* * *
Another morning, another hangover, another reason why Manehatten's coffee and doughnut vendors were doing so well in these troubled times. Otto hated mornings.
It was on this particular morning, when he was still in a dressing gown and slippers, telekinetically shovelling cereals down his gullet on what he'd hoped would be a slow day, news landed squarely on his lap to force him to action.
There was a loud banging on his front door, and the white unicorn groaned.
"Who is it?" he barked, shuffling over to the door. Opening it, he was greeted by one of his griffins. "What is it?" He yawned. "It's Saturday. I know I'm the mayor of Manehatten, but I take a break from plans of world conquest on Saturdays." The griffin chuckled, unaware at just how literal his boss was being.
"Forgive me, sir. But you wanted us to keep an eagle eye on things in the city? Well... The Princess of Friendship, she was seen exiting a train in Manehatten Grand Central Station with five other ponies."
Otto blinked in surprise, shaking himself awake. "Sparkle?! She's HERE?! Well, don't just stand there! Delay her or something! I need to put something together for her and her friends! Either she's just here for... Some arbitrary reason, or she's keeping an eye on me. I want to figure out what she's up to."
"What do you want me to do when I find her" The griffin asked.
"I don't know! Book a table at a restaurant or something! Give them theatre tickets, just do what you can to sweeten the deal for them until I can meet with the princess in person! Go, now!" With that, he slammed the door in the griffin's face, groaning loudly: He could've been sitting in his favorite chair, sipping wine and reading one of his favorite classic novels, but NO! He had to play nice with the very ponies who could sink him if this all went wrong; well, there went his weekend...
Only in the days of college had Otto had to get up and showered so quickly. There was nothing like unexpected news to wake up a pony. He threw on his best suit and trotted off to meet with the Princess of Friendship.
Otto admired Twilight Sparkle, many ponies did, though he had very specific reasons: Here was this unicorn, a young, scholarly unicorn, taken under the wing of the Princess Celestia herself, and groomed into Alicornhood, ascended into a near demigod figure, but born a mortal; a powerful mortal, with magic unlike most other ponies, but her very existence made reality the fact that it was in fact possible: Ordinary ponies could become demigods. He just had to figure out how he could replicate it...
"Ah! You're majesty!" He smiled, bowing before the princess and her friends. "Please allow me to offer you and your friends my most humble welcome back to my city."
He was roughly familar with her friends, but his interest in them was sorely lacking; frankly, the only one of real significance to him was Twilight.
Out of all of them, one of them looked terrified of everything, two of them looked bored stiff, and one of them wouldn't stay still, jumping between gleeful hopping and suspicious glaring; the only two truly interested in being invited to City Hall was Twilight, and her unicorn friend known as Rarity, who seemed utterly infatuated with the city as a whole; her impassioned gushing over the decor of the hall, and its intricate artwork on the ceiling, served only to bore one of the other ponies, an orange, hat-clad earth pony, even further; Otto didn't care much for that one, or the pink one for that matter. The blond-manned, hat wearing Earth Pony Otto was going to mentally refer to as 'Farm Pony' seemed to hold a hoof full of careful skepticism, and the pink pony simply creeped him out, as though she knew something the others didn't: Otto made a note that he'd have to keep an eye on those two.
"Thank you." Twilight smiled. "It's very kind for you to offer us a tour of your city hall."
"And dinner. He also said dinner." Rainbow pony added, floating alongside them and refusing (to Otto's quiet annoyance) to walk properly on the ground like everyone else.
"Yes, Rainbow." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Stop worrying about your stomach for now though, please? It's impolite."
"But..."
"Come on now, Sugercube." Farm Pony interrupted with her hillbilly accent. "Ah'm as happy to get a free lunch as the rest of us, but Ah don't get all the fuss now. We've all been here to the big city before, but they never rolled out the welcome wagons like this then?"
Otto scoffed. "I wasn't mayor back then."
"Oooh!" the gushing unicorn with her... Blast it... Her admittedly quite lovely mane suddenly spoke up. "You mean Paver Goldstreets?! Oh, my, that darling had such a magnificent taste in dinner gowns. She was positively wasted as a politician! She was positively the heart of Manehatten!"
"Wait." Twilight added. "Wasn't she still set to serve as mayor for another two years? What happened to her?"
"Didn't you hear?" Otto spoke with convincing sadness: "She died... She, she fell off her yacht a few nights ago... She drowned because her gowns and everything was too heavy for her to swim to the surface in."
The group fell silent.
"Oh, my..." the white unicorn's (Blast, what was her name? Charity? Clarity? Rarity? Yes, that was it!) voice fell solemn. "Forgive me. The news had not reached us in Ponyville yet. Such a tragedy."
"Yes..." Otto nodded. "She was a great admirer of all of you, but she was a very young mayor, one of the youngest Manehatten ever had. She was simply too busy trying to stay on her hooves to give the defenders of Equestria a proper welcome as they deserve. Me? I'm not going to be making that mistake."
The tour continued on without any further series issue. Otto was only too aware that he had to keep in the good books of these six ponies: The pink one already seemed to distrust him, muttering and giving him glares, but the others seemed to assume it was part of her characteristic 'randomness', much to Otto's relief and Pinkie's frustration.
Otto was very curious to hear some of the stories that Princess Twilight had to share with him as the six friends and the Manehatten mayor shared dinner. Many were primarily of the exploits of Twilight and her friend in Ponyville and beyond. Some of it was quite mundane, but others stories and ponies? Well, they were very interesting indeed.
"So, tell me more about this Starlight Glimmer." Otto asked the princess over the table. "A unicorn who could... Steal cutie marks?"
"Oooh!" Pinkie squealed. "She was a mean meanie pants. I warned everyone that her and her creepy town's smiles were bad news, and then we had to eat these really horrible muffins! I was like 'Me?! Why Meee?!' and AJ was like 'Ya' gotta' do it, Pinkie, you got a bigger mouth than all of us.' and then I was like all urrrgh..." she gagged, and Otto took it as an opportunity to get back onto the topic he really cared about.
"But she stole all your cutie marks, and... Rendered you powerless?"
"Not just powerless." Twilight replied. "It robbed us of our entire identities."
"Sure did." Applejack added. "I couldn't even do a countryism if it would'a won me a last chance saloon rodeo."
"It was totally uncool." Rainbow Dash agreed. "We had to rely on several other ponies to get them back. It was soooo humiliating. I'm meant to THE best flier in Ponyville, and I couldn't even get any speed on!"
"I..." The extremely quiet yellow Pegasus known as Fluttershy squeaked. "...I couldn't understand the birds."
"I'm sorry?" Otto gave her a confused look, not quite hearing her properly.
"I... I can talk to animals, but I couldn't when I was under Starlight's spell." She answered with only slightly more volume to her soft voice.
"I see..." Otto nodded. "Sounds... Awful."
"Oh it was!" Fluttershy squeaked again, louder still, and yet it was barely as loud as a polite inside voice. "She kept us all locked up in this tiny little room, and made me lie about turning on my friends, and, and, she tried to make me turn in some of the other members of her village. It was so horrible!"
"I can imagine." Otto frowned. "I assure you, I'm very keen to meet this Starlight Glimmer. I'd want to have a few words with her, that much is a promise."
It was a promise, through and through: A charismatic cult leader of a pony, with exceptional magical powers, and a spell which could remove cutie marks and render a pony powerless?! He needed that spell, and as he waved the six friends taxis to a nearby hotel after their dinner at his home, he immediately hatched a plan.
To the magnificent Starlight Glimmer,
News of your magical talent, fantastic leadership skills, passionate charisma, and hypnotic beauty have reached my ears, and compelled me to write this letter to you. If you are reading this, Celestia has been kind, and allowed my courier to find you. I would humbly invite you to Manehatten, as it would make my heart skip a beat to lay eyes upon you, and share with you my plans on how, together, we can better my home town of Manehatten, and perhaps later on the entire of Equestria. With your magical skill, and my considerable resources, we could truly bring about a harmony to this land, unlike any other which has been seen before, or shall ever be seen since.
Most excellent Starlight, if my words compel you as you've compelled me, please come to Manehatten and find me. I have attached directions to where and when we should meet, and negotiate on our plans. I ask only that, upon reading this letter, you burn it immiediately after, for I have met the demagogue, Twilight Sparkle, and know her to be an incidious and clever pony, who would surely seek to undermine us both if word reached her that I sought your aid.
Yours sincerely,
A Distant Admirer.
Otto exhaled slightly as he hovered the letter slightly above his desk, quietly reading it back to himself, checking it for any spelling errors or mistakes. Satisfied, he placed the letter in an envelope, sealing it with a plain wax seal, unadorned with crests or markings, lest it incriminate either party in the event it was intercepted by someone who's eyes weren't intended to ever know of this letter's content. With that, he levitated the finished document to Fleetwood, dropping it down into his saddlebag: He was a loyal, but clever servant, and if anyone could find the mysterious Starlight Glimmer, after she'd gone into hiding after the revolt in Ourtown, it would be him. Oh, what an unexpected turn this had been; it was not in Otto's original plan to recruit this strange, cultic pony, but it was an opportunity he dare not miss...