I wasn't prepared for this
The Crystal Empire was a large magical kingdom spreading from the northern Equestrian plains to the snow and ice capped peaks which marked the border with Yakyakistan. The Empire was imbued with a powerful magic. It had been peaceful and prosperous for most of its history, protected by the power of love and glittery trinkets. There had been a spot of bother with an uncooperative dragon a long time ago, but that had been sorted out, and was followed by a long period of stability, during which the crystal ponies went about their favourite activities such as jousting, preparing crystal berry nectar, and fashioning crystals into tacky jewellery.
Tragically the kingdom had then had the misfortune to fall under the control of the particularly vile King Sombra. Everypony was thoroughly unhappy, until a white pony princess arrived to save the day. Except before anypony could celebrate, the entire kingdom fell into a temporal anomaly, to emerge a thousand years into the future, only to be re-attacked by the just-defeated despot. By this point everypony was thoroughly confused about what was going on, but then the kingdom was saved by a heroic little dragon and a pink pony princess assumed the throne. The crystal ponies went back to jousting and making jewellery. The economy picked up, trade in crystal trinkets boomed. They launched a bid to host the Equestria Games. Everything was looking in good order. The Crystal Empire was a pony nation on the rise, excited to wave their flag for the games. There was, however, a small issue which could complicate things.
They were a thousand years behind the times.
08:05
Her Royal Highness Princess Cadance, Empress of the Crystal Throne, walked into the breakfast room on the forty-second floor of the crystal tower of the crystal castle at the heart of the Crystal Empire. The morning sunlight shone through the eastern window and reflected off the sapphire walls, amethyst floor and lead glass ceiling. The breakfast table had been set by the castle catering staff with an extensive buffet of crystal berry compote, rolled oats and grains, milk, yoghurt, bread rolls, eggs, cheese, toast, and many other local and imported foodstuffs. It was, appropriately enough, a buffet fit for a princess.
“Cadance!”
“Good morning Twilight. I’m so pleased you’re able to join us today.” Cadance embraced the young unicorn pony.
“I really wanted to come back to help as you start the preparations for the Equestria Games. I had to go back to Ponyville yesterday to check up on how Spike was managing with all the critters, but it turned out he had done a fantastic job, so I took the night train back here so I could be with you this morning. I’ve put together a checklist of things we need to sort out.”
From the other side of the table Shining Armour looked up at his wife. “How are you Cadance? Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. I’m very well.” She laughed. “I’m just a little late this morning as it took so long to pick all those crystals out of my mane.”
“It did look spectacular.” He grinned. “There’s a photo of you on the front page of the Morning Post.”
Cadance was not surprised by this news. She raised her eyes and briefly stared at the reflection of the breakfast table in the ceiling. “What do they say this time?”
Shining levitated the paper before him and scanned page two looking for a suitable paragraph to read aloud. “’Princess Cadance looked truly radiant, dressed in the traditional Crystal Empire crystal headpiece with apatite and aquamarine accessories which perfectly complemented her tri-colour mane, proving that the traditional polished head-turning style of beauty is truly timeless…’”
“Does it say anything about the games?”
Shining flipped through the pages. “Err… Well… it mentions that the event was the announcement that the host of the Equestria Games would be the Crystal Empire… It doesn’t seem to give any details…”
Cadance sighed. “Maybe tomorrow. I must schedule an appointment with the castle press office. We need to talk to them about how to get better publicity. The Morning Post isn’t taking it seriously.”
“What!” cried Twilight. She had walked over to her brother and stared at the news sheet over his withers. After reading the front page, she seized the paper and pulled it closer. She scanned pages two, three, four and five, and flipped through the rest. “How can they do that? The first three pages don’t talk about anything except your mane and what you were wearing! Do they not write about anything except how you look?”
“Not usually,” said Cadance.
“What!”
Cadance and Shining both gave nervous smiles. They were rather more familiar with this reality than Twilight.
“The newspapers here are rather conservative,” said Shining Armour, “like many of the crystal ponies. While we have, technically speaking, joined the modern age, in many ways the empire is still a thousand years behind the times. Ponies here feel that the important thing about a princess is that she looks pretty.”
“But this is as bad as that awful supplement published after your wedding. The one where they spent eight pages talking about your dress and forgot to mention that you had just defeated Chrysalis and the changeling invasion and saved Canterlot from the biggest danger since the return of Discord!”
Cadance placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “I’m afraid that’s the way it is. For thousands of years the Crystal Empire was at peace, and the most exciting topic of conversation was pondering what the princess would wear at the next ceremony. They don’t see why they should change now.”
Twilight snorted.
“But they don’t talk about sport at all. Do the crystal ponies even know what the Equestria Games is about?”
“Some of them.”
“But you can’t let things carry on like this?”
“We have a free press. If the Morning Post just want to write about my mane style and ignore the fact that the Crystal Empire is now committed to hosting the biggest sporting event in Equestria then that is their right.”
“Is there nothing you can do? You’re the princess!”
“Well…” Cadance smiled at her sister in law and exchanged a knowing look with Shining Armour. “I have been making changes where I can.”
“What?”
“You’ll see. You said you had prepared a checklist?”
This comment had the intended effect of distracting Twilight. She levitated a scroll off the table. “There’s so much to do to prepare for the games. First we need to review the facilities. I know your new stadium is adequate for most sports, but some events such as the white water pony polo will require special facilities. Then we need to check the transport connections. With extra visitors from across Equestria, it will be necessary to upgrade the railways, so they will need to order new rolling stock as soon as possible. Then there is the matter of security. And the question of how to eliminate cheating—that could be tricky—there is a proposal to require all unicorns to pass a disabling spell—sounds a bit icky but it might be necessary—then…”
As Twilight was talking, the high gothic arched door swung open and a grey crystal stallion walked in holding his black mane, glistening with crystal conditioning, high. He bowed before the princesses.
“This is Polished Facet,” whispered Cadance to Twilight. “He works for the Imperial Household Agency, which oversees my schedule and makes sure we conform to tradition.”
“Your Highness!” cried Polished Facet. “Your humble servant bids you a good morning and congratulates you on your impeccable public appearance yesterday in the traditional crystal ceremonial headdress.”
“You’re welcome,” replied Cadance politely. “However the credit for my headdress is entirely due to Rarity, and it was Twilight and her friends who organised the welcome reception for the inspector.”
“Which didn’t go exactly as we planned…” said Twilight twisting her mouth into a nervous grin. Polished Facet paid her no attention. He unrolled a scroll and looked up at the princess.
“I have compiled a list of your engagements for this morning, beginning with ceremonial tea at the Sapphire Observance Service at the Crystal Gallery, for which you must wear a pale green frock with diamonds woven in the hem. Then…”
Cadance raised a hoof to interrupt him. “Actually Polished Facet, I will set my own schedule for today.”
“But—”
“As the Crystal Empire is now committed to hosting the Equestria Games, there are a lot of arrangements to be made. I have just been discussing this with Twilight. We must ensure that the stadia are ready, that there is adequate public transport, we must review the schedule for street cleaning and crystal polishing. Then there is the matter of security, of providing accommodation for all the sports ponies and all of our anticipated visitors from all around the world. I think it is far more important that I attend to this. To begin we have a meeting with Ms Harshwhinny scheduled for 10.00 this morning.”
This time Polished Facet held up a hoof. “You Highness must not trouble herself with such details. That is work for stallions. Your job is to show yourself in public wearing a crystal hemmed dress so everypony can shout ‘hurray hurray long live our princess!’” Twilight stared at him, astonished that he said this without a hint of irony.
“Then who will take care of organising the games?” asked Cadance.
“I will designate an official for the duty.”
“Could you give me their name?” said Cadance. “I don’t think I should delegate something so important without checking that the pony can do the job…”
“But it is not appropriate work for a mare to delegate anything. You must…” He sounded troubled, foreseeing that he was not going to win, but still determined to fight on.
“Now you mention it,” continued Cadance, apparently enjoying herself. “I don’t think there is anypony in the Household Agency familiar with the modern Equestria Games, I think I’d better take charge of this myself.”
“But you mustn’t! Taking charge is not work for a princess. You are supposed to spend time choosing dresses and preparing for public engagements…”
“Now hang on!” Twilight stood up angrily, but Cadance raised a hoof to stop her, signalling that she should try out the deep breathing technique she had demonstrated the previous day. She then turned back to Polished Facet with a broad smile of understanding.
“Well, if this task really must be done by a stallion, I suppose Shining Armour will have to do it.”
“Yes yes!” cried Polished Facet grasping at this lifeline. “The prince should take care of that work!”
“Are you able to take it on dear?” Cadance turned to her husband and smiled like a well behaved wife. A look of understanding with a hint of mischief passed between them.
“Well,” said Shining, grinning back at Cadance. “I can make a start on Twilight’s checklist. But then I would not be able to oversee the new officers’ selection and training at the crystal guard barracks… But I think there is somepony else who could do that.”
“Excellent,” said a relieved Polished Facet, picking up his scroll, “now if we can go through the dress code for the Sapphire Observance Service …”
“No no no!” replied Cadance in a perfectly sweet but decisive voice. She moved on to the end game. “If Shining is to oversee the provisional arrangements for setting up the committees to oversee the preparations for the Equestria Games, then he will not be able to carry out his duties for this morning. So I will have to cover those for him.”
She smiled and turned briefly to wink at Twilight. Polished Facet looked properly horrified.
“So we’d better get started right away, as we all have packed schedules. Twilight will you come along with me?”
Twilight grinned back at the princess. “Yes.”
“Let’s go!”
The two mares disappeared in a magic flash leaving a disheartened Polished Facet to pick up his scroll, unsure of what direction to take.
Cadance and Twilight reappeared on the street square a hundred metres below the breakfast room and set off trotting through the crystal streets together.
“Polished Facet is a nuisance,” said Cadance. “We need him because he knows more about the traditions of the Crystal Empire than anypony else—I can’t rely on you searching the library for information on every aspect of life in the empire. I try to maintain these traditions—unless there is good reason not to—as it clearly matters to the crystal ponies. He was the one who explained the importance of my ceremonial headdress yesterday. Unfortunately he is also a sexist old fool who thinks he can order me around and set my day’s agenda. His mind is so focussed on his image of a perfect princess, that he doesn’t see me as a real pony. I make it a rule that whenever he tells me I can’t do something because I am a princess, I make sure I find a way to do just that.”
She said all this in her usual calm collected manner, but Twilight could see that it was a real frustration.
“Does that discourage him?” asked Twilight.
“No,” admitted Cadance. “But it lets me have a bit of fun and try some new things.”
09:00
At the barracks of the Royal Crystal Guards, Cadance and Twilight were greeted by General Corundum, a large purple stallion wearing the traditional silver plated armour and crested helmet which marked him as a senior officer. He appeared genuinely delighted to see the princess.
“Your Highness—to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
Cadance got straight to business. “Shining Armour is otherwise engaged this morning, therefore I will direct the initial selection exercise to recruit the next batch of officers. As you are aware the extra security requirements for the Equestria Games mean we need extra officers to handle the event.”
“Of course—I will have the candidates line up for inspection so you can judge how well they have polished their armour.”
“Much as I love shining armour, it is more important to judge them on their physical fitness and aptitude for leading military operations.”
“Of course, of course—we have prepared an assault course to assess their agility and determination. I will direct them on that. You must, of course, keep your distance. We wouldn’t want you to get that nice pink coat dirty. Ha ha ha!”
He laughed loudly until he noticed that the princess was not joining in.
“That will not be necessary General, I will lead the exercise myself.”
“You’re serious?”
“Absolutely.”
“But-but—but that’s not possible. The guards would never take orders from a mare.”
Cadance smiled. Her purple eyes twinkled. “We shall see about that.”
Outside, Cadance walked along the row of guardsponies-seeking-promotion. She was disappointed, but not surprised, to note they were all male. The crystal stallions stood to attention, slightly anxious at the sight of their princess. With a costume change efficiency to rival Rarity, Cadance had dressed in combat gear, however instead of the traditional plate armour of the guards, she had chosen a green and black camouflage outfit, her tri-coloured mane sticking out under a regulation military cap. She blew her whistle sending a shrill sound into the air.
“Recruits! Officers of the Crystal Guard must be strong, fast, loyal, brave, and able to endure extreme hardship. Is that understood?”
Cadance shouted the message at a volume to rival the captain of the Wonderbolts. The row of stallions looked at one another nervously.
“I said Is That Understood?” The Commander in Chief of the Crystal Guard blew her whistle again and thrust her head against officer candidate number one.
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Good. The first exercise is an assault course, which will test your speed at crossing difficult terrain, climbing walls, nets, tunnels and other obstacles. I shall lead the way. Follow as fast as you can. Only the fastest ponies completing this exercise will progress to the next round. Ready… Go!”
Cadance set off at full gallop onto the course. The sudden start caught the recruits by surprise, but they quickly got to their hooves and chased after the royal yellow pink and purple tail. Anxious to catch up, the front runners were so focused on her behind that when she abruptly leapt into the air to clear the first obstacle they were unprepared and promptly collided with the brick wall.
Cadance jumped down and dived into a muddy pool, wading across until she was almost completely submerged and only her horn sticking out the brown liquid marking her position. Reaching the end of the pool, she shook the mud off her coat before diving head first into a long twisting tube with a diameter only just wide enough to accommodate her body. The guardsponies followed, slowed down by their heavy armour. Emerging from this she thrust her head under a large net covering the ground and wriggled forwards. Her horn caused some problems as it got stuck in the holes, allowing some of the faster crystal ponies to catch up. She forced her head down into the muddy earth and ploughed a furrow under the net, kicking wildly with her hooves. Once free of the rope net, she galloped into the final stretch—a long run through dense patch of woodland, filled with brambles and gorse—dodging the trees with expert precision she reached the finish line, marked by a ravine, and swung across this on a rope before letting go and sailing through the air to land on four hooves next to Twilight Sparkle.
“That was fun. I do enjoy a brisk trot after breakfast.”
Twilight was impressed. This was a side to Cadance which she did not see so often. “How did you get so good at that? Have you had some training from Rainbow Dash?”
“No—I just read a lot of Daring Do books.”
One by one the recruits ran out of the woods, swung across the ravine and came up to join Twilight and Cadance in varying states of exhaustion. Twilight noted their finishing times on a clipboard. As the last few came in, the general trotted up to them, clearly resolved to say something.
“Your Highness! You just can’t do this. It isn’t a job for a princess!”
Cadance calmly considered this.
“Given that the Princess of the Crystal Empire is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Crystal Imperial Armed Forces, I find that statement somewhat flawed.”
“But a mare running a military training exercise… It… It’s simply not done.”
“General,” said Cadance sweetly. “You told me that the guards would not take orders for me, yet they did just as I instructed. You now say that a mare running a training exercise is not done, yet I have just done it. Are you feeling okay? Would you like a glass of water?”
“No… I just meant… This just isn’t proper.”
“You are aware that over fifty percent of the Wonderbolts are mares, including their current captain.”
“Yes… But… This is the Crystal Empire.”
“Anyway,” continued Cadance, aware that no amount of logic would change the opinion of the old fool. “We need to leave for our meeting with the Equestria Games Inspector. I’ll leave the next exercise to you.” She levitated her whistle off her neck and onto that of the general before turning to trot away. “Don’t forget to judge how well they have polished their armour.”
09:45
With a short break before their meeting. Cadance and Twilight stopped at the spa for a five minute soak in the crystal mud bath. While removing twigs and clods of earth from her mane, Cadance explained to Twilight about the state of gender equality in the Crystal Empire.
“Equality is enshrined in our laws, and no pony questions the principle. However, we are still well behind the rest of Equestria in many areas. It’s not just the Royal Guard. Mares are underrepresented in many areas of work, such as in science and technology.” She sighed. “Only a few crystal corporation CEOs or top executives are mares.”
“Why are the crystal ponies so old fashioned?” asked Twilight.
“They’re not all as bad as General Corundum and Polished Facet,” said Cadance. “Unfortunately, too many of them have a rather distorted view of what is normal. They just think the absence of mares doing certain jobs is a sign that mares are less suited to that work.”
“But that’s stupid,” said Twilight. “Can’t they see that mares are doing these jobs in Equestria?”
“Some of them are very short-sighted. And they have selective memories. They don’t like to think about when King Sombra was here, and they have a false overly positive image of the traditional society before that, when stallions went to work and mares stayed at home to raise foals. The crystal ponies are a wonderful friendly loving group of ponies. But sometimes, some of them can be very bigoted.”
She shook her head. “They also feel there must be a male hero behind every success. So after King Sombra was defeated, Spike is the one who got all the credit, instead of you, who did most of the work recovering the Crystal Heart. They now refer to him as the Great and Honourable Spike the Brave and Glorious, and they are planning to build an enormous crystal statue of him.”
Twilight chuckled. “He’ll like that. I’ll keep it a secret for now though. But that episode taught me that sometimes you have to let other ponies—or dragons—take the credit for things you do. The important thing is that he was able to get the Crystal Heart to you in time. Then I was just pleased that I passed my test.”
“Of course. No one wants to belittle Spike because we all like him and we’re grateful for what he did. But you see the problem? This sort of thing of thing happens often in our culture—males get the credit for work done by a group.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s not entirely clear. It may be that too many mares have a modest attitude. When a mare achieves something, she is more likely to say it was because she had help from friends, or she got lucky, while a stallion would say he got it because he was so awesome.”
“Sounds like Rainbow Dash.”
“Exactly. I was pleased to see Rainbow Dash playing with those fillies yesterday. We need more mares with her attitude if we are to change the culture and make it okay for mares to be awesome.”
They climbed out of the green mud pool.
“We’d better get over to the castle for our meeting with Ms Harshwhinny,” said Twilight looking at her schedule. “Then we need to inspect the stadium. Then Shining Armour said we had been invited somewhere for lunch.”
Cadance smiled. “That should be interesting.”
13.00
The Imperial Club was a private members club frequented by many of the senior civil servants and military offices of the Crystal Empire. Its premises, on a prime spot on Amethyst Avenue, was a splendid classical building with a frontage of beryl columns. In the lounge, on the ground floor, Polished Facet stood propping up an Azurite bar and sipping a crystal berry gin and tonic. The room contained an assortment of antique furnishing, a grand piano, and crystal busts of great stallions of the empire. On the wall there was a portrait of HRH Princess Amore, painted over a thousand years ago, wearing the traditional ceremonial headdress. She adopted a formal pose, and one could not tell if it was the face of a monarch resigned to her duty, or happy to serve her ponies.
General Corundum walked into the room and went to join the castle official.
“You look troubled my friend,” said Polished Facet. “Is something the matter?”
“It has been a tiring morning… The princess.”
The two stallions exchanged a look. They both understood the problem perfectly.
“She is becoming quite infuriating.” Corundum sighed. “She’s a nice girl of course—when she behaves properly. We just need to somehow get across to her what is and is not appropriate behaviour for a mare of her class.”
Polished Facet raised a hoof. “It is not our job, my friend.”
“Is it not? I thought it was your duty to oversee the official functions?”
“What I mean is—the job of policing the behaviour of a mare is best done by her husband—her stallion,” explained Polished Facet. “It is a family matter. I have tried to talk to the Prince, but it is difficult to do so when his wife is not present. Therefore,” he smiled, “I took the liberty of inviting him here. If we can get him in the club I’m sure we can explain the issue to him and convince him to deal with her appropriately.” He smiled with the thought that he might have found a way to achieve his objectives.
“Hi there!”
A familiar voice caused Polished Facet to turn around. There he saw Prince Shining Armour, and, to his horror, behind the prince were Cadance and Twilight.
“Thanks for the invitation,” said Shining. “As it happened we were in this part of town so it’s no trouble to stop by for lunch. You wanted to talk about something?”
Polished Facet was temporarily speechless but he quickly recovered. “Yes… No… I mean… She can’t stay here!” he blurted out pointing at the princess.
“Why ever not?” asked Shining.
“This is a gentlecolts club. Mare are permitted to wait in the entrance lobby, but it is absolutely forbidden for them to set hoof on this floor!”
Cadance raised her eyes with a sigh to signal that she did not understand what the fuss was about, but to comply with the rule she flapped her wings and rose slightly into the air, at the same time she lit up her horn and levitated Twilight to a point fetlock height above the plush carpet.
“I think it’s time to change that rule,” said Shining Armour.
“I would agree,” remarked Cadance casually. “It’s a bit difficult to eat lunch like this. Although I suppose we could sit on the table.”
“The Imperial Club is a bastion of tradition,” pleaded Polished Facet. “We cannot admit mares. That would signal the end of the Crystal Empire.”
“And anyway,” added the more practical minded, but equally outraged General Corundum, “it wouldn’t work. Mares just aren’t clubbable. It would interfere with our luncheon arrangements. It’s tradition that in the afternoon we go off to see the jousting or polo, and get back time for a glass of crystal berry sherry before dinner. I just don’t see how we can accommodate female members.”
“You can’t force us to admit females,” said Polished Facet.
“Indeed,” said Corundum, “it’s clearly written in the rules, and any change would require a two thirds majority of members to vote for it.”
“Except,” said Shining Armour, “the name of your club is The Imperial Club, and it is written in the constitution of the Crystal Empire, that the name of the Empire, together with its flag and crest, can only be used to support activities which have the approval of the sovereign.”
“He’s right,” said Twilight. “Article five, paragraph seven.”
“And if I can’t set hoof in your lounge,” said Cadance, “I really don’t see how I could be expected to approve your club.”
“I suppose you could change the name,” suggested Shining Armour. “Call it The Revolutionary Club, or The Republican Club.”
“Or I’m sure we could think of some other suggestions,” said Cadance with a mischievous grin.
“But we are The Imperial Club,” insisted Polished Facet. “We exist to uphold tradition and celebrate our loyalty to the Empire and crown princess.”
Cadance yawned. “Can we go for lunch now?” she said. “Somewhere sufficiently loyal to the princess to let her eat a hayburger without having to hover above the carpet. We have a busy schedule.”
“We’ll let you think about what to do,” said Shining Armour. “Catch you later.”
13.10
Two streets away, Twilight, Shining and Cadance ordered lunch at a more relaxed café, and tried to stop laughing long enough to eat it.
“The really crazy thing is,” said Twilight, choking on her hay, “that I can’t imagine many mares would actually want to join their club.”
“I don’t think there will be a long line waiting to do so,” agreed Cadance. “But that’s not the point.”
“It’s about the principle,” said Shining. “It’s unacceptable discrimination.”
“There is also a practical issue,” added Cadance. “So much of the Crystal Imperial Civil Service is run through these old colt networks. They use these clubs to talk about work, and this way they keep mares out of their discussions. This is one of the reasons for the metaphorical glass ceiling which prevents mares rising to senior posts.”
Twilight shook her head. “I never realised what you are up against here.”
Cadance nodded. “But stallions like those two are not the biggest problem.”
“What?”
“Polished Facet can be very annoying. But at the end of the day, his direct actions are mostly harmless. He just tells me what to do, and I ignore him. However he is just the most visible sign of an underlying cultural problem with the Crystal Empire. Next on my schedule this afternoon is to do a school visit. Come with me and I’ll show you the real problem.”
14.00
The Sapphire District Elementary School was located in a pleasant suburb of the city with wide streets lined with blue and pink crystal outcrops. They were prepared for the royal visit. The building was decked with bunting and all the little fillies and colts cheered and waved the ringed snowflake flag as Cadance walked in with Twilight.
“I try to schedule two or three school visits every week,” said Cadance, “so I can get to every school in the empire several times a year. I think meeting the next generation of crystal ponies is one of the most important things I can do as princess.”
This made Twilight think about Princess Celestia and her own school days. Tears started to form in her eyes.
“I have to talk with the head teacher privately about the school budget,” said Cadance apologetically. “While we do that, why don’t you go and talk to the foals in the nursery class.”
“Sure,” said Twilight. Cadance and the headmistress went into her office, and Twilight followed the direction she pointed to the nursery. This was a small room, brightly painted with a picture of stars, the moon and planets on one wall, and the sun, clouds and a rainbow on the other. Around the top of the wall was an ABC frieze, illustrated by pictures of amethyst, beryl, citrine and an entire alphabet of crystals. Every young foal in this city evidently learned their crystals at a young age. In the middle on the floor, a group of little crystal pony fillies were sat around a model castle, pushing little pony dolls around. They were so focused on their game that they paid Twilight no attention.
“Your dress is so pretty Princess Crystal.” These words were spoken by a lilac filly lying with her forelegs stretched forwards, but it was clearly the intended dialogue of the white unicorn doll at the tip of her hooves.
“I love nuzzling up to you Prince Diamond.” A little yellow filly pushed a pink alicorn doll, wearing a glittering dress, up to the unicorn prince.
“What shall we do now?”
“Let’s go dancing.”
“Can I tie a ribbon in her tail?”
While a third pink filly was occupied with fitting an oversized tail accessory onto the doll, Twilight decided to interrupt.
“What are you playing, my little ponies?”
“It’s Princess Crystal!” shouted the pink filly, waving the doll in front of her. “She’s the princess of the Crystal Rainbow Castle.”
“She’s the prettiest pony princess,” added the yellow filly.
“What does she do?”
“She likes singing and dancing with Prince Diamond. And she has tea parties and goes on picnics with her friends.”
“And she has a pretty dress and a tiara,” added the lilac filly, “and her wings really twinkle.”
Twilight considered this information and decided to probe further. “Does she do anything else?”
The fillies thought about this for a moment. It seemed that this possibility had not occurred to them. “No,” they answered in unison.
“Does she ever go on adventures?”
“No.” There was unanimous agreement from the fillies on this point. Twilight decided to disagree.
“I know several princesses who have been on lots of adventures…”
“Princesses don’t go on adventures,” corrected the yellow filly. “That’s what princes do.”
The lilac filly held up her unicorn prince doll. “Prince Diamond went on an adventure to rescue Princess Crystal’s tiara after it was stolen by a dragon. Then he asked her to marry him and they had a big wedding with lots of ribbons and crystals.”
“Would you like to hear about how my friend Fluttershy saved me and my friends from a dragon?” said Twilight.
“A real dragon. Yes!”
Twilight sat down next to the fillies and told the story of how, with her friends, she was tasked by Princess Celestia to persuade a sleeping dragon to leave Equestria. How they had journeyed up the mountain to the cave. How at first Fluttershy was too scared to approach the dragon, but after everypony’s attempt to reason with it had failed, and it attacked, she found the strength to admonish it and reduce it to tears. The little girls listened wide-eyed to all the details. As the story came to an end she heard the sound of approaching hoofsteps.
“Now would you like to meet a real pony princess?”
“Yes please!”
Cadance walked into the room and the three fillies rushed up to her.
“Wow, you’ve got real wings. Can you fly?”
“Can I tie a ribbon in your tail?”
After letting the little fillies fuss around her for a few minutes, Cadance got them to sit down.
“Now I want to tell you about some more ponies.”
Cadance got out a set of pegasus dolls, which Twilight recognised as official Wonderbolt figures, which could be bought for a few bits at stalls at every railway station in Equestria.
“These are the Wonderbolts. They are the top stunt flyers in Equestria. We have Spitfire—she’s the captain, and Fleetfoot, and Soarin, and Blaze, and Misty Fly, and Fire Streak.” As she spoke she placed the six dolls in front of the fillies. “They do lots of flying acrobatics.”
To illustrate this Cadance levitated the dolls in the air, at first sweeping through two intersected figures-of-eight, coming together, and then shooting apart in a star pattern. “They are all going to be coming to the Crystal Empire for the Equestria Games.”
“Can girl ponies be stunt flyers,” asked the yellow filly, with genuine scepticism.
Her two friend had already picked up the dolls and were swooping the figures through the air. “These are so much cooler than Princess Crystal.”
“But I like Princess Crystal.” The yellow filly held her pink alicorn doll protectively.
“You can play with both.”
“Of course you can,” said Cadance. “I’m sure Princess Crystal would enjoy flying with the Wonderbolts as much as I would.”
The fillies’ attention was now focused on the new toys. Cadance and Twilight stood up and left them to their play. Twilight explained to Cadance about her earlier conversation with the fillies.
“It’s as if it never even occurred to them that princesses could do anything other wear pretty dresses and go to picnics. Has Polished Facet been here too?”
“I very much doubt he has set hoof in a schoolroom for them last thousand years,” said Cadance. “These fillies just pick up subconscious messages that that is what princesses do because that’s what all the stories read to them are about. That’s why I wanted to introduce them to new characters with the Wonderbolts dolls. Now let’s go and meet some of the older children.”
They walked out of the schoolhouse and across the playground. On the far side was a wooden clubhouse.
“What’s this?” asked Twilight.
“It is a clubhouse,” said Cadance. “I have been here before and I can assure you that what goes on in this institution is far more critical to the long term prosperity of the Crystal Empire than anything that happens in the Imperial Club.”
Inside they found three slightly older crystal fillies, all with blank flanks busy scribbling pictures on a large pad of paper.
“Cadance!” the three immediately rushed up to the princess and greeted her with a familiar routine. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake.”
This display brought a big smile to Twilight’s face as she thought back to her own fillyhood with the princess of foalsitters. “What are you three up to?” she asked once they had finished the introduction.
“We are the Cutie Mark Crystal Cavaliers!” declared one of the three in a proud clear voice.
“We are on a quest to discover our special talents and get our cutie marks,” said the second with equal enthusiasm.
“So we are preparing a list of things to try next,” announced the third, somewhat muffled as she had a crayon her mouth.
Twilight took a step back, startled by the sense of déjà vu. “This seems familiar,” she said.
Cadance smiled. “It is a scene you may encounter across Equestria. Foals will be foals. We may be a thousand years behind the times, but some things never change. Twilight—meet Amber, Rose Quartz and Lavender Salt.”
The three fillies smiled and waved, but they were primarily focused on their chart.
“We have a new list,” announced Amber. “Last week we tried looking after animals, cake baking, embroidery, and making jewellery. None of them got us a cutie mark. We will now try painting, knitting, flower arranging, fashion modelling, aromatherapy, and line dancing. That’s all we could thing of so far.”
“But one of those will work for sure,” said Lavender Salt.
“You said that last time,” said Rose Quartz.
Twilight wanted to help. “Have you tried astronomy?”
“What’s that?” asked Amber.
“Looking at stars and planets and things in the night sky,” said Twilight. “You should borrow a telescope and have a go. I had a lot of fun doing it as a filly, it didn’t turn out to be my special talent—well not exactly—” she added thinking of the star symbol on her flank, “—but I still learned a lot from it.”
Amber listened to this then shook her head. “That’s not for ponies like us.”
Twilight and Cadance were not convinced.
“What do ponies like you like doing?” asked Cadance.
“We like trying new things,” said Lavender Salt.
“And we like making lists of things to do,” said Amber. “Well I do.”
“And drawing pictures,” said Rose Quartz.
“I think you might like astronomy,” said Cadance. “There are lots of other things you might like to try. How about fencing or archery?”
“Or chemistry or studying ancient scrolls,” added Twilight.
“Or relay racing, or handgliding, or skiing,” continued Cadance.
“Can we try those things?” asked Amber with a puzzled look.
“Of course you can,” said Cadance. “And when the Equestria Games comes to us next year, you will have lots of opportunities to try all sorts of things. There will be lots of sportsponies to show you how.”
“Wow,” said Lavender Salt.
“Can we try zip-lining,” asked Rose Quartz.
“Err—be careful with that one,” said Twilight.
“Go for it,” said the princess. “I’m afraid we have to leave now. But I have a little gift for you.” She gave them a copy of ‘Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone’. “I think you’ll like it.” Then they left the three fillies plotting new adventures and walked back towards the castle.
“It’s crazy,” remarked Twilight. “In Ponyville we couldn’t stop the Cutie Mark Crusaders doing crazy things. But here you have to actively push them to consider new things.”
“They will learn,” said Cadance. “They just need a bit of encouraging. Until I met them, no pony had never even suggested that their special talent could be anything other than a narrow list of Things Suitable For A Young Filly.”
They walked in silence for several minutes through the crystal streets.
“I’m beginning to see why you were so determined to bring the Equestria Games to the Crystal Empire,” said Twilight.
Cadance nodded and smiled. “It certainly raised a few eyebrows in Canterlot and Manehattan. A year ago, nopony had even heard of the Crystal Empire, and suddenly we were competing to host the biggest sporting event in the pony world. It seemed very ambitious for a nation emerging from such a long period of isolation. I had plenty of advisers telling me that it was too soon—that we should wait another few years so they could focus on economic reform and aligning the legal system with the rest of Equestria. But I knew we had to do it. Everypony thinks that we just want to do it to show off the wealth of the Crystal Empire to the rest of Equestria—of course that is one reason—but it’s also to bring top Equestrian sports teams here, like the Wonderbolts. When the crystal ponies see stallions and mares completing together at the same level, they will see that gender is not an issue. Nothing will shatter that crystal glass ceiling better than Spitfire and Rainbow Dash shooting through the roof.”
Twilight was impressed. “You’re a real leader, Cadance. You can spot what needs to be done, and you make it happen, and you find a way to bring everypony along with you. Almost everypony.”
Cadance smiled. “You have it too, Twilight.”
“Me! I could never—”
“You also spot these things. You can organise complex projects. You know how to motivate ponies, and you understand the importance of friendship. I would love to have you here as a project manager for the games.”
“I would love to help, but I can’t leave Ponyville and my friends.”
“I understand. And I think Celestia may also have other plans for you.”
Twilight looked at Cadance, intrigued by this statement, but the crystal princess did not volunteer any further information.
23:00
At the end of the day, after a series of committee meetings and dinner with the city authorities, Twilight and Cadance stood side by side on the balcony of the fiftieth floor of the crystal castle, looking down at the glittering multi-coloured snow-flake pattern of the Crystal Empire streets.
“Are all your days this busy?” asked Twilight.
“Every day is different,” said Cadance. “Yesterday, I spend most of the day in the spa while Rarity battled with my mane. That was a bit boring, but it was worth it. Today has been a bit more interesting. I’m glad I could share it with you.”
“It must be a frustrating job being a princess,” said Twilight pensively. “You are responsible for all these ponies, and you have to do what is best for them, but you have so little real power. What you can actually do yourself is so limited. All you can do is try to influence and motivate them.”
“And occasionally play little jokes on them,” said Cadance with a chuckle. “If they really deserve it.” She paused for a moment. “You are right, it can be difficult. It often seems that you are galloping as fast as you can just to stay in the same spot.” She walked up to Twilight and rubbed her neck against the younger unicorn. “You are a natural leader, Twilight. One day you will be trying to direct ponies in the same way.”
The stood in silence for a few minutes watching the stars, contemplating life, the universe, and Crystal Empire public policy, before getting restless.
“What’s next on the checklist?”
Cadance the recited her planned master agenda: “We need to eliminate the pay difference between mares and stallions, achieve equal representation in the crystal parliament, boost the number of fillies entering medicine and engineering, and introduce an empire-wide system of fully-paid maternity leave.”
“Maternity leave…” repeated Twilight.
“I think we are going to need it.”
