Worthy of the Sun

A refreshed Radiance strode into the throne room from her side-entrance, a tapestry being moved back over the hidden doorway as she left it, gold-shod hooves making muted clicking sounds as she walked across the red carpet that covered the stone floor. Yearling was waiting for her as always, to the immediate right of her throne.

"Ready?" Yearling asked.

"When you are," Radiance said, taking a seat. Her seat, by birthright, title and deed.

Yearling nodded, and motioned to one of the guards near the doors, who reached out and along with his counterpart on the other side, pulled the main throne room doors open, letting in sunlight, and revealing a figure clad in robes, silhouetted by the sunlight.

"Your highness," the figure said, bowing as he walked into the room. "Thank you for taking the time to see me."

"The pleasure is mine," Radiance said, nodding respectfully. "Can I ask you for your name?"

"You can ask me for whatever you desire," the figure said. "I am Curio, and I am the greatest merchant in all of Equestria and beyond."

"A mighty boast," Radiance said. "I have seen the markets of Ghallanda, you know."

"A wondrous place," Curio agreed. "And many goods can be found there. But never under one tent, and they do not sell everything a pony could want." Curio grinned. "I can."

"Pull the other one," Yearling snorted. "It has bells on."

"Captain Yearling," Curio said, pointing a hoof. "Am I right?"

"That's my name," Yearling said.

"I have what you want most, Captain Yearling," Curio said. He placed his hoof on his heart. "If I do not, the princess may execute me where I stand."

"Please do not ask my soldiers or myself to kill you," Radiance said.

"You're right, it would ruin this carpet," Curio muttered. "Well, strike me down, whatever; the point stands. I have what you want most. I have everything anypony wants most. And I know exactly what it is."

"I'll save you the guesswork," Yearling said. "There's a berry that grows in a grove a few days out of Avalon, doesn't grow anywhere else."

"Say no more," Curio said. "I know the one. Here." Curio pulled a tiny pouch out of his robes, and with a flick of telekinesis, threw them to Yearling.

The aged ranger caught it, and tugged the drawstring loose to look inside. His eyebrows raised in surprise, and he pulled out a small, yellowish berry.

"Well?" Radiance asked, curious.

Yearling sniffed it, and took a nibble; it was harder than it looked, and he grimaced as he tasted it.

"Yep," he grunted. "That's the one, alright." He grinned. "But you didn't let me finish, Curio. I wasn't after the berries themselves."

"I know," Curio said, grinning slyly. "You wanted the seeds so you could grow more, and have been regretting not taking them when you could 26 years ago. Look in the bag."

Yearling looked again, and tipped the bag into the frog of his hoof. Two more berries rolled out, followed by a pinch of tiny seeds.

"Well, I'll be," Yearling said, putting the seeds and berries back into the bag carefully.

"I am the greatest merchant in all of Equestria -- for allowing me to demonstrate that, no charge, Captain."

"This is all very well and good," Radiance said. "But why did you request this audience? Surely not to show off."

"I need to be, without doubt, the greatest merchant," Curio said. "And that means my claims need to be absolute." He pointed his hoof at Radiance. "You, Princess. I have what you desire most."

"Impossible," Radiance said, without hesitating. "You can't give me the prosperity of my people in perpetuity, it is an intangible thing."

"No, but I can give you the means," Curio said, reaching into his robes. "Which, incidentally, happens to be something I know you craved in the past..."

"No way," Yearling said. "You don't-"

"But I do," Curio said. "Princess Radiance Blueblood of Equestria, I have what you need."

Curio's hoof left his robes, and with it came a familiar, worn gold item. Hollow on the inside, inscribed with images of the sun and set with timeless gemstones, it took Radiance's breath away; she couldn't look at the item without seeing it on top of Solarion's head.

"The Solar Crown," Curio said, smiling. "The power of the sun, eternal and unlimited. You can use it to create or destroy, nurture or ruin. The future of Equestria and all of the world could be yours."

"T- That's impossible!" Yearling blurted. "That must be a fake! The old sun king is wearing the crown!"

"The old sun king is gone," Curio said. "His throne is in ruin, his body gone, spirit departed. This is all that remains. And it could be yours, Princess," Curio added, proffering the headpiece.

Radiance stood up, struck dumb by the sight of the artefact, and stepped down from the throne, approaching Curio, who bowed his head and held the crown ever higher. She stood above the bowed Curio, tall and regal, and regarded the crown.

"Is… Is it real?" Yearling asked.

"It's real," Radiance said. "Curio… I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything, then," Curio said. "Just do it. This is your destiny, isn't it?"

Radiance reached out with a hoof, and-

Whack

Curio flew backwards across the carpet, knocked off his hooves by the strike to his face.

"Radiance!" Yearling exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

There was a clear ping as the Solar Crown hit the ground and bounced, rocking in circles until it was still.

"Princess!" Curio exclaimed.

"Curio, it is as you said," Radiance said. "If you did not have what I desired, I was to strike you."

"But-"

"I'm sorry, Curio," Radiance said. "But I do not desire nor need the Solar Crown, I see that now. I have done without it so far, and I will continue to do so."

There was a loud crack of splitting steel, and Radiance looked down at the Crown; it had suddenly split clean down the middle, and before their very eyes, began to fade and crumble.

"What?" Curio exclaimed sitting up and scrambling towards the crown. "No, no! What's happening?"

Radiance didn't say anything, just watching as the golden crown decayed, crumbling to a fine powder before their very eyes as Curio tried to scoop it up; the grains of gold dust flowed out of his hooves, and began to fade as it hit the ground; before long, the crown was gone, and no trace remained.

"Radiance," Yearling said quietly. "That was…"

"Nothing," Radiance said, turning away. "If I had seen it for what it really was all those years ago, maybe I would already have what I desire."

"But, the prophecy," Curio blurted. "Chancellor Puddinghat foretold it! You would control the power of the sun!"

"He'd been wrong before," Radiance said. "I wonder how much he was actually wrong about, in the end… maybe each of his predictions came to pass because we made them?" Radiance turned her head to look at Curio. "I think this audience is over, unless you have something else?"

"I- I-" Curio stammered, bowing his head in defeat. "I have nothing else…"

"Then I wish you the best of luck," Radiance said. "You might not have everything that absolutely everypony wants, but I believe you might well be the greatest merchant in the land."

Curio nodded, and got up; with two guards flanking him, he walked out of the throne room, and the doors closed behind him. Yearling watched them go, and looked down at the ground where the crown had sat.

"So, it was a trick, then?" Yearling hazarded, trying to understand. "Some sort of cursed replica?"

"Nope, it was real," Radiance said quietly, staring at a tapestry depicting her conquest of Hyperborea. She looked at her hoof, and saw it trembling. "I could feel the power."

"You really did it, then?" Yearling asked. "You turned down the real Solar Crown."

"Like I said," Radiance said, clenching her hoof and putting it back on the ground. "I don't need it. The old sun king was right -- I'll never hold it, now."

Yearling opened his mouth, but no sound came out, as he watched a shaft of sunlight start to move with remarkable speed; coming through a window above the main doors, it flowed down the wall and along the ground, onto Radiance, who grimaced and shielded her eyes from the sudden sunlight.

And then she exploded into flames, the wave of energy causing tapestries to flap in a gale, and knocking Yearling clean off his hooves as his Princess was immolated in golden energy.

"Radiance!" he exclaimed. He sat up, and tried to look at her, but had to avert his gaze from the intense light and warmth, gales of wind increasing in intensity until-

Yearling lowered his hoof tentatively; he couldn't see properly, a large dark spot on his vision, but he thought he could see a tall mare where Radiance had been standing; the Princess wasn't short, by any measure, but the new equine standing in her place had easily doubled in size, and her mane and tail… they were flowing waves of energy, with no sign of the luxurious golden locks that had earned Radiance her name.

"Princess?" Yearling hazarded. "Is that-"

The tall mare extended her leg in front of her, looking down at it tentatively. She tried raising and lowering a hindleg, and turned around on the spot, slowly at first, but with rapidly growing confidence.

"Yearling," she said quietly. "Are you seeing this?"

"I must be," he said. "Are those… wings?"

Radiance looked at her sides, and tentatively extended her new limbs; the feathered appendages expanded, each one as wide as the wingspan of an ordinary pegasus. She looked to the window through which the sun shone, and on an impulse, stretched a hoof towards the source. Narrowing her eyes slightly in the light, she moved her hoof slowly downward, and the shaft of sunlight left her face, moving back up the wall.

"The power of the sun," Radiance whispered. "I guess Puddinghat was right, after all."

"What does this mean?" Yearling asked. "What are you going to do now?"

"What am I going to do?" Radiance asked. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do." She turned to walk towards Yearling. "First," Radiance said, "I'm going to have breakfast, because I am starving."

She extended a golden-shod hoof to the fallen guard, and Yearling took it, feeling the warmth in her hoof, as if she had been sunbathing for a day, and clambered back up with her help.

"And then?" he asked, tilting his head back further than usual to look up into Radiance's face.

"And then, we will have to make some changes around here," Radiance said. "Such as the doorways. They are much too short, now."

"I'll have the carpenters draw up renovation plans," Yearling said.

"And while you're at it, have the scribes update my title to include my first name," Radiance said.

"What?" Yearling tilted his head. "You have three names? Your first isn't "Radiance"?"

"I'm nobility, I have at least three. It's my middle name," Radiance admitted. "I always felt my first name was a bit presumptuous, seeing as I didn't control the sun just yet."

"Then what is your full name?" Yearling asked.

The Princess cleared her throat. "I am Princess Celestia Radiance Starlight Cascadia Euphemia Blueblood, eldest of Platinum, inheritor of the sun, ruler of Equestria, and possessed of numerous additional titles that I don't care to repeat," she declared, and shot Yearling a look. "And I'll thank you to not ask me for my full name again, or we'll get nothing done."

Yearling bit his lip. "Can I just call you "Celestia"?"

"Please."