Inside the Castle of Canterlot, an armored unicorn was preparing to take the next step in his duties as a Royal Guard! His fellow brothers in arms eyed his new purple and gold armor with admiration, as he stood tall with his chest puffed out with pride. His unit clapped him on the back and congratulated his success to higher ranks before they too headed outside on the field to take their spot amongst the rest of the awaiting Royal Guards. Breathing deeply the young newly promoted guard put on his helmet and readied him self to take on the biggest role in his duties as a Royal Guard of Canterlot. Upon opening the doors, he was greeted by the stomping of many hooves and the sounds of horns sounding off. He made his way down the coble steps holding his head high. Some of the citizens of the city came to witness who would become the new Captain. The Royal Guards on the field saluted him as he continued down the straight path where King Night Shade and Queen Star Bright stood beaming at him. By their side, Luna waited for their flying instructor to be given the highest role of the Guards! Luna like her parents waited patiently for him. Celestia, however, wasn’t there. Luna kept sneaking quick glances up at the sky while her parents didn’t speak of the missing attendant. Just as he made the last steps forward, Luna accidently let out a sigh. Her mother noticing the sudden outburst looked up to where she saw Celestia’s outline just mere inches from the ceremony stands. Celestia angled her body into what was unmistakably a dive and sped toward the crowd who fell silent. Even the horns had stopped. Celestia prepared for landing by flying past the new promoted guard and hovered for a few seconds at the Queen’s side.

“Mother, I…”

“Not now Celestia,” said Queen Star Bright softly, but it was in a serious manner. “Please take your place.”

Celestia landed softly between her mother and father and straitened up her crown that now had a muddy hoof print from her dirtied shoes. Smiling awkwardly, she straitened herself up, but Luna was eyeing her with disbelief while their mother gave her a brief side-glance before she motioned for the horns to continue playing their remaining notes. Luna stood at attention immediately once the horns began playing again. Celestia took one look at the still bewildered guard before her and tried her best to fight back the temptation to burst out laughing. Perhaps it was the thought of him becoming Captain of the Royal Guard that caught her off guard, or perhaps it was the way the Pegasus in front of them had the same look he would give Celestia before he scolded her for not paying attention. It was painful keeping even a slight squeak of laughter hidden. The guard eyeing Celestia was beside himself. For once could she take something as important as this a little seriously? She met his gaze and not a moment too soon the horns stopped playing and the Pegasus bowed to the four in front of him at last. For a time the only sound was that of the flags flapping in the wind before King Night Shade opened his mouth to speak.

“Snap Shot, today is the day you take the next step in your duties as a part of the Royal Guard! Not only have you earned the respect and admiration of your peers, but you have also taught us all the importance of leadership! It is with great honor, that I grant you this position. I hear by dub you, Captain of the Royal Guard! May you continue to protect this kingdom and lead your troops into a brighter tomorrow!”

“And I will do my best to honor my duties as Captain your Majesty,” said Snap Shot rising to his hooves.

The king and Queen smiled down at him. They and their daughters thought the ceremony would end there, but Snap Shot turned to face the line of Guards before them.

“I would like to share a few words if I may,” he began looking back at the King who nodded his approval. “These past years have been quite something. First that business with a Dragon, then our kingdom and neighboring lands began expanding further than we ever thought imaginable, and now just when we thought things couldn’t escalate even further, we now face another challenge.”

No one spoke a word. Celestia shot a look at her parents, whose expression remained calm but she could have sworn her father became momentarily tense at Snap Shots last words. Clearly they all knew what Snap meant. It’s been five years since the monstrous dragon, known as The Defiler, was released from his prison. Without the help of the ancient unicorn wizard, Star Swirl the Bearded, they thought the giant serpent would win, but thanks to his apprentice, and his book of spells she had unraveled the secret to defeating the dragon and succeeded in sending The Defiler back to his prison. Sure Celestia and Luna helped out, but the true hero of that night was the orange Unicorn, Nimph. When the rest of the dragons felt the Defiler’s presence wither away, they came out of hiding. Once they found out how the ponies of Canterlot defeated the threat, one of them approached the King and demanded that the spells used to release and defeat the Defiler would be given to the dragons. The King agreed and the dragons with the spells intact, left without another word. What they did with the spells are anyone’s guess, but Celestia believed that the spell would be locked away somewhere where no one will ever find it again.

After that, those who had lost their home during The Defilers rampage ventured out to find a new place to call home. Eventually they did find a place in the east. Months past and the new settlement began to grow into something else. King Night Shade had received a letter stating that the new settlement in the east send their regards and hope that he and the Queen will humbly welcome the new king of the east once the Empire was finished. King Night Shade had only once visited the Empire and when he returned he gave Celestia and Luna a gift that was given to him while he was there. What he gave the two were two small crystals.

“Oh, I wish you could have seen it!” he told them all excitedly over dinner the night of his return. “They told me that the castle will be quite a sight once it’s complete. And they plan on building the empire entirely out of crystals!”

Both Celestia and Luna were fascinated by the idea of an empire being built out of nothing but crystals and wasted no time in asking their father when they all could go and see it for themselves.

“Once they finish construction, I promise we will all go to see it!” he said happily.

The thought of the new Empire was on the two sister’s minds after that and they told their friends about what they had found out. Taking what they have learned, the small group spent a great deal theorizing what they would expect to see once the Empire was built. Their thoughts about the Empire were brought to an abrupt halt when later that year, ponies of both Earth and Pegasus tribes grew curious about the unexplored lands outside of their own. In no time, each race had made it their personal mission to explore the rest of the unknown world outside of their homes. The Unicorns saw what the rest of the pony tribes were up to and wasted no time in joining in. It started as simple claiming of lands, but as the weeks past and months deepened. What had started as curiosity between each race turned into competition on who clamed the most land. Since the Pegasus were known for flying and controlling weather, the Earth Ponies accused them of cheating their way to the top by creating weather too difficult to travel in. Of course the Pegasus didn’t take to kindly to that and pointed the hoof at the farmers for bringing forth a poor harvest as an act of retaliation. The Unicorns were soon blamed for taking such an early lead in claiming territories. This lead to the leader of the Pegasy blaming the king and Queen for the way things had turned out; stating that because the two of them are magical beings, they favored their own kind above the rest. This lead to an uproar from the Unicorns who retaliated by casting their magic up to the clouds where it took over a month until the Pegasus were able to fix the problem. All that Canterlot could do was watch, as the three tribes grew distant and cold of each other’s presence. King Night Shade tried to reason with the Tribes by inviting them to a royal feast to celebrate the findings of new lands outside of the kingdom. His efforts however, proved to be in vain, when an oncoming goblet aimed for the Princess of the Unicorn Tribe missed when she levitated the Chancellor of the Earth Ponies and used her as a shield. Most unfortunately, The Chancellor took the sudden attack as sign to start a food fight. What happened after words could only be described as the first time in history that the royal kitchen went over three whole winters worth of food in a matter of minutes.

As the years past the three tribes grew to loath one another. What made things worse is that their hate spread to the heart of Canterlot where it became difficult for each race to get back to the way things were. Celestia and Luna maintained their friendships with their friends however, she and Luna could tell that there was an uncomfortable feeling between them whenever they got together. Today was living proof of that when Wind Chime got in a fight with Tock after he was saved. Just when they thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, the three tribes where fighting again. This time, it was over one piece of land. Despite all the preparations and carful navigations, they all ended up in the same place, at the same time. With tempers rising the leaders of each tribe marched off to tell the King and Queen about their predicament. Frowning at the mess they’ve got themselves into they told them to bring the case to a meeting and settle matters their. King Night Shade did hope they could reach an agreement of some sort, but with the way things have been going he and the Queen had their doubts. As Snap Shot continued his speech of a better future in the horizon, Celestia felt her crown being cleaned. Unseen by anyone, her mother had used her magic to wipe the mud off her eldest daughters symbol of royalty. Smiling appreciatively at her mom, both of them turned their attention back to Snap Shot who was just wrapping up.

“I promise all of you, things will get better! Thank you my liege, for this honorable position. That is all.”

Snap Shot made his way to leave the ceremony. The horns broke out again as the stomping of hooves followed him all the way to the entrance of the castle. Once the horns went silent everyone rose from their seats and headed back to their daily routines. The royal family were saying their goodbyes to everyone who attended the ceremony, with Celestia simply having to wave goodbye rather than accept other ponies hooves like her sister. After the last pony left, too made to leave the field and went back inside the castle.

“Leave us,” said King Night shade once they were back inside the throne room.

The guards bowed their heads and closed the tall doors behind them. Once the coast was clear Night Shade and Star Bright looked down at their two daughters. It was Luna who spoke first.

“Father I…”

“I suppose we are about to hear why you were on time today and your sister wasn’t?” asked Night Shade now looking at Celestia who was trying to wipe her horse shoes clean of forest mud.

“Yes,” said Celestia stopping what she was doing and unfolded her right wing to show them all the egg.

Luna, Night Shade and Star Bright looked at the egg before Star Bright spoke next.

“This I take it is your excuse?”

“Yes, well, this and Tick and Tock again, but…”

“What about them?”

“They uh, kind of helped me and Luna out in the Everfree along with Wind Chime. Did you know that Wind Chime could talk to animals?”

Celestia ended with a sheepish smirk, but when her parents didn’t look the slightest bit amused she bowed her head in shame.

“Yes, I know. It was a stupid thing to let them come with us,”

“But you did it anyway,” said Night Shade.

“Yes and… I know you only wanted the two of us to take care of the Everfree, but…”

“You’re trying to make as much time be committed to your friends as you are with your duties,” said Star Bright catching on quickly. “I see.”

Celestia looked up in amazement. How was her mother this good at guessing what she was thinking?

“Do you not think we know how time consuming your new priorities are?”

“No, of course not, its just…”

“You still want your friends to stay with you two even though your princesses now?”

“Well, yes. I do want that.”

“Luna, do you still want to be with your friends as much as you are more than willing to accept your new role?”

Luna thought long and hard before answering.

“Well, it’s like I’ve been trying to tell Celie all along. She knows I value our friendship with the others. But… We have bigger things to do now and… I think for the time being, we should let small things like friendship be tossed aside for a while.”

Star Bright and King Night Shade considered this while Celestia stared open mouthed at her sister for saying such things. Surely she didn’t mean it. She couldn’t have, right? Both Night Shade and Star bright shared worried looks.

“Very well, we shan’t say anymore on that, for now at least. Celestia, was this egg in a nest?”

“No father,” said Celestia feeling slightly better that the topic had switched back to the egg. “Tick spotted it in a pond and Tock went and got it.”

“And this egg was all alone? Nothing else was there once he got it?”

“Yes, Tock got it off of some branches and that was it. Nothing was there for it once he brought it back to shore.

Luna thought Celestia wasn’t telling their parents everything, but decided not to call her out on it. She would ask to hear the full story later.

“I see,” said Night Shade a little saddened.

“Is something wrong?” asked Luna picking up on their dad’s mood.

“Looks like we have at least one that made it,” he said to Star Bright who nodded.

“Only one?” Luna asked looking back at the egg.

“Yes,” said Star Bright. “This egg is that of a Phoenix. After the Defilers attack, your father and I went out to see if anything was trapped and couldn’t escape during the fight. We did come across a few nests with nothing in them but then saw others that weren’t so fortunate. This egg,” she pointed at the oval on the ground. “This is the first one we have seen since then that is still intact.”

“What should we do with it?” asked Luna. “Wait for its parents to come for it?”

“I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen. Celestia, you should look after it until it hatches.”

“M… Me? Shouldn’t Tock? He…”

“I think Tock’s parents would disapprove of that arrangement. No, it has to be you. Until it hatches and grows you must look after it.”

“But Tock… Alright,” said Celestia levitating the egg up so she could have a good look at it. “Um, how do I do that?”

“Find a way to keep it warm.”

“Right, and how will I know when its about to hatch?”

“Don’t worry you’ll know. And once it’s able to fly you can release it. Phoenix’s are clever birds. I’m sure it’ll figure out the rest on its own.”

Celestia couldn’t help but to think that this was her punishment for arriving late and thought that the next time Tick and Tock needed their help with one of their ‘projects’ she would tell them to find someone else.

That night, after Celstia had told her little sister the whole story about how she and Wind Chime had to save Tock from predators of the pond and how Wind Chime got in a fight with the two brothers after that; Celestia had put together nest in a basket and laid the egg inside it. Thinking that it might need something else, she placed a folded pillowcase over the top. Leaving the egg alone, she approached her little sister who was about to leave her room.

“Hey, you didn’t mean all of that back there right? About putting our friends to the side?”

“Its complicated sister.” Luna replied and made to open the door.

“What’s so complicated about it?” Celestia asked.

This was not the answer she had hoped for.

“Come on Luna! These are our friends you’re talking about!”

“I know that,” said Luna, Her voice rising slightly.

“Then why would you refer to them as if they were yesterdays trash?”

“I never said anything of the sort!”

“You said we should toss them aside!” shouted Celestia her anger rising. “Do you really want that Luna?”

“No!” Luna shot back but she refused to look at her older sister. “No, of course I don’t.”

“Then…”

“We should get some rest sister. Tomorrow we help mother and father great the tribe leaders.”

And without a backward glance she opened the door and gently closed it behind her. Celestia heard her sister’s hoofsteps reach her own bedroom and all went silent. Celestia collapsed on her bed letting out a loud groan into her pillow. Reemerging, she began to take her royal armor and tiara off. Her long flowing pink mane and tail fell flat on the mattress as she sat there and looked at the wall, where on the other side, her little sister must be preparing for bed as well. Cellestia frowned and laid back on her pillow until her eyes felt heavy and rest took over.