//------------------------------// // LP49: Lessons Learned [Slice of Life] // Story: Half Hour Horses: Legacy Prompts // by HoofAndQuill //------------------------------// The Prompt: There's more to being an alicorn than just wings and a horn. (The time limit hit somewhere in the Cadance section.) The alicorn filly's horn glowed, sputtered, and went out. She sighed in frustration, and used her hoof to turn the page. Celestia had been here for hours. She was tired of dusty old books. She was tired of reading unicorn history, she was tired of looking at pegasus war scrolls, she was tired of the engraved slates of earth pony family lines. Magic was boring, it never worked anyway, and there weren't any books on flying. Celestia flicked with her hoof and the book closed with a loud -whap!- that felt altogether too pleasing. Celestia's instructor sighed, and his lips turned downward in a frown. His voice was stern, but not overly threatening. "Celestia, your mother asked me to make sure you studied properly." That might have been true, but as Celestia was quick to point out: "She's not here, and I'm going to be Princess, and I say no more reading." Somehow, instead of being cowed by her proclamation, her tutor only looked amused. Celestia was about to start shouting, when a hoof gently placed on her back caused all of her fur to stand on end. There was only really one pony who would touch her like that, with that gentle reproach and confidence. The tutor quickly lifted his own book into his saddlebag, and trotted out of the room. Celestia turned her head to look back, and immediately put on an apologetic face for her mother. She wasn't scared of her mother; she had no reason to be. What scared her was disappointing the older alicorn. Celestia stammered, caught in the middle of refusing to work, and without any legitimate excuse. "I... I don't see why I have to read all this history. I'm an alicorn, that means I'm supposed to be better than the other three tribes." Her mother sighed quietly, and sat down next to Celestia. She spoke in a quiet voice, calm, with a deep wisdom that Celestia was secretly afraid that she'd never truly understand. "To truly rule your subjects, you must understand them, my daughter. I will not always be here for you. Having your wings and horn is not enough to be Princess, you must also understand what it is like without them." Celestia looked aside, still not completely convinced. Her mother's horn glowed, and she re-opened the book Celestia had been reading. Convinced or not, the filly now had no choice but to sit and read. Somehow, with her mother there beside her, it didn't seem quite so impossible. "It is not a celebration of my night, it is an insult." Princess Luna glowered at her elder sister, who was standing in her doorway and quite literally taking up the entire space. Princess Celestia, for her part, tried with all of her heart and her hundreds of years of life experience to keep her expression neutral. "Dear Sister, All Harrows Night is not an insult. Our subjects play and laugh together at night, and after I raise the sun they are often sick from eating all the sweets they have been given. They do not fear you, only the darkness of the longest night of the year." Luna scoffed at her sister's explanation, and lit her horn again, the blue glow threatening and dangerous in the darkness of her personal chambers, and the magical light glimmered off of her wings, spread defiantly. "There is nothing to fear in the dark! Do they not know how I protect them each and every night? Have they forgotten me? Have they forgotten what I am?" Princess Celestia paused, and her carefully guarded expression softened for a moment. Her voice was quiet, almost vulnerable. "What are we?" Luna stamped her hoof against the stone flooring of her room. "I am the Princess of the Night! I will not be treated as a villain in my own kingdom!" Celestia's brow knit, and even her younger sister took a step back. "Princess Luna, you know that we are more than just rulers. It isn't our power, or our tribe that keeps us in power. Our subjects love us both, and that--" "Our subjects love YOU, Sister!" Luna's wrath came back, redoubled. "The Summer Sun Celebration is the greatest holiday of the year, and it is all about you! The longest day is beloved of all our subjects, and the longest night is scorned! Do not lecture me as if thou art our mother! Begone!" Even being the eldest alicorn, and currently the most powerful magic user alive, Celestia could not stop her little sister from throwing her out of the room with her magic, and slamming the door so hard that shards of stone fell to the floor. Celestia tried to push her worries away as she struggled to standing again, but there was something growing in her sister, a sort of anger and jealousy... it worried her. Princess Cadance looked down at the picture of the smiling unicorn filly. She was, by all appearances, the same as any other unicorn, the same as thousands of ponies in Canterlot. "I don't see why I need to babysit, Celestia. I don't need the money." "No, you don't." Celestia's calm agreement hardly sounded like a real agreement at all. Cadance sighed quietly as she used her magic to sort out her mane. "Then why? I'll do it, you're always right, after all." "No, I'm not." Cadance rolled her eyes at Celestia's continuing terse replies. "So, why?" Princess Celestia smiled tightly, and Cadance immediately felt like she was being foalish, even if she couldn't quite place why. "Cadance, when was the last time you spoke to anypony outside of the castle staff?" "It hasn't been that long!" Princess Cadance spoke quickly, to buy herself a little time. A few moment passed before she could come up with an answer though, and the answer even surprised her. "... a little over a month." "You have a very special talent; you help ponies who are fighting, ponies who are losing sight of their love. My castle has never run as smoothly as it has been lately. But you need to see other ponies." Princess Celestia paused a moment, searching for a word, though by the sound of her voice she didn't find quite the right one. "... Commoners. You need to understand your people to rule them, Princess." Princess Cadance packed her homework into her saddlebag, and gave her goodbyes to Celestia and her own attendants. She couldn't help but notice how many stares she drew from ponies as she walked through Canterlot, and realized with a start that most of them had forgotten that there even was another alicorn, aside from Celestia. She didn't feel quite princess-y by the time that she reached the well-appointed little house, knocking almost forlornly at the door. When the blue-maned, white unicorn stallion opened the door, Princess Cadance actually found herself blushing. Maybe her adoptive Aunt Celestia had been right about meeting new ponies. This wasn't working. Actually, this was way past 'not working'. This was more of a disaster, rather than just 'not working'. Princess Twilight Sparkle had not been tasked with much in the way of diplomacy so far. Other than a few public appearances and minor officiating duties, her role as 'Princess' had been much more in title than in deed. She had decided to push her own limits by throwing herself into a diplomatic situation, and now the yaks had declared war! It wasn't her fault, or at least it was possibly not entirely her fault. There had been a long string of offenses, by various ponies, and she had only been the latest to cause problems. Still, despite the magic thrumming in her horn and the wind rushing through her wings, Twilight was completely powerless to stop an entire army of angry yaks! The fact was that the only pony capable of helping now was a slightly crazy, but always well-meaning, pink earth pony. A slightly crazy, well-meaning, pink earth pony that was nowhere to be found. Princess Celestia would have fixed this already. Princess Luna would have as well. Princess Cadance's entire THING was fixing stuff like this. But despite her title and changed body, Princess Twilight was buzzing around Ponyville in a panic, looking for any sign of pink coat or frizzy, fuchsia mane. Maybe she wasn't quite cut out for this princess thing after all. Princess Twilight Sparkle stared at the latest page in the magic book that she and Sunset Shimmer shared. It had been a calm day up until now; the ponies in Ponyville were all calm and collected, and no disasters had come into play recently to threaten her title or her life. But here on the page was a drawing of Sunset Shimmer, human Sunset Shimmer, with a unicorn horn on her forehead, and firey wings sprouted from her back. The only text on this 'letter' was: "It happens when I sing. What do I do?" Twilight wanted to tell her to come back to Equestria. She wanted to let Princess Celestia sort this out. But at the same time, she couldn't just fall back on her old mentor. She had handled, with the help of her friends, all the troubles that being a Princess had brought her. Now there was... if not a true alicorn, certainly there was something like one, asking her for advice. She dipped the quill in ink, and decided to just answer honestly, hoping it didn't sound quite as condescending as she feared. "Sunset: I know it's strange, trust me. I used to be a unicorn, too! If there is one thing I've learned since being named a princess, it's that being an alicorn is not enough to make me a good princess. Keep learning about your friends, Sunset, and talk to me if you need me. If you come back to Equestria now, you might have wings when you get here. But if you trust your friends, and be the best friend you can be, you can come back as a Princess. -Princess Twilight Sparkle." Twilight blew breath lightly over the ink to dry it, and then folded the book closed.