High Lord Ironwing set the newspaper down with a grimace. Once again, something big had happened in the Crystal Empire. “Get Gilda,” he ordered.

“At once,” an attendant said before he took off to find the hen.

Gilda showed up a few minutes later. “You wanted to see me, my lord?”

Ironwing handed the newspaper to her. “Read this.”

Gilda started reading the article. She was expecting it to be bad, based on Ironwing’s expression. Indeed, she felt her heart drop when she started reading it. However, she soon found it to be an uplifting story. She felt proud of Inova for stepping up and personally helping her subjects in their time of need. It made her feel good.

Then she got to the last few paragraphs, where the nobles had arrived and Inova greeted them. She struggled to contain her laughter and glanced up. The High Lord seemed to be struggling to keep the serious look on his face. “Keep reading,” he said as he tried to not break down.

Gilda kept reading, and some laughs started escaping her. The snootiest ponies in the world being coerced into dishwashing duty in order to save face was too funny, and she finally broke down in uproarious laughter. She had to lean against a nearby guard, and then she did the unthinkable. “R-read this,” she told the guard.

The guard, a proud and noble lion, trained in the art of maintaining vigilance, staying calm, keeping a level head, and showing no emotions, did as she said. He too broke down in laughter and lost his composure.

The article was copied word for word, sent out across the Griffon Empire, and distributed in the local papers. Productivity across the board went down because everyone was so busy laughing at the events and mocking the Canterlot nobles. The only ones with an increase in productivity were the jesters, jokers, and entertainers.

Notably, Fancy Pants and his family were spared the mockery. Where once they were lumped in with the rest of the Canterlot nobility in the minds of the griffons, they now stood out as ponies of great integrity.

News of Sombra’s defeat would come some time later, along with Inova’s account of how it happened. The Hussars, remembering her eagerness to meet them years before, went to the High Lord with a plea. It took fifteen minutes to reach an agreement, twelve of which was Ironwing trying to settle down and quiet the excited lions.

Princess Inova, already highly thought of for how she helped Gilda (and, less notably, her quick taking to meat), was elevated even further. A Princess on the front lines of a problem wasn’t unheard of, since Twilight Sparkle did that regularly. A Princess personally working in the food line to help feed her subjects in a time of crisis, however, was new. Inova’s feat of fixing the crystal heart by herself was largely overshadowed by everything else, but it was noted that if she hadn’t done that, then the help wouldn’t have been able to arrive and be as effective as it was.

Twilight Sparkle set her newspaper down. “Hey Spike?”

“Yes, Twilight?” Spike asked as he set part of breakfast on the table.

“It looks like you’ve got some competition for the title of Hero of the Crystal Empire.”

Spike took the paper and found the article. He read it. “Hmm. . . I hate to say it, but you’re probably wrong.”

“I am?”

“Why would I want to compete for that title? I can share it. Heck, Inova lives there and she did way more than I did, so she probably deserves it more than I do.”

Twilight thought about it for a bit. “That’s quite the humble stance on it.” She started sipping some of her coffee.

“Hey, it’s just the truth. If I couldn’t handle the truth, I’d probably be qualified for snooty nobility instead.”

Twilight spat out the coffee as she started laughing, soon followed by coughing. “Spike! That-” She started laughing even harder. “You’ll have to tell that one to Pinkie. Can you imagine what she could do with that?”

He continued to be entertaining. “And further distinguishing me from the snooty nobles is my willingness to wash dishes, get my claws dirty, and even handle tasks personally. Why, I even know how to talk to and relate with the common pony on many levels.”

Twilight got in on the act. “Audible gasp! Someone of great influence who can speak commoner? This could have devastating implications for so many things! What would happen if Celestia and Luna found out about this?”

“Funny you should mention them. Celestia sent this a few hours ago.” Spike produced a scroll with the words “LOW URGENCY” stamped on it in big green letters.

Twilight casually read the letter, then intensely reread it before going to her calendar.

Celestia and Luna each had a newspaper at dinner. They read the same story about Inova’s actions and the Canterlot nobility washing dishes. “Tia?” Luna asked.

“They’ve already tried to get legislation past me that would make it illegal for them to be coerced into washing dishes,” Celestia said before taking a bite of pancake. Breakfast for dinner was quite enjoyable. “And now I know why they tried to do it.”

“Did they try anything else?”

“No, but I have a feeling that they’re going to try and get some kind of revenge on Inova.”

Luna nodded in agreement. To say most of the nobility was acting like foals would be quite insulting to foals everywhere. “One can only wonder. Perhaps they will merely turn the tables and make Inova clean a day’s worth of dishes by herself.” She nabbed a bit of Celestia’s pancakes. “But perhaps I’m being optimistic.”

“Most likely.”

I frowned at the pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen before getting to work cleaning them. It looked like every pot, pan, dish, and utensil in the house had been used. There were things in the pile that I didn’t even know we had.

Skyla had invited some of her friends who were good at cooking and gave them free reign to do whatever they wanted, and they cooked up a lot of good food for lunch. I’d managed to sample all of it, and it was delicious.

It was when mom and I were about to start making dinner that we discovered the dirty dishes and lack of food. The dishes had been put away, just as Skyla’s friends had said. None of them had bothered to clean them, though. After everything that had happened with the Canterlot nobles, it was surprising.

“Noba?” Flurry asked from her spot on my back.

I started with the pots and pans. “I’d like to play with you Flurry, but I have to clean this up.” It was just the two of us in the house. Mom had taken all of Skyla’s bits so she could go buy groceries and dinner. Skyla, under dad’s supervision, had to go find her friends and lecture them about restraint and cleaning up while cooking. Making the whole thing more disappointing was that I recognized some of them from the recovery efforts. “It isn’t fair or fun, but there’s nopony else who can do it right now.”

Despite the scale of the task ahead of me, I went at it with a smile. Compared to the threat of Sombra and helping fix the Empire, it really wasn’t that bad of a task.

Deep in the Crystal Empire castle sat a glass jar of inert red dust. Mixed in with the dust was no fewer than a dozen magic inhibitor rings. The lid had not only been glued and magically fused shut, but it also had multiple clamps on it. Around that was a reinforced wire mesh cage lined with the same spell inhibitors as the rings. All of this was inside a thick iron safe, which itself was anchored inside the strongest vault in the Empire.

The red dust just sat there. Like all other normal dust, it held no sentience, thoughts, opinions, or magic. It was simply there.

Author's Note

The story still lives!