• Published 11th Apr 2014
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Across the Boundary - Forthwith



A collection of side stories for the Seeking Power series.

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A Day at Court

Twilight pulled out the fragmented remains of Star Swirl’s catastrophic failure. She had found them quite by accident in an ancient ruins that was, until two weeks ago, inhabited by a doomsday cult preaching the coming of eternal night.

It was usually EIS’s job to disperse such gatherings, but their leader had somehow managed to acquire a powerful, and corrupting, artifact known as the alicorn amulet. With the amulet in the picture, the mission was a bit beyond ordinary agents so Twilight had gone herself.

It had been an unusually amusing task, with the sharks and monologuing and all other manner of ridiculous evil plots. Twilight knew she would remember it fondly for years to come, but that was another story altogether. The real delight was discovering the lost spell.

Having worked nearly twice as hard as usual – an epic feat considering the archmage already slept on average one hour a day – Twilight managed to clear her schedule for the next week. Putting off research on the scraps of the spell she found for two weeks had been hard, so Twilight eagerly plunged into it with fervor.

And yet, Twilight managed only a single hour of study before duty called once more.

Celestia appeared in a condensing mass of light. Twilight had never given Celestia the magical signature required to teleport into her tower, but it never seemed to matter. Celestia’s variant on the teleport spell, which she still refused to teach Twilight, went right through the tower’s wards and traps.

“Twilight, I am really, really sorry to ask this of you, but could you please hold court for me today?”

Holding court was one of the many aspects of politics that Twilight loathed. Petitioners grouped into a conga line and if they performed the dance right, would extract a random favor directly from the crown.

The one time Twilight had attended, not held, court when she was younger had ended in sufficient disaster for Celestia to excuse Twilight from the requirement to attend.

Twilight bit her lip and tried to calm down, meeting with partial success.

“You know, I did clear my schedule for the entire week to work on something utterly unrelated to politics. Do you know how hard that was?”

Celestia knew exactly how hard it was to get a free day, let alone a free week. In more than a thousand years of ruling, she managed a free week perhaps once or twice a decade.

A moment of Celestia’s awkward shuffling passed, accompanied by a deep sigh from Twilight.

“Only half the regular time, okay?”

Celestia nodded, giving Twilight a genuine smile, not the eternal calm smile that otherwise dominated her face. “Thank you. I am sure you will think of a way I can return the favor later.”

Twilight smiled too, but unlike Celestia’s happy smile, this one was clearly malevolent. “Oh, I too am sure of that.”


The court heralds had hauled out and dusted the archmage’s throne and had placed it on the dais below Celestia’s unoccupied throne.

Twilight’s seat was similarly unoccupied, but she stood waiting nearby. Her constant absence from open court gave her the perfect opportunity to make a spectacular entrance and she was not going to let it go to waste.

With the aid of a few spells, Twilight could see and hear everything that went on in the court hall. The heralds went through the usual motions and speeches and brought a crowd of ponies into the hall. There seemed to be some confusion concerning the presence of the second throne, but ultimately it passed unremarked.

There were many nobles, several wealthy businessponies, and a wingful of regular ponies. The nobles assembled at the front of the line according to their current rank in the complex social game they played.

Behind the nobles stood the nouveau riche who had long since learned that they would leave court without a headache if they just let the nobles go first. A few of them with more family history managed to get into line in the midst of the nobles.

At the very end came the plebeians who assumed some sort of fair ordering had just taken place.

The heralds called for order according to the script and everypony turned their attention to the throne, ready to bow to their princess.

Twilight had told the heralds in advance that she intended to have everypony wait a bit, so they stood at attention, awaiting her arrival. The petitioners had been given no such warning, and within a few seconds began to show their confusion.

Once Twilight felt the suspense had sufficiently built, she began a few of her more theatrical spells.

Slowly, Twilight appeared on her throne, solidifying and bringing together distant shadows to create her body.

She was sitting with her back on the throne in the manner of a seapony with her hindlegs crossed. Her head was held in her left hoof as she leaned into the side arm of the throne. A small glass of red wine floated nearby, suspended in Twilight’s telekinetic grip.

Twilight was wearing the torc of her office and a pointed hat that would have looked silly if any other pony had worn it. Upon Twilight’s brow, it evoked images of the legendary Star Swirl.

Each and every noble and nearly every businesspony had one thought, Perhaps I should come back during the next open court.

Twilight grinned just enough for it to be visible, but not enough to suggest she was actually happy to be here. A small giggle escaped her and somehow it echoed across the entire hall multiple times before fading.

The front of the line looked around nervously, nearing full panic.

In a chilly voice, Twilight called out to the lead herald, “Summon the first petitioner.”

Even with an advance warning, the heralds gulped. Their leader then unrolled the scroll listing petitioner names and called out, “Count Wildgrass!”

The count stood at the front of the queue and looked around for any escape. Finding none, he took a cautious step forward and stopped, his courage lost.

Even in fear, his speech was as eloquent as usual. “Please excuse me, Archmage Twilight. I have just remembered an important matter I must attend to.”

Count Wildgrass waited for a small nod of approval from Twilight that was slow in coming and executed slower. Afterward, he bolted from the court in a manner completely at odds with his diction.

Twilight nodded towards the lead herald who once more unrolled his scroll. However, this time he was interrupted by a series of polite excuses from multiple ponies who had also suddenly remembered important matters that required urgent attention.

Soon, only the ponies at the end of the line remained behind.

Twilight waited a few moments more. Once she was confident that nopony else was going to leave, she let the masquerade fall apart.

“Alright, now that everypony with trivial problems has left, call the first petitioner.”

Everypony remaining in the hall relaxed and Twilight could actually hear many of their sighs. The lead herald opened the scroll and frantically tried to determine who was currently at the front of the line.

Seeing the inevitable failure coming, Twilight interposed, “Whoever is currently at the front of the line, please come forward and help our poor herald out.”


Celestia was…not exactly exasperated. There were a lot of conflicting emotions running through her, but disappointment and admiration were competing to become dominate.

She had returned to Canterlot Castle to the cries of several nobles asking she hold a second court today. Of course, Celestia had made it quite clear that she would not be holding court again until the regularly scheduled time, but nevertheless had listened to their complaints.

“Twilight, do you think that, in any way, what you did today was appropriate?”

Taking a few seconds, Twilight pretended to reconsider her actions.

“Yep. I’m pretty sure I addressed exactly the set of ponies with real reasons for being there.”

Celestia really wanted to say something scolding to that, but the truth was, she often wanted to do the same thing and could never figure out how. It was one thing to scare a crowd once, but it was another thing entirely to do so twice.

Sitting down, Celestia rubbed her forehead with her hooves. Nothing Twilight had done was illegal, even in the most technical, word of the law, sense, so there were no legal grounds to punish her with.

Still, something had to be done to placate the nobility who were even more inflamed against the archmage than usual. That, and Celestia wanted to get even with Twilight for getting the nobility entrenched outside her chambers.

“I really wish banning you from open court was a punishment…”

Twilight could not help laughing at that. “Why don’t we just consider ourselves even? I technically did hold court for you, so you can deal with the fallout for me.”

“Ugh… Fine. I suppose I have a mob to go fight now…”

“Have fun,” said Twilight, face beaming.

Celestia rolled her eyes as her horn glowed. Dissolving into light, she disappeared.