This Platinum Crown

by Capn_Chryssalid

Chapter Thirty Three : Friendship is an Alliance (I)

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(33)

Friendship is an Alliance (I)

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Lyra Heartstrings trotted slowly through the Crystal Catacombs, her eyes unfocused.

A mild headache threatened to disrupt her concentration, so she honed in on Bon Bon. She followed Bon Bon. Bon Bon knew where they were going and what they had to do. The earth pony’s familiar, soft yellow coat put her at ease among the otherwise strange surroundings, the swishing pink and blue tail soothing as a metronome keeping time. Lyra barely even felt the golden lyre strapped to her back in lieu of a saddlebag.

It had been a surprise to find Bon Bon waiting for her here, of all places, in the vast network of crystal caverns beneath Canterlot. Queen Cadance had introduced them and told them that they would be living and working together in the caves. Lyra was to be a bridesmaid for the Queen, and that entailed certain responsibilities. Lord Brass… Lord Brass had… had…

Lyra shook her head again.

Following Bon Bon, she shied away from a beautiful but dangerous-looking cluster of crystals, the cavern around them like the inside of a geode, all glittering sharp edges and tapering points. A bead of sweat ran over and down the side of her horn. Shades of pink were everywhere, all around them, and it would probably take some time for her eyes to fully adjust.

Even her room – her room and Bon Bon’s – was made of crystal. It was pretty to look at, but nopony wanted to sleep on the stuff. Fortunately, somepony had brought down a large roll-up bed and some basic furniture to make things livable. The most important things were the bridesmaid dresses, she had been told. She wore hers now, actually. It was yellow with gold-hemmed puffs around the midriff and a red belt. A pink pearl necklace circled her neck, though, thinking about it… she remembered another necklace… white pearls and…

And it was hard to remember.

There were two other bridesmaids, too. They had introduced themselves when Queen Cadance had brought Lyra into the caverns. There was Minuette, a frost blue unicorn with a two-toned mane of ceil and cobalt… and Twinkleshine, another unicorn, an off-white Canterlot mare with a pink mane and tail. Strangely, they both had identical green eyes. The two other bridesmaids seemed friendly enough, though. Minuette was staying with her coltfriend Bristle and Twinkleshine was here with her sister, Rainshine. They all shared rooms… just like she and Bon Bon did.

“Something wrong, Lyra?” Bon Bon asked, glancing back over her shoulder.

“I was just… I’m still just surprised, I guess.” Lyra laughed nervously and tried to smile. “I’m glad you’re here, Bon Bon! But it really was a surprise to bump into you like this!”

“Her Majesty, Queen Cadance, has been planning this for some time,” Bon Bon replied, leading them down a calcite hall rigged with dangling lanterns. “She contacted me soon after you left to meet with Lord Brass.”

“But what about your sweets shop?” Lyra asked, realizing this had to be some of what was gnawing at her. It had been all hugs and reunions at first, and then meeting the other bridesmaids, and a little pep talk from the Queen, but not a lot of explanation. “You were working on a new toffee treat when I left… something to go with the toffee apples… You were so excited, but coming here…”

“What’s important is serving The Queen,” Bon Bon insisted, locking eyes with Lyra for a moment. There was a greenish haze and suddenly it all made sense. It all became so clear.

“What’s important is serving The Queen,” Lyra agreed. That was what was important. Serving The Queen. It was important. More important than anything else.

What was important was serving The Queen.

“Glad you agree,” Bon Bon said with a little giggle. “We’re almost there.”

“Almost where?” Lyra asked. It was just crystal and more crystal down here.

“You’ll see! Being a bridesmaid is about more than protecting and serving The Queen at the wedding. You need to protect and serve her in all ways and at all times.”

“That makes sense,” Lyra readily agreed. Bon Bon was a smart pony. What was important was serving The Queen. In all ways and at all times. One didn’t just serve the Queen during the wedding. That was silly. The Queen had to be protected and served all the time.

“Here we go!” Bon Bon exclaimed, giggling again.

Up ahead, Lyra saw Twinkleshine and her sister Rainshine, a white unicorn mare with a blue highlighted mane, struggling with a load. She recognized it right away. It was Prince Blueblood. The big stallion was on a stretcher, tied down and unconscious. Twinkleshine had to do all the work moving him, though. Rainshine wasn’t using her magic to help. Which was strange. Why…

Lyra grimaced, feeling the headache coming back.

She watched, silently, next to Bon Bon as Twinkleshine moved the sleeping Prince into a crystal-lined room. No, it wasn’t just a room: it was a cell. She propped him up against the side and replaced his restraints with chains. The fetters fixed securely around his hooves, looking like heavy cast iron. Each one had a wax seal on it, though, indicating it was enchanted somehow. Lyra couldn’t read the inscription on the seals to see what magic was involved, not from so far away. It was probably just something to make them harder to break or something to make it impossible for a unicorn to pick or break the lock.

Finally, Rainshine gave Twinkleshine a seal to place around the Prince’s horn. They weren’t taking any chances with him, it seemed. Lyra supposed she didn’t blame them. The Bluebloods were supposed to be the most powerful unicorn family in the world. That likely wasn’t as true these days as it was in the past, but Lyra’s own family had held the Bluebloods up as a unicorn ideal. All the powerful unicorn families of note sprouted from the Blueblood tree. This one was big, too, even for a stallion. Keeping him locked up was a smart move.

Why was he here again…?

“Lyra,” Bon Bon warned. “Focus.”

“Oh… yeah,” Lyra felt the headache recede at the sound of Bon Bon’s voice. Blueblood was here for some reason. The Queen wanted him here. That was all she needed to know. Thinking that, she felt better. “Sorry!”

“The Queen wants to keep him sedated,” Bon Bon went on to explain, tapping Lyra on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’re safe.”

Lyra nodded slowly. “Yeah. We’re safe.”

“He isn’t what I wanted to show you, though. Come here.”

Bon Bon lead her a short distance to an adjacent cell. Like Blueblood’s, it was cut or shaped out of the crystal caverns themselves, forming a naturally magic resistant and magic repellent prison. The only weak spot was the door, which was covered in only a fine layer of crystal grown over wood. More magical seals had been attached and inscribed all over the surface of this door to keep the occupant properly pacified. Lyra counted a half dozen of them, some old and some very new. All hung by stamped wax seals. There was no window to see inside.

“What’s in here?” Lyra asked, instantly curious what would merit so much magical containment. “Some kinda monster? There are probably fewer seals on the Tartarus Gate!”

“Inside here…” Bon Bon rapped the door gently with her hoof. “Is a very special pony. A pony you and the other bridesmaids have to keep contained, by the order of her Majesty, The Queen.”

“A pony?” Lyra raised an eyebrow at her marefriend’s evasive description. “What do you mean the other bridesmaids and me?”

“She has to be fed and given water and kept reasonably healthy,” Bon Bon explained, retrieving a small square-looking key from her plain brown saddlebag. “You need to change her chamber pot once every few days and check the room for any sort of mischief.”

“She isn’t chained up?” Lyra asked, noticing Rainshine and Twinkleshine approaching after closing Blueblood’s cell door.

“No,” Bon Bon continued, holding the key up to a heavy metal slot in the door. “The Queen wants her mostly free to move, but helpless to actually escape.”

“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Lyra observed. They’d chained up the Prince and there were other cells in the catacombs, or so she thought. Who was this special pony?

“That’s why you’re here,” Bon Bon replied, and Rainshine walked up to the door, also inserting a key. There was a lock on the opposite side of the door, too.

“The door can only be opened with two of our keys, and whenever somepony goes in, she should be with another bridesmaid and at least one of us,” Rainshine explained, pointing to herself and then to Bon Bon. “Two of you together should have no problem keeping this one subdued.”

“Or doing other things,” Bon Bon noted with a smirk.

Lyra gave Twinkleshine a glance to see if the other mare knew what their friend and sister had in mind here, but Twinkleshine merely stared blankly forward. It was like she was mostly there, mostly aware of her surroundings, but a little lost. Her eyes were so green they almost glowed. But… ponies didn’t have glowing eyes… did they?

Twin clicks unlocked the door.

Without a word, Rainshine and Bon Bon opened the door, revealing the contents of the cell beyond. It was a room much like Blueblood’s, but rather than a Prince, this prison contained a Princess. A very familiar looking Princess…

The once pristine pink coat was dirty and disheveled, knotted with filthy streaks on the face and hooves, strands of a once colorful violet, rose-pink and beige mane stuck together and falling like a tangled net over a slim torso. Hearing the door open, a pair of wings flexed and tensed, pink except as they tapered to the tips of the feathers, where the color of pastel purple gradually dominated. Defiant violet eyes glared up at the four intruding mares from beneath the mat of twisted hair, daring them to come closer. The long sealing cylinder over the horn atop this pony’s head had seen much use. Many of the seals had been burned out entirely, leaving circular scars in the device where the wax had vaporized. More had taken their place, giving it a patchwork appearance.

Lyra turned up her nose at the smell. The room was ripe, and there was a whiff like one would get trotting by an outhouse. There was a dirty hay pallet to sleep on, and Bon Bon had said they changed the chamber pot… how often? Every few days? That seemed unnecessarily cruel. Why…

What was important was serving The Queen.

“Lyra Heartstrings,” Bon Bon said, making polite introductions. She gestured grandly at the prone alicorn, adding a little flourish with her hoof. “Princess Cadance.”

Lyra’s eyes widened as she overcame the smell and tentatively approached the mare. “The Queen is…”

“Your Queen is a monster,” the filthy alicorn hissed, starting to rise up on elegant, still muscular legs. “A monster and a slave to her sick appetites.”

“Now, why do you have to go and say these sorts of things? Untrue things?” Bon Bon nodded to Rainshine, and the unicorn in turn prodded Twinkleshine.

“She insulted The Queen,” Rainshine said, and Twinkleshine’s horn started to glow.

It was… black.

There was some sort of black energy in Twinkleshine’s star field. It was in her eyes, too, though mostly drowned out by the green. Lyra watched and turned to Cadance as a bolt of black and more-normal blue slammed into her. The Princess of Love clutched her face and screamed as Twinkleshine’s magic did something to her eyes. She fell to the floor and rolled on her back, hissing and biting back her pain.

“She’s getting too used to that,” Rainshine observed with a snort.

Lyra took a moment to notice Twinkleshine’s cutie mark: three blue five-pointed stars. It was a normal enough cutie mark, except there was almost… something superimposed behind it. More stars, fainter ones. A constellation, maybe? Lyra was well read; she knew her astronomy as well as any unicorn. The fainter stars looked like they formed the unicorn version of the “plow” or, in modern times, what was often called the “triangle” to differentiate it from the earth pony constellation of the same name.

It…

It reminded her of…

“Lyra,” Bon Bon’s voice commanded immediate attention. She sounded insistent.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Use your harp,” Bon Bon commanded. “Show the Princess here what you can do. That way, she’ll know not to mess with you… or us.”

“Use my harp,” Lyra repeated, and the three words echoed in her mind. ‘Use my harp. Use my harp. Use my harp.’

“Use it to…?” she asked, tenaciously. Bon Bon couldn’t mean what she thought she meant.

“Just give her ears a little ring,” Bon Bon insisted, pointing at Cadance. Since Twinkleshine had stopped her assault, the mare had recovered. She was crouched and tensed as if to pounce, rage in her violet eyes, a rage fixed firmly on Bon Bon and Rainshine. Lyra felt a protective impulse rise up. This mare… this Princess… she wanted to hurt Bon Bon. She deserved to have her ears ring.

“Do it!” Cadance snarled, seeming to sense the moment’s hesitation. “Show me what you’ve got. Lyra, was it? Show me what you can do.”

Lyra whipped out the golden harp strapped to her back.

Power. She felt power thrum through the instrument, through her, surging through her veins and into her horn. All this power, black and thick as molasses, where had it all come from? She remembered a room… a vast and incalculable vault… a gift! Lord Brass. It was Lord Brass’s parting gift to her. That and an antique harp she had come to treasure. Power like no pony must have felt in hundreds of years!

She felt hands – ethereal hands – move through her mane to hold her harp. Black tinted her normal golden magic, intruding into it and strengthening it, opening up new possibilities. The fingers only she could see trailed along the strings, just brushing them with the pads of those nimble digits, ever so faintly. Lyra felt a phantom of pain in her horn and over her hooves. The magic hurt a little, it was so cold…

So… unbelievably cold…

But a little pain could open a pony’s eyes. Lyra’s body tensed. She wanted, more than anything, to strike a chord with those fingers. Any chord! This Princess wanted to hear her?

What was important was serving The Queen.

Lyra focused her eyes on Cadance, this Princess Cadance who was an enemy of her Queen, and struck a simple glissandi starting at D.

The effect was immediate. Twinkleshine’s ears perked up and she made a soft sound, almost confused, as if hearing for the first time. Bon Bon and Rainshine were more focused on Cadance, and they grinned viciously at how the alicorn clutched at her ears and curled into a fetal ball. The sound of the harp seemed to echo within the walls of the cell long after the strings had been played, repeating over and over and over with a black note that cut into Princess Cadance like shards of glass.

‘This… this isn’t what…’

What was important was serving The Queen!!

Lyra’s doubt died a premature death, smothered and drowned out by the conditioned impulse.

“Very good!” Bon Bon cheered, chapping her hooves. “Look at her squirm! She hasn’t done that in weeks!”

“Her ears are bleeding,” Rainshine noted with a disdainful sniff. She glanced over at Lyra. “You didn’t deafen her, did you?”

“I don’t think so,” Lyra replied, a little unsteady at the accusation. “I did… I did what you told me to…”

“Rainshine here isn’t mad,” Bon Bon explained, pulling Lyra closer for a quick hug. “She just doesn’t want to learn sign language to order around a deaf pony.”

“How would sign language even work with these?” Rainshine lifted a hoof and waved it around like a limp noodle. “Stupid ponies.”

“Language,” Bon Bon warned. Taking control of the situation, she made as if to approach the downed Princess but thought the better of it. “Lyra. Check her ears, would you, please?”

“Sure thing… Bon Bon…”

Cautiously approaching the downed alicorn, Lyra reached for the mare’s head. She could see a trickle of blood dripping from the mare’s ears. Had she really done that? Even if it was for Her Majesty, The Queen, this wasn’t what music was for. With the magic she had, she felt like she could bring an entire stadium of ponies to tears. Using it like this was just… not wrong, because that would imply The Queen was wrong… but wasteful.

Tilting Cadance’s head, she wiped away the blood and tried to look more closely. It was hard to tell.

“Can you hear me?” she decided to ask.

For a moment, Cadance said nothing… then she snapped out a hoof to grab Lyra by the throat. The bridesmaid yelped in pain and fright. It felt like the Princess’ grip could clip a pony’s head off her neck if she really wanted to. She pulled the bridesmaid down to lock eyes, and in those angry, violet orbs, Lyra Heartstrings could see her reflection.

Her reflection. Her reflection… with green eyes.

“I don’t have green eyes,” she whispered.

“No, you don’t,” Cadance whispered back and let go.

“Bitch!” Bon Bon snarled, pulling Lyra back. “Twinkleshine. Give her another.”

“You heard her,” Rainshine added. “Go on, sister.”

Twinkleshine’s magic surged forth again. Lyra didn’t watch it this time. She turned her eyes to her own flank, where seven stars, two of them so tiny as to almost be invisible, were imposed beneath her cutie mark. The large one was Vega, and the rest formed a triangle and a diamond. Together, they were the lyre. The constellation. It wasn’t just drawn in. It was a part of her cutie mark.

Finally, Bon Bon called for Cadance’s punishment to end, and they replaced her filthy chamber pot. Rainshine brought in a new water bowl… like a pony would give to a dog. At least the water was clean.

“Where’s my bread?” Cadance asked, letting the other mares go about their business. She shifted a manacle attached to her left hind leg, revealing a patch of her coat almost worn down to the skin. The chain led into a huge block of crystal, keeping her from even reaching the cell’s door.

“No bread today,” Rainshine told her with a sneer.

“No bread yesterday, no bread the day before that? You have to feed me!” Cadance snarled but hung her head. “If I die… if I die… your Queen won’t go a week before she’s revealed for the fake she is. For the parasite you all are! They’ll expose her… and find her… and kill her. Every noble mare and stallion in the country will chase her down and kill her for this.”

Cadance glared up at Bon Bon and Rainshine.

“Do you understand?” The desperate alicorn struggled to stand back up on wobbling legs and held herself with as much dignity as she could muster. “So come back with some damned bread.”

Rainshine scoffed.

“We’ll think about it,” Bon Bon promised. “Come on, Lyra. Let’s go.”

What was important was serving The Queen.

“Y-yeah, okay,” Lyra agreed, following her marefriend. Twinkleshine and Rainshine weren’t close behind, electing to follow Bon Bon as well. Lyra stole one last look at the caged Princess under the guise of observing the two unicorn sisters.

When they were all gone, Cadance was left alone in her cell. She reached up to the side of her face and wiped away a smear of blood.

“Lyra Heartstrings,” the Princess whispered to herself, “and my brother, too?”

She smiled behind her hoof.

“…Finally.”

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“She’s asleep?”

“Yes, sir.”

Prince Blueblood – which was to say, the changeling currently in the guise of the arrogant Prince – furrowed her brow, though her brow was now his brow. She was upset. It was very upsetting. There had been only a torrent of frankly upsetting news, and it was not making her into any more pleasant a pony! Or changeling!

“You are telling me,” she growled in the Prince’s voice, “that Miss Twilight Sparkle… despite living in a library, chooses to come to my home, to eat my food, to enter my library, repeatedly now, all so she can snuggle up with a book and go to sleep?”

“Two books,” Sir Mercury corrected her, his head bowed in respect. “Your Grace.”

“Two books,” Blueblood repeated. “What were these two books?”

The dutiful Royal Guard coughed into his hoof, a little anxious at having to say more on the subject. “‘Warfare in the Pre-Classical Period’ and ‘Saddle Marabia: a Study in Contrasts.’”

What sort of useless books were those?

“The two books may not be available at the public library, Your Grace,” Mercury speculated. “Should I check and see?”

Blueblood rounded her desk – his desk – and took a seat on a raised cushion. Placing her hooves on the desk, she took a moment to breathe slowly and laboriously. It was taxing being in charge like this. As Pixie Dust, she had been relatively free to consolidate her cover. Very few ponies paid much attention to Pixie Dust. The hardest part had been making the initial switch. It had involved luring the mare away between transits to and from Brass’s Hanging Gardens. It had been risky but rewarding.

Being Blueblood was rather different. Aside from maintaining the masquerade, she had to adopt a noblestallion’s mannerisms. She had to balance that act against the requests and demands from the Queen. The two seemed often at odds. It would be difficult making all things ready for the Swarming of Canterlot. Suspicion could not be raised. Not yet. Not until she had more changelings around her. Not until she could make troublesome ponies disappear, blind prying eyes, and gouge out unwelcome ears.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Blueblood grumbled, tapping a hoof against the desk. “No. No… I see no need. Let her sleep in the athenaeum if she finds it so comfortable. There are more important matters ahoof.”

“As you say, Your Grace,” Sir Mercury readily complied.

“Yumi,” Blueblood said, leaning forward to glare menacingly at the Royal Guard. “Where. IS. Lady. Yumi?”

Sir Mercury lowered his blue eyes to the floor, his wings tight against his sides. “We... do not know.”

“You don’t know,” Blueblood repeated, not even bothering to hide her exasperation from her tone of voice or body language, a hoof massaging a patch of forehead next to her new horn. “Fine. Where are Gale Force and Arrow Head?”

Sir Mercury steeled himself and raised his eyes to meet those of his angry Prince.

“We do not know,” he said again.

“Ah. You do not know. Tell me,” Blueblood requested, slamming a hoof onto the desk hard enough to knock over a capped inkwell. “Is there anything you DO know? Sir Mercury?”

The ever-loyal Guard remained stoic in the face of the outburst. “Your Grace. They were last sighted flying into the Everfree Forest. As you are aware, my Lord, the forest grows increasingly dangerous as one nears the central valleys. Gale Force and Arrow Head were likely killed by indigenous predators or some other unforeseen danger within the forest. There were signs of a struggle in places… much of it difficult to place. There were destroyed Timberwolves at one site. Lady Yumi is likely also dead.”

“Then would it be so hard – would it be too much to ask – for you to come back with a ripped off leg or… or… a chunk of tail or anything?” Blueblood demanded. “Earth Ponies and Pegasi do not just vanish into thin air!”

“Within the Everfree, they do…”

Blueblood leaned back in her seat and ran a tongue along the inside of her teeth.

Yumi was gone. Gale Force and Arrow Head were gone. Those… those worthless, incompetent, silk-chewing, comb-fed grubs! Maybe it was best to just hope some monster in the Everfree had swallowed them whole. Hopefully, nopony would recognize their remains in some pile of monster scat in that Queen-forsaken forest.

‘Shining Armor will need new escorts to keep him in line. I need to make sure he returns to the Queen. She’ll refresh her control over him and give him new watchers. Maybe she’ll even give him ones that can do their damn jobs!’

“Shining Armor is leaving today, is he not?” Blueblood asked, rubbing her chin with the stallion’s hoof. It was so large. Too large. It felt strange after having impersonated female ponies for so long.

Sir Mercury nodded, just once. “He is, Your Grace.”

“He’s taking the train, yes?”

“He is.”

The train was slow, but it probably wasn’t an issue.

“I have a letter I wish sent to my step-sister,” Blueblood said, floating out a quill and parchment and getting to work writing. “See to it she receives this when she reunites with Sir Shining Armor. Send… send… who do you recommend we send?”

“To deliver a letter?” Sir Mercury actually let a hint of confusion color his tone, but he quickly shook his head and returned to his usual professional norm. “And… to escort the Prince-to-be. Of course. It would be an honor to trust Sir Starry Skies with such a task.”

“Starry Skies? Very well. A fine choice.” Blueblood continued to write, eyes not leaving the letter taking form on the desk under the care of her furiously scribbling pen. “I would also like you to make a list for me, Sir Mercury…”

“A list, sir?”

“I am thinking… that it would do my guard some good to…” Blueblood licked a corner of her mouth, biting back a chuckle. “To cross-train some more with my step-sister’s.”

“We are all the same Guard Company,” Mercury reminded her. “Why would we need to cross-train?”

“Royal Guards are already rotated in and out of individual duty,” Blueblood replied, pausing a moment in writing the letter to Queen Chrysalis, her ‘step-sister.’ “I’ve checked my records, and it had reminded me that I have not rotated out any of my guards in the last half year.”

“Not since the Gala, Your Grace.” Sir Mercury remained impassive, outwardly at least. “You and I hoof-picked your next guard for the coming year. You expressed a personal preference and request for--”

“And now I am hoof-picking some fresh blood!” Blueblood declared, signing her name – his name – to the document.

Mercury watched the pen move with his eyes. “Are you unhappy with our performance, my Lord?”

“Frankly, it could be better.” Blueblood’s eyes darted up to see if the jibe had any effect on the rigid Royal Guardpony. It did not. She returned to the letter to the Queen. “I was recently poisoned, Sir Mercury, and you have failed to bring the culprit to justice. If I had Lady Yumi in my hooves, that would be one thing. I could forgive all else, if only I had that, but I do not. So what am I to think?”

“Sir,” Mercury protested, “the Everfree Forest is…”

“I want three names,” Blueblood interrupted him, not caring to hear what excuses Sir Mercury thought he had. In reality, this would have happened no matter what, come failure or success. “Actually, four names. Four should do it. They will be exchanged for guards of my sister’s choosing. I have also asked her for some new attendants. I will enjoy seeing some new faces around here.”

“As my Lord wishes!” Sir Mercury said, bowing his head in what was no doubt bitter compliance.

Blueblood poured a dark brown wax over the letter she had just written. A heavy, ornate seal pressed into the wax, closing the letter. She then floated out a piece of red string to bind it for transport. A moment later, she opened the desk to retrieve a cylindrical travel case. The rolled up scroll fit perfectly inside, and she sealed it shut. What was within was written in code only changelings of the proper rank would be able to decipher, but it would not do for anything to happen to the letter… or for it to be read by prying eyes.

“Now,” she declared, resting the finished and fully sealed letter on the desk beside her. “Let us speak of Lady Yumi’s retainers.”

“Lady Rarity’s Free Company ponies continue to assist us in holding them,” Sir Mercury explained, reiterating a fact that vexed the changeling no end. Rarity had promised to hoof over the prisoners for interrogation. They were to be made to divulge their accomplices and admit their guilt. They were to name names! Especially certain names who would be best removed from the potential defense of Canterlot when the Royal Wedding brought a swift end to that city.

“And?” Blueblood prompted.

“They continue to resist us, speaking only to the Dove and Cross,” Mercury continued, head held high. “Their confessions have been witnessed by numerous ponies of good standing.”

“They have been witnessed by mercenaries and sellswords.”

“And the town gendarmes, my Lord, including the Element of Honesty herself,” Mercury reminded her, though the information did nothing to improve Blueblood’s mood.

“They are holding back on us!” Blueblood declared, rhythmically rapping the surface of the desk again with the edge of her large hoof. “This was no spur-of-the-moment act of passion! It was a clear and calculated attempt on my life! I will have all ends explored! All perpetrators hunted down!”

“They have confessed in the eyes of reputable ponies,” Mercury said again, repeating the same useless thing. “Sir, Your Grace, there is little more we can do.”

“I want another confession from them,” Blueblood insisted, and Mercury flinched ever so slightly, his façade slipping for just a heartbeat.

“Sir, we cannot have them confess a second time to the same crime. A Justice of the Court is already--”

“I do not want to hear the words ‘cannot’ coming from your mouth, Sir Mercury,” the Prince snarled. “I want to hear: ‘it will be done, Your Grace’ or ‘a way will be found, Your Grace.’ I know others are complicit in this crime.”

“Sir, respectfully, how...?” Mercury quickly caught himself and bowed his head again. “A way will be found, Your Grace.”

He said the words but without much enthusiasm.

‘He’ll fail… and his failure will be mine,’ Blueblood thought, her eyes closing as she imagined Queen Chrysalis’s rage. ‘Rarity! Damn that mare. How did she pry confessions out of those Neighponese idiots so quickly? They were only in the Free Company’s hooves for half a day. Even as a Prince, I’m limited in what I can legally do. How can I get those confessions?’

“Wait,” she said, perking up at a sudden thought. “The three all confessed?”

“They did. Together.”

“Let it be known to them that if one of them recants and confesses anew, that he or she will be rewarded… with clemency… No! With a full pardon!” Blueblood smirked at that. “One will do. The other two…” She waved a hoof dismissively. “Try Suzukaze. Tell her we have Lady Yumi. Tell her that if she cooperates, we will pardon her and Yumi both.”

“Sir, we do not have Lady Yumi…”

“I’m not an idiot! Of course we don’t have Yumi!” Blueblood roared and had to sit back down to calm herself again. She could feel the Queen breathing down her neck, expecting results. Hastily brushing back her mane with a hoof, rather missing Pixie Dust’s old mane and how it felt to wear it, she slowly counted down from five. The Queen would get what she wanted. Four. They would pave the way for the swarm. Three. The little white-coated Element of Harmony would be worn down by mind magic and pheromones after a few more days. Two. Alpha Brass would be brought to heel, not by changelings, but by his fellow ponies. One.

When Canterlot fell, when Equestria came apart, the swarm would feast and multiply.

“Tell them what I told you,” she ordered the Royal Guard.

“It is a lie, sir,” Mercury protested, much more forcefully this time. “I… I cannot…”

“What did I just tell you about that word?” Blueblood asked with deceptive calm.

“Respectfully, my Lord, my Prince… I cannot tell such a lie,” Mercury said, straight and rigid as if he had been carved from stone. He was inflexible. These ponies could be so frustratingly inflexible! The Neighponese crew were just as bad, really. It was vexing. So very, very vexing!

“My code compels me,” he tried to excuse his inability to do as ordered. “My honor…”

“Yes, your honor,” Blueblood replied and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Your objection is noted, and I retract my request.”

‘I’ll just have somepony else make the offer instead,’ she thought.

“Thank you, Your Grace,” Mercury said with a sigh of relief. “Sir, if I may speak freely…?”

“You’ve spoken freely enough as it is,” she cut him off and clopped a hoof against the desk for emphasis. “Go do as I’ve asked. I have other matters to attend to.”

“Yes, Your Grace!” Sir Mercury bowed, picked up the sealed scroll case with his teeth, and took his leave.

Sitting back in the cushions behind the Prince’s desk, the changeling in his skin furrowed her brow. Mercury would do his duty for now, but he would have to be replaced, sooner rather than later. Some ponies were morally flexible, and those were the sorts the changelings could retain use of… at least for a while.

What Sir Mercury needed to have was a marefriend.

If only he had one... then they could just replace her and control him through his loved one. He was just too inflexible and honorable to deal with otherwise. The other option was to replace him, either in the normal sense, by demoting or transferring him, or by literally replacing him with a changeling. He was a powerful pony, however, well-placed and well-known. It would look bad to send the Prince’s former guard captain to serve under his sister in exchange for anything other than another captain, which would not be forthcoming.

“Actually, wasn’t there some… showpony I remember hearing about…?” It was hard to remember. Perhaps some of the other guards would know more? It would preserve the essential illusion of the masquerade to retain the same guard captain as the real Blueblood.

Turning, she trotted over to a large bay window overlooking the manor grounds outside. Her eyes narrowed as she saw one of the dragons – the red one – perched on top of a statue. The purple one called ‘Spike’ was here, too, hanging out with the red beast while Twilight slept in the athenaeum.

“Things are moving too quickly,” the changeling whispered to herself. “My Queen. Is it wrong for me to worry? This town… is too chaotic. Our eyes and ears here are too few… and our enemies too many.”

Snorting, the false stallion returned to the desk and the papers at hoof.

She had a Duchy’s defenses to undermine.

- - -

Fluttershy wished she hadn’t squeaked quite so loudly when she answered her door. Not that there was anything wrong with squeaking. Many of her best friends squeaked. They were mice, though, so ponies expected them to squeak. Or cute little bunnies. Or weasels. These animals all tended towards the squeaking range of vocalization. Ponies didn’t. It was kind of embarrassing to squeak, especially so loudly. Fluttershy really didn’t want a reputation for being a loudmouth.

“Fluttershy?” Chalice asked from behind the less-than-formidable barrier that was her front door.

“Eep!”

Fluttershy cleared her throat only a little more loudly than she had just cheeped.

“I mean…” she tentatively opened the door, just a crack “…hello.”

Outside, there were no thunderous hoofsteps, no monstrous star-pony looming as tall as her house with empty pits for eyes, no blazing bow humming with the power of a star, and no otherworldly chill pervading the air. Outside the door on her front step was Chalice, a smaller pony than Fluttershy herself, a white cloak with soft blue trim over her pink coat. Her rust colored mane was done up in a tall bun behind her head and her eyes were downcast… as if guilty or afraid to meet Fluttershy’s own gaze.

Fluttershy dropped her eyes, too, and for a moment that would have been awkward to anypony else, the two mares sat on opposite sides of the door in embarrassed and a little frightened silence. Chalice shuffled a hoof, crossing her forelegs. Fluttershy gulped and started to open the door, only for it to catch on the little chain that served as a half-hearted lock. The chime of it seemed to draw Chalice out a little.

“Fluttershy,” she said, though she didn’t raise her eyes right away. She did after a second’s silence, though, and Fluttershy felt some relief to see they were normal and minus any otherworldly darkness. “Fluttershy, I know you probably don’t want to see me or talk to me… but… I think we should talk just a little. Then I’ll go. I promise.”

So said the pony who could turn into a giant star-monster and kill other monsters with her bare hooves.

But, strangely, maybe even stupidly, Fluttershy sort of believed her.

Nodding mutely, Fluttershy closed the door slightly, used a wingtip to unlock the latch for the chain – a chain even little, regular Chalice could probably have broken with a kick if she really wanted – and opened her front door to invite the frightfully powerful noblemare inside. No sooner was the deed done than something heavy flew through the air, prompting Fluttershy to shriek as she dove. A crash made her ears twitch and fold back, and she whirled around to see Angel Bunny huffing and puffing from the back of the living room.

Turning again, she saw the results of his handiwork. The small but unusually strong bunny had thrown a cup full of cold tea at her guest. The shattered ceramic remains were strewn about Chalice’s hooves and in her mane, along with the sticky tea that had been in the cup to begin with. Chalice had one hoof reared back to shield her face from any further attacks, and as she lowered her leg, Fluttershy could see a messy wound over her guest’s left eye.

“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry!” Fluttershy wasted no time in turning on her ‘normally’ well-behaved pet. “Angel Bunny! You apologize right now! That was terrible! We do not… are you listening?”

Angel stuck his tongue out, made a rude gesture with both paws, and jumped out an open window.

“We do not throw things at anypony or anyone in this house!” Fluttershy almost yelled out the window after him. She was tempted to give chase and scold the bunny properly but had to turn and rush into the kitchen to retrieve a towel.

Helping Chalice clean up, Fluttershy was struck by a realization.

Angel Bunny’s cup had left a bloody cut on Chalice’s forehead, close to her horn. He had hurt this pony… this same pony that had torn apart a fully mature and gravid jaculus. The same pony had killed poor Yumi’s friend and protector, Mister Shigure, with an arrow that that destroyed a hillside. Of all of them, only Angel Bunny had hurt this pony, and he had done it with a cup.

“I’m sorry,” Chalice said, holding the damp towel to her forehead with one hoof. She didn’t use her magic, even now.

“I’m the one who has to apologize,” Fluttershy insisted, sitting back and watching the mare from across her little coffee table. All the animals in her house had fled the instant Chalice entered. Now…

Now she knew why.

“Angel Bunny helped you follow me, didn’t he?” Chalice asked, dabbing at her cut before folding the towel up and putting it down next to her. “He must have seen some of what you saw. I don’t blame him for this.”

Fluttershy disagreed. “What he did was very mean and very rude, no matter who you are or what you’ve done.”

“Oh.” Chalice looked down at her hooves again. “Thank you.”

Again, the two mares sat in silence, and again, it probably would have been awkward. It probably should have been awkward. It didn’t feel that way, though. Since first meeting her in Canterlot, Fluttershy had spent hours with Chalice with hardly a word passing between them. Neither felt the need to make conversation to fill time or to set the mood. Chalice poured herself tea like an earth pony, using her hooves and her mouth and a heat-pad to keep from being burned.

“You don’t use your magic,” Fluttershy observed, remembering all the times she had privately thought it unusual. “Is it because… of…” she hesitated to describe it, so settled for “…that?”

Chalice nodded slowly and stared at her tea.

“My magic… my own magic… is white. I’m the only pony I know of with magic that color,” she admitted, slowly rotating the cup in her hooves. “My magic is like me. It doesn’t have a color by itself. My father and my brother tell me I’m strong… that I have great magic, but… but it never felt right. I always hated the color of my magic more than anything.”

She glanced up at Fluttershy. “I don’t know many ponies, but I think you understand that… it was why I felt you and I… like we could be friends.”

Fluttershy thought of her wings and felt them tighten and tense against her sides. Winter Bora, her own father, had always told her that she had strong wings and that she was a strong flier. The doctors all said she had strong wings. Ritterkreuz didn’t inherit her own wing muscles from nothing. But just because she had them didn’t mean using them came naturally. It wasn’t as if she had even ever wanted to be disappointing. It wasn’t as if she had wanted to be made fun of in flight camp.

‘Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can’t hardly fly!’

She’d wanted to fly. She’d wanted to prove herself, but…

‘I’m not like Ritterkreuz, any more than Chalice is like her sisters,’ Fluttershy thought but remembered the other day. ‘Not deep down, anyway. I don’t think. What if somepony had tried to make me into Ritterkreuz or into dad?’

“White is a pretty color,” Fluttershy said quietly. “White magic is unique.”

“You think so?” Chalice asked, genuinely surprised to hear the compliment. She smiled a little, but then it quickly faded. “But, yes, to answer your question before. My other magic turns everything black… because of the aether. Even a tiny bit of it leaks out and causes a change in magical hue and resonance.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath and looked up from her cup to fix eyes with her guest.

“Chalice,” she began, summoning her resolve. “What was that thing? That thing you turned into? Why did you… why did you do what you did? And, um… why are you here?”

“I’ll explain some of that after I ask.” Chalice took a breath of her own. “Is Lady Yumi alive?”

“Why would I…? I mean, um…? Who? Who?” Fluttershy hooted like an owl and fanned herself with a hoof, eyes darting left and right. “Who, Lady- Lady who? Y-Yumi?”

Chalice squinted her uninjured eye, clearly not convinced by the act.

“I’m not going to ask if she is here, or where, if you even know,” she said. “I won’t cause you trouble. I just want to know if you saw her leave the forest alive. You didn’t lose sight of her, did you?”

Fluttershy’s rather lackluster ‘playing dumb’ act drew an early curtain as she considered Chalice’s words… and what she had found out in the forest thanks to Zecora. That fake-Twilight Sparkle and that fake-Zecora. Chalice hadn’t outright said it, but Fluttershy could sense the implications of her question. Did you lose sight of her? Did you see her leave the forest alive?

‘She wants to know if Yumi is still Yumi!’ Fluttershy realized. ‘What should I tell her? Should I tell her anything?’

“Why were you after Yumi?” Fluttershy asked. It was rude to answer a question with another question, but she had to know. “I’ll answer you after you answer me… please.”

Chalice shifted on her seat and hastily sipped her tea, which Fluttershy knew to be still quite hot. Gently placing her cup back on the table, she looked up to Fluttershy, as if prepared to say something she would rather not have.

“Lord Blueblood wishes the capture or death of the mare who poisoned him,” she explained with a hint of sadness. “They say Lady Yumi is that mare. Carrying out the sentence would earn me the Prince’s favor. My family still wishes myself or Antimony to marry him. Also… my brother…”

“Your brother?” Fluttershy prompted, when Chalice’s voice trailed off, becoming too quiet to hear.

“My brother was worried,” Chalice said, a growing resolve in her voice. “Yumi is a powerful pony. If she were to fall under the influence of an enemy of Equestria, it would be a bad thing. After what happened at the festival, it was thought… I thought… it would be best not to take any chances. I thought: I should kill her, just to be on the safe side. I thought: that is what my sister would do… and what my brother would want.”

Fluttershy didn’t know what to say.

So she answered Chalice’s question, like she promised. “Miss Yumi… Lady Yumi I mean… she left for home. She isn’t here anymore, but—” Fluttershy bit her lip, wondering how much to say “—she is who she says she is.”

“Oh?” Chalice asked, also chocked silent for a time. “Good. Good, then. I hope she gets home safe.”

“She won’t forget what you did to Mister Shigure,” Fluttershy warned. Yumi stuck the pegasus as an easily angered mare, and as despondent and shocked as she had been the other night, that anger had always been under the surface. No, Yumi would not forget the mare who had killed her protector.

“One more enemy doesn’t matter at this point,” Chalice whispered, shaking her head. “I wish I didn’t have to do that.”

“Then why did you do it?” Fluttershy pressed, and she normally wasn’t the type to. But this wasn’t just something she could be a wallflower to. She had seen a pony die. “Why did you do it? Why do you do this at all?”

“I have to,” Chalice replied, simply.

Fluttershy shook her head, her pink mane swooshing around her neck. “You don’t--”

“I do,” Chalice insisted, firmly, her hooves gently on the table to either side of her tea. “My blood is Arsenic’s blood. My blood is a Blueblood’s, strong and pure. I am Terre Rare, a daughter of Duke Cruciger. We do not paint. We do not sit in the sun and dream. We do not watch birds.”

Chalice hung her head and wiped her eyes against her forelegs, quickly, reopening her cut in the process but not seeming to care. Her voice had remained firm, but she looked anything but pleased with what she had recited. Fluttershy got the impression that those words had been drilled into her from a young age.

‘Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can’t hardly fly!’

‘Fluttershy. Spread your wings, girl. I know you can do this if you apply yourself. Come on, come to your father and fly!’

“I’m useless without the black magic,” Chalice said with the same tone of voice she had used to insist ‘we do not paint’ and ‘we do not watch birds.’ “You wanted to know what it is?”

The question was so simple, but so frightening, Fluttershy wasn’t even sure she wanted to know anymore. Chalice took a steadying breath and lifted her hooves off the coffee table.

“There is a place that no pony can see with her eyes or reach with her wings…” she began. “A place above the clouds, sightless and soundless, lifeless and deathless. Somewhere up there… is a great and immense hall, lit by the fires that give us starlight. The Empyrean Vault. Unicorns can reach this place.”

Fluttershy felt a shiver at the description. It sounded… terrifying.

“Within that place, that source of the aether that blackens the night sky, a pony can commune with the stars that watched us take shape in ancient times,” Chalice continued and her whole body quaked with an involuntary shudder. “It is a horrible place, Fluttershy. I go there… every time I give Sagittarius my body and my magic. He surges through me and I go there. I hate it… more than anything I hate it… but at least, when he is in me, I’m useful and I can contribute.”

She slowly shook her head, as if sensing Fluttershy’s thoughts.

“As you yourself saw, I’ve done too much to go back, even if I could.” Chalice stared into her cup again, as if she could see something in the dark liquid. “I understand if you don’t want to see me again or… be friends. I never wanted you to see what I had to do in the forest. I thought… I thought you’d go to see your step-sister and Miss Dash. I never thought you’d follow me.”

“Would you have done anything different if you knew?” Fluttershy asked.

“No,” Chalice admitted, shaking her head again. “Maybe I would have tried harder to lose you.” She looked up, and Fluttershy saw tears in her eyes. “I’m a monster. Animals can see that. They run from me because they know. Ponies don’t know… but some of them learn… and they leave, too. I really wish you hadn’t followed me. I really do.”

Chalice cried a little but, just as quickly, excused herself. Fluttershy let her go. It was… hard to know how to feel. A part of her felt sorry for the noblemare, but another part of her couldn’t forget what she had seen. A part of her wanted to yell at the other mare, ‘You killed a pony! You killed a pony!’

So Fluttershy kept silent.

“One last thing,” Chalice said, halfway through the door. The cut over her eye had started to dry and mat up the coat there. “There’s going to be a wedding in Canterlot. If you are invited… please don’t go.”

She closed the door behind her as she left.

Fluttershy fell to her haunches when she was gone. Chalice… Chalice had been a friend. Fluttershy had felt that way and thought her a good pony. The door closed, she regretted saying nothing. Even if she had yelled, it would have been something. ‘You killed a pony!’

“She’s gone?” Rainbow Dash asked from upstairs.

“She’s gone,” Fluttershy replied.

- - -

“Apple Bloom! Scootaloo!”

“Sweetie Belle!”

It hadn’t been more than a day since Sweetie had last seen her friends, but she greeted them just as warmly as if they’d been apart for a week. Her joy at seeing them and taking them with her definitely didn’t have anything to do with her otherwise having to spend the day with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Definitely not.

“Thank the Princess you two are coming along!” Sweetie hugged her best friends like a life raft. “It was just gonna be me and those two you-know-whos!”

“Sweetie…” Scootaloo squirmed, trying to escape the filly’s grip. “We’re here! Geez, not so tight!”

“Don’t sweat none!” Apple Bloom declared, more comfortable in Sweetie’s relieved embrace. She hugged her back before slipping out of the hug rather effortlessly. “No way would we leave a fellow crusader at the mercy of … them!”

“Are you positive you don’t want to come?” Rarity asked, not far from where the cutie mark crusaders had reunited.

Applejack shook her head, a hoof tracing the rim of her Stetson. “Thanks but no thanks. Ah honestly don’t think you bunch’re goin’ ta the sort of places in the city Ah like ta visit. Besides, what’d I do with all that fancy nonsense? Ah’d be like a fish outta water.”

“I see.” Rarity’s shoulders slumped faintly, but she seemed to understand. “If you are sure, then…”

“Yer the fancy talker, Rarity,” Applejack reminded her with a grin. “Ain’t this the day yer gonna, what’s ya call it? Make yer move?”

“One of them,” Rarity replied, and Sweetie wasn’t quite sure what her sister meant. What move?

“Is something funny going on?” Sweetie asked the two adults. “Besides the obvious?”

“Nothing funny,” Rarity assured her, “just a day in the city.”

She said one last goodbye to Applejack and herded the three crusaders into the carriage. Apple Bloom ‘oohed’ at the plush seats and immediately started jumping on one to see how springy it was. Scootaloo was less obviously impressed by the décor. She zeroed in on a small compartment with drinks and food, and Rarity had to shoo her away from it with the promise of “you can have some a little later, Scootaloo.”

Sweetie wasn’t the most observant pony in the world, but she wasn’t oblivious, either. Apple Bloom’s mane and tail were brushed and freshly washed, and she was wearing her best red bow. The Apple family didn’t dress up much, not like Sweetie’s family sometimes did (and like Rarity did all the time) but Apple Bloom was clearly cleaned up, like when her family had company over. Even Scootaloo looked like she’d been taken to have a mane cut and grooming. Sweetie wondered how much her two friends knew about this trip they’d agreed to come along on.

Rarity let them roughhouse, for the most part, while the carriage rolled along, only tearing her eyes away from the window whenever it looked like they were about to break something or get messy. At one point, she even picked Scootaloo up to quickly fix her mane. Sweetie, knowing a bit more about things, refrained from making a mess of her coat or mane. Her parents and Rarity had both spent all morning making her “presentable,” which meant that they were, by definition, presenting her to someone or something.

It didn’t take a dictionary to figure that out!

She was tempted to ask Rarity if this about more than just meeting up with Diamond Tiara and her mother. Pulling herself up onto a pillow, Sweetie Belle could see outside through one of the fancy sliding-glass windows. The carriage was a really nice one, and big, too! At least by her estimation, it had to have cost at least… like… FIFTY bits. Maybe more.

It wasn’t long before the Rich house appeared down the road. The Riches lived on the edge of town to the north, the furthest part of town from the Everfree forest, and the houses here all had really big yards. They were sort of like Apple Bloom’s farm in that way, except nopony did any farming there. Except for growing flowers and big, tall bushes, anyway.

The house itself was three stories high and very wide. Now that Sweetie thought about it more and had a good look and a point of comparison, it looked a little like Blueblood’s house outside town… except smaller. Everything was smaller than that house. Where Blueblood’s manor had something like a dozen real chimneys sticking out of the top, the Rich house had little iron domes to imitate it. The windows were all rimmed and fancy with more iron, but the thing that stuck out most was the colorful red, yellow, and white roof, which had to be covered in little, glazed tiles.

It was pretty.

She supposed it would have to be: the Rich family was the richest in town!

A pony in a suit met them out front, and Sweetie saw Rarity get her ‘game face’ on. It was the same sort of look Sweetie had seen on her sister when she thought she was about to meet someone important or go on a date. A mirror in a sea-shell compact flashed out, and Rarity quickly checked her eyelashes and other makeup.

She wasn’t wearing much. She had a thin necklace, little more than lace, with some tiny sparky gems set in it like dewdrop on a spiderweb. There were also the single-pearl earrings – and seeing them reminded Sweetie of how Rarity and her mother kept saying no to getting her ears pierced, even though Rarity had gotten them pierced at basically her age – and, of course, her hat. It was big enough to touch the ceiling of the carriage they were in and all pure white. Even the feathers in it must have been bleached or something. The whole thing looked like a white shadow of an actual hat, except for a blue ribbon with sapphires in it that formed a band against the colorless background.

Satisfied by her look, Rarity took a breath and rolled her shoulders, punching the air a few times.

“Let’s do this,” she whispered, just loud enough for Sweetie to overhear.

The clip-clop of hooves preceded a stallion opening the door to the carriage. Sweetie turned her head and immediately frowned at the sight of a certain pink filly. Diamond Tiara. The obnoxious pony had her trademark tiara on, but it was accompanied by a little necklace like a locket. Next to her was her usual partner in crime: Silver Spoon. The Mayor’s daughter had her usual glasses traded in for ones with slim metal rims, and her bead necklace was replaced by a thin collar, also with a little gold locket attached, just like Diamond Tiara’s.

“My Lady, the good mare, Patent Pending,” the stallion announced, still holding the door open as he stepped out of the way. “Her daughter, Miss Diamond Tiara, and Miss Silver Spoon.”

This was maybe the second time Sweetie had seen Diamond Tiara’s mother.

She had a coat the same color as her daughter’s, a sort of blush pink, and she was an earth pony, too. Her mane was snowy white, much like Rarity’s strange hat, and it was bundled and twisted together behind her head, sort of like a bed of curls. As she ducked her head to enter the carriage, Sweetie could see little, blue beads or something settled amid the mane, looking a little like a colorful blue lake. It must’ve taken a long time to get her mane like that. How could adults stand it? It had to be so-ooo boring!

More interesting was her cutie mark! It was one of those funny compass-things that Miss Cheerilee had showed them when she needed to draw circles and things. Between its points was a golden coin. Sweetie had seen her before when a lot of ponies had taken their mom into class to explain what they did. She was some sort of inventor.

“Lady Rarity, darling,” Patent Pending said, taking the Baroness’s hoof in her own. It was sort of weird hearing another pony besides her sister say ‘darling’ like that. “Wonderful to see you again, especially after that… ‘excitement’ at the festival…! I heard so much about it…”

“A situation well in hoof,” Rarity replied with a smile, gently helping her up and into a seat opposite her. “The guests enjoyed the show, from what I hear.”

“Of course, of course!” Patent Pending gushed, glancing about the carriage and nodding approvingly at something. She turned to her daughter. “Diamond, sit with the girls, will you? Mommy has to catch up with Lady Rarity.”

“Yes, mom,” Diamond Tiara replied, a little sulkily if Sweetie had to guess. She and Silver Spoon hopped up the steps and into the carriage, bowing politely to Rarity as they passed between the adult mares. Rarity spared both a kind smile, fussing for a second over how cute they looked. Then she returned to Patent Pending, who eagerly started talking about Canterlot and the places she hoped to visit and what she wanted to buy.

“Hey there… blank flanks!” Diamond Tiara whispered that last part.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo heard it and took up ranks on the seats, as if to keep Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon from climbing up. Scootaloo, as she often did, stepped up to confront the offense while Apple Bloom just grumbled, upset by the taunt even though she must have heard it a hundred times before. Sweetie wasn’t happy either, but she had already known who she would be meeting and had almost resigned herself to not having her friends with her at all. That would have been a really terrible day! Now it was three crusaders to two big, stupid, smelly good-for-nothings.

“Hey!” Scootaloo started to raise her voice.

“Blank what?” Sweetie interrupted, raising a hoof to her ear. “What did you call us?”

Diamond Tiara glanced back at Rarity and her mother, easily long enough for everypony to notice.

“I said…” Diamond Tiara answered, gritting her teeth. “Hello there, Sweetie Belle.” She turned her blue eyes on the other fillies present. “Sweetie Belle’s friends.”

“We have names,” Scootaloo huffed.

“Yeah, what’s the big deal?” Apple Bloom still didn’t seem to get it.

“They have to be my friends,” Sweetie Belle told her real friends, and Silver Spoon groaned. Diamond Tiara held herself shock-still. “Rarity’s all super important now. They have to be nice to me.”

“Your sister may be important, but only because she’s all kissy-kissy with the Prince,” Diamond Tiara whispered, trying desperately to keep their conversation to just their side of the rolling carriage. She pointed at Sweetie Belle. “Wait and see how important you are when you get some lame-o cutie mark. You’ll see.”

Sweetie glared down at the filly, feeling the urge to yell at the arrogant pony rising up to the surface, no matter how much of a scolding she got. A lame-o cutie mark, huh? Lamer than some dumb tiara? That would be a sight to see. Better to have a snail on your flank!

“Hey!” Apple Bloom said, bluntly. “Yer jealous, ain’t ya!”

“I am not!” Diamond Tiara yelled and instantly cringed. Rarity and Patent Pending both turned their heads towards the five fillies. Rarity frowned but didn’t look very angry at the outburst. Patent Pending, however, scowled at her daughter.

“Diamond,” she said with a low voice. “Behave yourself, young lady.”

“Yes, mom!”

The immediate and almost instinctive response drew a series of giggles from the three crusaders. Sweetie jumped down and took up a spot on Rarity’s side of the carriage. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo easily made room on the spacious cushions, and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon took their seats opposite them. What happened next could best be described as two parallel conversations, as both groups of fillies tried best not to interact with – or be overheard by – the other group.

It should have been easy: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had their half of the carriage and the cutie mark crusaders had their half. Fifty-fifty split. What could be more fair than that? Except… Sweetie found herself just a little bit curious what Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon actually did or talked about when they were by themselves. The two fillies sat primly on the carriage cushion, listening to Rarity and Miss Pending and occasionally whispering to one another. Unlike Scootaloo or Apple Bloom, they didn’t bounce around or look out the windows or even speak loudly. It was weird.

No way could they actually be interested in whatever Rarity and Tiara’s mom were talking about!

The carriage rolled to a stop again, and Sweetie could hear hoof-steps as the driver approached the side door. He announced another passenger: “The Lady Sand Dune, of the Quartz Family.”

A third mare entered the carriage, one Sweetie hadn’t seen before. She had a lustrous peach coat, like a mix between Applejack and Apple Bloom’s coat colors, and if Patent Pending had a fancy mane-do, then this mare was definitely in the running to compete with her. Her mane was a clear, deep sky-blue and folded in on itself in some sort of crazy, impossibly complex knot, decorated with a dozen bands of gold and lace, interspersed with glittering light-blue gems. Her horn was long and slender, and she was clearly a little taller than Rarity or Patent Pending. She was a… a very pretty looking lady.

Stormy gray and blue eyes caught sight of Sweetie Belle, fixing on her. She could feel the look, even with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to her left and right and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon in hoof’s reach. This mare was identifying her… as her. Rarity had seemed pretty at ease with Patent Pending, despite her ‘game face’ stuff earlier. Maybe… maybe this pony was the one that had her sister worried?

There was no way she was a local pony.

“Patent Pending,” Rarity made introductions, taking the new mare’s hoof and inclining her head in polite greeting. It was a courtesy the sandy colored mare returned and one Patent Pending didn’t. It was a noble pony’s bow. “This is Lady Sand Dune. She is visiting us all the way from Bitaly.”

“My Lady,” Patent Pending said, taking the mare’s hoof and bowing much more deeply. “It is a distinct honor.”

“Patent Pending.” Sand Dune said the name with a soft, singer’s voice. “I look forward to learning more about you… and meeting your daughter and her friends.”

Diamond Tiara all but surged off her seat to curtsy neatly before the noble lady. Silver Spoon followed, a bit more awkwardly, a second later.

“Nice to meet you, girls,” Sand Dune replied, smiling warmly at the two earth pony fillies.

“I’m Apple Bloom!” the farmer-filly bowed her head a little, clearly not sure just what to do in this kind of company.

“Scootaloo!” Scoots pointed to herself proudly, much like a certain rainbow-colored mare might do.

“Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie introduced herself as well, with a more practiced little bow. It was something Rarity had insisted she learn. Blueblood never seemed to care when she bowed, though, so she just didn’t bother around him anymore. It really hadn’t occurred to Sweetie that she might meet other noble ponies besides Rarity’s coltfriend.

“We’re the cutie mark crusaders!” Apple Bloom added with a wide smile.

“Oh?” Sand Dune inquired, still as sunny as a warm day. “A pleasure to meet you, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle. I hope we all have a fun day today in Canterlot.”

- - -

So, this was little Sweetie Belle?

Sand Dune nodded approvingly to herself. Sweetie was a little chubby, like most fillies, but she had a good body structure and nice coloration. The green eyes were a nice touch in particular – green eyes were rather rare in Bitaly – and her mane had the cutest little natural curls. It was a shame about the colors of it, though. Most ponies would think it pretty, but Sand Dune couldn’t help but remember another mare with rather similar mane and tail coloration, that nasty Prench witch. But that was a personal and very specific bias. Sweetie Belle was a lovely little filly.

She would make a fine match for young Sand Storm, or Mirage, or one of her other little brothers or cousins. Provided her sister came around and saw things like a reasonable noblemare. It was really a favor in disguise; not just anypony could marry into the Quartz clan. It would open all sorts of doors for the Baroness’s little sister. Even if a political union couldn’t be arranged, a private education as a ward of Bitaly would be a boon to any aspiring pony. So it was a blessing.

And… it wasn’t as if the Quartz were not negotiating in good faith! Rarity would have one of theirs as hostage as well. Trust was built in such ways.

Most important of all, though, it would be securing the Platinum bloodline.

Illegitimacy was such an awful stigma here in the northern half of Equestria! Not so in the south. Her son or daughter would be recognized as equal in blood to his or her ‘legitimate’ but lesser born half-siblings in Canterlot. It could take a generation, or it could be a decade, but such claims were always useful to cultivate. After all, who was to say that this Lady Rarity could have foals at all? In which case, half of the north would fall into Quartz hooves without so much as a murmur of protest! Bluebloods were not sacrosanct, after all. There was a great deal of precedent for removing one for whatever reason and electing a more suitable replacement.

The current Prince was said to have a rather off-putting temperament at times, or so her spies had reported last year. He had not been with anypony except this Rarity mare since the Grand Galloping Gala, but Sand Dune was aware that love could change ponies. His attitude was less important, frankly, than his body, and the fifty-second Blueblood’s body was fine, indeed. Bedding him would be a pleasure. The mares of the Quartz Clan were renowned, after all, for both their beauty and their skill in the intimate arts.

With any luck, she would return home with a new ally, a filly to ward, and a foal with the finest pedigree in Equestria. An eventful trip to be sure, but one made all the sweeter by snubbing those Terre Rare upstarts and smothering their ambitions in the crib.

Equestria’s balance of power tilted on the mountain of Canterlot.

It would not fall to a family of Prench and Germane warlords! Not while a red-blooded Bitalian still sat on the Sandstone Throne!

And – Sweet Celestia!! What was that horrible music?!

Sand Dune cringed, the distinctly pop-like beat grating on her ears. A look to the left and a glance to the right pinpointed the source of the noise. Somepony had found the carriage’s radio and, after trawling rapidly through the limited magical airwaves, found a station to suit their preference. It had to be one of the children. Rarity and Patent had been talking, and Sand Dune had been watching them.

“Pound the Alarm!” the nice little Sweetie – the one she had thought to engage to gentle little Sand Storm – yelled at what must have been the top of her lungs. She and her two friends were excitedly jumping up and down, causing the carriage to rock faintly to the side.

“Quiet! Be quiet!” Diamond Tiara hissed, incessantly, as the three other fillies continued their singing and dancing.

“Where’s the speaker horn?” Silver Spoon asked, looking all over the floor, which seemed to be where the music came from. “I can’t find it. Is it hidden or something?”

Sand Dune quickly composed herself and buried her surprise at, and dislike of, the music, but Patent Pending glared over at her daughter. When she noticed Diamond Tiara sitting still, like a proper lady, and the three so called ‘cutie mark crusaders’ jumping around and enjoying themselves, she quickly deduced her daughter to not be involved in the sudden musical intrusion. She turned to Rarity, to follow the mare’s lead on the matter.

“Fillies will be fillies,” Rarity said with a laugh.

“A proper filly should be seen and not heard,” Sand Dune argued, and Rarity raised a brow in polite disagreement.

Patent Pending, momentarily torn between the two opinions expressed by the two titled mares, glanced between them both and giggled anxiously before quite logically fell in with her new Baroness. “It is only a little fun,” she said, a dismissive hoof waving across her chest. “No harm done.”

‘Your mouth expresses one opinion, but your body language expresses another,’ Sand Dune thought, her expression a mask of calm or even amiable indifference. “This music. Lady Rarity, are you familiar with it?”

“Quite familiar,” Rarity replied. “I designed two of the five outfits Sapphire Shores wore when she recorded this song.”

“Sapphire Shores…?” Sand Dune repeated, rolling her eyes as she thought back on the name. She was some sort of musician here in the north, but it rang a bell beyond that bit of basic information. “Ah, yes! Sapphire Shores. The mare with ‘the flank?’”

“We all have flanks,” Rarity remarked, and the three mares laughed. “But none quite so famous as hers. I still don’t know how she does that shake she does.”

“It may be her special talent?” Patent suggested.

“I thought it was the ability to always look like a disco ball?” Sand Dune remembered the mare now. She’d visited Bitaly a few times, causing scenes and scandals.

“Not always like a disco ball,” Rarity countered with a wink. “One time, she wore a dress made out of coat dye. Actually, I think she had diamonds glued to her coat, too, so she still sparkled. My word, she really is a living disco ball!”

Sapphire Shores’ music streamed out from the radio until it became just a background beat to the conversation and light brunch they enjoyed, retrieved from a small ice box built into the carriage. A silver platter floated between them, though the three mares ate less than the five fillies did. Sweetie Belle was quick to squeeze in between her sister and Sand Dune as she playfully speared treats from the antipasto: cheeses both brie and rind, chilled mushrooms and olives and artichoke hearts, dappled in flavored vinegars or dipped in spicy Marabian tomato paste.

The little pegasus filly clambered up Sand Dune’s leg, and the noble mare had to scoot over to make room as Sweetie’s two friends had to join her in their mutually shared proximity to the plate. They all seemed to enjoy getting to use toothpicks to poke at and pick up various bite-sized morsels, giggling and laughing as they tried to spear the food faster each time or in some strange way. Even the gray-toned filly – Silver Spoon – lost some of her decorum as she and Diamond Tiara had to compete with the three other fillies for the sorts of sweet food children preferred.

Sand Dune was content with the magically warmed porringer of olives.

“Eww!” Scootaloo droned in the way little fillies often did, a piece of cheese stuck on the end of her toothpick. “What’s this funny looking thing?”

“That is a Saint-Nectaire cheese, from Prance,” Sand Dune explained, a moment before Rarity opened her mouth to do the same.

“It looks gross,” Apple Bloom said, poking the outside of the box-shaped cut of cheese. “What’s this hard stuff?”

“The rind,” Sand Dune replied. She used her magic to spear a cube of her own – it was unnecessary to use the toothpick when one had magic, but it was considered polite – and ate it in one dainty bite, rind and all. Chewing and swallowing before speaking again, she went on to assure the three fillies, “It is perfectly safe to eat. The inside is soft and the rind is a little crunchy.”

The three crusaders exchanged looks, as if they had been challenged to follow the mare’s lead, and all three picked out a piece of cheese. Counting down from three, they all bit down. Sweetie Belle made a face, sticking her tongue out, but Scootaloo and Apple Bloom munched away without complaint.

“What kinda cheese was this again?” Apple Bloom asked, seeming to have liked it the most of the trio.

“Saint-Nectaire. It is very similar to reblochon, a cheese from my duchy,” Sand Dune explained, finding herself genuinely smiling at the curious filly. She recalled that this Apple Bloom was from one of the Ponyville farming families. “Does your family culture any cheese?”

“Nope!” Apple Bloom took another cube of a different blend and chewed it noisily. “We’ve got lotsa cows, and we milk em, but we just sell the milk. Mister and Missus Butter buy it, and they have a cheese-making thingie.”

“A creamery?”

“Yeah!”

“Why do you know so much about cheese?” Diamond Tiara asked, and the other fillies in the carriage all set their eyes on her. She had been conspicuously silent, and it wasn’t hard to guess why.

“Diamond,” her mother warned.

“A broad education is a mark of a noble mare,” Sand Dune told her, ignoring Patent Pending. “Science. Art. Industry. Agriculture. Languages. All these things together make up facets of our culture; to be cultured is to be accepting and knowledgeable in as much of it as possible.”

“But!” Tiara protested. “Cheese is… just cheese!”

“Your father runs Barnyard Bargains, does he not? Will you not inherit this enterprise from him one day?”

Diamond Tiara nodded enthusiastically. “Of course I will!”

“Then you should know what products you sell. I am sure cheeses are among them,” Sand Dune lectured and didn’t miss the introspective look on the little, pink filly’s face. Her eyes were downcast, but not in shame, in thought.

“What is the most the profitable product your family sells?” Sand Dune asked, directing the question at both mother and daughter.

“That would be zap apple jam,” Patent answered. “We retail and re-label it under the Granny’s Own brand.”

“And how is this jam made?” Sand Dune inquired.

Patent Pending and Diamond Tiara glanced at one another and then over at … Apple Bloom? Sand Dune didn’t see the connection at first, between the filly and this ‘zap apple jam.’

“We don’t know,” Patent admitted.

“The Apple family makes it.” Diamond Tiara didn’t sound happy at that fact. And there was the connection, revealed.

“Oh?” Sand Dune gave Rarity a look, as if to ask, ‘what is going on here?’ Apple Bloom was still chewing on a hoof-full of dried cranberries. She blinked, momentarily oblivious. “Your family makes this jam, Apple Bloom?”

“S-sure!” the filly, suddenly put in the spotlight, started to look around nervously. “Granny Smith tells us how to make it. We mostly just do what she says.”

“And your family sells it to Diamond Tiara’s family?”

“Ah guess, yeah.” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Gotta sell it to some-pony, right? Ponies who come by the farm can buy it, too.”

“The Rich family owes much of its wealth to the Apples,” Rarity stated, simply.

“We do not!” Diamond Tiara protested, stomping her hooves angrily.

“Diamond!” her mother hissed.

“Sorry,” the filly apologized, sour as vinegar.

“You really should be getting along better,” Patent continued to scold her. “Your father and I were very close to Apple Bloom’s parents. The Apples and the Riches have been friends for over a hundred years. Remember how we used to send you over to the farm to play?”

“I remember,” Diamond Tiara grumbled. “I ha--” Wisely, she bit her tongue and whatever else she had wanted to say.

“I remember,” she repeated instead.

Diamond Tiara seemed to struggle with her thoughts for a second before she dared to look back up.

“I’ve heard Daddy talking about the Quartz family,” she said, boldly, given her earlier scolding. She pointed at Sand Dune. “Your family is the richest in the whole world, right?”

“The Padishah of Saddle Marabia may be richer, as she can claim control of her entire country’s coffers,” Sand Dune replied with a proud grin. “But yes, by most measures, my family is the richest in the world.”

She also began to see what may have been this little filly’s hang-up.

“The Riches are the wealthiest family in this town, are they not?” Sand Dune asked, and she turned to the local Baroness. Rarity nodded.

“We are very alike,” Sand Dune continued, and she saw Diamond Tiara blush, but also look a little wary at some potential joke to be made at her expense. She was rather jaded for such a little pony. “Our families prosper because of trade, but you must never forget that the foundation of our wealth is in the dirt: salt, gems, gold, everything we eat and everything we drink. It all comes from or passes through the dirt… and the ones who turn worthless dirt into treasure are hardworking ponies like Apple Bloom and her family.”

“Do you understand?” she asked, leaning forward a bit to be sure the filly took her seriously. “We are nothing without them.”

“If we’re nothing without them, then… then we’re no better than them!” Diamond Tiara shook her head in disgust. “That can’t be right! We’re rich!”

“Wealth is a measure of success,” Sand Dune told her, plucking an olive out of the still-warm porringer. “It is a reward for those who play their part in the cycle of commerce and prosperity. If you work hard, Diamond Tiara, then you will become richer than your mother and father… and your children richer still. If you slack off… however, then others will catch up to you and drag you down, and you will be poorer. You should tell yourself, every day, that you will work harder than anypony else to build on what your parents have given you.”

“Or!” Sand Dune prepared to bite into the olive. “You can coast by on your assumptions and be a loser.”

“My daughter will do us proud, I’m sure,” Patent Pending said as Diamond Tiara fell silent. She pulled the filly in for a quick hug. “I have the utmost faith in her.”

“Hey! If you’re super rich, do you have one of those air ships?” Scootaloo asked, tugging at Sand Dune’s mane.

“Yes, we--”

“Do you have your own pond to swim in?” Apple Bloom chimed in. “With fish in it and stuff?”

“Yes, but I don’t swim--”

“You can’t swim?” Sweetie Belle latched onto that, and soon all three were mobbing the noble mare with questions, punctuating each one with a poke of a hoof.

“No, I--”

“We should totally teach you how to swim!”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders swimming instructors!” A trio of “YAYs!” shook the carriage.

“I feel the sudden urge to cry for help,” Sand Dune stated, rocking back and forth as the crusaders swarmed around her.

- - -

Today should have been a fun day for her.

Diamond Tiara had been to Canterlot a few times before with either her mother or father or both. Usually, her daddy had a business meeting or needed to check in on some manager or something, and Mom only really came to the city to file a patent for some invention or whatever. She hadn’t paid all that much attention, frankly. Her parents taking her to Canterlot meant a chance to get them to take her shopping for something nice to show off at school or to Silver Spoon.

They had ridden to Canterlot in a beautiful carriage with a real magical radio and a mini-bar and even air conditioning spells that kicked in as they began the long trip up the mountainside. Diamond Tiara spent a lot of the time thinking. And sulking. But also thinking.

Those stupid blank flanks.

The trip was ruined because of them. If it had been Daddy instead of Mom in the carriage, maybe she’d have been able to get some sort of traction for kicking them out. Not Sweetie Belle, though. All of a sudden, Sweetie was some sort of important pony, all because of her stupid sister. Which was sad: Rarity was a sophisticated and pretty pony, and Diamond Tiara had always sort of… just sort of… thought of her as kind of neat. Fashion was so interesting. Much more interesting than what her own parents did.

Her mother had visited the Carousel Boutique a bunch of times to pick up or get fitted for a dress or to adjust some jewelry or just for advice on how to look for an upcoming meeting. When she was allowed to come along, Diamond Tiara kept quiet, like Mom said to do, and behaved herself. She’d wanted to ask questions about why Miss Rarity took some measurements or why she thought some mix of clothes looked better than some other ensemble. She’d wanted to ask about where some of the really shiny, soft fabrics came from, since they didn’t look like anything that came from a sheep or some other farm animal.

Thank goodness for books. Much of what she’d learned had been by looking it up herself.

Sitting quietly in the carriage, Diamond Tiara resisted the urge to glance back at her cutie mark. It was…

She shook her head. The point was: this should have been a fun trip. Mom was getting to spend time with the town’s new Baroness, making ‘connections’ as she called it, and Daddy was excited about it, too, even though he wasn’t coming along. They were going to hit the town, shopping at super expensive stores and getting gawked at by all the other Canterlot ponies, like famous mares! It should have been the first of many times Diamond Tiara found herself in the spotlight! The envy of all the ponies who saw her!

Just... did Sweetie Belle really have to bring her stupid friends along? That dumb farmpony! That crash-happy pegasus! Not that she was all that fond of the clueless magic-less unicorn either, but if Sweetie was going to be an important pony, it wasn’t that hard to swallow one’s pride and smile at her face in public. Give her a year, separate her from the other two, give her a cutie mark, and maybe Sweetie Belle could even become another Silver Spoon. It would be nice to have two friends like Silver Spoon!

Silver Spoon, unlike those other three idiots, sat quietly and properly like a young filly should in the company of respected adults… she even seemed to understand half of what Rarity and Lady Sand Dune were talking about. It had been easy to filter out Mom’s usual technical mumbo-jumbo and legalese, but Diamond Tiara had actually tried to listen in and follow what the two noble mares were talking about.

Bitaly was an exotic and romantic place, full of history and culture! It was the southern Canterlot but much less unicorn-centric. Bitaly and Prance were the places to go for a well-to-do pony these days, especially for an earth pony looking to finish her education. Unfortunately, Rarity and Sand Dune were talking less about exotic locales and more about laws and trade and boring stuff.

“You really get any of this?” she whispered, and to her surprise, Silver Spoon smiled and nodded.

“Yeah,” she whispered back.

Figured.

Silver Spoon’s mother was the Mayor, after all, and she actually liked what her parents did. Diamond Tiara realized what she had just thought and frowned. ‘Liked’ was the wrong word. She liked what her parents did, too! They made a lot of money! It just… it wasn’t all that interesting sounding. You could like something and not be interested in it.

It just meant you had to bite your hoof and work harder, like Lady Sand Dune said. Diamond Tiara imagined herself sitting where Sand Dune was, next to Rarity, wearing her mane up in the same way and being tall and regal. There were plenty of earth pony nobles, too. Maybe, one day, she could become one herself! Then nopony would ever question her looking down on all the stupid, smelly farmers and townsponies.

“Do you understand?” Sand Dune’s words came back to her then. “We are nothing without them.”

But it was hard to understand.

Diamond Tiara wanted to, but… but it just didn’t make sense. Of course, as any foal knows, earth ponies and others did the manual labor. Logically, that meant that the rich and powerful relied on them in a basic sense… to do all the drudgery and peon-work. But being rich and powerful meant you didn’t have to debase yourself by dealing with lesser ponies. It meant you were better, that your parents were better, and that meant you were better!

She glanced at Apple Bloom. The stupid blank flank was looking out the window with Sweetie Belle while Scootaloo yawned. Apple Bloom. So what if her family helped the Riches be rich? The Riches were rich because they were better, and Diamond Tiara knew her father and grandfather would have gotten rich no matter what the Apple family did. It was destiny.

It was written in her cutie mark and her name: a beautiful diamond tiara.

“I can see Canterlot!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, tapping the window with her hoof. “Look! Look! We’re almost there!”

“About time!” Scootaloo groaned.

“Where should we go first?” Apple Bloom asked, turning to the three adults.

“Where are we going first?” Diamond Tiara inquired, knowing the decision had already been made by the adults present.

Rarity beamed and told them.

They met up with some of her friends from Canterlot and quickly descended on the famous shopping districts of the city. First up, they visited a galleria and took a trip to a fragrance store, where ponies sold all sorts of bottled scents, many in sculpted or decorative glasses. The prices of some of them were boggling. Lady Rarity paid for the trip, but Patent Pending insisted on buying two bottles for home, and Sand Dune purchased both her and Rarity a bottle as a gift. The fillies spent most of the time sniffing things, and it was sort of fun, too.

Then they went to a chocolate store where they could design their own chocolates, from the design to the ingredients, and the chefs cooked it up for them. That stupid Scootaloo had rainbow-colored ponies made with candy tails, and Sweetie Belle had swirly cookie-things made for her, and Apple Bloom – being a dumb Apple – had some sort of fondue-apple-bits trail mix made that she noisily crunched away at when it was done. Silver Spoon had a pretty marble-glazed white-chocolate treat made in geometric shapes, and Diamond Tiara had them make an edible version of her own tiara with sugar crystals and gossamer candy.

It was fun… even though those lame blank flanks had been there.

Then the adults went off to have hoof-massages and facials at some famous shop, and it was boring again, but at least Diamond Tiara prided herself on not making a fuss about it. Not with Mom around. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and even Silver Spoon played in the mud bath like a bunch of pigs. Silver Spoon claimed it was just for appearances, but that was a likely story. Patent Pending left happy, though, as both she and Rarity trotted outside with a bag of fancy cosmetics to bring home. It ended up in the carriage with an ever growing pile of other stuff.

To Diamond Tiara’s private delight, they hit the fashion boutiques next, though Rarity spent much of the time critiquing everything in sight, from the clothes on display to the arrangement of the rooms and mannequines to one shop she refused to even set hoof into due to “unforgivable crimes against fashion and all ponykind.” It was just as well. It looked like a store for vampire ponies or something.

A moment’s diversion interrupted the fashion express when they went to a smoke shop to buy some things for Daddy and Lord Blueblood. Diamond Tiara couldn’t say much about the Prince, but her father only ever smoked when he met up with some of his business partners, and even then Mom never let him smoke inside. It seemed kind of a waste to spend money on something Daddy would only use once a month or less, but she supposed it might impress the other businessponies when they saw the imported cigars or the Zebrabar Tobacco or whatever.

Then they went to three different shoe shoes, one of which specialized in the brand new fashion of “socks.”

Rarity and Lady Sand Dune then got into a discussion about “lingerie” and how it was different from “socks.” It was a strange conversation. Socks were supposed to keep ponies warm, weren’t they? Why would anypony want to wear them to bed? Wouldn’t you just use a blanket to keep warm?

“Lady Rarity? What’s lingerie for?” Diamond Tiara felt she had to ask, though she did it while her mother’s back was turned. Patent Pending was still in one of the changing rooms and conveniently could neither scold nor overhear her daughter’s fashion related research.

“Lingerie? Well… um!” Miss Rarity turned a shade of red at the question. Was she blushing? Why would asking about clothes make her blush?

“Lingerie is used to warm up a room,” Lady Sand Dune answered with a coy smile. “Provided there’s a second pony in the room… or a third…”

“Huh?”

“Lingerie is just pajamas that adults wear sometimes,” Rarity insisted.

“Oh!” That made sort-of sense. “Um, before my mom comes back out, though, there was something else I wanted to ask…”

It was so much easier just to get information from the source rather than covertly looking it up later!

As they went from store to store, an ever-growing collection of dresses, jewelry, shoes, coats, and accessories gathering in the carriage along the way, Diamond Tiara found it easier and easier to wait for her mother to get distracted and then bring up some question or another. The jewelry was especially great! Unicorn jewelers in Canterlot were famous Equestria-wide, many tracing the roots of their craft back hundreds of years! Unicorns had always been gem-crazy, since they used different cuts of stones for spell amplification, storage, or transmission.

Miss Rarity loved jewels, too, which was all the better.

She picked out a stunning Art Nouveau rhodium and silver orbit ring with a brilliant, red jasper gemstone set in it to wear around her left leg, like a bracelet, and matching versions in peridot for Tiara’s mom and aquamarine beryl for Miss Sand Dune. The mares all put them on at the same time and laughed, comparing the three and how they looked on them. Rarity also insisted on picking out some “future earrings” for all the fillies, and Sand Dune treated them to their choice of necklaces.

“You like that one, do you?” Sand Dune’s voice caused Diamond Tiara to jump, startled; she had been so focused on one of the brooches on display. It had a lustrous, polished and enameled amethyst cut into a thin border, with the most vivid rose-gold she had ever seen. Rose-gold, Tiara knew, was an alloy of copper and regular gold, and the pinkish shade here was so beautiful. There weren’t any other gems or anything in it. Just the black and the intricate weave of pink metallic thread… and the steel clip, of course.

“Champagne colored,” she said, reading the description of the brooch. “It’s really pretty, isn’t it?”

Sand Dune towered above the little filly, tapping her chin with a delicate hoof.

“Would you like it?” she asked, after a moment.

“Of course I would!” Diamond Tiara spun around. “Will you buy it for me?”

She wondered if there would be some sort of string attached, like being nice to Apple Bloom and the others. That was certainly the usual carrot ponies would dangle in front of her nose. It was always do this or do that or--

“It will look nice on you,” Sand Dune said and motioned for a salespony to come over to the display. “You’ve been asking Lady Rarity about these things for a while now, and you have a good eye. I think you can pick out what you like best. No need for us old mares to dress you up.”

“…You mean it?” Diamond Tiara asked again and watched with wide eyes as Sand Dune paid for the mane brooch. Soon, it was in her hooves. Just like that.

“Thank you,” she said, quietly and raised her voice again. “Thank you, Lady Sand Dune.”

The tall Bitalian mare smiled pleasantly. She seemed to turn to leave but tensed for a second and faced the filly again. “This is none of my business, but about what I said before…”

“You should tell yourself, every day, that you will work harder than anypony else to build on what your parents have given you. Or…! You can coast by on your assumptions and be a loser.”

“What about it?” Diamond Tiara asked, holding the brooch tightly to her chest.

“You should also do what you love,” Sand Dune said, gently placing a hoof on the filly’s shoulder. “For some of us, that is what our families do. But not everypony. Wealth is a measure of success. Find what you love, and get rich doing it. There are rich farmers, rich miners, rich traders… and some very rich jewelers, too.”

Sand Dune trotted away without another word, and Diamond Tiara watched her go, not quite knowing what to think. At least she had her brooch.

Unfortunately, after spending a really enjoyable three hours or so making a spectacle of gracing shops with their presence, the three mares – whose entourage came and went as they went from place to place – made the mistake of asking the five fillies where they wanted to eat. It was a grave mistake indeed. Diamond Tiara, for her part, had suggested an upscale Prench restaurant set next to one of the few unicorn towers in Canterlot’s shopping district. It was a cultured bistro with what must have been a long and rich history.

The other fillies voted for the ‘Los Pegasus Pizza Explosion and Arcade.’

Granted, the Los Pegasus Pizza Explosion and Arcade did have thirty-six varieties of pizza pie. That was a lot of pizza. Also, granted, the Los Pegasus Pizza Explosion and Arcade had three floors of games and toys, including an entire magical blast-tag course and a bouncy-room and a pony-sized puzzle to assemble and slides to get from one floor to the next and a piano with keys big enough for a filly to jump from one to the next on and a Minotaur mascot and…

“I can’t believe we’re going here,” Diamond Tiara grumbled, secretly sort of glad they were going here.

“I can’t believe we’re going here!” Sweetie Belle cheered, hopping up and down in excitement. Stupid unicorn.

“This is gonna be SO COOL!” The annoying pegasus buzzed by on her dumb, little wings.

“Oh boy, oh boy! Lookie over there! They’ve got a wild west shootin’ range!”

And who could forget… her.

“Now, you girls have fun,” Rarity said as they started to run off. “We’ll call you when the pizzas get here, so stay on the first floor!”

“Come on! Come on!” Silver Spoon actually had the temerity to try and pull Diamond Tiara away. Not that she wanted to resist her idiot friend, but…

“Go on, Diamond,” her mother finally deigned to say, shooing her off. “We’ll call for you when the food arrives.”

Smiling, finally released to explore and have fun, Diamond Tiara hardly cared that she ended up playing with that stupid unicorn, her lame pegasus friend, and the annoyingly chipper little apple farmer. Certain things could be forgiven in the face of a bouncy castle and a giant piano and a buckle-on horn that shot laser beams while running through a madcap obstacle course.

- - -

It was dusk when Rarity finally broached the question.

“Your terms?” she asked, having caught Sand Dune alone outside the ball room where all five fillies were expending the last of their energy diving and jumping and playing tag.

“My terms,” Sand Dune repeated, craning her neck slightly. Her mane had ended up more than a little ruined, courtesy of getting caught by the cutie mark crusaders and pulled into one game after another, of which this locale had a great many. It had not been designed to withstand the rigors of a bouncy castle and five hyperactive fillies. The frantic game of blast-tag that came after and the slides that followed had not done it any favors either. The luxurious blue mane and its bejeweled knot of curls were a mess.

Not that Rarity’s own mane had fared much better.

“This brother you spoke of the other day,” the Baroness said, watching the fillies play. “What was his name again?”

“Sand Storm,” Sand Dune replied. “He is your sister’s age, a fine age for a colt to travel abroad for the first time.”

Rarity knew all about that custom from Blueblood, who had spent his formative years as a hostage in Crown Roc. Calling it ‘travel abroad’ was an overly forgiving way of describing it, in her opinion, but she had also very gradually come to accept it as a part of the noblepony culture to which she would likely have to become accustomed. At the least, this one custom seemed to do more good than harm.

“You have other brothers and sisters.”

“Six of them,” Sand Dune said, simply. “I don’t differentiate between or against half-siblings.”

Rarity watched the other mare and her expressions, just as she had been reading her all day. “You don’t mind fostering your brothers and sisters? You don’t miss them?”

“I was fostered for three years,” Sand Dune answered. “I learned much away from home.”

“I looked into you,” Rarity said, still watching her out of the corner of her eye. “You were fostered to the Terre Rare in Gaskinring and Marestricht.”

“As I said, I learned much away from home,” Sand Dune repeated, and Rarity saw a crack in her normally amiable appearance. “Are you seriously suggesting I might be in league with…?”

“No,” Rarity hastily assured her. “I have heard of the enmity between your house and the Terre Rares.”

Sand Dune nodded, and not just once, but a few times, as if the act of doing so allowed her to remain calm. “Good,” she said. “Good. Now, my terms.”

“I can foster young Sand Storm,” Rarity agreed, “and I can see him enter the Royal Guard. Five years, though? Are you sure? It… it seems an awfully long time to be apart from one’s family…”

“If you allow him to visit us, then he will visit us on occasion,” Sand Dune stated, unmoved by what to Rarity seemed a very painful parting. Rarity had to bite back a slighted retort. If she would allow him? She wondered if Sand Dune really expected her to be so barbaric as to not give him so small a freedom. That simply would not do.

“Of course I will allow him to visit his family!” Rarity told her, shaking her head in dismay. “You may call him a hostage, but he will be my guest, and I will see him cared for. I don’t even…! I will treat him as my own little brother, darling, I assure you.”

“Of course you will,” Sand Dune said, giving Rarity a curious look. “A hostage one doesn’t care for isn’t really a hostage. But… after today… I think I see where you come from.” She raised a hoof to forestall Rarity’s response. “Not ‘come from’ in the physical sense, but as a sister. Being apart like this isn’t something you’ve prepared yourself for, but for myself and for my brothers and sisters, it is what we expect. It would be stranger for us not to be fostered from home for a time.”

“Sand Storm knows this?” Rarity asked and imagined telling a pony younger than Sweetie Belle that she would have to leave home for years and live with strangers.

“Of course!” Sand Dune exclaimed with a brief laugh. “He’s been excited to leave since he got his cutie mark. We don’t send foals away until after they’ve gotten one, as you must know. He even once wondered if he could be sent to Zebrabar! But really is too, too far away… and the risk of a sleeping sickness is still too great for a colt his age.”

“I will see him cared for,” Rarity promised again.

“Good,” the other mare agreed. Her eyes drifted to the transparent walls of the ball room and the fillies horsing around within it. “And Sweetie Belle?”

Rarity took a deep breath. “I have discussed the matter with my parents and even Sweetie… in a subtle way. Two years. When she is older. I trust you will place no restrictions on her and that her magical education will be seen to?”

“Naturally,” Sand Dune agreed.

“And you will not restrict her?”

“No more than you do Sand Storm.”

“Acceptable, then, in principle,” Rarity concluded.

She only and sincerely hoped that Sweetie Belle would not hold it against her to have made such a momentous decision for her. It was two years, but if the Quartz family were true to their word, it would be no different than the magical apprenticeship Sweetie would have aspired to have in Canterlot anyway. And it would be good for Sweetie, in a few years, to see more of the world. Bitaly was far away, but… she could still be reached after a long day’s train ride. Still, for all the potential good, it was taking away her choice to have a mentor where she wished to be. She would have to spend those two years in Bitaly and in the crystal courts and golden ballrooms of the Quartz clan.

“Your younger sister,” Rarity said, introducing the next point of discussion. “I would ask, first, are all your siblings named ‘Sand’ this or… Sandy-that?”

“Most are,” Sand Dune admitted and sighed. “I know, it isn’t terribly original, is it? Some families are just too fond of this sort of thematic naming practice… Sand Dune and Sand Storm and Sand Watcher and Sand Comb and Sand Scribe and Sand Sculptor and Sand Paper and Sand Pear and Sand Stone and Sand Silk… Thank the Princess we don’t have a Sand Box or Sand Worm yet!”

“’Sandy’ seems like it would be much simpler than those.”

The topic seemed to finally rouse Sand Dune’s curiosity. “Why do you ask?”

“Nothing important,” Rarity quickly replied. “My own curiosity is all!”

“Sand Scribe would be the most likely choice to send to you.” The Bitalian noblemare quickly dismissed the novelty of odd naming conventions. “Though Sand Watcher is the one I would most like to send. She does nothing much of note at home. Scribe could likely earn her title or office without too much trouble, but Watcher needs the help more. Did you have a position in mind?”

“It should be suitably prestigious,” Sand Dune added, just as Rarity began to speak. “It must not be beneath the station of a Quartz.”

“I can provide a position in the Ministry of Public Works and Entertainment.”

“I’ve seen the crazy pink pony that they subsidize in Ponyville…”

“Nothing like what Pinkie Pie does,” Rarity assured her. “It would be purely an oversight position organizing the ponies who hire commissions.”

Sand Dune tapped her hoof against the floor, clearly mulling over the proposal. She had suggested a position in the Aqueducts department in Canterlot, but Rarity didn’t know anypony there. It was a stretch to say she could guarantee even what she had offered. Besides, some foul-up in the aqueducts could be disastrous. She had tried for Rivers – Rivers was always prestigious – only to find it was stocked full of Terre Rares and those loyal to them, which meant they shunned any perceived ‘enemies’ of the family. Apparently the department had a huge statue of Lord Neptunium at their office and all but revered the stallion.

As if he was the only pony to deal with water serpents!

“Very well,” Sand Dune decided. “I will work out the details with Sand Watcher when I return home.”

Great. She was sending over the mare she had expressly described as lazy and less competent than her other sister. Belaboring the point wasn’t why she was here, however.

“You wished to send me an attendant and hoofmaiden as well?” Rarity asked.

“Sand Pear would be the best choice.”

“Is she trained?”

“She is.”

Trained to be a spy, most likely.

“I am willing to accept her,” Rarity said, though it was not quite so easy in practice. Sandy did not want to be known to her family. Rarity wasn’t sure why – she now suspected the quiet mare was a runaway, except Sand Dune didn’t recognize the name, or didn’t appear to.

“After a trial period and pending a review of her by my own attendants,” Rarity went on to say, adding in a deniable and exploitable caveat. “I am willing to accept her then.”

“As you wish,” Sand Dune deferred. “The price of salt?”

“I will endeavor to keep Canterlot from raising an objection in the Stable of Lords,” Rarity promised.

“It will certainly end up at one percent anyway,” the canny Bitalian mare noted, confirming Rarity’s own earlier suspicions. “One percent is enough.”

“To combat smuggling,” Rarity added, remembering the noble mare’s justification and explanation from before. “I was not aware it was such a problem.”

Sand Dune chuckled politely. “As they say, the spice (salt) must flow. Though... salt is not technically a spice...” She brushed her lips with a delicate hoof. “Curious saying, really.”

“If we are in agreement…?”

“We are.”

“Then there is only the final matter,” Rarity stated, having dreaded it all day. Sand Dune’s final condition for ‘friendship’ was to have a foal of the royal bloodline. She had framed it as a matter of her child’s potential pedigree, but Rarity was no country bumpkin, nor was she as naïve as many noblemares seemed to think.

In fact, she knew far more than they did of certain things.

“Yes, that,” Sand Dune said, eyes averted to gaze lazily at the playing fillies. The two mares watched as Apple Bloom pelted Diamond Tiara will balls, only for the filly to dive back down and into the sea of multicolored globes.

When Rarity responded, it must have been with what Sand Dune expected least of all.

“If I offered to let you try,” she asked, “tonight even, would you accept?”

Sand Dune slowly and very deliberately turned from the playing fillies, her head tilted in a not very noble way.

“Tonight?” she finally managed to ask, finding her voice again. Rarity could see the other mare weighing her odds and her chances. The Bitalian noble was a stunningly beautiful mare with the kind of body and voice many ponies would kill for… or die for. Seduction would be easy for a pony like her, and she probably would not have come without some means of fertility assistance, probably alchemical or magical.

Her eyes narrowed, though.

“So soon,” she reasoned, growing suspicious.

“Would you accept it, if offered?” Rarity repeated the question, putting some force to her words and tone of voice. “Yes or no?”

Sand Dune thought about it a few seconds longer. “…Yes. I would probably need more than one night, but yes, I could begin tonight.”

Rarity closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. The die was truly cast, now. If she was wrong, if she had failed to gauge the character of either of these ponies, if any number of assumptions and conclusions proved false, then this would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be one she might not even return from.

“I want you to remember those words,” she told Sand Dune with as serious and forceful a voice as she had ever used in her life. “Meet me tonight. A pony in a black cloak with a crescent moon will take you to the rendezvous. She will bring you to me, and we will talk with another friend of mine.”

It must have smelled like some sort of set up… or even the plot for some silly spy novel.

“If you think to cross me…” Sand Dune warned, and she didn’t have to go into detail. “You will find I am a terrible enemy to have.”

“A terrible enemy to have,” Rarity repeated and nodded. “I am counting on it. Tonight, then?”

“Tonight,” the noblemare with the intricate hourglass for a cutie mark agreed.

Rarity headed back to the table and the lukewarm leftover pizza.

‘Princesses help us all if we’re wrong,’ she thought, ‘I’ll end the night with either a new friend or a bitter enemy.’

- - -

The carriage ride back to Ponyville seemed to go faster than it did going up to Canterlot and not simply because it was all downhill. It had actually been a rather lovely and amicable outing, so long as one didn’t dwell on the price tag. It was ironic that the family with the supposed lowest social standing of the lot, the Riches, were really paying the most for it. Patent Pending and Filthy Rich had gotten just what they’d paid for: the wife of the family had been seen and photographed and wooed by not just the Baroness of Ponyville and anticipated future Duchess, but by the famous Lady Sand Dune herself, the wingless Princess of Bitaly. Canterlot would be abuzz.

Rarity, however, found it hard to focus on any of that.

“Say goodbye, Diamond.”

“Bye Lady Rarity. Bye Lady Sand Dune. Bye Sweetie Belle…” There was a distinct pause in the background noise. “Bye Apple Bloom. Bye Scootaloo. Let’s go, Silver Spoon.”

“Bye everypony.”

“A wonderful outing, Baroness, Countess. I shall remember it always.” That was Patent Pending, and soon the door closed and they were rolling away from the Rich estate. Sand Dune remained silent until she, too, left, and then there was the brief ride to the Apple farm to drop off Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.

Then home.

Her home.

“Are we going to the Carousel Boutique?” Sweetie Belle asked, watching the town go by outside from a window.

“I have some things to do tonight, but I thought it might be nice to stay there, just the two of us,” Rarity told her.

“Oh! Okay!” Sweetie smiled and walked across the carriage to sit next to her sister.

“Did you have a good time today?”

“Yep!” Sweetie was chipper and all smiles. “It was fun!”

“I’m glad,” Rarity replied, wrapping a leg around her to pull her in close for a hug. “So Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon weren’t a problem?”

“Well-llll,” Sweetie said with a roll of her tongue. “They were kind of annoying, especially on the drive to the city. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought they’d be!”

“You did have your friends with you,” Rarity reminded her, looking down at her little sister. “Everything’s easier with your friends around.”

“You can say that again!” Sweetie let out a sigh of obvious and clear relief. “I just don’t…” she trailed off.

“What?”

“I don’t get her,” Sweetie admitted, shaking her head. She explained a second later, “Diamond Tiara. I don’t understand her! She can be fun… She’s a filly just like us. Why does she have to be so mean? Especially to Apple Bloom.”

Rarity wondered the same thing and then replaced the names and wondered about it anew.

“I don’t know,” she admitted and saw how Sweetie looked up to her for an answer. “Ponies are hard to understand sometimes, no matter how hard you try, but everypony has a reason for what they do and how they act. Diamond Tiara probably thinks her reasons make sense, if only in a part of her own mind.” Rarity glanced down at Sweetie Belle and adjusted one of the curls in her mane, so similar and yet so different than her own. “Do you want to be her friend?”

Sweetie, put on the spot by the question, frowned… but she didn’t shake her head or yell ‘no!’

“She’d have to be friends with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo,” the little filly decided, rather wisely in Rarity’s opinion. “But I’d like to be her friend if she could do that, sure.”

“Then maybe you will be,” Rarity replied, giving her little sister another quick hug. “Someday. And you’ll remember today as the first day you all got to spend together.”

The two ponies swayed slightly as the carriage rolled on.

“Thanks, Rarity.”

“Thank you, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, and Sweetie looked up in confusion.

“Me?”

Rarity nodded. “Without you, I don’t know how today would have gone. More than that, I think one day the five of you will be friends. Thinking about that makes me happy, that’s all.”

Sweetie giggled. “If you say so, sis!”

- - -

“What did you say your name was?”

“Dusk… Dusk Shine.”

Sand Dune followed ‘Dusk Shine’ with briefly half-lidded eyes and a rather unconvinced expression. Just as Rarity had told her, her emissary came wearing a black cloak with a crescent moon for a clasp. It was an unremarkable traveling cloak otherwise. She had not expected the mare to hoof over an identical cloak as a precondition to the meeting. The noblemare resisted the urge to say or do more about the situation. In case this was some sort of trap, it was wise to preserve her true power.

The cloak was loose on her slender form, but it wasn’t magical. It was just a black cloak… a well-made black cloak, actually. True black stood out in the darkness, but this fabric was just a little bit blue, permitting it to more easily conceal one in the darkness that had fallen over Ponyville. The lining was also quite comfortable. In fact, some pony had put far too much work into making this ‘plain, black cloak!’

‘It couldn’t be…?’ Sand Dune wondered. ‘That mare? Why would she bother?’

You could buy a cloak like this. There was no need to make one! Unless you planned to enchant it or put something in the lining, of course, but she had checked for anything that obvious. The cloak seemed entirely mundane.

The clasp was the only thing magical.

‘They’re rather serious about us not being seen,’ Sand Dune thought, feeling the metal clip of the eye-shaped clasp bop against the front of her chest as she walked. ‘Anything beyond a basic invisibility spell would have made it impossible to see one another. Instead, they’re using an illusionary glamour…’

Dusk Shine, was it?

What did that make her then, in the gender swap illusion? Sand Blaster?

Actually.

“Call me Sand Blaster,” she declared in a mare’s voice. The disguise, sadly, didn’t have an altered verbal effect. There was a spell for that, though, and Sand Dune wondered if she should use it.

Or give herself a moustache? Or a wispy goatee, like this ‘Dusk Shine’ had? This was actually sort of fun. Still likely to be a trap, but regardless of that... fun.

“But I already know your real name,” Dusk Shine protested.

“And I’ve deduced yours,” Sand Dune replied. “Dusk Shine.”

“Oh, um, okay then… ‘Sand Blaster.’”

The noblemare allowed herself a small, distinctly un-stallion-like giggle. They had left the town behind and made a patch for the Blueblood Manor, or rather, the many forested, gardened, and statue-shaded acres that surrounded it. Sand Dune wondered when the ambush would come. There had been whispers that Lady Yumi had been set up as the Prince’s poisoner, whispers at odds with those who believed Lady Rarity to be a mare of the common pony. Sand Dune’s own analysis seemed to indicate that the newly titled Lady of Ponyville was neither ruthless social climber nor innocent seamstress.

She was a mare of both cunning and principle.

The rarest of breeds, truly.

“Tell me, Dusk,” Sand Dune said, as they slipped through an un-warded section of the property. Not even a fence? No guards? She clucked her tongue in disapproval even as she nodded in the opposite. This was well set up.

“This seems like a lot of trouble,” she went on. “Do you know why I agreed to come? I’ve had less secretive rendezvous with more handsome stallions. Should I have left a rose in an untilled garden?”

“I – I don’t know about that sort of thing,” Dusk Shine admitted, and Sand Dune could’ve sworn the mare-in-stallion’s disguise was blushing hotly. “I’m not good at subtlety, or – or that sort of… stuff.”

“Oh? You’re the feed them pie and take them home type?”

“W-what! No! Maybe not pie, b-but a good book or… uh…”

“I’m being lead to a mysterious meeting by a blushing maid,” Sand Dune realized, incredulous. “I do wonder where Rarity is going with all his foalishness.”

“You’ll see,” Dusk Shine promised, and it really should have sounded like a threat.

Instead, it just sounded a little teasing.

They came, in the end, to a clear reflecting pool in an otherwise wild section of the estate. It was no natural body of water, or if it once had been, it wasn’t any longer. The pool was circular and rimmed by clean-cut stone. Had it, and the assortment of pillars around it in varying degrees of disrepair, not been covered in ivy, a pony could be mistaken for thinking it had been built at the same time Blueblood’s Ponyville manor had. A testament to pony construction, the circular pool was not infiltrated by weeds, and the stones were unharmed by grass or other plant growth or natural wear. The water was as clear as it must have been when this place was built, however many years ago that had been.

Magic, then.

Two ponies in similar black cloaks were waiting for “Dusk Shine” and her guest. For a moment, Sand Dune entertained the notion that they were Rarity and Blueblood and that they had brought her out here for some sort of wild, debauched night in the woods. The thought was actually both a little amusing and a little exciting. Rarity was not unattractive, herself, and Blueblood had the appeal a large, muscular unicorn stallion often did. There were worse ponies to fool around with in the forest, hypothetically speaking that was.

“She says to call her Sand Blaster,” Dusk Shine introduced the daughter of Bitaly.

One of the cloaked ponies, the taller one, snorted.

“Lady Rarity,” Sand Dune said, ignoring the other pony. The shorter one had to be the mare she came here to meet. “I’ve played your little game. Now, show me to what end.”

Rarity turned slightly and reached up to push back her hood. “Thank you for coming, darling. I know how strange the request must have seemed.”

“She thinks this is a trap,” Twilight Sparkle said, also removing her hood and undoing the magic that disguised her as Dusk Shine.

“It is a trap of sorts,” the third mare said but didn’t remove her hood. “Just not for her.”

Sand Dune felt her body tense. That voice. She knew that voice.

“Remove your hood,” the time weaver demanded. “I grow weary of this farce. Remove it now!”

The mare reached up, the hood fell back, and a face revealed itself.

Lady Antimony, the Baroness of Mareseilles and the absolute last pony she had ever expected to see, smirked, her eyes half-lidded but no less threatening to those who knew what they could do.

“We meet again,” Antimony cooed, still with that insufferable grin, “Sand Dune.”

“We need you.” Rarity stood between them. “Equestria needs you. Will you listen?”

Sand swirled slowly around her horn, all but begging her to unleash a spell. Against her better judgment, she held back. If this was an ambush, it was a damn strange one.

“Speak quickly.”

Author's Note:

--

Forgot: once again, my personal thanks go out to "q97randomguy" for proofing for me! He's been a great help!

Comments

[celelorien]

Oh~ my~! Sand Dune is going to be made complicit in their plot? I thought for sure when Rarity proposed tonight that she wasn't going to tell her about Bluey's... condition. I loved the parts with the CMC and DT/SS, especially their version of what I can only suppose is a Chuck E Cheese's. It's good to see DT actually getting a brief moment of normal foalhood in particular - too many authors forget that she IS still just a foal after all - and Duney can't be that bad if she's willing to laser tag with the best of em. Though I think Bluey could use a few more lessons in Prince Imponyation. And poor Lyra! Very curious as to the connection between lyre-based cutie marks... Can't wait to see more! Everything is coming together (and apart!) so fantastically!

[Hoof of Approval]

OH YES.

I think Antimony learned about something from Rarity... friendship, the real kind.

[Racheakt]

Council of war...
Also- I think Sandy is acctually a changleing. One of the nice ones?
I keep tellin' yah, I think SA was hypnotized in a process removed from the feedin' process. There's no reason to belive that the Changelings suck out emotion until there's nothing left (usually), it goes against the parasitic nature. a parasite that kills the food source is counter-productive.

[elmagnifico]

Do I spy a more subtly applied version of Sparkle's Accelerated, Precisely-Applicated and Appropriately Overpowered Monkey-Wrench? Let the breaking of plans begin!

Sad that Chalice and Shy are all sad and stuff, hopefully there will be time for friendship and therapy sessions after Operation Bug Zapper.

Interesting justification for Diamond Tiara and her behavior.

One bit I'm not so sure about, I'd almost think Rarity's immediate family, particularly Sweetie, would be ineligible for the sort of political rigamarole Sand Dune wants to put her through by dint of not being born of noble stature, legitimate or otherwise. Granted, Rarity has been given titling with all the bells and whistles, but I seem to recall some stipulation in my limited knowledge of feudalism that parentage would trump siblinghood in this case...

Ah well, this chapter was entertaining, jolly good show old thing, looking forward to the next as usual, etc.

[TheAussieBlue]

This... is... getting better... but how do they know that she isn't a Changeling? I mean, hypothetically, we know that Sand Dune isn't. Twilight probably has a spell or something that can detect it. Probably hidden in the clasp, one effect to mask the other. And maybe a third under that if you're paranoid.

Changelings seem, however, have the ability to eventually BECOME the mask they wear. Looking at you, Faux!Blueblood. Wether or not the mask is correct is another matter entirely...

And the Terra Rares are becoming rather... Lovecraftian. No matter. They are easily dealt with. I don't care how powerful you are, even you can't stop poison, gas, explosives, fire, or even thirtyseven stab wounds to the throat and chest. No need to alert them to their deaths, after all.

Now that Rarity is in the know (which she MUST be, thanks to Twilight) they can manipulate Faux!Blueblood, giving false information and the like, until they... question it. It is, of course, doubtful it will survive, but such is life. Corpses are useful anyway.

You can hide so much in the chest cavity...

Ah! And if I can guess, Antimony is no longer evil. Still a creepy jerk, but not evil. No evil can stand before the Elements, after all. Unless Rarity couldn't manifest the full might of the Elements. That's an unknown, which I don't like.

For now, I personally would start looking into something we could use to exterminate every last Changeling, whilst sparing everything else. A spell that only targets certain species would help, and I know Twilight can do it; she did it to the Parasprites after all. Only question is, will she cast it...?

[emrlddrgn]

OoooOOOOOoooo!

There's a lot of talk about stars, these days. It seems rather dangerous to be messing with Old Star Gods, Master Brass. Look what happened to the Necrons.

[djthomp]

Lyra! And Blueblood quite thoroughly locked up. And Cadance, less thoroughly locked up. Hmmnn.

“Lyra Heartstrings,” the Princess whispered to herself, “and my brother, too?”
She smiled behind her hoof.
“…Finally.”

Ahh yeah. I'm really hoping we get to see Cadance kicking some changeling flank fairly soon. Also, the changelings don't seem to have a perfect hold over Lyra, I'm guessing Brass's hoof at play in this.

C!Blueblood is continuing to make mistakes I see. Fortunately for him, his mistakes with Sir Mercury here are somewhat explainable as the actions of an unpleasant noble. Bit of a problem though, as he hasn't been that unpleasant noble for some time now.

Go Angel Bunny! Interesting bit of detail about Chalice and the Empyrean Vault.

“Nothing funny,” Rarity assured her, “just a day in the city.”

Uh huh, sure it is.

Sweetie, knowing a bit more about things, refrained from making a mess of her coat or mane. Her parents and Rarity had both spent all morning making her “presentable,” which meant that they were, by definition, presenting her to someone or something.

Presenting her to someone, eh? That's mildly suspicious. And Lady Sand Dune, even more suspicious.

I'm liking this Patent Pending pony.

Sand Dune is earning some serious points in my book wit her comments to Diamond Tiara.

“I feel the sudden urge to cry for help,” Sand Dune stated, rocking back and forth as the crusaders swarmed around her.

It's too late, you are already in their clutches.

Pizza and laser beams make everything better.

Rarity took a deep breath. “I have discussed the matter with my parents and even Sweetie… in a subtle way. Two years. When she is older. I trust you will place no restrictions on her and that her magical education will be seen to?”

There we go, I was wondering if that was coming.

Water serpents, eh? The department of rivers must be fabulous.

“I want you to remember those words,” she told Sand Dune with as serious and forceful a voice as she had ever used in her life. “Meet me tonight. A pony in a black cloak with a crescent moon will take you to the rendezvous. She will bring you to me, and we will talk with another friend of mine.”

Well now.

Antimony, Rarity, and Twilight working together. Oh hell yeah. Part two cannot come fast enough.

[TheAussieBlue]

2556198
well until until a HERETIC! retconned it.

[emrlddrgn]

2556262

Lyra what did you do!

[Shantara]

Ohh... nice chapter! Plots are moving forward and some ponies have even got together and decided to exchange information . This is probably the first chapter that gave some hints of events moving towards grand finale - bridesmaids gather in a preparation for wedding, more ponies learn about changelings, Rarity is forming an alliance.

Poor Lyra! At least there's some hope for her, looking how she's not completely controlled yet. Cadence is plotting even after months of abuse in changeling prison! This actually says a lot about the life of mortal alicorn in TPC-verse Equestria - taken from her family, given education and responsibilities of princess, being in the middle of politics and intrigue since childhood. I'm very looking forward to her meeting post-Gala version of her brother.

Fake Blueblood is really blowing it up with Sir Mercury. He can get away with it due to his royal status, but such behavior would without a doubt cause suspicions among those who know him personally.

The description of Empyrean Vault was downright creepy, as was the dark magic changing ponies' cutie marks. The whole Lovecraftian 'stars are ancient and completely alien' has always been a great element for pony cosmology, as it offers a counter-balance to Sun and Moon, controlled by the Princesses.

It's easy to feel bad for Chalice after reading it, but like Fluttershy, it's hard to forget she really did kill a pony.

'Shy now knows about changelings, and I hope she told about Rainbow about them.

Lady Sand Dune, you can leave your sanity at the door. After meeting Crusaders, you won't need it anymore.

Diamond Tiara character development... Now that Sweetie is thinking about befriending Diamond, it she should be able to do it. Other Sweetie has already proven it possible!

You got me fooled into thinking that Rarity was going to knowingly offer Sand Dune fake Blueblood. Meeting part was a great surprise! Rarity making cloaks herself was also a nice touch. Antimony's also involved, huh?..

Saudi Marabia

Aren't we going with 'Saddle' version? At least, it was used in the other place in this very chapter.

Hope part 2 will be out soon!

[Luminary]

So, just got finished reading the Best Night Ever part of Sweetie Chronicles. Which was, by far, the best part of the fic, and thoroughly amazing. It was great to get some more time with your Blueblood. I had been lamenting the fact that it might still be some time before I get a dose of beautiful Capn'y storytelling. And what awaited me an hour later? Why, a new chapter of This Platinum Crown.

It was not a chapter weighed down with huge plot advancement, but there is plenty of expositional colour and bits of character. And a giant hat! So, can't complain! It even has the Sand Dune POV section that we all begged for! I'm wondering if that will work again.

Ahem. I think the plot would be well served by having Celestia battle one of the Terre Rares atop the spires of Canterlot. Possibly starting from the decks of dueling airships. In fact, I would call this a critical addition!

Actually, screw that. Have them fight in 'Los Pegasus Pizza Explosion and Arcade', because that might be even more epic. That place is surely the promised land.

Did that work? Are we getting that scene next?

Well, unfortunately, I don't have the time to pick apart all the things I loved today. But I will say that I did enjoy it, as always, and eagerly await more. Especially with that cliffhanger. I have a weird love of 'council of war' scenes. And this one has been building for a while. It'll be so very, very, very nice to see the good guys plotting, scheming and putting things together for once.

Additionally: Woo! Spelling correction. Never get to do those in fics I'm not pre-reading.

a bead a sweat

a bead of sweat

[vader10001]

2556602

Maybe Twilight fights a Terra Rare instead of Celestia. Unless the Terra Rares somehow manage to unseal Iridiums Incandescent Irradiation, a spell in Bluey's vault, it's hardly a fair fight. More epic if the opponent at least thinks they could have a chance. Also, I want to see Twi's new repertoire of spells. And her reaction to learning about TSC Sweetie. Actually, Rarity's reaction to the same.

[AkashaRoc]

This is sweet. I am still recovering from reading it all in one sitting, so actual comments later.

[Luminary]

2556676
Alas, it must be Celestia.
No student stand-ins will do. Goddesses only. You must be the height of two grown stallions to be on this ride.

Though the thought of them trying to kill the Sun Goddess with a beam of solar plasma amuses me.

[sopchoppy]

awesome!

[Lurks-no-More]

Yup, the Changelings' plans are well and truly messed up now. I hope Cadence gets the chance to tear off some Changeling heads!

Sand Dune seems like a pretty decent sort for a unicorn of the high Equestrian nobility. And I'm very happy with your treatment of Diamond Tiara; she is kinda twitch-witch-et cetera in the show, but this kind of a humanizing touch is very welcome. (And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who's convinced Silver Spoon is related to the Mayor!)

[Luminous Lead]

2556198 Well, the stars DID aid in Luna's escape. Either makes them the Liberator, or the Bigger Bad.

[Bugsydor]

I want ponies with horns that shoot frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!

I also liked the Dune reference with Sand Worm, but I felt that the bit with the spice must flow was a bit clumsy. It'd read better if it was just "The salt must flow," in my opinion, and it'd still be enough of a reference for many people to get.

I liked the character development you gave DT. You gave her believable motivations while still keeping her appropriately child-like.

The whole chapter was awesome, and you're still one of my two favorite Rarity writers (and you definitely write my favorite Blueblood). I want to see Blueblood and the real Princess Cadence meet up and be utterly surprised at each other being nothing like they remembered. Can't wait to see more of this story in general, really.

[Jeaggan]

In my honest opinion, one of the great strenght of this fic is its antagonists: each one is as threatening as the other, but in extremely differents ways.
Antimony is cruel and efficient, as illustrated by the power of her eyes, also her dedication in reaching her goals makes her really charismatic.
Chrysalis and Brass are scary in a silently dangerous way, because they are schemers, ennemies who seems to move only exceptionally, but in fact, you are already where they want you to be, it's terrifying because it seems that there are no escapes.
Ritterkreuz is far from being as subtle as the previous three, but she makes it up with sheer ferocity and destructive power, she is just awesome like this.
Also not to be underestimated, Yumi and Chalice are quite interesting due to them being (partially) unwanting pawns, one can only pity them, but their prowess on the battlefield put them as equels with the others.
Even Sand Dune has an incredible presence, right now, she is the weight that will tips the balance of power.
I should really stop gushing over this piece... My brain and heart can't take such amounts of awesome...

[Ono-Matopoeia]

As usual, my thoughts as they occur:

Cadance has something planned, non?

Changeling Blueblood. Acts nothing like the real BB.

Dat Mercury.

Chalice! Thou vile fiend, thou hast taken the life of an epic pony! >=(

Dat Angel Bunny.

Hmm...I guess Chalice was forced to do it. I'll let it slide. For now. >=(

Dat Sand Dune.

Diamond Tiara is a bitch. >=(

Silver Spoon is Mayor Mare's daughter?!

Hahah. Dusk Shine. Coincidentally I'm also planning a story where a pony uses Dusk Shine as a pseudonym.

Antimony is back?!?! In defeat, Pinkie's friendship has taken hold! WOO!

[BornEquestrian]

2557742 Why on earth would you link to TV tropes without prior warning, that will be 4 hours of my day lost minimum

Now on to the chapter at hand.

Alpha Brass, his daughters and the changelings. had truly underestimated Twilight, and perhaps more importantly Rarity. Two strong enemies, antimony and Sand Dune, has a chance to become friends, and they are probably ranking in the top 5 most powerful possible unicorns in the story. All because of Rarity, with Rarity being no slouch either. Twilight is the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, and now aided by Bluebloods family secrets.

Cadance also seems to be plotting something unknown, which I have a large feeling would at least not benefit the changelings, though it might be at Alpha's machinations. Most importantly though is that we do not know what Celestia or Luna are doing here. I find it odd that few of the commenters ever seems to mention Luna in this story when there are a good amount that mention Celestia, the author had included Luna in the story in the beginning and though she might not be a plotter like Celestia, she is still a powerhouse that can help sway the coming conclusion. If either of them have an inkling of what is going on, well the battle between Celestia and Chrysalis would be much different, and Luna could show the world what it truly means to be Princess of the Night.

As a note, I am a bit of a princess Luna fan, and if she is not involved in the conclusion and Celestia is I would like (but never demand) a explanation that is more than handwaving, which admittedly the show itself doesn't even bother with when cutting out Luna

I am a curious at the fact that Fluttershy hasn't come to her friends after what happened to her. Though I guess she could have but it was not yet shown, or she might next chapter.

Great job as usual and I am glad everything seems to be coming together in this chapter

Edit: As a note, thinking a bit more, it is perhaps largely possible Cadance is partly or wholly a pawn of Alpha Brass in her plotting, seeing how she is happy Lyra specifically is there when we know Lyra is a pawn that has been strongly influenced by Alpha.
edit2: clarified a few things

[Ion-Sturm]

>Forgot: once again, my personal thanks go out to "q97randomguy" for poofing for me! He'd been a great help!
>poofing
>He'd
Maybe you should have had him look at your thank-you message as well, unless that was supposed to be the joke ;)

The plot thickens... I admit, I was expecting Antimony, just not this soon into the proceedings.

Also, I still need to make that review I promised ages back. Now that I'm caught up perhaps I can put my thoughts in order.

[FashionablyHospitable]

It don't mean a thing...

[Psykosis]

Oh, Diamond, you're such an adorable little hypocrite.

[Arzoo]

Couldn't resist the Dune reference, could you?

[Always Breakfast]

Wait...did...did Rarity just give Sand Dune a roll in the hay with Blueblood because she suspects he's a fake, so she can turn Sand Dune against the changelings when the story inevitably breaks and she realizes she got cheated out of the foal?

Rarity, you devious thing

[Convisku]

Rarity, you devious creature you. And Twilight! With so many opponents just how deep do your counter plans run? I am so excited for the next chapter.

A minor question: did Rarity whip up those cloaks after Sand Dune agreed to the meeting, after she'd come up with the plan to ask her in, or did she just have such perfect cloaks laying around after an earlier inspiration thing?

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2495898
No, I’ve seen some scans of the comics but haven’t had the opportunity to really read a whole issue. What draws the comparison in your view?
2496525
A Twilight Sparkle freakout is far from out of the question. I’m not sure if the result will be a giant magical banhammer, but someone or something will probably go squish.
2498457
I hadn’t really thought of it like that, since TBNE isn’t in first person or anything.
Might be, in a roundabout way, though.
2499197
Twilight, are you causing the apocalypse again? Bad pony.

AJ and Rarity’s part was one of the ones that took the most time and effort to get down right on my part. Partly because I wasn’t sure how emotional I could make the scene before it seemed contrived and “overly dramatic.” I settled for trying to handle it like… friends, really, working things out. Which is just what AJ and Rarity are. They’re friends who frequently don’t see eye to eye, but who are still friends. In a way, it is also a parallel to what Rarity is doing now in trying to befriend other nobles, even though she and Sand Dune or Antimony are sure to have disagreements and different views on life. Friendship, baby.

Euporie and Eunomie have both been fun, and yes, Euporie and Pinkie have a scene or two in chapter 34 to set things up for the wedding. I won’t say too much more on Euporie here, given what’s in that scene. You might like it, though. Well, obviously I hope you do!

Your question on changelings will also be answered in chapter 34. But the short answer is both yes and no (it depends on what they are exposed to as pupa. They then molt repeatedly as nymphs, locking in their basic physical form. So changelings as a whole can take on non-pony forms, but individuals are keyed to one specific body type, like equiform/ponyform)
2499540
It was nice to be able to get some TSC references in for my part, too. I had a lot of fun revisiting TBNE with Wanderer D. I’d like to incorporate more, believe me, but I also need to at least make a token effort at not getting too sidetracked in TPC. Look how long it is already!
2500403
Dat Rarity.
I look forward to her kicking ass in her bridesmaid dress. Naturally, it’ll look fabulous no matter how ruined it gets.
And don’t tell Spike any of that. Not yet.

Recharge the hero with brushie brushie. These ponies…
Joking aside, though, I’m really glad you liked a lot of the Rarity moments in this chapter. You really can do things with her that you can’t with anypony else, as much as I love my Twi and the Pink and the Flutters and Dash and ol AJ. Rarity always stood out as the most unlikely hero of the group, which is really one of the reasons I like her and enjoy writing her. I just sort of imagine her as this Princess waiting for her Prince to save her, except he’s so inept she has to do all the work herself, all the time bemoaning the fact while she fights and leads him along.
2501530
2507123
Most of the antagonists in the story don’t want to endanger the Elements. Even Antimony, when confronted by this same thing, basically said: “how does your marrying the Prince factor into your ‘job’ being the element of generosity?” None of the crazy noblemares want to hurt the mane six for various reasons, with the exception of Ritter, who just didn’t give a flying f- horsefeather, and Euporie, notably when her temper snaps. When Antimony, early on, expressed her heartfelt thanks for what Rarity and the others did in saving Princess Luna, she meant it. At the same time, she was not willing to let that debt to the country as a whole interfere with her goal in life.

Couch raises a good point, too, though, that most nobles interpret the rather strict scruple of “not involving the little pony” in their disputes as meaning “don’t let them get hurt and don’t cause havoc.” What Euporie and Eunomie did with the FlimFlam brothers could well have ruined SAA, Applejack’s family, and send the town into a depression when the farm failed. Yet it was seen as acceptable because “no one got kicked in the face.” This was also meant to be an in-verse subversion of the rule to show that it doesn’t always work and that the letter of the law is sometimes used against the spirit of the law.

TPC Equestria isn’t a perfect country or society, though I’d still say it was a very harmonious one compared to our own. It has some faults to it that can and do grate against modern sensibilities, yours and mine.

Lastly, do remember, Couch, that there are quite a few differences of opinion and approach among the Terre Rare. Twilight is Terre Rare, too, and so is Shining Armor. Not all are as ‘hardline’ as the Prance branch of the family, and even then the main line isn’t entirely monolithic. It really is about vengeance for them, though. Four generations have passed and still their perceived exile from Canterlot is a festering wound. There’s a reason for this, too, beyond them just being ambitious and prideful. You’ll see rather soon what I mean.

Also, if you go way back to TBNE, pre-loops Blueblood thought the Elements of Harmony mares were in the military. He assumed they were in a barracks somewhere, not living normal lives in a little town. It was outside his ability to really comprehend that Celestia wouldn’t use them like some sort of elite Royal Guard unit.
2510442
Ah, but that’s a tough request, mostly because the changelings are SO interwoven with what’s going on in the story now, leading to the wedding. There is still some pony-centric planning and counter-scheming, though, so I hope that can wet your palate. If nothing else, you can root for the ponies to get rid of the changelings, right?

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2542635
Funny, you’re not the first person to say so. Yet that’s an anime (and a popular ones, too) I’ve never seen. I normally wouldn’t think much of it, but I’m from the spacebattles board, and a lot of folks there reference that show.
2550323
What could such a fussy little marshmallow pony do? Oh yeah, that.
But, seriously, what Rarity does that so few antagonists really grasp is that her contribution isn't in raw magical power, it is really in style, and in bridging the gap between ponies. Her real weapon is charm, you could say.
2552466
Thanks! Correction made (well, made a week ago, but thanks now!)

/chapter timeskip!/
2555892
Yes, part of it - as outright spoken of later - is that Rarity isn't taking advantage of this. Well, she is, but she's doing it in a way to build up a friendship and not just an alliance. Her goal is very much the riskier one: to make these crazy mares her friends, even if that means taking the hard route and taking big risks.
I'm glad you liked the Diamond Tiara stuff, too. I've never written her before this, but I sort of wanted to explore and develop her character in parallel with Sand Dune's. The intention was sort of to show, in both their cases, that they are a bit more than they let on. To 'humanize' them, really, and create some common ground.
2555913
If she did, it wasn't just Rarity's doing. A certain pink pony deserves a lot of credit for it, too.
2555978
You're right: it doesn't benefit changelings to drain a resource they can milk indefinitely. Unfortunately, not all changelings think alike, and Chrysalis is gluttonous. She enjoyed what she did to Brass - looking back on it all very fondly - even though it created an enemy. Chrysalis is much more predator than parasite now...
2555985
The traditions in the north of Equestria are different than in the south. Sand Dune outright explains that illegitimate children are not a stigma among nobles in the south. They appear much more pragmatic (and chaotic) when it comes to how the family is organized. It doesn't matter who Sweetie's parents are to Sand Dune. What matters is what kind of mare Sweetie grows up to become and that her sister is a Baroness and potential ally. If her brother married Sweetie, their children would still be Quartz Clan. Blueblood's pedigree is valuable because, in Sand Dune's view, it has both good genes and a potential later claim on something valuable.
2556151
Next chapter... which bounces back to what Twilight's been up to, much of that will be explained. So I'll not spoil it here. Next chapter will be out soon, too, trust me.
What's been done to Chalice is sort of Lovecraftian, though, but they've always been a family to delve into such power. Ever since Arsenic left, taking many Blueblood secrets with her. Is Antimony less evil now? Is that because of the Elements, if that rainbow beam was the Elements themselves? Hard to say. Her life was basically upended by her loss to Rarity, though. We'll have to wait and see if she's really a friend, a foe, an ally of convenience, or maybe all three depending on who you ask.
2556253
It has taken me a while to get to Cadance, hasn't it?
One thing, though, I'm surprised at the number of people cheering Angel Bunny and his cup throwing ways. lol. But then even couldn't quite forgive or forget what Chalice did. A sad situation all around, there.
The Dept of Rivers IS Fabulous, darling.
Unless you get seasick easily.
2556487
The real Cadance and real Blueblood's reunion is something long overdue. And yeah, I've put Cadance through a rough time here. When the time comes to showcase her more, I expect it to be an interesting and fun challenge (for me the author I mean).
One of the things with Lyra's scene was to try and get across that the most shocking thing for her was realizing that something had actually changed her cutie mark. We've see this with all the ponies we know have visited the Empyrean Vault. Cutie Marks are supposed to be unalterable once a pony gets them, representing their special talent and their destiny. The cosmology stuff is going to be important, though, so I'm not just introducing it as a power up for certain characters like the bridesmaids.
Yes, good catch! Should be Saddle Marabia. My mistake there. Yes, and few things can loosen up somepony like a day putting up with the crusaders. They have this corrupting influence...
2556602
Good timing!
A battle, eh? There's the obvious one with Chrysalis, of course, but... well. We'll see.
Correction made, and yes, if you like Council of War scenes, I've extended one in the next chapter just for you, my friend.
2556676
And there is one pony who may have both power and motivation to throw down with a well loved (and even worshiped) Princess like our Celly. I won't say who, though.
2557161
Nope! not the only one!
Glad you liked both DT and Sand Dune. Neither are as bad as they appear, though Tiara is still kind of a bitch, I suspect she has the potential to grow into a much nicer woman as she gets older. Though she'll probably be annoying well into her teens.
2558010
You know, it actually was originally "the salt must flow." In the end I made the call to make it "spice" but then go off on a little tangent of how salt isn't a spice, because it was just a bit of silly trivia. Would I make the same call now? Hard to say. But what's done is done and what's published is published. Can't go back and flip flop.
2558312
Ha! I'm glad you think so! That was also one of the factors that made writing this so hard sometimes, and that made the fic so much longer than I had planned! Antagonists, maybe even more than heroes, need a lot of fleshing out. It is usually easy to sympathize with and feel what a hero might feel - good things and positive motivations - but it is harder to ask your readers to put themselves in the shoes or skin of a villain.
2558706
You can not fight the Pink forever...
I wonder though, if I made a poll or something, how many people would forgive Chalice for what she did and how many would be unable to?
2558710
Twilight, Sand Dune and Antimony are extremely powerful ponies. All three of them.
But they would never be working together if not for
(in fact, given just how much Sand Dune and Antimony hate one another, it would be remarkable if a time-breaking and sanity-snapping fight didn't take place)
As for our Lady Luna, well, I'll just ask you to wait a little bit. In fact, if things pan out, Luna will have as much or maybe more of a presence in the madness to come than Celestia (what with her being the BIG white target with the bullseye-Sun planted on her luscious flanks).
More on the Flutter next chapter as well, as you'll see.
And Cadance definitely appears, at this point, to be in Brass's camp if not his pawn. He called her a partner himself, along with his inner circle. Cadance was glad when she saw Lyra and Blueblood. There is definitely some plan at work there.
2559797
argh!
stupid late night mistake on my part! Thanks for catching it! I always forget these author notes and just have to quickly jot them down after the fact.
2560718
Nope.
2560836
The real setup is a sexy four-way. What, no? ...Damn.
2561607
After the plan but before she invited Sand Dune.

[Racheakt]

You know, I'd like to see the Mercury/Trixie subplot gain a bit more prominance. I always thought it was rather adorable how they 'met' (again, again, and again) in TBNE. And since that has apparently remained the outcome here... well, it'd be interesting to see it mentioned from time to time, if not more...

Also, due to the darker nature of this redition, I'm guessing that the answer is 'tragic', but for campleteness sake, I must ask: what will be the resolution with all those minor characters mentioned to have been abducted?

...

...Oh, one more thing, it just occured to me! Chalice's bodygaurd was a changeling, wasen't she? And had to leave when she was discovered by Alpha Brass. Either that, or grew a bit too attached to her 'charge'. Both?

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2563853

Yes, the Trixie. TG&P has been somewhat missing from the fic, sadly. I know I'll touch on it more at least once, though. With so much already in progress, though, it is hard to justify indulging in my love of tangential side stories.

All the various guards and ponies the changelings are impersonating, you mean? That... depends. Do recall that changelings have to keep their hosts alive to mimic their magic.

Chalice's bodyguard, Virga, doesn't seem to be around anymore, does she? But, no, she wasn't a changeling in the flashback.There is a reason for her no longer guarding Chalice, however. She was very attached and devoted to her charge, and Chalice was very fond of (and reliant on) her as well.

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2572586

Glad to hear it! You've caught me while I'm working (well, writing after working, haha, I try not to let anyone see my typing at the lab) so I hope people can forgive me for writing another private response, instead of my usual bulk replies.

You raise a good point about the "titles" and them being a goal for women, though I think there's a distinction between the normal use of that and what I try and stress in TPC. Most of the mares in this story already have titles. They're basically in the position Rarity imagined for herself from the get-go. It is really a matter of power, who seeks it, and why... and power has an appeal that is truly gender neutral. Rarity's personal case is perhaps the most unusual of them, except her view and her goal (to be "noble" and titled and all the rest) is very much contested by what happens in the story.

What does it mean to be noble? What does it mean to have a title? What drives someone or somepony to seek more power? But I don't think that people turned off by the Twicorn Princess thing will have much worry with TPC.

One character puts it best when she says, roughly, "A title is just a name; a crown is just twisted metal. By themselves, they're nothing."

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2574565

That IS why TBNE and TPC are different fics. I don't think I've ever tried to be anything but clear that I wanted to try something new with TPC. I'm sorry it wasn't your thing, though. With that particular scene, I know I tried to keep it, as you said, relatively tame, given the subject material.

Do you really think all the orgy participants deserve to die "horrible, horrible deaths?"

Either way, I appreciate you taking the time to comment on your leaving the story and WHY. It may seem like a minor thing, but it is important to me, personally. I know it would be easier just to stop and never share why. Please believe that if nothing else.

[Ponibius]

Yet another great chapter! I have to wonder what exactly Cadance is up to here, she seems to be holding onto the fact there is some sort of plan in the works. Plus the stuff with the changed cutie marks is on the creepy side. I have to wonder what Alpha Brass is up to with that... Very ominous.

I really liked the scene with Rarity, Sand Dune, and gang. Lots of really nice personal moments, and I really got a feel for Sand Dune, a character we haven't really seen much of until now, which was a big worry of mine given she has been hinted to be a big player in this. I just love how so many characters have gotten rounded out, and I now care for in one manner or another.

And that cliffhanger. What devious plot has our favorite marshmallow pony come up with this time? I've been waiting to see how devious Rarity can be when she puts her mind to it.

[RevelRomp]

I like the majority of this chapter. I realize it's not the most helpful or informative comment, but after five readings of this chapter, I'm still fond of it. Maybe I'll give it another listen right now and come back to derp about it.

[RoboRed]

Excellent. I knew Antimony had to show up sooner or later.

I wonder though, what is Cadence's plan?

[nemryn]

2555985
You mean Sparkle's Subtle Spanner?

[Lithl]

img0.joyreactor.cc/pics/comment/my-little-pony-%D1%84%D1%8D%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%D1%8B-mlp-art-minor-615337.jpeg

fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/015/8/4/dune_discord_by_hereticofdune-d4mhqwb.jpg

[Fox]

or a third...

Am I a bad person for wanting Rarity to end up joining her for real? I feel like I am, but I think the story is warping my thoughts.

[Forderz]

Reading this chapter after reading the newish Sweetie Belle Chronicles chapters makes me weep for what Sweetie Belle became and cheer for what Diamond Tiara became.

[Seraphimus]

Then they went to three different shoe shoes

Presumably this was meant to be Shoe shops or stores? Though Shoe shoes made me chuckle for some reason.

[FOXTrot2]

“…Yes. I would probably need more than one night, but yes, I could begin tonight.”

Hehe, have fun fucking a bug.

[FOXTrot2]

4880441 warping your thoughts? No, that's just Antimony, major enemy to the Quartz Ckan, and infamous world wide daughter of Alpha Brass.

[heynow]

There are only three torcs and as of now it seems they're being used by the brides maids so how did Chalice summon the Aether?

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

“Oh?” Chalice asked, also chocked silent for a time. “Good. Good, then. I hope she gets home safe.”

"shocked" or maybe "choked"

[lazyreader19]

The mare reached up, the hood fell back, and a face revealed itself.

OH SHITTAKE

[My name is R]

“She has to be fed and given water and kept reasonably healthy,” Bon Bon explained, retrieving a small square-looking key from her plain brown saddlebag. “You need to change her chamber pot once every few days and check the room for any sort of mischief.”
“She isn’t chained up?” Lyra asked, noticing Rainshine and Twinkleshine approaching after closing Blueblood’s cell door.
“No,” Bon Bon continued, holding the key up to a heavy metal slot in the door. “The Queen wants her mostly free to move, but helpless to actually escape.”
“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Lyra observed. They’d chained up the Prince and there were other cells in the catacombs, or so she thought. Who was this special pony?

Yes, much like using their puppets in the most illusion-shattering jobs, tbis seems a terrible idea. It probably stems from a need to gloat over their conquests.

Being Blueblood was rather different. Aside from maintaining the masquerade, she had to adopt a noblestallion’s mannerisms. She had to balance that act against the requests and demands from the Queen. The two seemed often at odds.

I wonder if she’d make a better Blueblood if they weren't trying to complete a bunch of other objectives?

“She’s gone?” Rainbow Dash asked from upstairs.
“She’s gone,” Fluttershy replied.

Oh, Rainbow overheard that, did she? How very interesting.

Except… Sweetie found herself just a little bit curious what Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon actually did or talked about when they were by themselves. The two fillies sat primly on the carriage cushion, listening to Rarity and Miss Pending and occasionally whispering to one another. Unlike Scootaloo or Apple Bloom, they didn’t bounce around or look out the windows or even speak loudly. It was weird.
No way could they actually be interested in whatever Rarity and Tiara’s mom were talking about!

Hey! That’s what I was like at their age. Always trying to listen in on the adults' conversation. They said some interesting things.

“Wealth is a measure of success,” Sand Dune told her, plucking an olive out of the still-warm porringer. “It is a reward for those who play their part in the cycle of commerce and prosperity. If you work hard, Diamond Tiara, then you will become richer than your mother and father… and your children richer still. If you slack off… however, then others will catch up to you and drag you down, and you will be poorer. You should tell yourself, every day, that you will work harder than anypony else to build on what your parents have given you.”
“Or!” Sand Dune prepared to bite into the olive. “You can coast by on your assumptions and be a loser.”

All the nobles aiming to play this little contest understand. Your parents understand. You know who didn’t understand? Blueblood, prior to the Gala. Who would you rather be, Diamond Tiara? A Sand Dune, or a Blueblood?

“I feel the sudden urge to cry for help,” Sand Dune stated, rocking back and forth as the crusaders swarmed around her.

That’s an appropriate response to the Crusaders taking a liking to you. And they do indeed seem to be fans of yours.

A moment’s diversion interrupted the fashion express when they went to a smoke shop to buy some things for Daddy and Lord Blueblood. Diamond Tiara couldn’t say much about the Prince, but her father only ever smoked when he met up with some of his business partners, and even then Mom never let him smoke inside. It seemed kind of a waste to spend money on something Daddy would only use once a month or less, but she supposed it might impress the other businessponies when they saw the imported cigars or the Zebrabar Tobacco or whatever.

This is the second pony with this stance on smoking, and the second pony I remember the stance on smoking of. At this point, I'm imagining a bunch of ponies smoking together, only to realize the only reason any of them are smoking is to impress/fit in with the others.

“Um, before my mom comes back out, though, there was something else I wanted to ask…”
It was so much easier just to get information from the source rather than covertly looking it up later!

If Diamond can just wrap her head around the idea that putting others down isn’t doing her social status any favors I think she and Rarity might get along swimmingly. Say, wasn’t Rarity considering passing on her boutique? If Diamond would be interested in an apprenticeship of sorts... After all, she can't possibly mess it up worse than Sweetie Belle.

“You should also do what you love,” Sand Dune said, gently placing a hoof on the filly’s shoulder. “For some of us, that is what our families do. But not everypony. Wealth is a measure of success. Find what you love, and get rich doing it. There are rich farmers, rich miners, rich traders… and some very rich jewelers, too.”

I kinda like Sand Dune. If she stands down, I'll wish her the best and tell her not to be a stranger.

“A terrible enemy to have,” Rarity repeated and nodded. “I am counting on it. Tonight, then?”

That’s what you're counting on, eh? Sounds almost like you expect somepony to make her their enemy, but why would they do that? If Twilight was up to this, I'd know, but I cannot so accurately predict your scheme.

Or give herself a moustache? Or a wispy goatee, like this ‘Dusk Shine’ had? This was actually sort of fun. Still likely to be a trap, but regardless of that... fun.
“But I already know your real name,” Dusk Shine protested.
“And I’ve deduced yours,” Sand Dune replied. “Dusk Shine.”

Oh, I was on the right track, Twilight Dusk Shine probably told her something.

Lady Antimony, the Baroness of Mareseilles and the absolute last pony she had ever expected to see, smirked, her eyes half-lidded but no less threatening to those who knew what they could do.

Oh. Oh ho ho! It's time then, is it?

I'm gonna read the next chapter, and maybe one or two more, then wander off for a while. Not because of anything you've done wrong, but because A) I've been reading this for a while and it's super long, I've got other things to do, and B) hoping to spread this out long enough more gets written by the time I catch up. I'm definitely planning on returning to this fascinating and intricate tale of intrigue and honor. Ooh, I like that description!

2558010
Agreed on all points, except maybe the laser horns, there are so many more interesting combat magics. But I can accept that the author's mind is set about spice.

9813313
What were you expecting, Blueblood? Or the headless horse? Personally, I was expecting one of the Mane 6.

Then they went to three different shoe shoes, one of which specialized in the brand new fashion of “socks.”

stores

He even once wondered if he could be sent to Zebrabar! But really is too, too far away…

An it should go in here somewhere.