//------------------------------//
// 208 - Learning to Let Go 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Fast tapped the ground. "So, the way I see it, if you really want to do your thing, you should."

Night smiled a faint moment but it was overtaken by a frown. "But I leave all of... everyone... Nobody will follow me."

Fast tilted her head. "It's lonely being a leader. You want to lead, right?"

Night scowled at Fast. "You're a 'leader', but here you are surrounded by--"

"Strangers I learned to love." Fast snorted softly. "It's kept me away from those I love... Make your choice, but do so. Don't leave Silver thrashing on the wire."

Night got to her own hooves, shaking. "But... I thought you loved me too?"

Fast raised a brow. "I like you... I like you a lot, in fact, but there was one pony that insisted, insisted that I was worth being with just exactly the way I was, and it wasn't you. Heck, even the changelings prefer me to wear my carapace or my unblemished form... Even they..." Fast glanced away suddenly. "If you won't accept him just the way he is, I will. I will gather up his broken pieces and nurse him to health. I will..." Tears began to fall from her face. "I will... He didn't abandon me, I won't abandon him."

Night shrank back from the emotional display, and her sharp mind went to work. "You're hoping I leave."

"Yes!" confessed Fast. When a changeling came in, likely to see what had made his que--princess make such a noise, she pointed right back out the door and they fled. "Yes... He loves you, more than anything in the world, and he'll do what he has to for you, but... if he loses you, then maybe I have a chance..." She smiled a little. "I'm horrible, but no more horrible than you."

Night glanced around feverishly. Her plans were crumbling to ash before her. All she thought she could gain easily was so much soot running between her hooves. "B-but..."

"Have your herd." Fast snorted. "I will marry him, either alone or..." She tapped the book Silver left behind. "I'll share him with the other princesses if I have to. Go and be free."

"I don't want to be free," whispered Night in a small voice, shivering.

"What do you want?"

Night didn't know. She felt like she didn't know anything.

"You ran away from your own foals." Fast snorted softly. "You ran away from the stallion that has known only love and awe for you. Go!" Fast rose to her tall stature. "Go on, go! I only have room for one stallion, and you're not it!"

"F-fast..." Being spoken to that way, it hurt... Night didn't need her! She could... She ran the numbers in her head and paled. She sank to the ground. How had she ever allowed the odds to become so skewed against her?

"Go!"

Night sniffled and cried, it was all she could think to do. A spectral form appeared beside her. "You didn't call... but I couldn't ignore the pain." Her grandfather set a wing over her prone form. "What happened? Did he do something?" She wailed all the harder.





Silver had left. Night was in a safe place, or so he thought. With Fast seemed like one of the safer places he knew, and he took wing back to the castle. Though he still shook just faintly, he had control of himself. He was a prince... He had to act like it.

He marched through the castle just to see a familiar face and smile. "Prince Blueblood."

Blueblood looked up at him. "Hmm? Yes?"

"I was hoping to get your advice on a few things." He dipped his head at Blueblood. "I may be an alicorn prince, and that's fine, but you were born to it, so--"

"--So you thought to approach a natural." Blueblood smiled, his ego happy with Silver's logic. "This way. Princes like us shouldn't speak in view of the common folk." He began to lead Silver away down some side hallways into a luxuriously appointed room, even by Canterlot's standards. "My room. Please, make yourself at home." He settled beside a table and began to mix a drink. "I was wondering if you'd try to make do on your own, in fact, you've lost me a little wager."

Silver looked embarrassed, but he smiled. "Oh think nothing of it. I'd rather lose such a wager than have a poor prince installed. Besides,  I didn't bet too much." He poured the drink out into two shots and slid one down with magic towards Silver. "So tell me, sources say you were not a unicorn to begin, not even a pony, and here you are. Is this a power play?"

"No no no!"

"Oh the look on your face. You're either being truthful, or you're an exceptionally poor politician." He raised a brow. "You strike me as a bit of both. No need to be shy. You've risen from nothing to the highest rank we offer. Surely some part of you thrills at the opportunity."

Silver lifted the glass he was offered and let his magic run through it. It wasn't as if he could 'feel' poison, but he felt safer somehow. He slipped softly. "I want to do right by Equestria." It tasted... of alcohol. He had no sense of the nuances.

"You sound like Auntie." He leaned up a little. "That's a compliment, by the way."

Silver quirked a smile. "Would it be wrong to say I hope to be as good a prince as she is a princess?"

"Lofty." He tilted his glass towards Silver, only bringing it back after they clinked softly together. "But let's start with the small things. Foal steps, as they say it, but I dislike that saying. Foals will take more steps than they can manage, and often end up belly down on the ground."

Silver nodded stiffly. "I'll try to avoid that, look, Blueblood..." He rolled a hoof. "How much flak should I expect?"

"Hmm? Well, you have an inherent issue... Cadance, well, she was, and is, breathtaking. She won over the hearts of the populace just by smiling at them, mostly. She was also competent and composed, no, she did not have it hard, despite not being well known at the start. Despite all that... she waited such a long time before her proper assignment, being little more than Auntie's niece, and she became a figure over time.  Hmm, Auntie was shrewd..."

"What about me?" Silver pointed at himself. "I have to be crowned, but I don't have to ru--"

"Not the same thing." Blueblood shook a hoof. "To start, you are already a known adult. You have a position, and you have a record. You can't hide behind Auntie so easily. No, I'm afraid you're going to make a splash whether or not you want to." He downed the last of his drink. "So, if it's going to happen either way, why not make the best of it?" He raised his brows together. "You're entering the pool on the deep end, a smooth entry is impossible, so... at least make it a splash worth remembering, perhaps to a purpose you can support."

Silver nodded, then wobbled a hoof. "May I ask something potentially personal?"

"Hmm? Something about me? You've captured my  curiosity."

"No, I mean, marriage."

"No, thank you."

Silver blushed. He had been shot down by Blueblood. "Not what I meant. I mean, I--"

"I'm just teasing you." Blueblood gently nudged him. "We're to be peers, we should know a little levity." He poured a fresh drink for them both. "I know of your tangled romantic life. Auntie asked me about it a few days ago, in fact. You already have a foal, two in fact. The simplest answer would be to wed Night--"

"What if she doesn't want to?"

He frowned at the thought. "Well, that complicates things. If she insists on not being wed, well..." He rolled a hoof. "Remember that splash? You could be a stallion clinging to the old ways and become a prince with a herd, but that won't work, not with things as they are."

"Why not?" The idea that it could work at all had Silver's attention.

"Oh that's quite simple." He raised a brow as he tipped his glass. "You only have one mare. The other is insane. You can't marry her, and even after she gains a clean bill of health, it will remain something of a... questionable move. Regardless, not so soon as to matter to your coronation, so she's out. That leaves Night, and that's one mare." He held up a hoof. "One mare does not a herd make, not in the eyes of the people. You're just playing both sides of the field, as it were."

Silver's ears perked. He thought of Celestia and Luna, they may agree to such things, but would Night? Would Blueblood like the idea of him going after his 'Aunts'? "What about Fast Change?"

"The changeling?" He tapped his chin. "Actually, if you made it part of your theme... Yes. Imagine this. What if you married one of every race you brought to peace? Of course, that'd mean you have to find an Umbrum that catches your interest, but it would fit your title..." He brought his forehooves together in a clop. "Maybe a human female as well? Many would blush, but none would argue your right."

The umbrum female hadn't done it, but the mention of the human female, that made him blush...

"Of course, that would involve you bringing the lunar pegasi to proper peace."

"Hmm?"

He gestured. "While many of them live quite peaceful lives, many more are dissatisfied. You've met a few, to say nothing of the trouble raised against them because they're 'scary'." His snout wrinkled at the word and he drew from the smooth alcohol. "You would be the one to fix that. I would make that your first 'official' business as a prince, this herd business completely aside. The whole matter is a nasty wound on the side of Equestria that we've been ignoring dutifully for too long. I doubt you will, however. You don't like to ignore things." He smiled a little. "At least, that's what I expect."

Blueblood slid to his hooves. "You must be overwhelmed. You've barely put forward any ideas of your own. Relax. The coronation is all well and fine in Auntie's hooves."

Silver stood up as well and thanked Blueblood for his help, but he was gently being shown the door.

"We simply must do this more often, but I have things to do, as do you. Good luck, Prince."