It was late at night, and Rarity’s sister was very young, and Rarity was very responsible, and those things along with very busy parents meant that Rarity was often in charge of bedtimes. She had tucked in Sweetie Belle. She had gotten her a glass of cold water. Now she was telling her a story.
The story was the kind of story you tell to foals, while they’re still young enough to understand it. It was a story about the Royalty, and about the entire universe, but also about trains. These were all things Rarity had enjoyed as a foal herself, and because she was young at heart despite being so very responsible, she still understood it and believed in it.
“Where do alicorns come from?” Sweetie Belle asked. That was the question that had prompted the story. It was a good question. It was a question that scholars and magicians and philosophers had debated.
Rarity knew the answer, of course. In addition to being very responsible, she was also very humble and did not mock the learned ponies who insisted on trying to answer the question Sweetie had asked with math and spellcraft and very long and boring books.
“You’re asking because of Princess Cadance,” Rarity guessed. Sweetie Belle nodded. One of the reasons their mother and father were not in charge of bedtime today was because of the coronation. They’d secured two tickets, and trusted their responsible daughter to take care of their younger, less responsible foal, while they were gone.
“She had to come from somewhere,” Sweetie Belle said. “Is it true she was just a normal pony, and she became an alicorn?”
Rarity nodded. She had listened well to the gossip and read all the tabloids, or at least the ones that were left in reach of a not-quite-adult pony’s hooves. Princess Cadance had not been a princess until very recently.
“Could I become an alicorn someday?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Anypony can,” Rarity said. This was something she was absolutely sure about. It might as well have been engraved on her heart. “Did I ever tell you the story of the Aether Express?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head and fell silent, her fidgeting in bed stilling as she prepared herself to listen to one of her sister’s stories.
“It’s a train,” Rarity said. “A magical train that departs from a hidden station. It travels not just between stations, but between worlds. Ponies who travel on it can go to places beyond anything we can imagine! Worlds made of solid gold, or where everything is made of candy, or where the air is fizzy water you can breathe. Every world could be a paradise for some ponies, and every stop is a temptation, but if a pony stays true to themselves and makes it all the way to the end, they find a world where they can become a true member of the Royalty.”
“Then why aren’t there more alicorns?” Sweetie Belle asked with a yawn.
“Finding the Aether Express is the chance of a lifetime,” Rarity explained quietly. “Something that only comes once. The journey is long and fraught with peril.”
Rarity liked the word fraught. It sounded sophisticated and felt good on the tongue like she was a little more educated than the other ponies in town.
“To travel all the way to the end means a pony has to prove themselves worthy. They have to be brave, noble, and steadfast. Those that fail are often never seen again, and the few that do manage to return spend their lives thinking about what they could have done differently.”
The story continued for a while, but that had been the important part. By the time Sweetie Belle was asleep, her dreams were filled with stories of other worlds, and she had what Rarity considered a proper sense of the mystical nature of the Royalty.