Coin's Face

by Silent Quill

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 22870

Magic and the past collide, creating new troubles for the royals in Canterlot after the havoc that is the coronation of Twilight Sparkle; it’s the most life that the Royal Vault has seen in years.

The Royal Vault in Canterlot has been sealed to all bar the Princesses and Royal Guard; it is home to some of Equestria’s most dangerous or valuable treasures, such as the remains of the Nightmare Moon incident.

Fate is a tricky mistress; especially so when magic is involved, and now only a short time after the ascension of Twilight Sparkle a new trouble rears its head in Canterlot Castle, right in the bosom of its most secure facility. It’ll prove to be a political nightmare for the Princesses, especially shortly after Twilight Sparkle’s inauguration.

We follow in the hoofsteps of this… new bundle of fun.

Published 2014-01-17 15:30:05 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-09 15:58:29 UTC

Vault Dweller

Author's Note

This story is being written with the general knowledge of the MLP canon that I have used for all other stories I write and my personal opinion that the comics are non-canon. I know they’re supposed to be, but I have not read them and, as such, will not take into account things that others will. In this case in particular, Nightmare Rarity or anything that might have to revolve around the Nightmare character/entity.

You can all go about complaining about my lack of updates for other stories in the comments if you want; I'll still defend myself, but this is yet another brainbaby that has refused to go away and as such I'll be updating it SPORADICALLY, I.E. whenever the hell I feel like it. Yes, more of my other stories is on the way, I got distracted with a stupid idea and here's the start of it.

Anyway; on with the show!

Vault Dweller

It had been a long time coming - the ascension of Twilight Sparkle into an Alicorn; it was everything that Princess Celestia had been working towards with her young charge since the day she had picked her up as her personal pupil. The day she saw Twilight within the aether, her heart soared and she flew with all due haste to Ponyville to be there when she returned.

Despite all the trials and tribulations, and of course the return of Discord, it had all been worth the effort.

Though she was still regretting letting Discord return, her favourite lounge was still filled with his magic and thusly ignoring the laws of physics, most notably gravity.

The magical shockwave of her ascension, the effects of which were felt across the whole of Equestria, set off wards within the Canterlot Castle that hadn’t been set off in decades - not since Cadance’s own ascension as a young filly. Her coronation as a princess had been somewhat muted due to her age and the circumstances of both her ascension and cutie mark. It had pained Celestia to see Cadance so distraught over what had happened to her parents, she didn’t really want to put Cadance through all the toil of a massive and public media frenzy which would most assuredly only damage her mentally. This day however was a time for great celebration and rejoice, and she would be damned before letting anything ruin it for her most prized pupil.

And for once something grand that Celestia planned, the coronation celebration itself, went off without a hitch. Twilight had been an emotional wreck the next day and the solar Princess had discovered her shivering beneath her bed, but with a little coercion (read: magical marehandling) she had managed to get her out from beneath the bed and where she could comfort her. Stress had done its toll on the mare, but she’d eventually calmed down enough to get some sleep.

Of course, a story couldn’t be written about events that went without some… additional circumstances. Even the assault on Canterlot by the Changelings had spread new stories across Equestria, namely discoveries of spouses or family secretly being a member of this elusive species. For this story, we dive deep within Canterlot Mountain, down within the very bowels of the castle where even the Guard rarely venture. This story begins down in the darkness of Canterlot Castle’s most secure passageways, within the Great Royal Vault in which the Diarchs housed not only their funds but their collection of rare and potentially dangerous magical artefacts. Naught but the Guard and Princesses are allowed down here, and the sphinx mates at the doors ensure the security of the vault by way of monthly passwords disguised as riddles.

The walls and floors of these chambers are magically sealed. Made of a naturally solid marble, the vault itself had been carved out by Celestia with her own magic, and the stone walls, floors and ceilings were solid stone blocks enchanted with reinforcing spells to make them nigh impregnable.

Here, within the vault’s near-impenetrable walls, we can see the array of curios on display; off to one side within a glass case is held the cursed skull of a Hollow One, a creature from the frozen north that drained the souls of ponies until Celestia had stepped in and put an end to its reign of terror. Nearby is a poleaxe, enchanted to be capable of cutting through magical barriers no matter how strong. It had been used by the dark king himself, King Sombra, against Princesses Celestia and Luna in his original struggle to fight off the powerful Alicorn sisters at the Crystal Empire.

While something like that one would expect to be hidden away from the hooves of those who might abuse them, some things down here are hidden for a more… selective reason. Artefacts that the sisters wanted kept under lock and key to protect not only themselves, but Equestria as well from their potential uses.

Near the back of this enormous vault, a series of artefacts identified only as ‘Remnants’ reside within glass display cases of their own. Few know they even exist – in fact, only Princess Celestia and Luna know of their current home within the vault. Even the sphinx guardians did not know they were here as they had all been brought in within a sealed case. Some are frankly mundane; a set of pearly white feathers within a large case, spread out in their place like they were still on their parent wings, alongside a case housing a set of dark blue feathers in the same fashion- the first moulted feathers of the diarchs.

Others are a little more… exotic. Within a case nearby, what can only be described as a hooffull of metal scraps sat on a silken pillow.

They are all that remains of the Nightmare.

The Elements of Harmony, while a powerful magical phenomena in their own right and a powerful weapon for good, cannot be used to kill, no matter how harmonious it may seem to be to do so at times. These shards contain all that remains of the once powerful and hateful alter-ego of Princess Luna’s darkest past. They hold little more than presence and potential, magic stripped away from the powerful Alicorn witch along with her control over the fair Princess’ mind and body.

No memories remain within the shards; no mind within the artefacts to hold onto the past that haunts Princess Luna on cold and lonely nights. The powerful magic contained still held some fragment of understanding though, knowledge about the world around them such as language, mathematics, and time. They had sat here, unmoved and uncared for, for almost three years and the presence within had long since lost all but the faintest semblance of self. A light coat of dust upon the top of the glass case attested to their neglect.

The pulse of magic that exploded from Ponyville stormed through Canterlot Castle like a white-hot knife through already soft butter, ignoring walls and doors and reaching down into the depths of the castle’s deepest, darkest dungeon. Surging through the vaulted room, the magic slammed into the assorted fragments of armour and collected. The shards evaporated into a fine mist, swirling within the display case as more and more magic, later to be positively identified as the same magic of harmony that the Elements of Harmony control, collected. Denser and denser, pushing together into a glowing sphere, the magic continued to concentrate for almost ten whole minutes until, with a magical shockwave of its own and an audible peal of thunder in the air, the magic halted and ceased to glow.

Within the case, a figure stirred.

It struggled to sit up, wings shifting upon its back as it fought for balance. A pair of teal eyes with dragon-like dagger shaped pupils opened and looked out beyond the glass in which it was entombed, confusedly taking in the world around it. It shifted its weight in an attempt to get more comfortable, only for the pedestal and case to overbalance and topple –to the surprise of the pony within- and smash upon the floor, covering the dusty royal red carpet and pony in shattered glass. She shifted her legs, managing to rise to her hooves and shake the glass shards from her coat. With a hiss she leaned her head down and grasped a shard which had buried into her right foreleg with her teeth, pulling it out and spitting it onto the floor where it fractured further but otherwise found home amongst its brethren.

She looked about the cavernous room, looking for some sign of life; surely somepony, anypony would be here somewhere…? When her search turned up fruitless, she sighed and began to hobble around, trying to get her bearings on where she was. The room was large; the only soft objects around her were the royal red carpet on the flagstone floor and the banners hanging from the walls which portrayed a crest she didn’t recognize. Being less than an hour old, she honestly couldn’t recognize anything around her beyond what they were. Weapons here, a couple of cases of feathers there… none of it was familiar.

She found a reflective platinum platter in one corner hidden behind a display pedestal, and after she dragged it out and leaned it against a wall she looked distantly at the mare which only looked back at her. Her coat was a solid and shiny midnight blue, as were the feathers on her wings and the velvet on her horn. Her mane and tail were a blue that matched her coat with a thick white strip on her right side which luminesced faintly. Her right hoof lifted and pressed against the platinum face.

“Who… are you..?”

*

“Who… are you…?” I asked my own reflection, staring at the pony I honestly didn’t know within the platinum.

My mind, even though only a few minutes old, raced through questions I held no answers for. ‘Who am I?’ ‘Where am I?’ ‘Why am I here?’ were but a few of the questions that I was asking myself. With no answers to my questions, I sighed and let my hoof fall limply to the floor. No point in attempting to force an answer from my own reflection, after all; what could it possibly say? ‘Hi, I’m you and I love you!’

Oh I hope I’m not talking to myself; I’ve only been alive a few minutes and already I don’t want to go nuttier than a candy bar.

My eyes fixed on the red oozing hoof-print upon the metal. My breathing stuck as I came to the realization of what this was exactly, and I looked about the room worriedly before I hurriedly hobbled over to a banner hanging from the wall nearby, one of many such banners lining the walls. It seemed a shame to have to do this to something which looked so pretty, but I sort of didn’t want to bleed to death.

I grabbed it with my teeth and jerked it down from the wall. Once I had it on the ground, I pressed my good hoof against it and used my teeth to tear it into a wide strip. I sat back a little bit from the ruined banner and haphazardly wrapped the strip of fabric I had around the wound on my leg where I had pulled the shard of glass out.

By the air I breathe did it hurt…

With a final painful tug, I tightened the fabric on my leg and groaned. I looked down at my hoofwork, figuring that the makeshift bandage would have to do. I placed my hoof back against the banner I had taken down and tugged another strip free and used it to clean the platinum platter to the best of my ability, leaving it faintly blood-streaked. I just didn’t feel right leaving it with a large splotch in the corner, but now it looked like I’d dragged it through the blood on my leg.

After leaving the rag I used to clean the platter on the floor next to the otherwise priceless article, I returned to exploring the halls around me. In my exploration I found numerous objects, some of which I recoiled from. Something about them just felt… wrong; as if they were a spot of mould in the bowl of fresh fruit that was the world around me. After what must have been an hour, I discovered and considered the enormous mound of coins I found within a room of their own.

‘Bits…’ a small voice in my head informed me in but a whisper. Is that what these are? Bits? Currency? There were thousands of them, mostly gold ones though there were many silver-looking coins as well. Somewhere in the back of my head I registered that the silvery Bits, made of purest platinum, were worth a thousand of the golden ones. Also scattered about the pile were gemstones, some of which were as large as my own head. ‘Where in the world am I?’ Was the general thought running through my mind.

I sighed and turned back to the main room and gave a cursory glance at the room around me, primarily at the… furniture that I would be sharing the floor space with. Pedestals with glass cases, in which I’d seen a whole array of things -some of which made my skin crawl; they were scattered about the room higgledy-piggledy, most of them close to a strange object covering one wall which I somehow recognized as the inside of a vault door. It was as if whoever had brought these objects in had wanted to get them into the room and leave in as little time and with as little care as to where they were put as possible.

This had made it hard for me to move around the room, as the haphazard placing of everything had made the vault maze-like in floor layout. I’d stopped to catch one or two things before they had toppled during my initial exploration even.

‘Well,’ I thought, ‘if this is where I am to stay, I suppose I might as well make it more… tidy.’

With a determined pace, I set about moving the pedestals about the room, stopping only when I became too tired to stay awake and returning to the platter to sleep upon what remained of the banner I had torn down, folding it up to make the stone floor beneath myself a little more comfortable.

Upon waking some hours later, I returned to what I had been doing, totally unaware of the time of day or events beyond the walls of my home. Eventually I discovered a room in which I could find water and a functioning toilet – possibly installed into the vault just in case anypony did happen to get locked in, and I became quite thankful for both. Moving all of these things about was heavy and thirsty work, and I did find use for the toilet as my body demanded… things of me. One demand from my body, however, went without cure; hunger.

Still, after my third sleep, I managed to finish moving everything about and I looked proudly at the neat room around me. There had been room for everything to be neatly placed against the walls – though the objects that made me feel really uncomfortable being placed as far away from where I would sleep as possible. The shards of glass and broken pedestal from where I had first… emerged had been sorted away into the room where the toilet and faucet were. Now the pedestal held up the platter I was using as a mirror so I could look at myself, though for what purpose I was unsure. It had just… felt right.

With little else to do, I moved my attention to the room full of Bits and eyed the veritable mountain of coinage with a wary eye before sitting and beginning to count them, stacking the coins neatly in a corner. When a stack became too tall for me to reach the top, I would begin a new one alongside it.

I wasn’t sure how long I had been down here, but I grew weaker with each sleep cycle I went through and my right leg, once only painful to use, was now torture to me even when I awoke and did nothing with it. My wings, after I’d learned how to use them, now carried me to and from the great hall of Bits that kept me both sane and busy. I was almost finished sorting them, down to what appeared to be the last hundred thousand, and I wanted oh so eagerly to finish my task; something I could be proud of. Gems were sorted along a wall opposite the Bits, by both colour and size, and one gemstone had taken up a grand place in the centre of the room, a ruby that was as large as my whole body! It had been a struggle, but I had managed to get the massive, heavy stone into position before retiring one… hour.

I had also claimed a name to call myself after a strange picture appeared on my flanks, a trio of coin stacks atop a book. I had taken to calling myself Coin Counter, though usually just referred to myself as ‘Coin’ whenever I mumbled to myself as I counted. I had found a book deep within the pile of coins which was titled ‘ledger’. Figuring that this was where the amount of coins within this room was recorded, I found a blank page and began to record the amounts I counted each day. Once I was done, I figured I could add them all together and find out what was here.

An hour later and with a satisfied grin, I had finally finished sorting the Bits into piles; Golden Bits were stacked one-thousand tall, and the platinum ‘Centurions’ as I was calling them were stacked only one-hundred high. Still, with over five million Bits in total worth counted, stacked, and recorded, I felt that I had done something worth a damn; something that I doubt many others would even consider doing. I flew tiredly to the room in which the toilet and faucet were situated, landing heavily and weakly on my three good hooves and turned the faucet on, moving my face in to take a good, long drink-

Clunk!

I hesitated; I’d never heard that sound before and having spent all this time down here in this… place, I was certain I’d heard all of the odd thuds and clicks that the room would offer. I shrugged and returned to my drink, figuring it to simply be the stone from which my tomb was hewn shifting. That certainly wasn’t enough to stop me from drinking enough cool and crystal clear water to fill my painfully empty tummy. This had worked a couple of times to quiet the groans that would make my stomach hurt as it demanded something more.

Then, to my ears came the click-clicking of hoof steps against the stone floors and a pair of voices…

“… I’m surprised you waited this long to ask, Rarity; I would have thought that you would have wanted to make gowns for Princesses Celestia and Luna years ago.” One said with a touch of amusement to her tone.

“I have, darling; I’ve always dreamed of designing something for them but, well… One does not simply up and ask for a Princesses’ dress size. With the Gala coming up, I just assumed that they might like something new and fabulous to wear to it.” She seemed to pause, possibly to beam with glee at her companion. “It’s a designer’s dream to-“

She was cut off by the other mare hissing a quick shush. The sound of their hooves against the stone stopped, and I strained to listen.

“Do you hear that?” The first mare asked, “It sounds like running water?”

I jolted and quickly turned the faucet off and closed the door, hoping to be quiet so that these strangers would leave me be. Unfortunately, the faucet made a rather loud squeak as it was turned, and I worriedly held my breath.

‘Oh please don’t have-‘

“I know I heard that! Come on, Rarity, let’s see what that was.”

The other mare, evidently called Rarity, protested with a whiny tone. “But Twilight~ what about-“

“That can wait, come on; if there’s an intruder in the Royal Vault then we need to find them!” The first mare, seemingly called Twilight, said firmly. “Mind you, it’s certainly neater in here than I’ve ever seen; I wonder if the Princesses had somepony rearrange everything?”

“Twilight look, one of the banners is down.” The voice of ‘Rarity’ said. “There’s a shred of it over here covered in, ugh, dry blood.” It was at this point that she could be heard sniffing the air. “It certainly smells like somepony has been living here, ugh!”

I cursed my lack of foresight into using the faucet to attempt to clean myself; the water could at least be used with the aforementioned bloodied rag, after vigorously cleaning it out of course, to clean the sweat and dust from my coat. Of course my scent and body odours would have lingered. What, was I thinking that I was the only pony in the world?

“I think I’ve found the rest of the banner over here, Rarity.” ‘Twilight’ said, startlingly close to the little room in which I was currently shivering with fright, huddled near the door. “It looks like somepony has been sleeping on it.” The sound of the hooves belonging to the second mare moved towards the door behind which I was hiding.

“I wonder, what’s in here…?”

As soon as the door opened, I leapt into the air and bolted past the stunned mare, trying desperately to get away. I didn’t get far, however, as the other mare leapt upon me and tackled me to the stone ground, holding my forelegs down and with me on my back with my wings splayed.

Not that I took much note of this, mind; something far more important was on my mind.

“Gotcha! Who-“

I didn’t hear the rest of this purple pony talk over my own scream of pain; this crazy yet impressively strong mare had slammed me onto my back and forced her own hooves onto my forelegs with impressive speed and force, and currently the one holding my right foreleg was pressing down on my wound. I struggled to free the limb, or to at least get her to shift her weight down below the injury on my forearm. After a moment or so, the white unicorn by the door moved over and hurriedly pushed her companion from atop me. Now that I could move, I curled up and cried, holding my battered foreleg protectively as I wept out of both fear and pain.

“Twilight,” the white unicorn hissed, “get some guards and a doctor, this is most assuredly not normal.” She looked down at my huddled body, shuddering at what she saw for reasons beyond my current level of understanding or care and adding, “Get a brush too.”

The purple mare, evidently Twilight, nodded and hurried off out of the vault while the white mare who I could only guess was Rarity eyed me curiously. Not that I could really see her; I was far too busy crying in agony to notice much other than their voices and names. I couldn’t remember it hurting this much when I first got the injury…

‘Oh dear…’

Soon enough Twilight returned with a group of guards and two ponies in white clothes, probably medical ponies. The guards stood back, forming a circle around me while the doctors nudged me to uncurl. I was unsure why four guards would be required to secure a single, unarmed, and all but incapacitated mare, but other matters were keeping me from voicing my question. One of the doctors, a male, spoke reassuringly.

“Miss, I am Doctor Steady, I’m going to need you to lie back for me; can you do that? I can’t help unless I know what’s wrong.”

Reluctantly I complied, uncurling from the foetal position and laying back with tears streaming down my cheeks and my wings splayed out beneath me. The second pony in white, a mare with silver fur and a pale blue mane and tail motioned to the fabric wrapped around my arm, something that I had all but forgotten about.

“I’m going to remove this, alright?”

“Get some solution ready in case it’s been sealed to her.” Doctor Steady said, to which the mare nodded and took a large container of water, putting it beside me. I could feel the warmth of the fluid bleeding through the air and my fur into my face faintly.

The horn atop the mare’s head glittered, and the fabric that was wrapped around my wound began to unwind itself. It stopped, however, when it was down to the last layer and something tugged, causing me to gasp in pain when it found resistance. Oh gods it hurt, what in the name of currency was she doing to me?

The mare’s magic uncapped the container of water and gently tipped some onto the wrapping. I was surprised at how warm it was, but I only just barely registered that it was warm through the pain that I still felt. For a moment, the glitter of the mare’s magic seemed to do nothing, focusing only on the fabric around my leg, just where my own attention happened to be.

“Is anypony here weak of stomach or of a nervous disposition?” She asked loudly. The room chorused no except for the mare that seemed to be called Rarity, who nodded. “Then I suggest you leave; this will probably not be pretty to see, nor smell.”

Rarity complied, and the mare gently removed the remainder of my makeshift bandage. Doctor Steady took a look at the wound, and so did I.

It was not pretty.

What had started out as a deep cut was, well, going a rather unappealing mix of black, purple, white, yellow, and red. Lots of red, and oh god did it smell weird. It smelled like nuts and rot. What the hay had I done to myself!?

“We’re going to need to move her; Princess Sparkle, we need to get her to the infirmary, I cannot treat this here, and we’ll need to take a blood sample.” Doctor Steady said.

Behind his voice I could hear the nurse mumble to herself, “I treated the guard after the invasion, nothing was like this.”

“Of course;” the purple pony that I was guessing was Twilight replied before turning to the guards, “you can meet us there, someone inform Princesses Celestia and Luna. I want four guards at the door to the vault; if Princesses Celestia or Luna arrives to investigate, let them in provided that Clue and Query pass them; that will be all.”

With that her horn shone brightly the world around me warped, stretching to an impossible horizon before snapping back into focus in a new location. Now we were in what I could only identify as a medical ward, and I was marehandled up onto a reasonably soft surface before another mare held her horn over my face.

“Don’t be afraid miss, we’ve got to put you under for a little while but you’ll be okay; I’ll be right here with you, I promise. What’s your name?”

Even through my pain I somehow managed to reply, though I recall gritting my teeth and growling my name back at her. “C-Coin Counter.”

“Alright, Miss Coin, you’ll be alright, I promise I’ll be by your side the whole time in case you wake up during the procedures, okay? Now, just relax.”

I nodded dumbly as the magic from her horn flickered around me, and soon my eyes drifted shut listening to the medical personnel talking about something called amputation.

It sounded terrifying.

Recovery

I felt the world come back to me, feeling either a million percent better or the continued effects of some sort of anti-pain magic. Possibly both, though I was greatly hoping that I’d been healed. I groaned and shifted in the bed, feeling an urge to get up and sort through the coins within the halls but quickly remembering that I had finished this task already. I could hear hoofsteps outside the room in which I was lying, followed soon after by voices.

“Doctor,” One, a female with a motherly sounding voice started, “what can you tell us?”

The voice of the doctor who had spoken to me in the vault replied, “She had, has, a wound on her right foreleg, right down to her radius and nicking the bone, which had become infected and gangrenous and had begun to develop necrosis. Thankfully we didn’t have to perform any major debridement, though some was performed, as magic and antibiotics seem to be enough to fight the infection and necrotic spread. She’s lucky, though; had she been any other breed the infection would have been far worse, possibly to the point of amputation. We’ve sewn the wound closed and she appears to be responding well.

“From what we can tell, other than that injury and her malnutrition, she seems to be in perfectly good health for an Alicorn of her size. She probably picked the infection up from the banner she tore down, and up, to use as a bandage; it was dusty and old. She probably never even thought to remove and clean it either, given her cleanliness when she arrived. It’s also a good thing that the pipes for the bathroom in the Vault were not rusty or she might have picked something up from there.”

My mind tried to comprehend this. Infection from my makeshift bandage..? That actually sounded plausible, as I had no idea how long it had been hanging there undisturbed. My brain latched to the word ‘debridement’ for a little bit; I had no idea what this was, but it sounded unpleasant.

And what the hay is an Alicorn?

“She’s an Alicorn?” A second female asked.

The first female voice was quieter for her next words, but I could barely make them out. “I thought she might be…”

“’Thought’..? Sister, are you keeping things from us again?”

The first female replied with a disarming tone, “I’ll tell you when she wakes, until then it’s a non-issue I assure you.” I realized that they did not actually know that I was awake yet, and probably didn't think I could hear them.

“She’s probably awake now; the medication we were using to keep her under has likely worn off by now.” Doctor Steady stated. “If you’d like, I could introduce you, your majesties?”

There was a mutual affirmative from the two voices and, after a polite knock, the door was opened to allow both the doctor and they into the room. I looked up at my visitors quizzically as they approached the bed.

“Why does she shiver so?” Luna asked Doctor Steady in a whisper which I managed to overhear, actually becoming aware of my involuntary shivering.

“Her body is fighting off a blood infection, sepsis, from the gangrene she had. Her body had scabbed off the gangrenous tissue, but when Princess Sparkle tackled and attempted to physically restrain her, she unfortunately introduced the infection to her bloodstream. She’s on high-performance antibiotics and antivirals, not to mention a few powerful healing and curing spells. She should be alright within a few days.” He hissed back before stepping over to my bed. “Miss Coin? These are Princesses Celestia and her sister Luna; they’re our country’s rulers. Princesses, this is Miss Coin.” He said, waving a hoof at the princesses in turn as he spoke. He offered me a reassuring smile before moving to the door behind the Princesses. “I’ll let you talk in private.”

The two females of… rather impressive stature waited for the door to click shut before approaching the bed, each of them gazing down at me with what appeared to be genuine curiosity and concern. I only peeped back at them as if they were monsters. Something about them, especially the white one, made my fur stand on end.

Unfortunately, she was the one who spoke first. “Greetings, Miss Coin; as Doctor Steady has already stated I am Princess Celestia. My sister, Princess Luna, and I were alerted to your presence just after you arrived here in the medical wing. Please, tell me, how did you get into the vault?”

I whimpered as I shuddered, shaking my head before giving a mumbled reply, “I don’t know; I woke up there.”

“Do you happen to know what time or day?” Celestia asked, to which I shook my head again. Sadly she asked, “Do you know where you came from?”

I dwelled on her question, raking my own head for the answer to a question I had asked myself many times during my stint down in the vault. “… No.” I replied.

Celestia sighed. “I believe I do.” She said, before nudging her sister from her stunned stare. I was rather thankful for this, as she was making me somewhat self-conscious.

Why did she stare at me as if she’d never seen another living pony before?

“Once upon a time there was a vicious and cruel mare known as Nightmare Moon. After a battle that destroyed an entire city and caused entire swathes of the countryside to become uninhabitable, I banished her to the moon for a thousand years. Recently she returned and, after being struck by the power of the Elements of Harmony, she was turned back into the mare she was before the Nightmare took hold of her mind.

“Because the Elements of Harmony cannot destroy, they could not kill the evil that was Nightmare Moon, instead separating her power and negative emotions, the very living essence of Nightmare Moon, from the mare that she inhabited and sealed them into shards of armour that she had worn. We captured these shards and placed them within the Royal Vault within the castle. When we searched through the vault and checked each item off on our list we found a few things;

“Firstly we found that the artefacts within the vault had been neatly rearranged about the halls, something I’ve been meaning to have done for a while. Secondly we found one of the podiums within the washroom with our oldest platinum platter upon it, streaked with blood; this has been dutifully cleaned by our housekeep thankfully, that platter is over two thousand years old after all. Thirdly we discovered that the Bits within the vault had been stacked neatly opposite the gemstones from within the same vault; I assume that this was your handiwork?”

I nodded nervously, these ponies worked fast. Either that or I had been asleep longer than I thought I had. “Y-yes…”

Celestia nodded. “Finally, we discovered that the shards are missing.” She stated flatly. “While normally this would be a cause for great alarm, I believe that I already know where they are,” she lifted a hoof and placed it on my shoulder, “they’re right here.”

“Sister, are you saying that she has them on her pony somewhere?” Luna asked sharply, “Where on Equestria would she hide them?”

Celestia only smiled back at Luna. “No, no, Miss Coin does not have the shards; she is the shards. Sister, surely you would have sensed their presence if she had them, that much magic is easy to detect even to foals, and I know that you have noticed her eyes.”

Luna stared at her sister with wide eyes and her jaw hung. “Sister, you mean to tell us that she is that witch!?” She almost shouted her words, turning an angry and accusing glare on me to which I shrunk down into the covers. This… Luna was good at angry.

Celestia draped a wing over her sister’s back to calm her. “Luna, you know that is impossible; Nightmare Moon was but a figment of your imagination gone wild, an imaginary friend who took control. Without your mind to reside within, Nightmare Moon all but died. All that remained within those shards of mithril was power and potential. I told you as much when we discussed their entombment within the vault.” She sighed heavily and looked back down at me. “Now we need to figure out what to do with her.”

She seemed to relent, her stance shrinking a little to be less threatening and a sheepish look spread across her face. I was thankful for the change, at least a little bit, and withdrew from my blankets a little.

“I… I’m a problem..?” I asked nervously. Truth be told, I had a million questions I wanted to ask, but this one was somewhat pressing on my mind. “I don’t… I don’t want to be banished to the moon, whatever that is! Please, I’ll go back to the vault and never leave! I’ll hide better this time; nopony will know I’m there!”

“You cannot stay within the vault indefinitely, Miss Coin,” Celestia said calmly, “you were already starting to atrophy from malnutrition, literally wasting away. If you hadn’t been discovered when you were, the doctors have said that you would probably have only lasted another day before starvation began to deteriorate your internal organs. Your body is being drip-fed nutrients until you’re able to eat actual food which may not be for another day for how low your nutrition became. At the moment we are unsure what to do with you. Tell me, do you remember anything before waking up in the vault?”

I shook my head, of course I couldn’t remember anything before the vault; I’d been there for, well, my whole life!

“I wasn’t sure there was anything beyond the vault to be honest…” I mumbled. “I thought it was simply abandoned and forgotten, unknown to anypony, or perhaps those that did know just didn’t care, or even that it was the only thing in the whole world.” I chuckled sarcastically for a moment. “If it weren’t for those mares, I’d probably have lived and died as an unknown within its walls, never having tried to leave.”

“Probably just as well,” Luna said bluntly, “if you’d managed to exit the vault, Clue and Query would likely have ripped you to shreds.”

“Lulu!” Celestia snapped at her sister in a reprimanding tone.

Luna shrugged. “What? ‘Tis true.”

“You know what to not say, Lulu.”

My eyes flicked between the two mares, eyeing their little spat as if it were a strange and rare formation of crystal. “Who are Clue and Query..?”

“Clue and Query are the Sphinx mates who have been entrusted with guarding the entrance to the Royal Vault. In turn we provide them with a place to live away from the less than friendly home of their kin.” Luna said blankly. “For some reason they see being allied to two of the most powerful beings on the planet reprehensible to the point of wanting them dead. Frankly they’re the best guardians we’ve had for the Vault and they are unlikely to be replaced any time soon.”

I blinked at the freely provided information, digesting it before shifting in the bed. Even though I was here being more or less interviewed by these two mares, I still felt an urge to return to the Vault. As I thought to myself, the princesses returned to bickering amongst themselves in a most… un-princess-like way, though I’d managed to tune them out.

“What am I going to do now..?” I wondered aloud while the two princesses argued between one another over who had said something inappropriate. The pair stopped bickering and gave me a curious look.

“How do you mean?” Celestia asked.

“I already finished counting and stacking the coinage in the Vault, all five million, two hundred and fifty seven thousand of them. I… didn’t really have anything planned after that when I was in there, and now that I’m out and know just how much is out there, I… I’m a bit daunted in coming up with anything.” I laughed a mirthless little laugh for a moment. “Maybe I should have counted them slower.”

“I’m certain that we can figure something out.” Celestia assured calmly. “It might be fortuitous that you happened to be discovered when you did; our old treasurer, Sure Bet, has grown somewhat… lax as his years have advanced.”

“He lost the ledger the week after we returned, creating a recession in three towns and a financial crisis in Canterlot which has yet to be resolved.” Luna hissed sidelong. “If not for your support of him, sister, we would have replaced then and there. His bumbling has left swathes of Equestria in debt.”

“I know, sister, I know. I have seen the slums. With the Royal Fund unknown for so long, I too am impressed that we have managed to stay as prosperous a nation as we have. If not for the fact that our gemstone quarries are kept as abundant as they are through magic, the whole of Equestria could have been ruined.”

“Yes, well, you should find it fortunate that we were the one who handled those funds and not Sure Bet. Keeping them separate from the Royal Fund is what ensured we had anything to spend publically at all.”

“Miss Coin,” Celestia announced rather forcefully, as if using her voice to move stone, “tell me, would you feel confident in your ability to manage the vault’s funds?”

I blinked up at her. “… How do you mean? What’s involved?”

She lifted a hoof and waved it a little nonchalantly. “It will mostly involve keeping record of what goes in and comes out of the vault, informing the senate, myself, and my sister of goings on such as excess spending, surplus, or potential abuse of Equestrian funds. In turn, you will be kept informed on public projects which require funding, and taught those who are and are not allowed access to the account. We will also be responsible for providing you with living arrangements, your own income, and other benefits.

“On top of this, we will be providing extra educational services to you, due to your… circumstances. These will include history, economics, social interaction, possibly language depending on your reading and writing abilities, and of course advanced mathematics. Because of your species, you will also be given magic tutoring and some flight lessons.”

Again I blinked, before looking back at my wings and shifting them about. “But I already know how to fly. It was my only reliable way to move around the Vault after I couldn’t put weight on my leg.”

“Flying within the Vault is different to flight outside. Within the Vault the air is calm and still, giving you complete control. Outside there are currents, eddies, thermal updrafts, all of which must be managed if you wish to fly effectively, particularly within city limits.” Luna said in an oddly authoritative way. “While many of these things are best learned with experience, you will not know about them unless you are taught.” She turned her otherwise steely gaze away from me and onto her sister. “Who did you have in mind?”

Celestia hummed to herself thoughtfully. “I am sure I can manage to persuade one of the Wonderbolts to tutor; though if not, I suppose that Twilight’s friend, Rainbow Dash, could provide the assistance we require.” She gave a pleased smile at her sister. “As for magic tutoring-“

“We suppose we’ll have to take her ‘under our wing,’ as you say.” Luna said; puffing up her chest as if she’d won a medal.

Celestia and I blinked at her sister incredulously. “Luna, are you certain you want to take a pupil into your tutelage? It’s a lot of work, and I know how much the Nobles harangue you...”

“If Miss Coin’s origins are as you say, her magic is under our domain. While we know that your knowledge into the uses of Night Magic have been extended since our… departure, she would benefit better from somepony who has mastered its use, no?” She then gave a dismissive snort. “And we know the Nobles think we are a weak ruler due to our short time returned to the throne; we shall see how weak they think us when they are enjoying a humility lesson from the recycling plant.”

As the sisters began a new debate between the pair of themselves, a feeling that I was used to feeling on occasion made itself known and I began to fidget in the bed to try and hold it off. The elder, Celestia, seemed to notice my discomfort and took a brief pause in the argument to speak to me.

“Miss Coin, are you alright?”

Nervously I blushed and shook my head. “I… oh, this is embarrassing… I need the bathroom.” I said sheepishly, still fidgeting uncomfortably.

Celestia nodded and turned her head to the door with a smile. Her horn gave a short burst of golden magic as she opened the door and let the doctor back in to see me; he seemed surprised that she knew he was still there.

“Doctor Steady, I believe you’ll be needed in here with a nurse. My sister and I shall see ourselves out to further discuss your patient in private.” Her soft gaze then returned to me and she dipped her head faintly with a smile. “Rest well, Coin Counter; we shall see you again soon.” And with that she turned and left.

Princess Luna dipped her head to me before following her sister out into the corridor beyond my room, allowing Doctor Steady and a nurse to enter.

“What seems to be the trouble miss?” Steady asked patiently.

With a blush I replied. “I… I need the bathroom.”

He gave me a warm smile and a silent nod. “Of course, miss. Nurse Wildheart, if you could?”

“Of course doctor.” The mint green, chocolate-maned mare with a small white nurse cap atop her brow replied before moving over to the bed and placing one of her hooves on my left shoulder and another on my forearm.

“We’re going to help you out of bed, and then Nurse Wildheart is going to slowly walk you to the bathroom, alright? You cannot use your right foreleg until the injury has healed, so for now we’re going to help you to walk without putting any weight on it.”

“I could fly to the bathroom and spare my legs altogether?” I mumbled, giving my wings a stretch as they lifted me to a sitting position before folding them back at my sides. To be honest, if they’d simply told me where the bathroom was, I’d have flown there in a heartbeat; I suppose they’re meant to be following their procedures or some such, but I still found it tedious.

“I suppose you can on future trips, but for this first trip we’d like to walk you there. It’s only across the room, so you’ve not far to go.” Steady said before shooting his attention across the bed at Nurse Wildheart. “Ready, Nurse? She’s going to be dismounting the bed on that side with her drip, alright? On three; one, two, three!”

I shifted my weight as they moved me around the bed, being caught by the nurse as I almost slid out of the bed and onto the linoleum floor. With skilled hooves she managed to marehandle me back onto using the bed to prop myself up until I could get my left forehoof onto the floor to hold myself up. I found that I was surprised at how little strength my legs had.

It was a struggle to stand, and I found myself leaning into the Nurse’s strong figure to keep myself upright. Had I always been this weak, or was this something else?

“Why… why do I feel so weak? There’s nothing wrong with the rest of my legs..?” I asked across at the doctor.

He moved around the bed and grabbed the drip stand, pulling it along to stand beside the nurse and me. “There’s no physical damage to your other legs, but your whole body is fighting off an infection and you feel weaker as a result. If at any point you feel woozy, let us know; this includes when we are not in the room with you. There’s a call nurse button alongside the bed, and there is also a bowl on the bedside cabinet in case we do not get here on time. You’ll need that in the coming days, I’m sure; your body is also fighting to cope with the influx of nutrients that we’ve got you on, and you’re likely to purge them once or twice in the next week.”

I nodded in understanding; the last thing I wanted to do was, well, throw up on myself. Hopefully I’d be able to avoid such an… unpleasant situation. It was nice to know that they’d seen this coming and had prepared for me. For now I simply nodded and let the pair walk me across the room to the en-suite bathroom. With a burst of magic from the doctor’s horn, the bathroom door opened to allow me entrance. The nurse took the drip stand from Doctor and wheeled it in alongside me. She helped me sit before dipping her head politely and stepping out.

The bathroom was fully furnished with everything I’d known from the Vault; a toilet and a sink nearby. A large porcelain, uh, thing sat off on one side of the room, and a small part of my mind told me that this was a bathtub. This one seemed to come with a hose shower head and wall-mounted soap dispenser. It appeared… larger than the thoughts in my head told me it needed to be as well. I supposed it was just a perk of being under the care of the princesses orders.

“When you are done, we’ll see about giving you a bath. Press the Call Nurse button beside your bed when you’re ready, alright?” Nurse Wildheart said with a calm and understanding tone.

I gave her a nod and she smiled and closed the door behind her to give me some privacy.

*

After finishing my, err, business, I limped out of the bathroom and over to the bed, using the drip stand to prop myself up as I hobbled about the room. Figuring they’d take a little while to get to my room, I returned to the bathroom and sat beside the pearly white tub after pressing the button to call the nurses back. I heard the nurses enter my room and search for me before one of the pair, Nurse Wildheart, found me waiting in the bathroom. She took a moment to call her co-worker in, another mare with a cap atop her head, though was not a nurse’s. Her coat was a pale blue with her mane and tail being dual coloured of an almost silvery blue and another blue hue that was slightly lighter than her coat.

Wordlessly Nurse Wildheart stepped over to me and flicked the tub’s faucets on before she beckoned the other mare over.

“Alright, Miss Coin, this is one of our intern orderlies, we’re a little short-hooved for this task at the moment so we’ve had to make do, is this alright?”

I nodded wordlessly and gave what I hoped was a trusting smile. In turn, she smiled warmly back and held a hoof out to the orderly. I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. It took two ponies to get a third clean?

“This is Miss Trixie Lulamoon; she’ll be helping me give you a bath. I understand it may be strange to have others bathe you, but it is all part of the procedures for care that the Princesses have you under. Miss Lulamoon will be assisting me in place of another nurse as we cannot allow for a male nurse to assist in the bathing of a mare.” She paused as her magic flicked off the faucets. “I need to warn you that this may be more… invasive, than you may feel comfortable. Please feel free to speak up when you feel uncomfortable, alright?”

Again I nodded, not quite sure how she meant that it would be uncomfortable, and she looked over at the orderly. Trixie, was it?

“Miss Lulamoon, do you have any questions about this procedure?” Wildheart asked.

She shook her head. “It seems simple enough to Tri- to me.” She replied, cutting herself off as she spoke.

“You’re doing better with that, by the way; you catch yourself now.” Wildheart said warmly. “Alright, before we get her into the water we need to remove her bandages and give her a local anaesthetic for her leg. You get started with her bandages and I’ll just measure up the dose.”

Trixie nodded before stepping closer, her horn lighting up and her pale blue magic surrounding the gauze on my right foreleg. After a few tentative moments, including one where I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the pain I had felt when my wound had first been unwrapped, the bandages were removed and placed into a plastic baggie which was then placed into her white saddlebags. I opened my eyes tentatively before looking down at the hole in my leg.

It looked… better. It certainly wasn’t looking as badly as it had before, with what appeared to be string holding it closed. As I stared down at it I came to several realizations.

First I realized that I was still shivering like a leaf in a gale, most likely what Doctor Steady had suggested was true any it was my body fighting off the infection that made me feel weak; and secondly that my stomach felt like it wanted to leave. The look on my face as this dawned on me must have translated to those in the room with me.

With a push of her magic, the orderly slid me across the floor and over to the toilet, where she dutifully held my mane back as my stomach vented into the bowl. Oh by the air I breathe the taste! I don’t know how to describe it other than ‘how about no?’! My mouth and throat burned so badly, and the smell was wretched. After I was sure I had finished voiding the contents of my stomach I spat the bile that still resided in my mouth into the bowl, gave a wretched groan and pulled my head back up, gingerly flushed the toilet after regaining my balance.

“Thank you, Miss Lulamoon.” I huffed.

“You’re welcome.” She replied quietly before she helped me to the sink to wash out my mouth. I groaned once again after having removed most of the taste from my mouth.

“Ugh, I am not looking forward to doing that again.”

The orderly gave a giggle. “Most ponies don’t, Miss,” She said, “and it never gets easier when we do.”

“Alright, here we go.” Wildheart chimed as she wielded a filled syringe about. “This may sting a little, Miss Coin; please try and hold still.”

The needle pushed into my skin near where my leg was sewn shut hurt, especially when the syringe’s contents were pushed into my system. Once the needle was removed, Wildheart shifted me over to the bathtub and looked down at her pocket-watch.

“Let’s see… two minutes.” She mumbled, and then put a hoof into the bathtub. “Yes, it should be cool enough by then. Miss Lulamoon, what do you have scheduled after this? Something with Princess Sparkle isn’t it?”

The orderly looked sheepish and gave a little blush. “Y-yes; Princess Sparkle is teaching Tri-, me some magic to help me improve my skills. I’m a… a little unskilled on anything beyond levitation or manipulation.”

Wildheart blinked at her. “But if you’re studying under Princess Sparkle, why do you work here?”

Trixie sighed. “Trix- I was a wandering show-mare, and while that sort of thing managed to get some bits out in rural towns where showy magic is less common, in Canterlot there are more skilled unicorns than me on every corner. You probably have more skill or at least more variety in your magic than I do. I need a job where I can practice my magic and actually get paid.”

“I would have thought that you’d get a stipend since you’re one of the Princesses pupils.” Wildheart commented, only for Trixie to shake her head.

“Princess Sparkle doesn’t have a tutelage fund organized yet, though she has said that she’s working on it. For now, I’m content to stay here until I’m either no longer needed or I’m given a permanent position.” She gave an amused yet derogative huff. “For somepony who used to call herself the ‘Great and Powerful’ to be working as an orderly at a hospital… I swallowed a lot of self-pride when Princess Sparkle put me here.”

Wildheart’s eyes narrowed. “You mean to say that you’re not a trained orderly in any sense?”

“Princess Sparkle had me read through what I will be required to do and then some when she first told me that I had been put into a position here. If not for the fact that my magic is… less than great and powerful, I might even be able to take up an intern position as a Nurse should the Princess throw enough books at me, such is her way of helping me absorb knowledge as she can.” She gave the Nurse what I could only call a rather pitiful look. “I’m here for my own good, really. I recall Princess Sparkle saying something about a ‘humility lesson’ as well, perhaps this position is it.”

The ornery looking nurse gave her a withering gaze for a few moments before she spoke out again. “If that’s the case, you’d better stick to me like glue.” She said. “We could always do with an extra hoof, and if you’re talented with showy magic like you suggest, I’m sure we could use your talents in the foal’s wards down in Canterlot Central, they could use somepony who can entertain.” She took another look at her pocket-watch and tucked it back into her mane where she had hidden it originally. “If you could climb into the tub Miss Coin, we can begin.”

I mumbled quietly and began to gingerly climb into the tub. The water was warm and felt pleasant on my coat and skin, and I gave a gentle and comfortable sigh as it warmed my feeble frame. Once I was standing in the shoulder deep water with my right foreleg held above the surface, Wildheart put her hoof on mine and began to lower it down into the warm water, to which I kept my eyes shut tight the whole time, expecting it to hurt. I was surprised at the lack of pain I felt as the water moved up over my cut.

I was more than a little worried at the lack of any feeling in my leg altogether.

“That injection before has temporarily put your leg to sleep so we can bathe you without too much pain.” Wildheart said when I gave her a worried look. “At the same time, it’s given us a timer- you’ll find that you feel drowsy in about five or six minutes and we can’t have you falling asleep in the tub.”

What came next was both the most awkward and yet comfortable four minutes of my life so far. The pair worked rather methodically as they cleaned my coat, mane and tail –pausing only when I gave a squeak in shock when their ministrations with a sponge got a little less than welcome, and I let them know. Thankfully the nurse didn’t linger on that one location for any longer than was absolutely necessary. Wildheart was right though, by the end of the bath I was leaning against the side of the tub to stay standing as my body tried to go to sleep. They wordlessly helped me out from the tub and dried me off with a towel before helping me sluggishly walk back to my bed and slip under the covers.

I smiled at Wildheart as she pulled the sheets up to my shoulders. “Thank you, Nurse.” I drawled tiredly.

She smiled back before ushering Trixie out of the room. “Any time, Miss. If you need us we’re but a button’s press away. Have a pleasant sleep.”

I nodded feebly in response before she turned off the light and closed the door. Gingerly I let my head hit the pillow and closed my eyes. I felt so comfortable here, far more than when I had slept on the banner down in the Vault. Is this what all beds are like? Oh, I am so getting one of these.

I was asleep almost as soon as the world went dark.

Dreams

I could see… forever.

The world around me stretched on into blackness in every direction, yet was filled with what I can only describe as windows. Windows filled with movement, other ponies or creatures moving about, talking, playing… I don’t remember ever being here before; my sleep was always uninterrupted, black nothingness. What in the wide world of currency was happening?

Nearby I could see a bubble which rippled and shimmered with a strange purple, and I could only watch as its contents played out before me.

It had something to do with dogs.

*

“How long has she been asleep?” Princess Luna asked firmly to the stallion by her side as they strode through the infirmary’s corridors.

“About an hour, highness; but it’s only recently started.” Doctor Steady replied as he struggled to keep up with her. “She’s been tossing and turning in distress for about twenty minutes though; I didn’t want to let any of my staff get too close in case she reared. She could put an eye out with her horn if she did.”

“Well, it is nice to see that you think so much about your staff’s wellbeing, but strange that you would think to throw your Princess into the ‘line of flames’ as we believe ponies say these days.” Luna replied with a snap.

“’Line of fire’ Princess, and you don’t need to get that close; I just needed somepony who could see what is troubling her sleep. Mind magic is illegal except your dreamwalking, highness; I don’t just have ponies sitting around waiting for me to call on them in these sorts of situations. Tartarus, a few hundred years ago the mental ward down in Ponyville was filled to near bursting when some genius pony thought he could just wander through ponies’ minds. His spell caused immeasurable damage and your sister had all of his work locked away in the deepest parts of the Royal Archives.”

“We think we recall reading about said pony; ‘Mental the Mindsnatcher’ we believe he was dubbed.” Luna said quietly as they approached the door. “My sister showed me his work. It was quite brilliant, but there was a massive flaw that anypony experienced in mind magic would know: mind magic must be subtle and gentle. Barging into the mind of another is akin to throwing a Minotaur into a glassware store, which is why his work caused such incredible damage to those he used it on.

“Also, you were incorrect in saying that it is illegal in every case except our own; we shall be training Miss Coin in Night Magic soon, and it works very much so on mind magic.” She said before opening the door to Coin’s room and staring at the flowing mane that floated from the sleeping alicorn’s head. “Like now.” She said alarmed, before hurrying forth.

Coin’s mane did, indeed, float freely about her head. Unlike Celestia and Luna’s mane and tail, however, there were no small sparkles of magic within the flowing hair. Instead, the thick strip of white mane shone brightly while the rest of her hair merely levitated. Luna gave the sleeping mare a studious appraisal.

“She’s more magic than we thought.” Luna mumbled. “’Tis either that or she has been kept in check due to the Vault’s wards…” Her attention turned to the stallion standing worriedly in the doorway. “Doctor, what was used to incapacitate her for her aciurgy?”

“… Her what? Aci… oh, her operation, yes; we used a powerful sleep inducing spell to put her into a deep sleep, and then we used a sedative to keep her asleep while we worked.”

“Tell me, Doctor; what affect does the sedative you used have on a patient’s magic?”

He gestured at the bed. “Not this!”

Luna gave a quiet titter. “No, Doctor, this is most likely because of the sedation. Miss Coin has Night Magic, our domain. Sleep and dreams are our realm, but without the ability to connect to others through the dreamscape her sleep would be empty, black. A void, if you will. The Vault is protected from outside, and inside, magical influence. As such, while down there she would have had no connection to the dreamscape. Her sedation will have kept her magic from expressing itself normally, as we assume that you used a sedative which would be specifically designed for my sister or ourselves.

“Such a sedative would have to be powerful enough to control huge amounts of magical power; as my sister and I can move the sun and moon this would be a precaution to ensure that we do not harm those about us during medical treatment. This,” she gestured to the mare glowing on the bed, “is not a medical emergency or something that will harm others –though it has been known to happen for others. She’s been magically restricted her entire life,”

“Princess, are you saying…”

“She’s surging.” Luna stated firmly. “Somewhat like a foal. Instead of surging in a physical or unpredictable way, she’s connected to the dreamscape; connected in a way we’ve not seen in anypony besides ourselves.”

Doctor Steady blinked. “I was under the impression that nopony but you could connect to the dreamscape.”

Luna chortled. “Oh heavens no; there have been dream walkers for as long as we have lived, we merely personified and perfected it to the point where few, if any, need do it these days. During my thousand-year banishment I was too far away to connect to the dreamscape. My sister took up the mantle during that time, but she is our opposite; her skill in Night Magic is terrible and we’ve been working to correct her mistakes since we returned.”

There was a pause as the sleeping alicorn made a short series of noises.

“… Did she just bark?”

Luna sighed. “Yes; we believe we know what has occurred. Please, leave us some privacy; we shall call the nurses upon completion of our task.”

“Of course, Princess.” Steady said with a bow before backing out of the room and closing the door.

Luna sat next to the bed and leaned her head forward, taking in a deep breath before joining the sleeping mare in the dreamscape.

*

I’d been watching for what felt like an eternity, this strange vision with dogs and ponies. It just didn’t seem to end, and I could feel myself growing more and more… engrossed in the vision as time passed.

That was, until something grabbed my shoulders and pulled me away.

“Keep away from there, Miss Coin, that dreamer is in turmoil.”

I blinked and pulled my head back faintly, frowning in confusion. What had I just been doing? Did I bark? What in the ten colours of gemstones was going on?

“You need not panic, Miss Coin; you are in the Dreamscape.” The voice said a second time. I turned to see who it was, only to come face-to-face with Princess Luna. I yelped and scooted away from her, trying to make myself appear smaller and hopefully less of a threat to her. “You needn’t be afraid, Miss Coin. We’ll explain everything, but you need calm down.”

Explain everything? What was she talking about? “Where am I?” I asked.

She stepped a little closer and waved a hoof vaguely. “This, Miss Coin, is the dreamscape. It is a realm between realms, if you will. From here, we can see every dream being dreamed by sleeping ponies, gryphons, dragons… whatever. As a being of Night Magic when you sleep you will be brought here, as this is our realm. It is where our magic is strongest and where we can hide away from the world should we need to. Our sister, Princess Celestia, knows how to come here as well; as a being of Solar Magic, however, she cannot be here for long and it will exhaust her to be here on subsequent nights.”

I blinked at her confusedly. “What are dreams? And if I’m a creature of Night Magic, would I not have come here when I slept down in the Vault or when the doctors did whatever they did to me?”

“The easy question first, I believe; you were unable to connect to this dreamscape because of the wards within the Vault. It is magically sealed off from the rest of the world, and as such your connection to the dreamscape will have been blocked off. Should another pony have been sleeping within the Vault with you, their dreams would have created a very limited dreamscape for you to dwell within.

“As for what dreams are, well, that is a slightly loaded question. There are many explanations for them, but for you we’ll give you a simple one: when beings of magic other than ours sleep, they enter dreams. It is something within their mind that allows them to enjoy their time resting. Take this one, for example;” she waved a hoof and a blue-rimmed window pulled off of a nearby wall and floated nearby. Within I could see what appeared to be a massive party with thousands of ponies. “This is a dream being ‘hosted’ by Pinkamena Diane Pie. She loves to party and make other ponies smile, so her dreams are usually akin to this.”

“She looks like a hoofful of excitement, sugar, and headaches.” I mumbled, watching the dream cautiously. I could feel a smile spread upon my face as it went on, but it was soon torn from my vision as Luna put it back where it had come from.

“Too much of a good thing can be bad for us, Miss Coin; try not to become engrossed in a dream from out here. Observe them critically, keep your mind in the knowledge that they are not real and no harm can come from them. Should you wish to partake of a dream, we can simply enter the dream with no harm to ourselves; I shall teach you how to do so at a later time. There are, however, other types of dreams, such as nightmares. Nightmares are a sort of antithesis to dreams; they cause suffering to those who dream them, usually in the form of fear.” A red-rimmed dream floated down the rows towards us and stopped nearby. Within this window I could see what looked like ponies missing flesh chasing another pony through halls. “This dreamer is suffering a nightmare involving the undead; it is something that the dreamer finds terrifying. Nightmares are a strange phenomenon, something that we cannot fully understand or explain. We don’t entirely know what causes the brain to create them, not always; sometimes it’s a one-time fear brought on by reading a scary book, eating something that has muddled brain chemistry shortly before bed, or some other such event. Others, it can be something more emotional. Most nightmares are a one-time thing which frightens their host into awakening. Others…

“It is important, Miss Coin, to observe nightmares over time. Never should we leap into a nightmare lest it is more serious. After a few months of being within the dreamscape you will become attuned to the individual dreams and be able to remember their hosts, as they always seem to occupy the same location. Something reoccurring for at least a week is what we must search for; in these examples we then aid the dreamer in their troubles by guiding them to see what they are truly fearing.”

I tilted my head as I let the lecture settle into my head, thinking over what she’d told me. Dreams? Nightmares? I suppose there is more to me than what I originally imagined, it certainly explained why I felt… incomplete whenever I’d slept within the Vault. I turned back to the strange purple-rimmed dream that Luna had pulled me from. “What about that one?”

Luna sighed sadly. “That is the dream of one who has been Broken. She was afraid of dogs and was an introvert, somepony who does not like to socialize much. After a few nightmares caused by her starting to date another pony, of which her fear of social hurt and difficulty trusting her special somepony, our sister attempted to help her. Our sister, as we have stated, is not as skilled as we are in such matters and unfortunately she… drove this pony mad. Since we returned we have repaired many such incidents, but this pony is a difficult case. She has been improving, thankfully, but she is prone to relapse. We warn you, Coin; these dreams are dangerous and we implore you to leave their care to us.”

“Dangerous how..?”

“It takes time and patience to repair the damage that Trampling –the act of incorrectly managing others’ minds from within the dreamscape- can cause. We have been working with Miss Screw for many months, and she has been steadily improving and has even been moved back home from her ward, but as you can see she still has some… issues which need resolving. In dreams such as this one, we have found that being firm with her has worked best. If you’ll excuse us a second,”

I nodded and she strode to the window before passing right through it and into the dream. She sat and sighed before clapping her haunches with her forehooves. “Heel!” With that word a blue pony with a silver mane and a screw cutie-mark bounded over like a dog, stopping just short of Luna. “What is your name?”

“Screw Loose!”

“Are you a dog or a pony?”

“Pony!”

“Then why in Tartarus are you acting like a dog, Miss Screw? We’ve talked about this; Redheart will be most displeased to hear that her special somepony has relapsed this badly.”

At that the blue pony paused and stared at Luna in shock for a few moments, before she sat down and brushed her left foreleg with her right. “Ah, right, sorry Princess; I just…”

“You slipped, we understand. Remember what we talked about, if you feel that you might be slipping or you’re worried you might?” Screw Loose nodded. “What did we say?”

“Tell Redheart.”

“That’s right; now, I’m going to leave you with a dream less likely to cause you to relapse. Do remember to talk to Redheart in the morn about this, she’s sure to want to help. Until next time, Miss Screw,” Luna stated firmly. The dream window suddenly vanished, and Coin could only stare incredulously at where it had been until Luna came strolling out of the window that she had shown to be filled with party life. “Our apologies for that; we have left her in the capable hooves of Miss Pie. A party with other ponies should be beneficial, and Miss Pie is unlikely to be unhappy at having a guest. As far as she will know, there will be nothing different.”

Again I blinked at her confusedly. “Are you saying that you just put a mentally unstable pony –whose dreams you told me were dangerous- into the dream of another pony?”

“Yes, but Miss Pie is… a special case. We would explain, but it can’t be done.”

“What can’t be explained? That you put two ponies dreams together..?”

“Miss Pie, she cannot be explained.” Luna stated. “We have seen her break the laws of physics on many occasions. Trust us, she is… special.” She looked away for a moment, as if checking to ensure that the party pony hadn’t followed her. “In any case, we believe that you should be safe within the dreamscape for now; provided you keep away from dangerous dreams. On occasion you may encounter other ponies within the dreamscape, though they are extremely rare in this day and age; Night Magic has fallen into decline in my absence.”

I nodded a little as I let this information settle into my head. I still had questions, though they seemed somewhat insignificant compared to what I’d been told. Magic that allows ponies to enter the dreams of others? It was almost… too much to comprehend. “Princess, though it may be impertinent of me to ask, but… is there anywhere in this… ‘dreamscape’ where I can just rest?” I asked, cringing at her questioning stare. Oh I hope I’ve not made her mad. “Don’t get me wrong, Princess, I’m honoured to be included, but this is… this is out of my league. I’m under hospital care myself; I don’t think I’m ready for this yet.” I shuffled my hooves and muttered, “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for this,” under my breath. Wait…

Did her ear twitch..?

Oh Bits, did she hear that?

The princess sighed and nodded. “We suppose it is a bit much to press on a new, and admittedly taxed, mind all at once. Come, we know of a dream that you can safely rest within with no damage to others.” She waves a wing for me to follow her, and of course I do so.

The, uh, ‘world’ around us -a seemingly endless sea of dreams- drifts by with splashes of colour and sound. Small explosions of noise which catch my ears and raise both my interest and annoyance; I want somewhere quiet to think and rest. Do I really need to go through all this just to get there? Can’t we just, I don’t know, teleport?

Soon enough we came upon a window that was significantly larger than the others, this one rimmed with a golden glow. Luna continued in, and after only a moment’s hesitation I followed. Entering the dream, passing through the window, felt like when I stepped into the bath only from head down instead, and it was a peculiar and queer feeling that I admit myself unsure that I would ever grow used to. The dream around us was a beautiful meadow spring. A small river a few dozen metres to my left fed into a nearby pond. A pleasant breeze would run through the grass and my fur every so often.

“We created this dream solely so that we might have somewhere quiet to tend to those who cannot care for their own mind any longer centuries ago, back before we became corrupted by the Nightmare.” Luna stated matter-of-factly. “You may find us entering now and then for these therapy sessions, but pay us no heed. We, also, shall be placing a small tap on your magic to keep you from creating potentially dangerous surges for the night; once you are in a more healthy state we shall begin teaching you how to restrain your magic more effectively. We shall also advise your nurses on your condition, and they may place a Discharge Inhibitor on your horn before you sleep each night. This dream is a stable point in the Dreamscape, and as such it will always be available should you want some time to yourself.”

“How do I return here once I wake?” I ask. “I mean, I was in the middle of a crossroads when I fell asleep before.”

Luna smiled back at me calmly. “Returning to the Dreamscape instead of within a dream is a default for Night Magic; if the dreamer is not asleep when you return, you’d have nothing to enter into. As an Alicorn, and as this dream is permanent, you can make this dream a point you return to whenever you fall asleep by pressing your horn to the ground within the dream and then channelling some magic. It’s relatively simple, but often the simplest things are the ones we do not consider.” She gave me a curious look, as if considering something. “You do know how to channel your magic, yes?”

In honesty, I was not well versed in my magic but I did nod. How could I not know how to channel my own magic, right?

… Right..?

After placing my horn to the ground, I closed my eyes and channelled some magic into the dream soil beneath our hooves. When I heard the princess startle I opened my eyes and looked up.

A swathe -about the width of my wingspan- of what looked like black, dead grass rolled away in front of me for dozens of meters. The air over the dead zone was darker and appeared thicker, small particles of what I can only call black stuff floated through the air lazily. I blinked at the damage I’d done so easily and without even knowing I’d done it before glancing worriedly to the princess alongside me.

She sighed and her horn flared, her magic restoring the field to its prior beauty. I lowered my head and ears apologetically.

“It would seem to us,” Luna began calmly, “that your Night Magic is a tad darker than we had initially forseen, and we did not think it could be so similar to our own.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

She waved a hoof and silenced my apology. “It is no problem, Miss Coin. We were simply not expecting your magic to have such an impact on the dream. It would seem that you have picked up more than just your eyes from our dark past.” She sighed and smiled faintly. “This is fine, your magic is dark but uncontrolled, and this will not take much work to remedy. Night Magic comes in grades of dark, with some being more shadowy than others; Equestrians are not natural night-walkers like we are, so their magic tends to be lighter. Our magic, and your own, is of nocturnal creatures tied to the night itself; it is for this reason that we grow stronger during the night or in the dark, as those are our element. We simply did not imagine that you could be so similar to us, though since you are essentially a very close biological match to us, we should have taken it into account.”

“How close do you mean, princess?” I asked curiously. It would be nice to know exactly how closely related I could be considered to her. She only seemed to think for a moment.

“Almost twins, according to your doctor; we are… somewhat sceptical of their methods but our sister assures me that they have an extremely small margin for error. If they are right, you are more closely related to us than our sister Celestia is, despite not having our mother or father.” She smiled down at me as if seeing the question that was forming in my head. “And yes, Celestia is our sister. She is a few years senior to us maybe, but still our sister.”

I nodded in understanding and looked off across the field. All I wanted right now was to rest; all of this talk of magic and dreams was beyond any care I could really give right now.

“For now, we shall leave you to your rest. A farrier has been called to the hospital to outfit you with some Mithril shoes which have been smithed to fit your hooves. Have a pleasant evening, Miss Coin.” Luna said with a smile, before dipping her head and vanishing from the dream. I blinked at where she had been before sighing and trotting over to the pond’s edge, where I lay down and simply let my mind wander for a few hours.

*&*&*&*

I awoke a few hours later, not remembering what I had thought about for the time I had been resting in the dream that Princess Luna let me into. I yawned and stretched, remembering to spare my injured leg from the action, before becoming painfully aware that my stomach was giving me an uncomfortable rumble. I quickly reached over and grabbed the clean metal bowl from the bedside cabinet.

What occurred next I refuse to detail; I will only say that it felt and tasted bad. I will never get used to that.

Remembering what I’d been told to do, I pushed the call nurse button next to my bed and I didn’t have to wait long before a nurse attended my call. She was a different nurse from the night before, though she did have the same little cap on her head.

She smiled warmly when she saw the bowl in my lap and the pitiful look I was giving her. “Ah, Miss Coin; first purge of the day I see.” She said with a playful tone. “It’s alright, you’ll have a few more of those in the coming days I’m sure.” She gently took the bowl from me with her magic and whisked it off to the bathroom where she flushed its contents and washed the bowl out in the sink. She returned it to the bedside cabinet next to my bed. “Now, we’ll give you an hour for your stomach to settle before we try giving you some soft breakfast. Nothing heavy, just some light porridge and juice. Would you like anything to read in the mean time?”

I shrugged, not sure if there would be anything of real interest for me to read. “I suppose I shouldn’t just lay here with nothing to do, or I might just fall back asleep.”

She nodded. “Alright, miss; I’ll go and see if I can find a few books you might like. A doctor should be along soon to check on how well you’ve recovered overnight. I shouldn’t be gone long, is there anything you need before I go?”

I shifted in the bed, a familiar feeling of pressure in my stomach making me aware of other needs, and nodded to her and held out a hoof. “Could you help me up so I can get myself to the bathroom please? I can move over on my own, I’m sure, but I don’t know if I can get up.”

The nurse smiled and took my hoof, gently pulling me up and out of the bed so that I could stand on my own. I staggered for a moment before I managed to grab the wheeled stand which was standing next to my bed with my injured leg, wincing faintly as the muscles around my wound shifted. I thanked the nurse and let her leave before shifting to the bathroom, leaning on the drip stand to hold my weight up.

*

Natural bodily functions relieved, I returned to the bed and climbed back into it heavily, pushing the drip stand back where it had been previously. I’d just gotten settled when the nurse returned with a book and a Pegasus doctor wearing a white coat and readily visible nametag.

“Nurse Apple, if you could assist me in my assessment?” He asked her before she could scoot off. “I need you to remove the bandages from her leg while I do a quick check of her wings. I want to see how her feathers look before I check her wound, see if we need to assign a preening session.”

The nurse complied and stepped around the bed, gently removing my leg from the blankets and beginning to unbind the wound. Meanwhile, the doctor nudged my left wing with a hoof.

“Miss, if you could just extend your wing for me?” He asked, to which I unabashedly complied. He seemed a bit taken aback and blushed when I spread my wing so willingly, but, well… he’s a doctor!

The nurse, Nurse Apple, flicked his nose with her hoof after he stared for a bit long. “Hay, do I have to report you, Doctor Clip?” She snapped irritably, “Stop ogling her wings.”

He coughed and shook his head. “Right, my apologies,” he said more to the nurse than to me, “let’s see…” He trailed off as he nudged my feathers, inspecting both sides of my wing before moving around the bed and tapping my other wing. “You may fold your left wing and extend your right, Miss.”

As I closed up my left wing and extended my right, I noticed that he looked away from me and focused on a far corner of the room. The nurse nudged him with a hoof, prompting him to return to work, and I waved her around the bed before whispering into her ear.

“What’s with the..?”

She giggled. “Wings are a big thing to Pegasi,” she said calmly, “and being on your back, unfurling a wing or two is considered a sign of submission. You’re ‘bearing your all’ so to speak. He’s just… a little distracted by it; most patients are very reserved when we ask them to present their wings, so such a show is, well, almost explicit despite the circumstances. Attending to the wings of another pony is also a huge thing; it’s a sign of trust from that being attended. Preening is often considered intimate, so we’re likely to have one of the princesses come down to preen you until you learn how. They’re essentially your family, and we’d like to see you form bonds with somepony.”

I nodded, not having noticed what the doctor was up to until I felt a sharp pain and tugged my leg away from him with what I can only describe as a yelp of pain.

“You still feel the wound, so that’s a good sign;” he said nonchalantly, “and it appears to have healed up rather nicely overnight too. You shouldn’t be here longer than a week or so, depending on how you handle your infection. Sepsis is nothing to shake a stick at, and we’re thankful that you’ve not got any swelling, but you seem to be fighting it well.” He held up a little glass stick, having taken it from a coat pocket. “We’d like you to hold this beneath your tongue, please;” he said, and I promptly let him stick the thing beneath my tongue, “we’re just going to get your temperature with this thermometer before your breakfast so we know if we have to add any medication to it to help with your infection.”

He idled for a few moments, looking through the information written on the clipboard at the foot of my bed, before taking the thermometer from me and looking at it.

“One-oh-three; not too bad, considering that yesterday you were apparently at an impressive one-thirteen –well beyond anything we’ve seen in a patient that could still walk. You’re still running a slight fever, but other than give you a quick and powerful curative spell you shouldn’t need much more assistance to fight that down. No hot liquids, and few –if any- hot foods will be given for breakfast; we don’t want you to increase your temperature any higher. Try and stay in bed and get rest. A farrier, somepony who will give your hooves a check-up and fit you with some shoes, will be here just after noon and you’ll need your strength for that.”

I nodded faintly, and the doctor let Nurse Apple re-bandage my leg before he walked out to attend his next patient. The nurse gave me a polite farewell before leaving herself. I sighed comfortably as I settled back into the bed and lifted the book which had been left for me by the nurse, studying the cover before beginning to read.

Something called ‘Lunar Heart’.

*&*&*&*

I hadn’t gotten far into the book, a delightful little tale involving Princess Luna, before I was interrupted from my reading by Doctor Steady and another stallion. I put the bookmark that the book came with into the place where I’d been reading so that I could continue later. I assumed that Princess Luna was aware of the book to at least a small degree, in which case I would test the waters of teasing her about it next time I met her.

I’d eaten breakfast and lunch some time ago, each meal little more than soft oatmeal with different flavouring, breakfast being bananas and honey and lunch being strawberries and maple syrup. They were flavourful yet blandly textured, supposedly being simple enough for my stomach to accept without overloading my digestive system.

The stallion that had joined the doctor dipped his head to me faintly in greetings and I returned the gesture.

“Miss Coin, it’s good to see you awake. You’ve stopped shaking even; a good sign!” Doctor Steady said with a cheerful tone. “This is Caramel. He hails from a small town south of Canterlot, the city we’re in now, called Ponyville. His family have had prized farriers for almost every generation for the last, what is it now, Caramel, ten generations?”

“Twelve, doc,” the tan pony replied with a smile, “my grandfather fitted Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s adult horseshoes, and I learned my trade from him directly.” He smiled over at me warmly, yet with a slight blush. “I… can be a little butterhooved with other tasks, but where hoofcare is involved there’re none finer.”

I nodded calmly to him before shifting in the bed. “Is there anything specific you require of me, sir? Do I need to stand or..?”

He shook his head. “No ma’am, I can fit you from the bed, provided I’m allowed access to your hind hooves. The doc’s here to ensure that I stick to business,” he then gave Doctor Steady a sidelong glance, “not that I would get distracted; I have a mare all m’ own back home I’m keen to return to. Sassaflash would be mighty upset if I missed dinner.” He sighed faintly and stepped up to the bed, taking my left foreleg into his own and looked down at it before humming thoughtfully and then continuing to inspect my other hooves.

“Not too bad, your hooves are in fair condition for somepony who walks hard surfaces without shoes. Bad nutrition though, you’d be gettin’ splits and cracks if’n you kept at it too.” He said matter-of-factly. “You’re healthy enough for me to shoe, though, so we can keep to the schedule. All we’re waitin’ on is the shoes and nails. I didn’t smith them m’self; some bigwig smith up here in Canterlot went and made you Mithril shoes, and they’ll be bringin’ some tools for me to work with along with the shoes. You’ll likely never need another shoe, provided you keep your hooves in good condition, ‘cause Mithril shoes don’t wear. Never handled them m’self, but all of the Princesses have them ‘sides from Princess Twilight Sparkle. She’s still got her steel shoes until she needs a refit.”

A clattering of a trolley and shoes came echoing in from the corridor outside, and a trio of ponies entered. One, a Unicorn guard wearing full armour, pushing the trolley with a set of silvery blue horseshoes and nails resting on a red silk pillow alongside a set of similarly made tools. Behind him, a tall white unicorn stallion with a blonde mane and brilliantly blue eyes talked almost without end about how thrilled he was to be getting new Mithril shoes, something that would elevate him above the common pony and their simple metals. The third pony was Princess Celestia herself, and she looked to be taking the rambling of the white stallion quite well.

That is to say, she was ignoring him altogether.

After a moment of pause, the white stallion noticed me on the bed and stopped, staring at me as if he’d never seen another pony before. He turned to the Princess,

“Auntie, who is that… peasant, and why is she occupying the bed in which I’ll be fitted my shoes?”

For a moment, it was as if Celestia were thinking about the question herself. At least, to everypony else she was. Me? I could see the most minute of irritable sighs leave her before she replied.

“Prince Blueblood, this mare is Miss Coin Counter. To be more precise, this Alicorn mare is Princess Coin Counter, and she is to be receiving Mithril horseshoes today.”

The prince seemed taken aback. “'Princess'? Really, Auntie, are we throwing that title to just any riff-raff these days? Your student" he practically spat the word, "is one thing, but I do hope that you’re not letting your years-“

“Finish the sentence, young Prince, I dare you.” Celestia interrupted without ever looking in his direction. “This mare has been created from the remains of Nightmare Moon, and as such she is a direct relative of my sister. That makes her, on the little totem-pole of power that you adore so much, higher than you. I, also, would like to point out that you are not entitled to Mithril shoes, as your titanium shoes are the highest grade available to the masses.” She looked down at him grimly. “And no, nephew, you are not above the common pony. We will discuss this later, please return to your suite.”

The prince stared at her in a state of mild shock before giving me a scathing glare and retreating from the room. I only blinked at his retreating back in confusion before looking up at the princess.

“What was that all about?” I asked. “He looked like he wanted to boil me alive.”

Celestia sighed. “That was all about an issue that shall be dealt with at a later time. He’s likely to have told every noble he knows by the time I get my hooves on him, so I suppose I’ll just have to deal with the flak as it comes.” She smiled warmly at Caramel, who was still deep in a bow to her. “And it’s a pleasure to meet you again, Caramel. I can only hope that your skill can live up to your grandfather’s.”

“W-we’ll see your highness. H-he certainly thought so when he was training me.” Caramel stuttered.

He took the tools into his hooves and exhaled heavily, seeming to steady himself before setting to work.

I was so tired that I fell back asleep before he even started nailing.

Author's Note

* The 'Lunar Heart' novel and its origin is something that I intend to carry over across all of my stories; this story is in no way tied to any of my others.

Family Time

My eyes blinked in the light that I found myself standing in, blinded for a moment or two before my sight adjusted and I could properly see where I was. The familiar breeze, scent of flowers, and gentle rolling hills of green carpet surrounded me, interrupted only by an unimposing forest and calm-watered lake.

I was back in the Dream; I guess Princess Luna really was telling the truth about anchoring myself here with that magic. I smiled a little as I felt the breeze drift through my coat, sighing to myself before I meandered back over to the lake. I could hear a faint ticking noise, like metal striking metal, from what felt like the back of my mind. Not knowing what to make of this, I shrugged it off and sat by the water’s edge, enjoying the warmth of the dream sun on my coat.

I wonder if this is what the real sun is like… I really must ask Princess Celestia when I see her next.

I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a certain… queer sensation to the world around me. It was as if the land, trees, sky, and clouds had taken on a liquid state as a ripple washed through it. What was that all about..?

“Ah, Miss Coin, here you are.”

I turned my head to see Princess Celestia calmly striding in my direction, stopping by my side and lying beside me. She smiled as she gazed at the mountains on the horizon, as if observing some great work of art. All around her, the air, land, grass pulsed in a steady, calm rhythm. It was as if she had been placed against a flat banner which rippled with her heartbeats.

All the while, the faint clicking of metal tapping against metal was present in the back of my mind.

“The clicking you hear is sir Caramel hammering your horseshoes into place. Mithril is a powerful magical metal, it can take on the magic of the one who shapes it, can be made into countless powerful alloys, and pure mithril is one of the strongest metals known to ponydom. Normal horseshoes and metal would not be so audible within your sleep, but mithril hammering mithril releases magical sound which can be heard by all but the dead.” Celestia stated to me, almost as if she could see the question forming in my mind.

“I see.” Was all I replied with; it made as much sense as anything else had made sense the last day or so. “But you… what is this?” I asked, waving to the distortions around her. “I don’t do that… do I?”

Celestia chortled. “No, no; these distortions are the Dreamscape trying to eject my presence. As I am not an instinctual user of Night Magic, I am not meant to be present beyond my own dreams unless placed there by our sister.”

I nodded my understanding; it made as much sense as anything else did, I supposed. “And… is this what the waking world is like? Outside, I mean?”

“How do you mean?”

I waved a hoof at the dream around me, “The wind, the quiet, the sun; is it like this? I feel… comfortable with the sun on my back. It’s a pleasant warmth… is it normal?”

Celestia breathed a faint little sigh, shifting in her spot, “For normal ponies, yes; the world during the day feels just like this. For you, however, we are unsure. Creatures of the Night, true creatures of the Night, that is, are often harmed by the sun’s warmth; we are unsure if you will be susceptible to such ailment, and we will be unable to know until you are well enough to be able to make visits to the palace gardens. That, sadly, may not be for several days, perhaps even weeks. It all depends on how you recover. Luna is not harmed by the sun, but we have seen creatures that were, so I don't want to give false hope.”

We heard a not-so-subtle pop behind us and turned to see Luna sitting amidst the gently waving grass with another… creature. I could only stare at it dumbfounded, this queer creature which seemed to be split down the middle. Its rear half looked like a pony’s, but from the chest forward was a body that I… don’t think I can recognise.

“What is… that…?”

My hooves slap to my mouth the moment the words slip through my lips, a blush spreading across my cheeks. How could I just blurt that out, did I suddenly possess no self-control? Granted I was curious, but that creature could have been offended by my unabashed and blunt question, what in the name of currency was wrong with me? I heard Celestia giggle at my consternation before she replied to me.

“She is a Hippogryph, Miss Coin. She’s a hybrid born of a… union of a pony and gryphon. Sadly she is an unfortunate victim of my failings as a dream psychologist; one of the ‘Trampled’, as I believe our sister calls them.” She dipped her head to me, “I am not welcome at these meetings that sister holds with them. My presence could cause further harm, or undo some of the healing that has been so gently given, so for now I shall bid you adieu.”

And with that, she simply ceased to be there.

I stared at the now empty space that had once hosted the white pony, letting my mind mull over some things, primarily her last words. ‘I am not welcome at these meetings,’ So this was one of those that Luna had labelled as ‘Trampled’? I glanced back at the hippogryph curiously, noticing her shivering and frightened appearance. She looked dogged, tired, and slightly sickly. Her feather plumage, while lush and unbroken, looked slightly ratty and unkempt.

If anypony were to look damaged, this would have been it, I supposed.

I noticed Princess Luna’s ear twitch in my direction before she looked over at me, a smile gracing her face after our eyes connected. She then said something to the hippogryph she was with before walking her over to where I sat. The closer the pair got, the lower my ears drooped.

“I’m sorry, Princess Luna, am I intruding?” I asked worriedly as she drew into earshot. “I… I might be able to wake up again?”

She waved a hoof and shook her head with a smile. “No, no, you are quite welcome here; you provide an opportunity that otherwise would need a little planning, actually.” She gently put her hoof onto the hippogryph’s shoulder, ensuring that the still shifty female could see her action. “Lady Margery Steelfeather the Third, this is Lady Coin Counter. Coin Counter is a... long lost relative of mine. Coin, Lady Steelfeather is the daughter of King Steelfeather, the current ruler of the Gryphon Kingdom.”

I nodded before dipping my head to the hippogryph respectfully. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Steelfeather.”

She only nodded her head, still shivering a little as she watched my every movement. To be honest, I became a little worried that she hadn’t spoken in return, so I looked to Luna questioningly.

“Is she alright?”

Luna sighed and shook her head. “Sadly not, I’m afraid; Lady Steelfeather has a phobia of ponies other than her mother, which was unfortunately exacerbated by sister during one of her attempts at Dream Walking. We have been working hard to undo the damage that has been done.” She smiled sadly at the hippogryph next to her. “It has been a long and difficult path, but we are making some headway.”

I nodded, putting together what she’d just said; a fear of ponies? I guess that explained why she was eyeing me like I was about to sprout fangs and tear into her.

Ugh, that thought made my stomach flip a little. I was thankful that it didn’t decide to take that opportunity to voice its opinion and give whatever was in me a return-trip.

“P-Princess, what d-do you h-have in mind..?” Lady Margery asked; her voice was timid and small, barely audible.

Luna smiled warmly. “Lady Coin Counter is here only to relax and de-stress, as she is seriously ill in the waking world; if it is alright by her, I was thinking she could be our model for you to get a little more used to ponies. Normally a pony would likely not allow you to simply touch them, but I think it would be beneficial to you to get used to physical contact. Is this alright, Lady Coin Counter?”

I gave Luna a curious look before nodding. “I don’t see why not; is there anything in particular you want me to do?”

She shook her head. “Just be as still as you can; I shall help guide her as best I can.”

With a nod, I sat down and closed my eyes, waiting for the first moment of contact. I admit I flinched when I felt a clawed talon brush against my left shoulder. At my involuntary twitch, the appendage pulled back, only to return a moment later. The palm slid through my fur, moving across my atrophied muscles and unkempt fur. I heard Luna tut as she inspected my body, clearly not happy with how I appeared.

I felt a gentle tug on my left wing, and I let the tug slowly unfurl it to its full spread, which causes the talon on my foreleg to pause before moving away. Touch returned soon after, this time on the leading edge of my wing, where it traced over the feathers there, causing me to shudder.

Why did this feel so good?

I heard Luna hum thoughtfully, “It would seem, Coin, that we shall have to visit you in your ward at the soonest convenience.” She said, baffling me. She wanted to come see me in the hospital? In my condition? I couldn’t fathom what she could want.

I sat and allowed Lady Steelfeather to continue inspecting my coat and plumage at her discretion, and after a few minutes of her palm sliding through my fur and feathers, she had cupped my jaw in her talon, holding it as if she were inspecting my face.

“M… mother likes it when I do this…” I heard her mumble, before her palm moved away.

A moment later, I felt her scratching a claw under my chin in a way that I could only describe as amazing. Oh by the Centurions, where had this been my whole life?

I heard Luna giggle at my reaction, likely at the goofy smile and my leg kicking in reaction to this bliss. I didn’t care, the world could be falling down around my wings but I wouldn’t care, this was just so good.

A sudden, lurching shudder in my stomach made my eyes snap open, my wing slam shut to my side, and as I heard Luna ask what was wrong, the dream around me vanished.

*

I awoke in a flurry of movement, sitting up hurriedly and reaching to the bedside table, groping wildly for the silvery bowl that resided there. Or, at least, I would have if it had still been there. Instead, my hoof met air and I turned my head to see a stallion holding it in his hoof, looking at it curiously. I grabbed it with my good hoof, trying to pull it out of his grasp.

“Hey, hey, what; let go!” He shouted, pulling back on it, almost tugging me from the bed. “What do you even need-”

He didn’t get to finish his question before my stomach voiced its opinion on the matter, and the floor… and the bed.

And all over me.

“Oh geez, lady!” He pulled back with a start, trying to avoid being hit with any of my runaway mess. I coughed my displeasure at the world in general before leaning back up onto the bed and hitting the call nurse button a half dozen times despite protests from the intruder to my room.

One press had called a nurse; six should call a bit-cursed army.

True to my belief, a clattering of many hooves hurried down the hall and into the room, revealing themselves to be a trio of nurses, the orderly from last night, and the doctor who had introduced me to the princesses.

It didn’t take long, though it did take some wrangling, to capture the intruder and drag him away from my bed. One of the nurses was sent off to find some guards and a princess, the orderly, Trixie if I can recall her name correctly, hurried off to fetch replacement sheets for my bed, and the other nurses were busy either keeping the intruder restrained with the doctor or cleaning the mess from the floor.

“I’m sorry,” I coughed down at the poor mare cleaning up my regurgitation.

“It’s alright, dear; it’s not your fault.”

I sighed at the soiled bed sheets I sat in, a pair of tears having snaked over my cheeks. It had always been painful when my stomach rejected its contents, and now there was an extra embarrassment of having missed the bowl and gotten it all over not only the floor, but myself and the bed as well. All in front of these… strangers!

Approaching hooves echoed down the hall for a short few moments, and soon a trio of guards entered, followed by Luna. She must have finished up with Lady Steelfeather just after my departure, to be available here now…

“Guards, seize him and take him to the dungeon. Alert my sister to his presence and the circumstances of his arrest when you have done so; she will likely want to question him when she has time.” She snapped at them commandingly. The guards complied, grabbing the stallion and proceeding to drag him from the room by his forelegs, the third reciting some ‘rights’ that he apparently had. I admit I wasn’t particularly listening to them; my mind was busy berating me for making a mess of, well, the entire room.

I was suddenly lifted from the bed, a blue glow surrounded my body, and I slowly but surely floated into the bathroom, the drip stand attached to my leg squeaking as it was tugged along with me. What in the world was this?! I attempted to flail my hooves for purchase, but they remained pinned to my sides, as did my wings when I tried to spread them in alarm.

“It’s alright, Lady Coin, do not worry.” Luna said calmly as she dawdled in behind me. “It is merely my magic levitating you, you are safe. Safe, but in need of a bath; doctor, when the orderly returns, please send her in. We shall likely need a little assistance.”

“B-but your Highness, we have nurses on call to-”

“Doctor, if I wish to assist family in their recovery, it is doubtful anything you say will halt my attempts.” She said confidently over her shoulder. “Aid in removing this mess from Lady Coin’s coat would be welcome, however.”

I heard the doctor sigh in resignation. “Yes, Princess Luna,” his voice had a tone of defeat, which made Luna smile smugly, “however, I want you to keep in mind her injury. It will likely be very painful to get hot water and soap onto it.”

Luna only hummed an affirmative before closing the door gently behind her. Her magic deposited me in the large bathtub as if she were placing something delicate and fragile. Her horn flashed twice more, the first placing what appeared to be a glittery blue shield over the injury on my leg, and the second opening the faucets and starting to fill the tub.

“I informed Lady Steelfeather of why you would have awoken so suddenly; she sends her regards and hopes that you get well soon.”

I gave a subtle nod, shaking off a shiver of my fading illness. Hour by hour I seemed to be getting better; I wondered how much of that was thanks to the medical staff that attended me and how much was simply my body healing itself… how much of my recovery was thanks to the medical aid I’d been given and how much my own body? I admit my mind ran away from me a little as I thought about it.

As I thought to myself for a moment, I noticed Luna develop a cheeky grin from the corner of my eye. “Did the scratch under your chin really feel that good? Is this something I shall have to keep in mind for future fun, perhaps inform our sister to get her in on it?”

Snapped back to reality, now with water about my waist and steadily rising, I turned my face to stare at Luna in what I’m certain was open-mouthed shock. “You wouldn’t…” I breathed, earning a laugh from her.

“Ah, as ponies say, ‘all is fair in love, war, and family humiliation’.” She replied, a toothy and vicious grin on her face. Her horn sparkled momentarily, and a sweet smell filled the room. It seemed to be coming from the bath, and as foam began to float around me, I sniffed at the bathwater tentatively. Luna only chuckled amusedly. “I have added some of my own bath soap, something that Princess Twilight Sparkle suggested I try some time ago and have simply found nothing better which could replace it. I believe the scent is ‘plums and honey’, if I recall correctly.”

Again I nodded, not bothering to hide the pleasant shiver that ran up my spine as the warmth of the bathwater soaked into my muscles and bones. A few moments longer and the faucets were turned off, the water up to my chest and the foam up about my ears.

I could only give Luna an unamused, deadpan look through the froth. She appeared quite pleased with herself, however, and only smiled back at me toothily. “Now, now, don’t give me that look,” she smugly purred, “You’ll thank me when you don’t smell of your own vomit.”

I only huffed in irritation, blowing some of the froth from my face before I felt a sponge glide up my left side. Once it reached the pit of my wing, however, the sensation became… weird. My wing snapped open, flicking water halfway up the wall to my left and I gave a sound that I can only really call a squeak.

Luna gave a squeak herself, though hers of glee.

“You are ticklish too? Oh, Coin, you and I shall have such fun together!” She said, her tone telling me that she was very pleased with this information.

I, for my part, attempted to regain whatever dignity I had and folded my wing back up, throwing her another glare, “It would appear that I will require locks on my doors.” I said irritably. Luna, in turn, stuck out her tongue at me impishly.

I tried to relax as Luna gently ran the sponge through my fur, cleaning my left side before migrating to my front, where most of the mess happened to be. It was as she was cleaning this that a knock on the bathroom door sounded and the orderly entered, closing it behind herself with a snap.

“You requested my presence, Princess Luna?”

“Ah, Ms Lulamoon, yes; if you could take over with cleaning her fur, I will see about taming this bird-nest that Lady Coin calls a mane.”

“It’s not that bad!” I protested at her, getting a sidelong look from her.

She seemed to take a moment to process a response. “You are correct, Lady Coin; I doubt a bird would stay in something so unkempt.” I could only feel my jaw drop at her comeback, staring at her cheeky grin and hearing the orderly giggling. Realizing that she’d managed to play me like a fiddle, I huffed and glared at her. Something cold soaked into my mane and began to spread itself about, making foam of the long hair.

I sighed and let them go about their business, trying to relax at the gentle touch that swept across my body and the tugging of my mane. It felt like hours before they deemed their work complete, each stepping back to eye the sopping mess that was their charge before the tub began to drain. After the water completely finished draining, a sudden deluge of water fell on me, soaking me through once more.

“That should have the soap residue removed,” Luna muttered before her magic enveloped me and lifted me from the tub. I was carefully placed upon the rug in the middle of the room, dripping water everywhere. I must’ve looked pitiful- no, as I thought this I managed to glimpse myself in the room’s full-length mirror; I did look pitiful. A burst of magic washed through the room, and with it the water in my fur, mane, and tail vanished. It was so sudden that I jolted as I saw, in my reflection, my body be surrounded in a sudden cloud of steam.

My mane and tail also frizzed up and became horribly unseemly.

“Ms Lulamoon, if you could brush her coat, I shall see to her mane and tail.”

“As you wish, Princess;”

And, again, I was subjected to the magic of others. This time, a fine-bristled brush ran through my coat while a different brush ran through my mane, and then my tail. It didn’t seem to take long, to be honest, but again I was forced to spread a wing and squeak when a brush moved over that one spot under my wing, earning me giggles from both other mares.

As my wing folded back up, however, Luna’s magic caught it and spread it once more. “Now, now, Lady Coin, keep it there; when I am done with your mane, I shall attend to your preening needs; with some luck, you might learn some things from observing.”

Seemingly content with the state of my mane and tail, Luna nodded and placed the brush she held in her magic back on the bathroom cabinet. A pleased hum left her lips and she shifted closer, dipping her head to inspect my spread wing closely. She gave a few non-committal tuts and hums, turning her head this way and that as I watched her confusedly.

For the love of rubies, what was she doing now?

She smiled her impish little smile again and said, “This may feel strange,” and leaned forward to press her face into my wingspan.

I think I swooned.

Luna giggled into my wing as she worked, evidently enjoying the noises that I was making, shameful as they sounded. She completed a large section of my wing and tugged at a feather, getting my attention back into the room and onto her; that had stung! The feather she had tugged appeared to be bent at a right-angle halfway along its length, and she looked up at me.

“This feather is broken, but still healthy,” she said calmly, “it has broken at a point that doesn’t cause harm, yet it is still a blood feather. Pulling it out will be painful, and likely cause you to bleed. Ms Lulamoon, are you finished with your task?”

“Yes, Princess,”

“Alright, if you could gather some tissues and be ready here, I shall attempt to pull the feather and cause as little trauma as possible.” She paused as the mare tugged six or so tissues from a box and shuffled closer, holding the tissues out in her magic. “On three,” Luna instructed, before taking the feather in her teeth and bobbing the broken feather back and forth three times.

She was right, it hurt. I remember yelping and having attempted to move my wing, trying to pull it away from the sudden pain even as the orderly shoved the tissues in the space where the feather had been rooted. I noticed Luna spit the feather out from the corner of my eye, and she then leaned over and pressed her forehead against my own, our horns knocking together with a lightly muffled clack.

“Do not fret, Coin, the pain shall pass.” She breathed gently, “As your magic strengthens, you will break feathers less often; at the moment your body is trying to heal, so your magic is focusing on regenerating your wounds.”

She waited for me to calm back down before returning her head to my wing, brushing the tissues that the orderly held aside with her horn. “Very little blood, and the follicle appears intact; it should begin to regrow in a day or so.” She warmly voiced. “Now, let’s continue; Ms Lulamoon, I hope you are keeping an eye on what I am doing. As a medical practitioner, you may be required to assist with a patient who cannot preen themselves.”

“Of course, Princess,” Trixie replied, putting the tissues into a bin next to the cabinet. “Could you tell Tr- me why you do not use your magic? This seems a little… unhygienic?”

“Magic can be used, of course;” Luna began as she moved her oh-so-wonderful administrations over my wing, “as can a tool called a ‘Preening Comb’, usually sold for an impressive amount of bits for hunks of moulded plastic. Preening with teeth, however, gives a better feel for what you are doing. It is possible to upset the pegasus magic within feathers if using unicorn magic to preen, so most non-pegasus parents of pegaus foals will learn as their foal grows.” I felt her grin into my wing and her face shift before I was assailed with that ‘ticklish’ feeling once more, making me attempt to reel away. “Years of experience have me more knowledgeable than most, however.”

Still she assailed my sense of touch, leading me to try and push her away with my good hoof and protest vocally with a “Stoppitstoppitstoppit!”

A knock at the door interrupted us, “Is everything alright in there, Princess?” one of the nurses called.

Luna chortled. “Yes, everything’s fine;” She replied, “just a little family fun.” She added before returning to tickling me relentlessly.

*

Princess Celestia read furiously as she strolled down the halls of the castle she called home. Not too long ago, she would have called it her castle, but with the return of her sister, and now the miracle of Coin Counter’s creation, it was more a family home than ever.

“Princess, are you finished with that yet, it still needs to be filed with the legal crew on the third floor?” Her assistant asked as she trotted alongside.

“Almost, Golden Scroll,” came her calm response, “we’re inducting an entirely new pony into the highest of high nobility; this is something that must be done right.”

With a smile she finished reading the document, taking a moment for it to filter into her head before humming and nodding, taking a quill from her yellow-maned, white coated assistant and signing her name. The unicorn mare only strolled along calmly as the Princess settled the phoenix feather quill back into its case on her saddle, one of many such compartments for paperwork, stationary, and other assorted bits and pieces.

A scroll case levitated from a compartment on the far side of the saddles and floated across, opening with a satisfying pop before being filled with the document and closed again. “Your Highness, I do apologise for questioning you, but why are we not holding a grand celebration for Lady Coin Counter?”

Princess Celestia tittered for a moment as she held the scroll case out to her assistant. “The reaction to Twilight Sparkle becoming a Princess was cheerful because she has been a national hero for years. It was seen as a natural next step for somepony who had done so much and gone to so much effort. Do you recall the inauguration of Cadance?”

Golden Scroll shook her head. “I was only a yearling when that happened, your Highness.”

Celestia nodded, “It was uproar. She had become a princess after the catastrophe that claimed her parents and the entirety of West Lawndon, and ponies did not think that one so young should have such a gift as a result of such a disaster. The nobles, particularly the now knave Snowhoof house, were furious that one from a common family would be elevated to high nobility.”

“Knave..? I apologise, Princess, but I do not think I have come across anything about such a thing.”

“The Snowhoof house hired an assassin to kill Princess Cadance before her celebration; an assassin who was woefully inept compared to the Royal Guard. A short interrogation later and I had every noble house brought in for an ‘emergency audience’. Once there, I called out the Snowhoof house and publicly stripped them of their nobility.” Celestia informed her, her voice distant. “The public stripping of nobility has had the benefit of shocking the upper class into realising that they are not above the law.”

“Doesn’t explain Prince Blueblood’s behaviour…” Golden Scroll grumbled before slapping a hoof to her mouth and blurting an apology. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean! I mean, I meant to, but I-”

Celestia chortled at her antics, “It’s quite alright, Golden Scroll, I am aware that he has not been behaving well; I do not believe he thinks that he can be punished in any real capacity. Princess Luna is going to be handling any punishments that he receives for his bad behaviour.”

“I shall refer any complaints about him to her in future, then. With your permission, your Highness, I shall take this scroll to the legal department.”

“Of course; thank you, Golden Scroll. Feel free to take the rest of the day to yourself afterwards; I intend to visit Lady Coin Counter after this.”

Golden Scroll smiled and bowed. “Thank you, Princess. Have a good day.”

Celestia watched her assistant trot away, a noticeable skip in her step as a guard joined her farther down the corridor. With a sigh, she turned to walk deeper into the castle, headed towards the stairs to the underground levels.

She enjoyed her walk, as she always did whenever she walked the halls of her home. Grand tapestries and paintings hung along the walls, splashing vibrant colour into the otherwise white halls. Each of them as beautiful as the last, each a delightful interruption to what might have been a boring and monotonous walk.

Finally reaching where she had been told the last of her day’s duties was, she strolled past the guards posted at the entrance to the dungeons with but a dip of her chin, following the lit torches.

The dungeons weren’t often used, she knew; usually only for ponies who broke into the castle. As such, the lit torches would lead her directly to where the only prisoner in these darkened halls would be.

Hey, guards needed to see where they were going, alright? Not everyone can see in the dark like Princess Luna can.

Stopping at the only occupied cell, she gazed in at the pony who resided on the straw cot in the corner. She gave a loud and irritated sigh before addressing him directly. “Mr Witty Scoop, once again you have graced these halls with your presence.”

He grinned up at her, “What can I say, Princess, I know where the fun is.”

“And which of the nobles did you offend to bring you here this time?”

Scoop shrugged. “Princess Luna,”

Celestia sighed, tiring of this game of beating around the bush already, “I have already been informed of the terms of your arrest, Scoop. You broke into the castle’s medical ward.”

He nodded, “Do tell, who was that mare? She didn’t look like Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Luna sent me here personally, so who was it?”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “That is private information, Witty Scoop, and you are lucky that I do not seal it from your mind. Who told you to break into that room in particular? Out of all of the rooms in the castle, of all the royal gossip you could be making up from looking through our private property, who told you to go to that room?”

“Call it intuition, Princess.” He sneered. “I saw her eyes, by the way, very interesting. Dragon-like dagger pupils; very reminiscent of a certain alicorn that attacked Ponyville a few years back… any comments on that?”

‘It couldn’t have been a guard… Their magic compulsion oath stops them from releasing any information we forbid.’ Celestia thought to herself as he rambled on and asked his question. “What you think you saw is irrelevant, especially since you’re going to be here until you decide to cooperate.” She snapped.

“You can’t keep me here, I have my rights, and my manager will bring every lawyer he has to get me out!”

“I’m sure that the Canterlot Express will survive without you for a few days.” She replied calmly. “Especially when they learn that you have been arrested by palace security for the nth time this year. However, if you tell me who provided you with your information, I will gladly see about having your sentence lightened.”

She tuned him out as he began to ramble on and on about rights of the public to know, freedom of the press, and keeping the confidentiality of his sources. Honestly, this was only the tenth time she’d heard it, so it was all rather familiar to her.

‘It wouldn’t have been a member of the medical staff, their code of conduct forbids them from giving out any information on treatments, patients, and the like. So who could be the loudmo-‘

“Blueblood,” She hissed to herself, cutting the reporter’s rant short. She sighed and refocused on him, her eyes stern. “You will remain here until I deem fit, Witty Scoop. After being caught within restricted areas of the castle as many times as you have, you have shown that you cannot be trusted. Your managers will be informed that you were breaking into private property, again, and told that no number of lawyers will retrieve you for them.”

“Y-you can’t just-”

Celestia glared at him, her teeth bared angrily. “You repeatedly break into my home to find secrets that are not yours to know and sell them to your managers, and then have the gall to tell me that I should not be offended? You dare to tell me that you do not deserve punishment? You should count yourself lucky, Witty Scoop, that I do not press charges! Your track record alone tells me that you have no respect for the privacy of others, imagine what it would tell the courts!

“No, Witty Scoop, you will remain here at my discretion, and after that I will have a strict meeting with your managers. You have shamed your profession with your behaviour.” She hissed at him, sneering angrily before turning away. “Enjoy your stay, Witty Scoop.”

Back turned to his protests, she strolled out of the dungeon; she had a bigger cabbage to slice.

*

Celestia’s voice boomed through the halls, echoing throughout the castle and rattling the helmets of the guards closest to her, “Prince Blueblood!”

Said prince jolted from his bed, where he had been reading a gossip magazine’s ‘how to be a better lover’ segment, at the loud bellowing of his name. His aunt burst through the doors to his suite, storming into the front room and glaring up at the door to his bedroom. His head tentatively poked out, looking down at her. “I am right here, auntie, there is no need to yell.”

She all but growled up at him. “Get down here this instant.”

He nodded and slid out of the bedroom door, tentatively trotting downstairs to where his aunt sat glaring at him. He was worried that she hadn’t even moved one of the seat-cushions from nearby to sit on, instead opting to sit upon the hardwood floor of his living room. “Is there something that you require, auntie?”

Celestia glowered at him. “I am only going to say this once, Blueblood, so listen and remember well;” she growled, “if I ever find that you are the pony responsible for feeding gossip and information to the Canterlot Express, there will be no more ‘prince’. Do you understand?”

He blinked at her dubiously before shaking his head. “No, auntie, I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

Her face neared his and she hissed at him, “Your title of prince is an honorific, Blueblood. Given to you in respect of your mother and father, for deeds they did to aid Equestria for years to come. It is an honour I can, and will, quite easily take away.”

“B-but!”

“No! No buts! You live in my house, under my rules, and you dare to spread our secrets? What gave you the right to breach Princess Coin Counter’s privacy by telling the Canterlot Express where to find her, after I explicitly told you that she was keeping a low profile?!” She drew back and shuddered a steadying breath. “I will be informing Princess Luna that you are responsible for the debacle in the medical ward, and I imagine she will punish you accordingly.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t betray your own family like this again, Blueblood, or I will dictate your punishment. Do I make myself clear?”

He nodded profusely, and she huffed at him before turning and storming out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Blueblood waited a moment or so before sighing and strolling back up to his bedroom and returning to his magazine. “So she caught a reporter stupid enough to break into the castle; the other newspapers will simply print the story in the morning. It’s only fair; she took my shoes, I take her anonymity.”