I was woken up by a quiet but incessant tapping on my door. In the distance, I could just barely hear what sounded like a heated argument, and I had a good guess as to the ponies involved. Already, I was regretting my decision to pick a room near the throne room.
I say ‘room,’ but it was really more of a suite. There was a bedroom, with the basic needs—a bed, a wardrobe, and a night table—but nothing more. It was up to me to decorate it how I chose, but that would take time. There was a bathroom attached to the bedroom, with a massive shower and a luxurious tub. Between the bedroom and the hallway, there was a little room furnished with sofas, a low table, and a small, mostly empty bookshelf. This was the public-facing portion of my living space, where ponies would wait if they needed to see me. I didn’t expect it to get much use.
Finally, from the lobby area, there were three extra doors that led to rooms that, for now, were completely empty. Rafflesia told me they were mine to do with as I wanted, but I had no idea what I would use three extra rooms for, so for now they sat empty.
With a groan and a yawn, I pushed myself out of the absurdly large bed I’d been given and trudged over to the door. Unsurprisingly, I found Rafflesia on the other side, looking a good deal more anxious than I was sure the situation called for.
“Ah!” She jumped slightly at my appearance, then straightened out her back and stood at attention. “Good morning, Miss Starfall! I’m terribly sorry for waking you, but the Princess has asked for your presence in the throne room.”
I nodded groggily. “Yeah, I figured. Alright, let’s go, then—”
“Ah, w-wait!” I moved to leave, but Rae frantically waved a hoof to stop me. “You can’t go see the Princess like that, Miss Starfall!”
“Huh? Oh. Yeah.” I laughed sheepishly and scratched at my sleep-tousled mane. “I guess I should brush my hair, huh?”
“Y-You need to do more than that, Miss Starfall!” Rae looked almost horrified. “You’re meeting with the Princess! You haven’t even showered!”
“Oh, c’mon,” I said, “I can do all that after. Wouldn’t it be better to go see what she wants as soon as possible?”
“Absolutely not! I’m sorry, Miss Starfall, but I cannot allow you to meet with the Princess without taking care of yourself first. As your attendant, it’s my duty to make sure you’re presentable!”
“She’s my friend, she doesn’t care how ‘presentable’ I am,” I said. “It’s really not that big of a deal. I can just—”
“Miss Starfall, I really must insist! This is not up for debate, you must make yourself presentable for the Princess, no matter who you are.” She huffed and gave me a stern look. “Now, go and get yourself ready. I’ll drag you into the shower and do it myself if I have to!”
“Okay, okay, fine, I’m going,” I groaned.
It took almost an hour for me to get ready, largely thanks to Rae fussing over every little thing. Apparently, I wasn’t doing a good enough job, so it wound up devolving to her forcing me to sit still as she blow-dried my fur and carefully brushed my mane and tail. She wanted to put makeup on me, too, but thankfully, I was able to get her to back down from that.
By the time I finally made it out the door, the arguing out in the distance seemed to have died down. Rae trotted along behind me dutifully, a satisfied grin on her face, and I slowly made my way to the throne room.
The first thing I saw when I walked in was Nightmare Moon. She was slumped down in her throne, eyes closed and a hoof on her head like she had a migraine. Flanking the throne were two unicorns, legs crossed over their chests and looking pointedly away from each other with deep frowns.
I sighed. “I take it you two are still fighting, then?”
“Ah!” At seeing how informal I was being, Rae rushed in front of me and bowed deeply. “Um, g-good morning, Princess! I’ve brought you Starfall, like you asked.”
“Thank you, Rafflesia,” Nightmare Moon said. She sounded exhausted. “As always, you exceed my expectations. You may leave us, now.”
Rae grinned wider than I’d ever seen her, and bowed again. “My pleasure, Princess! I’m here to serve!” With that, she trotted away with an obvious skip in her step.
Once she was gone, Nightmare Moon sighed. “Good morning, Starfall. As you have likely surmised, the situation here is…”
“It’s awful!” Trixie cut in. “I can’t work with her! I don’t know why you decided to bring her in, but she is the most egocentric, self-absorbed, annoying, obstinate—”
“Oh, you’re one to talk,” Starlight yelled over her. “Starfall, she isn’t fit to wield an Element of Harmony! You must know a lot if you knew to bring me in, so I really cannot fathom why you would choose her of all ponies to—”
“Don’t act like she’s on your side! Starfall is my friend, you’re just some random mare who—”
“Hah, as if you could have friends! Starfall is smart enough to—”
“ENOUGH!” Nightmare Moon roared over their bickering, and they both flinched back and stopped talking. “You two will cease this yammering this second, or I will have you both flung into the Everfree, do you understand!?”
They both nodded, their mouths shut tight.
“Good. Now, Starfall,” she said, turning her attention to me, “I summoned you here so that the four of us could discuss our next move. We have some difficult decisions to make.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Well, as I see it, attempting to bestow an Element upon Starlight at the moment would likely only weaken our overall bonds. Do you agree?”
I nodded, and Starlight grimaced. “Hey, don’t act like this is my fault,” she said. “If it wasn’t for her—”
A bolt of magic flew from Nightmare Moon’s horn and scorched the floor next to Starlight, which was enough to stop her rant in its tracks.
“We are not here to lay blame,” Nightmare Moon said, “but to plan our next step. Our time grows short, and without Starlight, we still require three more ponies to put our initial plan into action. I feel it is time to reassess its viability.”
“We’re not that tight on time,” Trixie said. “Starfall said it’d be like, a year before Discord got out, right? We’ve only used a couple months.”
“We cannot rely too heavily on Starfall’s timeline,” Nightmare Moon said. “It was an estimate to begin with, and it’s impossible to know how much our actions so far may have accelerated things.”
“Sorry,” Starlight cut in, “but I feel out of the loop here. What plans are we talking about? And what, exactly, are we planning for? You all have yet to give me a satisfactory explanation for what’s going on.”
“Right. So, in about a year, a being named Discord is going to escape his prison, and—”
I spent some time explaining everything to Starlight, including who I was, what we all wanted, and everything in between. She spent the time asking question after question, wondering about everything from what Discord actually is to how she factored into things in the first place. By the end, she seemed to be deep in thought, and she had a determined look in her eyes.
After some thought, Starlight nodded and stared at each of us. “Alright. We need to go reinforce his prison now, before he can break out.”
“That’s not for you to decide!” Trixie shouted at her. “For all we know, you could just be trying to stop me from getting any glory!”
“I’m not that petty,” Starlight said. “Do you really think you all can find three more ponies who can get along with all three of you before Discord wakes up? You’re betting the whole world on this!”
“I trust in Starfall,” Trixie said. “I’m sure she has a whole list of candidates!”
“Ehh…” I grimaced. “Starlight was the only one I was really all that confident in. I know of a lot of ponies, but it’s really hard to say how well they’d get along with us all, you know?”
“It is certainly a gamble,” Nightmare Moon said. “While I agree with Trixie’s reluctance to give up on the publicity we could gain, I fear we may have no choice.”
“I think we at least have some time,” I said, “and we haven’t really given Starlight a chance to shine. We’ve got a ton of old books and artifacts here. Who knows what she might be able to find that could help against Discord. We might not even need the Elements.”
“You’d have to have a lot of books for me to be at all confident in that,” Starlight said.
“Hmm…” Nightmare Moon looked thoughtful. “It could be worth trying.”
“We do have a lot of books,” I added. “It couldn’t hurt.”
“So, what, we’re just abandoning the Elements plan?” Trixie asked. “That sounds dumb.”
“We’re not abandoning anything,” Nightmare Moon said. “You and Starfall can continue searching for bearers while Starlight researches.”
“That works for me,” I said. “What are you gonna do, though?”
“I will continue building our fledgling nation,” Nightmare Moon said.
“Is that really the most pressing thing?” Trixie asked. “Having ponies serving you isn’t gonna help if we lose to Discord!”
“Of course it is pressing,” Nightmare Moon told her. “Having a national presence is our key to gaining access to Discord in the first place. We cannot simply sneak into Canterlot. Our best option is to utilize official channels.”
“Ohhh. Yeah, that’s smart,” Trixie said. “I knew we kept you around for a reason.”
Nightmare Moon laughed, then turned to me. “Starfall. Do you have a target you can set out towards?”
“Hmm…” I thought through all the ponies I knew of, wondering how each might fit in. “Actually,” I said, “I think I do. In fact, I think I know ponies who Trixie and I could each befriend on our own, so we can split up!”
“You’re gonna trust her to make a friend on her own?” Starlight asked.
“Trixie is perfectly likeable!” Trixie replied.
“She’ll be fine,” I said. “Probably.”
“Definitely!” Trixie said.
“If you two are confident, I see no reason to deny you,” Nightmare Moon said. “With that, I believe our courses are set. You two are dismissed. Starlight, allow me to show you to the vault.” Nightmare Moon nodded to Starlight, and the two of them left the throne room together.
“So,” Trixie said, turning to me, “who’s my new friend gonna be?”
“I think you’ll like her,” I said. “At least, as long as you don’t get too caught up on her family.”
“What does that mean?” Trixie looked mildly offended.
I laughed and shrugged. “Her sister is one of Twilight’s friends, is all. Just don’t hold that against her, okay?”
Trixie made a face at me, then huffed. “...Trixie will try.”