“I know you all are eager to hear what the Crown has to say, but I must ask you to hold your questions for the end. The past two weeks have been very stressful for everyone involved.”
That was what Celestia said to start off the press conference. Before going into it, they had given me all the advice and information they could:
“You’ll be sitting behind the podium while Celestia recounts your story. Make sure you are sitting up straight and looking attentive the entire time,” Luna said, craning her neck back to look at me.
I remember nodding while maintaining my thousand-mile stare. I had shaken my head lightly before tearing my eyes up from the hallway floor slowly passing by. My gaze finally landed on Luna’s smile.
“After that, you’ll be expected to go up to the podium and answer any questions the journalists will have for you. You can skip any question you like by saying ‘No comment.’”
“They’ll all be raising their hands, so you can just point and call on them,” Celestia interjected.
I remember smiling and letting a breath out of my nose.
“Like school fillies?” I had said, my words barely muffling my mirth.
Celestia rolled her eyes, “Yes, like school fillies. Just call on one, answer their question, and move on.”
Twilight chimed in while still facing forward, her tone instantly wiping the smile off my face, “But don’t give any more information than is necessary. Since you’re an unknown, they’ll try and twist anything you say. Don’t let them. Be as clear and concise as possible.”
I nodded and let out a deep breath.
“At a certain point, one of us will move up to the podium to answer any remaining questions until the conference is over, while the rest of us, including you, will be escorted out. Any questions?”
I had taken a good five seconds to gather my thoughts.
I mean, they’ve gone over what seems like everything: how I should act, what’s gonna happen, the chain of events- so then why do I feel this pit in my stomach? It’s because I don’t know what I don’t know. And the only way to know is through experience.
I remember sighing and folding my ears back as my hooves carried me along the familiar swirling color hallways of the castle towards the press room.
They gave me as much as they could, and yet I still can’t seem to get a grip.
With a deep breath, I relaxed my jaw.
Woah, hey now, calm down.
I shake my head slightly.
I once again straighten my back and rest my hooves firmly on my lap while staring at Celestia’s backside. I take a deep breath in, a camera clicks, and I breathe out. I glance to my left at Cadance, who smiles at me briefly, and a camera clicks before she returns her gaze to the room of reporters.
I’m just going to stammer.
A camera clicks.
No. Stop.
I’m not gonna know what kind of questions they’re gonna-
Stop.
A flash of light nearly blinds me.
But-
Shut up! I’m not even paying attention to what she’s saying! How will I know what my cue is?
“Excuse me? You are Mezzo Harmonic, correct?!”
My shoulders tense up, and my vision focuses on a gray unicorn wearing a black suit and tie rushing up the stage to me, a yellow notepad suspended in his light green magic. His rate of speech seems rather impressive. Unfortunately, that’s all I have time to think about.
“I have to ask, but how did you do it? Surely the Princesses are more resilient than that, yes?”
“W-What do you m-mean?” I ask with a few grunts of indecisiveness.
“Don’t play dumb with me, buddy, I’ve-” he shouts, but before I can get another word out, he’s suddenly grabbed by two security guards from behind, one of whom whirls him around with a flick of her hoof.
“If you don’t want to be thrown out, I suggest you get back to your seat!” She yells, heaving him off the stage. The other guard, a bulky gold and white griffin, stands between the offending journalist and us for a few moments before turning his head to the side.
“My apologies, Your Highness, it won’t happen again,” he says smoothly, never taking his eyes off of the offender.
“No worries, thank you,” I say quietly with a nod before letting my head hang down. When my voice seems to pierce the room like an arrow whizzing past my ear, I suddenly become aware of how quiet it is.
Oh well. Also, not royalty. Though, I guess they don’t know that yet. Unless they do? I mean, surely they must’ve heard someth-
The sound of Celestia’s voice and camera flashes quickly ramps back up to fill my ears.
“You okay?” I hear Cadance whisper to me.
I raise my gaze to meet hers, “Huh? Yeah, just caught me off guard.”
Heh, guard.
I nearly smirk before shaking my head slightly and looking back down at the ground.
I am not funny.
With a deep inhale, I turn my head back to Celestia before exhaling and letting my shoulders drop.
Just pay attention to her. Listen. And stop slouching!
My attention lasts for about fifteen seconds before things start to drift away. I follow Celestia’s gaze as she turns her head for a brief moment to the side of the room.
Nope. Stop. She’s just trying to appear attentive.
I throw my gaze back on Celestia. I then spy a journalist in the front row of benches clacking away at his keyboard.
Gosh, typing that fast could rival my speed.
I roll my eyes.
Alright, buddy, let’s not get cocky.
Shaking my head a little, I-
“Mezzo, could you stop tapping your hoof, please?”
Luna’s whispers cut through my thoughts like those videos of hot knives cutting through ice. I lean forward, noticing Luna arched in front of Cadance, staring at me.
“Oh, sh-sorry,” I whisper and smile sheepishly.
Didn’t even realize it. Ugh.
Why in the world was I even tapping? I didn’t even have a song playing in my head!
This is not going well. Back to staring at Celestia.
As I try to burn a hole into the back corner of her head, I can’t help but notice that while all her words are reaching me, they’re simply washing over me; in one ear and out the other.
Oh, come on.
For a time, I force myself to listen to and interpret everything she’s saying.
“And on the sixteenth of this month, something unprecedented happened,” Celestia’s words rang out into the room of grey suits and TV cameras.
Sixteenth? No shot she’s just getting to my ascension. Surely I was spaced out for longer than that, no?
“No fucking way,” I mouth without a sound. With my mouth still ajar, I turn my head to look out at the sea of creatures all crowded before the small stage.
The TV cameras in the far back catch my attention. I spot a light blue and green hippogriff standing behind the one on the far left side of the room. While they maintain a single eye looking into the camera, they adjust a dial on the side of it.
For focus? Eh, probably.
While I take a moment to sympathize with the brightly-colored changeling journalist seated right below the camera’s extended lens, they slide their phone out of their strap and begin tapping away at it with their magic.
Heh. Mom, can I play games on your phone?
…
What? That’s not even relevant or funny. Shut up.
A chocolate brown unicorn dressed in a dull grey suit, seated right in front of the bright changeling, slides out their phone and raises it up to take a picture of Celestia at the podium. I follow where it’s pointing, and to my utter lack of surprise, I find Celestia still standing on the stage.
Wow, crazy. Why’d I even bother to do that?
But to my complete and utter surprise, I spy a black robe peeking out from behind Celestia. Leaning over slightly, I notice that the four Archbishops: Ashen Light, Sky Blast, Burning Monolith, and Quiet Tempest, are lined up along the wall next to the stage, just standing there.
Menacingly!
I manage to catch my smile and force it back down.
Alright, that was kinda funny.
But, before I even comprehend what I’m doing, one of their gazes flicks to the back of the room for a split second before returning to Celestia, and my gaze follows. In the back right corner of the room, peeking out from behind one of the camera operators, sits a…figure.
They’re wearing robes, that much is obvious. But, for the life of me, I can’t tell whether it’s dark because of natural shadows, the black color, or some other third thing I’m not considering. Before I can scrutinize the figure any longer, it slides back behind one of the camera operators, out of sight.
Wha-?
“Mezzo!” I hear Cadance whisper next to me.
“Hey, funny bird app guy, she’s about to call you up!” Luna also leans forward to whisper to me while wearing a small smirk.
…Huh?
“Now,” she says into the mic, raising her voice almost imperceptibly, “I will be turning the mic over to Mezzo himself to answer some of your outstanding questions.”
Oh! Sh-f-I mean…AAUGH! They are lifesavers!
“Thanks,” I whisper back with a nervous smile before I rise from my seat, take a deep breath, and stop slouching.
“We’re right behind you,” Celestia whispers as I pass her. She returns to her spot in the line of chairs behind the podium next to Luna.
“Thanks,” I whisper back quickly and, with a slight smile on my face, step up to the podium.
Damn, it’s been a while since a smile has drained from my face that quickly, huh? What does that say about the situation: screw this? That one other funny little four-letter word I can’t use right now that starts with an ‘f’? I wish I could just shout that to the heavens right now.
“H-hello, everyone. As you all heard, my name is Mezzo Harmonic, recently ascended alicorn, and I’ll be answering your questions.”
Anyway, here’s Wonder Wall.
Now that was a good one.
A grey hoof in the middle of the rows of seats on the right shoots up faster than anyone else’s in the entire room. Following the hoof down to its owner, I see the imposing journalist who rushed me earlier.
Let’s get this out of the way, shall we?
“Y-Yes, t-the grey unicorn on my right?” I say after pursing my lips.
“What do you intend to do now that control has been put in your hands?”
What the f-
“Uhm, I’m not sure, given that I-I’m not in control. This whole situation sorta happened out of the blue, and I’m still s-sort of reeling from it.”
Only sorta. Thanks, Candy.
Not half a second after the stallion lowers his hoof with a frown, the vibrant green hoof of a changeling shoots up just in front of me. I have to strain my head and eyes to look over the podium.
“Yes?” I ask, gesturing a hoof.
“Would you say that the Timberwolf you encountered in the White Tail Woods has any relation to Everfree City’s ever-expanding population?”
Wait…TRUE! I actually don’t know, but that sounds plausible.
“Uhm, that sounds plausible on its surface, but right now? I have no idea, nor do I know of any evidence pointing to such a conclusion.”
The changeling nods and goes back to clacking away at her keyboard.
Probably shouldn’t have said “plausible.” They might spin that. I shoulda just kept it to “no idea” or “no comment.” Anyway…!
“N-N-Next questionnnnn…yes, you?” I ask, gesturing a hoof to an orange earth pony in the back row with narrow, rectangular glasses.
“If there’s one thing you want the creatures of the world to know about you, what would it be? What should we expect from you, as a chosen God?”
Oh fuck.
“Uhhmm, I-uh…”
I try to force a word out: something, anything! But I feel a constriction in the back of my throat, stopping anything from coming through.
Luckily, I catch myself before my teeth clench and take a small breath.
“No comment.”
FUCK! NO! EEERRR! WRONG ANSWER!
“That’s not very reassuring.”
I take a small breath before an almost imperceptible warm and fuzzy feeling worms its way across my body.
‘It’s okay. Try again.’
“S-Sorry, I’m not very good at this. I, uh, what I’d like creatures to know about me is that I’m…a mess. I’m not a God, nor was I chosen by anyone or anything. I didn’t exactly have my life together before this, and ascension and being thrown into the spotlight really haven’t helped with that, but know that I-I’m trying my best. And luckily, I’m not alone in doing that. Thanks to the four amazing po-Princesses behind me, I’ve been able to get through this and probably more down the line. I…”
I take a second to stare down at the podium before taking a small breath.
“That’s it.”
The orange earth pony slowly nods before tapping away at his phone.
After a second of silence that felt like an average The Elder Rings: Dragon Born loading screen, a black scaly claw slowly but surely raises itself on the far left side of the room. Following the claw down, I see a black dragon with bright green horns that almost makes him look like a changeling staring pointedly at me, eyes fixed and unmoving.
“Yes?” I ask, motioning to him with a subtle flick of my chin.
He clears his throat, “Which Church are you affiliated with?”
I involuntarily give a light smile and briefly shake my head.
Here it comes. They’re not gonna like this answer.
“Uh, I’m not a-a-affiliated with any of the Churches.”
A chorus of gasps that would’ve sounded more appropriate at a circus echoes throughout the room.
Although, I guess this isn’t entirely not a circus.
“Why is that?” He asks, cocking an eyebrow. Simultaneously, he reaches a hoof up to his glasses and pulls his hoof back along its temples to reveal a pencil.
“Uhm, well it wasn’t entirely my choice, and I haven’t had time since graduating from college to get involved in any way.”
“And what do you mean by ‘it wasn’t entirely your choice,’ hm?”
“Uh-”
“I think that’s enough,” Celestia says with conviction behind me. Cadance taps me on the shoulder with a wing and motions for me to leave.
“There will be no further questions, and this press conference is now at its end. As always, please address further inquiries to the Media Relations office. Thank you.”
“Screw that,” I mutter before letting out a huge sigh, causing my entire body to heave.
“You did good,” Celestia says, smiling down at me.
“Oh, yeah, really? Like when I di-divulged my life story to that one guy? I remember being t-told to ‘keep it brief’ or something along those lines. And yet I didn’t.”
“It’s not the end of the world. What you said was positive and was surely a good counterbalance to what that other stallion was trying to imply.”
I sigh, “True. But I also screwed up in the beginning. Not sure how I even managed to salvage that.”
“Actually, that was me,” Twilight says sheepishly. “I sent out a small messenger spell to you at that moment.”
“Oh. S-So that was you saying ‘try again’ in my head?”
“Well, saying it that way makes it sound like I was messing with your mind when it was actually more a form of telepathy. It was simply a relaying of a recorded message. And some positive emotions.”
“Twilight, please speak Equish,” Cadance says in an almost begging tone.
“N-No, it’s alright, I got it,” I say quickly with a smile at her. “I can u-u-understand the message, but how’d you transfer some emotion with it?”
“Recent, or I guess, not so recent advances in changeling magic. One of my researchers made a breakthrough about two decades ago, she was the first changeling to perform such a feat.”
“Wow, that’s actually pretty cool,” I say before returning my gaze to the swirling colors of the hallway sliding past me like small waves on a beach.
Yeah, now that I think about it, that long answer I gave was fine. Probably. The Church affiliation thing, though…that might cause some problems. And the stammering, UGH! This sucks. And then the timberwolf in the White Tail Woods thing—that actually sounds plausible, though I’m not the one to do the research on that, especially not right now. And then-oh wait. I gotta mention the possible relation between the power plant and my ascension to them.
I go to open my mouth and say as much, but a constriction in the back of my throat kills the words before they can even be fully realized.
I simply frown and shake my head slightly.
Alright, then, I guess I’ll tell them later.
As we turn a corner, my eyes land on a familiar sight: the entrance to the dining hall.
“That reminds me,” I start. “Who were those two special guests you were telling me about this morning, Twilight?”
“They’re both long-time friends of all of ours, and in the spirit of the day, their names are Spike and Thorax.”
“Spike? Oh, you mentioned him the other week, right?”
“Yep!” Twilight smiles. “My surrogate brother-slash-son-slash-a-lot-of-things.”
“That complicated?” I ask with a smirk.
“Yep. We never quite figured it out.”
I nod. “G-Guess it doesn’t matter much about having a label as long as the relationship is still there.”
“Exactly.”
A moment of silence passes before my brow furrows.
Wait, but she also said…
“A-A-And you also mentioned Thorax? Isn’t he t-the Changeling King?”
“Yep! But he’s really friendly, don’t worry.”
I give an audible hum.
“He’s a real sweetheart once you get to know him,” Cadance starts. “He and Spike have been bros since they first met, and while he can get defensive over his friends, he’s a big softie at the end of the day.”
Luna chimes in, “This is very true. There’ve been many times when Thorax has gone out of his way to help us, Spike, or even Discord, whether it be with paperwork while he’s visiting or setting up a fun, welcoming party when we go to visit. He’s a fantastic friend.”
Alright, this guy sounds pretty good.
Sorta like me-
Nope. Not even entertaining that thought. This is about them.
“Awesome. And they’re here because of the, uh, press conference or something?”
“Sort of,” Celestia says. “Mostly, they’re here to see you. As with Discord, they’re excited to see another immortal ‘join the club,’ so to speak.”
“Okay, l-let’s just hope they’re not as wild as Discord.”
Even though it’s fairly obvious they won’t be.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Twilight says. “They’re nothing like Discord. Besides, Discord won’t mess with you as much as before. I’m sure of it.”
Her tone during the last sentence makes me raise an eyebrow and almost makes me stop in my tracks.
Did she-?
Nope. Definitely not entertaining that thought.
“You’re less of an unknown now,” she finishes.
Within a minute, I’m forced to actually stop in my tracks as we arrive at the door to the dining hall.
“Here we go.”
“You’ll be fine,” Cadance says, lowering a wing onto my back for a split second to accompany her smile before she turns to the door to open it.
I swallow and take a deep breath before following them in.
I smile as my gaze lands on a thankfully familiar sight, my family all sitting around the far end of the table on the left, full plates sitting before them mostly untouched. Mom’s face lights up as she sees me walking in. She rushes out of her chair, sort of bows to the Princesses as she passes them, and comes up to me to wrap me in a sitting hug.
“Ohh, honey, you did great up there! You showed those lying journalists what for!” she cries before breaking the hug to look at me.
I almost resist the urge to roll my eyes before replying, “Yeah, sort-sort of. Though, I think that question about our C-Church affiliation might cause some trouble.”
“Pffft, no,” she starts, waving a hoof dismissively. “They’re overreacting! They just don’t understand. You need to stand your ground against the status quo.” Her words seem to hang in the air for a moment like the way her dark green mane hangs to slightly obscure my vision of her.
And yet she still doesn’t understand, twisting sayings to fit her worldview. That only applies when you’re right or it’s a matter of opinion.
“But there were a few points up there where your stammering got really bad.”
I sigh, “Yeah, I know.”
“We could always sign you back up for speech therapy.”
I sigh even louder.
“I don’t want to, but I know you’re right. I’ll think about it.”
Meaning: if I convince myself enough to actually follow through.
“Anyway, food.”
“Yes, food,” Mom replies. “There’s already some on the table for everyone.” Then she leans down a little to whisper in my ear. “I already checked it. It’s safe.”
I frown, but Illustrious twists back in her chair and speaks up before I can say anything.
“Mom, stop. We all know you’re full of crap.”
She almost seems to take a step back before rising to her hooves. “Honey, I know you think you know it all, but you’re still just-”
“Can we please not do this now? If we start, we’ll never stop. Besides, we are still in company,” I point out while pursing my lips and putting my hooves out to either side of me.
Mom sighs before relaxing her shoulders. “You’re right, honey, sorry.”
“No worries,” I say, walking over to the table.
Although I guess she really should be apologizing to the Princesses-er, Alicorns, since they don’t want me to use titles.
Before I sit down, however, I find myself in a slight conundrum.
Candy is sitting down there towards the end of the table with the others, but Mom, Dad, and everyone else are up here at this end of the table.
I whip my head back and forth three times.
I haven’t seen them in a while. There isn’t a better time or excuse to be with them than right now.
But Candy!
I can sit with Candy later, my family won’t be here every day in the Castle.
But Candy!
Why am I even considering her as much as I am? The other arguments are much more solid. What in Equestria does that say about me? Do I not care about my family enough? Do I-
I give an almost imperceptible sigh.
Eh, I’d look too weird.
I take the seat right next to Illustrious.
“We’re happy the four of you could join us for lunch. I hope the Castle accommodations have been up to par?” Twilight speaks up with a beaming smile.
And this is one of the times when I’m reminded that she helps raise the Sun.
“Of course, I wouldn’t have missed this for anything. I need to keep an eye on my baby boy, after all,” my mom replies with a small smile of her own.
I roll my eyes while looking over to Cadance.
She simply nods back at me.
Before any more words can be exchanged, three rhythmic taps echo out from the sturdy and solid wood doors. Twilight then hops up from her chair, her billowing mane whipping around for a moment.
“That must be our guests. Excuse me for a moment, please.”
She makes her way over to the doors and swings them open to reveal a tall bug-like pony with imposing orange antlers that almost seem to pierce the ceiling. A spiked horn rises out of his forehead, and deep monochromatic purple eyes bore straight into Twilight’s. His purple carapace, reminiscent of a ladybug, is embedded with three small diamonds to accent his bright green chitin.
Next to him is a similarly purple dragon about two-thirds of Twilight’s height. His green underbelly reminds me of an establishing shot of a forest with thousands of trees rolling by. That thought is only accentuated by his bright green eyes, spikes, and wing poking out of his body like giant pine needles. The most eye-catching thing he wears, however, is a gold bracelet around his right wrist with small purple gems dotting its circumference in a regular pattern.
Very peculiar…
“Hey, guys!” Twilight exclaims with a bright smile, almost as bright as their color scheme. King Thorax and Ambassador Spike lean in for a big Twilight-hug as the rest of the Alicorns get up from their seats.
It’s enough to make a grown man cry! But not this man, get back in there, tear!
Illustrious leans over to whisper in my ear, “Who are they?”
I roll my eyes with a smile, “That’s Thorax, King of the Changelings, and Spike, Ambassador to the Dragon Lands.”
“Oh shit, so they’re like, important. Oh no…”
“You’re fine. Stop being so dramatic.”
Pot calling the kettle black much?
The Alicorns come back to the table with King Thorax and Ambassador Spike in tow. And gigantic smiles on their faces.
It’s enough to make-
Twilight speaks first, “Mezzo’s family, allow me to introduce-”
“DISCORD!”
Without warning, the fabric of reality swirls into a small typhoon above the dining table, slowly turning purple and then silently exploding into a sea of paper cranes.
Also without warning, my heart leaps out of my chest and makes me vomit the entirety of my organs onto the table, quickly emptying me of my viscera and letting me slide back in my chair, limp and dead. Metaphorically, of course.
“Holy FUCK! FUCK YOU!” I shout.
I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW!
Discord just cackles and floats above the table while I point pointedly at him with my pointed hoof.
“You sound like every annoying anime character, except you actually have the power to fuck shit up! Fucking dammit!”
Alright, now I care.
With a sigh, I plop back down into my chair and let my hooves cradle my face.
“Uhm…” Silent Symphony starts.
“I’m sorry if that was too much, but I was just doing what was asked of me! What else is ‘be an icebreaker’ supposed to mean?” Discord exclaims with both of his palms facing the ceiling.
“Just a little less explosive next time, please,” Twilight says with a smile as if she’s holding back a snicker.
Suddenly, Illustrious bursts into laughter. It’s the kind of laughter that makes you break into a smile if you can’t stop yourself. Then, if you have really bad self-control, you start laughing as well.
Evidently, everyone in this room has terrible self-control.
A good two minutes pass of boisterous laughter before things start to die down. The only few laughs that remain echo out sporadically as everyone tones down, like a dying chant at a hoofball game.
“Anywho,” Discord continues before silence can start, “you may all have a seat now.” He gestures with a claw and a bow before circling in mid-air, still floating above the table.
“Certainly,” Twilight says. “Now, as I was saying, Mezzo’s family, please meet…” she trails off before someone else picks up without missing a beat.
“Hi, I’m Thorax,” he says while picking a chair next to Twilight. “I’m King of the Changelings and friend to all. Uh, also, I like…archery.”
The Alicorns smile after he tacks on that bit at the end.
“Hey, guys, I’m Spike, current Equestrian Ambassador to the Dragonlands, and I like long walks on the beach!” he says with a grin while taking a seat right next to King Thorax on my side of the table.
A small burst of air escapes from my nose, and I drag my head out of my hooves. But as my gaze crawls over to Ambassador Spike and King Thorax towards the end of the table, I can’t help but notice Cadance suddenly sitting next to me.
Ah, they took her seat. Kinda sad, but also, YES! Never punished.
“Hey, I’m Adapting Current. I work as an engineer for Horizon.”
“Ohh, yo, that’s pretty cool,” Ambassador Spike says. “Has Twilight mentioned her lab yet? I think you’d like in there, it’s like candy land.”
“Can confirm, it’s really a spectacle in there,” I chime in.
My dad simply nods before turning his head over to his wife. Mom looks as if she exerts significant effort to tear her gaze down from the ceiling.
“Oh, uh…hi, I’m Flair. I’m a fashion merchandiser.”
“I’m Silent Symphony. I hate music, believe it or not,” he says as dryly as possible.
“That’s a joke! That’s a joke,” Mom hastily says.
“Yo, I’m Illustrious. I’m a professional photographer.”
“She’s also a gamer, like me,” I butt in. “Hi, I’m Mezzo, a hardcore gamer boy.”
“Not gonna have another outburst?” King Thorax asks.
“Hey, l-listen here, buddy, I was caught off guard. N-Normally I wouldn’t go around shouting curse words because of e-extenuating circumstances, but this was an exception.”
“Sorry, that was too much in hindsight,” Discord says, his voice echoing downward, much like his frown.
“Yeah, it’s fine. It actually p-pisses me off a bit, but that was kinda funny, I’ll-I’ll give you that.”
“Ha, I’ll take it!”
I just shake my head with a smile and turn my gaze back toward Ambassador Spike and King Thorax.
“So w-why did you want to see me only after the press-press conference and not, like, during, or something?”
“Well, first off,” King Thorax starts, “you don’t meet people for the first time during a press conference if you can help it, too many unknowns. But, more importantly, we wanted to meet you off the record first, without the pressure and influence from the public. It’s not every day we get another immortal in the club.”
“Excluding dragons,” Ambassador Spike adds. “To the average pony, we’re functionally immortal.”
“I see the logic in both those statements. Glad I can be a part of the club.”
That’s just a lie.
“Yeah, but also, sorry you got attacked by that Timberwolf all the way out in Whitetail,” Ambassador Spike says apologetically.
“Uh, n-no worries, but why are you a-apologizing for that?”
“Well, I had a hand in creating the first batch of expansion plans for Ponyville—that’s what we called Everfree City back in the day—so, I can’t help but feel partially responsible.”
“Huh…”
I can’t really argue with that without knowing all the details, but what use would it be to make him feel worse?
“Well…” I trail off before letting out a small laugh, to which King Thorax and Ambassador Spike return. “I don’t know. I just know you’re not directly responsible, so: no worries, bro.”
Ambassador Spike nods and leans back.
“What’ve you been doing since you got to the castle?” King Thorax asks.
“Uh, well, not much in between p-periodic interactions with the four of them. I don’t really know what to refer to them all since they a-a-asked me to refrain from using their titles.”
“Oh, well, while you’re at it, don’t bother with titles for Spike or me. I still have trouble hearing it sometimes.”
“Why?”
Thorax sighs and casts his gaze out into nothingness, like a fishing line with no bait.
“It wasn’t easy making the transition to ruling.”
“Your tone makes me think you did it reluctantly.”
He nods and brings his gaze back to me. “I did. Annoyingly enough, I think it was right. I was the only changeling at the time that could lead us out of the dark abyss of our past. But, luckily, I had good friends to help me along the way.”
His smile seems a lot more genuine this time. He glances at Discord leaning on Twilight’s shoulder while she’s in deep conversation with my dad.
“Yeah, I get it.”
“Good. Anyway, back to what you said, I would just refer to them all as…your friends. Makes it a lot simpler.”
I almost roll my eyes. “You know what? Sure, that sounds good, thanks.”
“No problem. Now, back to what you were saying about what you were doing?”
I nod. “Right, well, I played a lot of games and watched a lot of NetMeTube videos to distract myself as much as possible, but sometimes I h-had reprieve.”
Thorax nods, but I speak up before he can get another word in.
“So, what about you? What do you normally do?”
“The most boring bureaucratic nonsense you can imagine,” he exclaims.
I just let out a laugh. “That bad?”
“Yep,” he says with a nod. “Running a kingdom isn’t all that it’s made out to be in movies and TV shows. Sure, there’s a lot of fanfare in your name and ribbons to cut, but that’s just the stuff everyone sees on the outside—the stuff everyone criticizes. Behind the scenes, though? It’s hard to have fulfilling relationships with any creature because of just how much there is to manage. You ponies have it good, being able to swap your rulers around with the 4-2-1 system. I’m a little jealous.”
“H-Haven’t you tried replicating that for yourself?” I ask stupidly.
No wait!
“It doesn’t work like that,” he says, his ears folding back for a moment.
I simply nod along.
“Same with you guys, our ruling class only comes from some divine entity intervening and bestowing their gifts onto someone deemed worthy. At least, that’s the current understanding.”
Now it’s a lot more apparent how important it was to Equestrian history that those fake ascension attempts failed.
“The more I learn about how all of you o-operate the more hopeless I feel,” I say.
“It can feel like that sometimes, but it’s also important not to fall down that hole. I did once, after my brother passed centuries ago, and, like I said earlier, I had creatures that cared about me to help me through that. The most hard-fought battles are not won by one creature alone, whether that be grief or running a kingdom.”
I nod along.
“And what happens if I feel like I don’t have much of a support system?”
Even if it’s right in front of me.
“Well,” he starts. “I don’t know your exact situation, but the best way to have a support system is to make a support system. Work hard to form and maintain relationships so those relationships can maintain you.”
I open my mouth to say something, but the words die on my tongue. I can only let out a minuscule breath of air. I want to say something, anything, about how that makes me feel or how much I agree with it, but something stops me. Whether that’s my stammer, fear of stammering, some societal pressure, or some other fourth thing, I don’t know.
All I can do is smile to myself.
I let out a small sigh and a smile falls on my face. My head hangs down to look at my phone and scroll through Tweetbook.
Oh boy, what a great way to pass the time. Gosh, this dumb bird app sucks. Give hundreds of thousands of toddlers, who all think they’re right, a megaphone, and this is what happens.
My phone screen goes dark as I bring my head back up to see the tabletop for the first time in what feels like hours. A server drags away Spike’s last dirty plate of food as he lets out a sigh of satisfaction. Cadance had moved her seat over to talk to my brother, and the two are currently engaged in what looks like an air guitar contest or something. My mom, sister, and Celestia are all currently on their phones while Luna and Thorax are lounging around in their chairs next to each other, exchanging few words.
Lastly, Twilight and my dad are still talking. Discord had noped out of there a while ago. I don’t blame him in the slightest.
I let out another sigh and glance back down at my phone’s dark screen before it suddenly lights up against and vibrates in my hoof. It’s a text message from Joystick Fiddle.
Oh gosh.
Joystick: Hey, yeah, it went well. I’ll tell you about it later though, feeling kinda tired right now.
I nod and open up my phone to respond.
No worries, take your time, brother.
I close my phone and let it plop back down into my lap…only for another notification to draw my attention again. It’s another text message from one of my friends, a different one this time.
BAN LIST! BAN LIST! BAN LIST!
I let out a gasp and pick my phone back up and unlock it all in one motion.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Mom asks, leaning forward and eyes baring straight into mine.
“Nothing, just some news.”
“What news?”
Still absolutely oblivious.
“Uhh, new duel monsters ban list.”
“Oh,” she says before smiling at me and leaning back in her chair again.
“Duel monsters, you say?” Spike pipes up from the other end of the table.
“Uh, yeah, you play?”
“Of course I do! What self-respecting nerd doesn’t!”
My sister, first of all.
“That’s what I’ve been telling everybody!” I say with a chuckle before Spike gets up and saunters over to my chair to look over my shoulder.
“Alright, let’s see this puppy,” he says, his voice dripping with anticipation and claws gripping the back of my chair.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” I whisper under my breath as I finally pull up the ban list webpage.
The page itself is life-like and makes me smile as a pale white dragon with blue eyes shows itself at the top. Scrolling down, a spreadsheet-like chart makes itself known and my eyes scan the right side of each entry as I slowly scroll down.
Pot of Greed? Yeah, obviously still banned. No way that can come back ever.
But, as the entries start to turn blue, my eyes go past a single phrase that I was hoping to see: “Was limited.” I gasp and drag my eyes across the screen to the left side of the entry with the card’s name on it: Crystron Halqifibrax.
“NO WAY!” Spike shouts.
“HALQ IS BANNED, CRAB RAVE!” I shout. “Now I gotta rework one of my decks, bro!”
“We should duel once you’re done with that,” Spike suggests.
“Actually?”