweating as she struggled to make the fancy loops that everypony else was doing while getting her hooves and face covered in black ink. Gleaming leaned over to her friend and whispered, "Hey, need some help?"
Sunset was looking quite nervous and whispered under her breath, "yes, please...I was never good at this."
Gleaming turned to the scrolls on Sunset's desk and saw how soppy her penmanship was. Gleaming snickered and assisted writing Sunset Shimmer in fancy text and continued to re-write most of her forms in the cursive scrawl. The two were so intent on writing for another hour or two they didn't notice the princess of the sun coming their way, and Winter quickly made a psst and whispered, "hey, Celestia's coming back."
The two other alicorns quickly went back to their desks, and Celestia came by Sunset Shimmer's desk with a smile. "Well, improved, but I will have you wake up earlier tomorrow. I think you'll need to practice your penmanship a bit more before I can properly say you have this down."
As Celestia moved off, Gleaming could see Sunset seething in anger; she clearly wanted nothing else at that moment but to burn all of these scrolls on her desk. The white-coated alicorn took a handkerchief and started to wipe the ink stains from her friend's face and hooves to help calm her down. Sunset sighed, seeming to be a lot calmer, and whispered, "thanks, Gleaming, I appreciate it."
Sunset then took a handkerchief and returned the gesture wiping the ink stains from Gleaming's face and hooves, and asked, "how are you so good at this? I mean, did you practice with Cadance?"
Gleaming laughed at the comment as she replied, "oh no, it's because of my sister Twilight; she always thought my penmanship was sloppy and taught me to write properly."
Sunset laughed out loud at this, having similar experiences as she explained. "My version of Twilight tried doing the same to me, but I never caught on."
The two continued to wipe the ink stains from each other in silence for a few moments before Princess Celestia interrupted them as she came to her podium and proclaimed, "alright! I do believe it's time to retire for the evening! Now go wash off those ink stains and tidy yourselves. Tomorrow we'll be going over dining etiquette, and I do wish to see all of you preened and proper in the morning, now go relax and enjoy yourselves this evening." The mares all rose from their seats, and most grumbled, stretching their wings and aching bodies trotting out of the classroom towards their rooms.
The three mares, Gleaming Shield, Sunset Shimmer, and Winter all trotted off; as soon as they entered their room, Sunset was seething stomping a hoof with rage as she shouted, "I can't stand that pompous bitch! She could buck off for all I care!"
Gleaming was surprised at how angry Sunset got as she walked over and placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Easy there, we only have to deal with this for a few days."
Sunset turned to Gleaming’s calming gaze and sighed, "You're right; I should calm down...rather not risk getting expelled.”
Winter meeped, "look, I don't like this, Celestia either, but Gleaming is right; we have only have to deal with this for a few more days. I'm sure we can manage."
"Right...and Sunset, I may need your assistance doing my...um...makeup," Gleaming whispered meekly.
Sunset gave her friend a smirk, "oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to pretty you up tomorrow. But in return, you're going to teach me how to write like a princess tonight so that I can show up that pompous Celestia tomorrow."
Gleaming held out a hoof with a smile and chirped, "alright, it's a deal."
The two mares shook hooves, with Winter taking the mares and embracing them into her wings. "Oh, it's about time you two made up and are friends again! It makes me so happy!"
Sunset and Gleaming looked at each other with their cheeks growing red on their faces as both mares were starting to feel closer as more than just friends.