Starlight Glimmer was well acquainted with things like duty and responsibility. But it didn’t mean she liked them.

Ever since she was a little girl, she had trouble getting up in the mornings. Her nursemaids had to practically pull her out of the bed to get her ready for the day, something that didn’t change even as she grew older. However, nowadays, someone other than a maid took it upon themselves to get the Queen out of bed in the mornings.

The slight rattle of the doorknob rose her from her dreams, she had always been a light sleeper and the sound of her door opening was all the warning she needed. She laid still, opening her bleary eyes as she glanced around her darkened bedroom, listening as the door creaked opened and the patter of small feet approached her bed. Starlight hid her smile on her pillow and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep as the intruder climbed her bed, approaching her from behind.

The intruder was so small that she hardly made a dent in the mattress, and would have been successful in sneaking up on her if she bothered to be quiet about it. However, Starlight could forgive her lack of finesse, after all, she was only three years old.

Starlight waited until the shuffling got closer before she pounced.

“Got you!” The Queen said, hugging the little intruder to her chest and blowing a raspberry to her cheek.

“Mama!” Her daughter squealed in her arms, trying to get away. “Get up!”

“But I don’t want to,” Starlight said, lying on her side and holding her squirming daughter close. “I want to sleep some more.”

“But the sun is up! Papa says that when the sun is up it’s time to get up!”

Starlight groaned playfully. “Alright, alright,” she rolled over and let her daughter go. “I’ll get up.”

“Yay!”

Luster Dawn jumped out of bed with surprising dexterity and ran up to the window, pulling the heavy curtain aside and letting the sunshine in. This time, Starlight groaned for real as she sat up on the bed, rubbing her tired eyes. Her daughter grinned back, golden eyes wide and awake, despite her tousled blonde hair and her slightly mused pink fur. Her nightgown fluttered around her ankles as she climbed back to bed and into her arms.

“Where’s Miss Cheerilee?”

Luster bit her lip, her ears folding against her messy yellow curls, making her look sheepish and Starlight knew that she had given the governess the slip yet again.

Starlight sighed, shaking her head. “Luster, we talked about this.”

“But mama,” the little filly pouted, hiding her face in her mother’s bosom, “...I had that bad dream again.”

Her voice was so small and sad that it immediately wiped the smile from Starlight’s face. “The one with the fire?”

Luster nodded and Starlight hugged her tighter, smoothing her daughter’s hair lovingly. It was the third time this week she had complained about her dreams and the worry she had been holding back came through stronger than ever. Deep down, she had hoped that her family’s gift would skip a generation or several, or at least appear after Luster earned her cutie mark, but never had she expected it to manifest in her at such a young age.

Clairvoyance. It was a mysterious talent passed down from mother to daughter for countless generations in her family, and it never manifested in the same way; in her grandmother, for example, it had given her the talent to find missing objects or ponies, while Starlight’s mother had the gift of telepathy. As for Starlight herself, it had come in the rarest and the most powerful form of all...

She looked down at the hand currently petting Luster’s mane, where the glimmering star (her cutie mark) was forever etched onto her skin. The eight-point star rested on her palm, leaving behind two tails of turquoise color wrap around her wrist to her elbow. Even after all this time, she could never tell if the star was falling or rising.

Starlight shook her head and put on a smile, catching her daughter’s attention with a pat on her back. “Do you know what time it is?”

Luster shook her head, her brow wrinkling with confusion.

Starlight’s grin widened and she wiggled her fingers. “Tickle time!”

The little filly squealed when Starlight attacked her sides, and the laughter chased away the gloomy expression from the little one’s face, which was exactly what Starlight wanted. She was only three years old, she shouldn’t have to bear the weight of the terrible power that was Clairvoyance until much later in life when she was ready. Not if she, as her mother, had anything to say about it.

“Now,” Starlight said, lifting her hands from her daughter once she was satisfied. “Do you promise not to run away from Miss Cheerilee again?”

Luster nodded wild curls bouncing around her face as she did so, but stopped when she heard the door being pushed open. Lotus Blossom and her twin sister, Aloe, stepped in, followed by a slightly flustered Miss Cheerilee, and the three vowed to the Queen and the Princess. “Good morning, your Highness.”

“Your Highness, please forgive me,” Miss Cheerilee said, stepping forward before Starlight could return the greeting. “I swore that I would keep an eye on her, but the moment I turned away she just…”

“It’s alright,” Starlight interrupted and nodded towards her daughter, “I think the little lady here has something to say.”

Luster stood on the bed, her hands clasped behind her back and her head bowed, looking very much like the image of penitence. “I’m sorry Miss Cheerilee, for running away and for making you worry.”

“And?”

“...I won’t do it again, promise.”

All the mares present severely doubted the validity of such a promise, but Miss Cheerilee smiled anyway.

“Oh, alright,” Cheerilee said and motioned for Luster to come to her. “No harm was done, now let’s go to your room to get you ready for the day.”

Luster jumped from the bed and took her governess hand, waving the other mares goodbye as she left the room. Starlight dropped her smile the moment they were out the door, and she laid down on her mattress again with a sigh, throwing an arm over her eyes.

“Rough night, your majesty?”

“Just the usual,” she mumbled, listening as Lotus and Aloe moved around the room. “But last night was maddening, I was so close to getting a clear vision, but the moment I thought I had it, the dream fell apart in the end.”

The mares nodded sympathetically but said nothing, not that Starlight was expecting them to. Clairvoyance was a rare talent, even among unicorns, Starlight herself had a hard time understanding it even with all her training.

Trying to predict the future was like floating in a stormy sea, tugged in different directions by the currents while trying to keep her head above the water. While some currents were stronger than others, there was only so much Starlight could do to see them, and it was at times better to let the visions come to her, let the currents take her where they wanted, instead of fighting the fates.

But lately, she felt like she was trapped in a vortex, the visions strong and foreboding but confusing all the same. Whatever was coming it was big enough to even awaken her daughter’s talent before time, and Starlight would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried.

She left the bed with heavy reluctance and sat in front of the mirror, letting Lotus brush her messy mane and prepare her for the day. The sisters chattered amicably as they dressed their lady, Starlight too worried about her visions to listen or contribute besides an absentminded nod or a noncommittal hum.

Aloe was putting the final touches on her dress when she asked. “My lady, have you told his Highness about this?”

Her maid’s gentle words gave her a pause, but she got over it with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to alarm him with vague notions of the future that even I don’t understand.”

It wasn’t that Starlight went out of her way to keep her talent hidden, her cutie mark was visible to all, but her mother warned her early on not to flaunt it either. Clairvoyance was a misunderstood talent at best, and a hated one at worst; many mares in her family suffered terrible fates when they abused their gifts or were used by others when their talent was discovered.

She only told Aloe and Lotus after they accidentally woke her from one of her visions and she nearly hurt them in her panic, and even then she never told them the full extent of her powers. She was happy to learn that the sisters were good at keeping secrets and no one in the palace was none the wiser, not even her husband knew what her special talent was, and she wanted to keep it that way.

“My Lady, if I may add,” Lotus continued for her sister, “his Highness knows a great deal about magic, he could help you if you asked. I heard that he was one of the best students that the Academy had seen in a long time. He probably would have earned the title of Grand Wizard if he had stayed longer and his father hadn’t passed away, the only one I can think of that could match him in knowledge is Mr. Horwitz—”

“That 's it!”

The two mares jumped away when Starlight suddenly turned around with a wide grin. “Lotus, has Mr. Horwitz returned from his trip to Yakyakistan?”

“I think so, yes, but—”

“Tell him to meet me after lunch in his office,” she turned to Aloe, “and tell Miss Cheerilee to bring Luster to me after her lessons are over.”

The sisters shared a quick look but nodded anyway. They recognized the determined glint in their lady’s eyes and knew well enough by now to step out of the way.

“Shall we continue, Sire?”

Sunburst blinked, looking away from the window and down to his papers. “Yes, please continue Double Diamond.”

The stallion nodded, his face set in a grim frown as he sighed, and pulled out a scroll from his coat before handing it to Sunburst. “They have struck again.”

Sunburst’s council consisted of twelve ponies from different backgrounds and ages, carefully selected for their knowledge of the land and its citizens. He always believed that having a diverse council was crucial to running his kingdom, even if they didn’t always see eye-to-eye, every opinion mattered and was deserved to be heard.

This time, however, was the first time in his life he had seen them all agreeing on something. They were all equally outraged.

“And you bring this up just now?!” Neighsay said, one of the oldest and most stubborn members of his council, followed by a chorus of outcries from the rest.

“Everyone, settle down.” Maud Pie calmed the room without even having to raise her voice. Everyone present knew better than to cross the earth mare, even Neighsay. “We just received the news this morning, and the damage so far has only been material in nature, no pony was hurt during the raid.”

Sunburst sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“These ‘vandals are getting bolder and bolder,” Flash Sentry said, pulling out a notebook to check his notes. “This is the third time this week they have attacked this close to the city, it’s only a matter of time before someone is injured.”

“They have been attacking the countryside for longer than that!” Lighting Dust slammed her fist to the table. “The citizens are restless and I’m with them! We can’t just sit here and do nothing!”

“Calm yourself, Lightning,” Shining Armor said, cutting through the din of voices that agreed with her. “Attacking head-on without a strategy is a sure way for us to lose, and until we have more information on this group our hands are tied.”

All the members of the council looked at each other, all at a loss for words and unsure of what to think. Sunburst would have laughed if the situation weren’t so dire, his council was rarely silent about anything.

It was Double Diamond that broke the silence. “If I may say, these attacks are remarkably similar to those from four years ago.”

“You are not suggesting that the Griffons are behind this?”

Double Diamond shrugged. “Or we are dealing with a copycat...a very meticulous one at that.”

Neighsay rolled his eyes. “Those greedy bastards, after everything we have done for them, and they repay us like this.”

Worried murmurs broke around the room. The white knight had been the only one to voice everyone’s suspicion: that the griffons were quietly rebelling, or at least a small group of them, probably the part of the tribe that had refused to accept their help four years ago, and resented those that did fell in line with Annular’s demands.

“That’s what we get for showing kindness when we should have shown them strength,” Neighsay said while giving a pointed look at his King.

But Sunburst ignored him and raised his hand to bring order back into the room. “Members of the council, we could sit here all day arguing and not get any closer to the truth, until the perpetrators are found or we have more relevant information about them, we must do what we can to protect ourselves.”

He squared his shoulders and issued his orders. “Shining Armor and Double Diamond, increase security at the gates and the number of patrols in the streets at all times of the day and night. Maud and Lighting will be in charge of the investigation of the newest burning site, don’t overlook anything, even the smallest detail could be the key to solve this mystery. Flash, prepare yourself for a trip to the Griffon lands, find out if there is any discontent or rumors about a rebel group, I’ll see if I can arrange a meeting with the Griffon leader, hopefully, he will tell us something. As for the rest of you, keep your ears and eyes open for any information. Meeting adjourned.”

With that everyone stood up and left the room, but Sunburst stayed behind a little longer, gathering his papers slowly, giving himself time to think before moving on to his next task of the day, a very long list of things that would occupy him well into the night. The King sighed and took off his glasses, rubbing his tired eyes.

“Yeah, I’m with you, today was a rough meeting.” Flash Sentry hadn’t moved from his chair, leaning back with his legs propped on the table and his arms cushioning his head. “When Neighsay and his club of yeasayers get going it is impossible to shut them up.”

Sunburst smiled and put on his glasses. “I don’t know, this meeting was remarkably short compared to last week’s.”

“Because you were surprisingly quiet today,” Flash said, dropping his legs from the table as he pinned his friend with a serious look. “What’s the matter? It’s not like you to keep your thoughts to yourself.”

The unicorn glanced around the room, making sure that the doors were closed and the windows shut before answering. “Despite the evidence...I don’t think that the Griffons were involved.”

The teasing glint in the pegasus' eyes disappeared entirely as he pulled his chair closer to him. “Neither do I, but most of the council thinks so, or are willing to believe it.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of, if we are guided by our prejudices then the real culprit will get away with this. Hopefully, Maud and Lighting will find something, nothing can escape those two,” Sunburst walked up to the window, looking out at the clear sunny day with a grim expression. “We have to stop this before it escalates.”

If Sunburst had been averse to fighting before, he was much more against it now than ever before. He was no fighter and war was a waste of resources and lives in his eyes, but now there was a more personal reason for him to avoid conflict. He had a family now, and the thought of leaving them behind was such a painful possibility that he rarely contemplated it, for the sake of his heart and sanity.

“If the griffons are behind this, they would have let us know a long time ago,” Flash stated, standing up. “They’re a loud and proud bunch, especially in battle, sneaking around like this is not their way.”

“What did I say about prejudices?” Sunburst chided, but it had been exactly what he had been thinking about during the whole meeting, and even way before, when the attacks had started.

They should have known the name of the group by now, or their demands at least, but they didn’t even have that.

“Well, best get packing, Griffinstone is—Woah!”

The moment Flash pulled the door open, he jumped out of the way as a streak of pink and yellow raced into the room and straight into the King’s arms.

“Papa!”

Sunburst picked Luster Dawn up easily, using the momentum to spin her around. She squealed and raised her arms as they spun, making him smile before he settled her on his hip.

“Looks like a bumblebee has lost her way.” He teased, gently flicking her nose. “Aren’t you supposed to be in your lessons with Miss Cheerilee?”

“Nuh-huh,” she said, shaking her head and messing her curls. “It’s lunchtime!”

“Already?” Sunburst was genuinely surprised, his meetings usually ended after lunch.

A familiar voice stopped his daughter from answering. “Luster! How many times have I told you—oh.”

He looked up just in time to see Starlight enter the room, her eyes widening slightly when they met his. He found himself staring at her, just like he always did. She was a beautiful creature (something that now he was willing to admit, but knew from the moment they first met) that managed to take his breath away even after three years of marriage. Her long purple hair was tied back in a half ponytail, the strands falling behind her back in loose curls, dressed in a fine pale green gown that complemented her fur. The only other finery was the silver circlet on her head, indicating her status, but she still commanded attention with her presence alone even without it.

Starlight was in the middle of a council meeting of her own, judging by the group of ponies that followed her, peering curiously from behind their lady’s back. Soon after they were married, Starlight took over management of the castle and the staff, much to the relief of the servants, since he was rather clueless when it came to organizing parties and deciding what should be served for dinner.

Starlight bowed to him. “Forgive me, milord, am I interrupting anything?”

“No,” he said, a little too quickly, and he cleared his throat before he continued. “No, the meeting was adjourned a while ago, Sir Flash and I were just talking.”

“Ah, yes, we saw Lady Maud and Lady Lighting walking by, that’s how the little lady knew that her papa was free.”

She smiled and his heart somersaulted in his ribcage. Luster squirmed in his arms and he adjusted his grip on her, grateful for the distraction. “Running in the halls again, aren’t we?” Luster yawned and hid her face on his shoulder, clinging to him with chubby little hands. Her behavior gave him a pause, his little girl was usually energetic and cheerful, seeing her so quiet was unusual. “Luster?”

Starlight was instantly by his side, checking on Luster, after a moment she sighed with relief and stepped back. “She’s just sleeping.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, brushing his daughter's bangs from her face, he relaxed when he saw her peaceful expression. “All that running tired her out, huh?”

Starlight simply smiled and took Luster from his arms. “You could say…”

They stood there for an awkward moment, suddenly aware of where they were and their audience, and they stepped back from the other. Starlight vowed hastily and left the room, joining her group as she retreated down the hallway and out of sight.

Flash raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s the longest conversation I’ve seen you two have.”

Sunburst scoffed, walking out the door in the direction of his study, but the knight wasn’t far behind. “We talk all the time.”

“Aha, and I’m a monkey’s uncle,” Flash rolled his eyes. “Look, I grew up on a cloud farm so I don’t how marriage works for ponies like you, but from what I know, a wife and a husband should be comfortable enough to talk and see each other every day, not avoid each other like children that still believe in cooties.”

“We are running a kingdom, not a farm, our schedules don’t align most of the time,” Sunburst said. “If she needs me she knows where to find me.”

The knight looked like he wanted to say more, but changed his mind at the last second, sighing instead and shaking his head dismissively. “Alright, I won't butt in, I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

Flash walked ahead, leaving Sunburst alone at the entrance of his study; they knew each other long enough that formality wasn’t needed when it was just the two of them. He stood in front of the door, his hand hovering over the doorknob, but he turned away instead, walking towards an area of the castle he didn't visit often.

There was a rather large sitting room not far from his study that was rarely used. He heard stories of how it was used for hosting large parties and other social events, but since his mother’s passing, it had remained unused. He made sure to keep it cleaned and aired despite its lack of use, just like any room in the castle; so when the king stepped in, he was greeted by a clean but empty room, but even with the cheerful sunlight and clean furniture, he felt the ghosts of the past lingering in the room.

The walls were bare except for three portraits, all three of them depicting couples. The three couples that had ruled over Annular so far.

The first one was of his grandmother and grandfather, a battle-scarred unicorn and a petite pegasus with wings that seemed to be far too large for her body. Despite the fierceness in the unicorn’s expression, the hand draping over the mare’s shoulder wasn’t possessive or harsh, it was protective, almost loving, and the mare leaned on him with the utmost ease, making it clear that she trusted him and the two were close.

Which would explain why his grandfather went mad when she died.

The next portrait was of his mother and father. While his mother was bright-eyed and happy, his father’s smile was strained, with dark circles under his violet eyes as he looked down at Sunburst. He looked how Sunburst felt most of the time—tired but determined to push through to get things done—despite the fact that his father’s reign had been more chaotic than Sunburst’s so far. His father had inherited a broken kingdom, torn by war and his grandfather’s need for revenge, and hadn’t had much time to spare for Sunburst, opting for sending him to Magic School the moment he was of age.

Sunburst could count with his hand the number of conversations he had with his father, but all of them had been meaningful in some way, and shaped him to he was today.

He still didn’t know how to feel about the last portrait. It was well made, but the pair posing for the frame was the most distant one by far. Starlight sat on a red chair, dressed in a dark green dress, looking at the viewer with a neutral expression while Sunburst stood behind her, his hand clutching the back of the chair as he too looked in the same direction. While his grandparents looked passionate and his parents looked loving, he and Starlight looked...awkward.

Despite the slight pang of hurt in his heart as he gazed at the awkward portrait of his marriage, he couldn’t help but think it was better this way. His grandfather had lost himself when his grandmother was killed, his father turned withdrawn and sadden when his mother passed, if he got attached to Starlight and something were to happen to her…

Yes, it was better this way, for the both of them.

Author's Note

It's going to be a slow one, that's for sure. It's been a while since I have undertaken a multichapter story so I'm a little rusty but please bear with me.

Feedback is love guys