Booksy Bits walked to work down the main street of Coltport as she did on most days. The early morning sun beamed down through the wooden old town buildings and made the waves on the island city's beach shine like gemstones. Coltport was the largest and most prosperous city in Greater Equestria, it was the capital after all. Well "temporary" capital, Canterlot was still the capital on paper, even though it hadn't exactly existed for the past five thousand moons.
Trotting through the early morning sun Booksy's mind was clouded from the chaotic events of the past few days. Magic returning at the start of the week had thrown everything off balance.
The morning magic returned she had picked up her bag full of books, documents and writing supplies she needed to do her job at the treasury ministry, only to find it light as a feather. She had spent the better part of half an hour trying to find what was missing from her bag, not for a moment suspecting that the seeming lightness was a result of earth pony magic making her stronger.
Booksy didn't find the whole deal to be entirely fair. Unicorns got real magic and pegasi flight, but all earth ponies got was a gym membership. Even her cutie mark hadn't given her some extraordinary ability as it had for some ponies.
She pondered what magic returning could mean. In school she was taught that thousands of moons ago it had disappeared along with Equestria In the closing weeks of the civil war. After the fall of Canterlot and the race to the sea where the loyalists had to flee the mainland, whatever took Equestria out of the world did not reach far enough to take their islands with it. Thus they were left adrift in the Celestial Sea with no way back home. Although accounts from back then contradicted each other more often than not those seemed to be the broad strokes.
Could it be that with the return of magic Equestria returned as well? No, of course not. The mainland returning was the realm of lunatic conspiracy theories. The only ones in Greater Equestria who had ever even seen the mainland firsthoof were the prince and his dragon friend.
Along the way to work, she came across a banner plastered to the side of one of the buildings. She always walked past this spot on her way to work but only today did it truly catch her attention. The banner was old and chipped off in the corners. It depicted a group of ponies, six in total, standing side by side along with "The council, Together into the future!" written in large text on the bottom.
If that banner was supposed to give faces to the ponies in power here, Booksy didn't think it did it's job very well. She only recognized a few of the ponies depicted on it, having to guess who the rest were from outfits alone.
Front and center stood the prince, unquestioned ruler of Greater Equestria. Learning about him in school he was said to be old enough to have seen Equestria fall thousands of moons ago, coming to power in that very crisis. If there ever was a symbol for Greater Equestria he was it. Fearless, strong, ever confident and always defiant in the face of overwhelming odds. Or at least that's what he appeared to be. Booksy had only ever heard him through the radio or seen him giving a speech. That was good enough to know somepony, wasn't it?
She also recognized the pony standing to the left of the banner as admiral Wavedancer, even if only because her friend Seaspray couldn't shut up about how she had shook his hoof at his promotion ceremony.
She worried about her friend. Seaspray should have been back from his training mission two days ago, but was nowhere to be found. He hadn't shown up to the picnic they had planned for yesterday. When she asked she was told that his training mission had been extended for a few days. Something like that had never happened before.
The only pony on the banner that Booksy had truly met in person was minister Goldwater, standing all the way to the right. As treasury minister he was her boss's boss, so she had spoken to him a few times at work. The entire ministry had been thrown into chaos a few weeks ago when out of the blue he had decided to retire and move to Griffonstone, leaving the ministry running around like headless chickens until the prince appointed a new pony in his stead. It was still up in the air as to who he would choose and that made for great office talk.
The ones she did not recognize were a dragon standing next to the prince, presumably the prince's good friend that she had learned of in history class, and two ponies standing on either side of the admiral. If the uniform was any indication, to her left stood her army counterpart. To her right next to the prince was a stallion in a black wool fiddler cap, indicating he had some affiliation to the security ministry.
She turned and kept walking on her way to work, leaving the banner behind her and seeing the treasury ministry building ahead. It was made of stone, having been built a long time ago.
Arriving at her destination Booksy pushed open the heavy glass door leading inside. The old stone rooms had been renovated multiple times, and it was clear which parts were new and which old. The new furniture didn't mesh well with the style of the carved stone and temporary walls blocked off some areas still under construction..
"Booksy, good you're here," said a blue unicorn from behind the reception desk, "The boss wants you to clean up a few of the chapters in your report. I left it on your desk."
"I'll get on it, thanks," Booksy replied and headed for the stairwell. The large stone spiral stairway was one of the few untouched areas of the building, it's original beauty still shining through in the paintings and carvings that lined the walls.
Arriving at the third floor she pushed through another set of doors into a hallway lined with offices. Before her own she stopped at one of her coworkers doors, knocked, and went inside after hearing a mumble she knew to mean "come in".
"Hey, I went through your response letter and marked a few errors," Booksy said to her coworker. She threw a file from her bag to his desk.
"Why don't you keep your nose out of my stuff Booksy? Focus on your own work," came the sharp but playful response from the coworker.
"Because my name is going to be on that letter and I know damn well they're going to make me rewrite it if it doesn't pass," Booksy hit back.
"Yeah yeah okay i'll take a look," Her coworker said, taking the file and putting it to the side.
"Thanks, you're the best," Booksy added, closing the door and heading for her own office down the hallway.
Getting inside Booksy threw her bag next to her desk and sat down. She picked up the report on her desk and opened it to the table of contents only to find nearly a third of the chapters drawn over with red highlighter.
"All right it's a bit messy i'll give you that but come on," she muttered to herself, turning in her chair to face the window. She started flipping through the pages trying to think of how to improve the text.
After a short time Booksy heard steps from the hallway approaching her office. Whomever this pony was stopped at her door and rudely barged in without knocking.
"I'll let you know that we have an always-knock policy at this office so I'd appre-" Booksy's passive aggressive remark was cut short as she turned her head to face the pony now in her office. What she saw startled her enough to almost make her fall out of her seat.
The pony at the door wore a pitch black wool fiddler cap, much like the one she had seen on the banner that morning. This meant he was an agent of the security ministry. He had a letter tucked under his wing as he stood in the doorway seemingly waiting to be acknowledged properly.
"I... I'm sorry I wasn't expecting..," Booksy was struggling to put together a sentence. She straightened her back as she spun in her chair to face the desk once more.
"Are you Booksy Bits?" Asked the stallion with the black cap, seemingly having gotten the response he had wanted.
"Yes," Booksy answered briefly, regaining some of her composure.
The pony walked to her desk and dropped the letter under his wing onto the table. Without saying a word he exited the office with as little fanfare as he had entered. A still slightly shaken Booksy was left alone with the letter.
Booksy picked the letter up. It was plain white and only had her name written on the bottom right corner in a blue cursive handwriting. She rummaged around her desk for a letter opener, not taking her eyes off the letter as if it was going to explode when she did.
She finally found what she was looking for in the second to last drawer on the right side, pulling out a long silver blade that looked something like a thin dagger without a guard. In the letter opener's reflection she noticed the yellow fur on her hooves still standing up.
Booksy slid the blade into the top of the letter and dragged it across, opening it. She put the opener aside and took out the single folded piece of paper contained within. Neatly unfolding it she began reading.
Dear Ms. Bits
I invite you to meet with me this evening to discuss the future of both you and this nation.
Should you so wish, the meeting shall take place half past eleven at Unicornia road 8.
With the most gracious of regards and apologetic at the sudden timeline
- Prince Rose Feathers
Booksy put the paper down. I had to be a joke. But if it was, why was the security ministry delivering prank letters?
Her head spun. "Should you so wish," could you even refuse a royal invitation? Considering there was no return address and the fact that the meeting was slated for that evening, she didn't think cancelling was on the table.
Booksy pondered for a moment. What if it was real? Pulling a no-show on the prince seemed to her to be a worst case outcome that would have repercussions beyond a simple social taboo. She had to go, there was no other way about it. Leaning her head on her elbow she checked her calendar to confirm that she hadn't promised to be anywhere else that day.
That evening Booksy approached the town center still wearing the same collar and tie she had on at work. She had gone through her entire wardrobe but hadn't found anything more fitting for a meeting with the prince.
As she came to the address mentioned in the letter, she saw a royal guard posted outside the door of a local restaurant. Wearing traditional armour they were a rare sight, usually only at parades and official events.
So the meeting was real. Booksy had expected to come across town only to arrive at some empty storefront closed for the night. The restaurant had it's lights on and curtains all drawn closed. Approaching the door she saw that it was two hours after closing.
"Ms. Bits?" inquired the guard upon her approach.
"Yes," Booksy answered knowing that she was specifically invited to be there, but still feeling like an intruder. She didn't see anypony else around outside nor did she see any movement inside. Was she late? No, she even triple-checked the time before leaving.
"wait by the table. Don't sit down," The guard said emphasising the don't. He then pushed open the door and waved her inside.
As the door closed behind her she saw that the the restaurant still had all it's decorations up. In the center only one of the tables had been set, the rest having been pushed to the sides of the room with their chairs sitting on them upside down.
Booksy walked through the empty room to the set table. She waited there for around five minutes that to her felt closer to fifteen. She had half a mind to go looking for somepony that could give her a timeline or further instructions, but decided against it.
Eventually the door at the back of the restaurant swung open. Through it Booksy could see the prince talking to other ponies. he had another royal guard with him, this one noticeably older than the one at the front door.
The prince was a head taller than everypony else, that was his most distinctive trait along with his sharp wings. Booksy was taught in school that he was two thirds of an alicorn, only missing a horn. Now for the first time she could see that they were not mere stories, he was the real deal.
The prince waved his wing to shoo off the ponies that had followed him there. Booksy recognized one of them to be the pony with the black wool cap in the council banner she had seen that morning. The prince and the royal guard entered through the door, the guard closing it behind them. They then went to move to the table she was still standing at.
Reaching the table the royal guard cleared his throat and began reading from a scroll "You now stand before his highness prince Rose Feathers, true ruler of Equestria and the Crystal Empire, firstborn of princess Flurry Heart, guardian of friendship and magic, knight o-"
"I'm on a time crunch here, save the titles," Said the prince interrupting the guard. He then turned toward Booksy.
"Ms. Bits, I presume? Please, sit down," he said with a much softer tone of voice, gesturing across the table and pulling out his own seat.
As Booksy sat down the royal guard ran his eyes across the scroll multiple times over what must have been an eye-watering number of titles and honors.
"By the power invested in me I now announce this royal meeting to be official," He stated after finding the right place to continue from. He bowed and left to the side of the room, leaving the the two of them alone at the table.
The prince up close did not give off the same feeling he did through the radio or up from a distant high balcony. Whether it was due to the late hour or another reason he didn't radiate the strongpony energy he was known for in public. For a pony who was supposedly thousands of moons old neither his white fur nor his mannerisms showed it. Although Booksy would not dare to say it to his face, sitting that close across the table she could tell his mane was dyed. Blonde strands gave way to light pink just at the roots.
"I'm so glad you could make it on such short notice," the prince reached across the table to shake her hoof, "Prince Rose Feathers," Booksy thought it was a little odd to introduce oneself after already being introduced by another. Maybe he did it to be polite.
"Booksy Bits," Booksy said while shaking his hoof, "It is my honor, your highness," Was she supposed to say your majesty instead? If she was prince Rose did not pay it any mind.
"Now as for the reason of this meeting," prince Rose said after finding a comfortable position on the chair that was slightly too small for him, "I'm here to offer you the position of treasury minister."
Booksy was taken aback. She knew that a meeting with the prince had to be something important, but never could she expect this. All the office bets about the issue were either on her boss or one of his coworkers.
The prince spent some time asking her questions about her political leanings and how she would handle different situations, turning the meeting into something that would equal an interview in a more professional environment.
"Your highness may I ask, why me?" Booksy asked after a moment of silence in the conversation, "Aren't there a lot of ponies more qualified?"
Prince Rose leaned on the table as if to answer, but then stopped for a moment to think. Finally he stated "I weighed the options and found you to be most suitable. There is more to filling a minister seat than just experience."
Booksy got the feeling that the answer was a dodge. Just a diplomatic way of dancing around the real reason. Talk like this was one of the multitude of reasons she didn't like politics. Booksy decided not to question further as she thought that would only produce equally uninformative results.
She had to think for a moment. Becoming treasury minister would mean leapfrogging her superiors to get the top job, and she thought that neither they nor her current coworkers would like that very much. Even though Booksy had sometimes daydreamed about what being a minister would be like, she hadn't given the idea very much real world weight.
The back door of the restaurant swung open once more. A third royal guard standing therein tapped his hoof as if he were wearing a watch and closed the door right after.
"It seems like time is becoming more and more of a luxury these days," prince Rose said with a sigh, "It's a very big ask I know, but i am going to need a yes or a no."
"Yes," Booksy said after a few moments, "I would be honored."
"Excellent," the prince said, Clapping his hooves together as he stood up from the table.
"And one more thing. As treasury minister you'll have a seat on the emergency war council. The next meeting is tomorrow at five p.m.," he added before leaving, "Royal palace, east wing, second floor. The guards will show you when you get there."
As the prince left through the same door he had arrived from, the group of ponies there to pester him with clipboards and documents had seemingly grown larger than it was when he had arrived. Booksy didn't know what was going on behind the scenes, but the urgency at which everything had happened signaled that something big was brewing.