//------------------------------//
// A Princess and Thief in Town 
// Story: Royal Friendship 
// by Nova Star Sparkle 
//------------------------------//






*3*






*A few minutes later*

Before long, I began to catch sight of the top of Sweet Apple Acres' barn roof in the distance. The farm served as Ponyville's most vital food supplier, and also accounted for a high profit factor for the little village. Even though, recalling it, I just remembered that the village recently had added a few more very promising businesses to it´s rather small size.

Recently I had heard of a boutique, a newly opened bakery, a small but efficient weather control team, and an infirmary and care center for all kinds of animals. Thinking about it, that did sound a whole lot like the work of five special mares in my mind. Based on their general personalities, at least, it would fit.

By now I had skimmed the far edge of Sweet Apple Acres and was on my way directly to the Golden Oak Library - the only public library in Ponyville and started by me personally. There had been some nobles in Canterlot who objected, since Ponyville was not exactly a densely populated place in terms of population, and it would therefore be a waste to take so many bits on one's hoof to build an accumulation of knowledge in such a diminutive place.

In retrospect and to their own misfortune, they probably shouldn't have brought it up in front of me. Me - the alicorn who was also known as the alicorn and protector of knowledge, among other things. The rioters were silenced rather quickly with their tails between their legs, and the library was erected within a few weeks. It was one of the many practical advantages of being a princess. And no matter how arrogant some of the nobles in Canterlot were, none of them could even begin to compete with the stern and piercing gaze of an alicorn.

They tried several times already, yes. But that was a case they could only loose and never win. So much for that, I smirked inside my mind.

The residents of the village had been incredibly pleased and promptly refused to let me appoint a librarian from Canterlot to come to Ponyville to run the newly built library. It passed as a duty of honor to work in the remodeled tree and help other residents find what they were looking for.

Having said that, I wasn't interfering further there, as I was always delighted, when our ponies took something in their own hoofs and it warmed my heart that they were so pleased with my gift. Even if I had done it also likely for the reason, as it was important to me that everyone had unrestricted access to knowledge.

As I continued my way over Ponyville, a certain structure on the outskirts of the small village near a waterfall caught my eye. A broad smile curled up my lips as I thought back to this more than unexpected yet pleasant memory.

It had been a gift from the residents of the entire village to me for my birthday, the following year, after I had had the library in Ponyville built and officially opened by myself.

How the inhabitants had been able to build something like that in such a short time, and then also in secret from me, was still something of a mystery to me. Whereby I had to owe the latter probably to my two sisters, who had intentionally kept me several months from visiting Ponyville.

The costs and planning had almost certainly been taken care of by the Apple family and the Rich family, otherwise I couldn't imagine where all the bits could have come from.

You're probably wondering what kind of building I'm talking about, aren't you? Most of all one that immediately catches one's eye and obviously must have been quite expensive if I´m specially mentioning that point.

Well...

It was a massive building, certainly more than worthy of a princess of my status - though I would settle for much less and that was more the general opinion of all our ponies.

In detail, my gaze fell upon the 72 meter high castle in the shape of a huge tree. Built entirely of some kind of magically reinforced and strengthening gemstone and adorned with many elements of gold, obsidian and Shade. Shade an incredibly durable and slightly purple-blue shimmering metallic.

The front door of the castle itself was also gigantic and consisted of a gilded double door with two large pink hearts in its center. A staircase, also golden, led to the entrance door, and in front of it, there was a well-kept and wide path that meandered all the way to Ponyville.

In the center of the huge crystal tree were the living quarters, which were directly above the massive and beautiful throne room with a map and six thrones. One of them significantly larger than the others. Obviously the throne intended for me, the princess and my cutie mark in the form of a pink gem integrated into the top of the backrest only further solidified that statement. The other thrones were also evenly spaced around the map, but there was no gem forged into them yet.

The inhabitants had even taken the trouble to suspend an all spanning chandelier from the roots of a tree directly in the center of the throne room. Hundreds of different gemstones hung from the chandelier, distributing the light perfectly throughout the room.

Hmmm, but why the six thrones and not just one? After all, there were only three princesses in all of Equestria, and the castle was also built solely for me.

The answer was simple. It was common knowledge that I could wield all six elements of Harmony on my own. A task none other than myself should try - their combined powers were just to great and the result would be deadly for any mortal. For each of them, except for the element of magic - which was, after all, myself - I had selected a lifetime champion. Although the last time I had done so, had been almost 250 years ago…There surely wasn´t a better time than now to find new champions I pondered.

For this reason and that reason alone, there were six thrones in the throne room. One for each of them and me. So that we could hold conversations and important discussions in a regular place.

Rounding off the entire crystal castle was a gigantic version of my Cutie Mark's large center star at its top. As well as several banners with my full Cutie Mark and crystal ornaments hanging all along the balconies and recesses.

All in all, a truly fantastic residence for an alicorn princess and I had been speechless the first time I saw the castle. I even considered it to be so large that it could be considered a palace.

Of course, I had expressed my gratitude to the inhabitants and clarified how honored I felt that they had built something so impressive just for me. Whereby I mentioned in addition that it would not have been necessary and I would come up with pleasure for the resulted costs. After all, I didn't want others to have to cut back because of me. The crown of Equestria as well as Equestria itself possessed after all a limitless wealth at precious stones, precious metals and other valuable resources. Therefore, it would never pose a cost problem to pay for something like this.

My offer was kindly but directly declined. For Ponyville´s pony´s it was an honor to have created something like this for me out of their own strength and they wanted it to stay that way.

Of course I accepted, but in return promised to keep the library always and at all times in best condition. Also to protect it, its contents and the visiting ponies and to supply it with the latest books at any time. That was my own condition of the deal and no pony had had a problem with it ever since.

I was abruptly torn from my thoughts when a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, zipping through the darkness. As then not one second later also the calls of three me very well-known stallions and a mare came to my ears, I knew immediately which or better said whom it was down there, who fled.

Oh gee, really Quick Pick - again? You're kidding me, right? This is the third time this month you've tried to pull this off.

With a slight irritated sigh, I quickly sorted out my thoughts, flexed my wings, and with a single hard stroke, catapulted myself forward. Within no time I had built up a tremendous amount of speed.

Thanks to my now almost triple speed of sound, achieved with ease thanks to my superior alicorn physiology, I now shot towards middle Ponyville at an insane speed. Straight into the direction the young stallion was fleeing.

Due to my unnatural nature as an alicorn and associated abilities, my massive acceleration, speed and breaching of the sonic barrier within a fraction of a second nevertheless produced no sound at all. Aside from my unique magic aura that permanently surrounded me as an alicorn and hinted to others what true power we possessed. An alicorn only caused an effect on the surrounding when we specially wanted to.

In the 1.21 seconds it took me to land in front of the fleeing thief and to spread my wings beside me, I had used my magic to call upon my personal armor from my peytral. At the same moment, I had also stowed my saddlebags in my pocket dimension so they wouldn't get in the way.

The armor and the peytral it was stowed in had been made for me by my good friend Warlord several centuries ago, and up until now I had only had to use it once in a real fight. Well, rather I had activated and used it to increase the effectiveness of my appearance.

The armor had no real sense of protection for me as an alicorn. Even if it would keep away any damage from the body of a pony by the material, the spells and protective shields which were worked into it.

But for me, the armor was nothing more than a nice feature. My body far too immune and invulnerable to whatever the universe could throw at me for me to really have any need of it. I was a true goddess after all - being invulnerable just came packaged with it by default. Still, it was a very neat and stylish gesture from Warlord and in any case a good specimen to test and improve the equipment of our own guards on.

And given his name, it wasn't surprising that a gift from him would have something to do with military equipment or weaponry.

However, my sisters and I were not bothered by it in any way. The nature of an alicorn was peaceful minded to the extreme and all three of us did everything we could to never have to use physical force, unless it really couldn't be prevented. Even then we would never go so far as to hurt or even kill someone, yet we understood that not everyone had this perfect spark of peace in them - we were probably unique.

That's why Warlord took over for us the tasks in the vastness of the universe that demand exactly that from oneself. The universe was gigantic, after all, it was all that was known to the mortal mind, and so, unfortunately, it was not far-fetched that there were beings who wanted nothing more than to hurt, subjugate, or kill others.

A sad but true fact.

As usual, we would try to talk to them first, after all we possessed a non-negligible level of power and were also highly respected by all our other fellow Immortals. Unanimously elected as their leaders too. So the trust in us did not come from anyhow.

If that didn't help, well...we requested Warlord to take care of the matter. But first without using excessive force - his way of dealing with such difficult individuals proved to be very functional in most cases, and so it was compatible with our conscience.

Should even that not work... then sorry, but in that case even we couldn't help and Warlord was free to decide how he would like to proceed.

My thoughts briefly wandered further, before they focused back on the previous topic.

Since he couldn't hurt me, Warlord had no need to worry about that either, and could try with every fiber of his body to get through the defense of his own designs of the armor. Which, in the first few weeks and up until about the 10th revision of the armor, he actually succeeded in doing surprisingly often. Whereby...he had designed the equipment after all also and knew it´s "weaknesses" thus exactly. In the meantime, we were at the 91st revision, if I remembered correctly. So there was a lot of work and will in Warlord's work obviously.

Now, however, it was almost completely impossible even for him to penetrate my armor and hit the underlying fur. It should also be mentioned that I did not defend myself in our test fights and always only tried to avoid his attacks. In direct comparison, the reactions of an alicorn and Warlord were on about the same level. Although an alicorn of course had much stronger magical powers, which he made up for by massively better physical strength.

And that in itself was saying something, for as an alicorn I could pull the entire, fully loaded, Friendship Express from Ponyville to Canterlot. All without having any trouble and even arrived 5 minutes sooner than if the train drove the route itself.

Still, my friend Warlord's physical strength was many times greater than the one of an alicorn.

I once saw him hurl an almost two thousand meter long ship at a rather horrible guy in another dimension who claimed he was the most powerful being in the entire universe and unavoidable. Moreover, this psycho intended to wipe out half of all life in the universe with six colorful stones. The stones themselves even reminded me quite distinctly of our own Elements of Harmony. Number and texture matched at least and both were gemstones. These stones, however, possessed entirely different abilities and had a degree of reality-altering power that our Equestrian elements had nothing in the least to oppose. Although I had never created them for that in the first place. So it was rather unfair to compare them side by side.

Yet as powerful as these little stones were - if I remember correctly they were even considered to be by far the most powerful of that entire universe and had been created during its creation. So relatively ridiculous remained nevertheless their combined strength in the comparison to, for example me as alicorn.

Please, but all that the stony guy tried to fling at Warlord and me was stuff I could conjure up half asleep before my first cup of coffee - after just getting out of bed. And I didn't even get any sleep....

So his aspirations and statement had been an absolute joke, I really expected a lot more than that from him. So at first, Warlord and I could do nothing but start laughing. Then we proceeded to show him how serious in strength his claims really were - or not, in his case.

If we are all honest. At that point, even my compassion ended and I simply constructed myself a nice avocado smoothy, popcorn and a beach chair out of my magic and left him to whatever fate Warlord could offer him.

But back to the topic. I didnˋt want to think about what my friend did that day for the moment.

Still, it would be a simple matter for me to dodge his attacks and then attack him. With all the other powers I additionally possessed as an alicorn, I could anticipate just about any of his attacks and dodge them with relative ease.

Still, I had to give him credit, it was not easy even for me with my more than supernaturally skilled powers to dodge his attacks and I had to give just about everything not to get hit. Then again, Warlord possessed almost absolute skill in the areas of combat and fighting and no matter who went up against him would immediately lose by a landslide.

Only we, as alicorns, could still outclass him and theoretically defeat him at some point with our magic. But as long as he wore his armor and it didn't run out of power, even we were unable to do so. All four of us had taken care of that together, and his armor protected him perfectly against any form of magic, even that of an alicorn.

Also, the energy for his armor was fed by a direct connection to the alicorns' energy source - the astral dimension, or heaven as some called it. We could sever his link if we needed to. But so far there has never been even the slightest need to do so.

All things considered; without his armor it would be a fight of a maximum of one second. His body did not have the slightest spark of its own magic resistance and even a simple alicorn powered telekinesis spell could paralyze his body.

My thoughts strayed a bit further from me, but I quickly focused back onto the real world around me. 

As the whole armor wrapped around my body I had to grin slightly, and got a spark of pity for Quick Pick as a result. The poor stallion might have been a thief, but not a really bad one. Just a little pickpocket who only stole as much as he needed to live. Which, in a kingdom where the crown supported the needy so much that really no one had to suffer poverty, was rather pointless....

My new appearance would certainly give him a heart attack. Not to mention the fact that I was also a pretty impressive alicorn by myself already - but hey, maybe he would finally understand that stealing in Equestria was of no use. In the end he was still caught by one of us three or a guard. For as many times as he had stolen something, he still remained terrible at it.

The moment my hooves struck the earth beneath me all at once with a noticeable tremor of the ground, my keen eyes went over the stallion and what he was carrying in his muzzle.

At the same time, I had for good measurement, conjured also about a dozen of magical created swords and other weapons to my side. As I landed the weapons struck the ground behind me in a semicircle around my alicorn body. Each of them send a bright and trembling explosion into the environment and proceeded to glow with tremendous alicorn power afterwards.

The item in question was a gold chain, glittering brightly in the dim light of the moon, made of many interlocking rings. A square sapphire about the size of a hoof in its direct center rounded out the chain. The necklace had quite a bit of value, even by Equestrian standards. Gems and gold were, after all, not uncommon in the kingdom of Equestria, and one could even buy clothes in Ponyville that were studded with tiny pieces of gemstones.

Still, I didn't need a second glance to realize that this piece of jewelry most certainly did not belong to the young stallion. After all, where would he even have all the bits to be able to buy such expensive jewelry all at once.

While he was actually a pretty honest and friendly pony, the fact that he was stealing didn't necessarily make him the most trustworthy pony. Also, the last time we met, he didn't have a girlfriend or another pony worth buying such things for. For recently, he was running away from four of our personal royal guards and I trusted those enough that they wouldn't chase after a pony for no reason.

"STOP IMMEDIATELY AND GIVE UP; OR I MUST RESORT TO MORE DRASTIC MEANS”, thundered my voice in that of the royal Canterlot voice to Quick Pick, who was running in a fast spurt directly toward my position.

In a bubble about 30 meters around us, I had also created a silence spell to scare Quick Pick with my loud voice, but to let the rest of Ponyville sleep undisturbed.

Should he still try and flee, he would slam into the interior of my shield rather quickly. For I was known for many things, but stupid was far from being one of them. From the outside, my current shield could be crossed without difficulty by our guards or other ponies I allowed. From the inside, however, it was impenetrable and rejected any attempt to escape from it.

It did not matter what it was, no one and nothing was able to penetrate my shield of pure godly alicorn energy. In this way, I had even saved some of our subjects from worse several times. A suddenly erupting inactive volcano in the middle of a village 420 years ago would have caused quite a bit of damage and claimed at least more than one victim.

"By the holy goddesses above!!!", with an almost cartoonish maneuver and some dust, Quick Pick fleeing towards me decelerated immediately within a few centimeters. He still tried to use his two wings to slow down further, but they were buzzing around aimlessly rather than being of any use to him. His cry caused the jewelry he was carrying in his mouth to fall out and would have landed with a soft clang in front of his hooves. But I caught the golden necklace without difficulty after only two centimeters in my raspberry-colored magical aura.

I had to smile at his but so fitting statement.

"You called?"

Quick Pick had had more than one encounter with me in the past for the same reason as right now and even if not...as the most capable of the three alicorns of our kingdom in magic I would be more than recognizable even so. Thus he knew that he had landed in the truest sense of the word no 'Quick Pick' and once again completely in the claws ehh hooves - like usual...

Having placed one of his front hooves over his chest and seemingly finding that his poor pony heart was still beating, he breathed a sigh of relief. However, this sense of relief lasted only for a second, for when he got over his shock, his logical thinking reactivated as well. Suddenly, he realized exactly WHO was towering just a horn's length in front of him.

His ears flattened backwards, he sank trembling on his hind legs until his buttocks touched the ground, then looked up at me with his eyes wide open in fright.

Almost immediately he tried to stutter out something quietly, though his apparent fear of me paralyzed him almost completely. And while he tried to stutter, I had slightly changed my expression so that my armored face had changed to a frown.

"P- P- Princess Twi-"

I interrupted him by lifting a front hoof before he even got to stutter my titles and names completely to himself. That didn't change his situation either. I hadn't caught him in the act, but it wasn't the first time he had stolen. So who was he trying to deceive?

In addition, the necklace that clearly belonged to a mare and the four guards that had by now nearly reached my shield were two clear indications that I would be right with my notion.

My gaze slowly changed to a friendlier one, even though I still silently let him know that I in no way approved of what he had done.

After all, I had only wanted to frighten him for a little and not to seriously hurt him. That would be absolutely not my way to deal with someone and far below my dignity and Quick Pick knew that too. He knew that he had to answer for his actions, but that I also was not a serious lethal threat to him. No matter how much power I carried in my body, everyone knew that an alicorn would never use his potency against their own subjects.

We ruled through faith and good will not submission and fear. That we happened to carry the raw power of an entire universe around with us at all times was just a nice bonus.

Despite that he knew, it was visibly difficult for him to communicate the facts to his body. His posture was tense to the utmost and he was still shaking quite a bit with his eyes held wide open at me.

Slowly I lifted up the necklace and brought it closer into the mild light of my sister's moon. Meanwhile, I waited the last remaining seconds for the three stallions and one mare to join the two of us.

Quick Pick's look said all it needed to as his gaze darted back and forth between the golden chain in my magic aura and knowing eyes. It was utterly clear to him that he couldn't fool me, no matter what he said.

When the quiet metal clacking hooves of my guards came to a stop behind him, he simply lowered his gaze to the ground and hung his ears.

That - was something completely new even for me. As far as I had seen and heard from the reports of my guards, so he had never reacted until now when he was caught. So far he had always tried to defend himself and talk his way out of it. Something he was almost as bad at as stealing.

While the only mare of the squad of Elite Royal Guards stepped forward and saluted me, the remaining three stallions bowed before me slightly. I only caught it on the periphery of my attention and merely nodded to Flower Petal, the commander of the Ponyville Guards, with a presence of mind. My thoughts were occupied with something else entirely right now and it largely involved Quick Pick's behavior in the given situation - especially in regard to me.

I awaited the necessary seconds for the Pegasus stallion opposite me to lift his gaze and speak. Yet it seemed that for the time being he did not do so. So I turned to Flower Petal with a friendly expression.

"Commander Flower Petal, what a surprise to see you here. I thought you had traveled back to Canterlot yesterday for important military meetings to meet with the other generals, ministers and my sister Luna."

Flower Petal saluted me once more and then spoke.

"My Princess! Good evening. Yes! - That was supposed to be the plan your Highness. Yet there was a small incident in Ponyville yesterday afternoon. Fortunately, my presence is not really needed until tomorrow, so I have agreed to take matters into my own hoof."

"But don't worry, the incident was really nothing of great importance and it has already been taken care of. If you don't mind, I won't bother your Majesty with further details."

I just nodded my head mutely in agreement. Flower Petal then turned her head a little further to the left and faced Quick Pick.

"As it seems to me, however, staying here one more day was beneficial. He just can't leave it be it seems to me." She sighed. "I really thought that after the eleventh failed attempt in Ponyville alone he would finally learn, but it seems to me he has not."

With a firming of her shoulders, she continued. "Even though we only have a small repeat pickpocket here, I will still be happy to take care of the case."

Flower Petal then nodded her head in the direction of the pegasus stallion and the remaining three guards stepped forward in unison. Before they could take any more steps, however, Quick Pick jumped up on his hooves and opened his muzzle to say something in return to me.

Explaining why, as a multiple thief and therefore not exactly considered the most trustworthy pony abruptly jumping up right in front of a princess of Equestria was a bad idea I don´t think needed to be said. Especially when four top trained guards were present.

Before he even got to get up on all fours, so he was again mercilessly thrown to the ground by all three stallions. One of them even raised his spear and pointed the tip at him.

Flower Petal, a commander who took her job very seriously, had instinctively positioned herself wide-legged in front of me and spread her wings to ward off any attempt to attack me.

I was more than impressed, but her defense would not be needed today. Gently touching one of my own wings on her shoulder in a specific pattern, I let her know that her protection was not needed for me.

The tension immediately drained from Flower Petal and she folded both wings neatly back to her sides. She then remained standing were she had taken her defence position just seconds before. All while the mare remained firmly looking at the three guards subordinate to her, Quick Pick still pressed to the ground by them.

He struggled to worm his way out of their grasp, but his efforts were in vain, the stallions were just too strong. In addition, unlike him, the three guard ponies had gone through a two-year period of learning and training to become guards. Of course, the training didn't just end thereafter and each guard continued to be trained almost daily by their superior to improve proficiency. Said routine was also put to the test twice a year, supervised by the captain of all the guard personally and sometimes one of the princesses if the opportunity arose.

All in all, it was not the easiest training. After all, the same ponies were responsible for National Security and also the protection of the princesses and their residences. They just had to be in good condition, there was no way around it.

After a few seconds, he dropped his limbs to the dusty ground in desperation. And before I knew it, he began to cry softly and then the tears were flowing like a damn was broken - welp now I really felt quite sorry for the poor stallion. Yes, he was a thief, but a rather small and bad one, not somepony that would actually physically hurt another to get what he wanted. Also I had rarely seen a pony so completely broken like him now - whatever his reason for the sudden change was.

Clearing my voice, I requested the guards to let go of him. An order they didn´t disobey a single second. Thereupon I lifted Quick Pick back onto his hooves with my magic.

As I went to release my magical hold on him, his legs began to buckle immediately, but two of the guards were right there propping him up. A subtle but for me extremely important gesture in terms of cohesion. The pegasus stallion and the two guards were like direct 'enemies', but without needing to say anything, they helped him not to kiss the dusty ground with his muzzle.

I certainly would keep that in mind for possible later cases. As the alicorn of harmony, not a single spark of friendship, however small, eluded me. I could still clearly remember each of those many thousands of gestures in my long life from other ponies to each other. It was simply something that I considered essential - maybe even one of the most important things except magic, my sisters and knowledge.

We all patiently waited some minutes until Quick Pick's crying and then sobs eventually subsided and he could avert his gaze back to me. His eyes were bloodshot red and he was still sniffling, but he seemed to have regained his speech. He also didn´t meet my eyes directly and focused onto the upper end of my chest.

I certainly couldn't accuse him of having bad manners in the presence of an Alicorn Princess of Equestria. Perhaps even the best that a criminal had ever had towards me. Whether his parents or the school had taught him not to cross the gaze of an alicorn without being asked to do so, I did not know. But that didn't matter to me either. He didn´t and that was certainly something I hadn´t anticipated.

"High Princess Twilight? Your' royal majesty? Am I permitted to speak?" His voice was hushed and petty, but I could still understand him without any problem thanks to my extremely keen alicorn senses.

I bend and raised one of my hooves into the air, a tad bit in surprise about this unique request. Then I regarded him for a second before I gave him my answer.

"Certainly I will allow you to speak. May I ask what you wished to say? But keep in mind that any accusation against me or my guards is subject to exceptionally harsh punishment. So far, we're just at stealing and by me and my sisters, it would be better if it stayed that way. Do you understand that?"

My eyes were questioning to Quick Pick as I also raised my eyebrow and awaited his own answer.

My words, which were expressed rather kindly apart from the slight things I warned him about seemed to be met with quite a bit of horror from the stallion. For he instantly denied what I had implied.

"WHAT?!, oh no, no, no! I would truly never dare to offend your divine majesty. I may be a thief - a pretty rotten one, but I have still honor in me.”

“Besides, without being sullen. You High Princess Twilight, goddess from the heavens above are the most respected alicorn of the three for me. I'd rather go into self-imposed exile or worse before I could even begin to think about insulting an alicorn like your highness."

A few seconds of absolute silence followed, but for everyone present it felt like hours. In the time it took us all to get around the things that were said, Quick Picks face began to redden in embarrassment. Like it seemed, he only now registered what he had just said in front of me and the four royal guards.

While his hooves began to fiddle on the dusty ground of Ponyville and he waited for me to respond his wings also began to rustle in a quiet and almost soundless manner. It was still loud enough for me to hear it.

My voice was the first to break the silence around us and all eyes turned towards me.

"I am flattered, quite even. But surely that was not the real reason you requested to be allowed to speak?"

My question was meant rhetorically, for I knew the answer would be yes.

"You presume correctly princess...I wanted to, well...I wanted to...", it was visibly difficult for Quick Pick to put his words together as it seemed. After the first failed attempt, he raised his front hoof and performed a simple breathing exercise to calm his nerves. After several times doing that, he tried again and this time he was able to speak his mind.

"Ok, no more talking around the bush. I feel incredible guilty for all the attempts to steal and vow by the honor of the alicorns - you, the goddesses who watch over us and Equestria to stop stealing entirely and live an honest life from now on. At least, that is, if I am not punished for my latest misdeed."

Quick Pick slumped onto his hindquarters, with these words his legs seemed unwilling to carry him for the time being. As the two guards meanwhile no longer supported him either there was nothing holding him up. In his immediate vicinity they nevertheless remained, their gazes as unreadable and neutral as they were trained to be.

Quick Pick also lowered his gaze from my chest back to the ground and awaited my judgment. His ears had dropped once more and flicked in a mix of anxiety and tension. He nevertheless made one last remark.

"Phew, now it's out, no way back."

There was silence a second time in not five minutes, but this time it was one of the three stallions, the oldest of them to be more precise, who spoke first. He was also the only one besides Flower Petal not directly standing near Quick Pick.

I remained wordless for the moment, my mind racing and my response calculating.

"Mister Quick Pick. I have to remind you that you are in absolutely no position to make demands from the princess. Under no circumstances will the charge of repeated stealing be dropped against you. I..."

"Agreed," came from me as a flat reply that stopped the old stallion dead in his tracks.

Merely a single word, but one that carried far more authority than an entire speech by another pony could ever hope to have.

"Pardon me high princess? I do hope I misheard something? Surely Your Royal Highness is not seriously considering granting his request and releasing him from his deserved punishment? He's a repetitive thief, and even if he promises to go clean, we all know it won't be a week before he breaks his promise."

Our eyes meet and he instinctively lowered his head and shut his muzzle. More than a normal guard or not he still had to remain within protocol and the laws binding him to the throne and us.

"Yes! Yes exactly that is what I am considering and I trust that he will be honest when he says it. I may look like I'm in my early twenties, but not only thanks to my age, but also because I've always been good at recognizing the truth behind a creature's words. He speaks the truth; of that I have no doubt."

“Also, he just made an oath in the behalf of the goddesses from heaven - my sisters and me. We all know that we alicorn´s would never judge someone by breaking such an oath. Yet faith strangely always seems to catch up with the one doing so at some later time. Therefore it would be a rather terrible idea for Quick Pick to seriously consider being unfaithful to his given promise.”

"But...", the older guard tried it a second time to voice his concerns.

"Butts are for sitting on, my dear second lieutenant. It´s my decision and it is final. I believe you might respect the decision of one of your princesses and rulers?"

My statement was never meant as some kind of threat, heaven forbid. But it was still the easiest way to avoid starting an emerging disagreement in the first place. Sometimes you just had to let the princess hang out a bit.

The older stallion just bowed his head to me in response and stepped back into line with his other two colleagues.

Flower Petal, who until now had only stood silently to my right, watching Quick Pick with eagle eyes, stepped forward, past me, and addressed Quick Pick himself.

"All right it seems like it´s your lucky day. You heard her majesty, Princess Twilight. Under her will, we will not pursue or take up the latest case of theft. You are thus free to go your way. But if I hear of your theft ever again, not even the benevolence of Her Highness Twilight will be able to save you from me." She paused, but just for a second. "By the way, you should thank the princess for your reprieving. I think that would be appropriate."

Quick Pick rolled his eyes as he met Commander Flower Petal's gaze without batting an eye. He then grinned back at her.

Quick Pick chuckled. "My dearest. Do you really think I wasn't going to do that anyway? I might be an ex-thief but I still learned how to behave myself, especially before an alicorn."

He then took a few steps forward and bowed to my hooves so low that his muzzle brushed the ground lightly before him.

"Your Highness. Divinity Princess Twilight. I thank you for your indulgence and promise again never to abuse it. You will never hear from me again, and if you do - it will be for good."

He then rose, turned tail, and slowly trotted past all four guards. All our eyes followed his gait until he rounded the corner of the next house. Then he was gone. Commander Flower turned to me one last time and nodded.

"I think that settles the matter. Unless you mind, my squad and I will now continue our patrol through Ponyville.

"Your dismissed," was all I said as I gave an additional curt nod.

As Flower Petal turned away from me and used her hoof to indicate to the other guards which direction to move, I called her back after all.

"Flower Petal!"

"Your Highness?" The mare turned back to me. Her face showed more than a tad of surprise.

"Please give Guard Captain Shining Armor another friendly greeting on my behalf when you meet him tomorrow. Otherwise, I wish you an event-free rest of the night."

Flower Petal smiled. "It will be no problem for me to tell him Princess, and thank you. I myself hope that nothing else will happen tonight. I find the balmy and quiet nights without any incidents to be the best."

I stayed standing for some time, looking after the departing patrol of guards, before I set off again myself. Towards the place I had planned to go to in the first place.

I was confident that I would find the five young mares I was looking for there. After all, I could still see the light burning in the distance and the library had its own floor where one could easily live. Besides the five of them, who else should be there at this late hour? After all, the library was long closed at the current hour and as far as I also knew, the mares had agreed to run the Golden Oak library during the absence of the pony normally in charge. Second, I hadn´t seen any more lights left on at Sweet Apple Acres anyway as I crossed over it. And that, was the only other place the five of them could have stayed without any problems besides the library.

So Golden Oak Library it was.





* End of Chapter Three *