I walked along next to Luna, my wings held tightly against my sides beneath the illusion wrapped around me.

Quite frankly, I was a bit nervous.

“Page, relax,” Luna said softly and nuzzled at my ear, “Nopony can tell.”

“Not that,” I answered quietly, “It's where we are going.”

For the first time since this entire situation, I would meet the other Princesses. All of them at once. I was nervous about how things had gone.

Eep! It was all I could do to keep my wings from shooting out.

Luna let go of my ear and shot me a small look.

I flicked my ears and nodded, “I know.”

Then we were there and there was no more time to worry. The guards pushed the doors open and we entered the meeting room.

Well, meeting room and meeting room, it was a side chamber to the main throneroom that was usually used for sensitive negotiations. The middle of the room was taken up by a circular table. And three alicorns.

Around it. Not on it.

The door closed behind us and three pair of eyes turned towards us. I paused and then mentally shrugged, dropping the illusion and spreading my wings.

Twilight draw in a breath, “Wow...” she said quietly as she approached, “You really did it.”

I cringed slightly, “It wasn't by choice.”

Twilight smiled at that, “That seem to be common. Neither did Cadence or I did either,” she said and tilted her head, “But I wasn't even sure it was possible for a stallion to be an Alicorn.”

“Neither did we,” Luna supplied with a nod, “But with ascension being as rare as it is, there was no way for us to know.”

Twilight nodded and watched me for a moment, “Well, it was clearly possible. May I?”

I raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she meant but I nodded anyway and spread my wings for her as she ran her magic along the right one.

Oh, that's kinda nice. Felt like dipping my wing into a cold spring if a bit tickly.

Cadence joined us with a smile, “So when is the coronation?”

“It's not,” I said as I looked up at the pink alicorn, “I don't want anything to do with any sort of crown. In fact, there is a reason I'm walking around with an illusion around them. The moment it's revealed, I can no longer live a normal life and walk around in public.”

Cadence frowned in thought, going crosseyed as she looked up at her horn before she sighed, “...I suppose that's true.”

“Wait, that's an option?” Twilight asked as she pulled back to stare at Celestia.

The big alicorn nodded, “Of course. There is no rule that says a alicorn has to be royalty.”

Twilight let out a small frustrated sound and ran her magic along my wing, “Your wings are bigger than ours. On a comparative scale, your wings are fifteen percent bigger,” she said before she shrugged her own, “Though I suppose that does make some sense. Pegasus stallions tend to have larger wings than mares on average.”

She then sighed, “...Not that I can say for certain, the example pool is rather small.”

I nodded in agreement, “Five examples is not really statistically significant. Statistically, there are no alicorns.”

That got a giggle from Twilight, “I know! I did that joke with Rainbow once! She didn't get it.”

Cadence blinked and then stared at Twilight, looking thoughtful as the purple aliicorn let go of my wing. She then turned her head and looked at Luna.

Luna titled her head and then shrugged her wings, “Don't worry, I don't get it either.”

Shaking my head I walked over to Celestia, “Celestia... there won't be any kind of trouble from me hiding this, will there?”

Celestia shook her head from where she was laying on the big pillow by the table. Luna, Twilight and Cadence stayed by the door, talking among themselves for now.

“I don't believe so, Page,” she answered, looking over at the other three alicorns, “But it will not be easy for you. Anytime you are in public, you need to use an illusion. You will need to lie to hide reality. And you must know it will not last forever. Ponies will notice sooner or later.”

I frowned and looked over at Twilight. She had only been an alicorn for a year or so and she was already slightly taller than me. Not much, only a couple centimeters. No real way to hide that unless you learned shapeshifting and that was difficult enough that LUNA had to study to do it.

“I know,” I sighed, “It'll happen sooner or later. But I want to live as normal as I can until then.”

“I understand.”

Nodding I then looked up at her and lowered my voice, “...Celestia?”

She blinked down at me in question so I continued,

“When Tirek had me... why did you give in? You shouldn't have done that.”

Celestia sighed softly and shifted her wings, shaking her head, “Page, you are my friend. But... That was not why. Not just why. It was her.” she said and looked over at Luna.

“Your sister?”

She nodded, “She was going to give in. Luna would be horribly hurt no matter what she picked. Losing you would... I have seen what that pain does to her. I never wanted to see it again. But giving in and giving him what he wanted to keep you safe would kill her.” Celestia let out a small breath, “I never want to see my sister hurt like that again. So I did it before she could.”

“Oh.”

Celestia sighed softly and frowned sadly at the table, not really looking at anything, “I... I couldn't put her through that again. Not even if it cost us Equestia. Does that make me a bad pony?”

“Don't know. Don't think so. But it does make you a good sister,” I said softly and poked her side with my wing, “But you know what she would say about that.”

“I do,” Celestia agreed with a small smile, “Please don't get in that situation again.”

“I'll rather avoid it as well,” I said and smiled over at Luna who smiled back and moved across the room, leaving Twilight and Cadence to talk privately.

“What are we talking about?” Luna asked and settled down next to me, giving my ear a nuzzle.

I grinned and leaned against her as she put her wing across my back, “Me being an idiot. But I'll keep the wings hidden for now anyway.”

Celestia nodded, “We can handle whatever fallout from that later if it happen. But we should proceed with the meeting.”

I smiled at that and got up, “That sounds like official princess business! So I'll just...”

Luna's wing pushed me back down on the pillow.

“...sit right here I suppose.”

“It involves you, My Page. The first subject will be the security of dangerous objects and Discord..”

Finally.