Ms. Glimmer and the Do-Nothing Prince

Celestia appeared as the black spherical apparition blinked out. To her right stood Fizzlepop Berrytwist, judging by the pony's size and her dark purpleness. Ambassador Finder of the Tears of the Moon caught my attention; she whined and collapsed in a monstrous poodle-like heap. "Omega this," she whimpered.

That explained the howl.

Traveling via Teleport felt like dying, remember?

The ensign, now a lieutenant junior grade, wobbled despite an evident attempt to tough out the experience. Since both gasped for air, at least Celestia had warned them to hold their breath through the vacuum. Frost steam rose in ribbons from them all, which meant even Celestia and started to sweat.

I looked up.

Not much shocked me. I remembered clearly that I'd found that Fizzlepop Berrytwist had sheared off her horn in my service. My intense guilt filtered back even as I saw the result.

A semi-transparent thin rod of what looked like translucent alabaster rose from her broken horn...

"'The broke-horn.'" Ice Sickle had said that. Had a broken horn. She had had a broken horn already!

Not my fault, then. Something had snapped it before I'd met her.

This, this, was my fault, though. My healing spell. Its result. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. Her horn now resembled the business end of an epee sword. Needle sharp. It had to be the superconducting element that grew in a unicorn's horn, grown naked with none of the horn material or covering velvet. It pulsed with a faint green glow. It was the same length as Celestia's but etched with spirals and delicate fern-like swirls.

The sundered unicorn's pale green eyes met mine. I gasped at their intensity. They practically sparked like iron forged on an anvil.

Her eyes blinked slowly as she descended. She knelt on one knee, formally, deeply, respectfully... her muzzle on the floor.

"Ms. Glimmer," she breathed. It sounded like awe. "Liege."

"Lieutenant!" snapped Celestia. "Get the flap up!"

The mare stood in one smooth motion that demonstrated that she was very physically fit. Her eyes turned to Celestia. Something made me suspect disdain. No, maybe being a liminal, I felt it. She blinked, a neutral expression snapping into place.

That drew my eyes to Celestia.

She wore gold armor over a red undergarment. The aesthetic allusion of gilding something already precious in gold did not escape me. She was dressed as before she left on her mission. No way was this the uniform she fought in. It shined and sparkled, both. Not a mark on the red fabric either, nor any black scuffs on the pristine metal surface. She'd put the armor on minutes before—for show.

I snarked, "Looking tough, are we?"

Everypony gasped. Even Blueblood took a few steps back from the cell and the princess.

"Omega this," the Diamanté repeated, ears down, strongly resembling a puppy, suddenly. She would have had reddish puppy eyes, also, but she squinted in the light, which bared her tusk-like canines. She felt around for her briefcase, reaching for a visor and fumbling, putting it on. Celestia tensed for a retort, but looked down at the canid. Her expression softened.

The sight calmed my ire, too. I took a deep breath. "You look good, Princess," I conceded. "I have grievances you need to redress—"

"Get. Out. Of. That. CELL!"

Resting my jaw on Thorax's back, I looked up at the armored alicorn. I could tell that the impostor Blueblood looked up, also, since her eyes flicked to him. "It would be my pleasure," I said, glancing to my left at the giant deer, who now gazed at Celestia. "Considering my neighbor."

The fawn made a throated sound between a cattle low and a honk, modulated by her changing the shape of her open mouth.

Celestia said, "Omega. What is she saying?"

The white-furred ambassador sat up, finding some dignity. She rubbed her nose against a forepaw, then looked at my neighbor, visibly inhaling through her nose. "Happy? Interested, intensely?" She switched from Old Ponish to broken Equiis, "With words? Could infer means pleased Celestia set up meeting to teach about Equestria. Omega this! Diamanté have me meet fawn only few times! Not fluent... despite beatings—"

Celestia waved a hoof, giving Omega a reassuring smile.

I said, "This was an arranged meeting?"

Celestia explained, "We exchanged hostages. The leader of the Ponyville weather team—"

"For her?" I asked.

"Their way of suing for peace. If everypony gets treated well—"

I scoffed. "In a high security prison? Luxurious, perhaps, but—"

Slowly, Celestia said, "I am not joking. I want you out of that cell immediately."

"Sure thing. Give me the key to Thorax and Ocelli's chains—"

"Don't be ridiculous. Me, free a changeling? Ha!" she said, her piercing gaze displaying zero humor. "NOW!" she ordered.

I cast Mirror Shield. Reflexively. I'd used it effectively against Facet. I'd used it against Sunset to deflect stun. Maybe I could bet my life on the spell. I doubted she'd target me, though. I was betting Thorax's life. And Ocelli's. I flooded it with splendors until it covered us all. Not Facet, but I'd shift it to cover her if necessary.

Celestia's eyes narrowed. "I can deal with a changeling—"

"Sensora," I corrected.

"—changeling without hurting you."

I queued Shield for a quick switch, imagining her throwing one of the scythe-swords I'd left within reach of her Levitate spell, instead of letting Broomhill Dare destroy them. She was an alicorn. I doubted her magic faced the same limits my unicorn magic did.

Thinking more, I said, "Does it frustrate you that you can't simply teleport me away because I'm in contact with a pony grounded by chains? You wanted me as a protégé because I learned spells like this. Did you think that I'd not figure out that my contact with Thorax would make the mass coefficient soar to that of the planet?"

"You can't trust a changeling, Starlight. It will suck you dry and kill you. I had thought you were smarter than this."

"I know what I am doing, Princess."

"I might trust your intuition in many things. NOT THIS!" she shouted.

I cringed. Her voice rattled the bars and sent spikes of pain into my eardrums. Everypony except Fizzlepop Berrytwist cringed.

The officer asked, "Princess Celestia, may I point out something?"

The princess, lips compressed, glaring at me, said, "Go ahead."

"Ms. Glimmer's intuition about the Golden Stag—"

A golden helmet-encased alicorn head with a pike-like white horn turned ponderously. Her mane, tied in a knot so it hovered like a blue, green, and pink moon above her neck, pulsed as it pushed against the stone ceiling. Celestia said, "I arranged for the Eagle's Stoop with you as her skipper to be sent to Castle Canterlot Station to give you the chance nopony else would give you."

The big purple pony neighed, her ears flicking trying to lay back, but she held firm. She took a couple deep breaths under that royal glare, then continued with, "Her intuition was spot on, even if the circumstances that led to the attack were opportunistic."

"Your point, lieutenant?"

"She has experience with the sensora—"

"Ensign," she warned. Celestia's forward ears and increasing respiration telegraphed danger, not to mention that she implied a demotion for speaking up and undercutting her narrative.

Deep purple ears tried to lay back. Her left rear leg lifted and moved back a fraction of a hoof length, then went down firmly. "—and might understand what the creatures are planning."

"Do you want me to relieve the Hero of Ponyville from duty? Is that what you are asking?"

The princess' words and antagonism struck me as uncharacteristic of her. It struck me as uncharacteristic that she wore armor, or for that matter had chosen to challenge the Golden Stag as she had in her southern adventure.

This wasn't the Celestia I'd learned about growing up, or read about in the newspapers, or met once at my parents' funeral—where she gave a tearful speech when she should have hugged me and told me everything would be alright, but hadn't. Then again, having released her from a 998-year curse, perhaps her former tendencies—demonstrated founding Equestria and fighting her sister—were reasserting themselves?

I swallowed hard, mirroring Berrytwist's similar reflex action.

"I am an officer. I am trained to inform my superiors what I know or suspect so that they might take informed action—"

"You're relieved of duty! Don't make me throw you out of—" Celestia stopped.

The purple unicorn's eyes had narrowed and her ears shot forward. She hotly swiped her airpony cap from her head, sundering her mountain forest of a red crest-like hair, like a landslide rushing through, then sat. With two shaking hooves, she unpinned the silver junior lieutenant's bar and star from the collar of her blue airpony jacket. She thought about it and stepped out of the jacket, too, letting it to plop like a rag to the floor. Everypony in the room went quiet.

"I accept my immediate discharge. The papers were signed, effective last week. Since I am no longer in command, regulation ERN 4.1 section a(c) lets me take discharge. Nopony offered me a new commission, and I was a foal to expect that it came with the promotion when one wasn't explicitly offered, which was obviously not going to be given to a...

"...crippled...

"...broke-horn...

...like me!"

She spat, stood, and turned toward the hall.

I said, "You are welcome to join my service, Ms. Berrytwist."

The pony turned and looked at me, astonished. A tentative smile grew, as if she couldn't believe anypony would offer her friendship or the merest acknowledgment of her achievements. Thanks to these last few days, I trusted I could recognize the sentiment.

My heart opened up. "Please," I said and smiled, nodding to her, offering her a salute. Thorax craned his neck to examine my face, but his nostrils pulsed as he inhaled as if he could smell my emotions like smoke rising from my fur.

The former officer saluted, holding it. "It would be a pleasure, if you would have a broke-horn like me." Aqua-green flashes of light matching her gleaming eyes traveled up and down her alabaster horn, as her ears and irises focused on me, expectantly.

"Join me," I said, letting go of the salute with her.

Tail high, the mare trotted around and through the sundered door. She sat beside me, between Celestia standing beyond the bars and Ocelli. Her move was strategic and intentional, her height putting the sensora completely out of Celestia's view. A emotionless in-command expression descended as she regarded the princess with deceptive half-lidded eyes.

My herd had gained another member.

A moment later, Citron trotted in, sitting to my left. He might not be as tall standing as Berrytwist sitting, but he sat between Celestia and Facet. The latter, for her part, blew air through her lips. His horn glowed yellow, an implied a threat against the Princess of Equestria. Nopony would ever accuse Citron of lacking loyalty to me.

If Broomhill Dare weren't passed out, snoring on the floor, she'd likely have joined, too.

My heart opened wider, and I turned to Celestia, grinning. "So, you're developing friendship magic for Twilight Sparkle? Could it be you're failing because you don't understand it yourself?"

The teakettle trembled, looking about to whistle, but Cadance interjected, "It's love, Auntie Celestia. It's what my cutie mark is telling—"

Celestia hissed—like a teakettle—tossing her head a few times and scraping the floor with her forehooves. She couldn't rear in frustration if she wanted to; she'd strike her head against the ceiling.

Cadance backed, ears flattened. She took three steps until she backed into Blueblood. She looked back; her purple eyes and his blue ones meeting. He said, "You demonstrated you were more persistent than that."

Her eyes grew wider, then she looked back at the princess, then back to him.

"Omega this," put in the diamanté, the sudden insertion somehow defusing the situation, ratcheting it down at least a full turn.

Cadance inhaled sharply, looking at her aunt. "Tante. Tata! S'il vous plaît. You must listen to what Starlight has to say."

"We are talking about changelings, Cadance. Chrysalis is an ancient evil; I have centuries of experience with the love vampire."

"Mais, if Starlight—"

"Change-LINGS."

Cadance bowed her head. After a few deep breaths, flexing her right foreleg before her chest each time, she said, her accent thickening in her apprehension, "I understand le pouvoir du coeur. I used the magicks of love to conquer la sorcière Prisma. You made me an alicorn because I discovered love could do that."

When Celestia stood there, unimpressed, Cadance backed slowly to the cell door, then quickly entered. She found a place in the back, as far from the bars, the fawn, and the sensora as she could manage.

It was her second heavy lift of the day and I felt weirdly proud of her.

Did it make a difference? I turned back to the alicorn as the mare started pacing. I blew air through my nostrils and settled my chin on Thorax's furry back again. Celestia stomped, once, resoundingly. It showed me she didn't take Cadances's gesture well, either.

I was tiring. It occurred to me that Celestia had a lot to lose if she tried to physically or magically get her way, so I let my spells unravel into errant flaming digits, so I wouldn't tire prematurely. I was right about the sensora, but how could I prove it—?

I looked to Facet.