Princess Rarity had more announcements to give, but Mudpuppy didn't hear them. She left the porch, so stunned she was barely able to feel her own hooves on the ground.  The moment she was off the boards and out of the literal limelight, her hooves started running.

When they finally stopped, the lights and sounds of the celebration were a distant patch of light round the bend and she was fetlocks deep in the bayou clay.She was in a little nest by the shore, a clear area surrounded by high cattails and overshadowed by a weeping willow... her and Twig's old hidey-hole, from when she'd been a tiny filly. She hadn't even known she was going there. She sat on the muddy bank, dirtying up her pretty new dress..... but her head was too a-whirl to care. She sat on the shore as sympathetic frogs and turtles and salamanders gathered round and stared in the green, lily pad strewn waters while her heart and her head raced in circles.

Only her and Twig knew about this little place. It was kind of disgruntling when she was up and found a hoof-full of minutes later. One of those fancy fellers that was following Princess Rarity around came high-stepping down between the reeds to where she was. In his shadow was Twig, of course. The cheeky colt sat in the mud next to her and grinned artlessly. Mudpuppy gave him a glare. "y'all never did know when to leave well enuff alone," she grumbled.

"It's hardly his fault, your Highness," the fancy pony said, high stepping down to where she sat. "We could hardly let the newest Princess of Equestria wander off unattended, could we?" He flicked his horn and a soft carpet of grass sprang up, covering the mud; he delicately lay down on top of it, not getting a spot of mud on his fine suit. "I suppose this comes as something of a shock."

Mudpuppy only nodded, looking down at the water, idly petting a turtle that had crawled up between her forehooves. "I'm.... I'm scared," she said.

Twig snorted in disbelief. "Scared? Wut fer? Yew just had a fairy tale come true! You became a PRINCESS! 'Slike every filly's dream come true!" He sat down and waved his forehooves. "I mean-- a PRINCESS!"

She turned and stuck her face in his, her worried eyes inches from his own. "And what happens now, Twig?? None o' them fairy tales tells you that! Do I gotta wear frilly clothes an' live in a castle? Am I goanna hafta marry some grody ole prince, an' bow an' scrape and..." she swallowed tearfully and looked down. "Am Ah goanna have to leave th' Bayou....and Mammaw?"

Dapper Blue considered. Honesty seemed the best policy. "For a while, at least," he confessed. "Princess Rarity wants... needs you to stay with her, at least for the foreseeable future. There are many things you have to learn about being an Alicorn; things that Mammaw Catfish can't teach you. And there is a..." he paused. "A great and important project. One that will need all the Alicorns in the world working together to happen." He smiled. "But you will be coming back to the Bayou. I promise."

"Promise?" Mudpuppy sniffled, wiping her nose on her foreleg.

Dapper Blue winced and produced a silk kerchief to wipe the filly's nose-- and leg. "Promise," he said solemnly. "After all, you're a Princess. From what I've seen Princesses get to do whatever they like.... once they learn the ropes, that is."

Mudpuppy giggled a little. "But what about Mammaw?" she said, suddenly fretting. "She'll be all alone if'n I leave."

"I think Princess Rarity is making some arrangements about that," Dapper Blue said with a smile. "Princess Rarity may seem flighty, but she's very, very thorough and covering all the little details."

"Anyway," Twig said, rolling his eyes. "We kin fuss about all that stuff later. Right now yo're missing a beaucoup party. An' de Princess airboat here too-- I d'wanna miss dat!" He tugged on her foreleg. "C'mon, nao, doan be no capo!"

"Ah ain't no capo!" Mudpuppy protested. "Ai just d'wanna git up dar an havin' to make all sort o speechifyin' at ponies an' what not."

"Capo," Twig said decisively.

Mudpuppy shot him a scowl that would have curdled lamp oil. "I kint help if it all dem ponies starin' at me make my stomach shake like a bowl fulla bouille!"

Dapper Blue chuckled. "Don't worry, you don't have to do any 'speechifying' just yet," he said. "But they are missing you at your own party."

"'S Bell Pepper, Blue Jay an' Golden Blossom's birthday, should be their party, nawt mine," Mudpuppy grumbled.

"Well then come back an' say happy birt-day to em," Twig protested. "C'mon, quit makin' a bahbin and come back. Apple Dowdy is makin' funnel cakes!"

Mudpuppy grumbled but relented and got to her hooves.

"And besides, there's someone on the airship you'll want to meet," Dapper Blue said, discreetly magicking the mud off the hem of her dress. "A young filly from the city. You may have very well saved her life."

Mudpuppy's head whipped around. She gaped at him. "What? Aw, go to bed!"

Sweet Peach was drifting; half in, half out of a dream. She felt like she was floating on clouds, but not cool rainy ones--- hot, dry ones, made out of cotton and wool, stifling and hot.

She didn't open her eyes, barely stirred when somepony pressed a bottle to her lips. Something cool and bubbly trickled into her mouth and down her throat. The drink was sweet, with a bitter aftertaste, but she hardly cared; it cooled her mouth and throat so nice. The coolth spread down her throat, into her belly and all through her hot, tired body. The stifling cotton clouds went away and she was drifting on billows of cool spray...

Bit by bit, she slowly became more awake. She felt tired, tired like she'd not slept in a week and weak as a kitten. And she was lying somewhere very, very soft, with soft fluffy somethings, pillows, behind her head and a comforter like pegasus down up under her chin. Cool washcloths were resting on her forehead, wrapped around the base of her horn. Where was she?

Slowly she opened up her eyes. She was in bed, that much she knew, but whose? She'd never seen such a large, soft fluffy bed before, much less slept in one. Four poster, too. There were ponies standing around the bed. She focused her blurry eyes; she recognized Doctor Comfort right away... then her eyes focused on the pony next to her. It was an earth-brown freckled filly with moss-green hair, sparkling green eyes and a gaptoothed smile. There was a sleepy looking rainbow-colored newt draped over her ear. She was wearing a pretty white dress with her wings peeping out, and a little tiara sparkled on her head, right behind her horn....

In an instant Sweet Peach went from sleepy eyed to round-eyed awake. She sucked in a breath like a vacuum cleaner. "A Princess????" she squeaked, her voice rasping.

"More than one, darling."

Sweet Peach turned her head; there stood Mama and Papa and Princess Rarity... a few more memories from the past few days tumbled into her brain. "Oh, yeah..." Sweet Peach said, rubbing her eyes. It was probably rude, she worried, but Princess Rarity was still smiling. So were Mama and Papa, but why were they crying too? She jerked her head back toward the mossy-haired pony. "But who are you?" she asked, confused.

A familiar head of curly pastel locks appeared over the edge of the bed. "This is Princess Necturus!" Sweetiebelle piped up. "She made the medicine that made you better!"

"Well, not exactly herself," Princess Rarity amended. "But it's thanks to her that we found the plant it's made from. You and all the others are going to be just fine." The moment Sweet Peach had shown signs of improvement, Pegasus couriers had raced the bottles of the precious brew to the city hospital and to every sick pony on the list.

"Done chased a hinkypunk, dintcha," Princess Necturus said knowingly in a soft swamp drawl. "Oughter know better'n that. They're mean lil buggers."

"I thought it was a firefly," Sweet Peach said meekly. "Was that what made me sick?? It was just a little bug bite. I barely even felt it!"

"Well you know better now," Doctor Comfort chuckled. Sweet Peach wasn't paying much attention; she was too busy staring wide-eyed at her savior.

"Are you a new princess?"

Princess Necturus... Mudpuppy... blushed. "Seems so," she said, fluttering her wings shyly.

Sweet Peach thought this over. "My," she said finally. "What they can't do these days..."

Doctor Comfort nearly choked.

Sweetiebelle couldn't contain herself anymore. She hopped up and threw her hooves around Mudpuppy's neck. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun!"

"And is she?" Celestia chuckled from her mirror frame. "Having fun, that is."

"Oh, she's having a wonderful time now," Rarity said, lounging in her divan in her favorite bathrobe with a mimosa. Another "Mirror Meeting" was underway. "Once we had a few things squared away that she was fretting about."

"What things?" Twilight asked.

Rarity waved her hoof about grandiosely, coming perilously close to sloshing her champagne flute empty. "Ohhhh, this and that," she said. "The poor dear was of course fretful of leaving her Mammaw all alone. I offered Mammaw a berth, but she refused! It seems she's something of a fixture in the bayou, with roots as deep as Granny Smith's... besides, and this is in confidence, darlings-- she told me that she wanted to give Mudpuppy a 'clean break.'  'She dun gon' hafta be larnin' all dem royal tings, an' she ain't gon' do dat wid me hoverin' over her.' Quote." Rarity looked saddened. "I could tell it was breaking her heart, but she insisted...

"Oh, the poor thing," Fluttershy said. "Won't she be all alone?"

"Not a chance," Rarity said cheerfully. "Twig is coming along, of course. The ship physicians are going to be going over Princess Necturus with a fine toothed comb, to make sure that wicked pony's potion didn't do her any lasting harm... I told them about Twig and they insisted he come along, so they could examine him for comparison. Hopefully they'll devise some sort of treatment for his own potion poisoning, mend his wings, etc.  Of course the fact that it means Necturus will have one of her closest friends and playmates for company is entirely coincidental, I'm sure." She smiled as she ran her hoof around the rim of her glass.

"Necturus?" Pinkie asked, cocking her head to one side.

Twilight cleared her throat. "A particular genus of ambhibian, a type of salamander... also known as a Mud Puppy."

"OoooOOOhhhh..." Pinkie intoned. She paused. "I don't get it." Twilight facehoofed.

"But what about Mammaw?" Fluttershy pressed. "She'll be all alone..."

"Oh, not in the least," Rarity said. "It seems that this little debacle has enlightened Good Doctor Southern Comfort to certain gaps and shortcomings in his medical knowledge. He's chief of staff at the local hospital, and he's going to have a steady stream of doctors and interns in and out of the swamp, studying under Mammaw's tutelage, learning the herbal folklore of the swamp. And not coincidentally keeping an eye on her, helping around her little shack, keeping her company..." Rarity sipped at her drink.

"Oh, how nice." Fluttershy smiled, relieved.

"Of course that little shack is hardly large enough for what they intend," Rarity said. "Southern Comfort is planning on opening a brand new clinic out in the bayou... courtesy of a, ahem, little royal grant?" She buffed a hoof on her robe and examined it, smiling smugly. "He and Mammaw are already thick as thieves, and Mammaw's going to be right in the middle of it all. Then there are all the ponies going out to protect-- and work on cultivating-- the Silphium..."

Twilight nodded. "I sent messages to the Academies," she said. "There are teams of botanists champing at the bit to get out there."

"I hope you realize that will be something of an extensive undertaking, Rarity," Celestia said. "Just hauling the construction materials out into the swamp will be rather laborious..."

"Then it's a good thing they're going to be laying down a road," Rarity said with a jovial grin. She noticed her champagne flute was empty and looked over her shoulder at her maidservant. "Juice me, darling." The pony procured a cocktail pitcher and proceeded to refill Rarity's glass. "Where was I? Oh yes. After getting back to town I had a little talk with certain someponies, tugged a few strings, and got them to start construction on an elevated road out to the communities out in the bayou. Very eager to please a new Princess, those chaps."

"Rarity, I know we have great power as Princesses, but you can't just bypass the local government for that sort of thing," Twilight protested.

"I can if it's a national safety issue," Rarity singsonged. "I know, I looked it up. And an infestation of inhabited territory by hostile, dangerous and-or dark magic created creatures is on the list of things that qualify, right near the top. And after all, the Guard's Royal Corp of Engineers will need to build a supply road out there, what with their mission to march out there and root out those Kappas and Hinkypunks. And when they're all done..." She gestured, indicating an imaginary road, then gasped in fake surprise. "Why I do declare! Our community has need of a road, and here one is, just lying there waiting to be used! My stars, how fortuitous!" she chortled.

"The governor and the mayor were a little unsettled at having to adjust their road maintenance to accommodate a new raised two-lane out into the bayou, but they were much happier once they learned the Guard's Royal Corp of Engineers would be doing the initial construction--  with funding from the crown." She paused as a concerned look vaguely crossed her face and waved a hoof. "Oh do just take it from my share of our little slush fund, if it's a problem. I know the nobles in Canterlot will set up a whine if it comes out of the tax revenue..."

"In light of circumstances, I think it's a very valid royal expenditure," Celestia chuckled. "But yes, let's bypass the nobles on this. No sense giving them a chance to be heel-draggers. I don't mind chipping in a share, myself." Agreement went up from the other princesses.

"Fabulous!" Rarity said, knocking back her drink. "That means  we can an eye on their expense accounts. I know how government projects tend to go. Don't get me wrong,  but like Mother always says: money is no object-- but we should have money's worth." She cocked an eyebrow. "Plus, we become investors."

"Investors?" Rainbow Dash said.

"Yes, in the silphium crop," Rarity said. "Or, well, the potential crop, anyway. Once they figure out how to cultivate it. For the next few decades the plant is technically under royal ownership and it now requires a license to pick, to protect from over-harvesting. Mammaw already has her Princessly permit, of course, finder's fee and discoverer's rights and all that, but everypony will be limited to a certain amount per year... except for any demonstrably grown by hoof..."

"Which will encourage every pony with a home garden or a spare window box to try their hoof, at least, at growing it domestically," Twilight concluded, with a note of admiration. "Very slick, Rarity."

"And in the meanwhile, the crown will be raking in a bundle on them fees and licenses and sharecroppin' and what not," Applejack chuckled.

Rarity sipped from her glass. "Of course, darling." She sighed. "It would be nice to be able to simply give and give without thought for the bottom line, but the simple reality is that in order for one to give, one must first receive. Our little royal piggy bank Celestia gave us is nice and plump, but it isn't bottomless. But I estimate that the bottling revenues for the silphium elixir alone will repay what I've been strewing about in this little venture, and we'll have actually made a tidy profit by the time we re-release the silphium into the public domain."

"She learns from thee, Sister," Luna noted wryly. Laughter greeted this, but no disagreement from Celestia.

"So the bayou ponies get a new road, a new medical clinic, and a Guard outpost, the kappa and hinkypunk infestation gets dealt with, science and medicine get back a long-lost miracle plant, the Big Easy potentially gets a priceless new cash crop, and the Great Plan gets a revenue influx... and we get a brand new alicorn filly!" Twilight couldn't resist clapping her hooves in glee.    

"Yeah, looks like I lost money," Rainbow Dash grumped. "Again. I was so sure that the first one would be found by... eh, never mind. Twi, tell your scaly little bookie that his bits are in the mail, wouldja?"

After the chuckles died down, Applejack gave Rarity an appraising look. "I gotta admit you surprised me, sugarcube.Y'all literally got dragged through the city by the horn, plowed through a mile of mud, hosed down in a washtub, pranced through a swamp in a cotton sack dress, saddled with a filly who carries around a half-dozen creepy crawlies in her mane for fun... I would have expected you to be a quiverin' wreck."

Rarity chuckled throatily. "There's a somewhat pharmaceutical reason for that, darling," she said.

For the first time Twilight noticed that Rarity was looking a bit rosy around the cheeks. And she did seem rather boisterous for all that she'd been through... "Rarity," she said, her brow furrowing. "How many of those mimosas have you had?"

"Oh, not many..." Rarity suddenly squinted at her. "Twilight Sparkle. Are you implying that I might be intoxicated?"

Twilight blanched. "Oh no, I'm not--"

"Because I am not." Rarity cut her off. "I am not 'intoxicated.' " She downed her drink and got a refill.

Rainbow Dash eyed her through the mirror. She could see Rarity's magic control over her glass was wobbling more and more. "Rares, if you aren't drunk then--"

"The correct term is 'Smashed off my freaking plot,' darlings," Rarity said. "Don't worry, though, I intend to throw up violently later and spend tomorrow nursing a hangover. I also intend to be wondering WHY I have a hangover..." she didn't so much shudder as go into a brief all-body spasm.  "...Swamp mud. Moss and mildew and pond scum in every bodily crevice... Frogs and lizards and squishy things... even now the child is assembling a terrarium for her slimy friends in Dapper Blue's green house... a 'hotel room' where the bed was only holding together because the bedbugs had linked elbows... snakes in the toilet--" She spasmed again, draining her glass. For a moment it looked like she'd go straight to the pitcher. "Mammaw had to dose me up with her nerve tonic. When that wore off I switched to cocktail mixers. At the moment I'm feeling no pain but I suspect I'll have myself a lovely little freakout once I wake up tomorrow... thank heaven I found the wet bar.

"Which brings me to another interesting realization," she said, her mood swinging about on a new heading. "I believe I've figured out how, exactly, my Element works for me now." She paused for a refill.

"...And?"

"Why it's very simple, darlings," Rarity said. This time her glass did spill a bit. "Generosity is about giving of yourself, being magnanimous to others in your proshperity. Prosperity. ahem. It also means knowing what others need, and having a way to provide it for them.. The moment I had my little surge, I knew just what that poor little sick filly needed, and was absolutely desperate to get it... and the magic went out and found it." She looked down in her glass. "Likewise my magic seemed to know precisely what I needed after my little misadventure. It led me straight to the wet bar on board like a... magical... pointy... guided... projectile....thing." she gave up, flailing for words.

"Anyhow, once I, ah, settled my nerves, I did a little experimenting. Buck, was it easy!  I can look at a pony, or even think about them, and I sort of... sort of know, you see, what exactly they need most at that moment." She waved a cautionary hoof. "Mind, it's not like a genie in a lamp or anything. It seems to be... er... vague. And rather literal minded. There was a young crewpony who was fretting about his up and coming promotion, for example, and his relationship with his filly back home--- but what he needed most in the world right at that moment was a clean tissue and a stick of chewing gum. Another needed a bit coin, somepony else needed a particular book.... the clincher was when I stumbled into Prince Blueblood and tried it on him."

"And what did he need?" Pinkie Pie said, grinning and leaning in toward her mirror.

"A swift kick in the pants." Rarity sipped her drink while the others laughed. Pinkie literally rolled out of sight, clutching her sides.

"And did you give it to him?" Luna grinned.

"Generously. Two hoof printsh, shide by shide. Launched his gaudy white plot down the hall. I blamed it on the drink." Rarity wobbled a bit. "Ooh my. Darlings, it has been a rough day or two, I do believe I need... to lie... down..." she gave an enormous unladylike yawn and toppled over. She sprawled across her divan in an awkward pose, snoring violently.

A lavender mare with a pink mane stuck her head around the corner of the frame. It was Rosemary, one of Rarity's twin hoofmaids. "Don't worry-- we switched out the champagne in her mimosas with ginger ale a while ago," she whispered. She giggled. "I think her highness needs some rest now, though." A loud snort and a mumble came from the prone princess. "I'm sure she will be up to introducing Princess Necturus to you all tomorrow. Good evening, Your Highnesses." The image in the mirror faded back to a reflection.

The rest of the group had to spend a while getting over the giggles at the former fashionista's rough and tumble experiences. When they finally calmed down, Celestia turned to address Twilight. "So, many bits of exciting news from Rarity's corner of the world," she said. "And how have you fared, my most faithful former student?"

Twilight bit her lip and rolled her eyes, but smiled a bit. "Well," she said....

Next Chapter: Chapter 28 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 25 Minutes