Fellows barged into the press conference. The palace guard rushed up to the velvet rope and firmly halted the angry unicorn with a hoof shod in blackened steel. The detective identified himself as an Interpone agent attached to the Canterlot constabulary. He wanted to know if I knew somepony named Blue Lightning—the pegasus who had knifed Carne Asada, whom I had later stabbed with his own knife. From his willingness to bring up a case in a public venue, and his obvious anger, I decided he had run into a brick wall named Celestia. Royals could be so uncooperative and had the power get away with it. After all, she did say she made the laws.
I declined his question and ended the press conference.
When I rejoined my team, I wasn't sure whether to seethe, or to just go apathetic and stop caring. I was so tired of these horse apples!
I hated Celestia for this, but at the moment I hated Running Mead even more. Had he not recognized me and blackmailed me, I'd be just another student enrolled in Celestia's school. Had he not threatened Sunset Shimmer, I'd probably have opted to tell Sunset's father about her problem. I'd be looking forward to higher level classes next year, in both cases likely no longer Sunset's friend, and not knowing that Celestia was grooming me for an impossible task that would likely kill us all.
All roads led to disaster, didn't they?
We entered the throne room. Amongst the throng, a few ponies looked my way.
Okay. Out of the pan and into the fire.
I snugged closer to Citron standing to my right, calmed by his warmth and a quick nuzzle. The sights around me brought disturbing reminders of learning to be a earl when I had no desire to be one and when it interfered with me learning magic, which I badly resented.
Over his shirt, Citron now wore a tailored red jacket that felt velvety against my shoulder. The brass buttons gleamed. White cadet pips on a black field were snapped onto his gold collar. Crossed white silk ribbons decorated it, fastened in the middle of his chest with an antiqued silver buckle emblazoned with a surprising cloisonné crest.
It. Was. My. Cutie mark. Rendered in blazing purple and green!
A stallion in a uniform, and all that. Mine. Labeled as such! Silly, but it made me happy to think that, and I shivered with delight as I pretended all my worries were naught, which made me slightly more comfortable.
Streak, still blatantly wearing Commander Hurricane's armor, waved her camera and broke my impression of her as a warrior pegasus. She posed us together with a good view of the throne room in the background. I leaned my head against Citron's neck and rubbed my cheek. The still nervous pegasus took the picture. Over her silk blouse, she now wore a powder blue sweater vest. Like Citron's, it had a cloisonné medallion, hers pinned to the lapel. Fashioned of darkened silver, the enameled design also displayed my cutie mark.
I blinked, probably ruining a photo.
The room was five times longer than wide. Stained glass windows showed historical scenes from Equestria's past. Considering the dawn light, and the blazing torch-like gilt sconces below their level, all were dark and hard to read. At the one end, rounded steps rose to a platform with running water streaming down on either side. It neither bubbled nor spouted like a fountain, so I speculated it might be water diverted from the Canterlot Cascade as a decorative power play.
I saw two thrones, one to the left which was considerably smaller. I couldn't remember pictures of the throne room, but this made sense. It was no longer a mystery. Princess Celestia had had a sister named Princess Luna. Of course, two thrones.
Along the far wall from where we entered, tiered seating with red brocade cushions and turned mahogany spindle wood banisters lined the wall. In it, ponies wore timeless laboriously-uniform aristocratic fashion: smart thin-lapelled suits for the lords all in black, with white shirts, black cravats and top hats; fancy dresses for the ladies, with much expensive lace and frills, with bows and feathers in a dignified spectrum that lacked brightness and substituted colors burgundy, teal, and olive for primary reds, blues, and greens.
I studied the purposefully fancy lot. I had met many in Sire's Hollow, having hosted dinner parties that were all veiled training opportunities or tests for the little lady of the mansion. Proper Step graded me—or upbraided, if I didn't impress. I might have remembered names once; I saw a few faces I remembered. Most sat closer to the entrance. By their upright posture and their attendants in tailed livery, I presumed the red stallion and his two dapper blue and brown companions were the dukes. I knew I was supposed to bow in deference to them as an earl.
Fat chance I'd do that!
A tan mare with a mane that had gone white, sat next to them and yawned. She looked very familiar—the Duchess of Horseshoe Bay just south of Grin Having? Scanning from left to right, I could tell that beginning about two-thirds over, protocol dictated I could stop bowing and be bowed to. At least the barons at the very end earned their titles. The rest had hereditary titles, and likely acted entitled.
Beyond that, velvet ropes delineated gathering areas for VIPs, bureaucrats, and common folk.
Amongst the VIPs, I spotted Fellows. Probably because he glared. He glared at Streak, which made her eep and flutter back behind us.
I saw Sprinter, too. The sturdy grey earth pony with a limp red-striped grey mane immediately looked away. I'd seduced him despite him being on the "other team" because he'd been blue-eyed and so very cute in a goth way. Still was, but our age difference made him nervous and it had taken lots of wheedling and strategic petting. In respect to what Streak had told me, I decided comforting had its place on the spectrum.
Beyond him...
My heart went Thunk! I felt suddenly faint. The room spun.
An amber aura flashed into existence surrounding me. Citron held me up. "Starlight. Are you sick?"
I shook myself and took deep breaths.
The sudden commotion I'd made attracted plenty more eyes than had the previous entrance of an anonymous pair of unicorns—an officer and a beat-up mare—and a punked-out axe-crested pegasus wearing a national treasure you had to be in the know to recognize. Fearing I might swoon again, I carefully looked away, ready to not make eye contact.
I failed.
I saw blue eyes blink behind big round silver-rimmed glasses. He shook his head briefly as I remembered he did when startled. I could almost hear a bean in a can rattle. His red crested mane and red goatee were uniquely this pony's, especially when set against goldenrod fur, white socks, and a white blaze. He wore a blue velvet cape tied at his neck that went down to his luxurious rear fetlocks.
Had I seen his cutie mark, I might have flown into a rage.
I saw just him. I remembered his voice. I remembered his laugh. He had grown tall and long-legged, into one of those handsome stallions Streak had warned me about. He was handsome in a uniquely nerdy way, and so much more easy on the eyes than I had ever dreamed about. Something in his glasses and his wizardly dress told me emphatically that this stallion had fearsome magic and was my intellectual peer, somepony who might understand me.
No other pony had ever understood me like Sunburst had. He'd always known that little bit that his filly friend misunderstood so that she could learn the spell just like that. He was my age. Despite all my thoughts of Citron and my plans for later, my mind spilled over into Sunburst. He was my age and I could now even ride him. I had fantasized about him before I ran away from home: kisses, cuddling—the best a filly could do, who had not yet connected ponies to what she learned in an animal husbandry textbook.
I found myself walking his direction. Even at this distance, I could tell he recognized me. I could also tell he had begun to sweat. Even if he didn't recognize me, seeing a mare walking your direction with a broken nose, a splinted leg, and obvious sealed cuts across her body might scare any librarian.
A librarian?
Ah, yes. I'd learned the other fact. He lived at the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville. I had been through the town one morning heading toward the train station, wanting to check out an amazing looking library grown into a living tree. Closed. The librarian had been at school.
Had I been there ten minutes earlier, I would have found my soulmate, a recent flunk-out from Celestia's School.
He was the contact for Rye Bald.
I wanted to hit my head against a wall! I walked toward one when a familiar tall blue-grey stallion intercepted me, and stopped me with a hoof pressed gently to my chest. Recognition shocked my heart; I saw stars. Trained reflex immobilized me.
He wore black frame glasses that magnified hard dark-brown eyes, and matched a black bushy moustache that gave him a schnauzer dog face. His close-clipped black mane and tail had a military style to them. I began to sweat.
He wore the same long-tailed black jacket, white shirt, black bow tie livery I remembered him wearing the day I ran away—well, actually, on all days. The jacket incidentally revealed his side-by-side and perfectly upright perfectly parallel golden horseshoes cutie mark.
He wore an antiqued silver cloisonné medallion emblazoned with my cutie mark.
Proper Step bowed exactly the right amount and said, "Ms. Glimmer, you've grown into the very picture of a rugged earl. I shall be proud to serve you once again, speaking of which..."
He pointed a hoof.
A line of five heralds wearing red and gold lifted long trumpets ten pony lengths behind me. A banner displaying Celestia's cutie mark unfurled from them and swayed—her old cutie mark, anyway. They blared a royal fanfare.
My cringe at the loud sound made it possible for Proper Step to herd me back off the red carpet. As he did so, he added, "Her Royal Highness has briefed me of your achievements, your emancipation, and respective ascension in control of Grin Having. I will handle protocol for you during this event. My continued employment will thenceforward be at your pleasure."
My shock and boiling emotions at his appearance, and seeing Sunburst, and Agent Sprinter, and Detective Fellows, let him line the three of us up. He stationed himself just behind me to the right.
"At your pleasure," Ms. Glimmer, is it?
He'd come up with the idea that learning magic wasn't lady-like—but "He regretted it."
As if on cue, the princess walked in from a back door. She wore a magnificent antiqued silver crinoline hoop dress draped in gold Leavers lace, resplendent with sun and flame motifs. The neckline dove in a swoop all the way to between her forelegs. This revealed the lack of her customary peytral and that the fur had been burnt off her chest. The angry pink skin was delineated by a red burn line above, and a series of poultice patches hardly disguised by hastily sewn-on white Chantilly lace that matched her fur color, but not the burn. Having seen that, you couldn't miss the similarly disguised bandage around her left ear—again with a tiny red stain—or the pearl strap that held it in place behind her dented crown. More disturbing was that she walked with a limp, gingerly favoring the left rear hoof Streak had hit with a border stone.
Theatre.
Flowing Waters could have healed us completely.
Now our costumes made sense. Unremarkable in the circumstance was that the dress hid her cutie mark. Bingo.
I'd not be able to fight physically in the giddy-up, but then that was what she had dozens of royal guards lining the hall for. I'd learned the hard way that the alicorn could protect herself, if she didn't let her opponent inside her defenses.
Other ponies followed, escorted by attendants. Of these additional VIPs, I noticed a very miserable looking Sunset Shimmer, her hair limp and her muzzle ashen. When she recognized me, her eyes dove instantly for the red-carpeted floor.
I spotted Shining Armor. He wore the same red uniform as Citron with different insignia, the purple star both he and his sister shared on their cutie marks. He wore black pants that covered his flank, however. A bandage wrapped his head like some hero wounded in battle. Somepony hadn't been paying attention when his teachers taught him how to fall to ensure he didn't strike his skull. I'd cracked his shoulder and leg, but he didn't limp.
Lieutenant Armor, huh? I scoffed.
His larger companion skewered me with her violet gaze. I saw her wings first, pink with purple-tipped feathers, because her wing draped lovingly over his back. Then I saw the horn. The very possessive pink pony princess wore a very compact, but probably very heavy gold crown. This was why Shining Armor was in the royal entourage: her plus one.
Her dress of blue and green transparent gossamer stretched behind her, but did not soften her thin fit appearance one bit, or hide her green crystal heart cutie mark. This had to be Princess Cadance. I had a feeling that had we met in the hall, she might have blasted me with Force without warning.
I let a smile grow on my face, locking my gaze with hers without blinking.
Shining Armor's filly friend matched it.
Oh, this might prove interesting!
Petite little Twilight Sparkle pranced in, tail high, moving faster to catch up. On her back, I saw an amazing sight: a tiny dragon. Tiny, because the monster of his species I had met had been taller than Celestia, four times her mass, and had wanted the magic to invade Canterlot. This green and purple guy massed about half what Twilight did. I couldn't have imagined it before, but his round saurian face actually looked cute. He gazed around with observant vertically-slit emerald eyes, even smiling at me, as he rode on her rump, his front claws gently gripping the side of her barrel.
I took a good look at her cutie mark. Doubled stars the color of mine, but six-pointed, with five small stars, not her brother's three, in orbit. Celestia had mentioned a rainbow pegasism when she had gotten her cutie mark and I didn't.
She was "the one that would bind" us all?
Really? I scoffed.
Twilight looked from her brother and potential sister-in-law, then to me, to her, and to me. She lifted a hoof, gave a half wave, then sped up to accompany Princess Celestia and whisper questions to her.
The filly had connections!
No wonder Sunset Shimmer hated her guts. Friendship magic had to have been designed for the goody-good.
Another white stallion, much beefier, dressed like an officer same as Shining Armor, brought up the rear. He wore an infamous solar cutie mark sigil. His blond mane and tail were perfectly coiffed. His chin chiseled. He nodded as he recognized pony personages.
He didn't even deign to look my direction.
He was... Snobbish.
Entitled.
Arrogant.
"Prince Blueblood," Proper Step whispered as my hackles rose.
"Ah! The 'Do-nothing.' My future student." Oh, yeah, he would make me enjoy breaking him.
The princess came to a halt at the steps to the throne. The heralds blared a brassy note and everypony in the room bowed:
The entourage.
The Peerage.
The VIPs.
Hundreds of commoner ponies.
Citron and Streak.
Everypony but me.
I blinked and looked around. So weird. Like puppets on cue...
...except for Proper Step, who mirrored me.
He tut-tutted at Citron and Streak—who went wide-eyed (in his case) and sweated (in her case). They cautiously rose, eyes on me as I nodded. I had no inclination to bow. After what had happened today, I didn't care. I gave a nod when Celestia looked my way, but nothing more.
I acted like I was her peer.
I'd beat her in battle. Twice! I huffed. Go ahead. Make me!
When she walked to the steps, everypony rose on cue. Many glared at me.
I smiled back toothily at the appalled ponies as the entourage walked to the VIP section. All but Prince Blueblood. He cantered over to the dukes and duchess, to exchange back slaps with the red stallion and talk in hushed tones with the others.
At the top of the dais, the limping Princess stopped and turned around. Kibitz rushed on up, with a folder in his magic.
Before he reached the top, the red duke spoke up. "Here, hear! Your Royal Highness. The Peerage in congress asks why Your Royal Highness has not raised the sun today. Rumors—"
A voice unlike any thundered through the room and made me want to cringe on the floor so I could cover my ears. "You are out of order!"
The earth pony jumped. Being at the edge of the seating when he came down, one hoof missed. Blueblood caught him in his magic as he windmilled and nearly fell to the floor.
Princess Celestia coughed into a hoof. The room silenced, she accepted a page from a folder. She looked at it, then nodded to a snow white earth pony who stationed herself at the bottom of the steps. She wore her raven-black mane and tail in a professional bun. A red ruffle cravat accented a cream-color starched linen collar. She took out a silver quill, waving it show she was.
"Starlight Glimmer. Please step up to the stairs."
The audience murmured. Some of the press conference had likely leaked out. Some ponies likely knew I'd flattened Celestia and had saved 271 ponies in the Hooflyn explosion. The rest rapidly learned the particulars passed around.
Kibitz trotted down to Proper Step, who stood beside me, carrying a duplicate page in his magic. The princess spoke first.
"I, Princess Celestia Regina Sunny Daze of Equestria, Princess of the Realm and Princess of the Day, do proclaim henceforth and forevermore, irrevocably for so long as Equestria continues to exist, against which no law or power, even my own, may modify that all those listed on this proclamation, whether we know their true name or aliases, under their true name or any alias, that they will be forgiven and pardoned of all crimes—"
My heart skipped.
"—treasonous, seditious, capital, felonious, high, or misdemeanor, including besmirching or minor infractions such as required etiquette or protocol up to the moment I inscribe my signature on this document from the moment of their conception: Starlight Glimmer, Cadet Lieutenant Quincy, Streak."
I froze, unable to breathe, blinking. I was evil. I'd done terrible, unforgivable things. Ponies had died because of me. Investigated and prosecuted in detail against the law, I was guilty of many criminal acts.
A pardon made that clear, true, if not in detail.
Proper Step waved the document in front of me. I gasped, glancing toward the audience. I don't think anypony could believe such a thing could be read in front of an open court, but it had. Fellows turned fire-red, grinding his teeth.
That made me smile. The knot in my stomach loosened.
Over the growing din, I explained loudly for all to hear, "She's royalty. Remember, she makes the laws unless you take action to prevent that." Yeah. Seditious. On the list!
I heard gasps, as I ripped the page free and read exactly what the princess had proclaimed.
When I looked up, she asked, "Do you wish to add names to this list?"
"Anypony? Really?"
She nodded.
No way I was adding Running Mead, but I thought about all the ponies that had supported me on my team, fighting along side me the last few years. I took the proffered quill, and annotated the list.
Proper Step took it, and the implements, and trotted up to his father. Kibitz hoofed it over to Celestia. She read, "Also, Broomhill Dare, Safe, Pig Pen, Crystal Skies, Zecora Zeb, Trigger, and..." She paused and smiled, glancing to me with a nod. "Sunset Shimmer."
The golden pony sat so hard I heard it. When startled green eyes looked my way, I smiled and winked. She started chuckling, getting the joke.
Yep. Kissing up to the alpha mare of the school, who had a drug charge to her name, one which Celestia had probably already held over her head. We shared disgust for such trickanery. I liked her. Besides, we had research she'd agreed to do with me! I also needed her to teach me geometric spell casting.
The secretary annotated the original copy; Kibitz gave it to Celestia; she signed it.
When Celestia finally arranged that interview with me at The Canterlotter, I would have free rein to answer quite a few questions, many everypony would find rather embarrassing. I licked my chops.
I looked expectantly up at her, feeling a lot better. All of a sudden, I didn't hate her. Time to dismiss me! I had a stallion I was much more interested in than all this nonsense.
"Starlight, please approach the throne."
I blew air loudly through my lips.
One more weird and disappointing thing on a day of weird and disappointing things! Proper Step led the way as I trudged up the ten steps with a few attendants shadowing me. I looked up at the princess. She smelled of lavender. Once again, I noticed how truly big she was compared to all the little ponies around her. She was the queen bee of the hive, without a doubt.
She sighed. In a low voice, she said, "We did that mane style for a reason." Her horn lit. In a quick sequence, my braids spun apart and locks of my hair tugged themselves straight, then wove themselves up. The ties were applied, and the top of my head—hair piled high like fluffed wool—began to warm.
If anypony noticed how familiar the princess acted, I couldn't hear any loud objection. The murmurs increased, then I realized why.
I saw a crystal hat box open in an attendant's magic. Proper Step nodded and took out a tiny thin circlet of streaked light- and dark-green jade held together by braided silver wire, antiqued such that it looked mostly black. Centered on the jade were two wafer-thin four-point stars, one the same amethyst as the gem sparkling in the princess' own gold crown. Behind the first, offset and rotated 45º, was a star the same size and shape in rare white jade.
My cutie mark.
I sputtered. "Um, um..." I thought hard, becoming pretty sure I remembered that an earl was allowed to wear a coronet, a lesser crown, on certain high occasions.
Of course.
Made sense.
Proper Step nestled it properly atop my up-do and retreated one step down the stairs with the other attendants. Unlike gold, the delicate thing weighed very little, enough to ensure I knew it was there and nothing more.
The princess approached me. I backed, my eyes growing wide, feeling suddenly in mortal fear as if facing a bear... until she said, "Sit."
I became one of her puppets.
I listened.
I sat.
She stepped aside and faced the same audience I realized I now faced. I felt a cushion under me. I glanced down and saw gold-veined marble carved into a simple chair. Looking to my left, I saw a much larger alicorn version.
Princess Celestia spoke loudly. "I wish to introduce to you, my loyal subjects, Starlight Glimmer, Hero of Equestria number 99, one time doing business as 'Princess Glitter daughter of Doña Carne Asada', also known variously as Grimoire, Gelding, Welterweight Champion Prizefighter Princess Grim, and Starlight Starbrite, born the Countess Aurora Midnight, the Earl of Grin Having, Lady Presiding of Sire's Hollow, daughter of Heroes of Equestria 87 and 88 the late first Countess and Earl of Grin Having Mage Midnight and Firelight, and in her capacity as an earl, the Captain and Commander (in-training) of the 3rd Army of Equestria, now in formation."
She took a deep breath, as if waiting for an objection, but all she got was stunned silence, none more stunned than mine.
Sweat dripped into my left eye, making me blink. Not your average introduction. Not in this lifetime.
My right cheek began ticking because I understood she was not done speaking!
"She is hereby appointed irrevocably by me, elevated, to be known as The Princess of Marks, henceforth to be further known as Starlight Glimmer Regina Aurora Midnight, Crown Princess of Equestria."
The throne room broke into a justified roar. Flash bulbs strobed.
I. Had. Stopped. Breathing.
Celestia had given me actual power!
As she had promised she would.
She had elevated me, not even an alicorn, to the station of crown princess. So far as I knew, the princess had never had an heir. Having an heir implied succession. It implied the impending death of an immortal ruler, or that at least she might die within the normal lifespan I might expect.
Her booming voice shouted everypony down. "Those who address her as Princess will merit a protocol misdemeanor and may expect to be kicked by Starlight herself, except on state occasions where conventional titles and stylings are mandatory. Refer to her plainly and formally as Starlight Glimmer, while Ms. Glimmer will be accepted as a styling when necessary at the discretion of the addresser."
Proper Step had addressed me as Ms. Glimmer. He had made sure Citron and Streak stood and didn't bow. He had been briefed regarding the princess-ambush thing.
I had thought it funny when everypony had bowed and I had pretended to be Celestia's peer!
When Luna's curse triggered 603 days from now, if I found no way to stop Celestia from being painted across the moon, I became the country's sole ruler—tasked with saving the world.
My impossible task: Prevent myself from having to run the country.
I was again somepony's tool.
The room spun. I saw bright flashes of blue in my eyes as my stomach tied itself back in knots, with an acid chaser.
I felt cursed. I had no choice but to do whatever she wanted if I ever wished to be free. So foul. Far more foul than blackmail: Reciprocity, and the feeling it engendered, obligation.
I learned later that it was supposed to be impossible to hold your breath until you passed out. Nopony had told my body that. I did remember my first act as princess, folding forward and the floor rushing up as I fainted.
The End