"Mmmm," I moaned, stretching my neck.
With the satisfying pop here and that, the rest of my senses flooded me as I emerged through a door into the crowded hallways of ponies moving to and fro.
I briefly looked back to the classroom but quickly turned away when my stomach made itself known. Magical sciences right before lunch, something some students would kill for. Magic can be exhausting sometimes, and having lunch after might as well be called Elysium. Or, at least it is when compared to school.
Turning down the halls, I kept my eyes out for my friends and moved at a slow canter. More often then, I'd just meet them at the cafeteria, as I was the closest there, but might as well try.
Along the way, I got several greetings and hellos. Being royalty gave me instant popular status. I kept my friend group a bit on the non inclusive side, sure it was nice to meet everypony and I didn't really mind, but there is a line between friend and acquaintance.
Though what was debatably more annoying than those just wanting to meet me were those who tried to cozy up to me for benefits or constantly asked questions about what it's like to be royalty or questions about my Mom. My Mom is my Mom, like any other Mom. The only difference is that she is a princess and has duties, and I may be privileged on some matters but that's about the end of it.
Two years at this school had built my reputation up enough to keep the worst of them away, and it was only the occasional pony that wanted to meet me.
With another hello and short chat to a pony I didn't know, I abandoned my search for my friends and decided to just make my way as a faster paste.
My short trip didn't take long, stopping the moment I smelt food nearby. Speeding my pace up more so rewards me with the delighted sight of an almost nonexistent line, something that I took advantage of. With a few skips, and hello to the cook, I left with an extra large bowl of curry. A spoon found itself in my mouth before I even reached my usual seat.
Snapping out of my food haze, I nearly bumped into the table I was heading for. Stuck between the choices of more food and having to set everything down, I reluctantly set my food down along with my saddlebags.
But once everything was set, I immediately ripped into the curry, like a ravenous vampire drinking every last drop. Like a predator, I savored the taste on my tongue and lapped up every last bit off my spoon. With eyes like a hawk, I lunged down for more. I moaned with the taste, like a thestral in the throes of ecst-
"Yeeesh, Aurora, what'd the poor curry do to you?"
"Hrk!" I splurged, a hoof pounding my chest.
Quickly, I grabbed myself some water and chugged it down. And after that, I coughed out the rest with a desperate gasp of air. With fresh air and a clear mind, I turned to Silver Lining, an earth pony. She had, as you may have guessed, a silver coat and a yet brighter silver mane. Her cutie mark was of book and quill. She enjoys making short stories.
She was a great friend to whom I was currently sending a death glare.
She giggled and sat down after confirming I was fine. She brought her own lunch, which was just a sandwich and salad.
"Eating light?" I questioned.
"Oh please, how else am I supposed to get rid of the extra pudge I put on during summer?" She wiggled her flank.
I rolled my eyes and began counting, "Oh I don't know, exercising, working out, not binging so much-"
"Yes yes, that's enough." She blushed holding a hoof to my mouth.
I smirked behind that hoof of hers, only raising a brow. With an eye roll, I took a large scoop of my curry.
"Hello~!" Sing-sang a voice called behind.
I turned and waved to Amber Song, an amber pegasus with a bright orange mane. Her well-toned figure and flanks were testaments to her beauty, only matched by the number of stallions she's turned down. Her cutie mark showed off two calligraphed must notes, a talent for singing.
Frankly, I myself was jealous like many others. Something that was well known in our circle.
"You know," Amber smirked, "if you keep eating so much you'll never get flanks like mine."
"Says the one who doesn't have a colt friend." I retorted.
We both giggled as she sat down with her own lunch from home, a literal cake slice, and assorted snakes. Oh, the irony.
"Says the one who is royalty and also has no colt friend." Silver shot from behind.
"Oh please," I dramatically held a hoof to my heart, "I'm royalty, if I wanted a colt friend I could easily get one."
"And yet, you don't."
I pouted, "Says the pony who also has no colt friend."
With some melodrama, Silver posed with smugness in her eyes, "Oh yeah? Wanna bet on that?"
"What?!" Amber and I jumped.
"Who?! When?!" Where?! How?! I snapped out.
"Spill girl, all of the juice details!" Amber leaned over from her seated position.
"Nuh-uh!" Silver shook, smiling all the same.
"Whhat! Oh c'mon!" I pleaded, "What's his name at least!"
Silver slowly shook her head with closed eyes, zipping her lips and crossing her hooves.
"Pleaseee!" Amber and I begged.
Peeking from one eye, she looked at us and leaned towards us. With a hum, she spoke.
"Okay, I can show you a picture of him, on just one condition."
Amber and I landed closer.
"You know, Aurora, in how many years have we known you, known royalty? Yet not one hair nor a bit of the castle-"
"A tour of the castle, deal!" I grabbed a hoof and vigorously shook.
I shook her with such vigor that she shook up and down on her seat.
"Oh, wow. That was easy."
I bonked her head, "Silly, you could've just asked! You're my friend."
She blinked, "Wait, seriously? After all this time? All I had to do was ask. How was I supposed to know, you never brought anything remotely royal up before!"
I giggled, "Well, duh. You never asked."
Silver began to pout. Forgotten in the conversation, I turned to Amber, who only stared at me with a slightly open mouth.
"Y-you're," she began to dramatically fake a cry, "you mean I could've asked all this time! Oh, the time wasted!"
I giggled until her performance melted into a silly pout.
"I can never tell if you're going to be a model or a performer," I complimented.
"It's not our fault, don't you usually turn away those asking about that sort of thing?"
"Mmm," I hummed in thought, "well, yes. But! That's because they aren't my friends, per se... Merely, acquaintances and friendly faces I meet."
The two pouted, before I turned back to Silver with a cherry red face, "Anyways! No more delay! Colt friend, now!"
Silver's pout transformed into her sticking her tongue at me, "You'll have to wait till after classes. I have a picture on the Solarnet, but not on me."
That said, I turned around, dropped my saddlebags, and pulled out my own laptop, setting it down on the table. I opened it and was immediately shown me logged into my own account on my preferred browser. With lightning speed or two clicks, I was logged out.
"Log in, colt, now," I ordered, pointing toward the laptop.
Silver blinked at my abruptness, looking from me to my laptop. But with a shrug, she moved to the laptops but froze before starting.
"What?" I questioned.
"You have access to the Princess's account?!"
Curious, I took a peak over her shoulder, seeing she hadn't done anything but stare at the two quick access accounts I could log in to which were my own account and my Mom's.
"Well, duh. She is my Mom." I nonchalantly waved a hoof.
They both gave me a dead stare, and I questioningly looked back.
"Am I missing something?"
"Tell us, what's there!"
"Umm, how would I know?"
They stared at me like a gasp, as if I passed up a million bits.
"Wait... So, you don't have access to her account?"
"No-no, I do, I just don't go on it." I tilted my head.
"You're saying you've never once snooped, despite having access?"
"Yes..? Uh, should I have?"
Silver grabbed my shoulder and shook me back and forth, "How do you not understand this mare!"
I let her continue to shake me, playing along until she stopped.
"Um, what am I missing?"
"Aurora, you may see the Princess as your Mom, but she's the flippin' Princess. Of. Equestria!"
"Oh.... Oooohhhhhh," I sluggedly realized.
They both faced hoofed groaning.
"Well, to be fair, I don't really see her as a Princess. I see her as just my Mom, like how you see your own family." I defended myself.
They groaned even more. I rolled my eyes.
"Well, you wanna go look around with me then?"
That got 'em up fast, as they looked at me. Amber almost spoke but held her tongue.
"Well," Silver slowly deliberated, "I mean, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble..."
That gave me something to think about, was I even allowed on my Mom's account? I don't even remember how I even know how to access her account or why, I just do. I don't even know what she does, whether it be work stuff or other things.
"Actually... You know, she never said, or at least I don't remember her saying I wasn't allowed or anything."
"Really? You'd do it?" Silver looked up with a sparkle in her eyes.
I shrugged, "Eh, sure, why not?"
Silver jumped to hug me, as did Amber from her seat across the table.
"Oh thank you thank you thank you! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! To see the Princess's browsing history!"
I didn't really see what the big deal was, but either way, it wasn't too much of a hassle for me.
With practice ease, I slid up to the screen and started to log in as I normally do, with the only change being in whose account and password. Though, unexpectedly my ears almost broke when I logged in as both Silver and Amber squealed directly next to me.
Both of them straddled up to my side watching over me with excited glee in their eyes.
"Really girls?" I questioned.
"Oh cmon, what else is there to do?"
I rolled my eyes and finished logging in and with that done, I was on Celestia's account. And as I watched the blank search engine waiting for input, I heard some whispering behind me and turned to see more than just Silver and Amber behind me, but even more friends.
"Wuh- Velvet, Crystal, Amethyst, Ruby? When did you get here, I looked away for five seconds!"
"Silver waved us over and explained what was happening!" I watched all their excited faces with smug faces.
"Seriously? All of you?" I rolled my eyes, leaving the rhetorical question hanging.
Turning back I hovered over the browsing history before I decided to hold off. I could save that for last, for now, I looked towards the shortcut links Mom had pinned.
“Let’s see,” I wondered, “ Hoofton Wiffleton Ponecourt?”
“Isn’t that the journalist’s club’s publishing site?” Somepony asked behind.
“Huh, I guess it is.”
My Mom snooping on school drama and news is something I wouldn’t have expected. Though, I did appreciate the thought of Mom keeping an eye on me and the general school atmosphere.
I safely ignored the site as most ponies would have already had a look there earlier.
The next shortcut was to a place I didn’t recognize. Although it was in a government domain.
“Hey, what’s PetOverview.gov?”
I turned left to see Amber practically smothering my personal space, “Hey!”
I gently pushed Amber away with a glare.
“Oh cmon, I just wanted to get a closer view! Besides, we’re all wondering just who the Princess is gonna replace Philomena with.”
Softly, I cupped my hooves on both sides of Amber’s shoulders.
“She. Is. Not. Going. To. Replace. Philomena!” I exasperatedly shook her.
As Amber’s head slowly came to a stop from rolling back and forth, I turned behind my back to the soft giggling I heard. I came face to face with the rest of my friends, the last three conveniently showing up when I wasn’t looking.
“And what’re you all looking at?!”
I scrunched my face into a pout at the giggles, but I simply harrumphed and turned back to the screen.
Losing interest in those behind me, my curiosity turned towards PetOverview. With a click, it opened up into a page listing several more links. Attached to the links were a file number and title.
It became clear what this was reading through the titles.
“Ooohhhhhh!” I exclaimed, “Petition Overview!”
I then immediately frowned, “Who thought it was a good idea to call it PetOverview?”
Shaking my head a bit, I scrolled down through each file, noticing all but the top few had been colored green, blue, and red along with the labels scheduled, redirected to lower court, and denied respectively.
Deciding to snoop, I clicked on one called one case labeled denied. What came up was a general description of the case and all the necessary information. Though, going over it in my head, my expression quickly turned to one of slight disgust.
“Umm,” Silver asked, “are you okay, Aurora?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, “just the dumb petition.”
“Wait, you can understand all this legal jumbo?!” Amber piped up.
“Why, of course I can silly filly!” I declared with a hoof to my chest, “I am royalty after all.”
“What’s it say then?”
I looked back to the description and back, “Uhh, are you sure you want to know? Because… welllll…”
“When you say it like that, it just makes it more interesting!”
I internally debated before sighing, pointing at the screen, “Mr. Two Shoes here is asking for a land grant to build a tourist resort in one of the settlement expansion aids the crown is giving to Applelossa.”
"And what's so wrong with that?"
With a frown, I read the legalese to myself again, "While he doesn't outright say it, it heavily implies replacing an orphanage for Applelossa, even outright using those funds to build the resort."
"What?!" Amber and Silver collectively shouted.
While they animatedly talked to each other directly behind me, I decided to continue reading the rest of the document, which was mostly just the small stuff. Until I reached the end, which held a small box with a personal note left behind by my mother.
"Hmm?" I questioned, "An audio file? Odd, oh well. Girls, quiet down!"
With my exclamation, the sound behind me went quiet as I clicked play on the audio note.
"I cannot believe the sheer incompetence of those swashbuckling #### ### ##### that ####### send me ######### pile called #### a petition! Raven! Why am I still getting #### covered with #### like a #### #######! Why I outta #### the #### ###### #### those ####### ## for this horrendous waste of ###### ####-!" I stopped the file.
The entire area was silent. I didn't dare turn around to see the faces. My checks were to burn as I processed the fact that was my other mother swearing like a sailor.
"W- was that-?" Somepony asked.
"Yes." I bluntly said, without my fanfare.
Silence reigned even longer as the new view of my mother presented itself. I was unsure what to think, as never once have I ever heard my mother swear so much. The all-knowing, all-caring mother anypony could ever ask for...
"Umm... " I started softly, "with those... colorful notes of my mother out of the way, let's... Go check her browsing history, yes? Yes. Okay then!"
Quickly moving past that before anyone could retort, I quickly closed out and opened up the browsing history.
"Let's see!" I clopped my hooves, "First things first, let's filter out all the regularly visited sites such as PetOver and any other unimportant stuff."
Working a little magic, I had all the juicy sites up in front.
"Hmm? 32AndThee? Oh hey, this was recent too!"
Opening up the site, the title read clearly, 'Pony Genealogy.
"Huh? Why would Mom need this?"
Amber gasped, "A royal affair!? What if you have a brother or sister?!"
"I sincerely doubt that." I rolled my eyes.
Moving through the menu, I went to the available profiles. What came up was not a profile for my Mom, but for Aunty Luna.
"Ohh, that makes so much sense. I guess Aunty Luna would want to find out if she had any family still out in the world."
Oh well, curiosity satisfied, I backed out of the browsing history and scrolled randomly down.
"Oh oh wait! Stop!" I did as commanded and stopped.
I read down the list and stopped, at the point of interest that held Amber’s and Silvers's attention so closely. With them basically hugging my sides, I could see both of their expressions from the corners of my eyes.
"What? What is it?"
Silver gave me a funny look before pointing at a specific website.
"What? I have no idea what Preenhub is."
Silver gapped. I only turned to her with a raised eyebrow before I was tackled from behind, "Oh, you poor, poor innocent soul!"
"What-!" I was shaken left and right in Amber's hold, "Hey! Let me go, Amber!"
Instead of stopping she began to pat my head, "Don't you worry, Aunty Amber will protect you!"
"I'm a year older than you." I deadpanned.
At last, she let go and smiled. I scrunch my face pouting.
"If you're not going to tell me, I'm just gonna fi-"
"No!" Said the collective voices of everyone around me, all pushing to block my access to my own laptop.
"What..?" I balked.
"For your own sanity don't!"
I returned to my scrunched pout but rolled my eyes, "Fiinee."
I'll just find out when I get home later.
Continuing down, I stopped at a random point.
"What's netiquette?"
I looked around for any affirmative but was meant with shrugs and shakes. Checking the date, it was pretty old. Opening it up, it was clear it was some kind of social media post, a long one with a list of the page scrolling amount was anything to go by.
‘Welcome to netiquette! The etiquette for the Solarnet! Updated for 1095 ANM!’
“What is this? This is just basic comment sense… Though, some of these are pretty obscure.”
I read through, imagining my Mom reading through this. Though she is pretty old…
“What’s funny?” Silver asked to my chuckle.
“Nothing, just thinking about an age joke and my Mom. If you need somepony to compare for an age joke, look no further than Celestia herself.”
That got a giggle out of her and I smiled. Once I was satisfied snooping on Aunty Luna’s family, I got bored and decided to check if Mom had any social media. Of course, she had a social media account as a princess, but that was managed by somepony else.
Moving to the browsing history's search bar, I searched up some of the social media platforms I knew. I know she has an account on Flutter, the account that was managed by somepony else. With a few more clicks, I got to Flutter and was able to auto-fill all the information I needed.
Except I saw two auto-fills, one for the Princess Account and an auto-fill for one Sunny Skies.
"Uhhh, well girls, we have two options. One Sunny Skies or my Mom's princessing account."
"Ooh, who's Sunny Skies?" Crystal asked.
I shrugged, "Dunno. Could be my Mom. Could be somepony else."
Velvet hummed in thought, "Let's look at that second one last, but first let's see what's on the Princess's account."
I shrugged an affirmative and logged in to a familiar place, but instead of my profile, it was Mom's. I was able to go over all of the recent posts and had the ability to edit, delete, etc. But I decided to not go through that. The friend's list is normally private, but here I had full access.
Opening the friend's list, I saw some recognized faces. They were mostly government workers I've seen around, a few of Celestia's advisors, friends, and even the Sunny Skies account. Private messages were unfortunately not enabled on this account, there would probably be thousands. I briefly entertained the idea of enabling it to see the chaos but decided against it.
"Anything you girls wanna look at before we switch accounts?" I questioned.
A few minutes later after a few requests, we were done and I logged out. We'd been snooping long enough for the initial excitement to wear off but we were still enjoying this snooping session.
With a few more moments I was in the Sunny Skies account. With some initial snooping, it seemed to be a Pegasus pony suspiciously white coated and pink-maned.
"Ahuh, very secretive, Mom." I chuckled.
"Oh cmon, you would've never known if it weren't here," Ruby called out.
"That's... okay, that's fair. " I sighed.
Snooping on this Sunny Skies account, we found it was very personalized, unlike the Princess account which was a bit bare and straight to the point. The private messages were open, but the friend's list was still private.
"You girls wanna snoop on the messages- huh?"
Before any of them could even answer, an alert popped up on the screen.
'Notice: Log-in from different location detected. You are now logged out.'
"Er-...." I just stared at the message, "Uh oh... Umm, well... I guess we hope she didn't get a message that I was here. Cause umm... Well, I would say we go to facebuck but-"
"You're screwed."
"I'm screwed," I sighed, giving up on trying to fill the empty silence.
It wasn't even a minute later that I got a Flype message from a very familiar pony. I didn't move to check the message, wanting to forget I got a message.
"Well? are you going to check your messages?" Amber questioned.
"And why are you so cheery? I'm boned, done, I'm going to be grounded, worse probably!" I shook Amber with both attempting to jam the knowledge into her head, and yet she only returned a goofy smile and hugged me.
"Silly pony, I said I would protect you, didn't I? In hindsight, we probably should've stopped you, so whatever happens, I'll be by your side, right girls?" I turned to the rest of my friends, all of them a bit surprised and fidgeting a bit. "Ahem~, well?"
"U-umm," Silver spoke first, "e-even if it is the princess we're facing... I... um, I'll be with you too?"
Silver admittance seemed to give everypony else some confidence, as slowly, one by one my other friends all agreed. Though everypony was hesitant, and it kind of hurt, I do understand to some degree. To them it's the Princess of Equestria, to me it's only Mom.
That they'd stand up to the Princess of Equestria for me filled me with joy once I thought about it more deeply. Wiping a teary eye, I spoke, "Awwe, thank you, girls."
With their own confidence growing, I felt my own swell up. Feeling braver, I opened up the Flype message Mom sent to me.
I let everyone read the message, "Somepony's been a naughty filly, tsk tsk. We'll talk when you get home."
I bit my lip, thinking of what to say. It took a bit before I gave up on saying anything more than three words and just replied with, "Okay... "
Her reply was pretty fast, "Oh, and you're grounded for a week."
I slumped, replying back slowly, "Sorry..."
"Psst, hey!" Amber tapped my side.
"What?"
"Ask if we could come over."
"What for?"
Amber softly gave my shoulder a punch, "We just said we'd stand by you didn't we? What, you think that was all for show?"
It took me a moment to register what she just said, willing to go right up to my mom here and now. Even if she would face a princess. I didn't bother to respond, only giggling and moving in to hug Amber.
"Thanks."
Author's Note
Wait, what? That's it? What about SIlver's coltfriend? Where is he? Noooo!
