Author's Notes:

This idea was submitted by nfreak on my Patreon page. If you have ideas you wanna submit for this series, then be sure to visit my page and consider contributing.

“Sooooo… this magic orb is what got Twilight acting so weird?”

Sunburst couldn’t say much in response, and could only wince a little while Starlight Glimmer stared up at the surveillance spell. It’s been a few hours since Twilight had left the room in a panic, clearly unable to take any more research sessions after seeing… that. Even after learning the very simplified details of what the Princess and Sunburst witnessed, Starlight didn’t seem too hesitant about taking her mentor’s place temporarily. Despite any protests the stallion could’ve given, his friend seemed much less frazzled than expected for what could come next.

“Well, ummm… it’s more about what we saw within the orb,” clarified Sunburst with a skewed muzzle as he scratched the back of his ginger mane. “I mean, I know there was a chance we’d see some inappropriate things through surveillance, but…”

As he recalled the unexpectedly crude (and guiltily arousing) session that was recorded, the stallion shuddered uncomfortably while growing a heavy blush. “I… I was not expecting to see that.”

Even after learning who the spell recorded, and the slightest hints as to what they were doing with each other, Starlight merely shrugged with a casual glance back at her friend. “Well, at least we know that interspecies romance is growing more acceptance in Equestria, right?”

Upon seeing the mare’s cheeky smirk, Sunburst wasn’t sure what he wanted to criticize more: that Starlight would have such a brazen reaction to what the Princess got traumatized over (especially considering that one of the ponies was a good friend of both of theirs), or that she would actually list that as being “romantic.” Nevertheless, the stallion could only whinny and roll his eyes in response. “I’m not going to lie, I really wish you weren’t taking this so informally. If you saw what we did, you probably wouldn’t be so blasè about it.”

Starlight considered saying something cheeky in response, but instead gave a more relaxed shrug before speaking honestly, “Well, you are aware of what I did before encounting Twilight, correct? I mean, it’s hard to be too frazzled by sex when you’re a former Cult Leader. With the weekly orgies we had back in Our Town, I can safely say I’ve done and witnessed a lot.”

Sunburst sighed with a flat expression on his face. “Cutie Mark Cult or not, I really don’t--” It took the stallion a moment to realize what his friend said at the end, and jolted a little as he stared at her wide-eyed. Despite how surprised Sunburst looked, Starlight merely rolled her eyes with a smirk and waited for him to say something else. “Uhhhhhh… Di… Did you say Weekly orgies?”

“Well, can you think of a better way to keep an entire town of ponies blissfully distracted for months on end?” she asked with a raised brow, as if her revealed method of control wasn’t completely unexpected to the scholar. She then added with a more blunt huff, “Like… Okay, it wasn’t perfect or anything… actually, it wasn’t even that good in retrospect, but giving everypony equal pleasure in a safe and controlled environment did wonders for morale! Heck, if it wasn’t accompanied with brain-washing and borderline war-crime tactics, I would’ve considered recommending it as an option for Friendship missions.”

Sunburst raised a hoof to reiterate what just came out of the mare’s mouth, but couldn’t say anything while his own muzzle hung open. After a few seconds of silence, the stallion decided against saying anything, and just breathed out while looking away from Starlight. “Ummm… wow.”

“I’m just saying,” she replied in a more direct tone, “that I think I can handle seeing ponies having sex, alright? I’m not calling you or Twilight prudes or anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I handled a few recordings with less problems than either of you.”

Sunburst wanted to be offended by that statement, but couldn’t say much while exhaling silently in thought. As he used his hoof to readjust his glasses (and subtly pinch the bridge of his snout to conceal his annoyance), the stallion took a couple seconds before saying, “Well… As long as you take the proper research notes, and make sure no recordings leave this room, I think we can safely continue this friendship research in the Princess’ place.”

“I already know the details from Twilight,” assured Starlight with a warm smile while her hoof was raised, “and I completely understand how hush this experiment stuff is. I promise I won’t say a word, and I actually am curious to see what happens with ponies think they aren’t being watched.”

That comment made Sunburst’s muzzle skew in uncertainty, but he couldn’t exactly say anything against his friend’s enthusiasm to continue their work. Even with his own apprehensions, the stallion lit his horn before shrugging and looking back to the magic dome. “Well, alright then…”

After muttering under his breath, “I hope this one doesn’t have any sex,” he gave a light zap of his magic to the orb to help jump-start the process. The multicolored lights immediately moved around more excitedly within the dome, which made Starlight smile wide in anticipation. She may have not been as giddy as the Princess first was, but she seemed genuinely happy to be part of the process as she watched the screen form magically before them.

“Ooooohhhh, boy,” she said to herself while her hooves were fidgeting, “Let the fun begin~”

Sunburst wanted to ask what she thought they were going to see, but wasn’t able to say a word before the screen conjured up its next image...

Just outside the School of Friendship, a familiar-looking group of six were seated together at one of the wooden picnic tables. Despite how beautiful the day was, there didn’t seem to be many other creatures around to disturb the students; and judging by the look of frustration on the lone pony’s face, that was probably a good thing. His muzzle was tightly pursed while he pinched the bridge of his snout with a hoof, trying his hardest not to break his usually cool composure. Meanwhile, the other students of varying species all had similar confused expressions while looking between their friend Sandbar, and the fancy-looking chessboard he laid out for them.

“Sooooo…” Yona, the lone student from Yakyakistan, had an especially perplexed look while seated across from Sandbar. When he first got out the chessboard, she and others expected it to just be a game of checkers; and even before he began to explain the rules, Yona was the first to proudly exclaim how wondrous Yaks were at the game. Unfortunately, now she just felt completely lost as she stared at the differently shaped and sized game-pieces. Even after Sandbar tried to explain the different pieces and the movements they made, Yona narrowed her eyes confusedly and pointed at the second-largest piece on her side of the board. “You… You say that this piece is ‘King,’ right?”

“Nnnnnghhhh…” Despite Yona’s massive build and size, Sandbar knew that she was too sensitive to warrant snapping at her in frustration. But given how that was the fifth time he had to explain each individual piece on the chessboard, his patience was growing thin while taking a deep and strained breath. “Y… Yes, Yona,” he said through gritted teeth as he struggled to give a polite smile alongside his nod. “That… that is the King.”

The yak tilted her head, and stared back at Sandbar like he just answered that in Zebrican, “But… yak can’t use that to King you?”

“NRRRRRGHHHH!!” Sandbar had to grip the sides of his mane with both hooves to keep from bursting a blood vessel. “For the last time, NO Yona! There is no ‘King Me’ in chess!”

“Hey, come on now!” replied the orange dragon who was seated beside Yona on the table bench. Smolder may have been confused about how chess worked too, but she leaned in with an arm propped against the yak’s shoulder while eyeing Sandbar disapprovingly. “You don’t have to yell at Yona for not understanding your weird, ‘Pony’ game! I mean, I thought it was gonna be checkers too.”

“I’m not yelling,” Sandbar quickly stated with one of his hooves raised. After taking a small breath, he exhaled calmly and said towards Yona apologetically, “I didn’t mean to yell, alright? I’m just trying to explain how the game goes.”

“Yeah, about that…” Ocellus, the school’s resident changeling and book-worm, leaned in to glance at the arranged pieces while next to Sandbar. Despite being one of the few creatures to understand the logistics of the game the first time the stallion explained them, she felt compelled to ask something with a tilt of her head. “Why is it that the King can only move one space at a time, but the Queen moves around wherever she pleases? Wouldn’t it make more sense that her drones--er, I mean her pawns have more range to attack? Because from where I see it, the Queens in chess have a really incompetent military setup.”

Sandbar covered his face with his hoof, and groaned in dire frustration under his breath. “Ocellus, I didn’t design how the game works.”

Before the changeling could huff and explain that wasn’t her intention, she yelped when the school’s hippogriff leaned in from behind to add her input. “Actually,” chirped Silverstream with a chipper smile and a raised talon of her claw, “I kinda see the Queen being all-powerful as being suuuuuuper accurate! I mean, look at how many of our countries have strong female leaders! I have Queen Nova, you used to have Queen Chrysalis, Smolder has Princess Ember, and Equestria has like, FOUR Alicorn Princesses who could whoop anyone’s butts!”

“Five if you count Flurry heart,” added Ocellus with a nervous smile and a light shrug.

“Oh, YEAH!! I almost forgot that Cadence's daughter is an Alicorn too!”

“Okay, okay,” piped Sandbar as he put down his hooves and tried to get the discussion back on track. “If we’re done talking about gender dynamics in politics, I’d rather go back to starting this game--”

“Actually, if you don’t mind me interrupting,” said Gallus as he leaned in from Yona’s other side. He picked up Yona’s King piece while ignoring the irritated growl Sandbar tried to withhold in response. “I gotta ask, why is the King piece such a beta of the group? I mean, the Pawn I can kinda understand since there’s so many of them, but shouldn’t the King be as powerful as the Queen? I can’t really think of many monarchies where the power was so skewed.”

“Having the King so underpowered is kinda a big point of the game,” muttered Sandbar with an annoyed scowl on his muzzle. “I mean, the whole point of the game is to take that piece out. If it was as powerful as the Queen, the game wouldn’t be as effective when it comes to strategy.”

“Well, I totally get that,” the gryphon replied with a shrug and a blunt smirk, as if the stallion just said something really obvious. “I just mean in a more logical, real-world standpoint, most Kings wouldn’t be so passive during a fight for their lives.”

“I dunno,” replied Ocellus with a hesitant shrug. “If the details I heard about that Royal Wedding Invasion were true, I could see some male leaders reacting poorly. Like, could you imagine if somepony like Prince Blueblood became King?” The changeling then shuddered uncomfortably upon thinking of such an asinine idea.

“Pbbbt! Oh, please,” scoffed Silverstream with a roll of her eyes. “If any Prince should be in line for the role of King, it’d be Shining Armor! I mean, the guy is practically King of the Crystal Empire! And he’s pretty hunky if I say so myself~”

“Regardless of how ‘Hunky’ he may be,” retorted Ocellus as she looked up at the hippogriff with a more factual tone of voice, “He’s technically a Prince Consort, since he wasn’t born into the Royal bloodline. So according to Equestrian Law of Monarchial Lineage, Blueblood would be in line for King before Shining.”

“Boy, that’d be a disaster waiting to happen,” Smolder huffed as she shook her head playfully. “I mean, I know I shouldn’t read those trashy tabloid newspapers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more than half the rumors about him are true.”

By that point, Sandbar was just sitting with a disappointedly flat look while his forelegs were crossed over his chest. Even though he doubted that all of his friends would be interested in chess, he didn’t expect the interest of the group would be so distracted by other things so quickly. Meanwhile, the other creatures just continued their impromptu discussion while the chessboard was left unplayed.

“I don’t read tabloids either,” admitted Ocellus with a shrug, “Buuuuuutttt… Apparently, Thorax had a lot of stories about that guy when he was undercover before that Canterlot invasion.”

“OOOH!!~” Silverstream seemed quite excited to hear more after the changeling confessed that blip of intel. “Like what?!”

Yona excitedly raised her hoof and proclaimed proudly, “Yak thinks that Blueblood wears horn-extension!”

“Is it true that he blackmails the Royal Guards into doing stuff with him?” asked Smolder with a raised brow. “There are like, four different guards who claimed that in testimonials.”

Ocellus’ muzzle wrinkled as she shuffled in her seat uncomfortably. “Actually, from what I heard, Blueblood was a complete shut-in. Even when he posed as the top Guard, Thorax couldn’t get any access to the Prince’s room. Although… he did say the room smelled of lube and foal-powder, so who knows?”

That answer made most of the others wince and grow weirded-out expressions, probably all assuming similar things. However, Yona looked surprisingly content with that response as she leaned back with her forelegs crossed proudly. “Ahhhhh~ Both items good for inserting fake horn over Prince’s tiny one. Yak knew it!”

“Heh~” Gallus began to twirl the King piece between his talons as he grew a sly-looking smirk on his beak. “I bet that’s not the only thing on Blueboood that’s tiny~”

All the girls giggled naughtily to that statement while covering their mouths in surprise. Smolder shrugged her shoulders and looked up at the gryphon with a chuckle. “You know what? I wouldn’t doubt that rumor for a second.”

“Well, it’s pretty easy to make that kinda claim,” replied Gallus with a shrug of his own. As his cheeky smirk widened, he picked up one of the Pawn pieces with his other claw and added, “I mean, some guys just have that kinda look, you know?~”

Even with the dragon looking up at him, Gallus was daring enough to shoot a split-second wink towards Sandbar’s direction outside of her line of sight. Meanwhile, Sandbar pursed his muzzle shut and tensed-up for a split-second. The Pawn piece in the gryphon’s claw wriggled around teasingly, obviously mimicking a certain appendage which made the pony’s blush deepen across his cheeks. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like any of the giggling girls caught on to the guys’ silent exchange that lasted a maximum of two seconds.

“Well, I really doubt Shining is one of them,” piped Silverstream as she grew a dreamy look on her face. “Like, look at who he’s married to! You can’t exactly win the Princess of Love without offering something special.”

“I… kinda have to agree with that,” noted Ocellus while growing a faint blush. “Most of the changelings who worked alongside him undercover said he was pretty kind and charming. And while I really hope nothing happens to the Princesses again, I could totally see him being a way better King than Blueblood.”

“Agreed,” said the other creatures in unison.

“Okay then!” Now that the discussion of Princes seemed to have came to a close, Sandbar sighed in relief before trying to get discussion back to chess. “Now that we’re done talking about Blueblood and tiny di--Horns, c-can… can we please just get back to the game here? The King might be underpowered, but it’s still an important piece.”

Gallus put the Pawn back in its place, but still held onto the King piece briefly and reiterated his earlier point. “Pbbbt! I still think it’s stupid for the King to only move one space at a time. Could we change it so that he moves like, two spaces at a time?”

Sandbar face-hoofed. Hard. “He has to only move one, Gallus. I don’t know why, but he just does.”

“Maybe the King was a lazy dick,” suggested Smolder as she picked up the piece from Gallus’ claw. “Like, I could see the power getting to a guy’s head to start thinking something like:” She then held the piece up above the chessboard, and moved it around while mimicking a brutish male voice, “‘Hey Queen! You’re so good at taking out the other pieces, so how about you just do all the work while I move around one piece at a time? Being a King is really hard work, after all~’”

“THAT JERK!!!” An extremely offended-looking Yona snatched the piece from Smolder’s grip, and threw it down to the grass beside their table. “YAK HATES SEXISM!!!”

“Hey, come on!” shouted Sandbar as he tried to pull out of his seat. “I borrowed that chess set from Spike! You ca--”

Unfortunately, Yona didn’t pay any heed to the stallion’s words as she began to stomp on the plastic piece with her hooves. As the ground rippled underneath the group and their table, Sandbar could only gawk in horror as he saw that game-piece get smashed repeatedly by the yak’s thunderous hooves. “AAAARRRRRGHHHH!!! DIE, SEXIST KING, DIE!!!”

“Now THAT’S more like it!!” squealed Smolder with a pumped fist in approval. “Give it to him, Yona! Girl Power!”

Upon seeing that game piece being destroyed beyond repair, Sandbar sank his face into his hooves while leaned into the table with a worried groan. Given how expensive that chess set was supposed to be (at least, according to Spike’s claims), the stallion could only hope the drake would believe how the King piece got wrecked. Fortunately, Ocellus was quick to use her magic to float away the chessboard and the rest of the pieces. “Uhhhhh… I’ll see if we can’t make a replacement, okay?” she suggested with an apologetic shrug.

“OOH!” Silverstream raised her claw and added excitedly, “I can check the art-room for some glue!”

Sandbar wanted to appreciate the hippogriff’s enthusiasm, but it felt rather pointless when he glanced back down at the crater Yona made into the ground. As soon as the yak’s hooves pulled away, the King piece couldn’t even be seen among the hole of dirt and shrapnel specks. The stallion sighed under his breath, and dragged his hoof down his face while saying, “Well, I guess our chess lesson is ove--”

“DIE SEXIST GAME!!!” roared Yona in furious anger. Even Ocellus couldn’t stop the yak’s rage as she lunged in and picked up the rest of the chessboard and pieces. “RRRAAAHHHHH!!!”

“YONA, STOP!!!”

Just as the yak’s rampage on Spike’s chess set was about to reach its climax, the screen dissipated from view within the magic aura. Meanwhile, Sunburst and Starlight merely stood before it while laughing to themselves. While they didn’t expect to see something so tame, that surveillance spell certainly got the two in higher spirits. The stallion shook his head while holding his glasses over his face. “Oh, man!” he replied while chuckling in amusement. “I hope Spike can get a new chess set.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” assured Starlight with a wave of her hoof. “I got him that for Hearth’s Warming last year. It’s honestly not that expensive, but I never told him that.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” After he collected his breath, Sunburst used his magic to ripe his glasses with a cloth. “Honestly, I kinda wish Twilight saw that scene as opposed to the earlier ones.”

“Ehhhh, I dunno,” replied Starlight with a more apprehensive shrug. “She’d probably be peeved they weren’t as interested in chess as Sandbar.”

Even though he felt obligated to agree with that sentiment, the pony still seemed hesitant to say so. “Still, I… I have a feeling she’d prefer that over the, ermmm… previous stuff.”

As the stallion shuddered with a distasteful blush, Starlight shrugged and looked towards the doorway. “You want me to get her back here? I bet she wouldn’t wanna miss too many of these.”

“Ehhhh, let’s at least try one more ourselves,” he suggested as he raised a hoof to pause whatever action she might make. “I mean, I’d rather see how consistent this orb is when it comes to finding random moments. I don’t want to bring her back due to one innocent scene, and then have her see another voyeuristic moment.”

Despite doubting that would happen, the mare couldn’t deny Sunburst’s worries too strongly. So after a thoughtful sigh, Starlight decided against getting her mentor while Sunburst lit his horn again. “Oh, alright then. But after this, I should find those students and get another chess set.”

The stallion smiled as he nodded back at her in response. “Sounds good to me.”