Singular Entities

by Cynical

The End of the Day (Post S3)

"You are dismissed."

The order rang out across the great hall. As one, the guards turned smartly, trotting out of the large double doors at the end of the hall before they swung shut.

There was silence for a few moments, then the only pony left in the room shuddered and sighed. Princess Twilight Sparkle slumped back into her throne, gazing around herself at the tapestries and gentle lights of the twilight court. She wasn't sure what had been harder to get used to, the ponies calling her a princess, or the fact she was the sole ruler of the afternoon and twilight courts.

Luna held the night court, Celestia held the dawn court, and she held the afternoon and the evening courts. It hardly seemed fair to her; why couldn’t Cadence take over the afternoon court? There were enough of them now so that the workload could be shared out evenly.

Yet it was Twilight who found herself picking up the slack here, there and everywhere as Celestia and Luna were kept occupied elsewhere. It reminded her of when she’d been small and when she’d asked Celestia why she gave up so much of her time for the courts.

“I make sacrifices for my ponies, Twilight,” she’d said, “I am the one who will do it because, if I don’t, who will?”

She hadn’t replied that it was because she was the ruler of the land; she’d said that she was a pony, just like everyone else, and like everyone else, she had a job to do. She woke up every morning and went to work, then came home in the evening; just like a normal pony.

There were some differences, sure; Celestia didn’t have to suffer the morning commute. Celestia never took a day off sick. Celestia had no-one to return home to at the end of the day.

And now Twilight was expected to follow in her hoofsteps. She would dedicate herself to her- their ponies, and she would be a good ruler, a good listener, and a good friend to those in need.

And she would have someone to return home to at the end of the day. She would be able to go home to someone who understood what she went through at work and she would be able to go home to someone who cared for her.

She was a princess now, that was true enough, but that didn’t mean that she had to be lonely. How could she be lonely? She had several friends that would ensure her time spent here would not be in loneliness. Of course… they wouldn’t be able to be here all the time.

That was why one of them never left though, wasn’t it? They stayed so that she would never be lonely; that she would always have someone to return home to at the end of the day.

She stood up from her throne – custom-built by herself – and went through a small door behind the throne, closing and locking it behind her as she continued down the passageway.

Just like normal ponies, she had her secrets now. She had the secret buried in plain sight of everyone. It had its own thrill – the joy of knowing something that no-one else knew; the pure, unadulterated pleasure of simple possession. Even if she was sure that no-one would mind anyway…

She found herself in front of a staircase spiralling upwards. Stepping onto the enchanted stairs, she muttered the word “up,” and steadied herself as the staircase leapt into life, spiralling upwards towards the upper levels of the palace and towards her quarters.

The secret wasn’t the passages and alcoves hidden about the castle. Nor was it how some of the paintings were fake. It wasn’t even that she’d quietly had Shining Armour re-tasked so that he was always there during the twilight court.

The staircase stopped and she stepped out from behind a particularly ugly gargoyle, stepping into the hallway and moving towards her room in the ivory tower.

She pushed open the doors to her house and stepped inside.

“Yo, Twilight… I thought you said you were going to be back earlier tonight. Court ended a whole fifteen minutes ago.”

“Sorry, Rainbow… I got distracted.”

Author's Note:

This story isn't dead...
It's just mostly so...

Comments

[Shrek the Ogre]

Yeah! I've been waiting for this!

[Cynical]

3532485
And yet, it isn't.
Pratchett does make for excellent references.

[Timaeus]

To be fair, stories like this hardly die.

They're mostly just outlets for little bites of stories for us to use every now and then, it's not necessarily a dedicated story thing

[Cynical]

3827829
Yes... I wonder if I could apply that logic to any of your own stories...

[Timaeus]

3827843

Shh! If you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist! >.>