How My Daughter Saved Equestria

There’s an old saying: “time flies when you’re having fun.” Well, soon enough, our rambunctious little Diamond Sparkle became old enough to leave the wiles of magic kindergarten behind and venture into the vast empty spaces of the humongous Canterlot Elementary School. Diamond wasn’t exactly excited at this prospect, and she begged and harangued Twilight and I to homeschool her like some of her fellow magic kindergartners.

“But why can’t I be a homeschooled pony, Daddy?” She asked me as we were preparing to go shop for school supplies, “You’ve told me how you were homeschooled for two years, and you turned out just fine!”

“Because neither your Mother nor I have the time to do so. We wouldn’t be good teachers.”

“Mommy teaches in Auntie Celestia’s old School of Magic!”

I sighed. Diamond always managed to bring up her beloved adopted grandmares whenever she felt like she was on the losing side of an argument. She referred to them as “Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna,” even though we were in no way related. But she shared an intensely close bond with the former rulers, and it was always adorable to pay them a visit in Silver Shoals and watch them light up around her.

“Yes, she does,” I told the five-year-old filly, “and that’s why she doesn’t have time. She and I are also busy enforcing laws, entertaining diplomats, and doing lots of other important stuff. That’s why you need to go to the big school with all the other foals. Who knows? You might meet some new friends!”

“But I don’t want any new friends!” Diamond complained, “I want Barrel Stripes back!”

Barrel, the filly who had been like a sister to Diamond, had recently moved to Manehattan with her family. Diamond had been so broken up about the entire affair, that she had taken to her bed and wept bitterly for hours. The two had attended magic kindergarten together, and shared a lot of the same interests. Even though they still wrote with ferocious regularity, Diamond still had a hole in her heart.

“I know you want Barrel back, sweetheart,” I gently said, “but that just can’t happen. Her family made their own decision. We couldn’t have forced them to stay here. It wouldn’t have been right.”

She seemed to accept this, but continued to harangue me for the rest of the day, and the rest of the summer about being homeschooled. The truth was, she was intensely frightened. She had never been involved in something so massive, and she ended up admitting that she was scared of the other foals. Her magic kindergarten had consisted of herself, Barrel, and one other filly, so she was highly apprehensive about attending Canterlot Elementary.

To add to our problems, there was a rather sizable media firestorm over the whole thing. When Diamond had been born, there had been paparazzi and press members all over our front lawn, trying to get the first glimpse anypony in Equestria had of the new royal foal. Poor Twilight was exhausted from the heavy labor, but she bravely faced them. We made some sporadic public appearances until Diamond was old enough to trot alongside us. Then we would go to various events, and Diamond would be the subject of a lot of attention. Unfortunately, we would have to step in and force the press ponies back so they didn’t trample her.

Now, we were dealing with the media’s coverage of her first day of school. We honestly didn’t know what the big deal was. Sure, she was the newest princess and a royal foal, but she was simply doing what every other foal was doing. Unfortunately, the entire label of regality and importance that she carried with her at such a young age dangled off of her like bait. The press became fish, and before we knew it, we had caught a lot of unwanted notice.

On the coach ride to the school, the press crowd was so thick that our poor driver could barely get through. Inside our covered cart, Diamond huddled against Twilight, shaking with fear. “Baby,” Twilight said, kissing her head, “it’s alright. Nopony’s gonna hurt you.”

“I know, Mommy,” Diamond said, “it’s…the…other foals…I’m worried about.”

I reached across and patted her head. “Everything’s gonna be fine, my Diamond. You’ll see. Ms. Cheerilee is one of the best teachers in Equestria, and you’ll love her to death!”

This seemed to perk the filly’s interest, and she acknowledged this with a cute cock of her small ears. “I will?”

“Of course, darling!” Twilight said, “she was a teacher in Ponyville when I lived there all those years ago. Now, she teaches here, and I’m delighted to be able to have you learn from her. She knows so much, and she loves passing it along to the little ponies of Equestria!”

This elicited a small smile from our daughter, but she cuddled into Twilight a little more. My wife responded by wrapping her wing around Diamond’s back, cooing into her ear a bit and trying to comfort her. I could tell that Twilight had flipped one of her many mental switches and had gone from dignified, confident princess to soothing mother in an instant. Once again I was experiencing one of the many small things that caused me to love her so much.

I smiled at her. “You’re really great at that, you know?”

“Great at what, my love?”

“Being a mother.”

Her own smile was gracious and warm, and she bent forward to kiss me. Diamond peeked out from under Twilight’s feathers and saw us. She gently scooted out and began snickering. “Mommy and Daddy, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-“

“Now, Diamond, that’s enough,” her mother said with a wry smile, “someday you’ll have your own stallion to kiss.”

“I will?”

Twilight nodded. “Indeed, but that won’t happen for a VERY long time. So, let’s keep the childish chants to ourselves. Understand?”

“Yes, Mommy.”

“Good. Now, then, here we are!”

The coach rattled to a stop in front of the giant building that housed the school. Considering that it had monopolized itself on the mountain of elementary education in Canterlot, the amount of foals teeming into the school was extreme. Diamond peeked out the window and darted back into her mother’s wing. “I don’t wanna go!” She cried in fright.

“Diamond, it’s all gonna be okay,” Twilight said softly, “everything’s been arranged, and we’re gonna go in with you.”

I nudged the coach door open, and the press ponies immediately rushed us. Their flashes were bright and they shouted their questions over one another. Each of them were trying to be the first to get the best picture of the filly or the best quote from one of us. But neither Twilight or myself were in the mood, and we didn’t want Diamond to be even more frightened than she was. So we put our heads together (literally) and sent out a soft magic wave that pushed the crowd back and didn’t allow them to come closer.

I flapped my wings and flew to the top of our coach and sat there. “EVERYPONY, BE SILENT!” I commanded. Immediately, the crowd hushed. “Now, listen! I appreciate the love and support everypony’s given our little Diamond as she takes this rather important step in her young life. However, she is incredibly nervous about today and we’d appreciate it even more if she were left alone.”

“But Your Majesty-“ A black female reporter with a golden mane spoke up.

“What is it, Scoop of the Day?”

“We have press freedom in Equestria! The Equestrian Constitution says so!”

“YEAH! YES! WE DO! LET US THROUGH!” Came the varied shouts of the crowd.

“SILENCE!” I roared again, and they immediately quieted. “Now I’ve dealt with you for five years now, and I think I know The Equestrian Constitution as good as anypony. I know your rights, and I would die to defend them. Believe me, I would. But the fact is, Diamond Sparkle is simply going to school. She’s doing what any other foal would do, so we’ll just leave it at that. My daughter is off limits. Is that understood?!”

The crowd seemed to get my message and they began dispersing. But Scoop of the Day stood around a bit, hoping to get any kind of story she could. I understood her desperation. After all, my degree in the human world was in journalism. However, that did not give her nor any other reporter the right to harass and irritate our daughter. I jumped down from the coach as Twilight and Diamond finally appeared and began trotting down the front walk towards the school door. I followed them, but not before I stopped in front of Scoop.

“Scoop…I believe I made myself clear.”

“But Prince, I-“

“Go back to the office, Scoop. There’s not a good story here anyway. It’s just a little filly on her first day of school.”

“But it’s a royal filly!”

“I don’t care. She’s not to be bothered.”

Scoop huffed a bit and turned to trot back to the office, and I turned to follow my family. Scoop was a close personal friend of mine, and I hated to be so rough with her. But she was on the verge of breaking a direct command from the co-ruler of Equestria, and she had to be reminded of that. Ponies have a lot of freedom here, I told myself, and that freedom must be defended. But that same freedom does not give anypony the right to harass anypony else, especially a little filly.