//------------------------------// // Chapter 3-Dining with the Queen // Story: Hail to the Queen // by Snowfeather //------------------------------// The alicorn adjusted the silverware’s alignment with the plates. They are never straight for some reason. Twilight finished the adjustments and took a seat at the head of the table, pleased at her work. She turned her thoughts toward Equestria, but the door opened and the mare was forced to leave her thoughts. Applejack and Rarity entered the room. They greeted their friend and took a seat at the table. It was smaller than last time because of the absences of the pegasi. “Hello Rarity, Applejack,” Twilight said. “Is Pinkie coming this time?” Rarity asked, looking around as if she might enter at any moment. Twilight glanced at the door. “She should, but I’m not entirely sure she will. I talked to her a week ago, and she didn’t seem too satisfied with my reasons for coming.” “We might as well begin, seein’ as she might not come at all,” Applejack advised. Twilight nodded and began the meeting. “Not much has changed from two weeks ago, when we last met. I’m glad we all have are schedules free enough so that we can meet this often. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are out at the Everfree; they will return on Wednesday. Pinkie is…absent.” “No, no I’m not.” Twilight turned around to look upon Pinkie Pie, standing in the doorway. “Pinkie!” Rarity exclaimed. “I’m so glad you are joining us.” “I’m not staying for the entire time though,” The earth pony replied to Rarity but spoke to Twilight. “I’ve gotta do dinner with…some other friends.” “I just wanna tell you something, Twilight. I know you might take away my two parties this month, but you mean more to me than the two parties. I mean, you used to be my bestest friend.” “I wanna tell you that…one party a month? That’s no fun. I know you have good intentions, Twilight, but I don’t think this is the right idea. I mean, parties can be good. They can be a lot of fun. I know you mean well, but this is a little extreme. And I talked to Dashie before she left, and she was upset. She told you were kinda… controlling.” “Pinkie,” Twilight said coldly, but mentally she was panicking, trying frantically to get her to stop talking. “You’re still my friend; it’s just you’re not the friend I met back in Ponyville. Do you understand?” Pinkie looked at Twilight with a desperate, sad look in her eyes. The Queen just looked back at her. For once she was grateful for the spell gone wrong that hid her iris and pupil. She could appear emotionless. “No, I guess you don’t,” Pinkie decided sadly. “I think what I’m trying to say is, you’ve changed, not for the better, but for the worse.” “Well, I hope you all have a nice dinner. Bye!” Pinkie chirped and walked out before Twilight could do anything. The room fell into silence as Applejack and Rarity waited for the Queen to do something. Twilight sighed sadly. Applejack rose from her seat and walked over to her friend. She swung her hoof over her shoulder and hugged her. Twilight leaned into the embrace, closing her eyes. They stayed like that for a while. Rarity joined the hug from the opposite side. Finally, Twilight leaned forward, breaking free. She stared down at her empty plate, thinking. Rarity attempted to console her but Applejack silently quieted her. The two mares waited for the alicorn to say something. When she never did, Applejack spoke up. “Do ya want to talk about it?” she said quietly. Twilight gave no indication that she heard the question. She wanted to tell them all her fears and worries, to cry on their shoulders, to let it all out. It would be so easy. But she couldn’t. It would get out to the public, and then they would see her crying and laugh, and then they wouldn’t have any faith in her anymore and then there would be a rebellion and they’d make her watch her friends die and then slowly torture her until she died because that’s what she deserved because she was a cruel, heartless dictator. However, there was another reason, she realized. Princess Celestia never cried. Princess Celestia. The queen inhaled rapidly. She stood up quickly from her chair, Applejack and Rarity scrambling out of the way. “No! No, I don’t!” Twilight shouted. In a flash she had disappeared, traces of magic still in the air. That night, Twilight lay in her bed, staring out at the window. She could see the dying light seeping around the blinds. She picked up the quiet sounds of her guards outside her door, but the alicorn ignored that. Twilight was focused on Pinkie’s criticisms. Pinkie had made a point, except she hadn’t backed it up with many warrants. ‘Parties are good,’ was all she said. Well, maybe she didn’t want to repeat what she had said earlier to Twilight. But she’d want to state them again to try and convince Applejack and Rarity. Unless she had already won them over. Rarity had mentioned meeting with Pinkie. How many times did Rarity see Pinkie? Pinkie’s critique was aimed at Twilight and no one else. She didn’t attack Applejack or Rarity. Was it possible the five were closer than she thought? Were they planning something against her? Were they going to overthrow and torture her because she was a cruel— No, no, it couldn’t be true. Twilight needed to stop being paranoid. It wasn’t true. After closing that discussion in her mind, she turned her thoughts toward another topic. The one question she had been subconsciously asking herself almost constantly. What would she do? She always had the right answers. She would have discussed her issues politely with Applejack and Rarity and then listened to their advice. She wouldn’t have gotten so upset. She would have called Pinkie back into the room. She would have talked to Pinkie Pie and helped fix her complaint. She wouldn’t have passed the one party a month rule. She wouldn’t have gotten herself into this mess with Pinkie. She would have been disappointed in Twilight for not succeeding. She would have done better. Twilight felt defeat wash over her. She had failed her again, as she had and always will until time stops and she wouldn’t ever shape up and Twilight would fail at ruling Equestria and then she’d be so focused on fixing Equestria that her friendships would fall apart and all of the girls would hate her and then they’d join the Rebellion and betray her and then they’d overthrow her and she’d be tortured so horribly and painfully because she was a mean, heartless, cruel dictator who didn’t care for her subjects, but the most important reason was she had failed her. Suddenly Twilight had the urge to get away, to go somewhere else. Her horn lit up and she began to prepare a long distance teleportation spell. Getting out of bed, she recited the incantation mentally. Now the only thing left was to decide where to go. Anywhere away from my mind. She let her magic pick. As the bright light blinded her for an instant, she wondered if she should have let somepony know she was leaving and where she was going. Oh well, too late now. As the light faded, Twilight looked around to see she was in a neighborhood in Ponyville. She had just taken her first glances around but before she could decide what to do, a mare called out to her. That was eerily convenient. “Hello! How are you?” A cross-eyed mare trotted up to the Queen from behind. Derpy seemed to either be unaware or not caring that Twilight was the ruler of Equestria. Eh, it won’t hurt to answer truthfully. “Sad,” Twilight said quietly. Derpy frowned. “Do you want a muffin?” Twilight paused to think. If it got out she was telling her friends what was on her mind, they might betray her or let it slip and reveal it to the public. They were national figures, and ponies would believe them. But this mare, this silly mare, no pony would believe her if she said the ruler of all of Equestria was standing in an intersection and sat down to enjoy a muffin with her while she told the mare what was on her mind. They’d think she was crazy. And besides, she wanted to talk about this with someone. “Sure,” Twilight said. She followed the pegasus back to her house farther up the street. It was a small, cozy house with a few old children’s toys scattered here and there in the front yard. Derpy opened the door and stepped inside to an entryway that led into a living room. At the far end of the room was a dining table, and there sat a mare, young enough to be Derpy’s daughter. “Dinky, I’m home,” Derpy announced. “Hi mom!” Dinky replied cheerily, yet didn’t look up from the table. “Little muffin, we have a guest,” Derpy said. Dinky, confused, turned around. Her ears folded back until they seemed to merge with her head, and the mare’s eyes opened wide. “Oh. Hi,” she blurted out. After hastily gathering up her papers, she dashed off. Derpy said nothing as she led Twilight to the kitchen. “What’s making you sad?” She paused, reconsidering whether this was a good idea to share a muffin with Derpy. What would she do? She would share a muffin with Derpy. Twilight, for once, felt pleased. The Queen related each situation with each of her friends as Derpy baked muffins. Derpy listened. They sat down at the table as Twilight finished her tale. Derpy smiled and pushed a muffin toward her. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll have something to tell me. Something that would help. Before eating, Twilight cast a spell to detect poison. The results came up negative and she took a bite. It, surprisingly, tasted really good. “Mmm, chocolate chip is my favorite.” Derpy beamed. “I love to use chocolate chips for situations like this!” As the Queen ate, Derpy gazed at the table, deep in thought. Twilight mentally sighed. I was wrong; she’s got nothing to tell me. I bet she didn’t even understand. Well, it was nice at least talking to someone, even if— “Will you listen to me and wait until I’m finished before saying anything?” Derpy asked. Twilight nodded, trying to get an idea of where she was going with this. “I think your friends are right,” Twilight attempted to say something. The pegasus paused while Twilight remembered her end of the deal. “but you don’t have to make any drastic changes. Just start small, with some baby steps.” “Maybe, say, at one of your meetings let some other pony go first. How about that?” “Okay,” Twilight agreed. “Did that help?” Derpy looked down uncertainly. “I hope it did.” “Yes, it did help.” Twilight rose from her chair. “Thank you for the muffin and the chat.” Derpy smiled in response, picked up Twilight’s plate and carried it to the kitchen. “Goodbye,” Twilight said before the light flashed. “Bye!” The mare called out. When the spots disappeared from Derpy’s eyes, the Queen was gone. When the pegasus was nearly done cleaning up, she heard her daughter from behind her. “Can I have some help with my homework now?” “Of course,” her mother said. She finished cleaning up and trotted off to assist her daughter. Two weeks had passed since Twilight had talked to Derpy. She had thought it over and was ready. The first baby step: letting some other pony go first. It wasn’t daunting, wasn’t impossible, and didn’t require drastic changes. She could do this. She could do this. All five ponies looked to Twilight to begin the meeting. She could do this. “Applejack, why don’t you begin?” Twilight asked. Applejack looked at Twilight, surprised. Twilight nodded for her to begin. “Twilight, you need to be less controlling. You don’t have to micromanage everything!” The Queen looked at her in horror. This was the absolute worst thing that could happen. “Equestria can manage itself. These logs, I think they’re stupid.” If Twilight acted out her plan of gradually becoming less controlling, she’d look like she was giving into Applejack. “Why do we require ponies to be in bed at a certain time, to exercise, to have pets? Yes, there are good things that come out of it, but what are mainly resulting are just bad things.” It would look like Applejack went off free but Dash got punished. “And you know who didn’t have logs? And ran her kingdom just fine? Princess Celestia.” The room fell silent. Applejack was right. She didn’t have the logs. Twilight had failed her. Twilight had failed Princess Celestia. She felt defeat wash over her again. Applejack was right, but she couldn’t let Dash get punished but Applejack go free. “Who all…agrees with Applejack?” Twilight asked. Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all looked at each other. Then Fluttershy raised her hoof. “I don’t think we should have the logs.” Guess I’ll have to punish Fluttershy along with Applejack. “Guards, throw them in the dungeon. Dinner is cancelled.” Outside the dining room, Rarity brushed by Rainbow Dash. “Let’s move the meeting to tonight, same location,” Rarity whispered in her ear. “I’ll tell Pinkie.” Dash nodded and trotted away. The bells rang twelve times before Rarity crossed the dark street and knocked on the door of the dilapidated old house. The door swung open, and Rarity stepped inside, the house groaning as if it had been stabbed. Closing the door, Rarity walked into the main room to see Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie talking. However, Rarity noticed something was missing. “Pinkie, where are your other friends?" “Oh, they’re off by themselves. They don’t really know Twilight that well. Did you want to say hello?” Pinkie asked. “No, I don’t want to interrupt their conversation,” Rarity politely declined. “I understand,” Pinkie said. Rarity took a seat next to Rainbow Dash. “I’ve already told her the story of what happened at the last meeting,” Dash explained. “Why didn’t you come to the last dinner?” Rarity asked, genuinely curious. “Before Twilight could take away my extra party, I squeezed them in before she could ban the second party. I don’t think Twilight was too happy when she realized I had already had two parties before she could punish me.” “Oh, okay,” Rarity said. “I think our last plan with Applejack was a bust.” “She threw Applejack and Fluttershy in the dungeon, so that went exactly the wrong way we’d thought it’d go,” Rainbow said. “Twilight let Applejack go first that time.” Rarity had caught on to something. “Maybe, just maybe, she was trying to be less controlling.” “And we ruined it!” Pinkie whined. “Twilight couldn’t give in because then she’d appear weak! It’s all our fault!” “Yes,” Rarity agreed sadly. “The poor mare, she’s still hurting.” Before it could get too sad, Rainbow spoke up. “What should we do next? We have to get through to her.” The three mares thought until Pinkie spoke up. “I know how, but it won’t be easy.”