Celestia XVII: The Broken Princess

by brokenimage321

2: "The Republic"

“Further, he of whom we are in search should have a good memory, and be an unwearied solid man who is a lover of labour in any line; or he will never be able to endure the great amount of bodily exercise and to go through all the intellectual discipline and study which we require of him.”

It was only ten-thirty, and already I wanted nothing more than to go back to bed.

I was in my office. The warm spring sunlight streamed in through the windows, warming the room and making me sleepy—and the pancakes from breakfast, still sitting heavily in my gut, weren’t exactly helping. The clock in the corner counted the seconds to itself, each tick a quiet heartbeat. I was sitting at my mother’s massive desk—

No, my desk. I’d been Princess for almost a decade now, and I’d been using this desk in earnest for at least three years. My desk.

And yet… somehow, it still felt like I was intruding. Like, every time I sat down at its mahogany expanse, I felt like I was tracking mud over someone’s carpet.

...Anyways. I was sitting in my sweltering office, fighting to stay awake. It would have been easier if I could have used the throne room—no big, fancy desk, but at least it was cooler—but that was out. They were still cleaning up the damage from the Wedding. I had hoped we would have had it over with by now, but progress was unexpectedly slow… not to mention, the fire had probably ruined whatever marble they might have been able to salvage, and shipping new stone in wasn’t cheap…

Speaking of flaming disasters—I turned and shot a baleful look at my in-tray. I had been so proud when I got it three years ago--made me feel official--but now I hated the sight of it. Being Princess involved a great deal less hoof-shaking and a great deal more paperwork than I’d been led to believe. Letters from concerned citizens, proposals for new projects, bills needing my signature—all of them ended up in the towering stack inside my in-tray.

Raven, my secretary, helped me to keep everything organized, of course, but my stack never seemed to get any smaller. For every paper I signed, two more popped up. And every single one of them wanted me to make a choice. Should I let them cut down the forest to grow more food, or protect the forest to save the owls that lived there? Should I give that little extra budget windfall to the Department of Education to buy new desks, or to Transportation to lay more rails? Is proposal ECB-9974 actually a good idea, or just another bit of political infighting between bureaucrats that had escaped my notice?

At the thought of it all, I sagged. Other mares my age were having fun, going to college or work, sitting in coffee shops or bars and chatting with their friends for hours at a time. Me? The fate of Equestria weighed on my shoulders a hundred times a day—my shoulders, the least qualified shoulders in Equestrian history. I hadn’t gone to college, I hadn’t had any training, and yet, they wanted me to make decisions that would change the course of the nation itself, a dozen times before lunch.

Oh, sure, I had managed to keep up, somehow—but that was back when I had help. Blueblood and my other advisors made it bearable. But with Blueblood away for the past month, and the rest of them picking up the pieces after the wedding, it was all left to little ol’ me.

Name one other mare in Equestria, one, who has to do so much with so little, and I’ll...

Suddenly, the latch on the door clicked open, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up from the report on blueberry yields to see the door swing open, revealing Blueblood and Rarity.

“There she is!” Blue cried, glancing back at Rarity with a smile. “Told you she was being all responsible and stuff!”

Despite my dark mood, I cracked a little smile. I leaned back, then let out a tiny gasping cry as the kinks in my back cracked and popped.

“What are you doing cooped up in here on a fine day like this?” Blue continued.

I sighed and waved absently at my inbox. “Checking my mail,” I said.

Rarity’s eyes practically popped out of her head. “Checking your mail?” she squeaked, looking the stack up and down.

“Yeah,” Blueblood said lazily. “Actually a little light today, I think.”

I shot him a look, then turned back to the report on my desk.

After a moment, Blueblood spoke.

“Hey, Rares,” he said, “how do you feel about helping Sissy with her homework?” At the sound of my old nickname, I looked up at him cautiously, and he shot me a grin. “After all,” he continued, “it is a shame she’s trapped in this little office, especially when it’s so warm…”

Both of us looked at Rarity, who raised an eyebrow.

“Can we… do that?” she asked. “Open Royal correspondence?”

“Sure,” Blue replied. “It was actually part of my job for a while—back before we started planning for the Wedding, anyway.”

Rarity giggled, and Blue leaned down and kissed her. She kissed him back, then stood up on her hind legs to put her arms around his neck. I just rolled my eyes and looked away. The two of them didn’t speak for probably thirty seconds—though they were far from silent.

As I tried to block them out, I found my thoughts drifting again—only this time, they took the shape of a young, sky-blue pegasus with a roguish grin and a pair of silver bars on his coat pocket. My eyes wandered over to my inbox, and a longing little sigh escaped my lips. Some help would be nice… after all, it had been far too long since Soarin’ and I had been able to have any private time together…

I scowled and shut that thought out too. Though it took a great deal more effort than remembering whose desk I was sitting at…

“So how about it, Sissy?” Blueblood said suddenly. “We’ll both come help you with all… this?” he said, gesturing to my inbox. “We have a couple appointments, but I’m sure we can manage. After dinner, say?”

I looked back at Blueblood again, an involuntary smile flitting across my face…

That is, until I noticed Rarity, standing just behind him.

At Blueblood’s words, Rarity had stiffened. She stared at the back of her husband’s head, her eyes wide and fearful. She snuck a cautious glance at me, and, as soon as she saw me looking back at her, whipped her gaze away. Then, she took a deep breath and let out a tiny, polite cough.

“Blue, Darling,” she said slowly, “I don’t think we’ll be able to help out tonight.”

Blueblood raised his eyebrows in surprise, then turned back to look at her. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Rarity grimaced, but quickly composed herself. “Oh, you know… we… we have that thing tonight.”

“What thing?” he asked.

Rarity clenched her jaw. “The thing in Ponyville?”

Blueblood watched her for a moment, then slowly shook his head. “Not ringing a bell, Sweetheart,” he said.

I had been watching the exchange carefully, my eyes following their back-and-forth like I was at a tennis match. Rarity glanced at me again, sighed, then stood up on tip-hoof and leaned close to Blueblood. She tried to pass it off as a kiss, but her whisper carried through the near-silence of the room like a gunshot:

“You know,” she said, her irritation showing through. “Twilight’s party. I’ve been telling you for weeks.”

“Oh!” Blueblood yelped, jerking back in surprise. Then, he drooped his ears, and looked at me guiltily over his shoulder. “Oh,” he repeated, deflating.

Rarity shot him a dirty look, then turned back to me. As soon as she saw me, her eyes widened again.

“Your Highness?” she asked, taking a step forward. “Are you alright?”

For the space of five sledgehammer-beats from the clock, I did not move. Then, I cracked a smile.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice rasping. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

In the top drawer of my desk lay a small, wire-bound notebook, decorated with stickers of hearts and stars. It was my day-planner—or, at least, my personal copy. Raven kept my official schedule, but she was very good about helping me keep my planner updated. In fact, she had done so yesterday, waiting patiently while I painstakingly wrote down, in small, cramped writing, all of the hundreds of appointments and obligations I had this week.

None of them had mentioned a party, Twilight’s or otherwise.

For a fraction of a second, I considered the possibility that there had been a mistake—that my invitation hadn’t arrived, or that Raven had somehow missed it, or that she’d forgotten to tell me about it—but Rarity’s expression told me everything I needed to know. There had been no mistake. There was no invitation coming. There never had been. Twilight Sparkle was having a birthday party with her friends, a full week earlier than she’d planned—and she had not invited me, her best friend in the world.

“It’s okay,” I said. I barely heard by own words. My mouth was speaking all on its own. “If you can come by tomorrow, the mail will still be here.”

I barked a hollow, brittle laugh. Rarity cringed, and Blueblood cocked his head.

“Besides,” I continued, “this is my job, anyways, right? Probably shouldn’t be asking you to help…”

Blueblood looked uncertainty at Rarity, who gave a tiny nod. He looked back at me and gave a weak smile.

“Sissy,” he said carefully, “is everything okay?”

“It’s great,” I replied, a little too loudly.

Blueblood flicked one ear, but otherwise ignored my outburst. “If you need us to stay and help tonight,” he said gently, “we will. I know you have a lot to do…” He chuckled a little. “I mean, we have been on vacation for the past month or so, after all. It’s only fair that we help out some…”

“No,” I said, trying to ignore the tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. “You guys go have fun. You made a promise. I’ll be fine,” I lied. I smiled my brittle smile again.

Rarity and Blue shared a look. They both stayed silent, but somehow, they seemed to make a decision anyway.

“In that case… I suppose...” Rarity said slowly, her eyes still locked on Blueblood’s, “...that we will be busy tonight… after all.” She finally looked at me and flashed a half-hearted smile. “Though we’ll definitely be by tomorrow to do what we can.”

“Yeah,” I said, halfheartedly. “Yeah, that would be nice.” I swallowed. “See you then.”

Comments

[brokenimage321]

9906924
Thanks! I hope it meets your expectations!

9906934
Thanks very much! I try hard to keep things unexpected

9906997
I always love reading your comments! and I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

9907042
I think you have--but, as always, I appreciate it!

9907255
Thanks! I always appreciate kind comments from longtime collaborators.

9907168
I know! That was quick!

9908509
Yeah, with Blueblood being a decent pony this time around, he can better see what's been in front of him (i.e., his sister) the entire time

9908268
Not... quite.

9908276
That's probably the correct solution, but Cece's in a dark place right now. Plus, if she did that, there wouldn't be a story

9907398
I feel like I need to make a cross-stitch of this comment and hang it in my office for when I get discouraged. Thanks!

[Crack-Fic Casey]

9908705
If you link to a comment on a diffrent page from the one you're posting on, it won't show up in the feed.

[Carbon]

So, Twilight abaddon Cece ih her hard time.
That is not a good friend do.

[Comickook]

Splendid job on this latest chapter. Again, Celly's reflection on the level of her responsibility was some pretty deep stuff and the dialogue between her, Blue and Rarity was pretty good too.

Once more, the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places.

VERY certainly going to be looking forward to more of this.

[Edguy0009]

9908754
I know it's not a good thing to do but sometimes it's.... unavoidable.

9908705
Your welcome.

[badninja]

They definitely need to get Cece more underlings a person who reads the letters from the public, sending some to her desk to read at night. She needs people around her so she can understand the things she doesn't. The issue is Cece needs to realize that she needs to ask for help becuase I bet many ponies don't realize she is so far in over her head.

[Georg]

Oh, please let this be a surprise party for Celestia, one of Pinkie Pie's specials.

[Sylica telca]

Mahogany
https://youtu.be/14D5wKSVlXg