"Tell me something only the Princess would know. Her and nopony else in the whole wide world."
"All right," Celestia agreed, wondering what she was about to be asked. The number of stars in the sky, possibly. "What do you want to know?"
And in total, innocent sincerity, "What's the Princess' mommy's name?"
It's very simple, really. Celestia left a book in her throne room, under the cushions. Celestia wants to get that book back before the Lunar cleaning staff finds it. And all that stands between her and said book is a kindergartener. The younger daughter of a Guard, who got away from her supervision, donned the continent's worst-fitting armor, and is now demanding that before she let the intruder pass, the personage in front of her must do just one thing:
Prove she's actually Celestia.
Against the logic of six year-olds, even Princesses struggle in vain...
Read it here
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Tropes found in this story include:
- Children Are Innocent: Even the ones pretending to be Guards.
- Friend to All Children: Celestia seems to think of herself this way, but internally admits it makes her overindulgent and suspects it's her way of making up for not having what modern ponies would consider to be a proper childhood.
- From the Mouths of Babes: Only a kindergartener would dare to ask Celestia what her mother's name was, because it takes a filly that young not to know it's a question adults don't ask.
- Imagine Spot: Celestia runs through a quick series of them while trying to picture Luna's reaction to a possible griffon Princess origin myth which has her sibling as burnt egg yolk, ranging from a staredown contest to declaration of war.
- Mundane Solution: It turns out that in the Continuum, the single best changeling detection system is... a bucket of water. In this continuity, they don't physically shapeshift: they just trick the viewer's mind into thinking they're seeing something else, with weaker changelings only able to fool sight and strong ones managing to deceive multiple senses simultaneously for hours on end. But the magic doesn't fool the environment, and so if you carefully toss a bucketful of water at a changeling's legs, some of it will pass through the holes, leaving a very distinctive splash pattern on the other side. (Clumsy ones also tend to leave chitin scratches on the furniture.)
- Sadly Mythtaken: In-Universe example. Either Nexima's griffon friend is making up stories out of whole cloth or somewhere in the Griffon Republic, there's an origin myth which puts Celestia's creation as having hatched from a giant egg. With the egg being the Sun. And Celestia herself as pony-shaped cooked egg white and yolk. It's probably best not to ask where this puts Luna. She's overcooked.Celestia took a moment for listening to her own breath, feeling her heart beating, and noting the complete lack of chalazae anywhere.
- Shout-Out: The chapter title on this one is A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Throne Room.
- Stealth Pun: So apparently Celestia is a cooked egg. That must make her sunny-side up...
- Take That!: The book Celestia is secretly reading, apparently to find out exactly why so many ponies are demanding its ban, comes across as some pony version of Fifty Shades of Grey. Her stated opinion of the work isn't exactly high and as it turns out, Luna doesn't think much of it either.
- The Unreveal: Celestia tells Nexima what her mother's name had been, but it's not shown to the reader. All we get is that when you take out the sisters, Nexima is one of only two living ponies to be aware of it.
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Word Of Fanfic Author says the other is Fancypants, which was confirmed in A Mark Of Appeal.
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