> I am God...apparently?
>  by CrossRedstone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I think I have overworked myself...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren didn't feel so good, which was understandable considering what happened. She remembered  that she had come down with OR caught  a fever the day before yesterday and had needed to go home early. The next day it had gotten worse. Tara had needed to come by in order to help her through the day. The voice actress had called a doctor over, who recommended regular medicine against colds and if it got worse to call him again.
Lauren felt a bit better today. She was still achy and tired, but the pain from her bones had faded. 

Still, Lauren felt rather like sleeping in today, before she did anything else. Her bed felt especially comfortable, like she was sleeping on clouds. In her mind she imagined that  she was really sleeping in a cloud house, on a cloud bed.

Her fantasy was cut short as someone opened the door and entered her room. Loudly. How someone's footsteps could be so loud, Lauren didn't know. Maybe it was because her ears were just too used to the silence.

I guess Tara never left. Or she came back. Lauren tried opening her eyes, but it was too bright, so she closed them again, groaning.  It got the attention of Tara. The person went to her bed and talked to her softly.

"How do you feel?"

The voice was familiar, but that wasn't Tara at all. "Nicole...?" Lauren asked weakly and then chuckled. "Don't tell me the entire team is coming, just for little old me." There was no other response from the other woman. A little confused Lauren slowly opened her eyes, in order for them to adjust properly. What she saw was...surreal.

First off, this wasn't her room, not by a long stretch. The room was rich. It had double doors with intricate gold filigree  , translucent  satin  curtains in gold and red hung  at the side of the windows. Every single piece of furniture was ornately carved from dark wood. Now that she was awake, looking to the side Lauren could already tell that the bed was  the biggest she had ever seen with her own eyes.

Then she noticed the large pony standing where she’d heard Nicole’s voice.  She had a white coat, a long spiraling horn, and a flowing pastel mane and tail. Her wings were folded along her back, and she wore a golden crown, with gems embedded in it. Her eyes were bigger than that of a normal pony and they were magenta colored.

"Celestia...?" Lauren asked. The pony visibly tensed at the mention of her name. Lauren looked around a little more and then raised her arm to rub her own forehead because of her headache. The only problem was, she had no hand, but a foreleg.

"Huh, I'm a pony."

She looked around once more, before her eyes met Celestia's. "Guess this is what they call a fever dream." Lauren mumbled and slumped her head back on the pillow. She could feel sleep overtaking her once again. Before her conscious faded completely, she could feel someone tucking her in.


XIII


When she woke up again, Lauren felt much better. She wasn’t fully recovered yet, but her mind was clear and her body felt considerable better. Yawning, she stretched her arms and pushed OR tossed OR threw the blanket off. When her eyes adjusted to the light, she was in for quite a shocker.  She was still in the room she had "dreamed" about last night. At least she thought it was last night, she wasn’t so sure anymore. Weak sunbeams snuck through the curtains, just like when she woke up before. Did I really sleep through the entire day and night? I’m not hungry, so that can’t be it. Yet at the same time, I can’t just recover from a cold in a single day.

She shook her head. Focus, Lauren. You need to figure this out. This all...it just can't be real! It has to be a dream! Did my cold actually got worse and now I'm dreaming or in a coma?
...
I never was in a coma or had a fever dream for that matter, so I can’t be sure. Next time someone suggests to do a throughout check with the doctor, I better listen.
...
The more reasonable explanation seems to be a dream. Maybe I really did overwork myself. Hmm, there's one way I could check it. She raised her foreleg and examined it briefly, then bit it. She winced a little.
O-okay. This felt too real to be a dream. No need to panic. Just your childhood dream coming true.
...
Actually I'm not panicking as much as I should.

"Hahaha, wow."

Okay, now I feel a little panicky. Keep your cool, Lauren. Play along, if it is a dream, just play along. And if it’s real...I’m not really sure what to think about it. Lauren crawled to the edge of the over-sized bed and looked down to the ground. It wasn't high at all. "Why am I doing this?"

Lauren flopped OR scrambled off the bed and tried to stand on her new four legs, but she fell  falling flat on her stomach. Lauren fought  the urge to comment on her clumsiness and tried to get up on all fours without slipping on the polished marble floor. This is just like in school, during PE. It should be a little easier, after all this body is meant to be balanced on four legs.
Slowly but steadily, she first put her two front-legs down and rose up. Then she put both hind-legs on the ground and pushed the second half of her body. She was bit unstable on her legs, but at least she managed not to fall down immediately.

Now to the hard part. Walking. Oh, come on Lauren, it's the same as the PE exercise. You just have to walk like you did then. Besides, you have worked on Friendship is Magic before day one! You should know how ponies walk!

But knowing and actually having experience are two different things, Lauren soon realized, as she stumbled sideways into the giant bed. She actually managed to get back on balance by pushing herself off the bed with her wing. As strange as the strength of her wing was, it was actually stranger to have wings in the first place. She hadn’t noticed them earlier, but if her body didn't feel alien before, it certainly did now.

She had a hard time inspecting her wings, because every second time she wanted to move them, she actually raised one of her front-legs. Luckily folding back the wings to your own body seemed to work on instinct. Now, the next objective. Over there are the double doors. I need to walk to them. Forget about opening them for now, just walk and worry about the other thing later.
Three, two, one.......come on, you have to learn how to walk eventually and hey, if you're lucky, you'll wake up in your house and this will be a funny memory.

Gulping, Lauren started to raise her leg. Before she even could lean forward, the handle of the double doors in front of her started to shimmer with golden light.. Before Lauren's mind could fully process what was happening, the doors swung open. They must have thought I am still asleep.
Inside came a yellow mare in a maid outfit, with a silver plate as her cutie mark. She had a nice baby blue color for her mane and tail. "O-oh, you're awake." The maid stuttered and bowed.
Lauren blinked at the pony actually talking, aside from being one herself and the fact that she was bowing to her.

The maid rose again and it was quite obvious that she was nervous. Her smile was almost more forced than Applejack’s had been when she had helped hide Pinkie’s surprise party. "A-are you feeling alright?"

"Y-yes." Lauren stuttered and came out of her stupor. "Just feeling still a little....off."

"O-of course. Is there anything I can bring you? Tea, maybe?"

"Actually, I'd like a little walk first." If only to not embarrass myself in spilling the whole tea.

"O-of course, your highness." Your what?

"I-I will lead you to the dining room. The princesses are already there. If you would follow me please."

The mare was about to trot ahead, when Lauren stopped her. "Wait! If you don't mind...can we take it slow? As I said, I still don't feel so well."

The mare nodded understandingly, though she obviously didn't like the idea for some reason.
Lauren took in a deep breath. Here goes nothing. Oh I so hope it's just the stress of work.



> Out of nowhere
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days earlier

"Spike, have you seen the second volume of Magical Artifacts and You?"

"You left it on the nightstand." The dragon replied from within the kitchen.

"Ah, thank you!" Twilight shouted back and headed upstairs. Without Spike I would probably never get anything in order. she thought, giggling. She found the book exactly where Spike told her it would be. Grabbing it with her magic, she walked back downstairs and put it back into the shelf.

"Tidy up library, check." Twilight unfurled a scroll and picked up a feather, marking the task as “checked”. "Let’s see, with this done the next task for today is…of course. How could I forget about the picnic with the others. Well, that’s why I keep these checklists and have Spike. Speaking of....Spike? Do you want to come along for a picnic?" she asked.

"No can do Twi." Spike came out of the kitchen. "I promised to help Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo try to get their cutie marks in hoofball playing."

Well at least it’s something safee. Twilight thought to herself. "Okay, I'll see you later today. Don't be late for dinner!"

"Yeah, yeah. Bye Twi." Spike waved his claw, looking for the ball. Luckily it was a Sunday, so the library was closed. Twilight happily trotted through Ponyville, smiling to the ponies she met on the way towards the fields on the outskirts of Ponyville, next to a cherry tree to be precise. Just a few months ago, she would have laughed at anypony who told her she would be friends with some....let's say unique ponies.

How things change. I wonder what would have happened if I would have met them earlier in my life. Oh well, I'm glad I met them at all. she thought to herself.

It didn't take her long to arrive at the picnic place, where she found Rainbow Dash relaxing on a borrowed cloud and Rarity telling Fluttershy about her newest fashion line, Applejack and Pinkie Pie had brought the food this time and they were complimenting each other and exchanging recipes.

“Heya Twilight!” Pinkie Pie appeared next to the mare, although Twilight could have sworn the other pony had been at the side of Applejack just a moment ago. As a result, the purple mare let out an involuntary shriek.

“Pinkie…”

“Gotcha!” the pink party pony “booped” Twilight snout, before rejoining her friends. Everyone got a good laugh out of it, at least, even Twilight. She greeted the rest of her friends and joined them on the blanket.

"Where have ya been?" Rainbow asked, rolling onto her back.

"Sorry, I decided to take some work off from Spike's shoulders and clean up the library myself. He has done so much for me in his life, I decided to give him some more free time."

"That's so nice of you, darling." Rarity complimented. "You're right. He's always such a gentledragon and always so dedicated into helping others." 

"So," Twilight settled  next to Pinkie Pie "anything interesting happening lately?" she asked.

Just then Pinkie Pie's tail started twitching uncontrollably. "Oh no." Twilight muttered. 

"Everypony take cover!" Rainbow shouted. They all quickly ran to the nearby tree, looking frantically up in the sky. "Do you see anything?" Fluttershy asked timidly.

"No." Pinkie replied.

"P-perhaps it's a false prediction." Rarity offered.

"Ah sure ain't gonna tempting fate." Applejack stated, looking at her with a deadpan expression.

"Wait a moment. Something is strange." Twilight said all of a sudden.

"What do you mean? Oh! Do you have like a Twily sense?" Pinkie asked excited.

"No darling, I feel it too." Rarity supplied. "It's a unicorn thing."

"Well, what IS that unicorn thing?" the cyan pegasus asked impatiently.

"It's like a sixth sense unicorns have." Twilight explained to the others. "We can sense it when a spell is being cast. If the unicorn is powerful, it can detect even really weak spells. The fact that Rarity can feel it, means it's a really powerful spell. Oh, er...no offense."

"None taken, darling. Still, I wonder if it is just coincidence that we feel this aura and at the same time Pinkie's sense is reacting."

"Maybe it's because of the really sparkly thingy over there." Pinkie pointed her hoof towards her upper left. The others followed with their gazes and soon found out what she meant. A clear white crystal spewing red sparks was floating not too far away from them.

"Stay back, girls." Twilight advised, motioning her friends to back up.. The red sparks began to spin around the crystal, and a deep vibration filled the air. "I don't know what's happening." Twilight stammered. "But we should really take cover. Now!"   Suddenly, the low humming stopped and the whole meadow seemed to freeze in place briefly. That moment was ruined as the transparent crystal exploded. It sounded like somepony broke a window with a sledgehammer. A red flash illuminated the entire field and as fast as it started, it was over.

The six mares came out of their hiding spot to look at the aftereffects of the crystal explosion.

What they saw made their jaws drop. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, each of their expression was a mixture of awe and shock. Fluttershy’s had a bit of fear written over her face, while Pinkie picked up her jaw rather quickly and brought her trademark smile.
Hovering in mid-air, wings tucked tight to her sides, was a white alicorn with a red mane and tail! Her cutie mark was an ink bottle and a black quill. The girls gasped and rushed  to the unconscious alicorn.

"An alicorn..." Fluttershy said in awe.

"Well, ah'll be...." AJ was at a loss for words.

Nopony really knew what to say in this kind of situation. Twilight noted the pained expression on the alicorn's face. The purple mare stepped closer and put her foreleg at the alicorn's forehead. She gasped.

"Oh my gosh! She's practically burning up! We need to get her to the hospital!"

"What?!"  Rarity exclaimed. Fluttershy’s mother instincts immediately kicked in and she flew over, seeing if she could help. But Twilight had already had a plan.

"Rainbow! I need you to get Spike to send a letter to the princess - tell her what’s going on I’m going to teleport with her to the hospital!"
In a flash of light, she and the alicorn were gone.


XIII


In the Ponyville Hospital, the receptionist was just filing away a few papers, when all of the sudden two ponies appeared via teleport. The receptionist was so startled, she dropped all the papers to the ground. She was ready to give the ponies a stern talking, when she found one of them unconscious in Twilight's magic grip. Another good moment of looking at her, revealed that there was a freaking alicorn!

Alicorn=Princess

Princess was unconscious.

Unconscious Princess= Execution

That was the thought process of the receptionist. Since the Nightmare Moon incident was still fresh on everypony's mind, it wasn't that long ago after all, she immediately called for a doctor.
        


> Mother?!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Celestia sighed, as she put away yet another complaint from the nobles. Once again, it was about one of Luna's decisions. This one was about spending money on renovating orphanages, rather than investing it in some of the nobles' businesses. Those selfish ponies thought just because she was the younger sister, who had also just returned to the throne, they had easy game with her!



Not on Celestia's watch! Her older sister instincts had immediately kicked in when the first noble had tried to trick her into doing something that would hurt her overall image. Luna had a hard time adjusting to modern times as it was and some ponies thought they could make it even harder. The sun goddess shook her head. She had dealt with them "properly" and shouldn't bother herself thinking about them anymore.



She was about to set her attention to the next document, when a scroll appeared in front of her. Celestia smiled. A friendship report would surely lift up her mood. With her magic, she broke the seal and unrolled the paper.


Dear Princess Celestia,



The girls say an alicorn appeared out of nowhere, in the fields near Ponyville. I don't know if it's a prank, but Rainbow looks serious enough to me. Twilight has taken her to the Hospital in Ponyville, because she's unconscious and has a fever. Please come here and see for yourself. If this is a prank, I'm not part of this.



Spike



Celestia stared at the letter for a few seconds. An alicorn appearing out of nowhere? That did sound far fetched, but she knew Twilight. She wouldn't just come up with a story like this. Intrigued, she decided a trip to Ponyville was in order.






A flash briefly lit the front of Ponyville General Hospital. As the few ponies adjusted, they immediately dropped into a bow.



"Rise my little ponies. I am not here for a formal visit. Please go on with your everyday lives." Celestia said. I wish I could just be a normal pony, she said to herself, not for the first time in her long life.Then I wouldn't have to worry about politics, nobles and everything else a princess has to worry about. Except my figure. She giggled to herself. Thank Faust for alicorns never having to worry about that.



The princess bent her head to enter the lobby, and she was instantly the center of attention again. She sighed.


Next time I'll use one of my disguises. she thought.



"Princess!" One of the nurses galloped up to her and bowed, losing her clipboard in the process. Blushing, she picked it up with one of her wings, before addressing the princess in front of her again.



"I...assume you're here for the alicorn, who has been brought in by Twilight Sparkle?" she asked, nervously.


"Yes, that is correct." Celestia nodded. "Though I haven't been informed of much, except that she's in no good condition." The princess gestured with one of her wings, "Lead on."



The two started walking, with the nurse leading the way. She took out her clipboard and lifted up some papers. "Well princess, fortunately we were able to quickly find out what was wrong with her."



"Oh?"



"Yes. She has nothing more than a cold, along with a strong case of magical exhaustion."



"Ah yes. That makes sense. We alicorns normally do not get sick this easily." Celestia explained. It wasn't that common knowledge outside of Canterlot.



"I see. We gave her medications against her sickness and her magic is recovering on an acceptable rate. Unfortunately, we weren't able to talk to her as she is unconcious, and the doctor recommended to not forcefully wake her up. She did wake up twice since we admitted her, but immediately fell back to sleep after half a minute or so."



"Maybe you should give her something, so she stays asleep until she actually recovered?" Celestia suggested.


"We have thought of it as well, but we wanted to make sure she isn't allergic to anything, since we have no medical records of her. This is her room."



Celestia opened the door herself, immediately noting her faithful student Twilight. The other elements weren't there as of yet, but the letter had already indicated as much.



"Princess!" Twilight greeted her cheerfully, bowing respectfully.



Celestia smiled and nuzzled Twilight a little, before glancing over to the bed. Curtains blocked her view of the alicorn. She returned her attention to Twilight and asked, "How exactly did she appear, Twilight?"



"Umm, it started with Pinkie's...."special sense" telling her something was about to fall," Twilight began.



I still don't know what to think of this "Pinkie Sense" and what exactly it is, but it seems pretty accurate from what my faithful student has told me. Celestia mused.



"We looked for anything that might "fall" and found a crystal floating in mid-air with red sparks coming out of it. Rarity and I could already feel a high amount of magic coming out of it, so we all took cover just as the magic intensified to its maximum." Twilight paused, "It then emitted a bright, red light. We looked up and...there she was."



Celestia stored the information in the back of her head. There would be time to ponder on this later, but for now she wanted to see the alicorn for herself. She moved the curtain aside, casting light onto the pony's face. The sun princess instantly froze up, shock written all over her face.



It... can't be...



Twilight looked up to her mentor in concern and slight confusion. "Princess?"



No reaction. 



"Do you...know her?" the unicorn asked. 



The princess didn't pay any attention to Twilight. Instead, she walked up to the bed and looked down at the pony sleeping on it.



...is she.. real..?



 Celestia ignited her horn. She focused on the unknown alicorn, scanning her, searching, for the confirmation that this was who she thought it was.



She stopped.



It is...



A tear ran down her cheek.



"Princess?" Now Twilight was worried. She walked up, but seemed to be having a hard time coming up with anything to say to her mentor.



I should tell her...



 Celestia took a deep breath, found her composure, and did her best to hold back her emotions at bay.



"Twilight...I..."-she took in another deep breath-"I...want you to meet... the queen of Equestria."



"Q-q-q-QUEEN?!" Twilight exclaimed. 



Celestia couldn't help but chuckle at the lavender mare's exclamation. "Haven't you ever wondered why Luna and I are only princesses?"



"But who is she?!" Twilight asked. "How come nopony has ever heard about her?!"



Celestia looked at the "Queen". "Everything will be explained in due time. As for who she is, well, who do you think she is, if she is the Queen and Luna and I are the princesses?"



It should have been obvious for Twilight from the start, but Celestia could practically watch as the conclusions were drawn, causing her eyes to widen. 



"Your MOTHER?!?!!"



Celestia nodded. "Queen Lauren Faust. Rightful ruler of Equestria, and my mother."



"WHAT?!" 



Ah, it seems the other elements have finally arrived.



Turning around, Celestia and Twilight found not only the other five element bearers, but also a doctor. Celestia knew she needed to say something fast, before anypony recovered and started bombarding her with questions. Especially the element of Laughter, or Twilight.



"Doctor, if it wouldn't be too much to ask, I would like to take my mother to the castle in Canterlot. I'm sure we'll be able to deal with a simple cold."



The doctor nodded, too stunned to reply properly. "As for the rest of you. I know this is all a little sudden, but you're all invited to come to the castle, as soon as it fits with your schedules of course."



"Oh, can I throw her a 'Welcome back to Equestria' party?" Pinkie asked, jumping up and down in place like a foal's rubber ball.



Celestia chuckled. "Of course, Miss Pie. I'm sure Mother would be delighted. Now, we must depart. Luna will be positively ecstatic. Goodbye, my little ponies."



"Goodbye, princess."



Celestia disappeared, leaving the element bearers with the doctor, who mumbled something about standard discharge procedure.



XIII



Celestia reappeared in a room of the castle, which was always prepared for unexpected guests. She gently placed her mother into bed, and walked outside, where she literally bumped into one of the many servants which inhabited the castle.



"Your Highness." the servant bowed respectfully and was about to go his way, when he was stopped by the princess. 



"I need you to fetch the royal physicians. Tell them we have a guest here in this quarters, who has a cold and is suffering from magical exhaustion. She has already been treated, but I want them to make sure nothing else is wrong with her." She glanced back at the door, "Also, I need a pony to wake up my sister and bring her here at once."



"U-understood, your highness." the servant stammered.



Celestia suppressed the urge to sigh at the sudden stuttering of the colt. Unfortunately, most of the castle staff where either scared or in the best cases wary of Luna. It didn't help that she was always grumpy, when somepony woke her up before sunset. Like, really, REALLY grumpy. None the less, this was important. It was worth risking a second Nightmare Moon incident. 







The diarch stayed at the side of her mother. Seeing the shocked faces of the physicians was totally worth it already. Especially after she told them, who the alicorn in the bed actually was. It took them longer than usual to finish their examinations. Luckily the doctors from the Ponyville hospital had already done a good job, so all the physicians could do was recommend bed rest.



"Thank you all."



"It is our job, princess." the lead doctor pony. "If I may ask a question, where has your mother been, all those years?"


Celestia didn't give an direct answer. Instead, she said: "I'm sure all of you have questions. I ask you to remain patience, until my sister and me made an official statement."



"What official statement, sister?"



The physicians silently take their leave, upon seeing the princess of the night. Her mane was floating more violently than usual and even worse, the maids failed to gave her a coup of coffee. The sun princess had to act fast, before it was too late.


"What is so important to wake us before nightfall, sister?"



Her sister only smiled and motioned towards the guest room. Luna raised an eyebrow, expecting this to be some kind of jest from her sister. In the end she decided to play along, if only to get back into her comfortable bed faster.


Luna was closely followed by her sister. Walking inside, the younger princess at first didn't notice anything unusual. To her credit, she was about to fall asleep again any second. So it was only natural that it took her a second longer than usual to notice the pony lying in the guest bed.



The night goddess was faster awake, than if you would have injected caffeine directly into her blood system. "This...this is....mother?" Luna whispered. Celestia walked to her side, wrapping a wing around her younger sister. "What's wrong with her? Why is mother in pain, sister?!" The lunar princess broke free from the hug and rushed towards her mother.



"Calm down, Lu-"



"Calm down? CALM DOWN?!" The royal canterlot voice slipped through once again, taking Celestia by surprise.


"Mother is sick! She is burning, Celly! We haven't seen her in more than a millennium. Two, maybe three! And now that we see her, she is- mmmmph!"



The older sister put her hoof into her sister's mouth. A playful smile crossed the sun goddess' face. "She'll be fine, Lulu. The doctors said, she has nothing more than a cold. She is magically exhausted, so naturally she doesn't have her natural resistance at the moment." She took her hoof out again.



Luna turned around and looked at her mother's face for a moment, before speaking up again. "We wish to sleep with her. Nopony shall disturb us, under no circumstances."



The other alicorn smiled at the childish behavior of the dark blue alicorn, but complied. She was actually a little envious. "Of course, sister. I will see to it, that your night guard will take station in front of the doors. Sweet dreams, Lulu." Celestia nuzzled her sister, as the alicorn of the night placed herself next to her mother. The sun princess swore, she could see the face of her mother becoming at ease.



> The truth gets out
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


This looks more beautiful than I could ever imagined. How do they keep this place clean? She snorted. Duh Lauren. M-A-G-I-C. Well, I hope it's magic, otherwise I so do NOT envy the housemaids. Castlemaids? Maids in general. She mused, now well stuck in her daydream. 



Note to self: make special episode. Hmm...."Celestia's tour through the castle?" Eh, I can think of a better title later. Hmm...maybe a grumpy Luna. Yes, she should scare the tourist with the Royal Canterlot Voice, because they disturbed her sleep. Maybe I should add Pinkie Pie or Cheese Sandwich, as the stereotypical tourist? Camera, Hawaiian Shirt, the possible hi-jinks...



"Your highness?"



"Huh?" Lauren was brought "out of the zone" by her own "tour guide".  She looked up to find herself standing in front of yet another pair of double doors, which didn't look particular different from any of the rest. Yeah, I wouldn't want the maid's job...



"We're here." The maid's voice broke into Lauren's re-descent into reverie.



"Oh, I'm sorry. I was caught up in my own thoughts." Lauren apologized. Focus, Lauren!



She looked up at the big double doors. Celestia and Luna are behind these doors, she thought to herself. This should be interesting.



The maid opened the door for Lauren, who thanked the mare. How do hooves even work? Can I blame cartoon physics?



Those thoughts had to wait, as there were two princesses waiting for her beyond the doors. Okay, Lauren. You can do this...



She took a breath, summoned all her courage, and the red-maned alicorn walked into the dining hall. 



Lauren had expected a grand dining hall, with a long table, with marble and gold accents everywhere. Instead she'd found herself a "little" (relatively speaking), and somewhat cozy room. A wooden table had been placed in the middle. Various salads, fruit baskets - (I've never seen some of those fruits before) - small treats, cake and even some rice. Luna surprisingly handled (hoovled? magicked? let's go with handled) chopsticks very well.



As she eyed the bounty stacked neatly on the table, Lauren felt the two sisters' gaze, cranking up the already simmering pot of nerves to boil.



They didn't teach you in school how to react, when you meet fictional characters you created. 



"Well, this is awkw-ARRGH!" Lauren found herself in a bone crushing hug, Luna's mane drifting in front of her nose. Lauren's instantly moved to hug back, her wings wrapping around the princess, pressing her closer, her head nuzzling into the back of Luna's neck.



"Don't worry, Lulu. I'm here now," she comforted, rubbing Luna's back with a hoof.



Poor Lulu, always so...



so...



Her train of thought derailed spectacularly, her eyes flicked open in sudden panic.



What EXACTLY am I doing? 



She pulled back, stumbled  and put a hoof on her head, as if to quell a headache she felt she should be having. 



"Wait, what just happened?" she asked, her.mind racing. "I-I'm sorry about this. I-I didn't know what came over me. Sorry." she apologized with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of her head.



Way to make a first impression Lauren. She admonished. She examined the sister's reactions.



Luna had an expression on her face, which Lauren couldn't quite place. Was it worry? Disappointment? Confusion? It seemed to be a mix of the three. As for Celestia, she had slowly walked around the table, during the time the two other ponies had been hugging, and was now right beside her younger sister. Lauren caught the two exchanging a quick glance with each other, before Celestia spoke up.



"Are you alright mother?" she asked. 



Mother?



Lauren shook the thoughts from her head, noting the now worried looks on Celestia's and Luna's face.



"What? I-I..." - Lauren took a deep breath - "I'm sorry, I'm pretty sure I just misheard you princess. And again, I'm sorry for acting like this, Princess Luna. I honestly have no idea what came over me."



The siblings seemed taken aback by Lauren's attitude.  Luna walked closer and put a hoof on Lauren's shoulder. "Mother?" she asked tentatively. "Thou should still be resting. Thou still look a little pale."



Eeeenope. I heard it right. They say Honesty is an Element of Harmony... She groaned internally. Oh come on, "they", YOU say that, YOU are the one who tries to bring the message across. She sighed. My thoughts are really messed up. I better focus.



Lauren pushed the hoof of her shoulder and immediately regretted it, as she saw the hurt on Luna's face. "I think there's something we need to clear up first, before the situation gets any more awkward." - no easy way to say this - "I'm not your mother. You have to have confused me with someone else."



She had wanted to avoid any more awkwardness, but Lauren still managed to cause another awkward silence. She really knew what to say, after that, and from the looks of it, neither did they.



I'm still not sure this isn't a hallucination.



Luna was the first to find her voice again. "What art thou saying? Art thou not Lauren Faust?"



"W-well, that is my name. However-"



The former human was cut off by Celestia raising her hoof. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but do you remember how you arrived here?"



Lauren titled her head in confusion, her ears twitching. "What does that has to do with the situation?"



"Please answer the question." the solar princess replied. "It will become clear afterwards, I promise."



"Okay..." Something in Celestia's voice reassured Lauren. It was strangely different hearing her voice in real life and not from the speakers of a television, or even from Nicole.



"I have no idea how I got here, to be honest. I just woke up here and...now that I think about it, I mistook you for one of my friends, didn't I?" - the last part was directed at Celestia. - "I should also mention and this is going to sound crazy," - This whole situation is crazy. - "but I'm actually not a pony."



The two princesses raised an eyebrow at this statement. "I'm a human. A human is...a bipedal creature. We always cover ourselves in clothes, since we have no fur. I guess the best comparison I can make is we look similar to minotaurs only with feet instead of hooves. And without horns on our heads."



Again the two sisters exchanged a glance with each other. It seemed like they could hold entire conversations simply by looking at each other. Lauren wouldn't be surprised if this was actually the case. She imagined that when you lived forever, you had time to come up with something like that.



She could also see the apparant worry on the faces of the princesses.



Better to get the most awkward things out of the way. Although there still is this one thing...



"So, you're saying you're from another world?" Celestia recapped.



"Y-yes? Hard to believe, I know..."



"But," the solar diarch pressed on, "if that is the truth, then how did you know our names? Or that we're princesses?"



"Uhh..." I guess I should come clean.



"Moreover, the way you acted towards Luna, it was as if you had known her for a long time."



"That's...actually a good point." Lauren admitted. 



Celestia walked closer, lit her horn, and stared, not at Lauren, but somehow through her, as if she was just a pane of glass and there was a large cake on the other side.



"What are you doing?" Lauren asked, uncomfortably edgy in the face of the display of magic.



 "Do not fret," Luna reassured. "'Tis merely a spell to confirm our suspicions." 



Lauren calmed down a little, watching the light play across Celestia's horn. It's okay, Celestia values harmony, she's not going to hurt me...



A golden aura surrounded Lauren for ten seconds, until it disappeared. Lauren barely noticed anything. Celestia had closed her eyes at this point, making it look like she was deep in thought. Patiently the other two alicorns waited for her to open them again and when she did, a sad smile appeared on her face.



"Umm, if you don't mind me asking, what was this all for?" Why did I decide again that she would always be so vague?


"What I did was a spell that would analyze your DNA and determine your age."



"Alright." Quick DNA check? I certainly hadn't thought of that. Wait a moment... "My...age? You could have just asked, I am turning 41 this year."



 Celestia just gave her a long,sad look. "I am certain now." she said quietly, letting out a sigh.



"Sister, please do not keep us 'out of the loop'." Luna said, a little bit annoyed.



"The results of the spells are very clear. You are older than 41 years that much is sure." Celestia smiled."And more importantly, you are indeed our mother, Queen Lauren Faust."



...


Huh?


"O-o-okay." Lauren chortled a laugh she didn't feel. "I'm pretty sure that this is a fever dream. I'm most likely still in my bed, back at home and I am probably just overworked." 



There is more than enough evidence that this isn't a dream. She gritted her teeth. Be quiet brain. Her heart raced, and she began breathing heavily. I'll wake up in my bed, and it'll all be just a dream.



Both sisters moved forward and hugged her, obviously picking up on her distress.



"You were found after using a powerful spell." Celestia explained. "It doesn't happen often, but depending on the circumstances a strong spell might cause enough damage to the brain to cause temporary amnesia. Your reaction to Luna earlier must have come from your memories buried in your subconscious."



This can't be right. Magic doesn't exist. This place is just a figment of my imagination. Those two, Luna and Celestia, they aren't real.



But...why does everything feel so real? Why can I feel their fur? The warmth their bodies are giving off? Their breaths down my neck? And...why did it feel so right to treat Luna as if she was my own child?



> Political issue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even I am asking myself as to how I'm capable of holding that teacup with my hoof. It's almost like I have a magnet on each of my hooves. Lauren thought to herself.

After a long heartwarming hug, the three alicorns had started to actually eat breakfast. It was divine. Whatever the ponies made their jelly off, Lauren so wanted to have the recipe. And an actual tutor who could teach her magic. She made a mess, while eating breakfast, eating literally like an animal. Luckily none of the servant stuff was watching or passing by. She refused to be fed by Celestia or Luna, if only to distract herself that she was the monarch of the kingdom she imagined, when she was a child.

On another note, she had the distinct feeling that both Luna and Celestia were ready to cuddle with her. The constant "accidental" touches of wings and limbs were another indicator. Plus she herself had to resist the urge to pet them or hug them. They just looked cute in her eyes.

When (a admittedly messy) breakfast was finished Luna and Celestia rose up simultaneously. "Shall we show you around the castle mother?" Luna asked eagerly. She almost seemed like a child who wanted to impress her parent by showing her what she had made in school.

"Okay." Lauren answered carefully. On the one hand she had some questions and was hoping to get some explaining done. On the other hand, she still needed to sort out her thoughts about the overwhelming situation. Plus there was this childlike curiosity that wouldn't give her a rest.

And so the trio of alicorns walked outside into the huge hallway, with Luna being in the lead. How anyone could learn the layout of the castle was beyond Lauren. When she designed the palace she only decided on the location on the most important rooms that had something to do with the story in general.

The first wing they came across was one where statues of famous ponies were lined up on both sides. Musicians, inventors, professors, even a farmer was among them. "If I wouldn't know better, I'd say I've become lost in the history section of a museum." Lauren commented.

Celestia smiled. "Wait until you see the glass stained windows. You will love them."

Of course the windows were nothing new to Lauren. She even saw a few of which didn't made it into the show due to 20 minute time limit for each episode. Actually that time limit had ruined a lot of episodes in her opinion. One of the windows that wasn't seen in any of the episodes was about how a stallion brought a dragon egg to the princess. The backstory was supposed to be that the stallion saved the egg from a group of smugglers. Another one showed Cadance on how she ascended to alicornhood. Another one showing a pegasus flying alongside dragons during the dragon migration.

Finally they came towards the one showing the, as the fandom dubbed them, the "mane six" freeing Luna from her curse as Nightmare Moon. The group stopped by this one. "This..." Luna already was at a loss for words. For her it most likely was like telling your mother that she did something bad. Unbeknownst to the princesses, their queen was feeling guilty too. After all, she came up with the plot of Luna turning into Nightmare Moon. The scenario of her creating this world lingered inside her mind, thus the guilty feelings.

"Luna" Again before Lauren knew it, her wing was around Luna and brought the smaller alicorn closer to the bigger one. However this time she was aware of what she was doing before her mouth worked on its own again. As a result she was able to think about what she was going to tell the apparently younger alicorn. "I don't know what happened. And if you don't want to talk about it, you don't need to now. I can see that you regret what happened and I wan you to remember one thing: the past defines no one. It is important that we learn from our mistakes and not let us eat up from them. Okay?"

Luna nodded, nuzzling Lauren's neck. The red maned alicorn noticed Celestia standing on the side, looking a little jealous? That must be a first one for the sun princess. Not wanting to be the source of any sibling rivalry, Lauren stretched out her other wing, allowing Celestia to join in.

After five minutes of hugging and nuzzling, the three broke up. "How about you show me the gardens? I don't know about you two, but I could use some fresh air." Lauren suggested.

"Of course mother. Come, this way." Celestia took the lead and again they went through a seemingly endless maze of castle hallways. Occasionally they would meet some of the castle stuff or guard patrols. Lauren felt a little uneasy at those times, because of the bows and salutes everypony was giving her.

There was even a time, when they just so happened to be at the corner of a hallway that they heard a noble pony talking to one of the guards. "Whatever do you mean I can't see the princess? Don't you know who I am?"

"Oh dear..." Celestia muttered.

"Somepony thou art acquaintance sister?" Luna asked. Her sibling nodded.

"He's, without exaggerating, a real nuisance in day court."

"As I already stated, the princesses cancelled court proceedings for today and tomorrow. You'll have to come back the day after tomorrow, anytime earlier I'm not allowed to let anyone through who doesn't have permission from one of the princesses." The guard replied in a really bored tone.

"Don't talk to me in that tone you commoner! It is of the utmost importance that I speak with the princess."

"Is the safety of Equestria and/or its citizens in danger?" the guard replied, like one of those people from the phone service. At this point he could have gone through as a male version of Maud Pie.

"What I have to discuss with the princess is of no importance to you!"

Lauren facehoofed. "Yes, it is to no of the guards concern that a dragon is destroying the whole of Canterlot. Is he even listening to himself?"

"I have been wondering about that question for more than a thousand years." Celestia whispered.

"-and if you don't get me the princesses in the next five minutes, I'll make sure that the only work your children will get in this city is cleaning the sewers!" the noble pony continued.

"Why that..." Lauren suppressed what else she had to say. Cussing wasn't a thing in this world and she certainly wouldn't start it. "If things would go after me, I'd have let him clean the sewers. Isn't there a law against threatening an officer of the law?"

Suddenly Celestia grew a very evil grin on her face. "Luna, do you remember last week, when we went together through the outdated laws."

"Please do not remind us, sister. Tis was a real nuisance as you put it earlier. How nobles cling to taxes that bring them a few extra bits..." Luna shook her head, frowning. "Why is this so important?"

"There was one thing that stuck out to me, something I didn't thought of addressing, when I reformed the entire government system."

"We still think an absolute diarchy, ah excuse me mother, an absolute monarchy is wiser than your constitutional di- monarchy system." Luna commented.

"Exactly!" Celestia agreed.

"What?" the other two alicorns asked.

"Something I didn't address was mother. By this time almost everypony had forgotten about her. Yet she still has absolute power in terms of dictating or removing old laws, as well as a few other things."

Luna's eyes lit up at Celestia's words. Lauren was not sure whether she should laugh at the mischievous expressions of the princesses or worry that the two might try to use her to get rid of certain of ponies. She was sure if Celestia would use her political experience on Lauren, the red maned alicorn would most likely easily play into her hooves.

"Well then sister dearest" Luna walked around Lauren "as I belief, the queen just enacted a new law." she laid a wing on Lauren's back and smiled an innocent smile towards her sister.

"Indeed sister." Celestia nodded. "I think it is wise to inform the guards as quickly as possible."

Lauren decided that she had to speak up. "Celestia, Luna" What do I say? I really feel like I'm about to chide them as if they're my own daughters. But...I can't just let this disrespect towards the guards go on. He dedicated himself to protect his country with his life and what does this pony say?
"This is the only time." Lauren finally sighed. She expected the sisters to jump up and squeal, like a child you just allowed to stay at the amusement park a little longer. They didn't, but their smiles remained on their faces.

The trio proceeded into making themselves known to the ponies around the corner. The noble, a green stallion, who wore a blue tuxedo and had a simple book as a cutie mark, finally stopped his rant as he saw the two princesses approaching, along with a third unknown alicorn. For once the noble was at a loss for words. The guard turned around and gave a hasty salute.

"At ease private." Celestia said. "We just happened to come by and couldn't help but overhear your conversation. Book Cover, you should feel honored. You're the first noble to meet our mother Lauren Faust, queen of Equestria."

"Q-queen?!" Book Cover repeated.

"Tis funny. Nopony ever questioned why we didn't crown ourselves as queens." Luna stated. "Ah yes, now we remember thou Book Cover. Thou have been present last week, as we were discussing the laws of the old days."

Celestia picked up from there. "You might remember, we didn't come to finish everything, because of our different opinions. It's not that I don't appreciate your enthusiasm, I'm simply stating facts. I hope I didn't offend you in any way,"

"N-no, your highness, I-I fully understand. M-may I ask..."

"What this is all about?" Celestia finished. "You see there was one old law that gives the queen of these lands absolute power when enacting new laws. And she just enacted that everyone who threatens an officer of the law, has to clean the sewers."

...
...
"Ahahahehehe. I wasn't aware your highness had such a great humor. I assume a hallucination spell of sorts?" he motioned towards Lauren, who had to admit this was kind of funny. And she trusted Celestia that the pony deserved what was coming for him.

"'Tis wasn't a jest dear Book Cover."
> Lauren and the Elements (my editor trademarked the name)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Lauren rolled her eyes. "Okay, I admit the face he made was funny, but could we please drop the subject already? I'm still not comfortable with all of this..."



Celestia and Luna didn't even try to suppress their snickers. True, the whole nobility would soon learn that their queen has returned far sooner than the two princesses anticipated, and there might be some nasty rumors, but it would be nothing that the princesses wouldn't be able to handle.



Lauren watched the two alicorn giggle, feeling a small wave of guilt. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you where I’m from. It’s for yours and everypony else’s good. If I told you, it might change the future. And the future I wrote was a bright one; so everything must go to plan. I can’t risk changes, even to soothe my guilt.



With those doubts  jumping around inside her mind, Lauren decided to think this through more carefully later, when she was alone again. Surely Luna and Celestia would understand my reasoning. It still hurt thinking about how heartbroken the two princesses would be, once Lauren deemed it safe to let them know her origins. And the origins of everypony else in Equestria, for that matter. But Lauren was forced to push these thoughts to the side, as they stepped out into the sunshine.



The castle gardens were truly an eye catching sight. Flowers that didn't even exist on Earth grew here, there was a nice little pond with colorful fish swimming inside of it and finally ALL the animals! Who had gone into hiding the moment they noticed Lauren's presence.



Although a little disappointed, the newest alicorn still enjoyed the sight she was given, not to mention the fresh air. The lack of pollution was in the air made breathing an almost overwhelming process.



Lying in the grass turned out to be quite comfortable. There were no small bumps or rocks, which normally made such an experience a little painful. Plus the grass was actually so thick that it easily could be used as a blanket. Or was that Lauren's own fur?



Whatever the case, Lauren enjoyed the small quiet moment they had until Celestia spoke up. "I hope you like the royal gardens."



"They're beautiful. Better than my backyard by a stretch."



"Thine backyard?" Luna asked curiously.



"From where I live...come...urrgh, this whole journey across dimensions is giving me a headache." she rubbed her forehead with both of her hooves. "Worse than the time I had to dance with Minotaur King Donga…” Lauren trailed off, before her head snapped up



“Wait, what? Where did that...come from..." Lauren looked to the side.



"Huzzah!"



"Argh! Luna!"



The princess of the moon tackle hugged her mother. "Thy memories art returning faster than any of us anticipated. Soon all of thy memories shall return and our glorious mother will lead Equestria into a brighter future!"



"Still...need....air....!"



"Oh." Luna let go of Lauren, who greedily sucked in the air. Damn, earth pony strength is right. I should be careful around a certain pink party pony.



Celestia was watching the entire spectacle and shook her head, chuckling to herself.



She too was happy that her mother’s memories seemed to be returning, though only in little tidbits. When she looked over to Lauren, she found the oldest alicorn looking to the side, lost in thought of what just transpired. Celestia's heart almost broke at the sight. The only thing that kept it from breaking was that this was only a temporary thing and once her mother fully recovered her memories, they could go back to the old days and rule Equestria as a family. It would be also nice to know what her mother has been up to all those years and where exactly she had been.



"Excuse me, your majesties."



Everypony turned their heads towards the stallion who approached them. "The Elements of Harmony have just arrived." he announced.



Lauren's ears perked up. The Elements? I thought I wouldn't see them for at least a few days. Huh, I wonder if I'm going to get a 'Welcome to Equestria' party. Wait a second. Pinkie Pie does have the ability to break the fourth wall. Maybe she can help me to get back?



...



Wow, I'm actually seriously considering asking her.



"Good. Please escort them to us." Celestia told the stallion. With a bow, he dismissed himself and quickly trotted back to where he came from. Celestia and Luna turned their attention back to Lauren.



"Is something wrong?"



"Nay, mother. ‘Tis just, since thou hast been missing, there..." Luna trailed off.



"There are a few things we need to tell you." Celestia helped Luna out. "One of the things being that each of the Elements of Harmony has chosen their own bearer."



Why are they...? Oh. So, according to this, I was there when Discord was defeated, but disappeared before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon. Oh dear, are they really going to talk about this now? I don't think this is the right time, especially with Twilight and her friends coming.



"It's alright." Lauren assured. "You can tell me anything you think is necessary for me to know later. I get that I need to study up on Equestria's history." Which still doesn't mean that I believe any of this ‘mother’ thing or being a Queen. How can I be a Queen anyway? My cutie mark clearly indicates that my special talent is writing. Writing stories that is.



"Let's first get the visit over, all right?" Lauren suggested.



As if on cue, the sound of hoofsteps came to her ears. Looking towards the direction of the sound, the alicorns found the Element Bearers approaching. Rainbow Dash wasn't airborne, which confused Lauren a little until the ponies arrived and bowed respectfully to their leaders. Pinkie Pie's face hit the ground in the process.



"Rise, my little ponies. Mother, these are the Element Bearers. Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic, Rarity, the Element of Generosity, Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter, Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, Applejack, the Element of Honesty and Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. They are also the ones who found you, and saw to it that you were given quick medical attention."



Again, everypony's attention was on Lauren, who felt quite nervous about the situation. "Yes, well...I should thank you for taking care of me. Really, I appreciate it."



"Eh, it was nothing princess...eh queen...eh...your highness." Rainbow finally settled on a way to address Lauren.



"Please, could we leave the formalities? I know everybody is saying I'm suffering from temporary memory loss, but I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I am supposed to lead an entire country."



"You have our sympathy, your highness." Twilight said. "Princess Celestia has already informed us beforehoof, in case you're wondering."



"Makes sense, and please. Just Lauren is fine."



The little ponies grimaced a little, even Applejack. It was probably so deep integrated into their minds that it would take a long time for them to overcome such formalities, if it was possible at all.



There was an awkward silence in the group, but luckily Luna had an idea how to break it. “Fair Elements, why not tell mother a little about thyselves? We ourselves art a little intrigued about thee. We found it a shame that we could not engage for longer in pleasant conversations when we last visited Ponyville."



A second later Lauren wished Luna had stayed silent. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie. Whoops, but you already know this, silly me. I like parties a lot. Do you like parties? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya? I throw everypony a party who comes to Ponyville. Oh, but I couldn't throw you a party, because you didn't feel so good. But now that you're better I can throw you a Welcome to Ponyville party. Oh and we totally need to throw you a 'Welcome back to Equestria' party. Do you love cupcakes? I love cupcakes, but I also love muffins. Derpy prefers muffins though, and that one time we argued what was better, for you see, I prefer cupcakes, since there is more sugar in it and-" Pinkie was finally silenced and levitated away from Lauren's face by Rarity.



"Wow." Lauren shook her head. "Discord and you would get along just fine, if he wouldn't be so mean." Lauren said, shaking her head in order to clear her thoughts. Looking up again, she found Twilight putting on a fake smile. It was the kind of fake smile she puts on when she thinks one of her friends might have accidentally insulted her teacher. Rainbow Dash facehoofed, Rarity tried the same thing as Twilight and Applejack covered her face with her stetson.



"Well" Lauren cleared her throat "to answer your questions (at least the ones I understood) I do like parties and muffins as well."



"Wee!" Pinkie bounced into the air, making the "bouncy" noise.



"Did anyone ever check if she was secretly an alicorn?" Lauren whisper/asked her "daughters" in a joking matter.



"’Twould explain a lot." Luna commented.



"I wonder sometimes if she is somehow related to Discord." Celestia threw in her two cents.



Lauren silently giggled. Despite being a little confused by Pinkie's actions (and she freaking designed the character), she couldn't help but think that the earth pony was simply adorable with her antics. The only one who beat her at the moment was Fluttershy, who was partially hiding behind her mane.



Let's see if I can bring you out of your shell, my dear. Oh, I know now what they mean by dying from cuteness.



> Maybe he can help? (unedited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Fluttershy, was it?" Lauren spoke to the shy mare, who tried to hide behind her mane the moment she was spoken too.

Aww, cuteness overload indeed. The queen giggled inwardly before moving up to the butter colored pegasus. Fluttershy looked like she wanted to disappear into the ground, which hurt Lauren. Was she really that intimidating because she was so much bigger than anyone else? Regardlss, the alicorn of writing (authors?) continued her approach until she was right in front of the mare. Carefully Lauren extended one of her wings, wrapped it around the smaller pony and pulled her closer. With her other wing, Lauren slowly stroke down Fluttershy's back.

"There, there, no need to be afraid." she cooed motherly. Need. To. Suppress. Squeal. She's just too cute. Oh, why did I make her so cute. I hope Luna and Celestia won't be jealous.

Really Faust? Now you actually start thinking about them as if they're your daughters?

Fluttershy in the meantime relaxed inside Lauren's grasp. For once she got to experience what her animal friends normally did. Slowly Fluttershy brought her face out from behind her mane, looking up at Lauren like a cute little animal. From a former humans perspective she was a cute little animal.

The others looked at the scenery with various dumbfounded expressions, except for Pinkie Pie who kept smiling. Lauren kept doing the gesture for a little more, until she was sure that Fluttershy had fully calmed down. "Feeling better?"

"Y-yes." came the meek reply from the pegasus.

"Well then Fluttershy" Lauren let go of said mare, but still stayed close to her "why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"

The others shifted a bit in their positions, so they were sitting (more or less) in a circle again.

"W-well, I take care of a lot of animals in Ponyville." she started explaining. The alicorn's hope to hear something she didn't know quickly disappeared after the first line. But then again, what else had she been expecting? Animals were her life.

"I let them stay in my cottage, take care of them...nothing special."

The alicorn couldn't help but snort. "Nothing special? I think this says otherwise." she pointed at Fluttershy's cutie mark. "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Living with animals sounds very exciting, but I guess it's not easy taking care of....how many animals are we talking about?"

"Oh, well, half of them actually don't stay in my cottage, they just live around town or maybe in White Tail Woods. Goodness, I never really counted them."

"Sounds like a lot."

"You can bet on that!" Rainbow Dash zoomed in front of Lauren, surprising the author a little. "She's got like a ton of animals at her place and looks after each of 'em, like they're her foals or something."

Fluttershy blushed at the praise.

"Really?" Lauren faked her surprise as best as she could. "Now I have to see how you live. I always wanted to have a dog, but my mother was allergic against dog fur. And afterwards I just didn't have the time to take care of one."

"Oh that's too bad." Fluttershy commented.

The newest/oldest alicorn in the meantime didn't notice the mistake she made. She had mentioned her own parents, ergo Celestia's and Luna's grandparents. The thing was neither of them ever met their grandparents and didn't even know that they existed, although it was only logical. Still, they would have some questions for their mother, later as soon as the three were alone again.





Seeing that despite her efforts Fluttershy still wasn't much of a talker to strangers, Lauren tried to hold a conversation with one of the other ponies, namely Applejack.

"Ah swear, that li'l filly gets herself in more trouble than RD and that's saying somethin'."

"Hey!"

Lauren giggled, after hearing stories about the crusaders, even she didn't know about. One particular being where Sweetie Belle tried to give Applebloom a new haircut. It didn't end so well.

"I suppose your sister sees you as her role model, Rarity." Lauren commented after hearing the story of the haircut. Come to think of it, wasn't one of them supposed to get her cutie mark as a hairstylist? Oh right, no. That was Babs.

"It's not that I don't feel honored." Rarity bit her lower lip. "It's just that sometimes, she can be a tad too enthusiastic at times."

"Kids will be kids and they should enjoy being young, while they can." Lauren giggled. "Why I remember the time Luna and Celestia had their little prank war going  on, they accidentally burned each others mane and dyed my fur a deep black. I couldn't reverse the effect until the ambassador of the dragons arrived. I think it worked to my advan....tage..." the alicorn trailed off, as this time a set of pictures came along with the words she said.

The princesses were torn between embarrassment, happy that their mother regained even more of her memories and worry, because the queen was rubbing her temples with both hooves, obviously experiencing a headache.

Wh-what is this? This looks like Celestia and Luna....only younger and...they're charging up their horns and then...I try to interfere...this feeling of...that is magic...their magic, they accidentally used on me....ARGH! Lauren groaned as her headache was starting to get worse. In less than a moment, Celestia and Luna were beside their mother, each asking if she was alright.

"I think...I need to go to the bathroom for the moment." the former human stated. As quickly as possible she was escorted there with her daughters flanking her on each side. When they arrived in front of the door, she insisted on going in alone. Although a little hesitant, the princesses complied to their mothers wishes and left her alone inside.

After some fiddling with her hooves, Lauren awkwardly managed to spray some water into her face. It felt kind of weird getting her fur soaked. It was like she was wearing some wet clothing around the facial area.

"What's going on?" she mumbled to her reflection. "You're Lauren Faust, an author. You write stories for little children, cartoon stories. You have a husband named....oh dear, Craig." How could I forget about you?! Oh, he must be worried sick already! Needless to mention Lauren's mood dropped immediately. What would happen if she didn't find a way back? What if she was stuck here with no way of even calling her husband one final time, leaving him to wonder for the rest of his life what happened to her?

"No, I can't just throw in the towel. How long have I been here, a few days? Plus I managed to get here somehow, meaning there should be a way out of here. If I play my cards right, I can convince Celestia and Luna to help me find a way back, maybe I can connect it to the mirror. And those "memories" I can sort out along the way. I just hope it won't take centuries for them to find a way back. Maybe I should start studying magic just as obsessive as Twilight does? Yeah, me and magic, I can already see the chaos coming from a mile away.

...

Chaos...

Dimension?"

"And one of the guests almost banished a pony into another dimension!"

"Discord!"


> Chimicherrychanga (unedited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm fine, really." Lauren repeated, slightly annoyed. Her daughters had now an even closer eye on her than before. It was almost like they were the parents and not she.

...I'm really getting into this role.

They were all now sitting in one of the living rooms, sitting on cushions and some enjoying a drink or a cookie or two. Most of the Elements looked at their queen a little concerned.

"Your majesty, no offense, but I think it would be wise to let the royal physicians give you another check-up, just in case." Twilight advised. "Whatever spell you used, might have some long term side effects on you."

"I don't think it's really the spell and more my brain having trouble processing all those...memories, I guess." Lauren looked to the side, unsure of what she just said. Were those memories? Well what else could it be?

"I don't really get it." Rainbow commented. "Why would you feel bad, because of remembering...stuff?" she asked.

"It differs from person to person, at least that's what I heard. It's either the memories come back bit by bit and cause a bit of confusion in the process, or like in my case, it hurts. It's just a thing I'll have to deal with. I guess."

"That's a bunch of horseapples." Rainbow proclaimed.

"Rainbow Dash! Language!" Rarity chided, while the others flinched, hoping their friend didn't accidentally summoned the wrath of the royals.

"Please forgive her, your majesties." Rarity bowed, trembling a little.

"It's alright." Lauren said. "I rather appreciate the concern."

"So, yer majesty, yer going to take over the ropes of leading the country again?" Applejack asked out of the blue. It completely took Lauren off guard. She completely forgot about THIS part of being a queen.

M-m-m-me? LEADING EQUESTRIA?! Holding speeches in front of hundreds if not thousands of ponies?The only times I ever hold speeches were the times at Bronycon! Oh no, there'll be dignitaries from other countries, tax management and about 3000 dozen other things!

"Not as of yet." Celestia said, snapping Lauren out of her panicked thoughts. "We first need mother to get back in touch with the government and what has changed over the past 1000 years and so on. The nobles are still getting used to the idea of Luna handling half of the state of affairs and now with mother back, I think I will have the most exciting weeks I have had in centuries." Celestia' smile brightened up, when she said that.

"I know why I became an author..." Lauren accidentally said this loud enough for everypony to hear.

"You write stories?" Twilight asked a little excited.

"Why yes, now we remember." Luna spoke up. "Mother would write the most beautiful foal books, just for us." The night princess sighed in nostalgia.

"Y-yes, you see, I write children stories, mostly for little girls, although...my last work somehow..." she trailed off. How exactly did I pull this off? At first I was like everyone else, those bronies just being creeps with no life. But, oh gosh, it just didn't stop and when I looked into it...

"Your last work did what exactly?" Celestia asked, once again snapping Lauren out of her thoughts. 

"Never mind." Lauren hoped they wouldn't pursue the topic further. For now it was best if she talked as less as possible about earth and the show. "Why do you ask Twilight? Do you write stories in your free time?"

"Me? Oh no, I just like reading, that's all." Twilight responded at the unexpected question.

She doesn't write? Hmm, well I'm not really sure if it would go with her personality anyway. Maybe a history book or a lecture book, a biography at most, but a story book? Maybe if she is older, but it might just not be her thing. Hmm, I totally can imagine her editing her mother's stories. Wouldn't surprise me if that is what happened.

"More like you're married to your books, egghead." Rainbow Dash snickered.

Rolling her eyes, Lauren "accidentally" tipped over her untouched teacup and managed to spill almost all of it on Rainbow's left wing.

"Gah!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Rainbow Dash."

Luna and Celestia each suppressed a snicker. Of course they would know, when their mother was sincere and when not.

"Yeah, if you'd excuse me for a minute or two." Rainbow walked towards the bathroom.

The idle chat continued, mostly about things Lauren already knew. It were either things from the show or things she had been thinking about, when she created the characters, which was more than a little surprising. For example Pinkie Pie absolutely couldn't stand dentists (she mentioned it off hand, while talking about Gummy). Oh and she was still talking.

"...and so I was thinking what I should call them. What do you think sounds better? Chimcherry? Or cherrychanga? Chimcherry? Or cherrychanga?"

While most people would be annoyed after 30 minutes of Pinkie Pie going on and on and on, Lauren actually found herself laughing from time to time and overall enjoying Pinkie's antics, much to the dismay of everypony else. After the first time the alicorn laughed, Pinkie found herself encouraged to double her efforts.

"Why not just call them Chimicherrychangas?" Faust asked and just like that Pinkie stopped.

Her irises shrunk to pinpricks, while her mouth formed a very small "o", leaving her with a pretty funny dumbfounded expression. Lauren watched with interest as Pinkie Pie started to shake without visibly moving any of her limbs, until she jumped into the air, exclaiming: "OF COURSE!" she landed on the ground. "Why didn't I think of that?" she continued slamming her hooves on the table.

Lauren laughed wholeheartedly as Pinkie Pie jumped around saying stuff she couldn't really understand, except here and there a few words. She didn't get how one could not get enough of the pink pony? The former woman couldn't remember, when was the last time she had this much fun.

Eventually Celestia stood up from her cushion, after looking out of the window. "I'm sorry my little ponies, but it's time for the sun to set. And I think it is also time for you to return to Ponyville, isn't it?"

The small ponies let out collective "aws". Faust wasn't happy either, she really enjoyed the time with the other mares. Also she didn't get to talk with Fluttershy as much as with the others.

"Do not fret my little ponies. For you will be invited for when we officially announce the return of our beloved queen." Luna said, cheering up everyone.

After saying their goodbyes, Lauren and Luna were left alone, while Celestia was off to start the sunset. "Now then mother, perhaps though wish to visit the royal library before dinner? Or mayhaps thou wish for a little stroll through the castle?"

"Actually, I'd rather enjoy a little snack before dinner. Like those chimicherrchangas here?"

Luna blinked. "When did those appear?"

Lauren smirked. "I have no idea." 





More and more Lauren got used to her new body. She was now actually looking forward to learn flying, after seeing a few pegasus guards taking off into the air. She also asked herself if all those guards really looked alike. In the show they looked alike, because it would be just tedious giving each guard an individual coat. The two common theories she knew from the fandom were either Celestia accepted only guards with white coats (which was wrong, since at least one guard in the show had a dark coat) and the second being that the armor camouflages the true coat color of the guards, so their families are protected.

She made a mental note to ask later. For now she really needed to go to the dining room. Luna excused herself a couple of minutes earlier, said she forgot that she needed to talk with the captain of the night guard. There was just one problem: Lauren had no idea where the dining hall was and incidentally neither met a guard or a servant, while going in circles.

Alright, let's try door number 5. Lauren sighed and pushed the door open to yet another hallway. Who designed this place? It doesn't look that big outside. Oh right, it's probably this big for comedic purposes.

...

Why did I never made an episode about this? It would have been great! Well, not like I'm ever going to get the chance. These days, I'm only giving advice and not actively creating episodes. Thinking back, if things had gone my way there would have been only one alicorn. But I have to admit having two alicorns was the better choice, not only from a plot standpoint. And now she's more popular than Celestia. Urgh, the missed opportunities of character development.

Wait a minute? Are those voices? Yes, now I can finally ask someone...or somepony, I guess, where the dining room is.

As she walked closer, the red maned alicorn recognized the voices of Luna and Celestia.

"-belief that she is our dear beloved mother, sister." Luna said.

Lauren stopped just as she reached the corner.

"Can you really blame her Luna?" Celestia sounded a little resigned. "If you would suddenly wake up and two princesses you never met would tell you that you're the queen and their mother, how would you react? I've been thinking and came to the conclusion that we're pushing her a little too much into this."

"But 'tis her role, her rightful place!"

"Yes, I know, but...we don't know as of yet what actually happened on this other world. Not to mention, I'm curious as to what a human is. Her memories are coming back, but it needs more than some random pictures and spontaneous outbursts to convince her, make her realize who she is."

Luna let out a frustrated sigh. "'Tis infuriating. After more than one, no two-thousand years we are reunited with our mother and then this has to happen! She probably was working tirelessly on a spell, which could bring her back to us and when she finally succeeded-" Luna stomped with her hoof on the floor. "Discord is lucky he's back in stone or else..."

There was a little moment of silence.

"In any event, all we can do is wait patiently and see what happens next. I admit, I'm itching, as they say it nowadays, to find out just what happened during the confrontation of mother and Discord."

"Indeed sister." Lauren imagined Luna nodding. "If we remember correctly, he saw her as the only thread that could possibly stop him. Luckily he wasn't aware of the existence of the Tree of Harmony at the time. Let us hope, he won't break out again anytime soon."

"Agreed, Luna. I'm thinking, maybe we should let a couple of guards keep track of him, just to be on the safe side."

Lauren could hear the two princesses walking towards her. A few things were going through her mind, but for now she had to make it seem, like she just arrived.
> Politics at Night (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren tossed and turned in her bed. She, admittedly,  was having trouble falling asleep. It wasn't the bed, no, that was the most comfortable thing she had ever been in. It also wasn't the unfamiliar environment, no that wasn’t the problem. She was perfectly comfortable, tired and ready to go to sleep. But her mind wouldn’t rest. It getting coming back to one thing, chewing and worrying at it like a dog at a bone.

Family.

She missed her family, her husband, her friends,  and even that hot dog seller she met every Wednesday and almost never exchanged words with. The fact that there was a large chance that she would never see any of them, ever again, weighed on her mind and cost her her sleep.

And as much as she tried to reassure herself that Celestia and Luna would help, it still stung.

Get a hold of yourself, Lauren, she growled to herself inwardly, holding back a few tears. We've already been through this. Discord will help us. Sure, we’ll need to wait a year, or a couple if the fandom’s right with their timeline, but it's still better than having no hope at all! And who knows? Maybe WE will discover a spell to get us back!

...

"Great, now I'm talking to myself," the alicorn muttered with a perfect deadpan. She awkwardly rolled over the bed, twisting her left wing a little, and got up from the bed. 

Seeing as sleep just didn't want to come to her, she walked towards the door and opened it with a hoof. She stopped, realizing that she had just turned the door handle with a hoof.

Maybe there is some truth behind those "magnetic" hooves.

"Your majesty!"

"Ah!" The former human jumped as a voice sounded right next to her. She turned to see two dark-coated bat-pony guards, who had been standing in front of her door.

"Is everything alright?" the other, female bat-pony asked.

"I'm fine."-Lauren breathed out.-"I'm fine. I just had trouble sleeping, and I decided to go for a walk."

"Should we accompany you?" The first one spoke up again.

The alicorn was about to decline the offer, but she remembered just how big the palace was. 

"That would be nice, thank you. I haven't quite memorized the layout of the palace yet." And I doubt I ever will.

The two guards saluted. "Lead the way, your majesty."

Lauren chose a random direction and started walking. The lights of the moon and the stars were enough to light the palace enough for her to see, and there was a certain charm to it, walking through the hallways at night. What surprised her was the servants still active, pushing trays and carrying plates with what looked like midnight snacks and various drinks.

"So many ponies still working during the night?" Lauren thought aloud, before turning towards her escort. "Is this normal?" she asked.
"Well, not as of recently, your majesty." the stallion explained. "Ever since Princess Luna opened the Night Court once again, things are busy at certain parts of the castle even at night."

Lauren blinked, surprised. "Luna’s working now? But she's been up all day."

"All due respect,your highness, but technically Princess Luna has only been awake since midday." the mare explained.
"That's still way too long. Why didn't she cancel Night Court until tomorrow or maybe even the day after tomorrow to have more time to get back to her normal routine?"

The mare and the stallion looked at each other, before the female bat pony cleared her throat. "I don't pretend to be any kind of expert in politics, but I think it's because the topics for tonight's court are too important to hold up any longer."

"And then she's tackling whatever’s that important, when she’s not in top form." Lauren countered.

"There is something else your highness," the other guard spoke again. The constant switching was slowly fraying the alicorn's already tired nerves.

"What is it now?" Lauren snapped. The stallion shifted nervously, clearly unsure whether he should elaborate. 

He  steeled himself and spoke; "There is something else to consider. You see, when Princess Luna returned, there were a few ponies who couldn't wait to meet her. As a result, Night Court has been fairly active for these past weeks. Granted, there aren't as many petitioners as the Day Court, but the number is constant."

"Ah. I understand." She didn't get much attention back in the day, but now she is finally getting it. That's still no reason to overwork herself. Oh well, like I can do anything about it. Hmm, I am curious though…

"Is it possible to enter the throne room without anybody noticing us entering?" Lauren asked. The two looked at each other, before turning back to their queen.

"There is the back door." the mare suggested, scratching the back of her head. "Nopony can see it, since it's behind a curtain and in a corner of the throne room. But it's meant for emergencies."

"Hmm..." Lauren thought about it. On the one hand, she couldn't sleep and was really curious about the proceedings of Night Court. On the other hand, she didn't want to accidentally cause a scene. 

Luckily, she didn't need to decide because the door in front of them opened, petitioners walking out of it, some of them carrying paperwork in their magic. Lauren took a look as they floated by, a few of the papers had charts drawn on them.

"I told you we should have brought this to the Day Court." one pony said.

"Like Princess Celestia would have even listened to us for five minutes." another one snorted.

"What's wrong with mining under the Everfree Forest anyway? I mean, who cares if a few trees get cut down in the process?"

"Maybe it’s because the Everfree Forest is easily one of the most dangerous places on this world?" Lauren couldn't help but speak up. "Or maybe that, even if your mine was successful, and you survived every pitfall, deathtrap and wildlife incursion, you would be destroying the fauna’s habitat, which would mean they would have nowhere to go. This would lead to an increase the number of wild animal attacks on nearby pony settlements, and more likely, the source of their troubles." 

She put a hoof under her chin. "Not to mention the Tree of Harmony is in the Everfree Forest and if that gets damaged, Discord breaks free from his prison." I think? Ah no, that was just an idea I had once. Oh my, I’ve been rambling.

"Oops, sorry. I tend to ramble, when I am tired." Lauren apologized hurriedly.

Lauren was also too tired to immediately notice the silence that had settled in the entire room. It took her mind a few seconds, until she realized it wasn't caused by what she said, but rather by what she is.

Everypony looked at her wide-eyed, some of them even started to fall on their knees.

"E-excuse me" the pony who appeared to be the leader of the group stammered "w-we weren't-"

"Mother?" Princess Luna came out of the throne room. "What art thou doing here at this time of night?"

The alicorn of the night bristled as she noted that not everypony from the team of petitioners were bowing.

"BOW BEFORE THY QUEEN, MORTALS!" she shouted, deafening Lauren in the process.

Lauren ears rang, and she shook her head, wincing as she felt another headache form. 

What the ponies were doing was closer to cowering, than actual kneeling around the royal family. Even the guards barely managed to keep up a professional appearance. 

"Luna," Lauren rubbed her forehead "please keep your voice down. It's far too late, or early for this."

Luna's ears immediately dropped. The mood of the night princess certainly did not improve, as she noticed her subjects eyeing her from their practically prostrate positions, with fear evident in their eyes.

The now fully awake red maned Queen, noticed this too.

Oh, this is bad, this is bad. I have to do something! If I say something on behalf of my daughter or something, it will make Luna look immature! Alright, damage control. It's the only thing I can think off.

"Rise everypony." Lauren said, trying to channel Celestia’s poise. "Don't worry. I am not mad at you. I just came back to Equestria today, I can't expect you to know who I am. Please go home. I'm sure you’ve all had a long night."

There's a reason I didn't became a politician. I can handle an interview, masses of bronies, but ponies? Everyone can hear how nervous I am.

After all the ponies left, Luna opened her mouth to say something, but Lauren cut her off, simply pulling the darker alicorn into a hug.
"It's alright." Faust whispered. "I'm not mad at you. Just please, Lulu, don't tell others how to behave in front of me, okay?"



> Politics at Night (Part 2/unedited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was always a recess scheduled at midnight, which gave Luna some breathing room, and time to have what was essentially her lunch. Lauren guessed Night Court must usually be  pretty quiet, as Luna's personal scheduler didn't see a problem with bringing it forward now that Luna had finished with her previous petitioners.

Of course, it could always be that she simply wouldn't refuse the queen of Equestria anything... she mused.

She smiled as a warm cup of cocoa was placed gently in front of her, though the smile faded as she noted her daughter's downcast expression.

"Luna, stop frowning already." Lauren chided with a chuckle. "It makes you look really old."

Luna looked up from her spaghetti, and let out a sigh. "Forgive us mother. We shouldn't have behaved like this."

"Luna, just forget about it. I told you, I'm not mad. You were just doing of what you thought was right." Lauren smiled, trying to get the night princess in a better mood.

"If it is thy wish, mother."

It was Lauren's turn to sigh. Seeing as this wasn't getting her anywhere, Lauren carefully, as in very carefully, took a sip from her cocoa and then changed the subject.

"So, what else is on today's- I mean tonight's agenda?"

Luna looked up confused. "Dost thou wish to attend our night court?"

Lauren smiled sheepishly, blushing a little. "If it isn't too much trouble, I would like to attend just for one case."

"But mother! Thou should be asleep by now." Luna argued.

"I can't really sleep for some reason. I guess I am still a little shaken up from everything that happened today."

The night princess ignored the servant bringing the soup and focused on her mother. "We can help thee with thy troubles, if thou wouldst allow us to use our magic on thee."

"Hmm, maybe later." Lauren smiled. "I'm a little excited about watching the proceedings of your court." the white alicorn replied.

"Excited? We wouldn't use this word to describe our proceedings." Luna replied in a deadpan.

"Sounds it's like school. The first day is exciting and the rest you just want to skip." she snickered at her own little joke.

"If thee say so." Luna shrugged and proceeded with her midnight lunch. Lauren carefully put the tip of her mug onto her lips, enjoying the hot drink and general atmosphere in the room. Until she remembered that Luna didn't really answer her question. She shrugged it off, telling herself that she would see the proceedings soon enough.





"This...isn't necessary, really." Lauren said, as she stood in front of the massive throne that her subjects started making as soon as the royal sisters heard of her supposed return. It was a throne in her coat color, with a red cushion on it. The throne itself was made of hard wood and decorated with her cutie mark and various pictures of an alicorn doing something, like flying over a plain or looking down at her bowing subjects. It was decorated in gold.

"Nonsense, mother." Luna waved off. "If anything the craftsponies should have decorated it with platinum. And where are the gems?" she asked, shaking her head. "Ponies these days..."

"You know, Luna? Sometimes less is more, you know?" Lauren tried to reason, but Luna wasn't hearing any of it. "Thou art the ruler of this nation, mother. What pray tell will our subjects think, if we let thee sit on a simple chair? A disgrace mother! It would be a disgrace in your name!"

"Okay, okay. I'll sit on it." the "almighty" queen held up her wings, trying to prevent Luna from using the royal Canterlot voice.

"One would think, thou lived among the commoners, while absent from Equestria." Luna muttered.

"..." Lauren held her comment back on this one. Instead, she awkwardly got on her throne, positioning herself on all four. 

This is really comfortable. Wow, I have overview over the entire throne room.

Luna took position to Lauren's left on her own throne. "Very well. Bring in the next petitioner!" Luna announced, causing her mother's eyes to widen.

ALREADY?! Okay, stay cool Lauren. This is just like bronycon. Stay calm, smile here and there and everything should be fine.

An earth pony mare entered the room, her body low, ears folded back. She had a pink coat and a wedding bouquet as a cutie mark. The guards and Luna seemed to make her nervous. However, she became really frightened, when her eyes landed on the second alicorn in the room. Time seemed to have frozen around the mare, as she just stood there with one leg above the ground, paralyzed with fear.

Luna and Lauren looked at each other for a quick second, before Luna spoke up. "Art thou feeling well, my little pony?"

The mare hit the ground.





After the mare was brought to the hospital wing, Luna called in the next petitioner. This one turned out to be a red unicorn mare, who had a cherry red mane and a yellow sun as a cutie mark.

Poor dear. She looks a little...simplistic.

The mare too was shocked, when she saw two royals in the room, instead of one, but continued her walk after a few seconds, her head low.

"Your...highness-es." she bowed deeply, her voice being a little shaky.

"Rise my little pony." Luna spoke up. "Thy confusion is justified. This is our dear mother, Queen Faust." The mare's eyes widened in shock. The night princess continued.

"She recently returned to us from being banished from our world, by an old foe in the distant past. We shall properly announce her return soon. For now, she wishes to watch over the proceedings, so she can lead Equestria once again to the fullest of her abilities."

It amazed the former human, how the eyes of a even outside the cartoon could shrink to little pinpricks. "I-it is an honor, your majesty." the mare bowed so deep, Lauren was sure she would hit the floor with her snout.

"Please, don't be nervous." Lauren managed to use her professional voice. "I am only making myself...familiar with everything, like Luna said. Don't let me be a distraction to you."

"Now then." Luna quickly took over. "Miss Fiery Day. Thou came to our Night Court to present us with a means to increase the growth of the crops in thy town?"

"Y-yes, your highness." the mare cleared her throat and straightened herself. "You see, Little Valley is a small village at the bottom of the Foal Mountains. And it is placed in such a position, the mountains block half of the incoming sunlight. So far we have managed, but last year our harvest wasn't really that great last year and our reserves are fairly limited, so we need to somehow increase our crop production."

Lauren raised an eyebrow, a question forming in her head. As if being telepathic, her daughter asked the question.

"Miss Day, if the location of thy village causes so much trouble, why not simply settle down elsewhere? The crown can provide thee and thy ponies with the funds to start a new settlement."

The unicorn nodded. "I know, your highness. When speaking with the mayor, I actually suggested that first, but it is a town where 80% of the residents are Earth Ponies. I have no prejudice against them, but they tend to be really stubborn, when it comes to traditions."

To everyone's surprise, Luna laughed. "Oh, forgive us Miss Sun. It's just, thee remembered us of the old days. If thee thinks earth ponies art stubborn nowadays, thou would not want to live during the old days. None the less" Luna's voice was professional again "it wouldn't be that much of a hassle."

Lauren's eyebrow got even higher after that comment.

"Unless thy solution is easier, we will have no choice, but to decree a resettling."

"Yes well" the mare became nervous again, not daring to look up. "I might have found a solution. Please allow me to show you." The mare's horn glowed in a yellow light. A spark later and a white crystal appeared, floating in mid-air. Around the crystal was some kind of golden ring attached to it with little metal bars.

"I enchanted this crystal with a spell I invented myself." she floated the gem over to the night princess, who picked it up and studied it curiously. Lauren looked at the thing with interest.

Looks a little weird.

"It can now store a certain amount of the sun's light and give it away later, when needed. This is how we intend to solve our crops problem. By storing the sun's light and giving it to our plants."

"Interesting." Luna commented. "Very interesting, indeed. Continue."

"Yes, well...you most likely have already noticed that the design is a little rough, to say the least." the mare shuffled nervously with her hoof. "Plus, the spell is far from being perfect. The crystal can so far only a little amount of light. At this point we would need 100000 of these crystals in order to properly maintain our fields."

Luna scowled. "We assume, it is not easy to reproduce those crystals, is it?"

"N-no." the mare lowered her head. "But if you would give us the funds, we could do further research and maybe find a more efficient version of the spell, possibly even find a better design for the crystals."

"Oh we have no doubt that we will be able to find a solution someday." the princess emphasized the last word. "Yet, Miss Day, as a ruler, we have to see the bigger picture as they say nowadays. We cannot say for sure how much money is needed to come to a satisfying solution? Thousands of bits we might have been able to use somewhere, where it was much more needed. Even more important, we do not wish for our subjects to starve, while we sit idly here in Canterlot and play with shiny crystals."

With each argument the Fiery Day's head seemed to drop more and more. "So, I ask thee, Fiery Day. Can thou say for certain, that you will find a way to improve your design and spell in time?"

"...No, your highness. I can't say for certain."

"We see." Luna nodded. Then her eyes lit up. "Then we suggest thou talk with our adviser" she pointed at a pony standing in a corner "for the resettling of thy fellow ponies."

"Yes, your highness." Fiery Day sighed, defeated.

"Please do not take this personally, but we do not see another option. Unless your hometown has the funds to order food from outside."

Fiery Day shook her head. "No, I fully understand your highness. I guess, it's just personal pride. I knew this is how it would end, but I had to try."

"Excuse me" Lauren spoke up for the first time. "I know I said I would only observe, but...isn't it possible for your people- I mean ponies- to just set up their farms a little bit more outside the village?"

"Impossible." Luna said before the petitioner could speak. "T'is not easy to cultivate any plants around the mountains. There are few places, where the crops will grow properly."

"Oh, I see."





There was a five minute break before the next petitioner came in. Luna and Lauren used the time to talk with each other for a bit.

"I feel a little bad for her." Lauren admitted. "She looked like she was really attached to her home."

"Many ponies are. Maybe thou remembers, during you reign, the ponies were even less adamant of leaving their homes, even if necessary. T'is our very nature."

"Hmm..." Lauren looked towards the huge double doors at the end of the throne room. "You know, back at the place, where I was "banished", we had something similar to what the mare suggested."

"Oh?"

"Yes. They're called solar cells. They absorb the energy the sun gives off and turn it into energy. I don't want to go into details with that" If only to safe Equestria from the industrialization. "and it didn't work as well as many hoped. Whatever, let's not talk about that now."

"Hmm." Luna didn't say anything else and simply called for the next petitioner.

The next one was a unicorn as well, a yellow stallion, wearing a black suit. His green mane and tail were cut short and he held his head high, like the animators did with the pony nobles. Oh.

Well, this will be interesting. Lauren thought to herself. I hope I can prevent myself from laughing.

"Your highness." the stallion, with the golden sword cutie mark, gave a bow "Ah and of course, your majesty. I have heard of your recent return. I must comment you for your efforts to "get up to date" with the Equestrian politics."

"Thank you, mister...?"

"Golden Rule the third, your majesty." the stallion bowed again.

"Golden Rule" Luna spoke up, annoyed for being ignored by the stallion "the night lasts only so long, so let us proceed. Thou wished to carry forward a complaint?"

"Ah yes, business before pleasure. For you see, your sister princess Celestia gave my grandfather, Golden Rule the first, inherited my great granduncles heirloom, after he died. His great, great, great grandfather before received an estate and the title of a noble for fending off a rampaging dragon, single hoofed from Canterlot. And what a fierce battle it was, truly. I still have a very old painting hanging in my second living room, which clearly shows how he defeats the evil dragon with his own, bare hooves, while other ponies could only stare in awe at the heroic deed. Imagine it for a moment! A big-"

"What does that have to do with anything politic related?!" Lauren exclaimed. Normally she was more behaved, but one had to remember, she was tired.

"You're talking about the story about your great, I don't know who, which I'm sure is very interesting," Everypony could hear the sarcasm "but what's the point? You know there are other ponies waiting out there, waiting to speak with the princess, possibly having to wait for weeks, if not months and you stand here and talk about something completely irrelevant. You have a complaint, don't you? Why don't you simply bring it up and stop wasting time?"

...

It took the newest alicorn addition to notice that she had been ranting again. She really, really wished she knew how to teleport right at this moment. Her entire face, felt like it was on fire. It must have been as red as a tomato.

The princess of the night in the meantime had a hard time suppressing her laughter, while the noble stallion did his best to mimic a fish. 

"I-I-"

"Your heard, your queen." Luna said mirthfully. "Thou art very lucky, Golden Rule. Wasting the time of the queen, more than once resulted in the dungeon, in the old days at least. That isn't to say, this could not happen again. After all-"

Golden Rule gulped, knowing all too well as to what happened to his colleague.

"Y-yes, of course! Forgive me your majesties!" he quickly bowed again. "I will get straight to the point! You see, the house I inherited is lately the scene of terrible vandalism!"

"Vandalism?" Luna titled her head.

"Yes! From the homeless children!"

Lauren leaned in a little further. This sounded serious.

"Yes, the children from the Canterlot Orphanage. Their constant cries and screams, when they're outside! I am not capable of having my beauty sleep any more. And the chalk! They always paint the street in front of my house with their chalk! Do you know what chalk does to my beautiful horseshoes? It is terrible, I tell you. We need to get rid of the orphanage as quickly as possible! Destroy it and replace it with something that truly shows the glamour of our glorious city!"

"ENOUGH!"  Lauren's horn started to glow in a blue light. A second later, the stallion found himself flying in mid-air and unable to move a muscle.

"Let me get this straight. You come here, think you can tell us a nice story and then start to complain about children, simply being children?" Lauren growled, unaware of what she was doing. She unceremoniously let the stallion fall on his butt.

"Do they damage your property?"

The stallion shook his head.

"Do they paint graffiti on your walls?"

The stallion vigorously shook his head.

"Do these children do anything that might be considered against the law?"

The unicorn was about to nod, but refrained from it. Instead he shook his head.

Lauren's horn glowed in a bright blue for a second. The next, Golden Rule had no mane and a poofy tail, along with long eyelashes.

"Go. And don't you dare set another hoof in this castle."

Golden Rule nodded, before running out of the throne room as quickly as possible. Lauren's horn stopped glowing, with the alicorn falling to her knees.

"Mother!"

Quickly the guards that were assigned to her, supported the queen from both sides, as she struggled to keep her balance. Luna was quickly in front of her mother. "Mother, speak to us. Art thou feeling well?"

"Luna?" Lauren blinked. "What happened?"

"Nothing mother. Yet thou need thy rest. Guards, bring her back to her chambers."

"At once your highness." The guards saluted and escorted the alicorn back.





Lauren didn't feel too well. She was shivering and her forehead felt like there was a breezy knocking at her skull from the inside. Plus, she slowly remembered as to what happened earlier in the throne room. The noble had been droning on and on with his terribly, boring voice of his, causing her to go on a small rant. Then, when it came out that the stallion wanted to get rid of the orphanage, she lost it. Not only because of the pony, but because of the entire situation.

This world she created. In her mind she always imagined a world, that wasn't entirely perfect, one that had here and there some selfish ponies, an upper class that was a little full of itself, but not one that was heartless! It may have been only the one stallion (so far), but something like this was not supposed to happen at all. The villains were supposed to come at this level of "evil". Okay, he hadn't been evil, but-

"Argh!" Lauren clutched her aching head. She wasn't able to think straight at the moment and seriously needed to catch up some sleep, but there was no way she could fall asleep with the amount of pain she was feeling. To her luck, Luna and a doctor pony entered the room. They startled her a little, since they didn't knock.

The doctor pony held some sort of pill and a glass of water in his magic. "Here take this." The pill and the water floated over to the queen. Not having the strength to ask any questions, she simply took the pill in her moth and swallowed it with the help of the water.

"Please call me, if her condition gets worse." the doctor pony told the princess. "Goodnight, your majesties." he bowed and left the room. Luna closed the door behind him and then proceeded to walk towards her mother's bed. Arriving there, her mother spoke up.

"I...am sorry Luna. I lost my temper back there. I shouldn't have come."

"No mother. T'is alright." Luna nuzzled her mother's head. "Do not fret, we will provide you with a beautiful dream."

"Thank you." Lauren whispered.

Luna smiled and channeled her magic through her horn. She gently touched her mother's forehead. Lauren's eyelids seemed to crash down, a smile creeping onto her face.

The dark alicorn waited for another ten minutes, before she exited the room. The guards stood attention to their princess, who didn't even look at them. Night Court had been adjourned early. Luna would do some paperwork in her room until her sister woke up and raised the sun. She would need to inform the older siblings of the happenings this night.





Lauren was soaring through the skies of earth, flying at supersonic speed without breaking a sweat. She passed jets and airplanes, sometimes waving to the passengers and pilots with her hoof and then she would laugh over their dumbfounded faces.

She loved flying. The cold wind hitting against her fur, the adrenaline rushing through her body, as she dove down, coming dangerously near the ground, only for at the very last moment change the angle of her wings and fly up to the sky again. She could do this the whole day. There was only one thing she loved more than flying: sun bathing. And what better place to sun bath than a cloud?

She flew above a particularly big cloud only to suddenly press her wings against her body and letting herself fall onto the big soft pillow. She giggled, when the cloud reacted like a spring, hopping her up and down a little, until it settled down. Letting out a content sigh, Lauren positioned the sun a little bit more to the right, so that it would perfectly hit every part of her equine body.

She didn't know how long she just lazily lied on her stomach, nor did she really care. Fausticorn just didn't feel like sun bathing anymore. Instead she started to create cloud ponies. It didn't went really well. Cloud sculpturing was never one of her strength. Drawing and painting, sure, no problem. She could do this in her sleep, but cloud sculpturing? The resulting creature was something Discord would be proud of.

Lauren frowned and dropped herself out of the sky. Halfway down, she tensed up her wings and let the wind carry her where it deemed necessary. Over time she glided over a small village. The people outside pointed at her, some even started filming her with their cameras and cell phones.

Lauren didn't mind. In fact she was pretty much used to it. There were days, when she couldn't even go into the supermarkt without a brony filming her, asking for an autograph or just to simply shake her hand er hoof. Most of the time, she didn't find it a bother, but there were days, when it became to much and she just went home as quickly as possible.

The wind got weaker and weaker and finally she landed next to an apple tree on a small grassy hill, where she had a nice overview over the scenery. There were some woods a couple of miles north and to the east side, there was a mountain going up, slightly reminding her of Griffinstone.

However what really got her attention, was the man approaching her. He didn't say anything, he just smiled and waved and Lauren waved back. The man quickened his pace until he arrived on top of the hill. Lauren wrapped her wings around Craig's body and he did the same with his arms.

The two just lied in the grass, with Craig's head lying on Lauren's body. For a couple of minutes the two stayed that way, until Lauren decided she had enough and made it night time. Next she proceeded to rearrange the stars as she felt like it. Craig laughed over her poor attempt to shape shape a heart out of a couple of stars. She gave him a light slap on the head with her wing.

Lauren looked down at the human in front of her. There was a little problem she had with their relationship. However, it wasn't something that she couldn't fix. She was the Queen of Equestria after all. There were barely any boundaries she had. Producing a block, a pen and a couple of color pens out of thin air, she got to work, while Craig fell asleep on her belly.

Frowning at the initial results, she produced an eraser and started anew. Her pen seemed to catch fire, as she moved it quickly with her magic. Done with the overall drawing, Lauren found herself at a metaphorical wall. Namely which color to chose? Red, black, white, maybe green or blue or pink? No wait, there already was a pink alicorn, as well as a blue one.

Black didn't seem right, although it had its own appeal to it. Lauren sapped her fingers, that is, if she would have any. She quickly grabbed a dark green and black one and started her work. Two minutes later it was finished, well except for one thing: Lauren completely forgot the cutie mark! Oh well, Craig could always join the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Satisfied, Lauren channeled her magic through her horn and put it onto Craig's head.





Lauren woke up, the sun already shining brightly outside. Groggily, she wanted to start her morning routine, that is until she fell on her snout.

Oh right. Alicorn. she thought and got up on all fours. Finishing bathroom business, Lauren looked around her room, making an effort not to think about what happened last night. No one was there to get her, so it was possible it was still early. Not really feeling to interact with anyone at the moment, she trotted towards her window. The curtains blocked her view and it was rather troublesome to move them with her legs, but she managed.

The fresh warm air gently hit her, when she opened the balcony and stepped outside. The streets of Canterlot were bustling with ponies already. A look at the local clock tower revealed it was already 11 in the morning!

WHAT?! Why didn't anyone wake me up?!?
...
Maybe they thought I needed some rest after yesterday.

A look to her right revealed the gardens of the Canterlot Castle. She could only make out a small portion, but she knew, somewhere down there was Discord. If it wasn't for the fact to preserve the time line, she would straight up go down there and three the chaos god herself. But who was to say he would help her in the first place? She didn't knew what kind of past she had with the mad god, if any at that? The latter scenario would be actually very welcome.

Shaking her head, Lauren decided to head out for breakfast. Outside she saw that the lunar guards had been replaced with solar guards, both saluting to her with their over serious expressions.

"Good morning, your highness! We were ordered by the princesses to escort you to the dining hall, as soon as you're ready."

What next? Are the two going to hire me a babysitter? Hopefully they will let me explore Canterlot, once I'm settled in.

"Okay, gentlecolts. Let's go."

If only because I don't know my way around here.

"By the way, what are your names?"

"I am Sergeant Swift Strike, your highness." the left one introduced himself.

"And my name is Sergeant Quick Shield." the right one introduced himself.

Why did I go with the pun names again? Lauren smiled wryly. Back then I found it so funny. I better get used to this.

At the dining table, Lauren saw that there were only a couple of hoofservants standing on the sides, ready to please her every need. Asking one of them, she found out that Celestia was in a meeting and Luna asleep. She also found out that Celestia would come later to Lauren, wanting the red maned pony to meet somepony important.

Lauren wondered who that pony might be, but didn't think too much of it at the moment. Her stomach was demanding food and she was all too happy to oblige it's request of nutrients. As soon as she placed herself on a cushion, the servants swarmed her like bees did with their queen. It was a little awkward, for someone who was used to doing her own breakfast.
> How this story won't end. I'M BORED GALE SINGER! GET IT ON WITH YOUR GUEST CHAPTER! (1/??)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren shook herself like a dog. The entire journey from Equestria back to earth had been like riding a roller-coaster filled with a rainbow laser show. Had this been like, when she first appeared in Equestria?

Focus Lauren. You need to figure out where you are and how to best get back to your husband. Oh...I'm still a pony...hmm...oh dear, I spent way too much time with Celestia.

Grinning like a mischievous Pinkie Pie, the queen of Equestria spread her wings and took off into the air. So far, she seemed to have landed in the middle of nowhere. The only thing she knew was that she was in 50 mile radios close to her home. Teleporting from one world to another wasn't exactly an easy task, not to mention you couldn't exactly choose your destination. Hence the situation the queen found herself in. Luckily Cadance gave her a little something that should speed up things. Using her magic, Lauren levitated a small red gem out of her saddle bags. The little thing was enchanted by Cadance, allowing Lauren (and basically everyone who had it) to find their special someone again. Feeling a tug on her horn, Lauren took off into the air, not even bothering hiding from the planes flying around.





Craig resisted the urge to sigh, as he approached the podium. It had been exactly a year, since his wife disappeared, as if she was being sucked into a black hole or something. Over months he had been devastated. It didn't particularly helped that the police didn't find a clue about her whereabouts and even suspected himself for a time.

And now he was standing here at bronycon, at the exact place where his wife normally would stand and open up the biggest brony party in the world.

"I know you are all worried about me and Lauren. And if I am honest, up until a week ago, I was sure I wouldn't come here. So what changed?" he rhetorically asked the masses of cosplaying humans in front of him.

"Well, I was thinking. Thinking about what Lauren would have wanted. And she definitely would not have wanted me to just mope around at home or even cancel bronycon. This is her life's work. Ever since she was a child, she loved my little pony. And when Hasbro offered her a chance to make the fourth installation in the My little Pony TV-Series" he laughed a little "it was for her as if Christmas, Eastern and her own birthday had fallen on the same date. I'm not exaggerating, when I tell you she was like Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush."

There were a few laughs in the audience, as well as some whispers.

"And look where her enthusiasm lead us to? I'll be honest, when I first heard about this fandom, I thought this was some kind of elaborate prank. A group of people, who were bored sitting in front of their PCs. I'm sorry if I'm so blunt, but hey, honesty is an Element of Harmony, isn't it? Needless to say, it wasn't a prank." He shook his head. "Imagine the reaction of the CEO of Hasbro, when this fandom grew and grew. So here we are. As you can probably tell, I'm not good with speeches. So-"

"Oh, I don't know about that." Interrupted a voice loud enough to be projected throughout the entire building. "I mean for a first time, it certainly was not bad at all. Though we do need to work on your wording, honey."

Lauren dispersed the invisibility spell around her and appeared right next to the man, who jumped backwards upon the sudden appearance of the animal. Several gasps and shrieks could be heard throughout the audience. The shock that was apparent on everyone's face, quickly changed to one of amazement. Most people thought this was some kind of holographic projection or something. Craig in the meantime wasn't sure if this was some kind of bad joke or if someone forgot to inform him about this kind of thing.

Lauren in the meantime kept her excitement as best as possible at bay. Her horn lightened up, as she used her magic. Suddenly Craig found himself glowing in the same strange light as the horn of the alicorn in front of him and all of the sudden flew through the air into the outstretched wings of the pony. With ease, Faust caught her surprised husband with ease and nuzzled his cheek. Craig himself was too stunned to question anything that was happening around him.

"I missed you, Craig." Lauren whispered into her husbands ear.

Without giving Craig a chance to even say anything, Lauren summoned her magic once again and levitated EVERY SINGLE HUMAN into the air.

"Just in case, you had some doubts that I am really back."


> New day, new surprises (for everypony)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The one thing that really stood out during breakfast was the sheer amount of different colors the ponies had that were either serving Lauren breakfast or guarding the entrance. For convenience sake they only used two to three colors for guards and the such. However the servants showed at least the variety of colors equal to the amount of background ponies in Ponyville. Some of the color combinations were...a bit extreme, mildly said. Like that turquoise maned maid with the completely black fur!

As for the actual eating, it had been a messy business to say the least. Since the alicorn had no idea on how to use magic, she had to eat the traditional way. Luckily the staff had been informed about her current lack of magic ability, so nopony was talking behind her back or something. Though, they probably wouldn’t have dared anyway.

After finishing her breakfast, which was about triple of what Lauren usually ate in the morning, the table was cleaned in a matter of seconds. One of the guards approached the Queen.

“Your highness, if it is okay with you, Princess Celestia now wishes to see you.”

Lauren sighed, muttering something about “highness” and “getting used to”. “Well, no rest for the wicked, as they say. Please, lead the way.”

“At once.” The guard saluted and walked ahead with Lauren following him outside. The hallways were definitely more lively at this point in the day. Mares and stallions were trotting around, most of them carrying scrolls and other paperwork, be it one scroll in their mouth or a stack of papers in their grasp, both magic and non magic. There was even a mailpony, zipping down the hallway, almost running over a few ponies. Of course, the presence of the Queen somewhat slowed down the traffic. Everypony wanted to have a look at the Queen that Equestria apparently always had. The stares made Lauren reasonable uncomfortable. Of course this has happened before in her career, but only at major events, plus the onlookers had all been human. She could hear some of the ponies whispering amongst each other. Her body automatically put her ears against her head, as to shut off the voices. It helped a lot more than one would imagine, even slightly muffling the sounds of hooves clopping on the ground. On the other hand, it was an obvious indicator of her being uncomfortable, something her escort noticed.

Swift Strike, who had been trotting behind the Queen, turned around, glared at the onlookers and cleared his throat not so subtly. The effect was immediate, as many ponies suddenly found the ground very interesting and proceeded with their daily tasks.

“Thank you.” The Queen whispered to the guard. It wouldn’t stop all the stares, as ponies were coming and going, but at least for now she had her peace.

Many, MANY, long hallways later, they finally arrived at their destination, it being a room on the other side of the castle. One of the guards knocked at the door, which was shortly followed by Celestia’s voice telling them to come in. If Lauren had to describe the room in one word: pink. Not as pink as Pinkie Pie mind you, but as as pink as one of the toy castles Hasbro sold to little children, along with the pony puppets. Lauren already had an idea as to who this room belonged to and was surprised she could even see Cadance, despite her coat being a really good camouflage. She and Celestia were sitting in the middle of the room on cushions, with a little tea set being placed on a small table in front of them.

“Your highnesses, Queen Faust, as you requested.” The guard gave his report.

“Thank you, this will be all.” Celestia replied in her normal, motherly way.

The guards all saluted, before going out of the room, leaving the alicorn mares alone. Cadance looked just as nervous as Lauren as to the prospect of meeting a new family member. The first thing of course that went through Lauren’s mind was that she originally planned there to be only one alicorn in the entire series. With Luna she got convinced to create her, with Cadance she had no say in that, as she focused her writing on other shows.

“H-hello.” Cadance’s voice brought Lauren out of her thoughts. After mentally shaking her head, Lauren replied with an equal hello. And then something random came to mind.

“So Celestia, mind telling me who the lucky stallion is?”

The sun princess choked on her tea, almost losing grasp with her magic and Cadance blushed furiously, which Lauren was surprised to actually be able to see, despite the coat color.

“I-i-it’s not like that.” The love Princess stuttered.

Lauren giggled at their antics. Just seeing Celestia almost spitting out her tea had been worth it. Said princess shook her head, a smile adorning her face.

“Mother, I want you to meet Princess Mi Amore Cadenza or Cadance as she prefers it. I suppose you’re surprised about there being yet another alicorn.”

“Not really.” Lauren admitted. She was partially surprised, but in the back of her mind she wondered how she could forget about Cadance. “Not after traveling between worlds and being told you’re an who-knows-how-old leader of a nation of a different species, not to mention according to my memory I’m around my forties.”

There was an awkward silence between the three. From the corner of her eye, Lauren could see Derpy or Muffin as they renamed the mare, because parents were spamming them with e-mails, flying outside the window, waving at her cheerfully.

Celestia made an awkward cough, getting everyponys attention.

“Yes, well, Cadance here, as she prefers to be called, was a pegasus before she ascended into alicornhood.” Celestia explained.

Oh right, that’s why we gave Flurry Heart so huge wings. Damn German Hasbro, already gave away the surprise, by selling the toy earlier than planned. 
“I see…” Lauren played along. “It must have been...quite the feat.”

“Oh...it was nothing, really.” Cadance blushed to which Lauren raised an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t call it nothing ascending into alicornhood. Especially when you have ties to the royalty of the Crystal Empire.”

That took Cadance off guard. “H-how did you know?” She was back to her stuttering.

Lauren hardly suppressed the urge to bite her lip. “Er...your cutie mark was kind of a giveaway. You know, since it resembles the Crystal Hea-urggh!”








“Oh my, it always takes away my breath, visiting this castle.”


“Thank you. It is an honor to host you as our guest.”


“I simply wish I could visit more often. But you know how it is with politics. There’s hardly a week where I do not want to send the one or other pony to the moon. But then I have to remind myself that they do not have the experience of countless centuries. And not a daughter who would be really upset, if somepony destroyed the beauty of her celestial body.”

“Ah yes, I can imagine. How is little “Woona”, your highness?”


“Oh haha, the poor dear can’t wait until her wings are finally big enough to carry her body. Poor dear, Celestia cannot help herself, but tease her sister. In return Luna has drawn some rather...comically pictures of her older sister. Those two are a hoofful.”





“Mother!” Celestia shook her mother, who felt like she had just came off a roller-coaster.

“Urrgh…”

“Are you alright?” Cadance asked, ready to help her great aunt standing, just in case.

“Flashback…I think…? My head hurts.”

“Here, sit down.” Cadance levitated a pillow over to the red maned alicorn, who gladly placed herself on it. Cadance and Celestia placed themselves on each side, the latter having a wing draped over the former human.

“Do you need something to drink?” Celestia asked.

“No, thank you. I think I’m fine now. Minus a minor headache.”

“Do you need to go outside? Maybe catch some fresh air?” Cadance asked.

“No, no, I’m fine, really. I mean.” Lauren said a little annoyed. “I just saw...something.” She shook her head. “I know you’re curious, but can we talk about this later? Just thinking about this hurts.”

“...If you say so.” Celestia said slowly.

There was another pause between the three mares, as to no one really knew how to start a conversation after what just transpired. Eventually, Lauren took the initiative.

“So...Cadance tell me. How did you become an alicorn in the first place?”

Cadance’s ears flattened against her head. “I...don’t really like talking about it.”

“I see.” Of course Lauren knew the official story. They just never bothered to really show it as of yet. From what she heard, the writers were still debating about making a flashback episode about it or just leave it be. Personally she thought of it as a "no brainer". There were dozens of ways of how to make a good moral of Cadance reversing the spell of Prismia.

“Well then...oh gosh, this is awkward. I haven’t even properly introduced myself, have I?”

“Not really.” Cadance giggled.

“Well then, my name is Lauren Faust, I am the apparent Queen of Equestria and prior to this, I made my life by writing children stories.” Lauren said with a smile.

“Which reminds me, mother” Celestia spoke up “you have yet to tell any of us about this...other world. It seems your memory of this is still 100% intact.”

Lauren nodded. Telling them about Earth? Well, she couldn’t see the harm, as long as she was careful with what she disclosed. Then a really, REALLY, stupid thought came to her mind.

“I know this is sort of out of the blue, but was I married prior to my...absence?” Lauren asked.

Celestia’s eyes widened. “No.” she said slowly.

“Wait, so you and aunt Luna…” Cadance began.

“Uhh, let’s say we weren’t born under normal circumstances.” The princess said just as slowly.

“I think I won’t ask. ANYWAYS” Lauren said very loudly “I’m actually kinda glad. It would have been awkward to explain this to my husband.”

This time Celestia DID spit out her tea.
> Just some talk, before we get to the fun stuff
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I...have a father,” Celestia stated as a matter of fact.

“Yes?”

“I have uncles.”

“Really nice ones, I assure you.”

“...Do I have step siblings?”

Lauren giggled nervously. “No.”

‘Not yet at least’

Celestia calmly poured herself another cup of tea and drank it all in one go. Cadance looked over to Lauren who returned the stare with a nervous expression.

“Please excuse me a moment,” Celestia stood up from her cushion and exited the room. The two other alicorns watched her leave until the door was slowly being shut.

Lauren let the past ten minutes play in her head once again, where she basically summarized her family life for Celestia and Cadance. The entire time the sun princess had been eerily quiet, although if her pint sized eyes were anything to go by, she also was definitely… nervouscited? Yes, Lauren decided that was the best way to describe Celestia’s behavior.

Cadance and Lauren now sat in front of each other, both looking in their still filled and now empty teacups.

“Umm…” Cadance began after a few minutes.

“Yes?”

“So……. how is he? If it’s okay to ask…”

“Craig?” Lauren smiled. “He’s a real sweetheart and keeps me from overworking myself. We both work on children stories and worked together on several projects. One thing lend to another and...well we married.”

“Is that so? Well, how did you meet? When was your first date? How about-?”

“Cadance?” Lauren looked a little nervous, as with each question the pink alicorn had gotten closer and closer to the white one.

“What is it?” Cadance then noticed just how big the other alicorn appeared to be. She blushed, going back to her cushion.

“I’m sorry. I tend to get a little over enthusiastic when it comes to love,” the smaller pony giggled nervously.

Lauren smiled understandingly and carefully took a sip from her tea. It probably looked really awkward on how she had trouble keeping her hooves from shaking.

“Have you tried using your magic again?” the pink pony asked.

“Um…” Lauren looked a little distressed. “I still have no idea how to use it…”

“Oh...I’m sorry. I forgot for a moment...never mind.” Cadance shook her head.

“Say Cadance, what are your tasks inside the Equestrian government?” Lauren changed the subject. She was indeed curious about this, as Cadance had been added in season two. Plus she personally didn’t want another alicorn in the show.

“Huh? Oh, well...I’m not doing anything that important really,” the pink pony chuckled. “I help auntie Celestia with her paperwork from time to time or organize smaller events. Lately I have been helping auntie Luna getting used to modern politics and society. It’s...a work in progress.”

Lauren couldn’t help but giggle.

“I can imagine…”

At this moment, Celestia returned with a huge cake in her magical grip. Cadance frowned at the sight, while Lauren bit the inside of her cheek, in order to not burst out laughing. Why did those bronies make so many Celestia is obsessed with cake jokes?

“Auntie, really?”

“How would you react, if you met your mother after a long time and she told you she married the time she’s been gone?” the solar princess retorted in a not so princessy way.

“Uh...I would congratulate her?”

“Urrgh,” Celestia facehoofed. The simple notion of the Princess having a reason to facehoof in the first place was normally enough to make Lauren giggle. Now she was laughing out loud, causing the solar princess to give her mother a pouty glare. Which in return only made the alicorn laugh even harder. Her wings flared up and she accidentally knocked down her teacup.

“Ooops, haha….” The red maned alicorn took in some deep breaths in order to calm down. Cadance having obvious troubles suppressing her own laughter didn’t help in that regard. Celestia in the meantime levitated the broken shards in a safe spot, then summoned a rag, wiping the floor quickly.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Lauren put a wing on her chest. She had trouble catching her breath and did her best not to burst out laughing again. It certainly didn’t help that Celestia gave her mother a deadpan expression.

After the Queen finally settled down, Celestia had poured her mother another cup of tea, but still had a frown on her face.

“Of course I wanted to have some more excitement in my life. I guess the saying: ‘Be careful what you wish for’ is indeed correct,” The white alicorn shook her head. “And as much as I would love to spend this time to actually catch up, it’s time we discuss your integration into the political system.”

“Political...system?” Lauren squeaked surprised. She had completely forgotten about this. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Especially this early?” 

‘How about not putting me in at all?!’

“Believe me, the earlier the better. There are already rumors circulating around Canterlot about a fourth alicorn inside the castle. It won’t take long until the rumors go out of control.”

“Would it really be that bad?” Lauren asked. “I mean, I have my fair share of popularity, not a really big one, mind you, but enough that there are some people always spreading rumors. I remember one well, where it said that I was pregnant or the other one, where it said that Craig was seeing another woman, when he was just meeting an old school friend.”

Celestia and Cadance looked at Lauren unimpressed.

“You haven’t had much to do with politics lately, have you?” Cadance asked carefully.

“You mean aside from complaining how taxes are being wasted and big companies influencing the people in charge of things? Uh, not really. Oh yes, voting, I did, oh wait. Equestria doesn’t have a democracy.”

Democracy?!?! The two alicorns thought, aghast. They gave each other a look, which basically said: “We have A LOT of work to do.”





Lauren followed Celestia and Cadance into a small study. Of course “small” being relative as this was Canterlot Castle. Parchments, books, quills, ink pots, a desk, there was everything one needed for studying.

Celestia motioned for her mother to move over to the chair next to the study desk. A little awkwardly, the red maned mare placed herself on the chair and looked at the book lying on the desk. It was already opened, so Lauren couldn’t read the title.

“This is a history book about Equestria’s recent political history. Since the press will very likely ask you questions about recent events, it is imperative that you learn about those as fast as possible,” The solar princess explained.

“Oh dear…”

“Don’t worry,” Cadance put a wing over her grand-aunt’s back. “I’ll be there to help you. And you know what? If you’re quick enough to catch up to aunt Luna, we could turn this into a little study group,” the pink alicorn giggled.

“I guess it’s too late to ask if I simply could start a career as a writer of children's stories?”

Celestia rolled her eyes and nudged her mother playfully. “Don’t worry, mother. You won’t have to answer any questions today.”

“That’s a relief.”

“You will simply introduce yourself and tell your subjects how happy you are to be back in Equestria.”

Lauren blinked a couple of times. “Could you please repeat that last sentence? I’m sure I just misheard you,” She rubbed her ear with her hoof, to emphasize her words.

“Lesson number one mother: In politics appearance is everything. You’ll need to say-”

“WAIT, WHAT?!” Lauren’s voice changed into the royal canterlot tone for a second there, surprising everyone. “I-I can’t do this, Celestia! I’ll be too nervous to get a single word out! Give me a crowd of fans, I’ll hold you an interview any time, any day. But s-subjects?! At least give me a few days to get used to the idea!”

‘More like an eternity!’

Both Celestia and Cadance were taken by surprise by the sudden outburst. The look the older alicorn had on her face, reminded both princesses of Twilight, when she had one of her panic attacks.

“I really can’t do this, Tia! I am already a little nervous, whenever I see a new pony. Not to mention this is all really new to me! You’re claiming that I am the queen of this kingdom, yet I don’t remember ever being a pony! I still have my doubts about this entire situation! Half the time I expect to wake up any moment, after having one of the weirdest dreams in my entire life!” Lauren started to tremble. She imagined her eyes must have shrunk to pinpricks at this point.

Celestia wrapped both of her wings around her mother, pulling her into a comforting hug. It was strange. The sun princess was used to calming down her little ponies, only this time the pony wasn’t little. And her own mother.

“It will be alright,” The alicorn reassured. “I hate to drop this burden onto you, but you have to believe me that it is better to do this now, rather than have the tabloids have their way. Don’t worry, it will be easy. Luna and I will announce your return, you simply recite a few lines we have prepared and then you won’t have to do anything like this in the near future.”

“It’s foolproof,” Cadance chimed in. “We did the same with aunt Luna, when-”

A stern glare from Celestia cut Cadance off. Lauren looked confused between the two, until her she remembered what was going on. So far no one told her about ‘Lulu’s little screw up’, to put it mildly. Luna herself didn’t want to talk about this as of now.

“A-anyways, I’m sure it will go off without a hitch!” Cadance grinned nervously.

Acting as if she didn’t notice the slip up, Lauren took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Okay. I trust you with this.”



> Reassurance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why didn’t I listen to mom and became a secretary? Oh right, because I am a little “obsessed” with ponies as she liked to put it.

Lauren dared to peek through the curtains and immediately wished she hadn’t. Every single seat was taken by a pony reporter. She even saw the one pony the staff had planned from Manehatten, the one parodying Spider-Man’s boss. She frowned, not remembering the name of the stallion.

Before she accidentally stuck her entire head through, the alabaster alicorn pulled back.

This is my first bronycon all over again. Shaking hands… hooves, I guess, sweating bullets… yup. All that’s missing is me constantly tapping my fingers against my legs.

...

Right, I don’t have any fingers anymore.

Lauren let out a small sigh, wishing she could just teleport away, take on a disguise like a changeling and write children stories once again. She shook her head, trying to get it clear.

Okay, let’s go through this once again. I am Queen Lauren Faust… this sounds so ridiculous, I know this must come to quite a surprise to you, since I do not appear in any history book. The truth is, before Equestria was founded, Discord banished me into another world, before he was beaten by my daughters.

I’m sure, I’m not going to be able to say all this without being interrupted.

Where was I?

After more than a millennium, I was able to return to Equestria. I do not plan to- no, no this goes the other way- I WILL not partake in any-

Wait, wait, wait, something else came BEFORE that. Arrgh, my head!

“Art thee alright, mother?”

Lauren turned around and found Luna standing only a few steps away. The alicorn of the night held a cup of coffee in her blue magic grip, a cup which said “Best Princess in the World”. Lauren couldn’t stifle a giggle after reading the text, and Luna looked down on the cup with a smile of her own appearing on her face.

“A little gift from Tia,” Luna explained, taking a sip. She visibly enjoyed the hot drink and Lauren oh so wished she could use magic like any other unicorn, so she could enjoy a glass of water.

“Thou… you look worried,” Luna pointed out.

“Worried is an understatement. I’m trying to focus on the lines I’m supposed to say, but I get them wrong all the time,” the red maned pony groaned, shaking her head. “This isn’t even the first time I’m doing this kind of thing and here I am, nervous as if this is my first one.”

“Tis not your first interview?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No. Remember, when I told you one of my stories made it big time back on Earth?”

“Earth?”

“That’s what the world is called, where I came from.”

The blue alicorn looked unimpressed. “Not a very imaginary name.”

“I know.” Lauren chuckled. “Anyways, one of my stories, which is a story for small children, girls to be precise, somehow gained so many fans that there is now an event every year in which fans of the story gather together to basically throw one big party. Of course I am always invited and so I give an interview before the beginning of the party.”

“Is that so? Mother, thou hast spoken plenty about your story. Pray tell, what is thy story called and what is it about?”

“Uhh, umm…” Lauren bit the inside of her cheek, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. She was unprepared for the question, especially in a situation like this, where she was already pretty nervous. “Oh...you know, it’s just your normal children’s stories of some girls becoming friends, living a quite fun life, getting into fights, forgiving each other...the plot basically writes itself.”

It did NOT write itself in any stretch of the imagination, that was a flat out lie. Although she stopped writing episodes for the show a long time ago, she still remembered struggling with the first few. She just wanted it to be perfect.

Luna raised an eyebrow at her mother’s odd behavior, wondering why the older alicorn was so embarrassed talking about it.

“Come now, mother. We...we, I mean me… I mean, we...urgh.”

Lauren didn’t even try to suppress the giggle, as she witnessed the princess of the night stumbled over her own words.

“‘Tis too early for us.” the blue alicorn muttered, emptying her coffee mug in one huge sip. “Now then, where were we? Right. Please, tell us about the story. We art genuinely curious about it. Did thee know that Tia up to this day still reads your old tomes. In fact, she keeps thy original work in her chamber.”

“My original work?” Lauren asked, genuinely curious now.

Luna nodded. “Indeed she does. Now, why-”

“Hello there, everypony.” Luna and Lauren looked to the side and found out that it was Cadance who interrupted the princess. Lauren spoke a silent thanks inside her head and let out a sigh of relief.

“Ready for the big announcement?” the alicorn of love asked her grand aunt. Just as soon as it came, Lauren’s relief was gone and replaced with nervousness once again.

“Oh...er...I…” Lauren could only stutter at this point.

Cadance’s smile didn’t falter at all. She simply walked towards the alicorn and put a supporting hoof on the older one’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I was nervous too on my first interview. The trick is not to think of those ponies as reporters, but rather as friends. Just imagine you’re meeting up with a few old friends and everything will be fine.”

“Hehe...thank you, Cadance. I’ll try it. Though, I think I prefer my method of imagining them all in underwear.”

Cadance and Luna stopped in their motions, blinking at the Queen exactly three times, before each of them bursted out into a fit of laughter.

“Imagining them in underwear…” Cadance rubbed a stray tear out of her eye. “Oh this is rich. I have to remember that one.”

“Well, at least everypony appears to be in high spirits.” Celestia’s voice came from behind Lauren. The former human turned around, only to stumble over her own legs and would have hit the ground, if not for Celestia’s quick intervention. Surrounded by a golden aura, the red maned alicorn was levitated back on her four hooves. She gave Celestia a sheepish smile, muttering a small thank you.

“Are you ready, mother?”

“Since Honesty is an Element of Harmony, I would say, I am more ready to spend an entire day with Discord, while wearing a pink tu tu, than facing the crowd outside.” Lauren deadpanned.

Celestia gave her trademark kind smile, nuzzling her mother down the neck. The other two alicorns joined in, nuzzling and tickling the queen from both side. Lauren giggled, her wings almost flapping a little bit. When it was over, she was more than a little disappointed.

“Now then, do you remember your lines?”

“Not really.” Lauren shook her head. “I went over it 20 times already, but I keep getting it wrong. Guess I’ll have to improvise, unless we cancel this whole thing. But of course the people will start asking question, like what the whole fuzz was about and the such. Urrgh...politics.”

Celestia giggled at the last statement. “Don’t worry. I had a feeling something like this was going to happen and placed some notes on the podium.”

“Oh thank you. Celestia.” Lauren let out a sigh of relief. “Why haven’t I thought of this myself?”

“Well, this is a big day.” Cadance pointed out. “And you already said you’re quite nervous. Harmony knows I was, when I had to give my first interview. Personally I would say the worst part is, when they just won’t stop asking questions.”

“Which will not happen today.” Luna declared. “Mother is still far from a full recovery. She will not stand there any longer than necessary.”

Lauren smiled at Luna in appreciation. Though she also felt guilty for using her “condition” as an excuse for keeping herself away from the public eye. Not that she wanted to stay locked away in the castle forever. The little girl inside of her was desperate to get out and with each hour spend with Tia, Lulu, Cadance or even one of the guards! She made a mental note to find some sort of relief, before she was taken over completely. But that had to wait until after her appearance.

“It is time.” Celestia stated, her eyes closed. “Don’t worry, mother. Everything will be fine. Wait for me, to announce you. And try not to trip over your hooves so much.” She chuckled, the other two princesses joining. Lauren puffed her cheeks, looking away.

As soon as the portal opens, I’m going to shove you through. Then we’ll see how you handle being on two feet!

Celestia walked slowly and regally towards the podium, the other princesses looking after her. The mere presence of the sun princess appeared to be enough to silence the conversations the reporters had been having with each other.

“Thank you for coming today, everypony. I am sure you’re all curious as to why I summoned you all here today, although, I am sure some rumors have already spread. There’s hardly a day, when Luna comes to me and demands I throw one or two of you into the dungeon, because of your “treacherous publications”.” Celestia shook her head, a small smile on her face.

Meanwhile, backstage Lauren put a hoof over her muzzle in order not to laugh at Luna’s pouty face.

“And sometimes” Celestia continued “I’m inclined to agree. Maybe the freedom of speech wasn’t such a good idea after all?”

The audience laughed a little at their princess’ joke.  

“All joking aside, I think I have let you waiting long enough. The reason Princess Luna and I decided on this public announcement was because there is somepony special we would like you to meet. And I better say it now, neither Luna nor I are engaged, nor are we having, expecting or adopting any foals. And we’re not getting married either.”

Lauren could see several faces falling and even some notes being scratched out.

“They seriously believed that?” Lauren whispered.

“This isn’t even the most outrageous idea they had come up.” Cadance explained silently. “For some reason they keep asking about potential heirs...even though one of them is right in front of their noses.” Cadance grinned.

“Now then, before I introduce you to the mare, I need to tell you something important beforehoof. The mare in question is unfortunately is suffering from partial amnesia and magical exhaustion.”

Celestia let the murmurs go on for a minute or two, until she raised a hoof, perfectly silencing the reporters.

“The reason for that being is that she finally escaped a prison, to which none other than Discord, the Lord of Chaos himself imprisoned her over a thousand years ago.”

Now this got the crowd riling. While not all of the ponies present were too well versed in history, all of them understood the meaning of “Lord of Chaos” and “1000 years ago”. Some of the journalists began suspecting it having to do something with the recent Nightmare Moon incident.

Another raised hoof and everypony was silent.

“I am sure you have a lot of questions and later I will do my best to answer them all. Given the state the mare is in, neither my sister nor I want her to exhaust herself. She will merely introduce herself as of today. You may ask yourself why she isn’t waiting for her recovery. It is rather simple, my little ponies. We do not want any misinformation to get out or appear as if we are hiding something from our subjects. Honesty is an Element of Harmony, after all.”

“Did she plan to say this line?” Lauren asked. “Or did she just improvise on something I said earlier?”

“We have not the faintest clue.” Luna admitted.

“With that being said-”

Oh, oh. Here it comes.

Luna and Cadance stood on either side of the tensing alicorn.

Now I REALLY want to teleport myself away.

“-let me introduce to you Lauren Faust. Or as Luna and I like to call her, mother.”

Before Lauren even walked on stage, there was a major outcry in the audience. Questions were being asked, each reporter trying to shout louder than the other. Lauren, already nervous beforehand, tried to run away, as her fight or flight instincts kicked in. She was stopped, by Luna’s magic, who held her tight. At the same time, Cadance’s own horn lit up and for a short time Lauren was surrounded by a purple light. Strangely enough, the anxiety she had been feeling up to this point vanished. Just like that.

“I figured you would need it.” Lauren looked over to Cadance, who smiled kindly.

“H-huh? What did you do?” the woman asked, totally confused.

“Just a little spell. To calm your nerves.” Cadance assured. “Now go, before THEY come onstage to see you.”

Lauren nodded, gulping. Despite the spell, she was not looking forward to this. Partially because of having her feelings tempered with, even if it was for her own good.

Remember, this is just like your first bronycon. Wave and smile, wave and smile.

With that mantra in mind, the alicorn slowly, but surely walked towards Celestia, who didn’t appear at all fazed by the shouts. Actually all of the shouting stopped, as soon as Lauren’s head was visible. She already stood out being larger than everypony else, but what really caused the ponies to gasp was as soon as her wings were visible, as she stepped through the curtain. In order to avoid their cute, curious gazes, Lauren focused completely on Celestia, who had an honest to goodness smile on her face. The red maned pony expected the princess of the sun to step away and give her the podium. Instead she hugged the former human, who was caught off guard by this motion. Reflexively she wrapped her own wings around Celestia, unintentionally perfecting the image of mother and daughter. As surprised as the pony reporters were, they saw an opportunity for a great front page picture and soon enough the cameras started clicking. 

> Press conference (1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I honestly have no idea where to begin," Lauren said, chuckling a little. The microphone and speakers had surprisingly good sound quality. "I can only guess that all of you are very confused at the moment, as most of you probably have never heard of me." she continued, her wings twitching a little. These little ponies just were too cute for their own good. "I hope today I can clear up as many questions as you possibly have, however before we get to this, please let me tell you a little bit about me first."

Lauren took in a deep breath. Come on, you have lied in your life before. Today you're just doing in on a slightly larger scale. On a national level...stop thinking that way! Technically it isn't even lying! You're just using information that was given to you, which you cannot verify at the moment.

"You see, it all happened more than a millennium ago. As you are aware for a time, Discord reigned over Equestria in his...let's say unique way. Floating islands, checkered grounds, chocolate rain...those were the harmless things he created with his chaos powers and if he would have left it at that, who knows? Maybe we would have become good friends."

Lauren came up with the description of the various episodes they created on earth, surrounding Discord. It made it easier for her to talk over the podium.

"But alas, it was not meant to be." Not yet anyway.

"I won't go into details, but I will say this. Discord manipulated ponies in all kinds of manners for his own amusement. Of course, I didn't like how he was treating everypony and confronted him. Unfortunately, he wasn't someone who could be reasoned with. As a result, a confrontation between him and me was unavoidable."

The reporters were scribbling furiously on their little notepads. Really, Lauren had never realized just how small in size day to day things were in Equestria, compared to Earth.

"Things didn't go as planned, though. Discord managed to beat me, but not in the usual way. Then again, doing things the usual way is not exactly his "style" to quote himself. He decided it would be funny to banish me to a completely different world."

The audience had overall a surprised reaction by this revelation. It seemed so surreal to them, yet Lauren could see that they actually believed her, while she herself wasn't really sure of her own words. It was probably because those ponies lived in a world filled with magic and because they recently got an additional princess, who was supposed to be nothing more than a myth figure. A fourth alicorn wasn't all that surprising.

"Since I don't have the same powers as Discord, you can guess that I spent the last thousand plus years on this other world and you're probably curious to hear about it, aren't you?"

The reporters now leaned forward, making them look like curious children. The red maned alicorn had to remind herself that those were neither cute pets nor were they actual children but fully grown adults in their own right. This, of course, was difficult, since almost none of them looked like adults by human standards. 

"Well, luckily Discord didn't seem to pay much attention to which world he sent me to. Actual, now that I think about it, he probably didn't think at all and just let his magic do the work. The world, which the inhabitants for some reason decided to call "Earth", is luckily not a bad world. It is quite similar to our own world, with differences here and there, but not really great once."

By now Lauren was able to hear the pencils scribbling furiously on the notepads. And was that Lyra Heartstrings sitting in the second back row?

"The inhabitants are probably the most outstanding feature of this world. You see, they do not have ponies (not the same ones anyway), dragons, griffins, minotaurs or other races that can speak and think like you and me."

This statement threw the ponies out of the loop for a bit. They knew they were in for a story, once Celestia announced that she had a mother and that said mother was practically the head of the state, but this? Things were getting totally surreal now.

"The exception is one species. They call themselves humans (myself included). This doesn't say much for most of you, so let me explain. Humans are very similar to minotaurs, but they have feet like dragons and rather flat faces. Actually, the best way to describe them is as they are shaved monkeys, who wear clothes." There were some snickers around the audience.

"They have a very diverse culture and are overall curious creatures. But if I had to talk about the entire human culture, we would be here until next year. So instead I'll now answer the questions you no doubt have, whether they are about me or the other world."

Three, two, one...

And on cue, every single pony in the room started shouting questions at the pony standing on the podium. Lauren could feel her ears hitting her head, a motion that still felt weird to her, as in her previous body, she was incapable of moving her ears. The entire commotion wasn't new to her and as things went on, she felt more and more like she was in her element. Only the little child in her was becoming a bigger and bigger problem as time went on. She discreetly bit the innards of her cheek, in order to keep herself in check and not hug and kiss the next best pony, a cute lemon colored one with a light blue mane and cute little glasses.

Nope, not gonna hug, not gonna hug her, not gonna hug her!
...
Oh, right, I should keep the audience in line.

"Everyone, please! One after another."

There was a little bit more noise, but overall it got quieter until everypony was silent.

"Thank you. Now then, I think the best way to do this is like back in school. You raise your hands...no excuse me, hooves, I spent way too much time with humans I'm afraid. Well then...eeny, mini, miny...you with the green coat, please."

"Note Pad, Canterlot Times, your highness. Are you now going to take over Princesses Celestia and Luna's positions?"

Starting of easily, huh? Fine by me. "I do not plan to politically involve myself in the near future (or at any time, really. I am...what's the best way to put it? I mean...I have been gone for over a thousand years. I firstly need to catch up with our own history, not to mention everything else that I missed out. So I'm afraid (read: glad) that I won't be any political work for some time. Next question."

"Lucky Mallet, Equestria Daily, your highness." the mare introduced herself. Lauren barely suppressed a snort.

Really? Someone needs to claim copyright.

"If you don't mind the question, what does your cutie mark stand for? It is rather...different from the princesses." the mare remarked.

Different? Yeah, I guess, since it's nothing related to the sky or the world. The fandom created this cutie mark for me, not myself.

"My cutie mark, hmm?" Lauren quickly glanced at it, before returning to the audience. "I have a talent for writing stories. In fact, since my title didn't really help me in the other world, I spent most of my time writing stories," she told the reporters with pride in her voice.

"Manehatten Times, your highness. Front Page is the name. Could you tell us, why you couldn't come back earlier to Equestria?"

Oh dear. A magic question. What do I tell them now? Come on, brain, I need an excuse now!
> Press conference (2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The reporters noticed Lauren’s hesitation to answer the question. For the average pony, it would just look like she took a moment (around three seconds to be precise) to properly think about the answer she was about to give. But the reporters could see the for them pretty obvious signs.

Now, this on itself wasn’t really a problem. Even Princess Celestia from time to time hesitated with an answer. One just had to be careful not to do this kind of thing too often, lest the politician in question risks being seen as weak or incompetent. Exaggeration? Yes, but reporters loved to “spice things up” as they say.

“I don’t think I’ll be fully able to explain the circumstances today, so I’ll keep this brief, for now. Traveling between worlds is a ...complicated matter to say the least. Of course, this is hardly a problem for someone like Discord, who can change the laws of physics if he feels like it. But for ponies? Even alicorns struggle with a spell as complicated as this one. There are many more factors to consider, such as finding the right world to travel to (although I wouldn’t mind visiting one of the Disney Movies) and much more, but we have only so much time today. I hope my answer could satisfy your curiosity at least a little bit.”

Judging by the expression on everypony’s face, they clearly wanted more information, but luckily didn’t press the issue. Instead, another set of hooves raised into the air and Lauren picked another pony from the crowd.

“Your highness, you mentioned earlier you wrote stories for a living in the other world. Would you mind to elaborate further on that particular topic?”

“Hmm...where to begin?” Lauren wondered to herself before she answered the actual question. “Well...obviously I had to somehow establish a living. Since writing is already my special talent, I decided to write children stories.”

“For a thousand years?” the reporter asked.

Oh yeah. That does seem kind of...dull. To do for a millennium that is.

“It wasn’t like I did it all the time. I...still tried to find a way back.” Oh, I so hope Celestia and Luna didn’t see through my lie. How many times have I lied to them already? Wow, I’m already starting to feel like a real politician. How long have I been in Equestria exactly? 

“It became a sort of...routine over time one might say.”

Another pony, another question.

“Did you ever politically involve yourself with those...humans, was it?”

Oh, that would be the day. Lauren thought sarcastically to herself.

“Not really.”

“You didn’t? Why not? Wouldn’t they accept your political expertise?” the reporter asked.

Lauren frowned a little bit. “I guess I should clear things up. When I was sent into the other world, I was also turned into a human.”

The eyes of the pony reporters widened at the revelation. Some of them even began murmuring with each other.

“The effect reversed when I traveled back to Equestria. My best guess at this point is that if you travel to another world, the magic of the world “adapts” you in a way to fit into this world. Of course, this is pure speculation at this point in time.” Wasn’t the original idea with Equestria Girls that the mirror was somehow responsible for the transformation? Well, so far we haven’t been able to fully flesh out the idea and it wasn’t an important point in the movies we released so far.

“In any event, you need to remember I knew nothing about their society when I arrived. I hardly knew how my body worked either.” Lauren shook her head, remembering when she suddenly woke up in a pony body. She still hadn’t gotten over this.

“Over time I manage to establish myself a place in their society. Of course, I never told anyone about where I came from or who I really was, because I had no way of proving who I was. Initially, I didn’t even plan to stay there for long. However, as I already said, traveling between worlds...it’s not easy unless you’re Discord. Because then you just ignore the rules and turn the planet into one giant muffin for good measure. Back on topic, I chose a mostly civilian lifestyle and never got more involved in their politics that I deemed necessary.”

“Does that mean rather than directly, you indirectly influenced the political field?” another mare asked. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about and was older than most of the present ponies.

“Hmm, I guess you could say that.” Not that I really did much, aside from voting and a few other things. Really, the biggest impact I had was with the fourth generation of My Little Pony...I think I shouldn’t tell them that.

“I see…” the mare muttered, taking notes.

“So, who’s next?”

I’m actually starting to enjoy this. Wait, I just admitted to enjoying lying. Maybe I really am a politician…

“Bolt Writer, your highness. How was your social life in this other world? Did you have friends?”

Lauren almost scoffed. “Of course. There’s never a reason to not make any friends. Unless I am misremembering something, friendship is the very thing this nation is built upon.”

“Forgive me, your highness. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Did I really come over as upset? Oh, the wings. I guess I better watch my posture.

Indeed, Lauren accidentally slightly extended her wings, making it look like she took a somewhat aggressive stand. As carefully as possible, Lauren moved her wings back to the sides of her body.

“I’m sorry about this. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I really need to watch out. Ponies express themselves more through their body language than humans do.

“So, any more questions?”

Several more hooves were raised into the air.

“Your majesty, while we’re on the subject of friends...forgive me for being so blunt, but do you mayhaps have a special somepony in your life?”

This question totally caught Lauren off guard. After all, the subject of potential boyfriends or coltfriends as they were called in Equestria, was never an issue with Luna or Celestia. Or was it really? It was one thing to never bring up the subject in a television show for kids, seeing as this wasn’t of any relevance to said show? But real life? That was something completely different.

And because in children’s cartoons certain laws of the physical world do not apply, everypony present could clearly see the blush appearing on Lauren’s cheeks. And of course, she made the mistake to open her mouth.

“I..er...I mean, maybe?”

Why was she so nervous? Why couldn’t she answer this particular question with dignity? After all, back on earth naturally she had been asked how the relationship with her husband was going and whether she planned to have any children or not. It had already been an embarrassing topic back then, but she took it a lot better than today. Was it maybe because all of these ponies were her subjects or that maybe suddenly an entire nation would care about what she said?

The reason didn’t matter. The fact remained that she had uttered those words in a way that made her look like a high school girl, who was talking about her crush with her best friends. This was almost as bad (or even worse) than outright saying that she was married.

Nevertheless, the damage was done. Camera lights flashed, trying to get a good picture of an utterly embarrassed queen, the reporters were now bombarding Lauren with questions and Celestia and Luna mutually decided that this interview was over.