“We are the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To she who is thirsty We will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
Sunshine and Rainbows.
My eyes opened to see sunshine and rainbows stretching above me across a blue sky only marred by the occasional puffy cloud. The blue sky stretched from corner to corner of my ceiling only hemmed in by the verdant green forest that grew from my walls, and that was only slightly marred by the wooden paneling of my two room closet and bedroom door. One small corner of my did though give way to a startlingly sudden drop, from the Cliffside I could just make out the cascade of blue and white waves in the far distance. As I saw up my view was completed by the pale glory that was the moon itself that occupied the vast majority of my floor. The white orb was set in a sea of its own, of the purple night and golden stars that sometimes seem to slyly smile at me and invite me so that they could enjoy my company.
My eyes filled with this and only this soon brought to my attention a little fact. This was just a little niggling piece of reality that immediately sent cold fire through my bones and rage coursing through my blood.
“MAITRE D'! I AM AWAKE! WHERE IS MY BREAKFEST? I DEMAND YOUR PRESCENCE! RIGHT! THIS! INSTANT!”
That I had to raise my voice at all only furthered my own indignation! Having to wait like everybody else to receive their first meal of the day! I was Precious! I was daughter of the Overmare! I should not have to ever suffer through such hardship of this or any magnitude. I didn’t have to think if they knew who I was and how important I was! They had known it all their lives so far and would know it until the day they died. Even afterward! It was the duty…ugh…of the Overmare to commemorate each passing in Stable 81 of an inhabitant with a short speech detailing the life of the recently deceased over the Stable radio. Not that anyone but myself lived an interesting life. Some attended the maintenance of the Stable itself, constantly staring at a single dial to make sure the reactors would not spike. Others did ghastly mundane things like maintain every PipBuck in Stable 81 or make sure that all ponies followed the rules. One stallion in particular only cut manes and for him he would do the same thing until he passed on. ‘Granted’ I thought ‘I’d happily give THAT donkey’s flank eulogy and maybe even compose a new Stable Anthem around it!’
A sudden sharp pain in my stomach not only made my eyebrow twitch slightly, but quickly reminded me that my first attempt to gain the attention of my personal pony servant had gone unanswered. I could feel my cheeks burn red as I huffed and puffed air from my cheeks the indignity continued to rise and so did my anger. I began to let the world know once again that I was by no means pleased when the door to my personal room burst open and a small colt, barely fitting into the rumpled and oversized black suit, wobbled into the room balancing a silver tray on his backside. The tray’s silver finery and porcelain containers wobbled and clattered constantly as the young colt seemed to shiver his body across the room to my bedside. Sliding to my side, or as close as he could because I lay in the center of my bed and it could hold several of me (a Princess size bed was just barely a comfy fit), his black fur and white maned face looked at me as he began to mumble “S-s-sorryIwasl-late. Yourlady. Thisismyfirsttime. Ihopeyouwillbegoodto me.”
It took me a few moments to piece together the younger pony’s words, his lips were trembling so bad it looked like he might cry any moment. I blinked at the colt and he blinked back. I took a breath of fresh, recycled air and-
“WHO ARE YOU? MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY WERE YOU LATE! WHERE IS MAITRE’D?”
The young colt staggered back, though in an admitting graceful move slide the tray onto my bedside rather than let it topple to the floor and stain my beloved and priceless mural. If he had the consequences would not have been very pleasant. Not pleasant at all.
“M-my name i-is S-s-stward. I received my-my cutie mark yesterday. M-my father w-was pro-promoted by the O-o-overmare to be th-the Ove-overmare’s assistant.” Steward stuttered on, showing his flank to me where a black bowtie on a silver platter cutie mark adorned his hide.
“You can’t possibly be serious.” I leveled him with a flat stare, unsurprisingly he sharank back to the floor with a slight nod. His eyes averted toward the moon. I hoped he wished to Celestia and Luna that he could immediately be banished to the moon! I sighed rolling my eyes and hoof palming as I silently swore revenge at nopony in particular. Until things with Mother could be cleared up I would be forced to deal with what was given to me. The little shrimp was quickly making my day worse and worse. I could feel it in my horn that this would be the least worst possible thing to happen to me today. The only possible answer for this would be to give ass generously back and beat the hay out of this day. First thing first would be to deal with this…thing.
“Auuuuugh. Very well.” Using my horn magic to bite into fresh haytoast (none of that recycled food for the Overmare’s daughter like the common Stable dwellers), spitting it out into the face of Steward just as he began to feel confident enough to approach my bedside. “Are you an idiot? Are you mad?”
“N-“
“YES!” I interrupted, using my magic to push the tray of food sending it out of my bedroom with the force to embed it into the outside metal wall. While my magic may not be as elegant as my Mother’s or all that controllable I was remarkably gifted with a force of push in my basic telekinesis spell which I had learned early on when I slammed a classmate’s pet rock (its name was Tim or something or other) through the bulletproof glass of the Stable’s only class room (public education was an insufferable period of my life I was more than happy to have ended a year ago).
“I. Do. Not. Eat. Haytoast. Without. Applesauce.” Glaring at Steward with the force of a thousand suns “You. Go. Now.”
Pleased at the way he turned tail before I had finished my sentence I laid back down restfully and began to eat my breakfast that was marginally eatable. Once I was finished I cantered over to the one section of my bedroom that contained the entrance to my closet. A room about the same size of my own bedroom that contained not a mirror and beauty desk, but also row upon row of racks holding my dresses. True, every ‘common’ dweller in Stable 81 was by regulation and necessity of a lack of materials forced to wear the same jumpsuit that had been worn for nearly two hundred years, but then again being the Overmare’s daughter had its advantages in Stable 81. Supposedly in the early days of the Stable the first Overmares had not seemed to care about what they wore or being apart from the commoners. That of course had changed for the better, as did the general population of Stable 81 which at its peak had contained a thousand or so ponies. Normally when a pony dies in Stable 81 their belongings and in some cases certain respectable and important positions (such as being the Overmare) were passed onto surviving family. Whenever a pony dies without family to claim their belongings though their property becomes property of the S table-Tec and therefore property of the Overmare to do with as she wishes, which since my great-great-great-great-great grandmother had been to suit the desires of herself and her descendants.
Concentrating with my horn I wrapped with my magic one Stable barding that had been artistically transformed into a dress complete with sapphire jewels laced into the collar. The dress shakily floated from its hanger and toward me the golden glow of my magic seeming to shiver visibly. The pain of concentration in my skull felt like my brains were trying to be scooped out! Grunting I pushed more magic at the dress which flew across the room like Steward running away and hit me in the face. I was the Overmare’s daughter! I didn’t need finesse or a repertoire of spells (that’s what the other unicorns were for)! All I needed was my overwhelming push in my magic. Acting as if the sapphire bruising my skull had never happened I slipped on the dress with my hooves.
Pushing up a blonde curl with a hoof I looked at myself in the mirror. Teal eyes swept over me, approving of everything they saw…except for a stabbing glare at my covered flank. Spreading the dress over my sides neatly I strode out towards the exit of my rooms and into the areas of the Stable I’d rather not go: everywhere but mine. Before stepping through the door hatch I stopped to look down at a small indentation just to the left of the entrance. Staring at it, it was barely noticeable to anypony who knew what and where they were looking for. If only… no. Shaking my head I trotted out into Stable 81’s gray, dull, common, unappealing hallways.
Immediately I was hit by the stench of…averageness.
