Twenty-eight years ago

"Lucent I expected more of you than this!"

Lucent Noctis, Duke of Smaragdvea, forty first of the line to bear the title and so forth, cinched back his newspaper and stared at the letter his beloved had slapped down on the table between them. From there his gaze slipped to the grubby white foal at her teat, suckling away as if the conversation around him meant nothing. Lucent's eyes narrowed slightly as he peered up at Star.

"You've been reading my mail again."

"You left it open on my pillow, Lucent, with a hoof-written note asking me to read it and tell you what I thought. I was worried you were proposing to me, which is a silly idea on its face, but this..." Star tapped the letter, hard, rattling the silverware on the table and spilling a little of Lucent's coffee. "For the record, I think it's insane!"

"I was sure I explained the political intrigues of my family, dear."

"You explained, I just never expected you to acquiesce to such regressive nonsense!" For want of anything to do, Star picked up the thick parchment letter and slapped it down on the table again, shattering a fraction of its delicately worked gilt edging. She stomped on the floor and turned away. The foal at her feet squawked his protest as he was suddenly dislodged. He cantered round after Star as he tried to latch on again.

"I can't just break a centuries-old agreement because you don't like it, Star. Mother wouldn't approve."

"To tartarus with your mother's opinion, Lucent!"

Lucent stared at Star for a good few seconds before returning to his newspaper, taking a moment to nod to another pony entering the room. "Good morning, Twilight. I take it you slept well?"

"Better than some of us, I'd wager," Twilight Velvet replied, eyeing the foal, who had resumed nosing greedily around Star's hindquarters. Star snorted and picked up the letter for a third time, pausing to see if she could set it aflame with just the energy from her angry glare. When that failed she tossed the parchment at Twilight, who deftly caught it with her magic.

"What's this?"

"Lucent's getting married."

"Married? How novel." The letter rustled as Twilight opened it up to read. "The eldest daughter of the Marquis de Botici? Isn't that over in Ryemania somewhere?"

"Somewhere," Lucent replied, absently pouring more cream in his coffee as he turned another page of his newspaper. Star grit her teeth and took a step to snatch the paper away but was distracted by a sudden and very particular pain in her hindquarters.

"Shining Armor, I have told you already, nice ponies do not bite!" She firmly pushed her foal away with a hind leg and turned around to face him. Little Shining looked up at her with wide eyes, doing his best impression of an abandoned and starving kitten, but she was unmoved. "Any more of that and you'll get a thrashing."

"Are you sure all these threats of violence are strictly necessary, Star?"

"Twilight, you can tell me how to raise my offspring when you've got one of your own."

Twilight Velvet jumped as if physically struck. She stared at Star, lips twitching as she tried to form a coherent response, but Star dismissed the mewling, hysterical– she bit down on the bitter thought and gave Twilight an apologetic look.

"Excuse me, Twilight. I've not been sleeping well."

Twilight nodded, biting her lip. "I–It's ok."

Star tried to give her herdmate a reassuring smile, but her heart wasn't in it. She turned her attention back to Lucent. Their Stallion was still reading his newspaper, calmly chewing on a piece of toast and paying neither mare any attention whatsoever.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

"Not as such." Lucent folded the newspaper into a neat square and finally put it to one side He looked at Twilight for a moment, his face a mask of sympathy and understanding, then turned to Star. "Try to make up, will you? She's going to be here in a few minutes and we wouldn't want to make a bad impression."

"She's what? Lucent, you didn't tell us any of this!"

"It was arranged before we even met," Lucent said, his voice dropping to a quiet, comforting murmur. Twilight and Star both drew closer to hear him, their momentary feud forgotten as Lucent's gentle tones washed over them. With the keen cheek of children everywhere, Shining squeezed up between them, staring up at his father with the same wide eyes he'd tried to employ on Star a moment earlier. They were roundly ignored. "I know I should have said something but I didn't want to trouble you with—"

"Trouble me? Trouble me? Lucent..." Words failed her. Star gasped as she fought for a response.

A clock chimed before she could think of anything else to say. Lucent and Star both looked up as hoofsteps echoed in the corridor beyond, the sound of the house staff galloping to prepare for visitors; even they knew before she did. She looked to Lucent for another round of complain but paused when she found his face. His normally cheery visage had been replaced with the nervous, almost child-like expression Star remembered from the days when she had first courted him.

"I'd better go and find Glint," he said quietly, pushing back from the table as he did so. Star and Twilight watched him amble from the room. As soon as the door closed behind him, Star let out a frustrated sigh. She rubbed her face and glared at the hardwood floor of the dining room.

"Married." Star nuzzled at Shining, smiling at his adoring face in spite of herself, and let him go back to feeding. "Why he listens to that stupid old nag—"

"That 'nag' was his entire life until we came along, he's bound to trust her even in the face of your eminent wisdom," Twilight replied, her voice betraying nothing of the argument they'd had a moment earlier. She held up the letter. "Says here it's some sort of old arrangement between Botici and Smaragdvea to merge their lines if Smaragdvea was ever without a female heir."

"What about Shining?"

"It's very specific about the heir being a filly," Twilight said stiffly. She put the letter down with more care than Star had displayed. "If you'd foaled one, there might have been an argument against this."

"If you had, you mean. I was in this herd for love and stability, nothing more."

"Perhaps you should have thought about that before—"

"Perhaps nothing Twilight, you were the one who was meant to be raising foals, not me! I had a career until this—" Star winced and gasped, crossing her eyes as the pain in her hindquarters made himself intimately known again. "Shining, if you bite me one more time then so help me you will be locked in you bedroom for the rest of the week!"

"Don't be so hard on him, Star. He knows you're not being fair to yourself, or anypony for that matter."

"Twilight, just keep telling me how to raise my foal—"

"Oh rub it in why don't you! Just because you managed to– to get a child from Lucent doesn't give you the right to be so high and mighty, Star Sparkle!" Twilight paced the kitchen, snorting. "I was trying to be nice."

"I don't respond well to nice, Velvet."

"No," Twilight replied quietly. She glanced at the door as it opened to admit another of their herd, a pale earth pony toting a tasteless collection of jewellery around her neck. "Bitterness and violently loud screaming is more your style. Hello Crystal."

"Ladies." Crystal Glimmer tossed her head and smiled broadly at the pair. "The others are waiting in the foyer. Thank Celestia I wasn't back at the townhouse today, I didn't even know this was happening until half an hour ago."

"That's more warning than I had," Star replied, forcing a bitter smile onto her face. Crystal rolled her eyes.

"He'll forget where he left his head one of these days," she said, kneeling down to greet Shining Armor as the foal cantered toward her. "Hey kiddo! Ready to meet your new aunt?"

Shining threw an uncertain look back at his mother, but quickly hid it behind a broad grin. Despite herself, Star smiled back, trying to reassure the child, wishing she had someone to reassure herself.

"Crystal, could you be a dear and take Shining of my hooves for a few minutes?"

The mare's ears rolled back and forward again. "A–Are you sure? You know I'm useless on my own with foals."

"Crystal, I have not had a drink for a month, I have slept two hours in the past twenty and I am about to meet a new herdmate who I have never even heard of before. You take him, or I'll start pulling out that pretty mane of yours one hair at a time. Your choice."

Crystal's eye twitched slightly. She glanced over her shoulder, then down at Shining, who had taken to hugging her leg as if it were the only thing keeping him attached to the ground. "Come on, kiddo, lets go in the other room before your momma does something I'll regret."

With a last, tremulous glance at Star, Crystal shuffled the foal out of the dining room, regaling the young Shining with a story of her last trip to some exotic fashion show. Shining peeked back through the door at his mother just as it closed. He tried on an uncertain smile just as he disappeared from view.

Star sighed, finally letting her guard down now her offspring was out of the way. "Twilight. I am sorry."

"It's not like you to apologise, Star, so I suppose you must be."

They faced one another across the table, shifting awkwardly from side to side as each thought of how to move forward – though, in Star's case, the lingering soreness in her nethers wasn't helping any effort to stay still. Just a few months, then he'd be on solids and she could finally have some time to herself again.

"I am," she continued, finally. "I know it's been hard for you."

"Hard doesn't begin to over it," Twilight replied. She fiddled with the edges of Lucent's newspaper, pawing fitfully at the pages as if she'd find some resolution between them. "If it was just one, I'd understand, but I've had any number of heats since Shining came along. We know Lucent's not running dry and I'm as fertile as they come according to my gynecologist, but they're just not taking. Seeing you with Shining... that should have been me, Star."

"Take him then, I'd rather be out on the Marengeti anyway! Or Hindia." Star pulled the paper away from Twilight and flipped it over, staring at the page without reading it. An article caught her eye. After a few moments of reading, Star laid the paper down again and sighed. "They just found another temple city near Bambey."

"You'd be too busy chasing Zebra around Bokswana to spend time in Hindia," Twilight replied, with just a hint of the cheeky smile Star remembered. Twilight turned away for a moment and blew her nose. When she looked back there was a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Maybe."

"We'd better go and join the others," Twilight said, with a voice so quiet that Star almost didn't hear it. Though never one to be strident, this was the most subdued Star had ever seen her. "This is going to be very formal, Star. Try not to insult anyone, for Lucent's sake if nothing else."

At the mention of her Stallion Star felt all the tension of the day coming back, crawling along her limbs like creeping fire. She danced her forehooves, rapping out a quick tattoo on the floorboards and trotted smartly toward the door. A quick glance confirmed that the corridor beyond was empty. Star turned back to Twilight and pulled her into a brief hug.

Twilight froze, taken aback. She blinked and squirmed in Star's forelegs, shrugging off the attention. "What was that for?"

"I—" Star frowned. Twilight was grinning at her and genuinely too, not just for show. She couldn't help but return the gesture. "Nerves. Madness."

"I won't tell anyone," Twilight replied as she sauntered past. "Wouldn't want to ruin your image, would we?"

The particular emphasis Twilight put on the phrase was enough to pique Star's interest. She cantered to catch up to her herdmate, trying to keep the frown from her face. "What image?"

"Oh, you know," Twilight replied, smirking. She stuck her tongue out at Star and cantered away toward the main entrance.

* * *

The grand foyer of Lachrimose House echoed with the quiet murmurings as the herd gathered at its centre, its white marble walls almost glowing in the late afternoon sun that flowed through the crystalline dome seated atop the broad, round space. Servants lined the curving staircase on one side of the rotunda, eyes fixed on the door as they waited for the mare who might well be their future mistress.

And I'll be damned if she is. Star Sparkle grumbled something profane under her breath and sidled close to Lucent. "She's late."

"And we all know how you can't abide tardiness," Twilight Velvet put in from the other side of their Stallion. She grinned and winked at her herdmate across Lucent's back before resuming her 'meeting guests' face and turning to face the door.

"Much as you're so lax and forgiving about punctuality," Star replied, rolling her eyes. Lucent shifted next to her, belying his discomfort with the continued sniping between the pair – something he'd never been able to really deal with over the time they'd been together. Star just ignored him and tried out a few more uncharitable thoughts for the new mare her lover was allegedly to marry.

Weddings. She never understood why anybody bothered with them any more. Certainly she'd exchanged horn rings with Lucent, many years ago, but that was an entirely different level of affairs. That was love. This?

Politics.

The bell chimed. Lucent stepped forward with Star at his side as the butler drew back the broad front doors, letting in the hot, dry air of a Canterlot summer day. Magic flared briefly as enchanted vents detected a change in temperature and began lazily turn over, drawing a cool breeze into the room from cellars deep below.

Two unicorns stood silhouetted in the light, both mares, one with their noses held so high Star was sure she could see right up to their brains. A third trundled along in their wake as they entered, trying to make herself look invisible and almost succeeding until her eyes locked with Star's. She looked away with a loud sniff.

"Her Grace the Duchess Lucerna de Smaragdvea, and her Ladyship Cerulamna de Botici," the butler intoned, bowing deeply. She looked up again as the third mare hesitantly stepped through the door. "And daughter."

The two mares halted before Lucent and Star and waited. Much to Star's disgust, but to the evident approval of his mother, Lucent bowed his head low. Star snorted and looked away.

"I see the description of your son's lead mare was quite accurate, your Grace," the one called Cerulamna said, employing the terminology only ponies of a particular age and class used these days. The other nodded slowly, eyeing Star as if daring her to respond, but Star knew Lucerna's moods by now. Instead she simply smiled, knowing that her silence annoyed her Stallion's mother far more than anything she could say.

"She has her moments, Lady Cerulamna," the Duchess finally replied. Her eyes lidded and her ears turned toward Star as she spoke. "As does my son."

"Yes..."

Star grimaced. She pronounced yes as years, how much more pretension could she possibly manage without exploding in a cloud of narcissistic fluff? Star forced another smile as the elderly mare slowly trotted around them, pausing to poke here at Lucent's shoulder, there at his side, before finally returning to the front and peering at his mouth. The Stallion waited with unusual stoicism as he was prodded and probed by his would-be suitor's mother.

"Yes, well, moments aside, he seems rather well groomed, certainly. Does he have—"

"If you're going to ask about his abilities, my lady, perhaps you should speak to a pony who knows?" Star turned to face the old nag, still smiling and not particularly caring that she looked half an inch away from murdering something. "Shining, step forward, there's a good chap. My son," she continued, as Shining Armour was reluctantly propelled out of the herd by Crystal. The youngster glared over his shoulder and cantered to Star's side, hugging as close as he possibly could to her body.

Lady Cerulamna stared at him, possibly weighing up his value on the Griffin commodity market for all Star knew. The elder mare turned her head to one side and smiled, transforming her face from merely withered to positively cadaverous in the process. At the sight of that hideous grimace, Shining squeaked and tried to hide between Star's legs.

"Such a darling young thing. Though he seems rather dissimilar in shade?"

"Takes after his grandmother," Star said, turning the smile all the way up to obsequious to hide the loathing that churned her gut. It was only her supreme self control that prevented Star from knocking the Marquessa on her rump for the implications of what she said. And to think just a couple of hours ago she'd been contemplating a nice, quiet morning.

"And such a fine heritage," Cerulamna replied. The smile was gone, now that she and Star faced one another. Her eyes burned with the ambition and resentment. "One hopes that our dearest Crincile might take that same heritage and make something useful of it."

"Ever do we hope," Star replied through gritted teeth and solemn face. She wasn't going to make a scene, she wasn't going to make a scene... a quiet sniff to her right caught both mares' attention. Star turned to examine the third unicorn, this Crincile she would be sharing a herd with.

Slender was the word that came to mind. Prim, proper, small. Young. In fact she looked barely nineteen, though Star had long ago realised that she had absolutely no ability to discern another pony's age. She'd been convinced for years that Glint was the same age as Lucent, rather than the fifteen years younger he'd turned out to be. That had been embarrassing to say the least.

The long look she'd been giving Crincile must have noticed. Lady Cerulamna loudly cleared her throat and raised her voice. "Introductions, of course, are in order." She glared at Crincile. The younger mare sniffed again and bowed deeply.

"M'lady, Crincile de Botici. I am honoured that you all would permit my courting of your Stallion."

"O–Of course," Star replied, glancing at Lucent, then at his mother and Cerulamna, who had retreated a short distance to watch. A sly smile crept to her lips. "Of course. Star Sparkle. No title, no honours, so pleased to meet you." She looked about herself with a theatrical air and then down between her legs just as Shining, with perfect timing, poked his head out beneath her chest. "Ah! My son, Shining Armour."

A grin split Crincile's features as she watched Shining's antics. "Oh, he's adorable!"

"He most certainly is," Star replied, eyeing Crincile's perfectly styled mane as the mare leaned down to peer at Shining. Hot pink. She couldn't decide whether it would be worse if it was natural or tinted. "Lets meet the others, shall we? Lucent, stay. Good boy."

Lucent closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Behind him, amongst the other mares, Glint turned his head and snorted, trying to hide a laugh and failing miserably. Crincile blinked and hesitated for a moment before following Star to the rest of the herd.

"Lady Crincile, this is Twilight Velvet. We courted Lucent together."

"A pleasure," Twilight said with just a hint of a bow. "To be fair, Star did most of the courting. I was rather shy in those days."

"Liar," Star replied as she shuffled Crincile along the line to the next pony. "Glint Garnet."

"The model?" Crincile stared at Glint with rapt fascination, her eyes wide as the full moon.

"The one and only," Glint replied with his most disarming smile. He brushed aside his light blue mane and turned his head away as if posing for a photograph. Crincile could only squeak in reply. "Somewhat retired at the moment. I'm in that horrible spot between youth and wisdom where I just can't find the work."

"Well I think you look marvelous! I have a picture of you in my dorm room at the University, the one where you're posing next to a demi-grand with a rose?"

"Thank you! Yes I remember that shoot, so very..." Glint's eyes lost their focus for a moment. He shook his head and took a short breath. "Interesting. Still, always a pleasure to meet a mare with some taste, unlike this old—"

"That's quite enough, Glint," Star cut in. She glared at the stallion as she shuffled Crincile onward. "Honestly these males, they talk as if their continued existence depended on everypony hearing the sound of their voice. Now, this is Crystal Glimmer. She's a grasping social climber."

"How charming," Crystal replied, flicking her ears. Her eyes remained fixed on Crincile as she bowed her head. The unicorn was stared at her, biting her lip. "Is there something the matter, dear?"

"I—"

"Perhaps you'd like to see her kick some mud around," Star said, grinning broadly. She winked at Crystal. The earth pony narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

"Please, I'm not—" Crincile swallowed and bit her lip again. "It's the name. I–It just doesn't fit."

"It's quite alright, dear, I get that a lot. It's always a good ice-breaker at parties."

"I saw you from across– no... no that doesn't sound right either. I'm so sorry," she said as Star dragged her on toward the last member of the herd. A shorter unicorn with a bright red coat looked up at Crincile and grinned broadly.

"I'm Scintilla! Hi!" She bounced on her hooves as she spoke, giving both ponies the disturbing impression of a hyperactive tomato. Crincile gave Star an uncertain look and then leaned forward a little to speak.

"H–Hello..."

"What do you think of the mansion? Pretty big, huh? Bet you could lose yourself in this place for days if you don't know your way around! You think you'll be getting one of the rooms at the front? They get the best sun all day, I'd love to have one of those! I got one of the rooms east wing. Great sunrises, though the view is over a big old greenhouse so it's really not that special, but I've got this great big bathroom and a really, really pretty bed."

"I think—"

"Lotta potential as luxury guest apartments, those front spaces..." Scintilla's eyes lost their focus a little as she spoke, until she seemed to be staring at a point some distance behind Crincile's head. "I keep telling Lucerna, let the place go, turn it into a spa or something and buy into something more urban. Most of the capital costs are already sunk, it'd be easy to get a loan to cover the conversion and ponies would flock for miles for the chance to spend time here. The views are so amazing! They'd pay through the nose to get those rooms, but she keeps talking about it being some ancient family residence. Hey maybe if you're in charge you could—"

"Moving on!" Star dragged Crincile away from the still-bouncing mare, who seemed to have finally remembered who she was talking to. Scintilla waved a hoof at Crincile.

"We'll do lunch!"

"I believe I know you from somewhere," Star said quietly as she lead the young mare back toward Lucent, trailing Shining Armour in her wake. The other members of the herd milled around, drawing subtly closer to Lucent as well; they knew what was required of them by now. "From the university."

"You might. I attended your lectures on the Ngulube oral histories shortly before your last trip to Zebrica. It was absolutely fascinating!"

"Was that a compulsory part of your course?"

"Oh, no, it was an elective. I'm studying Equestrian Languages."

"Is that so?" Star turned with a smile as bright as her namesake as she considered this little surprise. Perhaps the mare had some taste after all, just a shame she couldn't have chosen a better mother. "Well, here we are again. This is Lucent, who I suppose you expect to be your Stallion before long. Try not to make him angry, he bites. Say hello, Lucent."

"I'm honoured," Lucent said, eyeing Star as he bowed his head. "Please excuse my lady Sparkle, she has a somewhat rakish sense of humour."

Star rolled her eyes and backed away for a moment to give the pair some space. It was the expected thing and she knew Lucent would be likely to do something rash if she didn't follow the rules right now. Never mind that every fibre in her being screamed to buck this young stripling filly out of the front door and away from her herd... Lucent's eyes flickered toward her, questioning. He would go through with it of course, to please that haridelle masquerading as his mother, but she didn't have to like it.

They spoke for but a few moments, long enough for Lucent's reassuring laughter to echo through the foyer, to everyone's pleasure. He bowed again, and with a great deal of formal motion Crincile brought forth her flowers. Six of them, one for each of the herd, who gathered around Lucent in a small arc to wait. Lucent lowered his head again as Crincile tucked the first bloom behind his ear. She glanced at her mother; Lady Cerulamna nodded fractionally, smiling. She fixed her eyes on Star and that smile grew just a little broader.

The others accepted their flowers in as formal a manner as was possible for the motley bunch Star called herdmates, each smiling and bowing to Crincile as they encouraged her to go on, until finally only Star was left. She waited, and for just a moment Crincile hesitated, a single flower floating in her aura.

"This is a bit... I–I don't have enough... we..." She glanced at Cerulamna again. The old nag's eyes were wide, urging Crincile to do something, but Star couldn't quite work out what. She looked at Crincile again and saw the uncertainty in her eyes. The flower dipped and moved away from Star just a fraction, prompting an equally fractional shudder of anticipation in Lucerna's frame.

Star felt a lead weight dropping into her gut as she realised what the poor filly was being forced to do. That heartless, manipulative cow!

"You don't want to do that," she whispered. Crincile frowned, swallowing, her breath rapid and uneven, the first sign of panic setting in. "Take my advice. Commit yourself completely to this entire herd, or walk away."

"But—"

"No buts! I know what's going on." Star glanced at the two matriarchs again, and noted just a hint of something like hunger in their eyes. "You've been brought here to court a stallion you wouldn't know from a lump of rock, because of some ancient piece of paper that his great grandmother gave to your great grandmother. You don't really want to be here. I don't want you here." Star smiled broadly at Lucent and the two ancient mares lurking at the periphery of the room. She turned slightly to cut them further from the conversation, placing herself firmly between Crincile and Lady Cerulamna's line of sight.

"But they do," she continued. "So we're doomed to go through with this farce no matter what, and never mind what Lucent wants either because, after all, he's only the watering can for the little brood you'll be squirting out of your behind in a year or two." Crincile's indrawn breath wasn't quite enough to break Star's momentum now; she pressed on, ignoring the slight prickle of tears in the young mare's eyes. "I could not give two turns in a grinding wheel whether you join this herd and fulfil your familial duties, but they don't just want that. They want to drive me away from Lucent because I give him naughty ideas about thinking for himself and not being just a tool of their grand ancient plans of family continuity."

Star took a half step forward and leaned her head close to Crincile's ear, the better to whisper to her. "I couldn't care less for title and treasure. I and my foal could be happy with nothing more than my pitiful salary from the university if necessary, but I shall tell you right now, dear child, if you let them use you like this, if you challenge me for this herd, you will spend the rest of your life in a place that makes Tartarus look like a holiday by the beach. Do you understand?"

Eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly ajar, Crincile nodded ever so slightly. The flower dipped toward Star and she caught it deftly with her magic, stuffing it firmly behind her ear with a determined snort. With the flower safely in place, Star looked at Cerulamna and Lucerna again; their eyes narrowed in worrying unison and they leaned close to confer with one another.

"Good girl," she whispered, stepping back, casually flashing the flower around while Crincile shrank away from her mother's now icy glare.

"It appears your daughter thought one of her blooms inferior, Lady Cerulamna," Star declared, turning to the servants. She eyeballed a donkey near rear door of the foyer. "Naturally I've convinced her otherwise, but even so. Slowpoke, be a dear and bring something appropriate from the garden would you?"

"Right you are, m'lady!" The donkey ambled from the room, grumbling loudly about any topic that crossed his mind all the way to the door and beyond. Star smiled broadly at the room in general and in particular at the slightly confused faces of her herd.

"While we're waiting, would anyone care for a drink? Lucerna? You look a little peaky." Star walked slowly to the two matriarchs huddled in the corner. The look Lucerna gave her could have set fire to a lake. "Perhaps some tea? Coffee? I do so enjoy something dark and bitter to perk up the spirit at a time like this. No?"

She paused in front of the two mares and smiled again.

"I look forward to our time together, as a family, Lady de Botici. Your daughter strikes me as rather intelligent."

"Yes..." To her credit, Lady Cerulamna rallied with considerably more grace and speed than the Duchess. She nodded to Star, her ears perking forward as if the conversation was the most interesting one she'd ever had. "Yes, she is rather gifted of the mind. Reading Ancient Equestrian at Canterlot University. Your university, I believe?"

"Not quite mine. I've never felt the need to challenge the Archchancellor's position when I have so much more freedom as a member of the faculty."

"How noble."

"I thought so," Star replied as the echo of a grumbling monologue announced Slowpoke's return. He bore a small basket in his mouth with a half dozen blue Hepatica, a reasonable match for Crincile's coat and certainly close enough for Star's purposes. She scooped up one of the flowers with her magic and levitated it toward Crincile.

"A gift. I know it's a little unorthodox," she said, raising her voice enough for Lucerna to hear. "But I've never been much of one for tradition. I wouldn't wish you to feel any ill will, dear child."

"Th–Thank you," Crincile's voice was barely a whisper. She bowed her head to receive the flower. The others gathered around, all welcoming smiles and greeting, with only a slightly questioning frown from Lucent to give any sign he knew something had happened.

Star sidled up beside him as the herd began to spread itself out again, leaving Crincile sandwiched between Glint and Scintilla as the three discussed the highlights of his career. In a moment's quiet, Crincile looked across the space between them; Star pushed herself that much closer to Lucent and nuzzled his neck, never taking her eyes from the younger mare. The message seemed to pass between them and Crincile looked away, biting her lip.

"We're going to talk, you and I," Lucent said quietly, his voice rumbling in his chest.

"Good."

"Whatever you said to her—"

"Was for her own good, Lucent. And maybe yours as well." Star examined her hoof, idly brushing it against her chest as she spoke. "But mostly mine."

"I have never been able to fault your honesty," he said as Shining Armour crawled into the slight gap between them, grinning up mutely at his parents. Lucent turned to rub his cheek against the little foal's head. "She's the price we pay for this life of ours, Star. Try to understand that. You didn't hold my lineage against me, at least try to do the same for her."

"She almost—" Star bit her lip and closed her eyes. She took a breath and held it, trying to calm herself. Now was not the time. "Lucent, one of these days you're going to have to stop taking your marching orders from that nag."

"I am, but not today. I don't need the stress." He looked over his shoulder at the two matriarchs, quietly conferring in a corner. The servants had long ago dismissed themselves to leave the family in peace. "Speaking of mother, it would appear you've upset her."

"Well she should be used to it by now." There was a squawk of surprise as Lucent shifted his weight, dislodging Shining Armour in the process.

"She's my mother, Star."

Lucent sighed and nuzzled Star's neck. He cantered across the hall to his parent, head bouncing with uncertainty under her stern gaze. Star watched him for a while before turning her attention back to the herd, and to Crincile, who seemed to be worming her way into their affections quite nicely.

Perhaps she could be worked with, Star thought. The young thing had spirit and she had enough sense to defy her mother's oh so casually cruel machinations. She just needed a little guidance.

And Star would be the one to provide it. A final glance over her shoulder revealed that the haridelle that made her life such a misery had departed, though Cerulamna was still hovering in the corner, engaged in awkward conversation with Slowpoke of all ponies. The Marquess glanced toward Star and gave her a curt nod before returning her attention to Slowpoke's rambling.

Star smiled warmly as she trotted over to join the herd, letting herself relax a little now that the obvious danger had passed. All in all it could have been worse. The mare was attractive enough even if she was a little young. If nothing else she could foist Shining off on her for a few days... the others parted as she approached and Crincile smiled shyly at her, blushing under all the attention the others had given her.

It could have been a lot worse.

Author's Notes:

My my... this chapter isn't the one I originally envisioned at all. I was having a hard time illuminating some of Star's motivation in the "real" chapter, there was an awful lot of telling and very little in the way of actual showing.

I'm really not satisfied with the writing in this. I'll probably have to go back with the purple pen and add a little more description here and there because it's really sparse right now. On the other hand I've re-written this chapter so many times that I'm not sure I want to even look at it...

So. There it is. Take it as you will. Next chapter our friendly herd finally gets to meet the real hero of the tale. Snowflake!