Incandescent Light
Several miles above the ground, light filtered down through a thin dome made of water vapor, turning the golden light into a silvery sheen that lit the room without straining the eyes. The room itself was the central seat of political power for the Avens in Equestria, situated in the center of their most beautiful gem: Cloudsdale, the City in the Sky. It was built upon a massive piece of land that was floating several miles above ground. Unsurprisingly, the Avens claimed this place as both a beacon and bastion of their tribe.
The room was a massive amphitheater with thirty rising rings surrounding a moderately large center stage. The floor was made of white marble, laboriously carried up from the quarries of the Magi. The bench seats and the ledges that served as a temporary workplace for the Senators were made of a pale gold oak that gleamed in the ambient light. Scattered about the room were a smattering of Senators, fifty seven all told, to make it a meeting of the minor consensus. The topic of this meeting happened to be their representative to the annual meeting between the three tribes, the Congregation.
Out of all the Senators, there was one whose expression bore neither mild interest nor disinterest. Her name was Star Catcher, voted into the ranks of the Senate as the representative from the military, and she wore an expression of unholy rage. She was on the verge of being more than average in height, with a whipcord build; she was beautiful in a willowy, ephemeral way. Her hair was mostly held back from her face in a utilitarian braid that extended to her lower back, while a pair of strands framed the sides of her face, one a light shade of blue, the other a light pink. Her piercing sapphire blue eyes flickered with a fiery inner light, and the scar etched high across her left cheek made her visage all the more terrifying. Her agile wings only added to the effect as the alabaster white and gold feathers ruffled up to make her appear more threatening. Her left hand gripped and caressed the worn leather hilt of the standard issue gladius any ex-military citizen was permitted to wear.
Her rage was born of the fact that she had effectively been thrown in front of a rabid manticore after being trussed up like a suckling pig. She knew it was going to be a bad day when she had been slated to attend and noticed that the roster held none of her friends or allies in the political ranks. There was only one Senator who had the balls, politically or physically, to make such an obviously antagonistic move against her, and he wasn't even present despite all his known lackeys being among the assembly, along with a few neutral parties who had no vested interest in the outcome of this meeting or who would go to represent them. Her opponent, Prism Bolt, only wished to send her to the most politically volatile part of their nation and see how badly she would screw up after all the trouble she had caused for him in the last decade.
At first, when she was voted into her current position, she felt it had been a betrayal of trust from her superiors when she had been stripped of rank and placed in a position normally reserved for well-to-do citizens or social busybodies. After a time, she quickly found that she had been placed in a den of lions and had to put all of her tactical officer's training to use to avoid becoming a lackey or stuffed doll in the clutches of a more politically savvy Senator. After some time, she came to tolerate her new job as she had the previous one as battalion commander, with quiet suffering for the paperwork she was delegated and the decisions that would either make her the most popular or unpopular woman among her peers.
What really didn't help matters was that shortly before she had been voted into office she had found out that she was pregnant with her daughter. She didn't feel the need to inform any of her lovers as she felt that her pregnancy was her own matter to deal with and didn't want anyone else's opinions or desires to influence her own. After informing her superiors of her condition, she had been slated to be relieved of duty and put on maternity leave for a year and a half, her daughter going to her youngest brother's house to be raised alongside her cousin, who would end up being born not even a week after she was. When she lay on her bed after giving birth to her newly named daughter, Fluttershy, she couldn't help but feel as if she should be thankful for being relegated to her current position. As soon as she was physically able, she took her old commanding officers out to their favorite dive and proceeded to drink them under the table.
Life went smoothly for quite some time after that as Star Catcher became acclimated to the political environment, learning to differentiate individuals who were friendly out of greed from those who were genuine in their openness. The political game ended up being absurdly easy for Star Catcher to master once she applied what she had learned about cause and effect to it. The only thing that had really thrown off her learning curve was that these decisions didn't just affect a single unit, platoon or even a brigade. Her vote could potentially affect the lives of every single living Aven, whether it be a fraction-of-a-bit tax to fund a project to improve their infrastructure or a law regarding the importing of goods produces by non-Avens.
Just as life began to settle down, a tragedy befell her family. Her youngest brother was seriously crippled, one of his wings needing to be amputated to save his life from infection. He didn't last long as the trauma, both physical and psychological, put too much strain on his body and he passed away. To compound matters further, Star Catcher's pregnancy came to term. A week later, her sister-in-law passed away in childbirth, leaving their only son orphaned. Being so recently a mother, she was approached by those responsible for caring for such unfortunates and she couldn't find it in her to let her nephew waste away as a ward of an underfunded orphanage or left to fate if he was adopted by strangers. She took him in and raised him as her own child with the bits his parents left behind safely invested in a savings account while their possessions were stored away for when he was older.
As the months and years flew by, Star Catcher found herself with twice the trouble. She had found out quite quickly that her daughter was almost absurdly timid while her adopted son was more brash than any raw recruit she had ever broken in. They were both difficult in their own ways, but the retired soldier-cum-politician overcame each problem as it emerged, raising both with a tolerance that would have had her nominated for sainthood if she wouldn't have threatened to severely beat the one to recommend it. Now, the two were enlisted with the military, Fluttershy as a medico and Flash as a scout, to put their unique natures and talents to best use. To say that Star Catcher was proud of her children would be to say that a dragon was greedy, and woe to any creature less than a dragon that threatened her little ones.
Her attention snapped back to the present as the gavel struck the podium, ending the new business portion of their session. She had no investment in the old business portion as her single vote would matter little, so she got up and left after stating for the record that the power to cast any votes called for would be given to Senator Slip Stream, an independent senator who refused to get into any of the personal squabbling between Star and Prism. He would make as good a proxy as she could hope for; she nodded in respect to the man before leaving in a fuming huff. She had to go home, tell Fluttershy and Flash the news, and then open up a bottle of her Brandywine Reserve, twenty year aged elderberry wine, and indulge in a cup or three before the moon rose.
***
“So, that's why you'll be tagging along as the leader of the Prime Cohort when that stubborn fool Star Chaser goes to the Congregation,” said a rather strapping Aven in navy blue robes made of cashmere, held closed by a braided crimson rope with a seven colored tassel hanging down his front. He had a full head of hair that reflected the colors of the tassel, albeit several shades darker. His wings were only a few shades lighter than his robes and appeared heavily muscled. For any who saw his hair, he would easily be named as Prism Bolt, Senator and head of the House of Nasturtium. He stood with a commanding air in front of his desk of gleaming ebony inlaid with gold and ivory in a relief depicting the fabled Alicorns of myth and legend, beatific and regal, capable of handing down either a benediction or a judgment from their masterfully crafted expression. The floor was covered in a plush red carpet that seemed to grip their feet, while the walls were paneled in rich brown oak with mirrored lanterns lit to combat the coming dark. Rounding out the room's furnishings were a small bookcase and a side table that held a decanter of liquor, a small fireplace which made its presence known with its flickering light and almost searing heat, and a pair of richly upholstered chairs sitting a couple paces away.
“I don't care, father,” spat back a fiery-tempered young woman in a scratchy voice, her cerise eyes flaring with anger. She was in full officer's armor, the stiff bristled crest on top of her helmet a riot of seven colors, matching her hair that skirted the line of being too long by regulation. She appeared to be a teenager in comparison to her father, her head barely reaching his collarbone. She was built with corded muscles that flexed and flowed with barely contained energy under a layer of skin that had no trace of obscuring fat. Sprouting from her powerfully built shoulder blades were a monstrous pair of wings colored the same shade as a cloudless summer sky. If she were to stretch them to their fullest, her wingspan would dwarf her actual height by several feet, making her appear to be a sluggish flier. Nothing could be further from the truth as they held an agility that could outstrip all but the most competent fliers of her entire tribe. “If I got the role, I would have preferred it to be because I earned it, not because you pulled a few strings and set me up to play guard for some woman who's a pain in your ass!”
“Think of the honor you'll get, the attention and respect from your superiors you'll receive if you pull this off without a hitch,” he snapped back scornfully. “You've been a blemish to our house with your recklessness both in and out of the field of combat. It's only because of blind luck your wings haven't been clipped with how often you've injured yourself in your 'stunts.'”
“So, this is only a chance for you to gain more honor, that that it?” she replied in a gravelly tone that spoke of anger verging on hatred. “That if I dance to the tune well enough, you'll get a few more bits tossed in your cup?”
“Mind your tongue, Rainbow Dash!” he snapped angrily as he took a couple quick strides to stop in front of her, locking their gazes with a passion that nearly terrified his daughter. “This is about more than that! You have no sense of duty to your house! No pride as a member of this family! You will do what I ask of you because it! Is! Your! Due!”
Long seconds passed until Rainbow swallowed loudly and looked away. “O-okay... I'll do it...” She cringed as the pitiful sound of her voice reached her ears. Prism sighed sadly and moved languidly to his side table, pouring a glass of Amber, honeyed apple whiskey produced by the Earthlander clan who tended the largest orchard in Equestria. He took a sip before turning back to his daughter.
“I know I'm harsh sometimes, but I've let you live your life how you want, Rainbow Dash,” he finally said in a low voice. “This is a chance for you and your subordinates to be known for more than recklessness and daring in combat. You need to show that you can make proper decisions and keep decorum in a sensitive situation. This is the only way I can help you. I had to call in several large favors from some of your superiors to even get your name on the list of potential candidates and then owe a few more to some Senators I'd rather not have to give anything to just to get you picked.”
“I get it, okay?” Rainbow said as she gripped her gladius firmly. “You're worried about me and my unit. You're worried about our family's standing. I... I'll do it. For myself, my sub-commanders and my family... I won't let you down.”
“If only for your own pride, I know you won't,” he replied with a chuckle that set Rainbow to laughing as well. He poured a second glass and offered it to Rainbow Dash, who took it with a grin. “To opportunities made and the ability to make the most of them.” He said as he raised his glass in a toast.
“To family, to my brothers and sisters in arms and to the honor to be had,” she responded with a clink as she gently tapped the lip of her glass to that of her fathers. They each took a sip and exhaled in almost identical ways before smirking at one another and moving to the chairs in front of the fireplace to enjoy the luxury in each other's company.