Celestia smiled as she walked towards the court for the day, thinking about her little ponies.

It had been a long day, yesterday, hearing more and more complaints about the thefts in the city, but as with many long days there was that sparkling moment that made it all worthwhile. Little talks like that, one on one with her ponies, letting off a bit of steam without the pomp and circumstance… and the look on his face…

It was perhaps a bit of a dirty trick, but when you were thousands of years old with a nation to run, sometimes a few dirty tricks were called for, especially when she needed to get something like that off her barrel.

And even after all these centuries, she never got tired of the look of shock she got when she called her little ponies by name. The idea that their princess cared enough to know who they were… to care about them that much… she always tried to make time to talk to them, because it made them all the more proud and happy to do their job.

So maybe the spell she had designed a few centuries back which told her the name of anypony she spoke to… maybe that was cheating a little, but it was better than mistaking somepony for a centuries-dead ancestor…

She felt a little guilty about it occasionally, but sometimes little deceptions like that could make all the difference, and if it made her ponies happy…

She’d have to keep an eye out for that guard she’d spoken to last night. She didn’t think she’d seen him before, but he certainly seemed dedicated, if a little easily flustered… but most ponies were when the Princess appeared beside them. He’d do fine… What was his name again?

Eh. She’d remember when she saw him.

Author's Notes:

I could have sworn I had something worth writing to put in this author's note when I first started writing this, but for now it appears to be gone...

This is what happens when you come up with a silly idea ("Celestia has a spell which lets her know the name of everypony around her, and accidentally derails a conspiracy because she unveils an agent - never actually realising she had done anything but greeted a passing pony by name") and then write five thousand words of mostly-unrelated buildup to the punchline.

Thanks as always to Cerulean Starlight for his editing efforts, preventing my ellipses from being represented by a mere three full stops in a row. How would I ever have shown my face before the fandom again? XD

Comments and criticism welcome!

(And if anyone knows a decent group or two this would fit into, feel free to add it - it's not suitable for most of mine :))