"It's right here." Hitch Trailblazer slammed the thick book of laws down on Sunny Starscout's dining room table and flipped it open to a bookmarked page.
"Be careful! The lighthouse could topple again!" said Izzy Moonbow, ducking to the floor with her head in her hooves.
"It's fine, Izzy. Sprout and Phyllis did a great job with the repairs," said Sunny, and she helped her unicorn friend to her hooves.
Izzy breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry. I still have nightmares about falling."
"Ugh, the Old Code," said Zipp Storm, wrinkling her muzzle in distaste as she examined the book. "Not what I'd call a fun surprise."
"Huh. I guess all the Tribes still follow it," said her sister Pipp Petals. "They say before the Old Code, royalty were above the law. Nowadays with all the public attention we get, we're more likely to get locked up than the ponies we govern."
"That's a pretty big exaggeration," retorted her sister. "Besides, you like the attention."
"...I have no response for that," said Pipp, pursing her lips.
Hitch cleared his throat and began to read. "Adult alicorns of sound mind who have not been found guilty of high crimes shall have full demesne over all lands settled by ponies..."
"Full demesne..." said Sunny, but her voice trailed off when she noticed the look of shock on the sisters' faces.
"Sunny! You're the Empress of all ponykind!" said Pipp, hopping up and down repeatedly to reach Sunny's eye level.
Sunny grabbed the book and swiveled so the words faced her. "What? There's no way. This is a joke."
"No joke. However, for reasons lost to time, alicorns can only legally be called 'Princess'," said Hitch.
"It doesn't matter what they call you! Even though Mom's a queen, this means you're her boss now," said Zipp. A brief look of concern quickly faded to a soft smile. "Y'know, normally I'd be worried about this, but I can't think of anypony I'd trust more to have that kind of power."
"Zipp's right, you deserve it! You earned royalty," said Pipp. "We were just born into it."
Izzy's eyes lit up and her hooves began to jitter against the floor. "Ohmygosh ohmygosh, you guys! I just realized! Three-fifths of us are princesses now! Are we all going to be princesses someday? Hitch, will you be the next princess?"
"At this point, I don't think it'd even faze me," said Hitch.
"Well, Hitch can have it. I don't want to be a ruler," said Sunny. "Can I abdicate? Or delay it indefinitely?"
Hitch shook his head. "Abdication has rules. You can delegate, but you can't abdicate entirely if you're the only alicorn," he explained. "Sunny, we can't delay this forever. Sprout's the one who brought this to my attention, since he knows the law forwards and backwards. I asked him to keep quiet, and I doubt anypony else knows, but it's only a matter of time before some historian catches on."
"Strange. I can't imagine Sprout wants Sunny to be in charge of the known world," said Zipp. "It's weird he would tell you..."
"He's a stickler for the rules," said Hitch, shrugging. "Which is fine by me, as long as he's not the one making them."
"Oh no. I need time to think about this before it happens! Maybe I could take a vacation, or..." said Sunny, and then her eyes widened. "That's perfect! The Summer Solstice is only a few days away. I've been meaning to ask you all something, and I almost forgot. Would you like to go on an adventure with me this weekend? Pleeeeeease say yes. I'm going to need all four of you there to make it work."
"Adventure! Are you kidding? Of course!" said Izzy, grinning.
"Oh, buck yes," said Zipp, raising her wings in a daring pose, which Pipp immediately photographed with her phone. "We're in."
"I'm not really the adventuring type, but I can already tell there's no way I'm getting out of this," said Hitch. "Why do you need us, though? I hope 'adventure' doesn't mean you're going to do something foolhardy and dangerous."
"Not dangerous, but we'll need to find Griffinstone, an ancient city of griffons," said Sunny. "Dad's stories suggested it wasn't far from here. There's a magic summoning circle there that only works once a year, on the Summer Solstice."
"Ooh! That's only a couple days from now," Izzy pointed out. "We'd better hurry."
"I don't think griffons exist anymore," said Hitch. "I mean, if they even did in the first place. Where is this city?"
"I don't know exactly. I was hoping one of our unicorn or pegasus friends might have an idea?" asked Sunny.
Pipp shrugged. "Never heard of it, and we can see pretty much everything from up in the sky."
"That'll be easy enough. We have a huge library in Bridlewood, my home village," said Izzy. "Old books and maps are easy to come by."
"Perfect!" said Sunny. "We can head there tonight to start the journey, but there's another problem we have to solve first and there isn't much time to spare. I think the five of us are the new Bearers of Harmony... but we're missing somepony."
Then Sunny Starscout told her friends about the legend of the Elements of Harmony.