Chapter Seven: Ch 7: Best of Both Worlds

Taking Care in any situation is one of the many responsibilities a princess must take... as is Taking Charge.

Twilight stood patiently by the fountain in the palace gardens waiting for her moment, the entire day had been a rose tinted blur and her cheeks had felt heavy from the warm glow of a blissful blush that had yet to dissipate since she had awoken in the forelegs of her friend.

The gardener had yet to leave and two noble ponies were walking the grounds discussing matters of state, which, though entirely normal and acceptable, seriously impeded her attempts to take control of a certain situation that had threatened her public image.

She took a slow breath and released it gently, it was becoming unbearable.

She was running out of time too, soon she would have to meet with a selection of officials to decide the Gryphon situation as well as put the Charity Ball back on schedule. She was sure ponies were looking for her even now, searching corridors, her office... maybe even the kitchen...

She liked cakes what could she say! So what she had been caught twice there with a pastry of some kind shoved into her mouth...

All that mattered little right then though for the young princess was definitely beginning to... she paused in thought and looked around, nopony was in sight.

*SPLOOOSH!*

The cold fountain water struck her face at a stunning velocity, without hesitation she swished her head through the fresh liquid without a single care, this was after all an act of desperation. She remained so until she could no longer hold her lungs, exploding from the chill pool with a gasp for air.

She collapsed on the edge of the fountain and regained her breath with deep drags of air, her composure ruined she allowed her mental processes to reboot while her body recovered.

"That's better!" Anger declared with relief.

"Indeed!" Intelligence could only agree.

"It wasn't that bad," Madness snorted with derision, "you guys should really lighten up."

"Is... is it gone?" Embarrassment asked creeping out from some dark corner.

"Yes..." Lust sighed sadly, "I was enjoying that too..."

"Oh shuttup!" Anger snapped, "The only benefit to that nonsense was that you were quiet!"

"Woulda stayed quiet too but you guys had to ruin it..." Lust sulked.

A fake cough followed by words eradicated this scene and threw reality back into gear, "Excuse me Princess..." Marshal began politely, a slight smile breaching the walls of his emotional defenses.

A new blush burst into life on Twilight's face as she stared in shock at the Stallion before her, her mane slipping with a splat against her face.

"Why?" Embarrassment cried, "Why me!?"

The air rushed through her feathers sending static chills throughout her body. Flight, freedom, the skies without limit… this was her world, the best kind of world. Since she had first taken wing it had been her domain and none had been able to keep up with her.

This was her…

A stray bug up in the air found its way into her throat, spluttering Dash suddenly careened out of control, spiraling downward while coughing violently. Her vision was completely erratic which, while in the air, was not a good thing… especially with the quick flashes of a tower rooftop below her moving ever closer.

She fanned her wings against the air as best she good which did decrease her speed somewhat, regaining control she only made mild contact with the tiles.

“Arrrrbuckit!” Dash lamented, ricocheting off the surface and into a flagpole.

It took a moment before her heart stopped pounding, in the meantime she waited for the shock to wear off. Making use of her tongue she hooked the creature in her mouth and spat it out. The fly buzzed as it landed beside the pony.

Both shared a moment of stunned disbelief till finally the pegasus shot the thing a irritable look. The fly in turn buzzed angrily.

“Hey! Not my fault!” Dash spat, “You’re the one who flew into my mouth!”

The fly ignored her and took off, the pony watched it go with a sour expression, “Lucky I didn’t squish you...” She muttered to herself, unfolding herself from the pole in which she clung to.

Once on her hooves upon the room she shook her wings loose, that certainly could have gone better. The pegasus scoped her surrounding, her natural eyesight scanning every inch of the air, then her sides, and finally…

“Hey! Its Twi!” Desire growled hungrily.

Zooming in and sights locked, Dash took sight of a drenched princess beside a fountain in the royal garden. Snickering to herself at the sight of the pony she couldn’t help but want to be near she noted that Twilight was in conversation with Marshal.

The princess looked completely out of sorts, mane flopped down over that soft purple face…

Rainbow considered going down there just to say hi but hesitated, a flash took her interest as Twilight was enveloped in a purple glow. When it faded the alicorn was dry and her mane set back into a more reasonable position.

“Okay… that’s kinda cool,” Dash nodded to herself.

“You think she wants to fly with us?” Loneliness asked.

“Nah,” Rage snorted, “She’s too busy doing her duty!”

“Aw… give her a break,” Desire argued, “She’s working hard, there’ll be time later!”

“That’s right,” Wisdom agreed, “Anyway we should fly, we need the practice.”

Dash smiled, though she couldn’t help but want to go down there.

Marshal followed her to the council room, where waited the augmentative brothers who seemed unable to come to any agreement whatsoever. She had read up on the details regarding these gryphon raids as well as all the political issues that could become an issue.

She had it all measured out, sadly it felt like the ruler had been made of rubber because it was far from straight! …oh dear, that could easily be misconstrued. She logged in her mind not to make any ruler jokes in the future, the last thing she needed was a sexuality view scandal…

Especially in light of her own surprising… err… attractions.

She shrugged and turned to her guardian, “How are they doing?”

He nodded with a sardonic smile, he had spent the first ten minutes of the meeting waiting for the princess amongst the noble rabble. “Quite well actually,” he began, with no small amount of sarcasm, “Protocol wants to spend months walking up and down the clan lands of the gryphondom making friends and Heavy Hoofed wants to charge in and wipe the species out, neither can come up with a better idea.”

Twilight groaned, “I see…”

“I hope you do Princess,” Marshal sighed, “Otherwise this might get messy.”

“You think it could lead to war?”

Marshal chuckled, “I think those two are close to their own personal war if you don’t do something quick!”

Twilight nodded and tried her best to keep her face neutral, at this point in time it would be bad to show any weakness at all, especially with these two. They reached the door to the council room and paused, as always Twilight took a deep breath before opening the door, blushing slightly as she remembered Marshal was there to see that.

The argument inside did not cease when she entered.

“All you’re good for is wasting paper!”

“And all you’re good for is flexing your muscles… and not the one that’s important!”

“Please!” Heavy Hoofed snarled, “I am the only one of us that’s taking this seriously!”

Protocol rolled his eyes, “Your idea of being serious is banging heads with anybody you don’t agree with!”

“Would you like to bang heads with me!?”

“Gentlecolts please!” Twilight admonished as she walked to her place at the head of the table, “Don’t make me separate you two!”

The two older ponies flinched at her words, it had been some times since anypony had spoken to them as if they were children… that didn’t stop them from continuing to act so as they threw childish looks at each other.

“Now…” Twilight began, “I feel the time has come to make a decision.”

“Finally!”
“We agree all to happily with you princess.”

Twilight rolled her eyes skyward… they were like foals… “Now… I agree that this act of banditry calls for a response but marching an army into our neighboring country is a little drastic.”

“Here, here!” Protocol cheered, smirking at his brother.

“However…” Twilight continued, “Showing no sign of force at all is also unacceptable.”

“Hah!” Heavy shot back.

“So… my suggestion meets both your demands, to an extent,” Twilight raised her voice some, getting her point across like an angry matron, “Heavy Hoofed, you will send a few small groups of our troops to the areas most frequented by these bandits…”

“Yes ma’am!” The Minister of Defense saluted, almost running towards the door to make ready.

“Hold on minister…” Twilight sighed.

Heavy froze with his hoof on the door handle, blinking with confusion and looking back.

“Their mission is not to incite war, nor to hunt down these bandits or attack,” Twilight allowed her words to sink in, “They are to patrol and protect the towns and roads under siege by these brigands.”

“But…”

“Furthermore if I hear my orders have been ignored I will ensure all guilty parties are punished with banishment!”

“…”

“Sweating brother?” Protocol laughed.

“And you!” Twilight spun to face Foreign Minister with some annoyance, “You are to send envoys right away, no meandering, they are to move with all haste to this clan chief and demand answers as to why this child of his has run riot without control!”

“But…!”

“In fact I will write a letter to this clan leader myself!” Twilight declared, “If they respect honor most they will honor our question with an answer, if one doesn’t come this bandit will be hunted down without mercy and locked away until he is old and featherless!”

The room was in stunned silence, so much so the sweat falling from both brother’s foreheads could be heard hitting the ground.

“Right!” Twilight announced, taking a breath to calm down, “Everything is now settled, I have a letter to write, dismissed everyone.”

Marshal remained behind with a look of pure admiration on his face… he could see it now… this young princess had some great potential! She had the wisdom and kindness of Celestia and the hard but fair no nonsense style of Luna, a perfect combination.

“The best of both worlds…” He muttered.

“Sorry?” Twilight asked, raising a brow.

“Nothing my lady!” Marshal saluted, pride for this new princess in his eyes.

Twilight blinked in confusion… then blushed and tried to hide her face behind a hoof.

Author's Note

Okay, a bit of light hearted stuff to dull the senses... what? Who? I didn't say anything...
Nah, not at all...

Not like something darker is brewing on the horizon *cough cough*

Also... new keyboard! YAY!
Its cheap but good, thank the world, more importantly its chunky so I like it.
...for some reason my computer needed an update to use it... its a bloody keyboard but okay, whatever.
Damn my ancient computer, barely Windows XP.