They arrived in Manehattan safely and departed to find a taxi waiting for them. The pony gestured towards the back. "Get in." As an afterthought he added. "Your highnesses."

Silver, Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike hopped aboard quickly, and they were ferried through the busy streets of Manehattan to the hotel the convention would be taking place at. It was the same as the last time Silver had been there. Maybe all the conventions happened there? They were let out and the taxi sped away without requesting payment.

Silver took a moment to admire the city as a whole, full of life and energy as it was. When she turned back, she saw the others had started towards the hotel and moved to catch up. A lunar pegasus stallion landed in front of her. "Princess Silver Stars."

Silver perked her ears. "That's me."

He nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. You're an inspiration to all of us lunar pegasi." He pulled out a small box with a bow on it from a saddlebag and offered it to Silver. "My friends and I chipped in to get this for you."

Silver gently picked it up in her magic. "That's very thoughtful of you." She smiled gently. "May I have your name?"

He colored slightly, "Uh, Dusk Warden, ma'am."

Silver waved a hoof lightly. "Dusk, you can call me Silver. We're all friends, are we not? We lunar pegasi have to stick together."

He smiled nervously and tapped at the sidewalk. "You're still a princess, uh, Silver. We haven't had one of those, unless you count Luna, and she isn't exactly one of us. She made us. It's different. We want to do it right." He gestured at the hovering box. "Go ahead."

Silver brought the box closer to her face to see what she was doing and quickly unwrapped it, then pulled the lid free of the dark purple gift box. The lid didn't get an inch up before Rainbow Dash crashed into it and soared off with the box. She hurled it mightily into the air before it detonated violently, throwing Rainbow back towards the ground. She corrected herself on the way back towards the ground and flew back at Silver and Dusk, who both stood there with shocked expressions. She barreled into Dusk, knocking him to the ground. "What's the big idea?!"

Dusk kicked Rainbow off and sprung to his hooves. "This wasn't my doing! It was a simple box of chocolates from a chocolatier we knew the princess fancied."

Silver shook her head. "I don't think he's lying..."

Rainbow snorted loudly. "If you say so." She leveled a hoof at Dusk. "I got my eye on you, pal."

After she stormed off back towards the building, Dusk shyly approached Silver. "A thousand apologies, ma'am. I really don't know what happened."

Silver frowned. "I hate to admit it, but this is an unfortunate part of my life."

Dusk sagged. "Even as a princess we can't be left alone. Sorry again, Silver. En... Enjoy the convention." He spread his leathery wings and took off into the city, leaving Silver to enter the hotel.

The inside was fairly standard fair for the day before a convention. Eager goers were getting their badges early and chatting with one another about the weekend to come. Twilight was already surrounded by several ponies in staff shirts. One of them broke away to approach Silver on spotting her. "Hello and welcome! We're very excited to have you here. We have a VIP lounge. Here's the key." He passed an ornate golden key to Silver. "It's right here on the first floor. That way." He pointed towards it. "We've scheduled two signing windows for you, which you'll find in the con guide." The con guide was quick in coming, passed to Silver. "Other than that, you're free to enjoy the convention. We'll be sending at least one staffer with you at all times to prevent problems." He cocked his head as if listening to something on the earpiece he wore. "Oh, looks like you get me for now. I'm Steady Hoof, nice to meet you."

"Silver Stars," replied Silver with a light smile. "We should check in and get our rooms in order." Twilight waved at Silver, a few more keys held in her wings. "Or it looks like Twilight took care of that. I assume there's not much to see the day before the festivities?"

Steady Hoof shook his head. "On the contrary! Things are still being set up, but if you want to have a sneak peek at the vendors with their things set up, or meet with the other VIPs? There's plenty to see. So, if you don't mind my asking, are you a big comic fan?"

Silver smiled carefully. "I love comics, as a thing. But I haven't really read any since coming to Equestria I admit. Maybe this convention will change that."

Steady nodded quickly. "If anything could do it, this would be the place. Well, if you need any help, just let me know. I'll be trying to not be in the way." He backed off a few steps and did his best to fade into the background.

Silver took the opportunity to rejoin Twilight. "Everything alright?"

Twilight nodded. "What was that outside? Rainbow looked upset." She passed over a key. "For the hotel room. We're on the third floor."

Silver huffed softly. "Nothing that should be discussed in polite company."

Twilight looked confused, but it came to her. "Oh! Well... I'm glad everything worked out. Spike ran off and is enjoying the sights already. I'm not sure we'll see much of him until he collapses at the end of each day. Did they set you up for signing too?" She unfurled the con guide and flipped through it easily. "Yup, look at that. Royal signatures. First one's tomorrow morning." She snorted softly. "Who goes to a comic convention for royal signatures?"

Silver shrugged softly. "They got us, so they're running with it. Prepare to have a lot of those signatures land on comic book covers."

Twilight smirked. "That goes double for you. You're the highest-ranking lunar pony around, so just about any fan of any comic that has one is going to want your mark on it."

Silver glanced at the smiling con staffers, then back at Twilight. "How about we relax before the con starts properly? We both have a weekend in the limelight ahead of us, and I'm in no hurry for it."

Twilight easily agreed and they headed for the elevators. They chatted quietly as the elevator rose, until a heavy weight fell on either of their backs. Horn nullifying rings were quickly slid into place on either of them as two invisible ponies ceased being so. Twilight thrashed about under her sudden rider, but they easily weathered her bucking and jittering around.

Silver felt magic stuffing up in her horn and channeled it downwards into her legs. She crouched down, then jumped straight up with enough force to make the elevator stop with a loud buzz of an error. She cracked against the top of the elevator, crushing her rider between herself and the ceiling and breaking a few tiles in the effort. Silver landed heavily, and the small purple unicorn on top of her slid to the ground, dizzy. She wheeled on Twilight, ready to rescue her when the pony on top of Twilight proved it wasn't a pony at all.

The large shape grabbed Silver by the neck in its hand and hefted her from the ground, shaking her hard enough to make stars swim in her vision. "Shhhhh," he said, baring carnivorous teeth.

The small purple unicorn recovered his wits with a grunt. "The plan continues." He rushed for the controls and got the elevator moving again. "Keep a hold of them."

Silver scowled at the hulking mass of a diamond dog she was being held by. If she could breathe, there would have been more menace in the action. Twilight was still wriggling, trying to get the dog off of her, but she was having an increasingly hard time standing, let alone give a decent bronco performance. She looked ready to scream when the dog's other hand found her neck. "Shhhhh."

They stepped out on the sixth floor to the sound of breaking glass. Rainbow burst into the hallway from the open air outside and zoomed towards the group. "When I get through with you..." The diamond dog threw Silver aside roughly with one hand, the other forcing Twilight to the ground. It was just in time to meet Rainbow's hooves with hands, the two sliding several feet down the hallway.

Small-purple blasted Rainbow in the back with a quick horn blast, and Rainbow yelped before she went limp. "Take her too. No witnesses."

Silver got a refreshing breath into herself. "Who are you working for? Why are you doing any of this?"

Twilight looked ready to say her own thing when they were both put into the firm grip of that dog. Small-purple led the way to a room not far away from the elevator and unlocked the door quickly. "I'll do the questions around here, and there aren't many to be had."

Silver conserved her strength, building her magic internally for when it could be best used. Her increasing warmth went unnoticed by her captor. She was set on a bed beside Twilight, with Rainbow sprawled on the floor beside them. The door was closed and locked before Purple-Small looked over the two alicorns. "Alright. It's time to make demands."

Twilight perked an ear. "Demands? I thought you wanted to kill us."

"Kill you?" Small-purple frowned. "Who said that? We want to change things. If we were going to kill anypony, it'd be that sun nag and her lunar loony sister."

Silver snorted softly. "If you're aiming for a coup, pissing us off is hardly the best place to start."

Small-purple raised a hoof. "Think of how easily you were just taken, and how easily you ended up with an explosive present."

Silver frowned. "You broke his heart. You're a monster."

"Whose heart?" Small-Purple shrugged, "Whatever, beside the point. Even when the sun nag was attacked in public, nothing came of it. Why? The magic that'd let them find dangerous ponies is all outlawed. 'Too dangerous', she says, as if the rest of the world gives a horse apple about what she thinks is 'too dangerous'."

Twilight moved to stand, only to be pushed back to lay on her belly by the diamond dog. "Mmmf, so, what, you want all restrictions on dangerous magic removed?"

"Not just removed." He pointed at Silver. "Innovated. Magic should be advanced, not quashed."

Silver shook her head. "Excuse my saying so? But that's stupid, and so are you. You made the same mistake the 'sun nag' made and a hundred ponies before her."

"Oh, what's that?"

Silver smiled. "You didn't ask." Power burst free, flowing where she wanted it. Her horn was blocked off, but she had learned several other exit points for magic in her equine form, and she intended to be a victim no longer.

Author's Notes:

Silver isn't going to take this lying down.

What's worse than a political dissident? A stupid one. They make typos.