"Auntie Celestia!" Cadance squealed with joy. Her aunt's presence never failed to raise her spirits, no matter what mood she was in. The alicorn just had that kind of presence. "I was wondering if we could...well...just sorta hang out today?" Cadance smiled hopefully with a small *squee.* "I promise I won't do anything that could cause trouble, honest! I just wanted to see a day in the life of the great and powerful Celestia!" (I nearly wrote "Trixie" right there :ahh
Upon entering the throne room (from a convenient side passage) she glanced at the enormous throne that used to belong to her father, Tsar Corona Fulgur. She missed him dearly. There were times that she wished that he hadn’t gone, but they both knew that his time was short and he had already been around for thousands of years… Thou hast learned all I can teach thee, My Beautiful Daughter… When next the sun rises, I will be gone and this Empire will become thine. Thy ponies will love thee as they have Us, and they will look to Thee for guidance and leadership. Give unto them as they deservest. Her sire’s voice still echoed in her mind every time she entered this room with the gigantic throne which had sat empty since her ascension. It stood like a great, golden monolith dedicated to the memory of the greatest Alicorn who had ever lived, in her or her subjects’ minds. She blinked hard to fight back the tears that she knew were coming. “Your Majesty?” Corona suddenly snapped to attention, remembering why she was here in the first place. “Oh! Uh, yes. Guard, what is it?” The guard bowed deeply. “A messenger. Of Foreman Grizzald.” The tsarina stepped back in surprise. “A Diamond Dog messenger? Why?” The Diamond Dogs of the Stone Fire tribe, led by Foreman Grizzald, had a sizable cave network near the lands of Stalliongrad. For the most part, the two kingdoms lived in peace with one another, with the occasional landgrab/scuffle here and there. She had met Foreman Grizzald once of twice in her youth, but her father had mostly dealt with him. “The messenger states that it is a matter of ‘grave concern’ that the Foreman hopes that you will address immediately.” Corona hoped beyond hope, at that very moment, that the guard could not see the worry…no, make that, fear on her face. A thousand thoughts rushed through her mind all at once. What was this “grave concern”? Why did she need to address it “immediately”? Usually matters between the kingdoms were settled through letters, not messengers. The list went on and on. Eventually, she took a deep breath, and quietly commanded, “Send him in.”
Upon reaching the palace grounds, Aries realized she hand't run into Princess Celestia at all, and not to mention everything seemed so quiet in the throne room, perhaps she was out. 'I must take it upon myself to ask the Princess if she has a back up plan... I mean not even an alicorn is guaranteed eternal life... And if there is no back up plan, then the possibilities of a disaster causing us the lost of either Celestia or Luna could result in ever lasting day or night. Maybe I'm being too paranoid? No! I have to think about all possibilities, if I see Princess Celestia or Luna today, I will ask them personally what is hidden up Equestria's sleeve.'
After the class had finished the lesson, Eclipse teleported back to the frozen hallways. He looked at the sky through a shimmer of ice and sighed. "Best contact Celestia to arrange the next Solar Eclipse." He nodded to himself before walking down the hallways, light refracting and reflecting everywhere.
The messenger was a squat, and frankly ugly, little bipedal mutt. He also had a tendency to scratch behind his ear (then examine whatever it was he found afterward) when addressing the tsarina. “The Boss sends his regards, Majesty.” Corona took a breath. She found herself liking this dog less and less with each passing second, since he stepped through the large doors to the throne room and wiped his muddy feet on the plush rug leading up to the throne. “Very well. I wish him well.” With a grimace on her face, she asked, “Now tell me. What is this matter of grave importance?” “Ah. The Matter.” *scratch* “The Boss’ Diggers have found a large deposit of emeralds and rubies, Majesty.” *scratch* “Problem is, the bulk of the lode is just past our border; mostly in yours.” *scratch* “We wanna dig there.” With that, he pulled his paw from behind his ear and examined it while Corona considered the matter. After a few moments, the tsarina spoke. “Exactly how far will you have to go into our lands to mine these gems?” The messenger turned his attention away from his paw just long enough to say, “Oh, not far at all. [size=-2]Only a few miles.[/size]” “I…beg your pardon?” “I said, ONLY A FEW MILES!” Corona glared at the mutt. “You needn’t shout! I was merely asking a question.” If the diamond dog wanted a shouting match, Corona was confident that she would win. The poor fool probably didn’t know that, in the past, royals were taught the Voice Amplifications spell from a very young age. The proud tradition of the Royal Stalliongrad Voice was still in existence to this day (though rarely practiced). She had heard that Canterlot had an equivalent, and part of her wondered how a shouting match between the two kingdoms would go. The messenger must’ve been reading her mind, because he in fact lowered his voice. “Boss says that once he’s done digging, he’ll seal up the hole with dirt and we’ll never go there again.” Corona tapped her chin with one hoof. “Very well. I see no problem with this. I know how important gems are to your race, and I will not stop you from obtaining them. However, as payment, I request that Stalliongrad receives a small tribute of whatever you find. You will be within our borders, after all.
Celestia smiled at Cadence, "Of course dear, what do you wish to do?" she asked. "What do you mean, 'Become a mere figurehead'?" Tremalion asked the Grand Council angrily. "Sorry sire, it's just that we believe, with your ever growing absences, that the Kingdom needs a more stable government." the President of the Council said nervously, no one liked an angry Tremalion. Tremalion thought for a second before saying, "Fine, you can have full leadership. But when I do visit, I fully expect to be able to run the nation that I myself founded!" Tremalion said, the room darkening. "Yes sire, of course!" the President said. "Oh and one last thing." Tremalion said as he turned to go out, "You're all fired, good luck getting elected!" and with that, Tremalion disappeared in a flash of lightning.
The fleet had returned to Bastion after just about half a day. The reason for the move, overpopulation of a few key cities and some recklessness of some of the locals. As Rashall had thought moving them was the better solution than leaving them, thus they were being brought to the Shadowed Forest to make a new living.
Aries paced the palace grounds awaiting Celestia's return from wherever it was she had gone. She saw Princess Celestia approaching the palace and started toward her, but she stopped herself when she noticed that Princess Cadence was also with her. 'It might be too awkward to ask her in front of Cadence... perhaps I should just wait, surely she won't be with Celestia all day.'
Heculius walked up next to Aries, "Ah hello again Aries, lovely day I have been able to make without my brother being here eh?" He said to her.
"Oh, hello! Yes t'is a fine indeed. How have you been fairing?" She sort of let the fact that she had something important to ask Celestia go, and she made a face that said 'Normal everyday stuff here!' as not to worry anybody.
"I have been doing fine." Heculius said, mind instantly going back to the bird interrupting his meditation, "What did you wish to speak with my sister about?" he asked, motioning to Celestia. He had seen Aries trying to find Celestia and that meant she wanted to ask something.
Eclipse sighed. May as well do it now. "He motioned to his guards to a ring of fire in the frozen hallways. One by one they stepped in, Eclipse going with them, reappearing near by Celestia. "Celestia. I believe we should now arange the Eclipse for this period of time."
"Ohh... I had just been curious as to what she planned to do if anything major were ever to happen to Canterlot. I've just been thinking about the possibilities that something stronger than all of us could exist." She was going to say something not even the elements of harmony could stop, but that seemed a bit ignorant to her for some reason so she left that out. "Do you think that maybe that sounds a bit to paranoid of me to think?" It felt a little awkward telling all of this to Heculius, as it seemed he had read her mind about Celestia.
"Oh trust me, we do. But we can't actually truly die. We have all lived for well on 1500 years and I still feel like a colt!" Heculius said happily. Celestia turned to Eclipse from Cadence, "Alright, I'll be on that tomorrow, but my niece wants to do something with me right now so I am currently buy." Celestia said.
"Oh, forgive my ignorance..." she was a little embarassed to have been worried about such a thing. 'I wonder if living forever is going to get old very fast...' She thought to herself. 'I never really take time to plan far ahead in my own life, I worry too much about the future of the kingdom.' To try and change the subject she said, "So what are we to do know? I hate to sit around all day, but to be quite honest I'm not sure what needs to be done at the moment."
Eclipse sighed. "As you wish. I will be back after you have raised the sun tommorrow. No later." Before any responce could happen, him and his guards vanished in a blinding white light.
"Well, that's what most of the, I hate to say, lesser royals do. My family is the one that takes care of everything, espically now with me and Tremalion." Heculius replied. Celestia sighed and turned back to Cadence, "So, where do you want to go?"
"Well not me, making calmness is pretty easy. And Tremalion prefers to watch over the storms himself, Celestia never lets anypony but us four raise the sun with her, same with Luna." Heculius said thinking.
"Okay then... Well I guess I'll pace around the palace some more, or perhaps just watch the grounds from the west tower..."
