How to train a Princess

by Foal Star

chapter thirteen: Gleaming Graduates!

Gleaming Shield and the rest of her friends were all in line for their graduation; they were in an oversized auditorium with rows and rows of seats. The princess academy graduates were now all standing together, all wearing their graduation caps and gowns standing as they were heading to the stage where Faust was standing above them. Gleaming, Winter, and Sunset Shimmer were standing together, all giving each other nervous looks. Gleaming looked around, gauging the area seeing many different versions of Twilight, Sunset shimmers, Trixie, and other various creatures and goddesses like Winter all sitting in their respective seats. Princess Faust then suddenly appeared on the stadium above everypony and tapped a hoof on the microphone. She started her speech. "Welcome! I am happy to see so many princesses graduating today! It is with great pleasure that I give out your diplomas as you set off to serve and rule your respective kingdoms and nations. I know each and every one of you will do your best."

Everypony in the stadium applauded Gleaming however was looking somewhat nervous at her friends with an unsure expression on her face. They then looked over back at Faust as she began the ceremony. "Now, I will call your names one by one; please come up and receive your diplomas."

The line of alicorns did as they were asked and came to Faust; she started to hand out their diplomas one by one. Things seemed to be normal as Gleaming walked up the steps to receive her's. But at the same time, both Winter and Sunset Shimmer all surrounded Faust from behind. Before she could react, the white-coated mare lit her horn, and they initiated her spell; they teleported themselves and Faust into professor Luna's study. Gleaming and Sunset both tied magical chains around the mare. Faust tried to maneuver herself, lighting her horn, but only tiny sparks came out of it. The other mares all sat around on the table as she looked around with a terrified expression. "What's going on here? What have you done to me!?"

"We're going to have a talk about how you run this school," The white-coated mare replied with a snarky smirk on her face as sat sat across from Faust.

Sunset Shimmer crossed her hooves across her chest. It snapped, "Yeah, I don't like the fact you're trying to brainwash ponies, especially princesses."

Winter glared at her and eyed them as she snapped, "me neither seriously!? I don't even know why I'm here, I'm a goddess?"

Faust laughed at them as she exclaimed, "what do you think you can hold me!?"

She tried to struggle from her bonds, and when she tried to light her horn, but again, only tiny sparks shot out. Faust was utterly tied down and couldn't do anything. "How did you do this!?"

"Luna put a ward around her study that negates your magic on top of that; those chains will hold you down until you hear us out." Gleaming snapped as she rose up; she wasn't going to hold back she had to make her demands clear and continued, "First off, Luna told us all about you and how this whole school is about brainwashing princesses; in fact, she even implied you might not even be the real Faust."

The alicorn started to snicker under her breath then replied, "of course not! She is a true goddess who loves the idea of free will? I'm just a clone created in an idea that was long discarded. I saw that the multiverse needed order, and I decided to create that order!"

Gleaming shook her head as she responded, "you're wrong, your perfect system failed when you tried to brainwash my version of Twilight, but instead, her brother wrote his name in one of your books and he accidentally took her place."

Faust went wide eyed at the news and asked, "that's never happened before? Why would he do that?"

Gleaming scratched the back of her mane, feeling a bit sheepish as she explained, "well, I think he did it as a joke; anyways, that's not the point. The fact is because Shining accidentally took the book instead of Twilight that proves you can't control every outcome. Your brainwashing didn't work either, in fact, I would say it didn't work on any of my friends at all."

Faust eyed them giving them a nasty glare and growled, "the only reason for that is Luna betrayed me, but can you honestly trust her? That version of Luna has done some horrible things in her past."

Gleaming rose up, glaring right back at Faust; she had enough of this debate especially when she’s trying to divert attention from the main issue at hand and snapped, "of course she isn't, but so did I, and I bet there are thousands of princesses graduating here who all did things their not proud of. We're not perfect; we're not immune to making mistakes or turning evil. The point is we're given the free will to decide what we want to do without lives and not forced to be mindless drones."

Faust glared at the two; she seemed unphased or willing to back down as she growled, "ok, so what's your plan? You give me a pep talk and force me to change? You're going to have to either trap me here forever, which I know you're all too soft to do. So just release me already."

Gleaming gave a small sigh of relief; at least this conversation was getting somewhere; she looked up and continued, "no, I have a better idea, I'll reform the academy with a better structure than the one implemented. You can still run the school, but you will not be allowed to brainwash anypony, either the teachers or the students."

There was now silence within the room everypony was as quiet as a mouse, then Faust spoke up once more. "First off, before I agree to this, I have to ask, are you still Shining Armor?"

Gleaming Shield shook her head before she continued, "no, it's a long story, but Luna helped me get my own body, and I lived my own life.." The princess of Guardianship paused as she reflected on the past twenty-five years of her life, all the memories flooding through her mind before she finished. "If I learned anything is that life is a way better teacher than any school."

Winter dawwed while Sunset Shimmer just rolled her eyes at Gleaming's comment. Faust simply looked down and grumbled, "all alright, you have a point, but still, I have thousands of alicorns under my control already. What makes you think I'll just release them?"

Sunset seemed to have enough as she stomped over and shoved a hoof in her face, "listen! I've had enough of you! We could just have you imprisoned here forever, and we can run the school ourselves! You should be lucky Gleaming here is so nice!

Gleaming turned to her marefriend she was being far too aggressive and shouted, "enough! Stop that! We're not here to imprison her!"

The white-coated mare then turned her attention back to Faust and asked, "Look, I'm tired of playing good cop bad cop here. Obviously, the only way this works if we have a deal. We want to restore the free will of everypony that has entered this school, so what will you want in return?"

The mare paused as she looked at the three princesses in training and replied with a smirk on her face. "Actually, I think I'll retire and let Gleaming be the new headmaster."

"What!?" All three mares shouted in unison.

Faust looked straight into Gleaming's eyes as she replied. "That's right, you have a better idea for this school fine, but then you can run it. I need a break anyway."

The three mares gave each other worried looks. Gleaming however pondered her decision for sometime she was definitely weary of this Faust. However, this is what she wanted and this copy of Faust get what she wants so there should be no reason for her to lie. Besides she has a way to ensure that Faust keeps her word. The mare then slowly came over and held out a hoof. "Well, a deal's a deal, you release everypony in your control, and I'll take over as the new headmaster."

The two then shook hooves, and then there was a long pause before all three mares burst into laughter. Faust was somewhat confused as the chains around her started to disappear, and the room around her turned from a gloomy-looking study to the grand auditorium where they were holding the graduation ceremony. Faust's mouth just dropped as she saw that they never left the stage, and surrounding her were giant blocks of ice surrounding her.

Then everypony started bursting into laughter as Sunset got up, wiping tears from her eyes. "That was awesome! Can't believe she fell for that!"

Even Winter was snickering as she walked over and commented, "Yeah, that was rather hilarious! You thought we could break through your dimension magic!?"

Faust sat there still wholly dumbfounded as the walls of ice melted by Sunset Shimmer's magic which revealed the hundreds of alicorns sitting in their seats, all either looking quite angry or surprised at the recent revelations.

Gleaming stood up proud of herself; they just defeated a goddess and not in battle but simply tricking her. She then trotted over as she continued, "just in case you decide to break your word, we have a few hundred witnesses. And yeah, I don't mind being the headmaster and proving that you're wrong."

Faust sat there sweating bullets as the crowd then started getting up from their seats, shouting and yelling. Gleaming saw that things were going to get out of control fast, she quickly ran over to the microphone and shouted. "Everypony, stop and hear me out! All of you!"

The army of angry princesses paused as Gleaming stood there somewhat nervous. She needed to make sure that the crowd didn't come over and lynch Faust as she continued, "I know what this copy of Faust has done is unforgivable, but we still need to uphold the values of who we are. As of today, I'll be the new headmaster, the brainwashing and the lying and the...um...all of them over-the-top mare stuff comes to an end. I will start a new curriculum that is built around building princess alicorns to be who they want to be!" She stomped a hoof on the ground and closed her eyes, unsure of how the crowd would take her speech. But soon, everypony around her started to clap and cheer, making her cheeks turn red. Gleaming had no idea what she was getting herself into.

---

A few hours later, Gleaming was now back in the office, where she first met Faust and was enrolled into the academy. The room itself was rather barren as the copy of Faust taking her nametag and a bunch of the pictures on the wall and stuffing them into a bag. She tossed the bag in a giant box as she threw a hoof and bowed before Gleaming in a sarcastic gesture. "Well, I guess this is your office now, Headmaster Gleaming Shield."

The white-coated mare looked over at the copy of Faust with a sad expression as she replied, "I mean...I don't want to run this school all the time. I'll need somepony to keep things in check while I'm in my universe...or when I visit Sunset or Winter."

Faust rolled her eyes as she placed the box onto her back and replied, "I honestly don't care, you and your friends won, I lost, end of story."

Gleaming trotted over and placed a hoof on the former headmaster's shoulder and continued, "look, you know I don't think you're completely wrong, but you have to see now that nopony wants to be brainwashed or used."

The copy of Faust looked downward at the giant scroll laid out on her old desk. Gleaming saw that the alicorn goddess knew she was right but didn't want to admit it and grumbled, "Yes, and I see your new curriculum is...well...more freeform as you would put it."

"Yeah, more freeform, the idea is that we get alicorns from all over to come and live in a city where they can go to a simulation of a kingdom, they can learn more in a classroom and a palace for mares who like all the frilly fru-fru stuff." Gleaming explained. "Basically, you get to choose what you want to learn, and if you don't want to do anything, you can go home free of charge."

The copy of Faust looked upward at her former student and asked, "you honestly think this will work? What if everything falls apart?"

The white-coated mare gave the former headmaster a friendly smile and replied, "give freewill a shot. I'm sure things will turn out just fine."

The two then headed towards the front door as Faust gazed around the empty office. She seemed to look it over with an expression of nostalgia on her face as she whispered, "I'm going to miss this place."

Gleaming nuzzled Faust and whispered, "As I said, you can come back at any time to help out if you want." The mare then looked towards the door and opened it, showing a swirling pink void before she gave a deep breath; everything was about wrapped up. But there were a few more things she needed to take care of before she could feel ready to run a multidimensional school, like telling her family the truth about her and finding Sunset Shimmer's dimension. "Now I need to go home; I have some explaining to do to my family; they deserve to know the truth." She then headed to the door and let the magic consume her as she went back home.

---

After Gleaming returned, she held an "emergency meeting" back at her parent's house in their living room. That was where she explained everything to them, how she took over Shining's body without realizing it, how she went back in time and basically lived a whole life, and then taking Shining's place, writing her name in the book, and going through the academy again, then defeating the copy of Faust.

"So... that's how I became the headmaster of an interdimensional academy for new alicorns." Gleaming explained she looked up at her family. Twilight Velvet and Nightlight were wide-eyed and seemed to be entirely overwhelmed by the information. Shining Armor seemed to be unsurprised or concerned as he rose up. "Come on, it doesn't matter what you are; as far as I'm concerned, she's my twin sister, and I'm proud to be her twin brother."

Tears filled Gleaming’s eyes as she walked over to her twin brother and threw her wings around him and pulled him into a hug. She just started balling and wailing unable to control how happy and emotional she was with Shining accepting her in such a manner. But it didn’t end there as Twilight cried out. “She’s my big sister too!” She then flew over and gave Gleaming a hug, and then her parents came over, and they all hugged her, Shining, and Princess Cadance.

Gleaming felt so squeamish being buried by her family, and she just sat there and nuzzled them all, being so happy she could be with them after everything that's happened to her. They eventually broke off as Gleaming rose up and flexed her wings. She wiped the tears from her eyes and got control of herself then whispered meekly. "Thank you...all of you for being so understanding I promise to be the princess I can be. However there’s one more thing before I can officially say I’m ready to settle down…”

Just then the emotional rollercoaster ride came to an abrupt end when a purple portal opened in the middle of the living room and another Twilight came out. This one had thick glasses around her eyes and her mane tied in a bun she was pointing at a watch on her hoof and snapped, “come on! You don’t want to miss your only chance on reuniting Sunset Shimmer.”

Gleaming turned to the rest of her family trembling this was all rather sudden but she couldn’t miss this chance to find her love. Shining however placed a hoof on her shoulder and whispered, “go after her, we’ll be here when you return.”

“Thank you!” Gleaming squealed as she rushed to the portal and jumped in head first.

---

A week later...

Dawn was breaking over Ponyville while Twilight's castle two alicorns were together in a bedroom laying underneath the sheets. Sunset was on top of her special somepony. The two alicorns were lying together embraced in a kiss as they seemed unable to be separated. Sunset groaned as the rays of the sun hit her face as she laid back on the bed. "Buck it, Celestia, you couldn't wait to raise the sun for one morning?"

Gleaming was still panting as she caught her breath; she may be exhausted having sex all morning, but she wasn't ready to get up just yet. She bent over to gaze at her lover as she stroked Sunset's chest with a hoof. "Oh, who says we need to get up with the sun? It's not like we have anything we need to do right now?"

Sunset nuzzled into Gleaming and responded, "shouldn't you be running a school right now?"

"No, I shut it down until we're officially married...besides, I'm still in shock after that stunt we pulled. It was quite a gamble we pulled, tricking that copy of Faust. I was sure we would probably be killed or end up being brainwashed." Gleaming replied as she got up from the bed and stretched her hooves.

"Yeah, sure, but that wouldn't have happened without my illusion magic." Sunset scoffed in an overconfident tone.

Gleaming snickered as she walked around the bed and kissed Sunset on the muzzle. "Well, at the very least now, our only problem on our hooves is how we'll plan two weddings."

"Oh please, let's not go that far; let's just enjoy being marefriends for a bit," Sunset grumbled as she started to get up as well. Gleaming frowned; she was already in the midst of planning two weddings with both versions of Twilight and scoffed, "oh no you don't! I've spent all week planning these weddings! You're not backing out now!"

"Am not! I mean, you caught me off guard when you proposed; of course, I want to be with you forever, but I...well...I don't know; I just don't think I'm ready for a wedding." Sunset snapped back as she finally got out of bed.

"Oh i'll make you ready." Gleaming whispered under her breath she was already behind her marefriend as she started preening Sunset's wings. She started making the orange coated mare shiver and moan as Gleaming hit bent feathers and the sensitive parts of the wings. Sunset began to press her rump into Gleaming as the princess of Guardianship finished the preening Sunset turned around with her green eyes; it didn't take long for Gleaming to lose herself in her fiances' gaze, and the two began to kiss. The moment ended as Spike opened the door and shouted, "hey Gleaming! Twilight was wondering if...oh…"

The two mares turned towards the young drake with glares that would turn him into stone if they could. Spike gulped as he realized he came at a bad time and stammered, "I...um...well...sorry!"

Sunset just stomped over and slammed the door in Spike's face as Gleaming couldn't help but laugh afterward and commented, "seems in most universes Spike will be Spike."

Sunset seemed to be less amused as she just grumbled, "he's such a nuisance like a pesky little brother." She came up to Gleaming with bedroom eyes; the white-coated mare knew Sunset was now checking her out as she whispered, "Anyways, why don't we hit the shower and continue our fun in there."

"As you wish, my princess," Gleaming whispered back, and the two mares strolled into the bathroom nearby to continue their alone time together.

Comments

[Greenhorn]

So we have Gleaming a headmaster of the interdimensional Alicorn school, while Twilight is a headmaster of Friendship school. This Sparkle family is really into education.

[Chrome Masquerade]

Faust eyed them giving them a nasty glare and growled, "the only reason for that is Luna betrayed me, but can you honestly trust her? That version of Luna has done some horrible things in her past."

That's exactly WHY she can be trusted. Mostly.

[Chrome Masquerade]

The three mares gave each other worried looks. Gleaming however pondered her decision for sometime she was definitely weary of this Faust. However, this is what she wanted and this copy of Faust get what she wants so there should be no reason for her to lie. Besides she has a way to ensure that Faust keeps her word. The mare then slowly came over and held out a hoof. "Well, a deal's a deal, you release everypony in your control, and I'll take over as the new headmaster."

Then everypony started bursting into laughter as Sunset got up, wiping tears from her eyes. "That was awesome! Can't believe she fell for that!"

Even Winter was snickering as she walked over and commented, "Yeah, that was rather hilarious! You thought we could break through your dimension magic!?"

Faust sat there still wholly dumbfounded as the walls of ice melted by Sunset Shimmer's magic which revealed the hundreds of alicorns sitting in their seats, all either looking quite angry or surprised at the recent revelations.

Well played, girls. Well played!

The army of angry princesses paused as Gleaming stood there somewhat nervous. She needed to make sure that the crowd didn't come over and lynch Faust as she continued, "I know what this copy of Faust has done is unforgivable, but we still need to uphold the values of who we are. As of today, I'll be the new headmaster, the brainwashing and the lying and the...um...all of them over-the-top mare stuff comes to an end. I will start a new curriculum that is built around building princess alicorns to be who they want to be!" She stomped a hoof on the ground and closed her eyes, unsure of how the crowd would take her speech. But soon, everypony around her started to clap and cheer, making her cheeks turn red. Gleaming had no idea what she was getting herself into.

Very shrewd of her, though. With just a short speech and no show of force at all, Gleaming suddenly has a large number of alicorns on her side. I say long life to princess/headmistress Gleaming Shield.

[Chrome Masquerade]

I have to say, I enjoyed this story. It had all of the right ingredients for a great story of this type and has a satisfying ending and... aftertaste, you might say. At the same time, I'm left wanting more, but if that's the biggest complaint that I have, it just goes to show how good of a story this really is.

I'm giving this story a 9.5 on my itude meter. I'm hoping for stories of this caliber in the future.

[spoonlol]

A fun series to be sure, nice to see it completely and to see Gleaming get her special somepony in the end

[Luckyfanisaac]

snarky smirk on her face as she sat across from Faust.

You should be lucky Gleaming here is so nice!“(——

"Yeah, more freeform, the idea is that we get alicorns from all over to come and live in a city where they can go to a simulation of a kingdom, they can learn more in a classroom and a palace for mares who like all the frilly fru-fru stuff." Gleaming explained. "Basically, you get to choose what you want to learn, and if you don't want to do anything, you can go home free of charge."

Sounds like the capital of my homeland on Sakatoria. Except there are male alicorns.

"Oh I’ll make you ready."

[StubobNumbers]

I was interested by the premise, but I think this narrative grew way beyond the original concept. I didn't end up liking he story as much as I expected I would.

[Foal Star]

10888872
Yeah, I'm doing better having a clear idea in mind for my stories then I was before. But I'm doing more TF/TG stories and imoroving on my narratives. Thank you for reading regardless

[StubobNumbers]

10889002

And I might read some of your other stories at some point. No promises though. My "Read It Later" backlog is so long that I'll be reading for multiple years just on that.

[-Dreamer-]

can someone explain who is a rabbit with a clock that goes through portals with twilight.

[Foal Star]

10940371
I got the idea from a fanart ive seen of Twilight jumping through portals and knocking out the rabbit from alice in Wonderland.

[-Dreamer-]

10940576
Here is This artpbs.twimg.com/media/EuEWgzdXcAYNriQ.jpg

[UncivilWord]

10941142
So THATS why he is late.

[Hannah Nelson]

I wana be like gleaming

[DrCygnus]

by the great words of navcom
this is a Convoluted 'Hamlet of Mehdiocrity'
still tho I'm sure some people enjoyed this so I shall evaporate now