As Starlight emerged from the keep's entrance after a leisurely lunch, she saw Luna peering up into the sky with the sun at her back. Starlight took a glance at the place where Luna was staring, and she saw three golden chariots, each pulled by two pegasi in Byzuntam city guard armor, and all but one lacking any passengers. The one on the left side carried a sky-blue unicorn mare, who wore a gray toga and a bronze thorny-branched crown over her flowing white mane streaked with gray.

“We recognize that mare,” Luna said.

“Really?” Starlight said. “Who is it?”

“She is the deceased Minister's daughter.” Luna turned her head to look at Starlight. “Despite witnessing the death of her father mere days ago, she seems little worse for wear.”

“Hm. That's… unusual.”

Luna was silent for a moment as she looked back to the chariots, which were nearing their descent. “We would be careful around that one if we were you.”

The three chariots made touchdown on a flat, open part of the camp, in a cloud of dust. After observing Starlight and Luna with her gray eyes, the blue unicorn stepped down from her chariot, and trotted up the hill to Starlight and Luna.

Once she came within speaking distance, she greeted them with a nod and a polite smile, and spoke in a Byzuntonian accent with a soft and cool cadence. “Hello there. Princess Luna and Starlight Glimmer, I presume?”

Starlight put on her own polite smile. “Yes. That's us. And who might you be?”

“I am Checkmate Master. It is a pleasure meeting you.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “We see your parents did not leave you wanting for an impressive-sounding name.”

“Oh, yes. I do rather enjoy my name. It is befitting of my character, after all. Oh, and for you, Princess…” Checkmate's horn glowed with a pale blue glow, and a weave of wooden thorny branches came out from a flap in her toga with an aura of the same color. She presented it to Luna. “Imperator wanted you to have this. You do know what it symbolizes, right?”

“Imperator? Would he be that brutish monster who murdered your father?”

Checkmate's polite smile went flat. “Now, now, Princess. It's not very professional of you to be bringing personal matters into this.” She paused. “But yes, that would be him.”

“We see.” Luna switched magical grips on the branches with Checkmate's and brought it close to her face to examine it. “And we do know what this means. Thank you, Checkmate.”

“You're welcome.”

Starlight put a hoof to her chin. “So, Checkmate… I take it you're the mare I was told I should meet?”

Checkmate's polite smile returned. “Oh. Yes, I am.”

“Well, what is it, exactly, that you… do?”

“Before I tell you, Starlight, let me preface it with a bit of my own personal history.” She cleared her throat. “When I was born, my family was just a minor criminal family in Cordelphi. Daddy had a few dealers under his belt, a bit of muscle to enforce it, some launderers and some smugglers, but he wasn't a major player. He, the buffoon that he was, just didn't have the talent to be anything but small fish.

She placed a hoof on her chest. “That was where I came in. Ever since I was a filly, I had a knack for nudging just the right pieces to just the right places, and saying just the right things in just the right ears. Only problem was that I was a filly, not a colt. But it wasn't a huge problem. Daddy noticed my talents, and started listening to my advice. Even as an adolescent, I'd been giving him winning advice, and our entire family slowly accumulated power over time because of it. I was the best player in the big, complicated chess game that was Federation politics. He was my king piece, of course, but a piece nonetheless. He's dead now, but only because this war threw the whole board in the trash bin.

“So, what do I do? I write speeches, I plan and organize public events, I design posters, I speak with political figures… to make a long story short, I'm a diplomat. I brought my father – which is to say, myself – in power with those talents. If it weren't for me, Imperator would've killed someone on the throne who was actually competent.” She paused. “So, are you sold yet?”

Starlight tapped a hoof on the ground. “Well, I do say, Checkmate. You make quite an impressive case for yourself. But what if none of this is true?”

“Then I'm an outstanding liar, and you should consider hiring me just for that.”

Starlight chuckled. “Confident, are we?”

“The Fates do favor the bold.”

“Hmm… you know what? Sure. I'll give you a shot.”

Luna let out an exasperated sigh and looked to Starlight. “Miss Glimmer, are you going to fill your entire cabinet with sociopaths?”

Starlight looked back to Luna. “If they're good at their jobs, then I don't see why not.”

“We can only wonder what that says about your own moral character.”

Starlight gave Luna a dismissive flick of the hoof. “Oh, don't be such a windbag. If I did all my hiring based on how moral a pony was, my cabinet would be full of starry-eyed young children with cape fixations.”

“We will have you know, Miss Glimmer, that our own cabinet has plenty of talented individuals who don't have lumps of coal for hearts. Maybe those are rarer here, but we are sure you could find some for yourself.”

“These are turbulent times, Princess. You take what you can while you can.” She looked to Checkmate. “Isn't that right, Checkmate?”

“That's always a correct statement, but it is especially so now.”

“Imperator… where does that name come from, anyway?”

“The old Romulan term for 'war-marshal'. It's what those rock-things address him as, so that's what everyone else calls him.”

“What does everyone in the city think of him, anyway? There is a certain image I'd like to maintain, after all.”

Checkmate's smile faded. “Everyone's scared to death of him and those golems he bosses around. They don't even hate him for the most part. Their communal leaders have been crucified, their spirits are broken, and they've been beaten into a state of catatonic despair. Not as bad as a state of open rebellion, but still far from ideal.”

“Was that intentional?”

“It was. It was explained to me that invoking terror and hopelessness in the conquered is all part of Imperial protocol. I suppose if you rule by fear alone for thousands of years, you get good at it.”

Starlight shook her head in disappointment. “Don't they know that it's best to be loved as well as feared?”

“They do. They just go about it differently. Loyalty from the Imperial citizenry, itself, is assured through respect for martial prowess and a privileged place in Wasteland society. Loyalty from the slave underclass is assured by destroying their capacity to harbor rebellious thoughts, via lobotomies. Loyalty from the client states is assured through various forms of divide-and-conquer, having them fight amongst themselves so they don't have the will or capacity to rebel against the Empire. But you see the problem here, don't you?”

“It's all based on making sure that they're weak, which means they make terrible servants regardless of their loyalty.”

Checkmate's smile returned. “Exactly.” She paused. “Give your guy some credit. His ways aren't the most healthy for public approval, but they work, and scaremongering seems to be where he's in his element. There's room for improvement, sure, but wartime isn't the best time to start trying to fix what isn't broken. And you know, having them cross the despair horizon doesn't have to be a bad thing…”

Starlight nodded. “You're right. It isn't.” She waved a hoof to the distant Starlightopolis. “I'll confidently ride into the city in my beautiful regalia, with fanfare and a red carpet, and I'll lift them up from their despair with marvelous promises of a new age of joy, prosperity, and equality under my wise and benevolent leadership. Turn these lemons into lemonade.”

“I see you're as smart as Imperator said you were. Really rare for an Equestrian, but clearly not impossible.”

“I take it the city's all ready for me now?”

Checkmate nodded. “Yep. Everything's all spic and span for you. I was told you wanted to make a public speech tomorrow evening. Is that true?”

“It is. I'm quite the orator myself, you know.”

“And quite the hypocrite,” Checkmate said with a wink.

“Oh, so you know about that… thing.”

“I do. Imperator told me. He also told me that if I'd shown any qualms with it, he'd have killed me right then and there. As you can see, I didn't, and I don't.”

Luna gave a suspicious look to Checkmate. “What thing might that be?”

Checkmate looked back to Luna. “Nothing you should concern yourself with, your majesty.”

Luna's sardonic gaze drew to the side. “We can see why he likes you so much,” she muttered.

Checkmate looked back to Starlight, then extended a hoof to her. “I only ask that you grant me the same privilege.”

Starlight pressed her own hoof to Checkmate's, then shook it. “Done.”

“I look forward to working with you.” Checkmate broke the shake, then gestured to the chariots. “You stand in the middle one, Starlight. Luna, you get the one on the right.”

“Wait,” Luna said, “we do not see why we would be allowed a chariot alongside you and Miss Glimmer.”

“A regal chariot for one of regal status, Princess. He gave you the thorny branches, and he meant it.”

“Before we go with you, we must ask you what is to be arranged for the others here. Our guards, and the… marechild.”

“Oh. We have that covered. They're traveling by a shuttle driven by your camp garrison here.”

“Let's not waste any more time,” Starlight said. “Take me to my chariot, Checkmate.”

“Of course.” Checkmate turned around and walked down the hill, looking back Starlight, who was following her to the chariots beside Luna. “I'm eager to hear you speak, by the way. Any leader worth her salt has to be good at speeches.”

Starlight stared down at her city with the wind brushing against her face as her chariot carried her to the palace. Most of the city's population was now homeless; rows of tents had to be set up in a fashion similar to an army's camp just to accommodate them. Their old homes, after all, were as fragile as they were ugly, and their ruins were completely swept away on Imperator's orders. The more useful, or more loyal, city dwellers were moved into the old brick apartments, which survived due to their sturdiness; many were left vacant after their past owners were killed in the attack, and those that weren't vacant were made so. Whether they were huddled around campfires, doing basic chores and tasks, or just laying around traumatized in their beds, they were always under the watchful eyes of the stone golems that now enforced order. And order was enforced. Brutally enforced.

Starlight's chariot started its descent, followed by the two chariots beside it. As they made touchdown on the red carpet laid flat on the paved marble road, Starlightopolis city guards who bore trumpets greeted them with thunderous fanfare. Starlight was overwhelmed with joy and awe at the glimmering marble structures around her that were cleaned and polished for this occasion, and the rose petals that blessed the air with their fragrant scents as they rained down from the sky. Rows of guards stood in perfect stillness on both sides of the road that they faced. Starlight looked to Checkmate, who looked back to her with a content smile. Starlight then turned to Luna, who bore a bitter scowl and a glazed look in the eye. This wasn't too surprising; she'd probably seen all this hundreds of times before. By the time Starlight looked in front of her again, the three chariots stopped in front of the palace stairway, made of spotless and glistening marble, and with the red carpet laid down on it. Starlight's gaze drew gradually up the stairway, seeing not one speck of dust or debris on it, until she finally looked to the top, where Imperator stood clad in clean and polished armor, staring down at her with eight golems standing at attention at both his sides. Starlight, along with Checkmate and Luna, disembarked from her chariot and made the ascent up the stairs. The fanfare reached its climax, and the falling of rose petals started to wane. Once the three mares made it to the top, Imperator gestured his golems away, and looked to Starlight.

“Welcome to the Starlightopolis palace, Starlight.”

“Well,” Starlight said, looking all around her, “this place sure does clean up nicely.”

“Fortunately so. The populace would have had hell to pay if it did not.” He looked to Checkmate. “And I see you have met with her. So, has Starlight given you her approval?”

“Yes,” Checkmate replied, “she has.”

“And you have presented my gift to the Princess?”

“Yes. I have.”

“Excellent. You are off to a good start, Checkmate.” He looked to Luna. “Judging by your presence here, Princess, would I be correct to assume that you have accepted my gift?”

Luna gave him a begrudging nod. “Yes. Despite your actions, we will try to cooperate with you and mind our manners with you. But only in service to Equestria, and out of respect for Miss Glimmer's wishes. We still cannot express enough our utter contempt for you.”

“I am not concerned with your personal opinion of me, your highness. Your professional cooperation is enough.” He looked to Starlight. “The Princess does remind me, however. Are you still sore about our little disagreement?”

“Not at all. Checkmate convinced me that it wasn't all bad.”

“Oh, did she now?” He looked to Checkmate. “Only a few days, and you are already solving our personal quarrels. I am so very glad I spared you. Such a talented young mare. Keep it up.”

Checkmate smirked. “Thank you. I intend to.”

Imperator looked back to Starlight. “So, would you like to enter your palace?”

“Of course.”

“Then follow me.” He turned around to face the palace doors, painted in stunning royal blue and outlined with gold, then shouted, “Össen!”

The doors were dragged open, revealing a spacious lobby with a marble floor painted blue, white marble stairs going up both sides to a doorway, and a glistening golden chandelier adorned with spotless white glass hanging from golden chains. Once Starlight stepped into the palace, the pleasing heat that warmed her hoof from the floor made her gasp in pleasant surprise. The smile on her face only grew as she gleefully rubbed it.

“Are you enjoying the heated flooring, Starlight?” Imperator asked.

“It's wonderful!” she replied. “And here I thought heated floors were only for the very rich and powerful.”

“That is still true. It is just that you are now among them.”

Checkmate gave Starlight a nudge. “Welcome to the big leagues, sis.”

Starlight looked back to Imperator. “So, what else do you have to show me?”

“My dear, I was just getting started. I have plenty more to show you. The library is upstairs. I am sure you are eager to see what reading material you have available.”

She followed him up the left stairway with Checkmate and Luna. Starlight couldn't help but notice Luna's sneering disgust upon climbing it, which she found very strange. The stairs were as clean as everything else. Once the doors were opened, Starlight was treated to a sight she hadn't seen in a long time: numerous rows of books stocked in shelves. The shelves on the left were stocked with fiction books, grouped together by genre, with the books in each genre sorted alphabetically according first by the authors' names, then by their titles. Nonfiction was stocked on the right side, grouped together by subject, sub-grouped by the specific portion of the subject that each individual book covered. Starlight looked at this library, with books laid as far as the eye could see and organized in such a convenient manner, and found it completely breathtaking. The bookworm in her almost fainted.

Imperator looked at her with a slightly tilted head. “Are you alright?”

“It's just…” She was still spellbound.

“I know that you deeply enjoy books, but even for you, this reaction is a bit much.”

After staring at the books for several moments, she snapped herself out of her trance, and looked back to Imperator. “Well, it's just that I haven't seen this many books in one place since I was a university student. And even then, it wasn't nearly this well-organized.”

Checkmate walked up next to Imperator, then turned around to look at Starlight. “This is how every library in the Wasteland is organized. I'd have thought Equestria would've had an even better system for this.”

Starlight sighed. “No, Checkmate, it doesn't. Equestria's libraries have all their books stacked together, alphabetically, according to title.”

“All alphabetically?” Checkmate asked.

“According to title?” Imperator added.

Checkmate and Imperator looked at each other; Checkmate had confusion in her eyes. Then they looked back to Starlight. “Do they not even separate fiction from nonfiction?” Checkmate asked.

“No,” Starlight replied.

“That's just embarrassing. How's a university student supposed to get anything done in that mess of a system?”

“She just does.”

“Well,” Imperator said, “you will not have to bother yourself with such a useless system any longer.”

Luna scoffed. “We will have you know, Imperial, that our libraries are well enough staffed that they do not need to devise these redundant methods of organizing bookshelves.”

Imperator looked to Luna. “Does your populace really have nothing better to do than waste time and effort on inefficient library protocols?”

“You would be surprised how much free time a society can have when they are not burdened by war and poverty on a consistent basis.”

“Well, if you ask me, your society could use a bit of hardship. It is really no wonder that your capitol's city garrison crumples like a paper cup at even the smallest Changeling incursion.”

Luna was taken aback. “How do you know about that?”

“When things as humiliating as that happen to your pathetic excuse for a nation, word tends to spread quite swiftly.”

Starlight groaned and pressed a hoof on her forehead. “Can you two spend ten minutes around each other without all this petty bickering?”

Luna snapped her gaze to Starlight. “He is bashing your own home country! Have you no pride?”

“I happen to like this system of theirs. Just because I'm proud of my heritage doesn't mean I can't admit that others have their merits.” She put on a resentful scowl. “And I don't appreciate you starting these arguments one bit. You said you would be nice. If you don't have anything nice to say, then just sit there and shut your mouth.”

Luna snarled and furrowed her brows. “How dare you! What makes you think you can speak that way to a Princess?”

“For one, your behavior isn't very becoming of a Princess. And don't forget, Luna, that you aren't the only alicorn here. Oh, that reminds me.” She looked to Imperator. “You know she tried to convince me to help her kill you so I could be Celestia's vassal?”

Imperator let out a slight chortle. “And I suppose she paired this lackluster deal with her usual tactless bleating?”

“Naturally.”

He looked to Luna. “Well. It looks like you have shown a lack of honor to go along with your lack of anything resembling charisma. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Normally, we are above such duplicity. But for the likes of you, we would make an exception.”

“Duplicity requires subtlety, Princess, and you are about as subtle as a hammer to the face.” He looked to Starlight. “You are not actually going to take her up on her offer, are you?”

“No! Getting rid of someone who believes in my cause and does such good work for it, then binding myself in service to a sovereign who's so wracked with grief that she can barely function anymore? What kind of deal is that?”

Luna glared at Starlight. “A deal anyone would accept if they had any moral fiber whatsoever.”

Something clicked in Starlight that filled her with rage until her thoughts were a muddied blur. She gave Luna a deadly stare that burned with fury. “Well, you know what? SCREW YOUR MORALS! You can take 'em, dip 'em in water, and stick 'em where the sun doesn't shine. I'm sick of having you pretentious idiots insult my intelligence and preach your dumb little morals to me. They don't work. They don't do a thing for me. I've been more free and more successful disregarding them entirely, so I don't care to hear for the umpteenth time about how terrible I am for not being some sentimental little wuss who has her heart bleed every time she does even the slightest thing at someone else's expense. It's not that I'm misguided, it's not that there's some weird little internal issue that needs dealing with, and it's certainly not that I don't know any better. It's just the simple fact that I. Do. Not. Care.” There was a moment of tense silence; Imperator and Checkmate glanced at each other for a moment, then turned their gazes back to Luna.

“An apt description of my feelings on the matter,” Imperator said.

“And mine as well,” Checkmate added.

Imperator looked to Luna. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Making Starlight so deeply enraged like that despite her greatest efforts to be pleasant. What is the matter with you?”

Luna raised her voice. “We'll tell you what's the matter with us!” She flung a hoof in the air. “We have been dragged into cahoots with a psychotic mass murderer, a stone-hearted witch who does not care in the slightest that this same mass murderer savagely killed her own father…” she looked to Starlight, “…and this one, a foul-mouthed megalomaniac with anger issues who willingly befriends these creatures and puts them in positions of authority. If only our sister were here. She would give ea-”

“Enough.” Imperator barked.

“I agree,” Starlight said. “This is the last time I'm letting you, Luna, speak to any of us in person ever again. Oh, you're so right to want your sister here. Even a traumatized head case like her would be better at discussing business than you. And Ebony can forget about speaking to my partner.”

Luna slammed a hoof on the floor. “Fine! We did not intend to let her anywhere near him, anyway.”

Imperator said, “The next words out of your mouth had better be 'I apologize', or you can forget about us helping you against the Empire's assault in the slightest.” There was a brief silence as Imperator walked close to Luna and leaned his head to her ear to whisper. “As this army's commander, I would go out of my way to let the Empire do whatever she wishes to your pathetic armed forces just to spite you, and I would deeply enjoy doing so.” He withdrew, and stepped back to his original spot.

Luna, after looking down to the ground trembling with indignation, looked to Checkmate, who was staring at her with a malevolent smirk. Luna drew a long sigh, then looked back up to Imperator. “I apologize.”

“Very good. Now, let us make this quick. I assume that you have fortified the bridge crossing, as we agreed?”

“Yes.” There was still clear anger in her voice despite her attempts to stifle it. “We were going to ask that you attack the Imperial army north of the bridge so that we could organize a counterattack and catch them off guard.”

“Hm. And what did Miss Glimmer tell you?”

“She told us that you did not have much you could spare.”

“And what did you tell her in response?”

She hesitated. “We told her she did not know what she was talking about.”

“What she said was true. She knows more about these matters than you give her credit for. With how little actual hitting power your force has, a counterattack from you would be rather ineffectual, even if it were from the rear and entirely unexpected. We would be throwing our forces away on a folly. A counterattack from us, on the other hand, would be effective, but it would mean giving them ground south of the bridge.”

“So our fortifications were a big waste?”

“No.”

“If giving them ground is necessary, then why have us fortify the crossing?”

“To make establishing a hold on the south side of the bridge more costly for them. I was not expecting circumstances for your force to take such a sharp nosedive, but I did have a backup plan for you in case you could not hold that chokepoint. Fighting in chokepoints is one of the Legions' specialties, after all.” He paused. “Once they have made the breach, make a tactical retreat, then spread your ranks large and wide. Then, we will attack from the rear.” He waited for a response from her, but to no avail. “You are lucky to be getting that much. Take it or leave it.”

“Ugh! You have no idea how much we hate you.”

“Take it. Or. Leave it.”

Luna glared at him in silence, then spoke. “Fine. We'll take it.”

“Good.” He pointed at the palace exit. “Now, get out of my sight.”

“Gladly. We wish only the worst for Miss Glimmer's little vanity project.” Luna pointed her nose in the air and strutted out of the palace in a huff.

After waiting for Luna to leave the palace completely, Starlight turned her anger on Imperator. “And you! Don't think you're off the hook. You prodding her hasn't exactly been helpful either, you know. You haven't been any better about this than she has. I've been walking on eggshells to keep this alliance together because you two idiots just plain refuse to get along!”

He sighed. “Yes. I know. My conduct here was entirely completely uncalled for, and I take full responsibility for it.”

Seeing Imperator openly admitting his mistakes, instead of trying to pin it on her for her one outburst, Starlight felt her rage start to fade to irateness. “That's… surprisingly reasonable.”

“Perhaps it is acceptable for the Equestrian officer to conduct himself like a fraternity boy among his peers, but the Imperial holds himself to a higher standard.”

“Well, what happened between you two a few days ago? Shouldn't have you been professional then, too?”

“Luna told you what happened.”

“I wanna hear your side of the story.”

“Miss Luna came to me without foreword, in an entirely inappropriate setting. Such discussions should take place in a formal setting at a specific, scheduled time, not in the middle of an occupation. The circumstances already both informal and unprofessional, I went out of my way to offend her and show her my disdain.” He paused. “My mistake was continuing to do so in a situation where it was not appropriate. That is what I take responsibility for.”

“I know Luna isn't exactly a poster child for good manners, but was she really that bad?”

“I do my absolute best to keep a calm and steady mind at all times, but to see one of such reverence and status as Luna acting in a childish manner that would have even a fresh legionary tied to a post and scourged evokes from me contempt that even I have trouble keeping tempered.”

“Wait. Scourged?”

“Flogged. Whipped. Normally using a tool with bits of sharp metal at the end to increase physical damage. It normally precedes crucifixion if one is condemned to the cross, but the scourge need not precede the cross.”

She looked to Checkmate. “You told me he had some ponies crucified. Were they scourged, too?”

“They were,” she replied.

“Hmph.” She looked back to Imperator. “Well, Luna's not a soldier, and she's definitely not a legionary. You should cut her some slack.”

“If a civilian wants to play dress-up, the least she can do is act the part.”

She groaned. “You sound just like my dad. Look. She shouldn't be a problem anymore. Let's just drop this whole thing, okay?”

“Of course. Will you excuse my egregiously unprofessional behavior here?”

Starlight looked to the side. “I really shouldn't.” Suddenly, her lingering anger expelled itself from her like steam from a geyser, and after a sigh of relief, she looked back to him with a warm smile. “But I will anyway. Aw, come here, you.” She walked in close to him, then embraced him in a hug. “It's okay. We all make mistakes. Even professionals.”

He wrapped a hoof around Starlight; she felt joy in his embrace around her back and sides, with the warmth radiating from the plates of his armor and the flame on his plume. “Thank you, Starlight. You are a real dear.” After he pat her on the back, Starlight released her hold and took a few steps back.

“Wow,” Checkmate said, “she sure does change moods fast.”

Imperator raised a hoof and ruffled Starlight's mane with a playful rub. “She does. Is it not endearing?”

“It isn't by most ponies' standards. But hey, whatever works for you.”

He looked to Checkmate as Starlight magically fixed her mane. “Show Starlight around the library, would you? I need to gather a few things and bring them back here.”

“There's more?” Starlight asked.

“There's lots more.” Imperator replied.

“Well, go on then. Don't keep me waiting.”

“If I have my way, it will be well worth the wait.” With that, he turned to the upward staircase on the other side of the room and went off on his way.

Starlight waited until he was completely out of the room, then looked to Checkmate. “So, Checkmate. Do you know your way around a library?”

Checkmate smirked. “Of course. What kind of unicorn would I be if I couldn't use a library?”

“Good point.”

“So, Starlight. What sort of book are you interested in? We have a sizable collection covering a wide variety of subjects.”

“Hm. Would you, by any chance, have books on neurology?”

“Ah. Neurology. That should be under anatomy and medicine. Follow me. I'll show you right to it.”

Checkmate and Starlight made the trek down one of the rows of bookshelves on the right. Starlight took glances at all the different books of all different shapes and sizes. One thing that struck Starlight was the amount of books dedicated to philosophy and ethics. A strange thought, such an unethical place as the Wasteland having so many books on ethics compared to Equestria, but not completely strange. After all, any subject whose contents aren't universally agreed upon will evoke curiosity and discussion, which will invariably generate more written content than something everyone agrees on, in which case writing is only needed for the sake of keeping records. There were also a fair amount of books on history, and on ancient myths and religions. The only thing that Starlight found lacking in this collection was its lack of writing on the sciences. Although she was no slouch with other aspects of knowledge, she was always extremely talented with the sciences, hard and soft alike. Indeed, extreme talent was required for doing near-unimaginable things like inventing a magical spell that removes cutie marks. But there was the Empire, which built its master-slave social dynamic on eugenics and lobotomization despite being largely stuck in technological stasis. This left her wondering. How is such an unscientific society able to perfect a procedure as delicate as lobotomization? How is a culture with an otherwise primitive understanding of medical science able to snip and tear at such an immensely complex organ as the brain, and get any adequate result from it? She thought maybe Checkmate had some answers.

“Hey, uh, Checkmate?”

“Yes?”

“About the Empire's lobotomies. When did that come about, anyway?”

“A few hundred years ago.”

“Why did they start doing that, anyway?”

“Do you want the short version, or the long version?”

“Long sounds alright. We have time.”

“Very well, then.” She paused. “When Planetvoid died, the Empire was barely able to hold together between her two puppets and its own slave populace, both from the loss of Planetvoid's leadership, and from the spiritual shockwave that his death caused throughout the Wasteland. Revolts were rampant, and they had very limited means of controlling their subjects. This forced the early Kaisers to enforce various means of population control, and destroy large swathes of the population that was already there through mass killings. A bit like what's going on now, but on a far grander scale for its time. As this was going on, the Empire's best minds were working overtime on a reliable method of keeping the slaves in line, in the most cost-effective manner possible.

“They experimented with a few methods. They tried the magical method, like what Sombra used. But although it could work for an insular city-state with a relatively small population, like the Crystal Empire, the Holy Empire of Styx had a great deal more slaves to manage across a much wider area, so it would've required more magical energy running indefinitely than they were willing to afford. They flirted with the idea of mass surveillance for a time, but this never got past the theoretical stage because, again, it proved more expensive than the Empire could afford. They even tried a concentration, or labor camp method, but even this was too expensive for the Empire's liking.

“Eventually, the idea of making a permanent alteration to the brain, itself, in a way that required no magical maintenance, and that used simple tools made from easily acquired materials, became dominant. This led to the earliest experiments with lobotomization. Its early development was largely trial-and-error, with slave deaths as a result of them well in the tens of thousands. It's easy to imagine the very first 'lobotomies' being nothing more than well-read sadists poking and cutting at slaves' brains from open craniums to see what would happen, and that wouldn't be too far from the truth. But after lots and lots and lots of death, they eventually found a reliable method of altering the brain, in a relatively non-intrusive manner that ran risks acceptable enough for the Imperial government to tolerate.

“And so, lobotomization of slaves became the Empire's standard practice. Despite somewhat of a decline in each slave's individual productiveness, it was a huge success overall. They required no magic to control because they were handicapped at their most basic of levels, and they required no surveillance because there was no need to clamp down on behaviors they simply had no way of exhibiting. The Empire was free to focus several times more effort on controlling its puppets, and they could breed as many slaves as they liked without having to worry about revolts. Lobotomization has been perfected and diversified over time, from the simplistic lobotomies of early times to the rich and complex process that it is today. Does that answer your question?”

“It does,” Starlight said. “Are we at those books yet?”

“We're almost there. Oh, if you don't mind me asking, what made you bring up lobotomies anyway?”

“Well, there's a very big reason why I'm interested in neurology, and lobotomies have a lot to do with it.”

“How so?”

“I want to reverse all the lobotomies.”

Checkmate stopped in her place, and gaped at Starlight, staring in silence for a moment. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

Checkmate stayed silent.

“What? You think it can't be done?”

She shook her head. “Tsk. Starlight. Darling. The Wasteland is no place for idealistic flights of fancy. The Empire's gone through all this work do find the best possible method of controlling slaves, and here you are wanting to throw all that away because, why? You feel sympathy for them?”

“I want to end slavery as a practice.”

“And replace it with what?”

“Factories. Industry.”

“Fac… to… ries… oh! I've heard of those. They're those big workshops in Equestria where things are built by machines, right? In long lines of assembly?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I'm glad to see you're not completely naive. I can see why you'd want to replace slave labor with mechanized labor. I can even see why you'd want to de-lobotomize the workforce as part of such a transition. But darling, repairing organs is a lot harder than breaking them down. And this is the brain we're talking about. One of the most complex and complicated phenomenons on the entire planet. And doing it on such a massive scale? What you're suggesting isn't exactly wine and olives.”

“Well, I'm willing to dedicate all my free time to studying all the books and scientific journals I can to make it happen. For my own personal sake as much as anything. Do you know how boring and embarrassing it is to do sit around doing nothing while my partner does all the heavy lifting? This is my story. I want to do my part, and this is how I'm going to do it.”

“That's noble of you, I guess. A university graduate knows what dedicated study is and what it entails, so I suppose your promises aren't extremely unrealistic. Just don't obsess over it so much that you go insane if it proves to be above your capabilities. If you go insane, then the population won't like it, and the Praetorians certainly won't tolerate it.”

Starlight groaned. “It's starting to look to me like the Praetorians are more trouble than they're worth.”

“Each Praetorian is elite even by Imperial standards, and you get a whole cohort of them. They're an ideal protective force if you don't get too far on their bad side. If you're not an idiot, then you'll get along fine with them.”

“But I'm not even an Imperial.”

“The current Kaiser. Shattered Dreams. Nobody likes him, least of all the Praetorian Guard. Yet, he still rules, mostly because his sponsors bribe them not to murder him. That, and it's not easy to find anyone who wants to be Kaiser these days who's fit for the job. Just do something impressive that'll make them not want to kill you.”

“Oh. I already have that covered. I'm going to defeat the Legate in a duel.”

“The Legate? Snakefang Gelder?”

Starlight nodded.

“That guy's a beast. I hear he fought off an entire battalion of Changelings all by himself. You better be ready for the fight of your life, darling. Even putting a scratch on his armor won't be easy.” She looked to the upper part of the bookshelf to her left. “Oh, here they are! Lemme just slip a few pieces out from here…” Checkmate's horn glowed pale blue, and an aura formed around a large stack of leather-cased books, which was slid out from the shelf, then rotated ninety degrees so its frontmost book faced the ceiling.

Starlight looked at the title of this book: The Frontal Lobe: Parts Necessary and Parts Unnecessary. It was a very thick book, looking to be about a thousand pages. 'All that print, just for the frontal lobe? I really have my work cut out for me,' Starlight thought to herself.

“Okay,” Checkmate said, “let's go back. Imperator probably has that stuff ready for you by now.”

Starlight nodded. “Alright. Let's go.”

They sauntered down back the way they came. Starlight still took passing glances at the books she walked by with a feeling of content, knowing that all these books were now hers. Nearing the library entrance, a glittering that illuminated a silver jewelry box on a table caught Starlight's gaze. Starlight upped her pace, eager to see the contents of this box. There, Imperator stood in wait for her.

“So, Starlight, I see you have already taken some books for yourself.”

She nodded. “Yep. Neurology.”

“To reverse the lobotomies?”

“Of course.”

“I am still skeptical, you know. But I suppose if there is anyone in the world who can do it, it is you. But, anyway. Do you remember when I told you that I was using the secret gold stash for a secret purpose?”

Starlight smirked. “I like where this is going.”

He motioned to the box. “Open it. The secret will be revealed.”

Starlight took delicate steps to the box, and with magic, she unlatched the box, and flipped it open. What was inside amazed her. In the box, sitting on a plush bed of purple satin, was a gold coin, buffed and polished to a striking luster, embossed with her own smiling visage and a motto underneath: 'Equality for Eternity.' She magically lifted it up from inside the box, and flipped it over to look at the other side, which had embossed on it the equal mark, and another message: 'Minted in Year I of the Equal Age.' She was completely stunned. “I… I… I…” Once the image set in Starlight's mind, she looked to Imperator with a wide and toothy grin. “I love it!”

“This is a sample that I extracted from the first batch of the new currency.”

“But aren't schillings made of silver?”

“Does Equestria not use a gold currency?”

“They do. But then, they have a lot of gold. We don't have to base our new money on gold. In fact, we don't have to base it on anything but our own population's faith in it.”

He hesitated. “You lost me.”

“It's called a fiat currency. An expert in economics could explain it to you in detail, but basically, it would allow us to make money made of nickel or copper, or even just paper, and it would make the circulation of goods much more fluid. And it would give our citizens some peace of mind knowing they don't have to worry as much about being mugged, since they're not carrying piles of gold around in their saddlebags anymore.”

“A currency made of paper? Would that not be incredibly easy to counterfeit?”

“Not if we use a special ink to print it.”

“You never fail to impress.”

She chuckled, flattered at the comment. “So, about the gold. How much in weight is the stash?”

“Just over a metric ton.”

“Hmm. We couldn't exactly buy their entire kingdom with that, but I think we can buy enough to get started. As pretty as it is, it's still just a piece of shiny soft metal, so we don't need to worry too much about keeping it sitting around.”

“Very good. Now, there is one last thing for me to show you. Have you ever slept in a bed with a mattress stuffed with pegasus feathers?”

“You're showing me the Minister's bedroom?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then. Lead the way.” She looked to Checkmate. “You may go.”

Checkmate nodded. “Of course. I will make sure the city is ready for your speech tomorrow.”

As Starlight eased her thorny crown on her freshly cleaned toga, folded and set atop the Minister's varnished oaken dresser, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyelids weighed down heavy over her eyes, as the lull of a good night's sleep beckoned her to retire for the day. She'd spent several days prior practicing for her big speech, memorizing the words and perfecting her delivery of them. A hearty rest was sorely needed. She looked to one corner of the room, and slowly drew her gaze out from it. The room was a lavish marble bedchamber; her first sight was an open window, draped on two sides with purple satin curtains hanging over a silver frame, letting the cool nighttime air breathe tickle them. Next to the window was her bed, large enough to fit a small elephant, yet elegantly decorated with a silver frame holding up a mattress draped in a silk blanket that barely touched the pillows sitting on the far end of it, and yet more satin curtains that hung down from near the ceiling on all four sides, with the front curtain pushed aside. Laid down in front of the bed was a carpet with an exotic – Saddle Arabian, apparently – flowing design of plants and flowers. Lastly, on the other side of the room, was an oaken door with an intricate brass handle that led to the washroom. The door was closed, as the washroom was in use by Imperator, but she had already brushed her teeth with minty toothpaste, and taken a refreshing shower in steamy warm water with smooth cinnamon-scented soap. Running water was something that, in and of itself, she'd sorely missed since she left Our Town. But the Minister's washroom was outfitted with an extravagant porcelain shower, dual sink, bidet, and toilet. This was grand even by Equestrian standards, but in a land where one was lucky to have more than a couple wooden buckets, this was unimaginable luxury of truly staggering magnitude.

As Imperator opened the washroom door, still in his armor, Starlight turned to him to speak. “That armor is probably very uncomfortable. Are you really going to sleep in that?”

He turned his head to the side and down, remaining silent.

“What's wrong?” Starlight asked.

He lifted his head back up to face her. “I have had to sleep standing up these past few days. Laying down in a bed is, to be frank, rather difficult. You need not be concerned with it.”

Starlight shot him a stern look. “No. I do need to be concerned with it. Tell me what's wrong.”

“I would rather not bother you with it. Please, enjoy your rest.”

Not wanting to let this up, Starlight walked closer to him to examine him carefully. There was nothing out of the ordinary with his legs, head, or any other immediately obvious thing, but there was something odd about the way his cape draped over his sides. It was spread too wide, and slightly pointed on each side, not contouring to his torso in any sensical manner. Once Imperator noticed where Starlight was focusing her attention, he took slow and deliberate steps away from her. Annoyed by this, Starlight raised up a hoof and gave one of those pointed ends a firm tap. This made Imperator jolt in place and go into a fit of coughing as droplets of silky smooth golden fluid fell onto the floor from underneath the cape on both sides. 'Ichor,' Starlight thought to herself, 'alicorns bleed ichor.' At the glow of Starlight's horn, Imperator's cape was flung to the side, and Starlight was treated to the sight of a wooden shaft impaling his belly. One side was broken and splintered; the other had feathers glued on it.

“So,” Imperator said with slight stifled pain in his voice, “now you know.”

Starlight let out an exasperated huff. “Wh-… wha-… what the hell is this!?”

“I was wounded during the *cough* occupation. A ballista's shot at close range, with a bolt spo- *cough* sporting a head of adamant, shaped narrow to pierce armor. These plates are exquisite protection, but not *cough* invulnerable.”

“You actually fought like this?”

“I would be an emba- *cough* an embarrassment to the Reich if I could not.”

“Well, why didn't you tell me about this? This isn't exactly a paper cut.”

“A professional does not complain about pain that he accepts as *cough* part of his job.”

“There are other professionals whose job is to treat this sort of thing, you know!”

“I could not find any.”

“Well, maybe if you didn't go around killing things indiscriminately and scaring everyone shitless, you could find one!” She sighed. “Lucky for you, I'm adept at solving exactly this sort of problem. Now, hold still…”

She lit her horn, and focused all her attention on the wound. Care was taken in sliding the bolt out of his stomach. A shield was formed around the splintered end so that not a single shard of wood would be left stuck inside. Imperator, now more prepared for holding back expressions of pain, kept completely silent. Gradually, the shaft exited the wound, being coated in golden ichor as it did so. Once it left the wound completely, Starlight removed the aura around it, sending it plummeting to the ground and leaving a spatter of ichor where it landed. Then, she put her mental effort into mending the torn flesh. She could sense that no vital organ or blood vessel was severely damaged, so her efforts went mainly to the skin, the muscle, and what very little there was in fat. Every part of the body worked together as a single, cohesive unit, and each part was vastly complex in its function. Thus, it took considerable talent and skill to mend even minor wounds with magic, and the wound Starlight was mending was far from minor. But after some time, the flesh healed seamlessly, save for a relatively minor scar, which fit well into the already sizable collection of scars on his body. Finally, she focused on his armor – she didn't want this happening to him again, after all – and began work on that. Although she wasn't sure what the armor was even made from, she did her best to close the gap. There was something supernatural about this armor's material, and manipulating it wore on her greatly. But again, after some time, it all came together seamlessly. Starlight looked at her work and smiled proudly. After licking her hoof and wiping the ichor stains off the spot, she planted a kiss on it, and stepped backward to find Imperator staring at her in awe.

“Miss Glimmer. That… that was utterly astounding. You have done in minutes what even the best surgeons would have done in hours.”

“There. You see?” She wrapped a hoof around his neck. “You get some tender loving care from your precious dear Starlight, and she still doesn't think any less of you for it. And now, she's going to ask if you want to share the bed with her.”

He tilted his head slightly. “Again, Starlight?”

She released her hold, then nodded. “Sure. I actually kinda liked it last time. It was comfy. And I think a guy who literally took a bullet for me deserves to share the best bed in the palace with me.”

“Ballista bolt.”

She dismissively waved a hoof. “Close enough. So, you'll do it?”

“Hmm… I suppose there are worse ways to spend a night.”

“Excellent!” she chirped. “Just take a shower before you get in the bed, okay? You probably reek. I don't want to share a bed with someone who reeks.”

He nodded. “Understood.”

As Imperator turned and walked back into the washroom, Starlight walked up next to the bed, and prodded at it with a hoof. Very soft. Soft as only a bed of pegasus feathers could be. With so many of the Empire's pegasus slaves getting their wings clipped or torn off, it'd be a shame to let all those feathers go to waste. With magic, she lifted the blanket up, and slipped herself into the bed before easing the blanket on her, laying on her side. As she rested her head on a pillow, also stuffed with pegasus feathers, she fell into a state of relaxed bliss. To her, it felt like she really was sleeping on a cloud. Letting the sound of running water from the shower on the other side of the room fill the air, she shut her eyes, accepting the call to sleep that echoed in the back of her mind. She hadn't slept in such a wondrous way her entire life, and the wonder was even greater at the thought that once the Wasteland belonged to her, this was how she'd sleep every night for a very long time to come. Next Chapter: Chapter 21 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 34 Minutes