I'd been sitting in court with mom for a few hours, something that had become a regular Sunday thing shortly after fourth grade started, listening to petitioners making their cases. It often ended up with mom giving a polite declination and either encouragement to think more about what would happen, how to do it, or stating that there's not enough money for the proposal. The one time she didn't was with two stallions bickering over the placement of a statue. The base was fully on one stallion's property, but the statue hung over the property line and the other stallion's property. She watched the two argue in front of her for a few minutes before telling both of them they were acting like spoiled foals and to sort it out themselves, like adults.
If anything really made sitting and listening for that long tolerable, it was the smaller throne I sat in next to mom's. Despite looking like it was made of solid crystal, it was actually rather comfortable.
Lucky was also in the throne room, waiting for anything that needed to be put in the paper.
Towards the end of the session, I turned to mom. "Can I try?" Having seen her handle lots of petitioners over the weeks, I felt confident that I could do the same.
She held up a hoof to stop the announcer pony from getting the next petitioner. "Inova, are you certain about that? It's not as easy as it looks. You have a lot of things to consider with each petition."
"But you'll be here if I need help, right?"
She looked like she was about to make a counterpoint before the question really sank in. "Alright. You can handle a few, but I can overrule your verdict if I need to."
Her decision sounded good to me. "Okay." At my agreement, Lucky started writing things down.
Mom nodded and the announcer left for a moment before coming in. "Presenting Mirror Finish, from Canterlot."
The coat, mane, and tail of the light gray unicorn stallion that entered were so reflective and so shiny, I wanted to look away to save my sight. With him came the smell of whatever treatments made him as reflective as he was. While I could smell the excess, the announcer had it much worse. His eyes were watering up just being close to the stallion, and I felt bad for him.
Mirror bowed in my direction. "Princess Inova, it is an honor to petition you."
"Thanks," I politely answered. "Please start your petition."
"Your Highness, I would like to propose giving every crystal building in the Crystal Empire a bright, clean, reflective finish." The passion in his voice was clear enough to see through. "Every wall, floor, ceiling, pathway, even the roofs, all polished to perfection! It would make the Crystal Empire the second brightest beacon of light in the world, right behind Canterlot. When the sunlight hits, everything will light up, and even into the night, the buildings will glow. None shall be lost in the dark again!"
"Uh huh." I kept my breathing slow and steady, giving myself time to think about his proposal and, more importantly, minimize how much of the fumes I breathed in. The announcer had already left his post and was gulping fresh air from a window he opened at one end of the throne room. "So, everything would be reflective like your coat?" I didn't let the revelation that the window could be opened distract me.
"And even brighter! Every surface would be usable as a mirror, and the reflections would go on and on endlessly, making the Crystal Empire a form of living art as everypony walks around!"
Not only could I imagine the headaches from the light, I could feel one starting. "How would you go about that?"
"By having ponies go around and polish them with the same things I use for my coat, of course."
"I see." I wanted to get him out, and the polite methods mom used were not fast enough, so I turned to the snark side. "Actually, I wouldn't see it. Nopony would see it. That level of polish and brightness would blind anypony without three layers of industrial sunglasses. All it would take to blind a room is for one unicorn to start using a spell. So no, the Crystal Empire will not get your super polish."
"But. . . Isn't more light supposed to be good?"
"Not when it blinds ponies! The Empire is shiny enough as it is, and does not need more shine. Now, please leave. The fumes from whatever you use are giving me a headache."
"But-"
I pointed to the doors. "Out!"
"I. . . Okay." Mirror Finish left in a slump.
Mom stopped the announcer from getting the next petitioner. "Inova, what was that?"
"His idea was dumb, so I made sure he knew what was bad about it."
"You didn't need to take the tone you did."
"But it was stupid!"
"I'm not disagreeing with that. It's how you did it. Princesses are supposed to gently let the bad petitions down, not decimate them. We have a positive image to maintain, especially here."
"How would you have done it?"
Mom cleared her throat before answering as if she took the petition. "Maybe you can try it in the crystal fields first to see how it turns out and what everypony thinks of it before the crown allocates any funds towards this project. You may come back in two weeks with the results."
I mulled over her answer for a bit. "But if his polishing blinds anypony, and we said he could try it in the crystal fields, wouldn't that leave us to take some of the blame?"
Mom looked like she was about to give a retort, but stopped before she said anything. "You. . . Might not be wrong. But if that's how you're going to handle things, I'm taking over."
I saw no victory for me, so I relented. "Go ahead." All of a sudden, I wanted to leave, even though there were only two more petitioners to go. The comfy throne wasn't so comfy anymore.
Skyla sat on the small throne, bored. Cadence decided that it was time for her to do something and stopped the announcer from bringing in the next petitioner. "Skyla, I'll let you handle the next petitioner."
Skyla perked up at that. "Really?" She nervously asked. "Do you really think I can do it?"
"I'll be here to help you," Cadence assured. "However, if I need to, I can overrule your verdict. I told Inova the same thing."
"Okay." The young alicorn took a deep breath to calm her nerves as the announcer stepped out.
After a minute or so, the announcer returned. "Presenting Wealth Spread, from Manehattan."
The unicorn stallion practically pranced in, gave a polite nod to the announcer, and faced Skyla with a deep bow. "Your Highness, it's such an honor to be the first to petition you directly."
"Uhh. . . You're welcome?" Skyla uncertainly said. "What kind of petition do you have?"
Wealth Spread straightened up. "Princess Skyla, I have a plan to bring wealth to the poor and lower classes so they may prosper and flourish to their full potential."
"You do? What is it?"
"It's quite simple, really. We tax the richest, below you and your fellow Princesses, and send the bits to those who don't have enough so they can buy what they need to live, with everypony ending up with the same amount of bits."
Cadence watched Skyla with bated breath. Math and economics were not Skyla's strong points, but she wasn't asking for help immediately. The fact that she was trying to figure it out on her own first was a good point.
Eventually, Skyla answered with a question. "So. . . Would that be like making sure everypony has the same number of carrots to eat?"
The odd question took everypony off guard for a bit, but Wealth Spread managed to roll with it. "Yes, it would be similar to that. Everypony gets the same amount of carrots to eat."
The analogy made things easier for Skyla to work with. "Ew, gross! That's disgusting!"
"But you love carrots," Cadence noted before quietly adding, "and everything else, too."
"Princess Skyla, don't you want everypony to enjoy carrots?" Wealth Spread asked, just as confused at Skyla's reaction as Cadence.
"Silver String hates carrots! Why would I want to force her to have them when she doesn't want them?"
"Because. . ." Wealth Spread had no answer in the face of Skyla's compassion for her friend.
Skyla continued. "Feather Gale's helping me learn how to fly better after school since he's a pegasus, but Silver String has no wings, so she can't fly. I don't want to take one of his wings and give it to her. Neither of them could fly with only one wing."
"Uh. . ."
"I don't really get what you're talking about with Bits, but if it works like that, it's bad. I won't approve of it. You may leave now."
Wealth Spread looked between the two alicorns and decided not to press any further. He left without any polite or rude words, still stunned by Skyla's way of refusing his petition.
Cadence was surprised as well. She hadn't been expecting Skyla to reach a verdict as quickly as she had, and in immediate hindsight, should have expected the lines of logic that she used.
"Did I do it right?" Skyla asked.
"You did alright," Cadence answered. "It wasn't the way I would have-"
"Sorry. . ."
"No no, it's fine. In fact, you might have made a better argument against his petition than I would have." Cadence turned to the announcer. "How many more petitioners do we have for today?"
"Two more, Princess," the announcer answered.
"Would you like to handle them, Skyla?"
"I don't think so," Skyla answered.
"That's alright." And so Cadence took care of the last two petitioners of the day.
Two weeks after my first verdict, I was back in the small throne, but dad was in the bigger one. He handled it differently from mom, asking more questions than she did.
Towards the end of the session, just as mom had done, he stopped the announcer. "Inova, how about you handle the next one?"
"Really?" I wasn't expecting to be allowed to take another petition, but I wasn't about to turn it down. "Okay."
Dad nodded, and before the announcer could say anything, he was run over by a frantic crystal earth pony mare. "Your Highness, we need to put the Crystal Guard on patrol! There are changelings here! They're going to drain all the positivity out of everypony in the Empire!"
I waited for the mare to calm down a bit. "Where and when did you see the changelings?"
"In an alleyway not far from the train station! It was during sunset last night! Please, put the guard on patrol! I don't want them to replace me!"
"And you're sure that's what the changelings are going to do?"
"It's what they do! They replace and infiltrate! They'll replace you if they're here long enough!"
I could feel my patience wearing down in the face of the hysterical mare. “I’ll consider it, but if you don’t slow down, I won’t.”
“But. . . Changelings! Aren’t you worried?!”
“Maybe a bit. I’m also wondering if you just saw shadows and thought it was a changeling.”
“I know what I saw!”
“And I wasn’t there. I’ll wait for more reports before sending the Crystal Guard on a bug hunt. For now, please leave.”
“But-”
“Your shouting is not helping your case. If you still want to shout, go do that alone at home. Please leave before I have the guards take you out."
The mare looked around a bit before angrily leaving. With her departure, the tension in the throne room dissipated.
"You did a good job keeping a level head, Inova," dad said. "A little snarky, but pretty good."
"Thanks."
"Do you think there are changelings in the Empire, though?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't like how she was shouting about it, though."
"It did undermine her case. If there are any reports of changelings, I'll let you know."
"Thanks."
A whole month later, and I'd heard nothing official about changelings in the Empire. I'd gotten over the hysterical mare pretty quickly, and decided that she was just seeing things that weren't there.