The Flame Prince

by Schlat

Settling In

We made good time back towards Ponyville's town hall, and arrived with about thirty minutes to spare before the town's notary, Time Turner. Was supposed to leave.

I quite honestly didn't really understand why the mayor couldn't take care of this. Especially since I held a similar position as Ashen's current regent. Which included the responsibility of making sure everypony had a home, whether it was a family of seven or a single mare. The same went with food availability, basic security, maintenance, among other things.

All in all I couldn't see why she would relegate such a duty to another pony, and if he handled all of that what did she do, public relations?

It seemed kind of lazy on her part, but then again who was I to judge. I was from an entirely different country and culture. A foreigner to Equestria. Maybe the mayor had a good reason to pass her work off to the stallion? Either way I probably wouldn't find out until we got there.

Which we soon did, once more trotting into town hall for what felt like the umpteenth time this week. Thankfully finding Time Turner's office quickly thanks to the directions of a mare reading a weird book filled with more pictures than words while sitting at a desk in the front part of the main circular hall.

I knocked before we entered out of good mannerisms and wanting to make a good first impression. After all I was more than likely going to be living here for the next several weeks at least, However the reception I received seemed less than enthusiastic.

"Hello, welcome to Ponyville townhall, how can I... help you..." the light brown stallion, whom I presumed to be Time Turner said as we walked in.

"Well that's a marvelous way to start our conversation" I thought, noticing how his eyes narrowed as we walked in.

"Hello, my name is Night Storm and these two are my acquaintance's, Delilah Evadne and Fire Strike. We we're looking into buying a house here" I continued. At that statement the stallion narrowed his eyes even more.

"We have a select few to choose from" he said after a moment and started to pull some pieces of paper from his desk.

"Oh we already choose what house we wanted with Mayor Mare earlier today, all we need to do is pay for it now" I replied and hoofed Filthy Rich's cheque on his desk.

"As well as withdraw the remaining bits" I added. Time Turner seemed surprised by this turn of events but collected himself rather quickly.

"Oh, okay this should be rather straightforward then" he sighed. Then retreating into his desk once more and pulled out even more paper.

"Jeez the amount of time and effort it would take to make this much paper back home would be astounding".

"Alright since the property has been in the care of The Royal Housing Commission for a little over two decades, though the actual work is handled by a local service that works in unison with them. So everything should be in order and the house move in ready" he said.

"Perfect, how exactly does this work?" I asked.

"Well I have all of the documentation right here so all you'll have to do is simply have your mares sign off on it and hoof over the check for me to take care of" he said.

"Why do they have to sign off on it?" I asked. Time Turner looked at me confused for a moment before responding.

"What do you mean sir?" he asked.

"What, what is he talking... about. No, not that dumb bucking land ownership law, how the buck did I forget about that!"

Yep, thanks to trying to cram my brain with everything I could learn about Ponyville I had in fact forgotten an Equestrian law that stated mares we're technically the only ones that could own land. How it escaped my meeting with Mayor Mare I quite honestly don't know. Or perhaps it was such common knowledge that the mayor felt it didn't need to be brought up. Though that did little to ease my internal anger.

"Those Faust damned good for nothing pathetic excuses that call themselves Equestrian noblemares. I will curse your entire bloodlines until the end of time and then spit upon them you disgusting pieces of sun loving vermin!" I mused angrily.

Of course Equestria just had to buck with me in every, possible, way! As in Royal Decree Num. 47. 'Any property that is not owned by, or subsequently and explicitly left in the care of a named full grown stallion shall always default it's ownership to that of a mare. Unless as aforementioned is left to a male in that of a will, other documentation, or if other circumstances present themselves'.

Or in other words, a group of noblemares attempt at tax evasion. As two years previously before that law was passed Princess Celestia had stated that any household that housed males and we're struggling to make ends meet could apply for a small tax break. It wouldn't make them immune to being taxed but would help them make ends meet.

As such, some of the nobles, the utter cretins of politics. Along with a substantial amount of the peasantry at the time collaborated together to falsely name several non-applicable herds as actually legible for the tax break as they we're still the ones who ultimately ran towns, villages, and cities back then.

In a rare display of comradery nobles and commoners actually worked together to outplay the princess. The commoners would get a tax break, while the nobles received a small payment from said herds savings for their efforts, a perfectly symbiotic relationship, and in an effort to keep their little scheme a secret they passed royal decree forty-seven along with several other little laws and legislation.

Though of course they would be found out eventually, by a stallion no less. So in a way I suppose it made sense for them to pass decree forty-seven, and all parties we're punished. Though that took years to sort out. The important thing however was that there really was no need to change the ownership law and so it remained in effect to this day, annoyingly.

Though thankfully a male could still own property... if it was left to him in a will or if he was literally homeless without a mare to take care of him, among other reasons. Though one of the very few good things about Equestria was that homelessness was basically non-existent, (good job Celestia... I guess),. Coupled with the fact that a mareless stallion would just be snatched up by one almost immediately meant that there was very little reason, or need, to change the law.

"Sir are you okay?" Time Turner asked, which brought me back to my current dilemma.

"Yes yes I am fine" I replied to Time Turner.

"Are you sure, you look... upset" he said.

"I assure you I am fine, please just write Delilah and Fire's names on the deed to the property" I said.

"Okay, I presume to label you three as a herd correct?" he added.

I remember inhaling sharply at that comment, but not his account of my left eye twitching several times. I was far more focused on my internal musing's again.

"What does that bucking matter, why does it? What is the genuine point of them having that tidbit of information?!"

"Um sir, if you're wondering why we record that it's for the safety of stallions and so the government can know who's with us at all times, f... forsafetyreasons!" Time Turner shrunk back.

It was not until Delilah stroked my withers did I realize that I was scowling and subsequently scaring the colt infront of us that I then forced myself to calm down. Looking over to her revealed she was giving me a concerned look, while then switching over to Fire Strike also showed that she sported the same look on her muzzle, and I looked to the ground in anger.

"Time Turner" I began after thinking a few moments later, and the stallion's posture slowly started to come back from being on the brink of 'bucking terrified'.

"Fine then Faust, if it's going to be like that then it's going to be like that. Besides, I'm only doing it for the crown, I'm doing this for the crown!"

"Put down Delilah Evadne, Fire Strike, Star Fire, Ruby Firetail, Lilith Starstopper, Blazing Skies, and myself obviously as a herd" I said, doing my absolute damnedest to keep a straight face and not lash out at the stallion.

"O-okay... w-was there a-anything else sir" Time Turner squeaked.

"Great, now I have scared him. Great job Flameheart, you've had training in espionage and you still buck it up, do better!"

"Other than withdrawing our extra bits then no, that will be all" I replied.

"All right, I just need Delilah and Fire to sign here please" he said. Once they did and he pulled out a few more pieces of paper for them to sign before then shelving them into a folder, which he then put into a drawer in his desk.

"Since the house doesn't have anypony living there currently you three can just make yourselves at home. Now if you'll just follow me we can get your extra bits withdrawn" he said.

---

After about twenty more minutes the three of us we're trotting through Ponyville's marketplace. Using our extra bits to buy food. I however was still fuming over what had happened with Time Turner. Though I was more concerned with why he seemed to initially act with disdain towards me before I'd unintendedly frightened him thanks to my own incompetence.

In fact now that I thought about it on the rare occasions I did see stallions here they seemed to almost be glaring at me, which was a far cry from the utmost respect they showed back home.

"Night, is everything alright?" Delilah asked.

"Yes, you seem... distant. Uncharacteristically so" Fire added.

"I am fine, just..." I began. But seeing that we we're trotting up to a carrot merchant I faltered.

I'll tell you two later" I replied. To which they both nodded and we trotted up to the mare, who upon seeing us. Or rather me, smiled brightly.

"Night Storm...? You came back!" she smiled.

"Yes I did Carrot Top, but not because of you, or anypony else here. I've come back for... personal reasons, and I'd like to leave it at that, alright" I replied.

"Oh, okay then..." she said.

"Thank you, now then, you're selling carrots?" I asked.

"Yep, did you want to buy some" she replied.

"Indeed, how much?" I asked.

"Five bits for one bundle of ten carrots" she explained.

"We'll take three then" I said, and I nodded to Delilah and she retrieved fifteen bits from a small coin purse and placed them on Carrot Top's stand with her magic. The golden colored mare then followed suit by hoofing me three bundles of carrots and, with our transaction complete I bid farewell to her.

"Thank you Carrot Top, have a nice day" I smiled.

"Thank you Night, you too" she replied. However, after a few seconds of standing there my smiled disappeared, morphing into an annoyed look, and at her questioning expression I gestured to the two mares standing either side of me.

"Oh! Uh, you two have a nice day as well... uh..." she trailed off.

"Delilah Evadne, Fire Strike" they replied.

"Right, I knew that! Just uh... needed to be reminded" Carrot Top smiled sheepishly.

"Thank you Carrot, have a nice day" I said and began to trot away. My food and... mares in tow.

"Ugh... I know our herd is fake but it still feels weird to call them that now they're (even if only in facade) more than just my guards" I thought.

Eventually as the sun began to set we completed our shopping and began heading out of town towards where our new home was, and about four minutes into our ten minute walk Delilah let out a magical pulse from her horn. This was the signal for four more mares to join us.

We didn't speak until we arrived at the house, Delilah had been given the key to it by Time Turner along with the deed to the property. She retrieved it from a pocket dimension spell all unicorns in the legion we're required to know how to cast and unlocked the door.

True to Mayor Mare's words the house seemed to have been well catered too. Though there was a problem of no furniture, though that was an issue a simple trip to a craftsmare, merchant, or just plain old hooves could fix. We would remedy that tomorrow when I wasn't so fatigued from the day's events, and today was a get everypony introduced to the town day anyway.

But there was one last thing left to do today, besides dinner and setting up our sleeping arrangements. A debrief, or rather a second one now that we we're going to be pretending we we're a herd to the townsponies.

A quick trot upstairs revealed five bedrooms as well as a strange room which had a tiled floor as well as several ceramic tub looking things?

"Washtubs? Whatever, I'm sure we'll find out what those are for in due time" I thought.

Returning to what seemed to be the main bedroom revealed the Flame Ponies putting out our dinner while the unicorns retrieved hide sleeping beds crafted from the animals of the Firelands and enchanted not to catch fire. Though even if they weren't the spells the unicorns we're using to disguise us had a small shield imbedded into the disguise so to stop our fire from lighting things aflame. Also included in the spell was a heat inhibitor for obvious reasons, among other things.

Retrieving a lantern from my bag of holding I had purchased earlier from a store called Barnyard Bargains I placed it in the center of the room to help illuminate everything better in the dwindling light. Once we we're all set up in a circle around the lantern and made sure all the window shutters we're shut we all sat down in a circle and began to discuss our situation.

"So... what did you four get up to?" I broke the proverbial ice.

"I managed to draw up this map of Ponyville and the surrounding area for us" Star Fire replied and lit her horn. Slowly but surely an arcane map of Ponyville appeared before us.

"Good job" I said.

"The only eventful thing that happened to me other than having some random clumsy pegasus with a lazy eye smash into me was managing to procure a train schedule" Lilith spoke up.

"All right that may be useful, good job" I replied. I had yet to see one of these metal beasts but I was very intrigued from what I had read in our Canterlot agents reports. They said that they we're massive machines that could haul heavy loads long distances with minimal effort.

"Have you heard about them Night?" she asked.

"Yes, I have, though I've yet to see one of these metal beasts but from what I've read in our Canterlot agents reports about them I was very intrigued. They said that they're massive machines that can haul heavy loads long distances with minimal effort.

"Sounds useful" Ruby said.

"Indeed, but we have no need from something like that. Especially if the rumors are true and robbers and thieves can rob them as easily as they say" I replied.

"...The reports we're very detailed about why they should not be something we pursue" I added at the mares intrigued faces. I then looked back at Star Fire's map of Ponyville.

Suffice to say it looked very detailed, from the river running between the town, with town hall being next to it in the center of town. The Everfree Forest's outer edge running along the southern, eastern, and parts of the western sides of the town with a small but nicely decorated area in between the river and eastern part of the forest.

"What's that?" I said, pointing towards it on her map.

"I asked a local about it and she told me it was called a park" Star replied.

"It's purpose?" I asked.

"Recreation, apparently" the mare said.

"Hm, what about you Blaze" I asked the last member of our septet.

"When Star wasn't occupied with her map we both engaged in conversation with the locals trying to find out about the towns history, along with little tidbits of information here and there about anything really" she said.

"All right then, do you all think the townsponies reacted well to you?" I asked.

"Well enough I suppose" Ruby replied.

"Very well..." I paused, unsure of how to deliver my next sentence.

"Sire, is everything all right?" Lilith asked.

"Yes just, there's been a change in the plan" I replied.

"What kind of change?" Star asked.

"You six are not going to be posing as my sisters anymore, you are going to be posing as my herdmates" I stated, albeit a little bitterly.

Almost immediately four sets of wide eyes snapped to me, and the faces that set eyes belonged to also began to slightly blush as well. It was probably a good solid minute or so before Ruby eventually spoke up.

"Um... s-so h-how exactly is this g-going to work?" she asked.

"Well we're basically going to be your standard herd" I replied. "Though I'll let you six decide amongst yourselves over the position of lead mare" I added.

At that they all looked at each other. More than likely uncertain on how to feel about all this, and I quite honestly didn't blame them.

"Night, if I may ask. W-why the sudden... c-change" Star asked.

"One, Equestrian noblemares. Two, I'm a bucking idiot, and three - you're not a idiot!" At that my own eyes snapped onto Blazing Sky's steadfast face.

"Prince Flameheart" she whispered after checking to make sure the windows we're closed.

"You are the smartest stallion I have ever met. You've governed Ashen very successfully for many years now, you are one of the kingdom's top fighters, nevermind commareders. You're one of the many reasons, though a very big one, that I get up in the morning. In addition to being an inspiration to many a guardsmare in our ranks, not to mention my idol" she muttered.

"So please do not think you are an idiot. You are so far from one that it hurts to see you call yourself one" she said.

"Oh, well thank you Blaze, I... appreciate it" I fidgeted as I more than likely blushed myself. She nodded her own thanks and then slowly returned her gaze the ground, blushing a little herself.

"Anyway..." Fire Strike spoke up. "The reason is that Equestria apparently has a law that males cannot own property" she explained, as I had to her and Delilah shortly after we had left the town hall.

"Really, but what if his mares get killed or pass away. What happens then?" Lilith asked.

"They don't get kicked out if that's what you're thinking. They inherit the property in that case or if it's left to them in a will, they just can't buy land" I said.

"Celestia could have fooled me" she muttered.

"Regardless, in order to purchase this house I needed to have a mare's signature so... here we are" I explained.

"Sire um... with respect couldn't you have just kept us as family. Just without our parents in the picture" Star asked.

"Well... that ownership law wasn't the only reason I finally folded about this herd facade" I replied.

"Really, what was it then?" Delilah asked.

"Well Delilah, I'm sure you and Fire have both noticed how the townsmares act around us. Or more specifically me" I answered. Both mares didn't say anything but their angered expressions told me, and by extension the four new mares all they needed to know.

"They didn't try anything too untoward but the constant attention would be suboptimal in trying to slowly worm our way into the lives of the element holders" I added. The mares nodded.

"Therefore I concluded it was more beneficial to have us labeled as a herd here" I explained.

"All right then, now that that's sorted what's on tomorrow's agenda?" Lilith asked.

"Continue to get settled in, which means buying furniture or crafting it, we should also make me be seen with not just Delilah and Fire so... Lilith and Blaze. You two are on guard detail tomorrow" I said. They both nodded their understanding.

"Excellent... none of you said you we're my brother right?" I asked, just to be sure. They weren't supposed to say our previous relation to each other unless it was brought up by one of the townsponies, and if they correctly followed their previous orders then they should have barely talked to them at all.

"No sir, we all said barely anything to them at all" Star responded.

"Excellent, at least that's gone my way" I said.

"Night, is there something wrong?" Blaze asked.

"Do not worry Blaze, I am fine" I said.

"Very well sir" she replied.

"All right then let's get some sleep" I proclaimed. The mares nodded and turned in for the night, with me following swiftly. Though what I didn't see were the mares looking at each other before turning in themselves.

Author's Note:

On The Fuhrer's Birthday I Hath Returned - Reznov, probably.

Comments

[Schlat]

11815352
Hello again my friend, first off as Flameheart will soon learn Fire Ruby's are very rare, only found in the Firelands and other similar environments thanks to the intense underground heat of the region, like the dragon lands. This makes them rare and therefore quite valuable.

Secondly as for the names I wouldn't say they are a big detriment for staying undercover. As there are Equestrian royal guards named after weapons, a good example being Spearhead. So the ponies of Ponyville may just think that Flameheart's mares are just retired royal guards.

As for Filthy Rich wanting to pay more than what Flameheart initially wanted. Well being a business pony and a stallion means that he knows gems, sapphires, and other high value rocks quite well. Which means that unlike Flameheart he knows the true value of that ruby, and he felt bad. So perhaps he decided to help them out a little bit by giving Flameheart a few more bits.

Also sorry for taking so long to respond.