Silver approached her herd with uncertainty. Night picked on it quickly. "Spit it out, Silver. What's on your mind?"
Silver pawed at the ground. "Do you remember that Starlight pony?"
Twilight's expression darkened. "What about her?"
Silver wobbled a hoof. "Well I ran into h--"
Twilight grunted. "Did she hurt you?" She leaned off to the side to make sure Silver had her cutie mark. "You're safe with us."
Silver shook her head quickly. "No no! She didn't hurt me. She apologized... She isn't chasing me for that bounty anymore. She's trying to turn over a new leaf."
Twilight snorted derisively. "You didn't see her in her element. She's a foul manipulator that takes delight in controlling ponies around her. Don't listen to a word she says!" Twilight clopped a forehoof down. "She won't be happy until you give up your cutie mark willingly."
Silver frowned at the harsh words. "That's being cruel. She didn't try to take mine away. We just talked, and she was very nice."
Night reached over and tapped Silver on the head. "You have that 'save the lonely pony' expression going."
Silver shrank back a little. "She is lonely... We could save her."
Twilight flared out her wings. "Absolutely not! She locked the girls and I in a shack, for days! She's depraved, Silver."
Night softly brushed Twilight's side with a wing. "Calm down, Twilight, you're handling Silver wrong."
Silver blinked softly. "I am not a dog to be handled."
Night advanced on Silver, rubbing noses softly. "You're my adorable little pony, now listen to me."
Silver warmed in the cheeks and went quiet, looking at Night.
Night smiled softly. "Of course she deserves a chance to redeem herself, but it doesn't have to be you that babysits her. Let her show her true colors to more than just you." She raised a hoof and started stroking under Silver's chin in slow motions that made Silver's eyes slowly drift shut. "You are such a soft-hearted little mare. You can't stand the thought of someone suffering, can you?"
"Not if I can do something about it..." Silver opened her eyes again. "Is it wrong to be a friend? She needs a non-judging hoof up."
Night snorted. "I hate to bring this up, but she was the reason you had to suffer so much trying to save our foal. She deserves a swift kick."
Silver shook her head. "She wasn't physically fighting. She was just there for her talent. She can zap the cutie marks."
Twilight raised a hoof. "She knows a few battle spells. I've seen her perform an impressive energy burst and a beam. Silver, we're trying to protect you, not be mean to her."
Silver sagged softly. "I just want to do the right thing."
Night brought her wings down on Silver, cocooning her head in softness. "You are too kind, and I love that in you. Look, if you must see her at all, just bring me along, OK?"
Twilight scowled disapprovingly. "She will make you regret every inch you offer her. She should be thrown in jail, not befriended."
Silver leaned in and kissed Night, feeling old love rekindling to heady fire in her chest. The support Night lent made everything feel better. "I won't, not without you. Thank you." She turned to Twilight and pointed at her. "You're the Princess of Friendship. Don't you owe it to your title if nothing else to at least try?"
Fast, who had been oddly quiet during the exchange, spoke up. "Where is she?"
Silver tilted her head. "I don't know. She trotted off after we talked and didn't leave an address." Silver suddenly perked. "Oh, she's sending a package in the mail. Maybe it will have her address on it?"
Fast snorted softly. "I doubt it... I want to talk to her too."
Silver could see Fast was hiding something. "What do you plan to do with her?"
Fast tilted his head. "Ask her a few questions. If I don't like the answers, sock her in the jaw. She may be trying to turn a new leaf, but she hasn't apologized to us, and she has a lot to answer for."
Twilight looked disturbingly smug at Fast's answer. "Putting all this aside! How are preparations going?"
Silver shuffled. "Nervously? I'm just glad I don't have many lines to say."
Twilight nodded. "I've been through it myself. The new princess mostly smiles and waves. I received Celestia's reply. She agreed to our request, but she's already spreading word about it, so expect Ponyville to swell well beyond its usual population."
Night raised a hoof. "Have you spoken to Mayor Mare?"
"Why?"
Night chuckled softly. "This is going to make her job, and those under her, much harder for a while. Warning her would be good."
Silver perked an ear. "I just had a thought. You may be getting a bit plump for guard work, but have you considered working for the Mayor? You could help out around town hall."
Night flushed dark. "Did you just call me fat?"
Silver moved to nuzzle into Night's side. "I called you debilitatingly sexy. I'd go into details, but there's a princess watching."
Twilight started going scarlet, but defended herself. "Hey! She's my herd-sister too..."
Fast nudged Twilight. "Well then, go ahead, tell her how pretty she is."
Twilight started to freeze up, stammering wildly. "I... well... Your wings... Uh..."
Night giggled softly at Twilight's floundering and approached her. "Tell me about my eyes."
Eyes were a safer place for Twilight, and she nodded. "Your eyes are... lovely. Your glasses really bring them out and..." She flushed dark and looked away.
Night reached for Twilight's snout with a hoof and turned back towards herself. "Speak truthfully."
Twilight nodded stiffly. "I could stare into them."
Night smiled. "Please do so more often." Conversation died for a moment as they stared into one another.
Fast whispered in Silver's ear. "That is too adorable."
Silver vented her building passion by kissing Fast on the lips. Feeling aggressive, Silver tried to shove Fast back, and he allowed her, and soon she was on top of him, sharing a most passionate smooching.
Spike coughed softly as he entered. "Letter from the Princess." He offered the scroll to Twilight. Silver moved to separate from Fast at Spike's entrance, but Fast pulled her right back down and the smooching resumed.
Twilight unfurled the letter and read over it. "Huh, seems Princess Celestia would like to meet with us, Silver, to go over coronation details."
Silver extracted herself from Fast, slipping back onto her own hooves. "Oh, alright..." She frowned a little. "She never apologized for trashing me like that." She then sagged as she realized something out loud. "She's not really apologized for most of the things she's done."
Night nudged Silver with a hoof. "If she's ready to proceed with the crowning, this may be a good time for that to be aired out."
Twilight nodded in agreement. "Maybe that's why she's calling us. It'll be good to put aside old mistakes and step into a new stage with a clean heart. Get ready to go, the meeting's in a few hours. We'll want to leave shortly. Good thing you can fly now." She trotted off to get herself ready.
Silver dashed off herself and got into her dress, an act that took significantly less time than it first did. She looked at herself in the mirror and did a slow turn before deciding she was presentable. The dangling heart crystal drew her attention and she brushed it with a hoof softly. "You'll get your chance..." She fell to musing over their encounter. She warmed as she thought about how... aggressive Starlight had been. It was flattering and a bit frightening. Was she pretty?
The vision that looked back at her was strange for a pony. She was the only lunar princess. The more subtle cues of attractiveness for a pony were still beyond her intuitive grasp. "I didn't know if I was pretty as a human. I guess some things don't change." Either way, the thought that someone thought she was attractive enough to turn away from evil for was exciting. But... She frowned and shoved away the thoughts, moving to return downstairs and face the current issues.
Twilight and Silver met in front of the castle and took off together. As they flew, a silvery bubble sprang up around Silver. Twilight tilted her head a little. "What's with the bubble?"
"Just in case..."
Twilight shook her head. "I suppose I can't blame you." She didn't shield herself.
Soon they arrived in Canterlot, soaring over the ponies going about their daily lives. They landed before the castle and moved past the guards unchallenged. Silver noticed a janitor pony shoving a newspaper along, and saw a picture of herself. She snatched the paper from the grasp of the broom with her magic. "May I?"
The janitor squinted. "Huh? Well can't say there's a law against it." He then mosied along, resuming his cleaning.
Silver flipped open the newspaper as she walked, trusting Twilight to guide her. She soon found the relevant article and scanned over it. It spoke of her joyous reformation and announced the date of her coronation. "Celestia works fast..." She read on as it went into detail about how it wasn't as bad as it first appeared, but she doubted anyone would read that far before forming an opinion. She tossed the newspaper into the next bin she spotted. "Looks like Canterlot knows to expect things."
A guard stopped the progress of the two. "The Princess is awaiting you, this way please." He lead them down a different hallway and pulled open a door before gesturing inside. Within was a fairly plain white room not that different from the one they had spent time in as a jail. Celestia was already inside it, seated before a tiny square table. Once they had stepped in with her, the door closed behind them, becoming basically invisible on the white surface.
Celestia nodded to them both gently. "Good to see you. I'm afraid we've both been drawn along in a little 'scheme' by Luna and Cadance."
Twilight approached with confusion. She settled on one of the cushions. "I don't know either of them to do anything too unreasonable. What's going on?"
Silver sat to the side, between Celestia and Twilight. "I trust Cadance. If she has an idea, it's probably well-intentioned."
Celestia canted her head at Silver. "And mine are not?"
Silver flinched back. "Can you ask that? So soon after throwing me in jail and calling me such awful things?"
Twilight huffed softly. "Well... what is the plan?"
Celestia looked between the two. "I want us to be closer."
Silver straightened a little, looking at Celestia with growing curiosity. "Closer?"
Celestia smiled. "You are close to Cadance, and Luna, and Twilight. I am the only princess you do not regard as a friend."
Twilight squirmed uncomfortably. "I say this with all due respect, but you haven't given Silver a lot of reasons to do that."
Celestia nodded softly. "And here we are. It is time to put this ugly business behind us. To begin, Silver, you are not with foal anymore, at least not in any meaningful sense. Do you wish to be male?"
Silver jerked back. "I'm a princess now, right? Is that even an option?"
sorta used to silver being female now but i think it would be best for silver to go back to being male if at all possible... without losing the alicorness X3
Think they should stay female. They have gotten used to it quiet a bit, and even seem to enjoy it. Changing back and forth all the time sort of seems like running to me. And they promised to stop doing that before.
Yes oh please tell me silver has a chance to be male. Even though I kinda understand the whole changing into a female, but I still don't like changing genders. I only continue to read because I really enjoy this series but also wanted to see if he's returning back to male.
Given the context, I can't help but hear the offer as a sly attempt to cancel Silver's Princess status at the last opportunity.
But what about the foal? The spirit of the foal still in her! I really would like for her to be a guy again, but not if it means loosing the child again.
5912690 The child is 'born' as it were. Her sex is irrelevant to that, as Celestia said.
I don't think Silver should give up this opportunity. I think he should stay female, because Celestia is most likely using her "kindness" to get back what she wants. Also, I doubt Glimmer would find Silver as beautiful as she is and would go back to trying to get her cutie mark back. Lastly, all these changes are becoming quite bothersome. I would just stay as is to maintain Some resemblance of stability.
She's trying to turn "over" a new leaf.
Again, she may be trying to turn "over" a new leaf.
Also, that last part should probably be "she has a lot to answer for."
There needs to be a closing quotation mark at the end of this sentence.
Conversation died "for" a moment.
It took significantly less time than it "first" did.
5913320 Typos sent to Our Town for equalization.
5913335 The theme of this chapter seems to be forgiveness, as it opens with a discussion about whether or not Starlight should be forgiven, and closes with Princess Celestia apparently trying, at Cadance and Luna's behest, to make amends as well. Hopefully these two parallels will be recognized in later chapters and built upon, because they have the potential to form a nice contrast (and I still think Silver will be Princess of Forgiveness, or perhaps Redemption, though that latter one seems a bit too high-minded).
Insofar as Starlight goes, Silver should take a note how the rest of her herd is far less receptive to the idea of forgiving Starlight than she is. Twilight, who has the most experience with Starlight besides Silver, is flatly against it. Night Watch is trying to mediate between Silver and Twilight, but only insofar as trying to make Twilight's position seem more palatable to Silver, rather than trying to argue Silver's point to Twilight. Even Fast seems to feel vindictive towards her, and I suspect that he's being less than totally truthful regarding his intentions towards Starlight. Should he meet her, I'm expecting him to attack her on sight at this point.
I frowned at most of Silver's arguments, but most notably at her insistence that the Princess of Friendship was all but duty-bound to be receptive to Starlight's supposed proclamation of being repentant. Saying "you owe it to your title to try" struck me as very backwards thinking; yes, you could hold that Twilight is supposed to act as an example where friendship is concerned...but by that same token, when the Princess of Friendship refuses to try and be friends with somepony, is that a failure to uphold her duty, or is it a damning indictment of the pony in question? While Silver may not know what happened during the events of "The Cutie Map," Twilight is very aware of the fact that she did try to befriend and reason with Starlight, on more than one occasion, and Starlight simply wasn't interested in it. Nor was she interested in even opening a line of dialogue when she attacked Silver, twice.
At some point, offering forgiveness to a serial offender becomes an invitation to betrayal. The onus of being forgiven does not fall upon those to whom forgiveness is asked from, but upon those that ask for it - Starlight is the one who needs to prove that she wants to find redemption, and her repeated malfeasance means that she has to work that much harder to prove it. Silver is, quite simply, in the wrong here; she should listen to her better halves.
Of course, this was plainly demonstrated in the scene where Silver was changing clothes, where she admitted to herself that she was excited at the thought that somepony could be, essentially, seduced to the "good side" because they wanted her so badly. Oh Silver...this is where your greatest strength, that being your sense of humility, inverts itself and becomes your greatest weakness, namely your lack of self-confidence.
I have to give this scene credit, because it was forthright in that Silver's feelings about Starlight were based in selfishness, rather than any real desire for reconciliation. Simply put, Silver plainly told us that she wants to save Starlight because of what that says about herself (Silver); she wants to believe that she's that attractive, that desirable, that she can lure ponies over to her way of thinking simply because they want to be close to her. That's sad to the point of being pathetic, Silver...you have two wives, a husband, and an ex who still wants you back. Do you really still need external validation that badly? Worse, do you need it so badly that you'll embrace the pony that almost killed your unborn children if she offers it?
Given how Silver has recently been able to admit her anger at Twilight, this feels like another life-lesson in that same vein, albeit with its own twist.
Contrasting this was the scene with Princess Celestia. Exactly what the specifics of Luna and Cadance's "scheme" is are still unclear, but there's obviously more; after all, this was thrown together upon the revelation that Celestia has feelings for Twilight, so there's doubtlessly going to be some part of this situation designed to address that in some regard. More immediate is Celestia's offer to turn Silver back into a stallion...which is rather odd, since this fic has been quite consistent with the idea that femininity is an integral, and indeed vital, component to being an alicorn. Simply put, Silver can't become a stallion now that she's an alicorn, at least insofar as we've been told.
I suppose one option might be to "undo" her alicorn transformation (which would, as Istaran noted, deny her the status of being a princess), but I'm dubious that that could be accomplished. Moreover, I don't see Silver agreeing to that...except on the condition that it would give her foal its own body back. I suspect that if that were the case, Silver would agree without (too much) hesitation. It's not even an unthinkable idea, since Luna could use a variation of how she created Celine to make a new body, and she and Luna could move their magic (which helped Silver ascend) over to that new form to make it self-sustaining, while Twilight's magic either went with it or entered Silver's heart crystal (of course, that's presuming that Starlight didn't do something to it...).
That aside, there's the question of whether Silver would even want to be male again. Leaving aside the issue of what I'd personally like her to do, I'm of the opinion that, as a character, Silver would probably want to stay female. Simply put, at this point there's been too much exposition about how much more content she feels this way, how much more comfortable she is being a mare - to say nothing of the joy she took in being pregnant - for her to throw that away very easily. True, she has mentioned a few times that she'd like to go back to being male, but that desire has been so mildly and intermittently expressed that I have a hard time believing that it's anything other than a desire to retreat into what's familiar, rather than what she truly wants.
I think that Silver is happier as a mare, if she's honest with herself.
5913465 Who is stalking this fic and immediately thumbs up your comments? Not that your comments don't typically deserve such adoration, mind. As good as Silver has it at home, she is surrounded by a fairly unhappy and harshly judging world. She could hide in her room, and might just do that if it was entirely her choice, but events and other ponies often drag her out into the public eye, where she is less than warmly welcomed. This does not help anyone, especially someone with a fragile ego as it is. I do think Silver at least has a fairly good reason for behaving the way she does, and isn't just being lolrandom or depressingly in a rut or similar. She is the center of a big PR storm, and she sees someone else being shat on by a bunch of people and feels empathy for the situation, at least from her view. There wasn't any redeeming factor to Nightmare Moon or original-flavor Discord, but both were redeemed to good people. Why not this one?
Her relations agree that she is an awful person and should be avoided, but a lot of people say that about Silver, so, again, empathy is easy to feel when you're literally in the same boat.
Is Starlight truly repentant? Probably not. I wouldn't put money down on it. But is it 100% no? Nah.
As for alicorns and males and other things, there's a more important point to be made, which Silver makes next chapter. See you there and thanks for the indepth review.
a good chapter.
but wow the last too lines really floored me is Celestia being truthful?
Celestia nodded softly. "And here we are. It is time to put this ugly business behind us. To begin, Silver, you are not with foal anymore, at least not in any meaningful sense. Do you wish to be male?"
Silver jerked back. "I'm a princess now, right? Is that even an option?"
just wow.
and here is a question. what will Silvers tidal be? I know she has to find it on her own but I have a idea it is going to be Silver Stars the princess of magic. but it will be something vary good like working to save pony's in some way.
Harts Fire
5913565
I hadn't thought about that. I keep forgetting the little thumbs ups on comments are there. I should start stalking his posts and thumbs upping them.
5913565
5914379 Huh, I thought that was one of you guys doing that. Well, to whomever is thumbs-upping my posts, you have my thanks!
Male alicorn maybe maaaaaaybe
5963137 Only time and chapters could say.
Okay, I just lost it here.
Princess of Friendship
Celestia's sticking to her word?
Does the olive branch grow long enough to tie a noose at the end?
*in Batman’s voice* WHERE IS SHE!!!