It had once been said -- by whom the Vicereine could not remember -- that all beauty was a matter of perspective. Suppose one had, for example, two sculptures, one a hundred times larger than the other. In order to enjoy the smaller, to examine it fully and note all its artistic elegance, one must move in closely to examine it -- but then one could never enjoy the larger from that position; one would likely be unable to even see the entire thing. Even if one could, how could it be beautiful, with every detail magnified beyond all recognition? But move further back to enjoy the larger one, and it would be a challenge to even see the smaller, much less note its artistry. No, a sculpture -- or a painting -- or any other work of art could only be enjoyed from just the right perspective.
The same argument had been applied to governance as well. How could any pony understand a city, a province, and a nation all at once? Focus on the city, and one would be too close to understand the national interest. Serve the nation, and one would be too far away to know what is occuring in the city. And so one should pick a realm and stick to it; one could, perhaps, try to rule a city, but then one should forsake national interests, or to rule a nation, but surrender control and possession of the city to another official. Only then could good government be maintained.
It was -- in the Vicereine's opinion -- complete and utter nonsense.
Puissance Noctilucent Optiebeurs-Golo! Vicereine of Equestria, she was the ruler of the provinces Califurlong and Palomino, as well as numerous other sub-provinces located within their borders. She wielded the highest political power imaginable and bowed only to Princess Luna Equestris herself. In terms of ministries, she held key positions on six of the most important, and vast -- albeit unofficial -- influence on many of the rest. Combine that with her vast wealth and her other resources, and her power grew to even more rarified heights. But despite all that, the reason she was walking down the corridor with a purposeful step and a gleam in her eye had nothing to do with the most weighty of national concerns. This was not a matter of national security, or national welfare, or provincial security or welfare, or even a city's safety or welfare.
Rather, she was concerned with a single, tiny, five-acre park.
Puissance walked through the silver-paneled doors of the Ministry of Finance and, as always, allowed herself a slight smile. This Ministry had two departments, both of absolute vital importance to the nation. The Equestrian Revenue Service gathered the government's income, and the Equestrian Budget Office paid the government's bills. Virtually every bit spent by Luna, the Night Court, or any other government entity passed through the Ministry of Finance. And that ministry was hers.
Puissance liked it when things were hers.
She walked through the rows of perfectly silent clerks, noting with approval that none of them looked up or stopped their work for even a moment, even though they all had to know who the old, purple-coated, silver-maned pegasus that walked amongst them was. She had taken great care to impress on all of them the awesomeness of their responsibility as the accountants and bookkeepers of the nation. If they were lazy or sloppy and made a mistake in collecting a tax or overpaying a bill, Puissance had instructed them, they were losing the nation money. In fact, as Puissance ran two provinces and owned various properties all over the nation, they were probably losing her money. Had they perhaps heard of what had happened to other ponies who lost her money? She could give them references and addresses, if they needed it -- although it might take a while to contact them, since their new homes in the Griffin Kingdoms, and the Mild West, and Neighpon took a while to contact by post.
Other nobles sometimes complained that their clerks were sloppy, that they chatted during work or were a few minutes late from lunch or that they occasionally made mistakes. Puissance listened to their complaints and smiled to herself. That was never a problem in her Ministries... but of course, they were hers.
The Vicereine stopped by one of the mid-level employees -- a middle-aged former actuary, with a dull orange coat and mud-colored mane. He was in charge of expenditures in Konetikut, among other things. "I want the file on Sunshine Park in eastern Brayzil," she ordered.
The clerk immediately bent under his desk and retrieved a thick file, which he gently placed on the corner nearest Puissance. In the next moment, he had resumed his work.
Puissance nodded slightly and took the file. Then she went to the only vacant desk in the room, a silver-plated, amethyst-studded thing that looked more like a work of art than a place of work. But she sat at the desk as if it were any other, opened the file, checked to make sure all the relevant forms were there, and got to work.
She knew a few of the other nobles thought it odd that she sometimes personally contributed to the Ministry's efforts, as if she was just a commoner clerk. Her response to such comments was that she liked to audit her clerks from time to time, to verify if they were actually collecting every bit the nation was entitled to, and eliminating any and all forms of waste from government projects. And this was true. But it wasn't the real reason she was there at that moment.
The real reason was that this park was going to be hers. The park was government funded in order to provide a greenspace to a quiet little corner of Equestria that had lost a lot of the surrounding greenery in a bad wildfire, but a private company was going to actually build, and then maintain and operate, the park itself. Puissance owned the company that owned the company that, several steps down the line, was going to build and run the place. It would be her park. And that meant she was certainly going to make sure that it was the best park it could possibly be.
"Total budget," she said to herself, and made a note of the figure. "Line item budget... paths... gravel expenditures, three bits two jangles per unit..."
Aha. She had done her homework before, and she knew of a new, but reliable, vendor in the area that would sell gravel at two bits nine jangles per unit when buying in quantity. She drew a line through the old figure, wrote in the new, and made a note to the side of how much money would be saved over the whole park.
"Fences... signposts... signs... good. Grass... seed..."
The grass seed being purchased was, in Puissance's opinion, an inferior type. It might look cheaper at first glance to a clueless bureaucrat, but it would wilt and die very quickly with a bunch of bratty foals running around and rolling in the stuff. When you factored in maintenance costs and the expenses incurred in replanting the grass so much more frequently, it made more sense to use a hardier variety. Plus, the second variety was a better shade of green in Puissance's opinion.
"Flowers... lilies, daisies, violets, roses, impatients..."
Roses were more expensive than they warranted, and the color schemes of impatients clashed with the others. By buying fewer types of flowers, but in bulk, money could be saved. Puissance recalculated the figures and noted how much money would be saved by sticking to lillies, daisies, and violets.
"Now on to the water feature..."
And so it went. Puissance, who had no committee meetings or other matters that night, went through each and every item on the park budget. By the time she was done, she had saved about five percent of the budget. The Vicereine nodded in approval; she had never met a budget that didn't have at least 3% waste in it, and anything above ten percent usually warranted firing the offending clerk. Five percent was very good, and perhaps merited a word of praise for the clerk with the mud-colored mane. But that could come later. It was time for the fun part.
"Let's see," said Puissance to herself, eyes bright and sparkling, "What that five percent can buy my park."
There was a small plot of land just slightly south of the park's location. Puissance looked through the maps and surveys of the area in the file and noted that they could be purchased cheaply and added on to the -- to her -- park. Then with the rest of the saved money, maybe, could be used to build a small -- but very tasteful -- art area, with three sculptures set up around a small open space. The image formed in her head; her park would have a few sculptures in that little area, and it would look wonderful. Yes, she could use that one sculptor from Hoofington whose work she'd been planning to obtain if only she could find a good place to show it off; this would do very nicely. She'd add the annex and the sculptures to the park, and incidentally acquire a few more works of art that she wanted and display them to the general public... and it wouldn't cost the Equestrian taxpayers a jangle more than they'd already budgeted. Not even Luna could complain about that.
She rewrote the budget incorporating all of her improvements, then left, tossing the file back on the mud-maned clerk's desk as she went. It hadn't taken her as long as she thought, and she smiled as she realized that she had a few hours with no work in them. She could go back through one of her museums in the city, or maybe that little vault she'd had built under her Canterlot estate. She hadn't done that in a while, and it might be nice to look at her famous Fabregallop egg collection again. After ten years she had finally obtained the complete set, and they looked absolutely perfect in the display room she'd had set up. A replica of the treasurey that Princess Platinum had built for her most prized possessions in the ancient Unicorn Kingdom, she could think of no finer place to store her jeweled eggs.
"Vicereine?"
Puissance turned to see a grim-looking Night Guard. "Can I help you?"
"Vicereine Puissance. Princess Luna desires your presence at an emergency meeting in the Guard Captain's meeting room." The Guard bowed his head. "Please allow me to escort you."
Puissance was surprised for a moment, though of course she agreed and began to follow the Guard. But this was still a very unusual event. It had happened before, twice in her long memory, both presaging imminent disasters that could have badly hurt the nation and its provinces. Her provinces.
Puissance began working out how to clear her schedule for the next few days. If this was really a disaster, she might need the spare time to help resolve it. Otherwise, it could hurt her, and her possessions.
That would not be allowed.
***
The meeting room was very full.
Puissance took one of the three chairs just to the side of the head of the table. She nodded at Viceroy Night Light, who was reading a file with a smile on his face. "Good night, Night Light."
"Good night, Puissance." Night Light chuckled as he turned over a page. "How are you?"
"Oh, as well as can be expected for a mare of my age." She smiled. "And yourself?"
"Wonderful. Twilight's been writing me from Ponyville." He nodded at the letter. "And she's been doing very well there. Apparently a pony named Pinkie Pie threw her a big welcoming party, and so Twilight has been trying to host one to repay her the favor." He blinked. "I didn't know they made so many books about hosting parties..."
Vicereine Wallflower, to Night Light's left, seemed about ready to laugh at that, but she checked herself and only smiled politely. Puissance nodded her head and was about to say something else, when another pony interjected:
"I'm glad your daughter is doing well."
The viceroys turned to see Archduke Bobbing Fisher, a brown-ish coated unicorn who ran the province of Rushia. "Also, of course, that she was safely found and returned to society--"
"We know about your opinions on families," said Duchess Fragrant Posey, sitting as far away from Fisher as she could without leaving the table.
"Yes," said Night Light. "We do."
Puissance fought hard and managed to supress her smile. While the Grand Galloping Gala had been an utter disaster -- a blackmailer had been arrested and had spilled all of her secrets, including a few minor trivialities Puissance had committed that Luna still hadn't forgiven her for -- there had been some interesting reprecussions. Apparently, Posey had some younger relative who was a shut-in living around Ponyville, and Fisher -- while under the influence of a poison that had forced him to speak whatever was on his mind -- had loudly wondered how Posey couldn't even make this Fluttering Posey develop into 'somepony with actual worth', but purport to guide the development of a province. That had somewhat spoiled relations between them, as well as between Fisher and Night Light, who of course had his own family problems. Fisher had apparently attempted to apologize at a large public gathering, only for Posey to pointedly wonder how Fisher, who had not seen his son for years due to family tradition and who hated his wife with almost as much passion as she hated him, could possibly run the province of Rushia, according to his own standards. It had been something of a mess for him.
And ponies wondered why Puissance took a... firmer hoof with her family.
There were two other ponies sitting by Fisher. One wore the uniform of a Guard and the insignia of a Commander, while the other looked very awkward in formal clothes and looked like he'd rather be home. The latter fidgeted, while the former leaned back and said something in Rushian to Fisher. Otherwise, everypony was keeping well away from him.
There were a few more nobles after Fisher, including Posey, and then a few castle officials. Wandza Waving, the archivist of the castle's magic library, Ghostly, archivist of the mythology section, and Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guards, were among them. And that brought things all the way back to the only remaining open seat, the one at the very head of the table. Princess Luna's seat.
And then the alicorn walked in, face tight and worried, and Puissance felt her stomach sink a little. I have a bad feeling about this.
"There's been an incursion on our northern border, "said Luna, without preamble.
"By Corona?" asked Night Light.
"No. By something we aren't familiar with." Luna nodded at the fidgety colt sitting next to Fisher. "Mr. Widgeteer, could you please repeat your story?"
Widgeteer gulped. "Um... okay. My special talent's mechanized flight, right?" He stood so everypony could see the steel wings emblazoned on his flank. "I wanted to test a new thing I was inventing, but I wasn't sure how safe it was. See, it's like a saddlebag or packroll that contains this kind of magical energy ponies could use to propel themselves places..."
Puissance groaned to herself. If this went on, it would be like when her great-grandcolt Scepter had cornered her and begun recounting the plots of those silly comic books his father let him read instead of the textbooks he should be reading. "What was the incursion like?"
"Oh, right. So I was out in the steppes when I noticed it getting windy and cold -- I mean, moreso than it already was. I saw this... thing... appear in front of me. It looked kind of like a pony, but big, and made of snow. And its teeth were really sharp. And I was just, like, frozen stiff, and it came right up to me, and..." Widgeteer shuddered. "It was really scary."
'Really scary' didn't merit an emergency meeting, though. Puissance frowned.
"And then it... spoke? I think it spoke. I heard words in my head... well, not words, but concepts." Widgeteer paused for a moment. "I had this vision, and it was in my head... and then there was another one of the same creature, but little, standing by him kind of like a kid. And I felt that it really, really wanted that kid. Like it was his child he'd lost or something, you know?"
Puissance felt herself stiffen, though the story was engrossing enough that she doubted anypony else noticed. She knew what was gong on.
"And I asked, 'Are you looking for him?' And he nodded. I asked, "Is he yours?" And he nodded again. And then I saw us -- well, ponies -- bringing him the kid. And..." Widgeteer took a deep breath. "I made like I was going to run away, but then I saw myself running, and nopony coming, and this... thing... going into Equestria to look for the kid. And that seemed... uh, bad, so as soon as I could, I ran off and I telegraphed the local garrison."
The Commander leaned forwards. "We got the message right away," he growled in a thick southern accent. "Sent a note to the Guard, an' got a Shadowbolt out within the day. She went with an escort to talk to the thing, which hadn't moved. Communication's tough, since it's all visions an' head-stuff, but near as we can tell, it's like Widgeteer says. That thing thinks it's got a kid in Equestria, an' if we don't pony it up, it's gonna to start pokin' around."
"What is it?" asked Posey. "Could it just be a regular pony, maybe with a talent towards winter spells?"
"Doubt it. Shadowbolt brought some gizmos the eggheads in Canterlot dreamed up. Said it ain't no pony. Dunno what it is, but the 'Bolt didn't know either."
Ghostly coughed. "If you'll permit me... based on the descriptions by Widgeteer and the Shadowbolt operative, this creature seems most familiar to the 'windigo' of ancient legend. A pony-shaped entity, which feeds on hate and spite, and brings winter wherever it goes."
"But those don't exist!" protested a Marquis. "Those are just stories we tell bad foals. Get along or windigos will eat you."
"They are real," said Luna. "My sister and I have dealt with them."
Puissance said nothing. She already knew that windigos were real. In fact, she knew that this specific windigo was real as well.
Among all of Puissance's possessions was a quiet little village set in a mountain valley of Califurlong and known only as the Vault. Within that valley some very special ponies lived. Some were hybrids, ponies with the magic of more than one tribe. There were null ponies, which were immune to all magic. There was a pegasus with four wings, and a unicorn with a horn that was bent and curved like a spiral, and a descendant of the legendary King Sombra, and other such entities. These were some of the rarest ponies in the world... and they were hers too. They loved her, because she provided for their every need, and all she asked in return was that they be hers -- that they live in her valley and abide by her rules. Could even the finest painting or palace compare to the rarity and splendor of such creatures?
Her most recent addition, though, had been a pony that was rarer than all the rest in her collection. This was a half-pony, half-windigo hybrid foal, a bouncing and bubbly pony named Ice Heart whose body was perpetually half frozen and who liked nothing more than making snow ponies and chasing his friends around to play tag. To Puissance's knowledge, he was the only such hybrid in history. In that sense, he was perhaps her very rarest and most valuable possession.
And now his father wanted him back.
"... we of course don't know if such a child really exists," Luna was saying. "But it seems clear that the windigo believes it does. How long do we have, Commander Storm?"
"The Shadowbolt said he persuaded the beast to wait fer two weeks," said Storm.
Luna nodded. "Alright. I'd like to hear your thoughts on what to do."
"It seems clear to me," said Puissance. Maybe I can head this off. "Just send a military unit up to drive it away. We can't have a monster threatening our nation, child or no child."
Fisher frowned. "I'm normally the first to promote the power of our military, but in this case, it isn't that simple. Commander Thundering Storm prepared a briefing on the matter."
Storm nodded. "The windigo's camped out at our very northern border. Only town anywhere nearby is Noam, an old trading post that used ta be used by ponies heading into the west Griffin Kingdoms or up to the hippogriff lands -- but that town's been declinin' ever since they put up the through railways from Moscolt an' Stalliongrad an' the other big cities. Ain't enough housing or supplies in Noam to use it as a base."
"How many soldiers do you need?" asked Posey.
Storm frowned. "Look, we don't know if weapons'll hurt this thing at all. Now, if Ah field a few thousand troops, Ah can detach some to hold a line of retreat. If we can't crack it an' the windigo sends a snowstorm at us or somethin', we can still get out. But Noam's only got two hotels left, an' both are old an' fancy, not efficient-like... no more'n room for a hundred ponies, max. Maybe two or three hundred if we start quarterin' in the local residents' homes. But with two hundred, if the attack fails, there ain't enough ponies to help any injured retreat through a snowstorm. So Ah'd have to build a base out in the steppes to field enough troops, an' that's gonna take time Ah'm not sure we have."
Luna nodded. "I'm more worried about the first point. I can't support using our troops unless we know that they can actually hurt the windigo, but windigo thrive on hate and spite. It's possible a group of angry soldiers would just make it stronger."
"What about a magic spell?" asked Duchess Posey. "It's been a while since I've attended a Hearth's Warming Pageant, but wasn't there some spell that could drive them off?"
Wandza Waving frowned. "I could take you to the archives right now and show you a thousand spells purporting to do that. Windigo haven't shown up since... what, the nation's founding? No way to know which ones work and which ones don't, and I don't think it'll end well if we send some mages up and their first spell fails. Plus, we're only guessing this thing's a windigo anyway. There's other things it could be."
"Um..." It was Widgeteer, who didn't seem to have noticed, Puissance thought, that he had nothing more to contribute. "Windigo are winter spirits, right? Couldn't we just... make it summer? I mean, we can control the weather, so--"
Posey was already shaking her head. "The environmental effects of trying to warm up the land enough to drive out a windigo could be catastrophic. You're all familiar with the unusually cold winter we just had -- and that was to counteract a mere few hours of Corona moving the sun nearer the earth. Using weather to heat the steppes up more, and over a concentrated area like that... we couldn't compensate. In fact, we could wreck the Rushian ecosystem for years."
Puissance still said nothing. She had a feeling where this was going, and needed to work out her strategy.
"The Elements," suggested Posey. "Let them drive the windigo away."
"No," said Fisher immediately.
"Why? Because you don't like them?" challenged Posey. "They've beaten Corona twice, the ram Grogar--"
"Both entities the Elements fought before!" said Fisher. "As I understand it, Princess Luna used the Elements against her sister. Both princesses used them against Grogar. They have never been used against the windigos; we have no way of knowing if they will work. And if they fail and the windigo kills even one of them, I assure you all, we will have much bigger problems."
"It is my belief," said Luna, "Based on my knowledge of the Elements, that they will indeed work on a hostile windigo."
"But we don't know for sure. As Minister of War, I can't condone the risking of such vital national resources."
"Wait," said Night Light.
Everypony turned to him, and Puissance frowned. He didn't look like the stern, unwavering warrior that he so often appeared in Court events. He looked almost tender.
"The windigo has done nothing hostile thus far," he said. "It did not attack either Widgeteer or the Shadowbolt, and it's ultimatum wasn't that it would attack us, but just that it would start looking for his child. I think we are making a mistake if we treat it as hostile right away."
"But we can't have it just standing there," said Fisher. "And I doubt it will leave if we ask nicely."
"And he's violating border and immigration laws," hazarded a young viscount. "I mean, that's... kind of hostile, right?"
"...maybe this is just because of my own recent experiences, but I think we ought to consider locating the windigo's child, if it exists, and allowing them to meet." Night Light shut his eyes for a moment. "For all we know, he's just worried that his child is lost and wandering around Equestria without its parents. For all we know, he's right. If a pony lost a child, we'd all support reuniting the too. Is this really different?"
"We can't trust a windigo!" said Fisher. "We don't even know the child exists, is alive, or is within our borders!"
"Be that as it may, we should at least look -- either to present the child, or, if necessary, to protect it from the windigo," said Night Light. His voice sounded unusually calm and sincere to Puissance.
And then the other nobles began to all talk at once.
"If we present it we could not guarantee it's safety--"
"Well, then get the Elements involved --"
"Might not even exist--"
"Maybe we could fake it--"
"What if it's working with Corona?"
"What if we could get the windigo to ally with us against her?"
"What if there's more windigos? Diplomatic relations..."
"Maybe it's a hoax?"
Puissance said nothing and thought to herself. If she knew Luna, the soft-hearted monarch would likely take at least some of Night Light's suggestions onboard. If the windigo was safe, she'd want to at least have the child and the adult meet; if not, she'd want to ensure the child's safety. At the moment, Luna likely only knew that Puissance had an 'artist's colony' in the mountains; she did not know of Ice Heart or its other inhabitants. That gave her some latitude -- for the moment. But she'd have to choose soon. Surrender the foal? Hide Ice Heart? What were her options?
Option 1, her first thought, was to say and do nothing. Luna probably had no reason to suspect that Puissance had Ice Heart, and personally, Puissance was quite confident that the Elements could and would be used to send the windigo back to wherever it came from. But there was a chance, albeit a small one, that the windigo could do some damage before it left. And if that happened... well, Puissance might be able to keep Ice Heart secret for the time being, but what if there was a slip-up in five or ten years? Luna would remember, and she would want answers.
Besides, for all Puissance knew, the existance of Ice Heart and the others had been known to the blackmailer, or maybe the Shadowbolts. Luna might in fact know of Ice Heart. Keeping the secret now, with the clear and present danger before them, would... well, it would likely end Puissance's career. And she would not allow that to happen. Her career would not be lost over something like this.
Option 2 was just to present Ice Heart to Luna and wash her hooves of it. But that was a bad option too. What if the windigo wanted to keep Ice Heart? Luna wouldn't like that at first, but maybe she'd be swayed by a claim of actual parenthood. Even if that didn't happen, Puissance didn't want Ice Heart to be out of her control for any significant length of time. What if Ice Heart said something to Luna that made Luna want to investigate the valley? Or what if Luna said something to make Ice Heart want to leave the valley? Or what if Ice Heart just saw something that made him yearn for the outside world? That couldn't be allowed either. She had worked too hard to convince the Vault ponies that their little valley was the best place for them and that they needed nothing else. So, no, no giving up her foal to Luna just like that. Ice Heart was hers and would stay that way.
But... Puissance was, technically, Ice Heart's adoptive mother. What if she brought Ice Heart up north herself, going with Luna and whatever other forces she took? Luna couldn't deny her that; of course a mother would want to be with their foal on such an important mission. And that would give Puissance control over what was going on. She could spin it to Ice Heart as she, Puissance, giving him just what he wanted -- a chance to meet his real father -- which would further cement his loyalty and love to Puissance, the mare who could fulfil all his desires. At the same time, Puissance could make sure that Ice Heart didn't say anything stupid to Luna or anypony else who was brought along.
Besides, windigos were allergic to friendship. If Puissance were involved, she could bring some of Ice Heart's Vault friends -- ostensibly to help keep him at ease during the potentially-frightening encounter, but in reality so that the windigo would be less likely to be able to even approach Ice Heart safely. If Ice Heart himself wound up driving away the windigo, that would solve the problem, and solidify Puissance's control over Ice Heart.
Your father literally can't bear to be near you? I'm so sorry. But Puissance will always be there for you, and she'll give you anything your heart could ever desire, and all she wants is your love...
Yes. That would work. Puissance would get to keep her pony-windigo hybrid, and she'd do it without risking her entire political career. It was the best plan.
Luna called for a recess so the ponies could continue to discuss things. Puissance immediately approached her. "Princess," murmured Puissance. "I would like to invoke my Right of Approach to speak with you on this matter... privately."
Puissance wielded vast power in the nation. But she did not believe this should preclude her from work at smaller scales as well. She was Vicereine Puissance Noctilurne Optiebeurs-Golo. And she was going to manage each and every one of her possessions, from her provinces to a little foal in one of her many, many, many properties.
Because they were hers. And that was what mattered.