Wonders

The next day we left the mare at the train station, she still felt hate and I found myself almost hoping I would not have to freeze her later.

It was just a short trip west and up a mountain to Canterlot, we arrived at the train station and were immediately escorted to the castle by royal guards.

On the way I sensed a lot of disharmony. It was mostly jealousy, everypony wanted what somepony else had, and every single pony seemed to be effected by this desire, and those who weren’t were the ones who already had more than anypony else, and they were effected by greed.

The worst town yet, and right under the twin princesses noses too.

We entered the castle and went straight to the great hall, where Celestia was waiting on her throne, Luna was nowhere in sight.

“Hello Zephyr, welcome to Canterlot” the princess greeted me informally and happily, like we were friends. “Twilight tells me in her letters that the kingdom is doing well on the inspection”

“It was” I said “until I got here. Your capital is absolutely rife with disharmony, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those ponies out there are hiding greyness under makeup.”

This seemed to have an effect on Twilight and her friends, perhaps they have seen corrupted ponies before.

The sun princess did not seem bothered though.

“Oh surely you exaggerate, the ponies of Canterlot can be a bit, snobby, at times, but they are goodhearted, just like everypony else in this kingdom”

I think she expected me to argue, but I did not need to. It did not matter what the princess thought, she did not command the storm.

We left the castle and walked the streets of Canterlot; nothing had changed in the few minutes we were away.

I suppose Canterlot could have been helped, like the last town had been helped, if somepony wanted to go around solving problems.

But that wasn’t my job, yet, and my escort seemed depressed after we left the determined mare behind.

The pony who would best be able to help was the sun princess, and she seemed blind to the faults of her kingdom.

I guess sometimes we only see what we want to see.