“‘…after which I appointed my lictors, the number for my position being four and twenty, each carrying the symbolic fasces. The procession then embarked from the castle and traveled through the city, with all the pomp and flair one would expect of the Legion; a centuria from the legendary Cirran Eighth served as the vanguard of the parade, followed by my lictors, then the Triumvirate, with the holy Sisters …’”

Celestia allowed her voice to trail off for a moment before quickly skimming through the next several pages. “Typhoon goes on at length about the details of the parade and the remainder of the events that she attended throughout the evening and the day after her coronation. The parade she’s talking about took place at high noon the following day, as she was coronated at sunset, so there wasn’t enough light to hold a procession at the time. It’s certainly an interesting look at early Equestrian culture, and for this event especially, the Cirran influences in it. I’m not going to go through it all now. You can read it on your own time if you want.”

Twilight nodded and set aside the quill and pad of paper she’d managed to snag from the librarian to take notes with. “I’ll give it a more thorough review when I can. It’ll certainly be interesting to compare it against other accounts from the era.” She tapped her hooves together. “Maybe we can finally clear up some of the discrepancies between accepted historical recounts of the time period!”

“An admirable cause, We’re sure,” Luna said, yawning from her dark corner, “albeit one regrettably lost on the common populace.”

“Unfortunately,” Celestia said. Stretching her lengthy limbs, the alicorn stood to her full regal height, then very un-regally arched her back like a stretching cat. “But one that I’m sure will make a lot of ponies very excited about Equestrian history again—after careful dissemination of the historical details. Not everything in this book is meant for public eye. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to find the little princesses’ room,” she added, winking at Twilight, who immediately made a face.

Pivoting on her hooves, Celestia quickly trotted away, leaving Luna and Twilight together in their little nook of the library. As soon as Celestia’s hoofsteps faded away, Luna’s dark horn lit with midnight magic and brought the journal to her face. “While Sister is absent, We suppose we can continue reading,” the alicorn said, flipping through the pages. She stopped halfway through a page turn, and then a toothy grin adorned her muzzle as she flipped back a few pages. “Oh. This shall be fantastic.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Uh… Princess? What do you mean by ‘fantastic’?”

Luna only continued to grin like a filly about to tell a really funny joke. “Grab your quill, Twilight Sparkle. Thou might want to take notes.”

Hurricane nodded to two saluting legionaries guarding the entrance to the castle courtyard and stepped past them. It’d already been the eighth such saluting pair he’d passed on his way through the castle, and after the first two, he’d stopped bothering to salute every pair of sentries he came across. He had to give his daughter credit, though; she’d really tightened security in the castle.

It’d been a theme common to Typhoon’s first two months in office. She had taken it upon herself to make things significantly more consistent across all aspects of the Legion. It was an effort driven largely by the fact that earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi all had very different strengths that now needed to be combined into a single fighting force to reflect a more diverse, centrally organized pony culture. As such, Everfree was protected by not one legion, but three, each consisting entirely of one race of ponies. Making that happen had been a difficult challenge due to some of the cultural stigma attached to the Legion’s past, but she’d managed to find a way (largely through the opening of officer positions to the other races). Now she was sending increasing sorties to the fringes of Equestria’s rapidly growing borders to establish coloniae in the west and prepare the land for new waves of settlers. While critics still harassed her with charges of her incompetence due to her captures in the past, Typhoon seemed intent on making them eat their words.

Hurricane’s ear twitched as the early autumn breeze touched it. Maybe too intent.

Birds chirped and twittered from tree to tree as Hurricane strode onto the lawn. Many of the plants and bushes planted around the courtyard were in one final bloom, desperate to show their beautiful colors one last time before the dipping temperatures of autumn claimed them. But the pegasus didn’t pay them any mind; his attention was entirely focused on the white mare casually wandering down the gravel courtyard paths, crimson dress fluttering in the breeze. Without a word, he fell in by her side, and the two began to walk towards more secluded parts of the garden courtyard.

“I was wondering when you would show up again,” Queen Platinum began after they’d wandered past an arch spanning the width of the courtyard. “I didn’t take you for a family stallion, but it seems we all learn from our mistakes.”

“I wanted to give Typhoon her space,” Hurricane replied, keeping his eyes fixed dead ahead. “She doesn’t need any distractions while she’s learning the ropes and getting situated. Besides,” he added with a slight upturn of his lips, “I’m finally getting more time to spend with my grandson.”

Platinum nodded. “I suppose that may have had something to do with your resignation, hm?” They walked on for a few more moments, with Platinum’s dress brushing against Hurricane’s bare body. When Hurricane didn’t answer, Platinum changed the subject. “She’s doing well. She’s a little shaky on… delegation, but I assume she gets that from her father.”

“It runs in the family,” Hurricane said. “The Gladioprocellari have always been that way; we try to do things ourselves rather than ask for help.” He shook his head. “Believe me, I had to deal with a fair share of my problems on my own.”

“Yes, and I have to remind her quite often that she has access to a cabinet of advisors, not to mention myself… or the Chancellor,” Platinum huffed. “Trying to restrain her from taking matters into her own hooves and flying off to the nearest threatened colonia has been… challenging. Now I’m beginning to learn the names of your officers, if only to recommend to her a pony perfectly capable of fixing things without her, like Legate Rain.”

They finally reached the end of the granite path, which ended in a loop framed on three sides by towering castle walls. The bushes were tall enough to hide ponies behind, and all the castle windows facing inwards were shuttered. The pair of ponies rounded the loop towards the sounds of bubbling water and the fountain on the far side of the bushes, only to stop at the sight of a teenaged unicorn colt and pegasus filly giggling under the branches of the rhododendrons. The young couple broke off their laughter and immediately scooted away from each other as the Queen laid her eyes on them, and the filly fumbled with the laces to her servant’s attire, which had been conspicuously loosened against her bare, yellow chest. They both performed hasty and nervous bows and curtsies, mumbling apologies as they did so.

Platinum’s nostrils flared once, then a gentle curve settled on her lips. “You may leave,” she said, nodding slowly. As the couple muttered more apologies and thanks, she shooed them away with her hoof. They quickly gathered their belongings and trotted, with the maid trying to hold her various articles of clothing to her body. Platinum watched them leave, then shook her head. “Young love.”

She took a few steps away from Hurricane and turned to face him. “Why have you brought me here?” she asked, her words cutting straight to the point. “The Festival of the Kings begins in a week, and I’m extraordinarily busy. What is so important that it merits private discussion?”

Hurricane fixed Platinum with a level stare. “Celestia is pregnant.”

Platinum blinked, then blinked again. Her body was still except for the coils of her mane, dancing in the revelry of the wind. Her hoof shifting on the ground was the first thing to move, followed by her lips. “I’m sorry? Maybe I wasn’t listening right, or the congestion from my allergies is getting worse, but it sounded like the words ‘Celestia is pregnant’ just came out of your mouth.”

Hurricane exhaled and pressed a fetlock to his brow, looking lost. “She told me this morning. That’s why I needed to see you on short notice. I—”

Platinum’s hoof to his face cut him off. Hurricane winced and recoiled, delicately rubbing the sore spot already settling into his cheek. He didn’t know that she could hit that hard.

“Commander Hurricane, I thought you were a brilliant strategist, but it appears I was mistaken,” Platinum said, glaring at him. “Only an idiot could think impregnating one of Equestria’s two very much real goddesses could be a good idea! Do you know what this does to our image? To the legitimacy of our rule?”

Hurricane held up a hoof. “I never meant for this to happen. It was just a… a…”

“A what, Hurricane?!” Platinum growled, stomping her hoof on the ground. “A fling? A little roll in the hay? You were horny and you decided to go straight for the top?!” She stomped her hooves on the ground twice more and then turned away from Hurricane, glaring directly at the fountain off to the side. “If Celestia has a child, a foal born from mortal blood, she will be impure. She is supposed to be a goddess, a sacrosanct idea of purity and chastity! If she has a foal, especially one born out of a secret affair with an old, decrepit stallion who half of Equestria’s population still despises,” she spat, angling her poisoned words directly at Hurricane, “then the entire religious imagery that we’ve set up around them falls apart. And I think you know as well as I do what will follow. Did you think the rebels were as bad as things could get? Because I can easily imagine a scenario where they’re the least of our concerns!”

Hurricane wilted under her tirade, suddenly reconsidering this meeting “I—”

“Shut up, Hurricane, and let me rant!” Platinum exclaimed, storming up to him and shoving her nose in his face. “Because as far as I can see, your cock has singlehoofedly destroyed Equestria!”

Nearby birds flew out of their trees at the sudden noise, and this time Platinum retreated as her words echoed across the courtyard. Gritting her teeth, she ducked her head and forcefully whispered. “I am going to fix this, do you understand? And you don’t have a choice in the matter.”

“I…” Hurricane began, but stopped when Platinum’s glare hardened into a skysteel edge. He grit his teeth, sighed, and hung his head. “Okay. Thank you, Platinum. I don’t know how I can repay you.”

“Marry me.”

Hurricane coughed and slapped his chest. His wings flared out as far as they could go, and he took a step back. “What?”

Platinum matched his step and then jabbed a hoof into his bare chest. “You got yourself into this mess, I’m going to get us all out of it.” She leaned forward and pressed her nose against Hurricane’s, nearly forcing the slightly taller stallion back. “I’m going to ask Star Swirl to see if he can enchant some necklaces with permanent illusions so that nopony will be able to tell Celestia is pregnant, and instead, I will be. You’re going to marry me, and then we’ll pass off the foal as our foal. Not only will it save Celestia and Equestria the embarrassment of what you did, but it’ll be seen as a reconciliation between our races. If the legendary Commander Hurricane and the beautiful Queen Platinum can put aside their differences, marry, and have a child, then why can’t the rest of Equestria simply get along?

“Besides, I need an heir. My line is coursed with the Scourge, and any child I have risks dying from it…” She paused for a moment, a slight sheen in her eyes, before taking a deep breath and continuing. “This works best for everyone. You and Celestia get to keep the foal, Celestia is spared the tarnishing of her status, and I get an heir to the throne.”

“What if the foal isn’t a unicorn?” Hurricane asked. “What if it’s a pegasus?”

Platinum waved her hoof. “Details. What’s important is that Equestria will think the foal is born from my womb. I can raise it to be the perfect successor. I’d only recommend that you stop mounting the goddess of the sun so this doesn’t happen again.”

Hurricane chewed on his lip and stared at the fountain. “This feels wrong. I feel like I would be betraying Swift.”

“That didn’t stop you when you and Celestia decided to engage in more carnal activities,” Platinum replied, her eyebrow crawling up her forehead.

Hurricane’s disposition immediately turned dour. “Don’t say that,” he growled. “Don’t even imply that.” Nostrils flaring, he drew a whistling breath and settled the raising crests of his angry wings by his side. “Besides… it only happened once. We… both decided it’d be for the best to try to keep things… friendly.”

Platinum studied Hurricane for a moment, then shook her head. “Sorry,” she muttered, looking away. Then she brought her blue eyes back on the aging pegasus. “It’d only be political, after all. It wouldn’t be that bad.”

“I don’t know…” Hurricane said. His hoof began tracing aimless patterns in the gravel. “Wouldn’t we have to pretend to be in love? I mean, we are ‘having a foal’, after all.”

“Oh, really?” Platinum asked, shaking her head. A tiny smile darted to her lips, and she fluttered her long eyelashes at the former commander. “Would it really be so hard to love an old, gray mare like me?”

Hurricane shrugged. “I guess I’ve loved older.”

This time, Platinum’s hoof put Hurricane’s face on the ground. “Wrong answer,” she growled as the reeling pegasus tried to pick himself up. Rolling her eyes, Platinum grabbed his shoulders with her magic to help him stand. Hurricane opened his mouth to mutter his thanks, only for his lips to be pressed firmly against Platinum’s.

Platinum’s magic held them together for a few seconds; Hurricane was too shocked to protest. When she finally broke off the surprised kiss, she licked her lips and repositioned an errant coil of her mane. “Not bad… but you need some work,” she said, slowly turning in place. Her tail brushed against Hurricane’s jaw and she gave him a wink over her shoulder. “Go back to whatever it is you’re doing these days now that you’re not killing ponies for a living. I’ll make the preparations around the castle. And you should probably tell Celestia about our plan, mmm?”

Then she was gone, disappearing behind the rhododendrons while Hurricane tried to comprehend what had just happened.