Looking back, upon the previous past few years of work, the sheer amount of effort to reach this point, it had all seemed quite impossible. Yet, somehow Sundance had endured, he had persisted in spite of the confounding enormity of it all. Every form, every paper, each one had been checked, double-checked, notated thoroughly, as well as notarised to verify accuracy and truthiness of the available documentation.

Try as he might, Sundance still couldn’t quite say why he had done all of this, what strange force compelled him to keep going, what peculiar mania had motivated him. It had started off with his cutie mark, a soggy grey rain cloud over a sunflower. This seemed simple enough, but Sundance hadn’t even seen a sunflower, having been raised on the bustling streets of Baltimare. But his cutie mark had appeared and with it, a pressing need to understand it.

A talk with his grandmother revealed that their family had once been sunflower farmers, and once upon a time, a long, long time ago, they had been landowners—lords and ladies—but they had fallen on hard times. Looking back into his family history, Sundance found quite a tale, and the further back he went, the more interesting it all was. During Equestria’s Civil War, his family had planted their banner with the Lulamoons and both families had suffered heavy losses together. After the war had ended, the decimated survivors had gone east, heading to Fillydelphia and Baltimare, hoping for better fortunes.

But going back even further, much had been revealed.

“Mister Sundance,” a bespectacled unicorn named Raven said while sticking her head out of a doorway, “Princess Celestia will see you now. Thank you for your patience while waiting.”

It almost felt as though Sundance was back in school once more, and his teacher was grading his homework. Princess Celestia had given up meeting with ponies in her throne room it seemed, and now met them in her office, a sunny, inviting place where every available inch of surface space was covered in papers. The big, white, gleaming alicorn sat on a cushion behind her desk, looking over the binder of papers that Sundance had given her.

Like monoliths rising up from the sea of papers, framed photographs could be seen on Princess Celestia’s desk, and Sundance knew just enough about her to recognise these faces, all of them. The Princess of the Sun’s face was unseen behind the papers, and Sundance could not determine her mood—thus, it was quite a surprise when she finally had something to say.

“Well,” she huffed, “all of this seems to be quite legit, Mister Sundance. What did you hope to gain for your efforts?”

Caught off guard, Sundance found himself back in school once more, having to explain his behaviour. He snapped into good posture, sat up straight, ears up, wings folded just so, and he cleared his throat so that he might communicate in his best possible voice.

“Nothing!” he squeaked, and mortified by the sound of his own voice, Sundance slumped over, all of his careful preparations having been for naught.

“When ponies go through the trouble of tracing their lineage all the way back to me, they usually want something, Mister Sundance. Most of them feel entitled to something, some gift, something that acknowledges their status. This is an expensive, time consuming process, and most ponies demand something in return for all of the money and effort spent in establishing these connections.”

“I just wanted to say hello to my great, great, great, great, great—”

The papers dropped, revealing Princess Celestia’s terrific deadpan expression.

“—grandmother. You’re right, I did put a lot of time and effort into this. I got my first full time job right out of secondary school to finance this. Almost all of my young adult life has been spent in pursuit of this, hoping to understand my cutie mark and what it meant. I’ve learned so much about myself, my family, our history, Equestria’s history, and to reward myself for all of my hard work, I thought I’d come and say hello.”

The princess made a strange sound deep within her throat, the sort of sound that a teacher makes when overcome with incredulous disbelief. Sundance squirmed in his seat, almost unable to bear the heavy gaze of the majestic alabaster behemoth behind the desk. Slouching down, he tried to look as meek as possible, fearing detention or worse, and he began to have second thoughts about all of this.

Princess Celestia leaned forwards over her desk, and Sundance feared that he might melt beneath her scrutinous gaze. She was terrifying, large, and he was terrified, small. A trickle of sweat ran down inside of his ear, but he knew better than to twitch an ear, which might be mistaken for flippancy. All Sundance could think about was how scary it would be to have this mare as his mother, and his own mother—a police mare on a rough beat—was pretty darn stern.

“Should I be going?” Sundance asked while pressing his front hooves together. “You must be quite busy… I should be going—”

“Don’t you move,” Princess Celestia commanded in the tone of stern teachers everywhere. “There is something I want from you… but first, we’re having tea together, Grandson.”

“Oh… oh… that’s very kind, and unexpected. Anything that humble little me could do for you, I will—”

“Oh, this isn’t a request, let me make that clear.” Princess Celestia smiled, which seemed to radiate its own strange heat, and her eyes burned like a furious dawn hoping to banish a quarrelsome night. She waved the binder full of papers, causing it to rustle, and her ears formed an imperious ‘V’ like an angry flock of truculent geese. “You’ve dared to raise your head and show yourself as capable. Now, you will be conscripted. I have need of you… and this is a family affair.”

Sundance gulped, fearful, and he didn’t dare contradict the princess, because that would be rude, and his mother would let him have it. He looked up at the princess, who now towered over him, and gave a brief bob of his head to acknowledge her. “I’d love to join you for tea, Grandmother.”

The swan-like princess was graceful, beautiful, and moved with a smooth fluidity that belied her vast size. Sundance found himself in a library, or perhaps it was Princess Celestia’s study. It was a vast space with a small amount of floor, crowded at the bottom, but stretched up vertically for quite some ways. Toys lay in a scattered-about mess on the floor, as well as a wadded up blanket, all of which the princess stepped over as if they didn’t exist.

A tea trolley was already waiting in the corner and Sundance couldn’t help but think how close he had come to interrupting this poor mare’s teatime with his impressive act of genealogy. With her wing, Princess Celestia gestured at a table that was partially covered with a picture puzzle, a big one. While Sundance sat down, Princess Celestia began laying out tea in a dazzling display of dextrous magic, setting everything up in a small spot not covered by the picture puzzle.

“You must forgive me,” Princess Celestia said, her voice now soft and kind. “Daily, I am besieged with those claiming family ties. Most of them don’t even have the documentation or the paperwork, just an oral history. Raven was quite impressed by your effort and your attention to detail and she said that you might be useful, which is the only reason I agreed to speak with you.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Sundance wondered how he might be useful and watched as his teacup was set down before him.

“I regret to inform you that there has been a death in your family, a pony that you have never met, nor heard of most likely, and nor would you want to. He was a contemptible, vile drunk who ran what was left of his demesne right into the ground. I found him loathsome, boorish, and crude. A few months ago, he fell down the stairs and broke his neck.”

Confused, Sundance’s head tilted off to one side in the manner of confused mammals everywhere. He blinked a few times, puzzled; then for lack of anything better to do, not wishing to look like an ignorant cretin in front of the princess, he stared down into his teacup, which the princess was adding cream and sugar to. The citrusy twang that rose up from his cup made him want to sneeze, but he didn’t dare and he fought back the dreadful urge.

“His peasants are loyal to the land… though not so much to him, and they have petitioned me for a steward… a custodian to watch over them and tend to their needs. These are exceptionally stubborn peasants, with no desire for change. They are happy with their lot in life, enjoy simple living, and crave an uncomplicated existence. In short, they are peasants through and through, and I can do nothing to change their mind.”

Princess Celestia sat down in an overstuffed chair covered in curious orange stains. She sighed, a weary sound, her feathers fluffed out, she lifted her teacup, and without further ado, she began slurping the hot tea. Looking down, Sundance could see that the white marble tiles were covered in crayon doodles; stick ponies, a rising sun, a castle, and what could only be described as a stick alicorn firing some kind of zigzaggy death-ray at some horrific tentacle monster.

For the very first time, it dawned on Sundance what Princess Celestia was planning, and he cast a furtive, frightened glance in her direction.

“Just to the north of the Everfree, nestled just west of the foothills of the Foal Mountains, due east from the Canterhorn, there is a tiny, neglected fiefdom. It is part of the Clock Face Fiefdoms, and it sits in the ‘three’ position. A long time ago, when Equestria was young, I gave that patch of land to one of my offspring. It rose and fell in prominence, sometimes it was governed well, and other times, not so much. During our Civil War, it became a battlefield when the Separatists made their big push for Canterlot, heading west from Fillydelphia. House Lulamoon took the field, standing beside their longtime allies, and with a great deal of blood and death, they bought Canterlot the time it needed to marshal its defenses. Equestria as we know it still exists because of House Lulamoon and House Sunfire. The region never fully recovered though, and neither did House Lulamoon.”

Sundance’s teacup trembled between his front hooves, and he wasn’t sure if he could sip from it without sloshing it or making a mess. Princess Celestia was looking at him now, looking into him perhaps, and no doubt reading him. There were a thousand things he wished to say, but none of them volunteered to go first.

“You cared enough about this genealogy project to finance it yourself. I believe you said you took on a job to pay for it. You had to commit yourself to a great deal of learning to jump through the bureaucracy required to accomplish all of this. Everything presented is a professionally prepared legal document admissible in any court and every single sheet of paper I saw was notarised. This had to be time consuming and expensive. Most of the time, when a pony goes through this much trouble, they do so to shore up their belief that they are entitled to something… but you… you just wanted to say hello.”

The princess drew in a deep breath.

“Ever since you made that appointment to see me months ago, I have wondered what you were up to, and so has Raven. Some poor pegasus from Baltimare makes a claim to the Royal Family, petitioning for recognition. Your mother is a police officer and your father is a line worker in a factory that makes light bulbs. Your parents are divorced, but amicable to one another, and you live well below the poverty line. The very fact that you spent so much money to accomplish this… and that you do not expect anything in return, I must confess… you have baffled me, Sundance.”

“Made my mother angry too… she thought the money might be better spent on education. Hooray, factory middle management or life as an office drone.” Sundance sighed and his hooves ceased to tremble quite so bad. “Ever since my mark showed up, I dunno… things have been weird. Like, I had to understand it. It just showed up one day. I’ve never even seen a sunflower and I had to look in a book about flowers to figure out what it was. My cutie mark just appears one day and I have no idea what it even is or why I have it, and I kind of became obsessed with learning all that I could. My friends thought I was nuts, my father said I need to get my head out of the clouds and figure out what to do with my life, and my grandmother was the only one who was really helpful, but she’s half senile.”

“I’m sorry… I imagine that things were rough.”

“They were!” Sundance blurted out and he brushed his blue mane from his eyes with one wing. “I’ve still only ever seen a sunflower in a book and I dream about them constantly. I don’t even know what to do now that I’ve finished this genealogy project. All of my hard work has brought me here, to having tea with you, and I never made any kind of plan for anything beyond this point.”

“If I might ask… you’re young, and your grandmother can’t be that old… has she taken ill?”

Sundance took a slurp of tea to calm his nerves and then he looked at Princess Celestia, surprised by her compassion. Her hardened, matronly demeanour was gone now, replaced by motherly concern. His muscles unkinked a little and he found that he could relax his guard.

With a nod, he began, “She worked in a hat factory. Mercury exposure. She did felt-curing work. The fumes got her. She was given an early retirement and now collects a pension.”

“I’m sorry.” Princess Celestia’s eyes—the colour of a glorious rosy dawn—glimmered with emotion and her long neck sagged. “So much has been done to protect labourers from occupational hazards, but I feel that more could still be done. It frustrates me that change is so slow. It is at moments like these that I gain a little more insight as to why some of my subjects choose to remain peasants who work the land.”

“And these peasants… they need a custodian?”

“Oh no,” Princess Celestia replied, shaking her head from side to side. “I’m no longer in need of a custodian or a steward, I’ve found something better.”

Sundance felt his stomach drop.

“They are going to be so happy to find that they have a new lord to look after them.”

Somehow, Sundance held on to his teacup with his hooves and he did his best to appear regal, though he was certain that he was doing a lousy job. This wasn’t what he had in mind, not at all, no, this wasn’t what he had come to Canterlot for. Yet, here he was, having tea with his distant relative after having done all of the prerequisite work that proved that he was at least somewhat adequate for the job.

“I’m not a noble—”

“No, you’re not, and that’s fine, just fine. You’re a hard worker with an eye for detail, a sense of organisation, commitment to a task, and you arrived here through your own efforts, seeking nothing in return. You’ve already shown yourself far more capable than the last lord of House Sunfire and I’m pretty certain that your cutie mark won’t let you say no, so I have you right where I want you.”

The sudden dryness in his mouth made Sundance gulp down more tea and unable to look Princess Celestia in the eye any longer, his gaze darted around the study, taking note of every messy detail. There were stuffed animals crammed between the books on the shelves. The artistic efforts of the very young could be seen on papers pinned to the shelves and the walls. Over the fireplace mantle, there was a foal’s painting of alicorns knew what. The picture could not be made out, but somepony had framed it nonetheless. Photographs of a grinning pegasus could be seen everywhere, except in some pictures the pegasus was an alicorn.

It dawned on Sundance that this was a private room… a room meant for family.

“I don’t know what I am doing—”

“Which is fine and you shouldn’t panic,” Princess Celestia replied while pouring herself more tea. “My advice is to dive into it and don’t hold back. Make friends. Ask for help. Seek advice. If necessary, go to Ponyville and make an appointment to speak with Princess Twilight Sparkle, who manages the day to day operations of the Clock Face Fiefdoms. I will see that an allowance is made available to you so that you can get established.”

“I just wanted to say hello to my great—”

“I am aware of my greatness,” Princess Celestia interjected while somehow keeping her face smirk-free.

“—grandmother. Honestly, I didn’t come here to get anything.”

“But you came, and something of value was given. Gifts are given, not earned. In this instance, I am both giving and receiving”

Sundance was about to say something in return, but there was a thump against the door and it opened. A little stark white pegasus came careening in, her wings flapping, and her arctic blue eyes were frantic. She was quick for being so small, and with a grunt, she launched herself at Princess Celestia like a teeny, tiny, fuzzy, feathery cannonball.

Just as she was doing this, a guard stuck her head in the door, looking apologetic, her eyes wide and sorry. Princess Celestia moved her teacup aside just in time and caught the flappy little filly. It was then that Sundance noticed the contrast, with the filly appearing blue-white and Princess Celestia was more of a pink-white.

“Leave us,” Princess Celestia commanded, and the guard vanished without a word. “Hailstone, did you come for tea?”

“Radiance is a poo-poo head!” the little filly blurted out and then she buried her face into Princess Celestia’s neck. “Big mean poo-poo head!” Now, her words were muffled and she tried to cover her head with her stubby wings.

“Yes…” The exasperated alicorn sighed out the word. “Radiance is a poo-poo head. Was he bossy?”

“Ayuh!”

“What’d he do?”

“He tattled on me!”

“Oh.” Sundance saw Princess Celestia’s eyes narrow and something like a knowing expression could be seen upon her face. “Hailstone, were you flying indoors again?”

“No.”

“No fibbing.”

“Nuh-nope.”

“You know what happens when little Hailstones make the Sun cross, don’t you?”

The filly had nothing to say now, but trembled while her wings fluttered.

“The angry Sun gets hot and little Hailstones melt—”

“I mighta kinda sorta knocked something over, but Radiance is still a tattletale and he’s not s’posed to tattle.”

Sundance wondered if the little tyke realised that she was tattling right now. Unable to hold it in, he laughed, and when he went to cover his mouth, he almost dropped his teacup. Snorting, he tried to recover, but more of the unbidden laughter escaped. Forced to put his cup down, he did so, and cringed a little bit when Princess Celestia’s gaze focused upon him. It was too much to bear and Sundance kept sniggering, kept snorting, and then the most amazing thing happened: Princess Celestia smiled—no, she beamed.

At that moment, Sundance found himself at ease with everything.

“Is Daddy gonna die?” Hailstone asked, her voice now solem and fearful.

“Goodness no…” Princess Celestia allowed the foal to settle into the crook of her foreleg and she looked down at her, still smiling, her face a beautiful expression of maternal love. “I would hope not. Hailstone, why would you ask such a morbid question?”

“He kept saying, ‘A father could just die!’ over and over.” The filly rolled over and allowed herself to be babied, all four of her little legs in a heap on her stomach.

At this moment, sitting in a chair covered with mysterious orange stains while holding one of her offspring, Princess Celestia was a truly magnificent, majestic creature and Sundance felt blessed to be in her presence during such an intimate, precious moment. But the moment was also strange, surreal, though it should not have been. It was difficult to see Princess Celestia—a timeless, immortal creature—doing something that felt so common, but was it really so strange? Sundance could trace his lineage back to the majestic white alicorn of the sun, and this was proof that she engaged in all aspects of day to day life. It was difficult to imagine her just being a pony, with a husband and a passel of foals, though he knew this to be the case.

“Right now, at this moment, you are coming to terms with the fact that I am a pony, just like you, are you not?”

Sundance found himself nodding, but he also said, “I doubt that you are anything like me, Princess Celestia. You have age and wisdom. The nation of Equestria owes its existence to you. You guided us through the terrible times with Mister Mariner and led all of us through the various crises. You are the Eternal Sun and me… I’m just a colt that just graduated secondary school and now has no idea what to do next in life, though it seems that you have a plan for me.”

“You could try telling me no.”

“I have no such desire. All of my work has lead me here, to this point, and it feels as though it would invalidate all of my effort and sacrifice if I turned away now. I gave up so much to accomplish this.” Looking back, Sundance realised just how much he had given up to be here. He had turned down dates, foregone school dances so he could work, and he had relinquished pretty much all of his social life. Was it worth it? There was no way to tell, not yet.

“Mama, I can’t tell if he’s yellow or orange. What crayon would he be?”

“Hailstone, darling, I would say that Sundance here is ochre. Can you say ‘ochre’ for me?”

“Ogre?”

“No, ochre.” Princess Celestia made an exaggerated example of pronouncing it.

“Ochre… ochre… ochre…” The filly mimicked her mother three times, and on the third time, she nodded.

“So what happens next?” Sundance asked while his eyes lingered on Hailstone, because she was adorable.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Princess Celestia replied. “You are going to spread your wings, and I am going to help you to fly. But to do this, you have to trust me, and I have to trust you, so I suppose we need to establish that we trust one another.”

Trust seemed impossible at this point—oh, Sundance trusted his princess, but not himself—and he didn’t understand why she was doing this. This whole meeting had been about trust, he realised, and thought about his earlier epiphany that this was a family room, meant for family members. There was also the fact that Princess Celestia was allowing him to see her not just as a princess, but as a parent, and as a pony.

Did he dare question the judgment of a being many thousands of years older than him?

Nope.

“No flying indoors. It’s a rule. Radiance likes this rule ‘cause he can’t fly ‘cause he’s an earth pony.”

“Hush, Hailstone… Mister Sundance is a rule-following pony. More so than you are, you adorable little scofflaw.”

Lower lip protruding, Hailstone went silent and still while glaring daggers up at her mother. Sundance found himself smiling at the sight of this, how a foal could be so brazen towards Princess Celestia. But to Hailstone, the Immortal Sun Princess was just another pony, a parent. Sundance began to understand the perspectives at work here, and why Hailstone would do what the average pony would find unthinkable, or maybe even blasphemous.

“You have begun to understand the lesson, Sundance. I can see it on your face. Having Hailstone show up was serendipitous and I could not have planned it better. More and more, I am seeing a pony who I can work with, and I like what I see.”

In response, Sundance chose to be blunt. “Are you inside my head?”

“Am I?” was Princess Celestia’s cryptic reply.

“For now, I am going to make the assumption that you are.”

“Good, I will continue to play with your assumptions.”

Frowning, Sundance couldn’t help but feel that he had walked into that one.

“I will give you the Barony of House Sunfire and you will take on the Sunfire name. The barony is a bit of a fixer-upper, but I am confident that you will do right. You will adopt the Sunfire standard and your life will be spent in service to the Sunfire banner. Your every waking moment will be spent in the pursuit of bettering your house and every breath you take will be done in the service of your peasants. Do well, do right, and I will restore the title ‘Guardian of Dawn’ for you. I want this region revived and the glory of this ancient house restored. Can you do this?”

“Well, I don’t know… but I am willing to try.”

“Good answer. The correct answer. Again, I am impressed.” The princess paused, squeezed the foal she cradled in her foreleg, and then she beamed once more, revealing her most impressive smile. “Come, Sundance. I am in the mood for an early lunch, and we have much to discuss. There will be paperwork served with lunch… but I am optimistic that House Sunfire will revive itself like a phoenix from the ashes.”

Sundance nodded, while reflecting upon how a trip to visit his grandmother had turned into so much more. What would his mother think? His father? His grandmother? The sheer enormity of his task settled upon him and he could feel the crushing weight of it. What was he doing? What was he getting into?

“Sundance Sunfire. The name suits you. Come, your Lordship, it is time for you to begin a great work and it is time for me to stuff my face. I’m starving!”

Author's Notes:

This is being done as a breeding ground to experiment, very much like The Weed. Some chapters will be long, others will be quite short. Some will be written as journal entries, some as letters, (Dear Princess Celestia, today I was heckled by peasants, send help) and of course, all of the usual character development, but I wish to try a few new things. Tags may change in the future, we shall see.

Feedback is welcomed.