Canterlot Castle.
30th January 1882. 0100

Countess Raven slowly pads through the vaulted, marble corridors of Canterlot castle. The thick blue carpet scrunches softly under her feet as she slowly makes her way to her bed. The secretary yawns sleepily, shaking her arms out from the last aches of the midnight mail-run. Under normal circumstances, the midnight mail run would be nothing more than a formality, for ordinarily it would be very rare for Princess Celestia to have secure dispatches to be sent by Crown Courier or telegraph. These, however, are not normal times. Countess Raven wiggles long fingers that still ache from the weight of the full-to-bursting secure dispatch box.

Whilst, as Princess Celestia’s chief secretary, Raven has the clout to get any one of the hundreds of servants, courtiers, and government ministers that work in Canterlot Castle to help her carry a box of mail, Raven had always been taught by her mother that one should not order others to do a task that one will not do herself. Raven had listened faithfully, for Raven’s mother had been Princess Celestia’s secretary too, as had her mother’s mother, in an unbroken line for hundreds of years.

Raven nods politely to the sentries posted outside the door to the North Wing, returning their sharp precise salute as one of them opens the door to the inner sanctum of Canterlot Castle, the private living quarters of the Princesses and their permanent retinues. Raven steps through, into the far dimmer central corridor of the North Wing. Raven reaches into an alcove and pulls out the crystal lamp, flicking the switch and setting the crystal within the housing to glowing, suffusing the corridor around her with a brilliant lilac glow that flickers from time to time. The crystal lamp resembles a brass storm-lamp, though instead of the normal oil that would be burning within, a crystal silently rotates.

Raven nods in satisfaction and starts to walk down the corridor, trying not to think about the fact that the lamp in her hand costs more than she makes in three months. As Raven’s eyes dart over the walls however, over Handle Turner’s Fighting Majesty, and an equally priceless Rembrandt, as breathtaking now as they had been when she’d seen them on her first day on duty all those years ago, she can understand precisely why no expense has been spared with fireproofing this area of the palace. If the North Wing ever burnt down, the insurance claim alone would be enough to make the treasurer commit suicide. The scents of age and majesty hang upon the North Wing like a shroud.

Raven slowly makes her way through the corridors, past the thousands of relics and antiques, some of which are older than the Empire, past a marble statue of Celestia, presented by one of the Caesars on the signing of the formal peace treaty between the nation of Equestria and the Roaman Empire. The statue is vast and imposing, of Celestia in a scale armour shirt, a crested helmet upon her head, and the magnificent spear Corona in her hand. A rearing unicorn stands next to the war-goddess, and Raven represses a shudder as she stares up at the aquiline nose and the hard expression upon the marble face.

“It’s quite a statue.” A voice drifts from the shadows beyond the glare of Raven’s lamp, and the secretary jumps like a startled cat, whirling to see a tall pale figure walking into the lamplight, and Raven hisses out a sigh, as the tall figure resolves itself into Princess Celestia, mug of steaming black coffee in hand, wrapped in her thick fluffy pink dressing gown.

Raven clutches her chest, levelling an accusing finger at her head of state.
“By Luna’s knickerbockers you gave me a start!” She scowls, and the Princess of the Sun smiles guiltily.

“Apologies Raven, I had no idea you’d still be up at this late hour.” Celestia says, her voice sounding a little more hoarse than usual.

“Not all of us can go to bed after you’ve tucked the sun in.” Raven replies, a faint smile on her face as she completes the other half of their traditional joke. However Celestia’s smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes, and Raven takes a moment to look closer at her head of state. Celestia looks slightly gaunter than usual, and her eyes are red-rimmed. The spark that normally resides in those rose eyes has dimmed somewhat.

“Can you not sleep?” Raven asks, and the Princess of the Sun shakes her head mournfully. Raven purses her lips, thinking of her own bed for just a moment, before she nods.

“I see… are you worrying about Twilight again?” Raven asks, and she does a double take as Celestia flinches at the mention of her Faithful Student. Celestia never flinches. She frets and paces and goes without sleep as often as not, but she never flinches. Raven straightens her shoulders, arms folded as she waits for the fretting ruler to reply.

“Yes… I suppose I am.” Celestia says after a long moment, her mouth curled into a frown as she gazes back up at the statue, her eyes distant.

“But you made that speech earlier today…” Raven says, and Celestia nods.

“Mm, that… carefully prepared tapestry of falsehood, misdirection and untruth,” She says softly “I’m not worried about the Khanate right now, though I know I should be. I’m frightened for her, Raven.”

Raven stiffens slightly. This is not the first time Celestia has opened up to her about her faithful, if troublesome, pupil.
“You shouldn’t worry ma’am, Twilight’s a Princess, she’s smart and it sounds like she’s doing everything right.”

“Mmm,” Celestia smiles wanly. “Tell me Raven, did your mother pressure you into taking this job?”
Raven blinks at the apparent non-sequitur, and then she purses her lips as she remembers the arguments with her mother, Countess Fidelis. The crackling tension that hung in the sitting room, the long silences at dinner.

“There was some… lively debate on the issue, yes.” Raven concedes after a moment, remembering how desperately unhappy she’d been when she’d pitched up at her mother’s office for her first day of work.

Celestia nods, as though she’d been expecting the answer and Raven tilts her head.
“Your mother loved you, I know she did, she told me how proud she was of you incessantly… I know she only wanted what was best for you and felt that continuing the tradition was that… but we’re getting side tracked.”

Celestia reaches out and places her hand upon the ancient statue, gazing up into the cold and hard eyes of the ancient war-goddess.
“My people over all. That has been my creed since I took up my station as head of state. I do not say that lightly, or in jest. Over Luna, over Twilight, over my own desires.” Celestia says softly. “As this nation’s godlike, immortal head of state, I must do what I can to preserve its stability and strength… even if I would rather not.”

Raven tilts her head.
“Forgive me, ma’am, I’m not quite understanding what you mean.”

“I mean that sometimes I must hurt the people I love in the interests of my nation.” Celestia says, her head bowing slightly.

“So how is this related to Princess Twilight?” Raven asks slowly, incomprehension still crackling at the corners of her mind and Celestia turns her rosy gaze upon the other woman.

“Princess Twilight is a lesbian. I knew it probably even before she did, and I have no doubt that you know it too.” Raven nods, trying very hard not to think about the illicit literature that she’d smuggled to the junior princess, or the times she’d told maids to steer clear of Princess Twilight’s chambers because she was ‘entertaining a certain rainbow haired guest’.
“I… had some suspicions.” Raven says obliquely and Celestia releases a brief chuckle.

“Of course. The point I’m trying to make is that I know that Princess Twilight does not desire male companionship… and yet, for the good of my country, I’m going to, at some point in the future, marry her off to a man that she will not love. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to, but there will come a time when I must, for the good of my nation. She’s too strategically important for me not to.”

Raven shivers slightly, and not due to the cool night air rippling through the castle as she gazes up at her tall head of state, and the mighty statue that stands twice her height.

“I’m just… you remember her girlfriend, right?” Celestia inquires and Raven nods. She hadn’t much liked Rainbow Dash, the loud and brash woman had been altogether too messy and disorganized for Raven’s taste. She’d also been infecting Twilight with similar attitudes about tidiness and presentation… but Raven also remembers how good the woman had been for bringing the bookish, quiet princess out of her shell. She also remembers stroking Twilight’s hair as the young princess had sobbed into her pillow for days on end, all the while knowing how futile her soothing murmurs about seeing Rainbow Dash again someday had been.

“Well… I thought I’d had that little problem sewn up… I’d convinced Rainbow Dash that it was best for all parties concerned, if she voluntarily enlisted… but then that idiot Murphy is no friend of mine. Guess what branch Dash chose?”

“So Dash and Twilight have met up?” Raven asks and Celestia nods mournfully.

“Yes, and they both got on very well, and, if the situation isn’t what it is and how it is, I’d be content with that. I’d rearrange Dash’s posting so that she could come to Canterlot with Twilight, and beyond a firm lecture about the importance of discretion, I’d let them be. I’m not vindictive and I recognize when fate wants something to happen… but the situation is what it is.”

Celestia’s eyes snap back upward, and there’s a hard flinty cast to them.
“Princess Twilight was about to go into a highly conservative theocracy, a nation in which females are second class citizens, a nation that is on the cusp of a war with us… all the while making eyes at one of her female soldiers. I cannot think of a way more guaranteed to set the Khans even further against us!” Celestia’s vehemence is no less profound for being softly voiced.

“So what did you do?” A chill sinks into Raven’s belly as she listens to her Princess.

Celestia closes her eyes and takes a very deep breath.
“I did something awful.” She says after a moment. “I know how much my approval means to her, how much she wants me to be proud of her, and I am… I’m so very, very proud of what she’s done and what she’s become, what she’s going to be. But you wouldn’t have thought it when I spoke to her.”

Celestia looks down at her own hands, her expression revolted.
“There is not much that is pure in this world… young love is about as pure as it gets, and I crushed it into ash in the name of political machinations.”

“You crushed it to prevent a war.” Raven says gently. This isn’t the first time she’s had to put a bandage on the raw edges of the Princess’ conscience, to heal the bleeding heart at the core of the Princess of the Sun. Each time the secretary aches to see her closest friend hurting like that, yet at the same time, each time is accompanied by a swooping surge of joy at the knowledge that the ageless goddess still knows how to feel, knows what is right and wrong. That she doesn’t crush, kill or destroy flippantly or without thought or sorrow.

“I know.” Celestia says softly “That only makes it worse. I’ve got the purest of motives for doing what I do… treating people as tools, using them to achieve my objectives, no matter what they might think or want.”
Raven nods slowly.
“You know, Celestia, it’s not my place to advise you on policy…”

“Nonsense, I listen to you most attentively.”

“Be that as it may. Equestria has a reputation for setting trends. Could you maybe not make same gender-”

“Absolutely not.” Celestia says, “I’m still dealing with those infernal suffragettes.”

“You must admit, they’ve got some pretty good points.”

“I’m sure they do, but they have some very problematic ways of expressing themselves. Throwing themselves under horses, vandalism, assaulting members of parliament among other things. I can’t condone that sort of behaviour,” Celestia folds her arms slightly. “Besides, I have no personal objection to giving the franchise to women, but my democratically elected government does, and if my government is to have any power at all, then I cannot run roughshod over it whenever it suits my taste. Otherwise we’re back to feudalism and absolute monarchies.”

Celestia takes steps backward
“But suffragettes and homosexuals are not the same… I suppose we can start making steps toward making homosexuality less of a problem before it comes to the notice of my government. We’ll have to wait until Twilight gets back of course… I’m sorry, what was it you wanted to say?” Celestia asks, and Raven takes a breath.

“Perhaps, your highness… a solution for your woes with Twilight would be to let Rainbow Dash have her, on the quiet. Tell Twilight that if she manages to secure some kind of truce, or peace treaty, that you will give her your blessing to pursue Rainbow Dash, just to keep it quiet.”

“I see, and what if I needed to marry her off?” Celestia asks, her eyes distant, and Raven shrugs.

“Come up with something else. She’s a little young to be strategically married off like Cadance was.” Raven says, but she blinks at Celestia’s sharp bark of laughter.

“Ha, oh really?” Celestia asks, a smile upon her face, but her eyes are distant. “That’s what you think about Cadance and Shining Armour, that it was a strategic marriage?”

“Well, yes, you blessed their marriage after all-”

“Not out of choice.” Celestia says quietly, and there’s no laughter in her voice now. “Cadance leant on my sister and the two of them shouted down my objections. I think that’s one of the only times Luna and Cadance have ever banded together against me on a matter of importance. Certainly, her union with Shining Armour made good domestic copy, everyone loves a royal wedding after all, and I suppose that marriage ended up working well… but I was certainly not in favour of it.” Celestia strokes her chin as she reaches out with her other hand to touch the statue.

“It wasn’t a strategic marriage, House Twilight has always been part of the Crown Loyalist camp, they didn’t need bending or placating or bribing, and whilst their undying affection is nice, it doesn’t help me much if something serious comes along… We’re getting side tracked though. You make a good point about Twilight and Rainbow Dash. It would not be the first time that the unseemly habits of Princesses have been perpetuated on the quiet.”

“Speaking of unseemly royal habits, You want me to swing by the castle kitchens tonight?”

“If you could, I’d be grateful…”

“I know you can’t get fat but you should really cut down, all that processed sugar…”

“Of course, and it has nothing to do with your own inclination towards “sampling” the cakes you bring up to my chambers.” Celestia’s tone is coy and she’s rewarded with a deep blush, but then Celestia purses her lips, her expression becoming thoughtful.

“Your suggestion about Princess Twilight and Rainbow Dash has merit though. My objections to what Princess Twilight was doing are born of the situation they’re in. If they were both in Equestria and they were a little more… discreet than they were, I would be quite prepared to leave it with them… cavorting. Certainly, if I establish a precedent for strategically marrying Princesses off, that precedent might take me places I don’t quite want to go.” Celestia turns and starts pacing back down the corridor, Raven trotting at her heels until they reach another dimly lit marble statue.

“Princess Twilight deserves your trust, your highness.” Raven says after a moment “I’m sure, if she managed to secure peace, then she’s earnt the right…”

“I suppose… leave it with me, and I’ll think on it,” Celestia says softly, her tone a clear dismissal and Raven turns to leave, but before she does, Celestia speaks once more.
“Oh and Raven… thank you.”

Because I may not have been entirely fair in my representation to Princess Celestia.