Miss F Posey
Dunromin
Everfree Close
Ponyville
North Everfree
NE6 PV51
My Dearest Fluttering
It has been far too long since I last wrote to you, my dear. I could tell you that I have been busy, that affairs of state have gotten in the way, but really, that is no excuse for my lapse, so I send you my apologies. Now that this session of court has finally come to an end, I have the free time I need to pen this missive to you. I hope you are well down there in Ponyville. I shouldn’t, but please forgive me if I worry about my favourite niece sometimes; I know you are a grown mare but you really are very precious to me, and I would hate it if anything were to happen to you.
I am glad to receive your last letter about your animal friends. I am relieved that Mr Bear’s cubs are healthy and that Angel is well. I know how much you care for all of your pets, but I am also very glad to hear that you are feeling better to the extent that you have been making new pony friends as well. You have previously told me of your friendship with your mailmare, Ditzy Doo, who I guess will be delivering this letter to you. My colleague Baron Max apparently met and played with her daughter, Dinky, at the gala; he can be so foalish sometimes, but very sweet, and he certainly seemed to like her, a very personable filly apparently. I have also heard that you have made a new friend, another of the element bearers, Carrot Top. I talked to her briefly at the gala, she seemed nice, although rather nervous. She was drinking rather heavily; is that normal for her? Even the princess's student Trixie Lulamoon told me that she knew you, and that the two of you had visited the local spa on several occasions. If this is true, then I am proud that you feel confident enough to spend time with other ponies now, and that you visit Ponyville itself. I hope that as you recover from your incident your circle of friends will grow.
If Trixie is indeed your friend, then I owe her an apology. I did not immediately believe her; she has something of a history of falsehoods and your previous letter made me believe that she was persecuting you in some way. I remember when Trixie first came to court, she was such a sweet filly then, but I fear the attention went to her head over the years. However, from what I have been told by the Princess, becoming the element of Magic and making friends with the other element bearers seems to have tempered her ego somewhat. I would not have previously thought that she was the kind of pony you would easily associate with, but if she is your friend then I am glad to be proven wrong. Friends can be found in the strangest of places, can’t they? Even ponies you would expect to have nothing in common with can become close to you.
From my brief talk with Carrot Top, I understand that you are going by Fluttershy to the ponies of Ponyville rather than using your true name. You know how I feel about that nickname, dear. I know it is your own decision, but it is somewhat belittling and I don’t like to think you are ashamed of your heritage. Our family historians would point out that we are descended from Commander Hurricane himself, although as you know from your history lessons that is hardly a great accolade given how… generous… he was with his seed. Still, I like to think that our family have managed some great things over the years; Cloud Buster Posey did create the first weather factory almost two thousand years ago now, and tens of thousands would have died in the year of drought last century if it hadn’t been for Spring Posey’s leadership. I have no doubt that one day you will be known amongst our illustrious forebears for whatever you choose to do with your life. Still, you know my feelings on this issue and it is your own decision to make. I will support and love you regardless of what name you choose to be known by.
Putting aside such issues, there is much I need to tell you. So much has happened to me in the last four months since I last wrote to you. Has it really been that long? In some ways it seems longer, in others a blink of the eye. Much has happened; some things wonderful, some things terrible, and some both at the same time. I will start with the most wonderful. I have met somepony, Fluttering, somepony who has become very special to me, somepony who had turned my carefully ordered life upside down, somepony I think I may even love.
You may remember that I mentioned in my last letter that I had been appointed by Luna to act as a sort of teacher to a new member of Court: Baron Mounty Max of the newly formed province of Nulpar. He had rather gallantly – and stupidly – tried to protect me from some spurious allegations at court, and caused rather a ruckus in the process. The Princess thought it was best that I mentor him in courtly etiquette, or maybe she saw something already growing between us, who can tell the mind of our monarch? I originally believed that the duty might be onerous in the extreme, teaching such a bumpkin how to behave at court; surely it could not be done. But as I spent more time with him, I found there was more to Max than there seemed to be on the surface. True, he is headstrong and blunt and it sometimes seems like his special talent is saying just the wrong thing at the wrong time, but he is also honest, and pure, and has the deepest green eyes I have ever seen. I feel I could fall into them and quite happily drown there. Listen to me, gushing like a school filly at my age. As you can tell, I am quite taken with him. It has been, well, a long time since I had somepony special, and my last relationship did not end well. Maybe I have forgotten what it is like to have somepony, but the world just seems so much brighter around him. Meetings that to me would have been painfully banal are, through his eyes, a chance to make a better Equestria. He gives me hope, Fluttering, hope for better tomorrow, hope I only now realise I have slowly been losing over these long years at court.
My relationship with Max has not been entirely easy. In fact, it almost came to an end even before it began. It took me quite some time to work up the courage to ask him out despite his obvious, and rather flattering, interest in me. You know that like yourself I often have difficulty dealing with other ponies. Although my various little techniques may help me to face the whole of our government and our monarch without shaking, asking out a stallion turned out to be quite a different prospect. I finally managed to broach the subject shortly before Hearts and Hooves Day, only to find out that he had already been propositioned by another mare, a much younger mare. You remember Buttercup, do you not? Baron Field’s daughter? I recall the two of you spending some time together during your time at court. Well, she had asked Max to escort her to a ball hosted by Vicereine Puissance, and my reaction was, well, it wasn’t very mature of me. I was very hurt by the prospect of losing Max to somepony almost half my age, but in a way some good came of it; the strength of my feelings, however negative, helped me see that what I felt for Max wasn’t just some crush but something more. I don’t know all of the details, but Max and Buttercup’s relationship did not last long. I cannot really hold a grudge against the poor filly given what she’s been through these last few weeks, but I will talk more on that later.
Max and I continued to tip hoof around our feelings for many weeks, and maybe we would never have gathered up our courage to take things further if it hadn’t been for the gala. I know the event was covered in the press and there has been much discussion about what truly occurred – I cannot say I fully understand it myself – but I do know the drinks were spiked with a certain potion that caused those affected to speak their minds; a sort of truth poison, I suppose you could call it. Well, Max and I were poisoned, and after spending the evening together dancing and talking, our minds were only on each other – the poison forced us to reveal what we thought of each other. It was terrible and terrifying, Fluttering, and it was wonderful and joyful; to have to speak my mind, to have to reveal how I felt, it was liberating to know how Max felt about me and to tell him how I felt. I could never have done it without aid, but now that I have, I don’t know why I ever waited. I think a future started that night, Fluttering, a good future. We have been together ever since. I hope I can rely on your discretion on this matter, because I would like my relationship with Max to remain secret for the moment. We both know what pressures the press can put on the relationships of courtiers. Although it is inevitable that they will find out sooner or later, I would like to avoid that for as long as possible.
Sadly, not all of my recent experiences have been as good as my relationship with Max. The recent disaster in Ponyville caused me much anguish; it sadly seems that the quiet little town that you chose for your convalescence has not been as quiet as we had hoped. I am truly sorry about the curse that was placed upon your home by an agent of Corona. I must admit that I arranged for some of my servants to check up on your wellbeing after that event. Please forgive my invasion of your privacy, but I could not bear to think that anything had happened to you. It is to my shame that I must admit that it was partially my own fault that it took so long for aid to be dispatched to Ponyville. I am, as you know, on the committee that organises such aid, as is Viceroy Night Light. Unfortunately, the viceroy allowed his feelings for his daughter to cloud his judgement and he attempted to take revenge against representative Trixie, and indirectly the whole population of Ponyville. He tried to sway the committee, and even threatened me, to stop aid being provided. His actions were reprehensible, but I cannot help but think what I might have done in his position; if something had happened to you, would I have acted the same? I like to think that I am more stable, but I just hope I never have to find out. As it was, I found it all too easy to bow to his wishes given his power, and it was only a discussion with Trixie that made me see how much harm Night Light and my own actions were doing. I brought the issue to the attention of the Princess and she brought the viceroy to heel.
I was rather surprised to be aided in this venture by Marquis Jet Stream; the feud between our families has burnt for many generations now. I remember how poorly you were treated by her son, Jet Set, at your Cuteciñera, and Jet Stream herself has been a thorn in my side at court for many years, always looking for some weakness to leap upon. Still, Max suggested I tried to bury the hatchet between our two families and to my surprise it seems to have worked, it seems times are changing between our families and for the better.
Even more distressing to me than the events in Ponyville was what occurred after the Gala. The Princess, the recollection still makes my hoof tremble, the Princess confronted the court with all of its corruption and misdeeds. The creature that had caused the disruption of the gala had passed information on to the Princess; apparently it knew the secrets of all the court members. I am sorry, my dear, but my own darkest times were among them. It is to my deepest shame that I am forced to admit that during my early days at court I bribed an official to obtain funding for Cloudsdale. It seemed the right thing to do at the time and helped the ponies of our city, but I know it was wrong. I sometimes feel I was cursed by that event, that many bad things that have happened to me since have their root in that one act of corruption. I am sorry if I am not the pony you thought I was; I hope that you can forgive me my hooves of clay, Fluttering. I could plead that I am only mortal, only a pony, that I cannot be expected to be perfect, but as a member of the night court, a higher standard is expected of me. A standard I did not meet. You, maybe more than anypony, recognise the stress of being at court, but it is still no excuse. Maybe it is for the best that my crime has now been brought to light; maybe finally I can atone and move on.
The Princess was rightfully furious at us for our corruption, and threatened to disband the court. Her anger was terrifying; if Max hadn’t been there to help me cope, I don’t know what I would have done. He was my rock, Fluttering, he held me through my darkest night, and it was his belief that the court could be better, that I could be better, that made me think the corruption could be dealt with. When he holds me in his embrace, I just feel so safe, like nothing can ever hurt me again.
I will not bore you with the details, but a group of courtiers, a small group to start with, put together a proposal to tighten up various regulations and reform and strengthen the body charged with rooting out corruption within the court. We hoped that this would be enough to restore the Princess’s confidence in the court. Of course, no regulations would be sufficient without the majority of the court being willing to follow them, to want to carry out their jobs properly, but I hope – I have to hope – that although the court has some bad seeds, the majority of courtiers want to be good ponies. It was slow, hard, work to start with, to get the support of the court, and without Max’s presence I fear I might have fallen into despair, but slowly more and more of the court came on board.
Final salvation came from an unexpected direction: Baron Fields. The poor old stallion gave a speech at his retirement party, revealing the mistakes he had made during his life, and pleaded that the court put their differences aside and work together for a better future. It was inspirational, truly his brightest hour, but sadly it was also his last. You may have read the story in the papers, but not long after the party came to a close, the baron died peacefully in his sleep. It was sad, you may recall his part in how I got my cutie mark, but I like to think it is how he would have liked to go. He will certainly be remembered. His speech and the events surrounding it finally focused the court, and after his funeral we presented our proposal to the Princess in his name. I fear she might still be unsure of our worthiness. We have a long, hard, road to reclaim her trust, but I think she forgives us for the moment. Only time will tell.
I think that more or less brings things up to date. Now that court has closed for the summer, I have returned to Cloudsdale and my duties here. I do miss Max terribly; I am considering writing to him as well, although I understand the postal system in his province can be rather unreliable, and I would not want our correspondence to be intercepted. Still, I will see him again in a few months even if that does seem a very long time now.
As my duties are light for the next few weeks, maybe it would be possible for me to come and visit you? Maybe even meet your new friends? It might even be possible for you to come home for a visit. It has been quite some time since I last saw my favourite niece, and it would be good to catch up in person. I know your parents and your brother and sister miss you.
Your sister sends her love, by the way. Forming is acting as my proxy at court for the summer. I do worry about her after, well, after what happened to you, but she seems to be fitting in well. I think she likes the attention; she has always been a bold one. Your brother is apparently spending the summer with his sports friends, something about hurricane riding, you know how he can be. Your mother is of course worried, but I think your father is rather proud of him – he was just as much a daredevil at that age, you know. Vicereine Wallflower asked after you as well; apparently her two-headed dog has recently sired a litter of puppies and she asked if you wanted one. I think they might be a little large for you, but I did say that I would pass the offer on.
Once again I have to tell you how proud I am of your progress in making new friends. I know how hard it can be, maybe better than most, but you are doing well and I can’t wait to hear about the time you have spent with them recently.
Yours sincerely
Duchess Fragrant Posey
Mr O Piste
Town Hall
Sadlzberg
Nulpar
Hi Piste
I’m writing to you from the little town of Flip Flop on the border of Caneighda, apparently named after a character from a book one of its founders was reading when they started the mine that eventually grew into the town. I know this because when the mayor found out I was a baron, he spent the morning showing me around the local museum. It was nice enough but you know me, I like to actually get things done rather than just watch things so it got a bit boring after a while. Still, I had a nice chat with Top Dollar, that’s the mayor, about how things are run over here, gives me some ideas for home.
I’m stuck here for the moment because there is apparently a problem with the train, so me and Mrs G will be trapped for at least another day. Mrs G has struck up a friendship with some of the locals and she’s happy to just chat, but after a morning of looking around that museum I feel I’ve got to do something, so I thought I’d write to you to pass the time. As you might guess I won’t be back when I planned, my best estimate is that it’ll probably be quite late in the afternoon of the 10th before we get to Praris, we can find a place for the night then head on up to Sadlzberg by the afternoon of the 11th, but there could be more problems with the trains making us later, so basically expect us when you see us. We can sort out where I’m going to stay when I get there. If nothing else turns up, Hearth will have some spare rooms unless Sadlzberg’s suddenly became a major tourist destination while I was away.
Of course it’s possible that you won’t get this letter until after we arrive. I don’t know if you’re still doing the mail runs now that you’re mayor, so if this letter arrived after us, oh well.
It really seems too long since I wrote to you. Well, I’ve written to you at least once a week for the last half year or so, but that was all work stuff. I mean wrote to you just to tell you how things were going. I miss you, you know, having somepony to bounce ideas off of, someone who really knows me, a friend. There’s Mrs G of course, but, well, you know how she can be, it’s like talking to Mum, there are some things you just can’t talk about. There’s Fragrant, I really need to tell you about Fragrant, but it’s like she’s from a different world sometimes, Cloudsdale and Canterlot are both so different from Nulpar. She doesn’t always understand me, although she always seems interested in my stories of home. Plus it’s nice to have a stallion to chat with. I’ve made a few friends here, Mellow Dramatic, Baron Fields, rest his soul, but no one I’m really close with, no one I grew up with. It’ll be good to see you and the rest of the gang again once I get back. I’ve got so many questions. How’s Chilly? I bet she’s all grown up by now, probably looking to take over her mother's job. Has Hearth gotten her place in the hotels guide yet? Sealbhach finally found the nanny for him? Is Tender Heart any better? I really do miss you guys.
I guess I should tell you about Canterlot and my time there. The city is huge! There are buildings you could probably fit the whole population of Sadlzberg into with space left over. The castle itself is like a labyrinth. I’m glad there are pages around to show you where to go or I would still be looking for my office. The city is on top of a mountain – when I saw it from the train, I just knew I had to climb it. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointment, it wasn’t that much of a challenge; not as easy as, say, Snowtop, but certainly no Broken Back or even Widowmaker. Still, there’s a great view from the top when the sun rises over the city, or even seeing it glimmer in the moonlight. I’m glad to have done it, even if it did make me a bit late getting to the station. Fragrant was the only one of the group assigned to meet me that was nice enough to wait for me.
I know this is the second time I’ve mentioned her. I talked about her a bit in some of my more official letters, Duchess Fragrant Posey of Cloudsdale, my mentor at court. After I made a bit of a scene at an inquiry, the Princess decided that I needed to have somepony to show me the ropes. It was rather embarrassing at the time, not to mention just a little terrifying to meet the Princess, but I thank her every night for that decision.
You see, the court isn’t what I thought it was going to be, everything seems so complicated, nothing’s easy. It seems so shady, there’s so many webs of contacts and feuds and I don’t understand why it’s that way. It seems almost everypony at court has forgotten what they’re supposed to be doing, what the actual people of Equestria want. One of them, Archduke Bobbing Fisher, the minister of war, threatened to interrogate the griffins up at the Eyre just because their ancestors came over from the kingdoms. He thought they were some sort of spies, as if Bloodstrike would do that. He even challenged me to a fight over them. I won, in a way, and he backed down. I think he sort of respects me now, he doesn’t seem to have taken the matter further so I suppose all’s well that ends well. Another member of the court, Duke Greengrass, tricked me into voting the wrong way over some appropriations bill. I still have no idea why, maybe for his own amusement? He really doesn’t seem to take his job seriously. Still, he runs Caneighda and this town seems alright, so he must be doing something right. I just don’t understand why he acts that way. Doesn’t he understand his responsibilities? If it wasn’t for Fragrant I would have been totally lost. She showed me what to do, put up with all my mistakes, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay her for what she’s done for me.
I don’t want to make it sound like the court is entirely full of bad ponies, it’s not. There are some perfectly nice courtiers. A nice old stallion, Baron Rolling Fields, sort of took me under his wing, not that he has one, he’s an earth pony. I even dated his daughter, Buttercup, for a bit, but that didn’t work out. I don’t want to burden you with all the details, but like I said the court is a darker place than I thought it would be. There are other good ponies, Baron Mellow Dramatic is nice, although a little high strung, and there’s Duke Sands, Vicereine Wallflower, some others. It’s just most of them seem more interested in how they can make things better for themselves rather than the common pony, hopefully that’ll change now.
I’ve done what I can for Nulpar and its population while I’ve been here, but like I said it’s harder than it seems. I’ve put through a few requests for aid, the clinic should get more funding next year and maybe some farming subsidies, so Greenleaves should be happy, but it’s slow going. Not much hope on the roads or railway yet I’m afraid. I’m writing up a bill to try and get some grants for us and other remote towns in Equestria, but according to Fragrant it’s more or less unknown for anypony to put though a bill in their first year. I’m not going to let that stop me though, Nulpar deserves this and I’m going to get it for them.
You might have noticed that I keep mentioning Duchess Posey, well, she’s become very special to me. She truly is an exceptional mare, wise, kind, but she’s no push over. She’s got this sort of graceful strength to her, she might be demure but I’ve seen her fight for what she believes in. I was rather taken with her when I first met her, she was one of the nobles assigned to meet me at the station, she was so beautiful she left me tongue tied, she has the softest pink mane, the most delicate blue eyes and she really fills out a pair of socks, her legs just don’t seem to end, they go all the way up to heaven! I certainly didn’t think anything would come of it, you know me, I’m not that much of a catch and she’s a powerful duchess so I did what I could to try and push aside my feelings. That might be part of why I dated Buttercup, to take my mind off Fragrant, but it never really worked. By the time the end of the court’s session came around I was a mess. I thought I should at least try to ask her out, sure she’d probably just let me down gently, but then I’d know for certain that I didn’t have a chance and that would be that, I could move on.
They have a big party to celebrate the closing of the court you see, it’s called the Grand Galloping Gala and Fragrant asked me to escort her to it. As you might guess I was a little on edge, I’m not exactly used to formal events, but I dressed up as best I could and went with her. There were drinks and dancing and apart from a strange hiccup over some foals Fragrant seemed to be having a good time. And you know what, so was I. Then it came to the crucial moment to tell her how I felt, I just couldn’t say anything, I was too chicken. I just didn’t want to see the pity, or worse disgust, in her eyes as she told me that no, she wasn’t interested in me that way. I hate to think what would have happened if things had just ended there, but luckily (?) somepony spiked the drinks with some sort of truth potion and all my feelings just cascaded out and, and I still find this hard to believe, she said she felt the same way. Unbelievable, I know, but true.
We’re, well, I suppose we’re dating now. She wants to keep it quiet, so keep it under your hat. I don’t really understand it, but apparently the press tend to make a big thing of nobles dating and Fragrant doesn’t want them to find out. It’s a shame, I just want to tell everypony, I’m so happy, but I guess she knows best.
Unfortunately just after the gala the Princess summoned the whole court to a meeting and really tore into all of us about how bad a job we’d been doing. You know what I said about the court seeming dark? Well, it was worse than I’d thought, not one of the courtiers was clean, not one! Not even me, I had to do something, something dubious while I was there. I can’t tell you everything, I don’t want to implicate anypony else, in the end it was my own decision and I bear the responsibility. I don’t know why, but Luna singled out Fragrant, she shouted at her! Despite others doing far worse, it was heart-breaking, Fragrant totally fell to pieces, she was crying! Luna even threatened to disband the whole court if we didn’t do better. I did my best to get Fragrant home and make her feel better but it was a struggle. Still, after a good night’s sleep she recovered and pulled herself together. She came up with a plan to prove to the Princess that most of the court really wanted to do better. As I said, she really is an amazing mare. She put together this bill to put more safeguards in place to stop any further corruption at court, and then started to convince the nobles to agree to it all.
It was a long hard struggle to get the support she needed, but she managed to do it. Baron Fields gave a speech at his retirement party which got a lot of ponies onto our side. Sadly it was too much for the old stallion and he died in his sleep that night. It was tragic, but I like to think it was how he wanted to go, helping Equestria to the end. It helped hammer home the situation to the rest of the court and eventually most of them came around and we delivered our proposal to the Princess at his funeral. I don’t think she’s entirely happy but she seems to have forgiven us for the moment.
So that brings things up to date. After half a year in the big city I feel like I’ve accomplished very little but I’ve got myself a marefriend, not exactly what I’d planned (she’s a pegasus, so please don’t tell mum until I can find some way to break it to her, you know how she feels about that) but I think it’s worked out rather well. It’ll be nice to be home for a few months, to be back among normal folks, and I’m sure I can find something to keep myself occupied with while I’m back. Well, as long as this train ever gets going again that is.
See you soon (hopefully)
Yours Sincerely
Max