Money is power, money is respect, money is everything.

―Unofficial motto of House Blueblood

“Mister Clickety Clack, personal guest of Her Highness, Princess Celestia,” declared the herald.

Quickly I strode into the room that hosted the party before me. I was loathed to be referred to by both my fake name, and as Celestia’s guest, but it was a necessity for my current situation.

It appeared that my presence was of little importance to the nobles around me, as they all seemed to remain entranced in their idle chatter. This was fine by me after all I didn’t even want to come to this ridiculous party, I was only here at Shieldwing’s insistence.

*****

“Shield, I don’t want to go to some stuffy affair full of stuck up nobles.”

“Hey, be careful buddy. I happen to be one of those stuck up nobles,” Shieldwing replied in a tone of mock offendedness, “But honestly, you should go. All you do all day is work, I can’t even remember the last time you laughed.”

“Shield, the answer is no. I have much more important things to spend my time on, then socialising with a bunch of spoiled fat cats.”

“Look, Josh, it was very kind of Princess Cadenza to invite you to this thing, it’s only right that you go.”

“For the last time Shield, NO.”

“Look how about this,” Shield spoke after an aggravated sigh, “You’ve been practising all this time to improve your basic functions right? Well then use this as a test. There’s tonnes of areas where you can try out everything in a real situation, and they’re even serving lunch, so you can see if your eating skills are up to scratch.”

“You’re not going to stop pestering me about this until I agree, are you?”

“Nope,” he said whilst flashing his trademark grin, already sensing he had won.

“...Fine. I’ll go.”

*****

So, here I was. Trapped in a sea of decadence, and had already noticed that I had taken a clear misstep. Everyone in the ballroom had some form of clothing on, all of it made of expensive fabrics with impeccable stitching, something that I knew I could only identify because of my mark. I on the other hand was as naked as the day I was violated. Though I had gotten my hair cut and styled in an apparently pleasing way. Frankly, I couldn’t have cared less for such trivialities, but Shieldwing had insisted and once again I had relented.

Standing idle near the doorway for a few moments, I realised that, unconsciously, my thoughts had drifted to examining the different outfits the guests were wearing, and admiring their stitch work. Quickly I shook my head in an attempt to clear it from thoughts of sewing, my anger at myself already rising, for being so careless at keeping them in check. Instead I noticed an unoccupied table that was set up on the other side of the room, at least the crowd would give me an indication of my agility.

As I made my careful way over to the table, I caught a few of snippets of conversation from the various different groups that I passed.

“Did you hear about that mess in the countryside –“

“—seen the new clothing designs?”

“—Staying at the castle.”

“Discord ruined all of their—“

“—higher food prices are of little concern.”

“—Wonderbolts latest show was fantastic.”

Finally, I had made it to the table, and with as much dignity I could muster, I took a seat with a reasonably decent view of the surrounding area and those that occupied it.

The ballroom that I was in seemed to follow the typical architectural style of the castle, featuring a large number of white marble surfaces, and wide sweeping ceilings. However, to accompany the more joyous mood of the party, the various surfaces were decorated with silken banners of both white and pink. To complete the image, a large table was set up on the other side of the room, which was laden with a number of small delicacies. The centrepiece of this buffet was a grand ice sculpture, that appeared to be an intricately carved dove depicted in mid flight.

“Prince Blueblood, head of House Blueblood, Duke of Canterlot and member of the Council of Nobles,” cried the herald, mirroring perfectly the tone and volume that he had used for every single guest that had entered so far.

Sauntering into the room, with a smirk plastered on his face that could only be described as smug, was the one and only Prince Blueblood. Immaculately groomed and cleaned, his coat was such a bright shade of white he would be able to blend in with little difficulty to newly fallen snow. Adding to his image of privilege, his mane and tail shone like spun gold, and was so perfectly coifed, that it must have taken hours of care to get it to its current state, and an even greater effort for it to remain that way for more than a moment. The final touch to complete his image was the ensemble he wore. A black suit made from silk, complete with a blue bow tie, and buttons that, from this distance, appeared to be pure gold.

The only real reason that I was even able to identify this fop as Blueblood, was due to the fact that his face featured once, on the front page of the Equestria Daily. From memory, it was some pointless award, that named him as the most ‘eligible bachelor’ of the year. As expected, the article contained little more than pointless fluff, and was, of course, written by none other than Hot Scoop. If there was a need for a poorly written piece of blatantly pro-ruling-class journalism, it seemed that she was the go-to writer.

None of this really interested me at all. After all, he was simply yet another spoiled noble. Something that was in no short supply, at my current location. What did interest me about him, was the fact that he was a member of the Council of Nobles. I remembered reading about it once, and reeling at what a bad idea that it could have been, if not for the unique dynamic of Equestria’s leadership.

Apparently, shortly after Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon, Celestia had feared that the same darkness that had consumed her sister, would fester and grow in her heart. If this were to ever happen to her, then there would be no one to oppose her, in the same way that she had done to her sister. This would mean, that she would encounter little resistance if she ever desired to turn her peaceful rule, into an iron-fisted dictatorship. To prevent this, Celestia formed the Council of Nobles.

It was composed of the heads of the ten most influential families of the time, which would have the power to veto any of her legislative decisions, as long as they could amass a vote of eighty percent or more. A few nobles had defected to Nightmare moon’s side, so it was decided to allow some leeway in the number of votes needed to veto a notion, if the same thing were to happen again.

Normally, a governmental system like that would be incredibly dangerous, as it afforded considerable power to the nobility. However, this situation had never occurred, as Celestia has always been able to convince the nobles to stand behind her. In its thousand year history, the council had only ever exercised its power twice. The first was over eight hundred years ago, when the council prevented Celestia from changing the celebration date of some holiday known as Hearths Warming Eve. The other was sometime last year, when Celestia had attempted to dissolve the council upon the return of her sister.

My pondering on the Council was interrupted, when the hospital white coat of Blueblood invaded my vision.

“Well, look what we have here,” he spoke, his tone dripping with arrogance, whilst he seemed to address those around us even though he was looking directly at me, “A servant has gotten tired and decided to take a rest amongst his betters. We can’t be having that. Peasant, remove yourself from my royal presence quickly, and I promise that your punishment will be lenient.”

It appeared that a considerable number of the other guests around us were listening, as soft snickers and giggles seemed to permeate the room.

In the past I would have attempted to avoid the conflict altogether and simply complied with his request. However, my newfound anger refused to let me, as Blueblood’s blatant disregard for others forced my self-control to the very edge. Instead I attempted a middle road as I decided to remain seated, and ignore him in the hope that he would grow bored and leave.

“Peasant, are you deaf? I said to leave. You are not welcome here, this party is for the elite not for mud ponies such as yourself.”

Blueblood’s blatant racial slur shattered what little remained of my self control, allowing my anger at everything that had happened to me to bubble to the surface.

Slowly I began to make my way to my feet ready to reduce Blueblood to a snivelling wreak before me.

“Cousin Blueblood how pleasant to see you,” a soft feminine voice suddenly spoke, “it’s been far too long.”

“Princess Cadenza, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Blueblood quickly replied, his voice doing little to conceal his annoyance at being interrupted. Despite this, he did give a slight bow towards whoever was standing behind me. Though, from his expression, it pained him to do so.

“Well, that is certainly unusual. After all, it is my party.” The voice softly laughed.

At this, the slightest shade of red seemed to invade Bluebloods cheeks. The colour of his coat making it stand out like a light.

All throughout this exchange I continued to keep my gaze locked onto Blueblood in an attempt to stare him down. However, this had the unfortunate downside of preventing myself a view of my mysterious royal rescuer.

“Yes, well if you would excuse me, princess, there are others that I might grace with my presence.”

Beating a hasty retreat, Blueblood quickly spun around and departed back into the crowd, likely off to ‘charm’ some other aristocrat with his social graces.

I kept my eye on Blueblood until I was sure that he would not return, at least for the moment. Once I had lost sight of him I began to carefully rotate myself to face my rescuer, not a simple task thanks to my quadruped nature.

“Many thanks, I fear to think what would have–“

My words died in my throat when I caught sight of my rescuer, and panic began to overwhelm me. She stood at around my height. Her coat was a light pink, complimented by her mane and tail, which split into three separate colours of violet, rose and gold. However, this was of little consequence, in the face of the fact that she had both wings and a horn. She was an alicorn.

She was smiling softly at me, with a slight tilt to her head. No doubt, she was perplexed by my sudden silence. Her apparently kind smile did little to reassure me, I had learned the hard way, with Celestia, just how smiles could mislead.

Quickly, I fought down my fear, after all, she was apparently fairly young for an alicorn. Besides, there was nothing that she could feasibly take from me that Celestia and Luna had not, already. With hard-won determination, earned from my suffering, I brought my fear back under my control, utilising some of my anger to drown out the part that I could not. Swiftly I locked her with a stare much akin to the one I had given Blueblood moments before.

“Are you alright?” She questioned, “Look if it’s because of these,” she quickly extended her wings to gesture at her horn, “I promise you that I’m no different from you.”

“Except with immortality,” I hissed.

If it was not for my close scrutiny of her, I would have missed the flinch that she gave at my words. However, her recovery was swift, as she continued with her attempts to initiate a conversation.

“You’re Clickity Clack, aren’t you? My aunt has said a lot about you”

My anger threatened to engulf me, at the reference of that insulting name, but I forced it down. This was not the place for it, after all, I could not be sure that she was even aware of my plight. Besides, my indignity was slightly outweighed, by my own curiosity at what this alicorn’s aunt had to say about me.

“Yes, I’m sure she has,” I replied, attempting to keep my tone as level as possible. “Though, if I may ask, why is it that this aunt speaks about me?”

“Well, you’re Auntie Tia’s personal guest, why wouldn’t she talk about you?” Her voice containing a hint of confusion. She then seemed to realize something, “Oh! I’m sorry, I forget that other ponies don’t know her nickname. Celestia, my aunt is Celestia.”

At the mention of Celestia’s name I stiffened, half expecting her to appear in the room, as if she could be summoned just by speaking her name. Her lack of presence became apparent after a few moment of tense waiting, and I mentally kicked myself; for having such a childish reaction, and for allowing myself for being so transparent.

Once again, my reaction had caused the princess in front of me to stare at me strangely, as if she was questioning my sanity.

“You’re unusual, you know that, Mr Clack?” She spoke, thankfully breaking the awkward silence, “You see me and immediately seem to have some sort of panic attack, but despite that, you have not followed a single step of royal etiquette, you haven’t even bowed.

“Yes. Well, Princess Cadenza, I find little point in any form of etiquette associated specifically with the aristocracy. Besides, I never bow to anyone, period. Not you, and not even your aunt.”

Before I could begin to regret the boldness of my words, my ears were greeted with the princesses musical laugh.

“Oh, how refreshing! it is so rare to find somepony that is willing to ignore such stuffy traditions. I’m glad that I invited you. Also please just Cadence is fine. I prefer that name over my royal one, anyway.”

“If we could go back a bit, Cadence, what is it exactly that the princess has said about me?”

“Well, its strange, I first heard about you nearly a month ago. It seemed nearly every time I saw her she had something new to say about you.”

At the end of her sentence, she made to sit on the cushion positioned on the direct opposite end of the table. Just before she made contact she suddenly looked at me expectantly, waiting for permission on my part.

I nodded, “Please, sit,” I said, motioning for her to take the cushion. After all, I was eager enough to hear what she was going to say, to ignore that she was simultaneously a noble and an alicorn.

Though it was ridiculous, I felt safer once she had seated herself comfortably. Her posture and the height of the table hid her wings from view, allowing me to pretend that she was simply a unicorn. Though, a part of me hated myself for conjuring up that ridiculous notion, a larger part accepted it as a necessary evil. Frankly, there was no way for me to get away from her, without offending her, and that would place me in far greater danger than what I was already in.

“But recently,” Cadence continued, “whenever I bring you up, she suddenly becomes upset.”

At this revelation, a touch of malicious contentment filled me. At least, in some way, I had hurt Celestia. Though I knew that, a few weeks ago, I would have been disgusted at feeling happiness due to another’s pain, I was willing to make an exception for Celestia. After everything that she had done to me, she deserved to suffer.

However, this did little to sooth the writhing anger that lurked below the surface, which demanded no less than Celestia’s blood before it could be sated.

“Well I’m sorry to hear that,” I lied, “She and I had a bit of a falling out over something.”

“What was it? She won’t tell me. To be honest with you, I’m so desperate to know, it was part of why I invited you to this party,” Cadence spoke, voice brimming with curiosity.

“I’d rather not get into that. It’s between the two of us. Not to be rude, but that’s the way I want it to remain.”

At least this part was true, after all no matter how much it would delight me to share my plight with the world, I had no evidence to prove my true nature. If I were to start blathering on about how I was an alien, and how their perfect princess changed me into one of them, against my will, I would almost certainly be dragged off to the nearest asylum.

“Well, that’s okay. I understand, sometimes it’s better to keep these things private,” remarked Cadence, whilst performing a valiant effort to disguise her disappointment, “So, how have you found your stay at the castle?”

“It’s been fine, thankfully one of the guards assigned to my door is a good m—stallion. Frankly, I wouldn’t know what I would do without him. Other than that, I feel a bit conflicted. The rooms are magnificent, but I can’t help but feel bad for enjoying something I didn’t earn.”

“Believe me I know the feeling. It’s hard to enjoy something like that, when nearly all of it is financed from tax on the lower classes. I once was one of them, I can still remember the tax collector coming to our door and my mother counting out the bits.”

So, we talked, for what seemed like hours. At first, I attempted to glean as much information as possible from her, but as time moved on, I lost focus, and we struck up a rather lively debate on governmental systems. Apparently, the idea of popular sovereignty was unheard of in modern Equestria, which gave me the nice bonus of appearing to be an accomplished political philosopher. Eventually, we departed from that area of conversation and began to retell tales of our lives.

“—and that’s why I never went hiking with my father again,” I finished, whilst attempting to ignore the familiar stab of loss that now accompanied any mention of my former life. The princesses’ pretty laughter helped to sooth it slightly.

After my story concluded, we lapsed into a silence that allowed me to compose my thoughts. Despite our quiet, the room around us still buzzed with the incessant chatter of the nobility, leaving us as a beacon of calm in the otherwise noisy room.

Frankly, I had done a terrible job at combing my companion for information. I did have a habit of getting carried away when talking about philosophy of any kind, and today had proven no exception. Cadence had not helped the matter, she was intelligent and insightful, able to quickly grasp the concepts that from her own admission were completely foreign to her.

I was willing to admit that, despite the fact that she embodied everything I hated in this world, I was warming to her. This was made particularly apparent to me, as I didn’t feel any unjustified anger when looking at her like I did only an hour ago.

In my reflection, a simple fact came up that had been bugging me on and off over the past hour, but had never seemed appropriate to bring up.

“Cadence, one question. Your name, Amore, it means love, doesn’t it?” I asked, bringing an end to the silence that had engulfed us, “Excuse me if I am being rude, but what does it have to do with anything?”

“I’m impressed,” she replied, “not many ponies know the ancient Pegasi language. It’s because of my special talent, I help ponies to fall in love.”

“That nice,” I said, though I was confused by her answer. “Does that mean you set up dates or something?”

“No, silly,” She giggled, “It means that I am able to identify two ponies that would be perfect for each other and then give them the love that would make them complete.”

“I’m sorry about this but ‘give them love’. What does that mean?” I spoke, still puzzled by the princess’s explanation.

“I suppose in laypony terms you could say that I make ponies fall in love. Though I assure you that its far more… ”

As she continued to speak I began to comprehend less and less as all the sound around me devolved into a dull roar. Anger that only a few minutes ago lay forgotten began to fill me again as my heart rate steadily increased. In this time, I thought of nothing. My entire existence was the fuzzy shapes around me and the rapid beat of my heart in my ears.

“Mr Clack, Mr Clack? Are you okay, you drifted off again.”

Slowly, I became aware of a voice directly addressing me, piercing through the white noise around me. Its soft femininity did little to calm me, as it had done previously. Now, it instead represented the target of my rage, and little else.

“You do WHAT?!” I raged, “You are so arrogant, that you take away individuals very right to choose, and instead force them feel what you want them to feel?! What makes you so mighty?! What gives you the right to take free will?!”

My raised voice began to draw the attentions of the crowd. Slowly, the roar of the room began to fall into blessed silence, as inquisitive eyes turned our way.

My apparently unprovoked outburst had rattled the princess, but it seemed that she was braver than I would have thought. She still remained seated at the other side of the table, though she was obviously startled and was shaking slightly.

“I—It’s my special talent! Of course I would be the best at doing it. Would you really rather have nopony love you, just to avoid my help?” Her voice carrying a noticeable tremor.

“I would rather be a miserable free man, than a contented slave,” I spat at her.

My anger blazed inside of me, like an inferno. It demanded that I hurt her, make her pay for so blatantly enslaving those around her.

Quickly I made my way to my feet and began to stalk my way over to her, my movement made clumsy by my anger. Throughout this the onlookers gazed on in curiosity and I could swear I caught sight of a sneering Blueblood in the corner of my eye.

When I had just about reached her, an unknown voice rang out from the crowd, as the sound of galloping filled the otherwise dead silence room.

“Hey! Get away from her!” Yelled out a voice that originated from the edge of the crowd.

At this, the mass of ponies parted like a wave, revealing a single stallion. His coat was pure white, nearly exactly like Blueblood’s, though it was just dull enough that it spoke of someone who was not so narcissistic. His mane and tail were composed of three separate shades of blue and his eyes blazed with anger. Emblazoned on his flank was a single blue shield that contained within it a single star whilst three others were raised above it.

“Shining!” Cadence cried, the relief palpable in her voice, as she stretched her arms out to him.

Quickly he strode his way over to the princess, and positioned himself between her and I.

“Stay where you are, I don’t want to hurt you but I can’t promise you anything if you try to get any closer to my fiancée,” he said, his voice containing a cold edge that could only be found when facing down those that threatened what you love.

At his words a dry chuckle that carried with it no humour escaped my lips.

“Ah… You stand so valiantly to protect her, but can you even be sure that your love for her isn’t just manipulation?” I questioned.

“So what if it is? I still love her, no matter what, and she loves me back, just as much. It’s something you will never understand,” He replied, his voice still maintaining that cold tone that was somehow more intimidating than if he met me with furious yells.

From his answer, it was clear that the time for talking was over. Only actions would win me this day, and offer even a small chance of allowing me to confront the princess.

Calling his bluff I resumed my walk towards her, making to step around her protector.

I had not taken more than a few steps when his hoof lashed out and connected with my jaw with a loud crack. The force of it sent me crashing to the ground where I lay in a daze, staring up at the ceiling and enjoying the soothing coolness of the marble beneath me. For a moment I simply lay there, feeling more at peace than I had in a long time.

My bliss was interrupted, however, by my inner voice demanding me to I get up off the floor and face down my attacker with dignity.

Struggling, I managed to get off of my side and fought back to a standing position, an action made even more difficult by the throbbing pain that was already being made apparent in my jaw.

All throughout our exchange the nobles around us still watched on with rapt attention with not a single sound present throughout all of their ranks.

It was clear that as long as ‘Shining’ was here I would not be able to take another step towards the princess. Instead, I decided to opt for another approach.

As fast as I could possible managed I whipped my right foreleg forward in an attempt to catch the stallion unaware, placing as much force as I could muster behind it. At least this move would afford me an advantage in the ensuing fight.

Even before my hoof was halfway to Shining’s face I already realised that I had made a mistake.

With practised ease my opponent recognised my obviously telegraphed attack and ducked underneath it. This had the unfortunate effect of causing me to overbalance. In the ensuing seconds, whilst I attempted to correct myself, Shining swiftly brought his hoof up and delivered a devastating blow to the right side of my head. Again, I was sent sprawling.

As I lay on the ground again the serenity that I felt before failed to engulf me. Instead the cold realisation entered my mind that I had lost. There was no possible way for me to defeat this stallion and now I was at his total mercy.

With this realisation brought fear so strong that it was even able to drown out my inner anger. I could feel tightness begin to invade my chest and the strength leave my limbs. My internal logic told me that all possible paths that he could take would lead back to the involvement of a single person, Celestia.

My fearful thoughts were interrupted when a shadow fell over my face. Looking up I was greeted with the stern expression belong to none other than Shining.

“Get out,” he spoke in a hushed yet forceful voice, “get out of here, and make sure that I never catch sight of you ever again.”

Looking into his eyes I could see that there was no mercy present within, something that I couldn’t understand. Summoning up all that remained of my courage I had to know the answer.

“But why?” I asked, “why let me go, when you have the right to perform any justice you see fit?”

Clearly, he was not happy with my continued insistence to speak, but in this case my curiosity outweighed my better judgement.

“It’s what Cadence wants, to show kindness and love towards others. Even if they don’t deserve it.”

Laying on my back suddenly all I could do was laugh, my relief so palpable I could feel the tension leave my body. I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face and so long that they soon began to resemble a lunatics more than my own.

Struggling to my feet, occasional laughter slipping out, I turned to look at Shining one final time, making sure that I was positioned more than a few meters apart.

“You truly are her slave, aren’t you?”

“Get out of here, NOW!” He suddenly shouted, vein throbbing in his neck. My question clearly breaking what little remained of his self control.

As he did this he began to advance towards me in a decidedly menacing manner.

So I turned and ran.