21st day of Frostfall
454 Years after the Defeat of Discord by the Sisters

Ambassador Xaaron sighed and rested his head on his talon. He was slumped against a table as old as his ancestors, covered in drafts of legal literature which would be relevant for centuries to come and studied by scholars for even longer. He’d known that getting a peace treaty would be a delicate process, and require compromise from both him and the Equestrians.

“I refuse to even consider a treaty that leaves ponies in lands controlled by that insane tyrant!” Luna snapped.

What Xaaron hadn’t known when he accepted the position as ambassador and the Emperor’s right talon in the negotiations was that he’d have to spend all day listening to two Goddesses bickering with each other as if they were fillies.

“Luna, you need to calm down and listen. Those ponies have been there for generations! They’re citizens of the Gryphon Empire, and we can’t simply uproot them!” Celestia said, her wings spreading on instinct as the argument grew more heated, as if making her look bigger would give her words more weight.

“And we should have helped them generations ago!” Luna snapped. “I want all of them returned to Equestria!”

“There’s precedent for this,” Celestia said. “You remember the border skirmishes we had with the Crystal Empire about fifty years back, yes? We gave them everything north of the Frostback Mountains, and allowed free travel between our two nations for a period of a year, to allow ponies to sort out for themselves where they wanted to go.”

“That’s a stupid precedent!” Luna yelled. “We still had to send troops in because their King refused to allow his subjects to leave!”

“My point is that a similar agreement-“

“Will have all the same problems!” Luna finished. “Zephyranthes is as much a tyrant as Sombra ever was, and I remind you that in the end, things went very poorly for Sombra and the entire Crystal Empire!”

“Ambassador Xaaron…” Celestia turned from her sister to face him. Xaaron was pouring himself another glass of an amber-colored liquid. Apparently it was mostly made from apples. He wasn’t sure what else went into the drink, but even one glass was enough to take the edge off of having to listen to immortals who had apparently never learned to get past their sibling rivalry. He was on his fourth, and had nearly convinced himself that things were looking up. “I apologize for this. My sister and I are… apparently not of the same mind on the terms of the treaty.”

“It’s fine,” Xaaron sighed. “After that mess yesterday I didn’t think either of you would even want to continue today. It was a fine duel, though. I should give my regards to the winner.”

“It was that,” Luna agreed. “It settled things quickly, without the need for a court or weeks of proceedings. It is somewhat regrettable that Golden Strike was killed, but such are the dangers of trial by combat.”

“Indeed,” Xaaron nodded. “I watched the duel, and he seemed an honorable and brave fellow. He was outmatched from the start, though.”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked, frowning. “He had every advantage. Range, speed, health, even the terrain favored him, with the sunlight and large dueling ring to give him space to work with.”

Xaaron laughed, downing the glass he’d been pouring before answering. “Princess, you’ve clearly lost your sense for battle. He didn’t have the most important thing that a warrior can have.”

“Discipline?” Celestia guessed.

“Don’t be silly,” Xaaron snorted. “He lacked the killing intent. That other pony…” He shook his head, trying to suppress a shiver. “Couldn’t you feel it? She was almost consumed with it. I was watching from the castle, and I felt that surge of murderous intent so strongly that I feared for my own life. It still terrifies me. She is a true warrior.”

“I admit, I have felt… something around her,” Celestia shrugged.

“And that is why she couldn’t lose,” Xaaron said, pointing at Celestia with a talon. “Unless you are willing to kill, you are at a strong disadvantage in combat.” He paused. “No, more than that… she was willing to throw her life away for victory. Perhaps it’s something only a predator could understand.”

“Perhaps,” Luna said, with a knowing smile. “But we have gotten off topic. We must discuss what is to be done with the ponies currently living in your lands.”

“You could try asking them,” Xaaron sighed. “Some would probably want to leave, others would want to stay. Making a blanket decision for all of them is foolish.”

“Wise words,” Celestia nodded. “Though we’ll need assurances from Emperor Zephyranthes that any such attempt is actually fair and unbiased…”

“As if his assurances are worth anything,” Luna snorted.

Xaaron sighed as the two sisters started shouting at each other. It was going to be another unproductive day. He looked at the bottle he’d been drinking from, and found it empty. To his great surprise there was nothing wise at the bottom.

“Well, looks like we got ourselves a new princess here,” Boney Hooves snorted, as he examined the cut over Pallas’ eye. “You’ve still got a few chips of his horn in yer idiot head. Probably the only thing in there right now.” Pallas had gone to one of the palace medics for treatment for her wounds from the duel the day before. So far, she was regretting not asking for a needle and thread and taking care of it herself.

“Shouldn’t you be more worried about the knife wound in her side?” Bianca asked, poking the unwrapped wound, Pallas' coat shaved around the stitches.

“If she isn’t dead from that yet, she ain’t gonna die from it unless somepony decides they want to play with it,” the medic said. “You know what would have happened if that’d gone in another inch?”

“I’d be dead?” Pallas guessed, grumbling at his rough treatment.

“No, you’d just hurt a lot more,” Hooves replied. “You got lucky, ain’t nothing there but meat. It’s gonna bleed like a little bitch, though, and it’s gonna hurt coming out. It got stuck on yer rib. I wanted t’ check your eye first. What in Tartarus made you think it was a good idea to headbutt a unicorn?”

“It seemed like a great plan at the time,” Pallas shrugged. “And it kept him from casting any spells on me.”

“Yeah, well you almost ended up walking away blind on one side,” Hooves retorted.

“And he ended up dead,” said a voice from the doorway. Ambassador Xaaron stumbled in, reeking of apple whiskey. “A stupid plan isn’t stupid if it works. I wanted to offer you my congratulations on the result of the duel. You are as fine a warrior as you claim.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Pallas said, struggling to keep her expression neutral.

“Once we’re at peace, I’d like to extend an invitation for you to visit the Empire,” Xaaron declared. He puffed up his chest and nearly managed to walk in a straight line. “You’d like it. We appreciate warriors like you. Of course you’d have to get over your odd cultural bias against meat…”

“Aren’t you supposed to be negotiating with the Princesses?” Bianca asked, tilting her head.

“Bah!” Xaaron dismissed the notion with a wave of his talon. “They’re so busy yelling at each other they didn’t even notice when I left. Nothing is getting done today.” He collapsed onto a cot, rolling over and staring at the ceiling.

“Don’t you have bodyguards who should be keeping an eye on you?” Bianca noted, flying over to the door and looking around for them.

“Am I not safe here?” Xaaron asked, tilting his head to look down his body at Bianca, his neck stretching in the way only a cat could really manage. “I thought this to be the safest room in the palace. The good doctor is sworn to do no harm, you’re too innocent to be an assassin, and the dragon pretending to be a pony over there…” He pointed at Pallas. “Well, haven’t you ever heard the saying that the safest place to spend winter is in a bear’s den, because only a fool would follow, and you need not fear a fool.”

“Must be a griffon saying,” Pallas mumbled, trying to keep perfectly still as the doctor closed the cut over her eye with sutures. “I didn’t learn many while I was busy cutting your soldiers apart.”

“Quite understandable,” Xaaron nodded, rolling over to his belly to look at the black mare. “They weren’t my soldiers, of course, but no hard feelings nonetheless.”

“Do you even know what kind of horrible things they did?” Pallas asked, glaring at him.

“Most people do terrible things in war,” Xaaron said. “Most would consider what you did today to be quite terrible. Beheading an opponent in one swing. Tell me, was that the first time you killed another pony?” He nodded when Pallas looked down. “I thought as much. How did it feel?”

“It didn’t,” Pallas blurted out. “It didn’t feel like anything, I mean. I was just so angry with that bitch Golden Showers that I didn’t care who she put in the way.”

“Good to hear you have some sense in you,” Xaaron laughed. “I swear, I don’t know how to deal with you ponies. I’ve had to listen to your leaders scream at each other all day. If they were griffons they’d have either killed each other or gotten married by now.”

“Ew,” Bianca stuck out her tongue. “They’re sisters.”

“True,” Xaaron sighed. “That always makes it more difficult. You can choose your comrades, but you can’t choose your family. If those two don’t stop playing around with all these dominance games, though, this treaty is never going to get written.”

“Dominance games?” Pallas asked.

“You know,” Xaaron said, waving a talon. “Luna is shooting down any proposal she didn’t make herself, because she doesn’t want to look weak and thinks that the only way to show how strong she is is to refuse to compromise. Celestia, meanwhile, is agreeing to everything that Luna doesn’t propose, because she’s trying to show just how mature she is, and how benevolent and kind she can be that she’s even listening to her enemies. Of course, it also annoys her sister, and both of them are getting worse.”

“It’s that bad?” Bianca asked.

Xaaron rolled his eyes. “I expect in a few more drafts, Luna will want Emperor Zephyranthes to give up his throne and have all griffons thrown in prison – especially the children. Meanwhile, Celestia will add in clauses to give griffons control of most of Equestria, just because someone suggested it as a joke and she saw how annoyed it made Luna.”

“And you’re getting drunk,” Pallas said. “Instead of helping.”

“I’m not supposed to be a damn mediator between them!” Xaaron snapped. “I’m just here to make sure this treaty goes through so we can put this bloody thing behind us. Neither of them are working towards that at all right now, so yes, I’m getting drunk and letting them have their little tiff in private.”

“Maybe I’ll talk to Luna,” Bianca sighed. “I might be able to talk some sense into her.”

“Thank you,” Xaaron groaned. “I swear, you ponies will be the death of me.”

Luna paced back and forth in her chambers, stacks of paper floating around her, most of them bearing Celestia’s royal seal. She tossed a few aside, focusing on others.

“My sister has been busy ruining Equestria in my absence,” Luna muttered. “None of these laws would have been passed were I here instead of in the field. How am I to protect my little ponies when I am besieged on every front? Griffons attack our lands from without, and Celestia drives us to ruin from within.”

“Luna, calm down,” Bianca said. “They can’t all be that bad. And you know she’s just trying to do what she thinks is best. The two of you just have different priorities.” Bianca picked up one of the discarded missives from where it had landed near the pillow she was perched on. “I mean this one’s about war orphans and spending funds to house them and find them homes.”

“…You’re right,” Luna sighed, dropping the papers and sighing. “I might be judging her unfairly. I am just very frustrated with her right now. There is something coming from just over the horizon and she cannot sense it at all.”

“You’d think being the sun and moon, you’d be able to handle over-the-horizon,” Bianca quipped, smiling.

“Indeed,” Luna said, with no mirth in her voice. She stared at the mess of papers carpeting the floor. “But we are very different, in important ways. Do you know Celestia can sense every time somepony is born?”

“She can?” Bianca blinked, tilting her head.

“Yes. You’re not wrong when you say we are the sun and moon. It is more complicated than that, though explaining it would be difficult. Suffice it to say that the sun and moon are reflections of us, or we of them. The sun is a great source of life and light. It feeds the grass, which feeds ponies, and in that way a trace of that energy exists in all of you.”

“This seems more like metaphysics than anything else,” Bianca said.

“Perhaps. But the important thing is this – as she senses life, I can sense death. I can feel it every time a creature takes its last breath. It is a terrible, pressing blackness, reminding me of mortality at every turn. She could not sense how ponies were suffering in the war, but I was aware of it just as you would be aware of a growing and intolerable chill.” Luna stepped to the window, looking up at the moon. “I can sense it drawing near. Another time of great and terrible death, more than I have sensed since Discord.”

“And she can’t feel it at all?” Bianca frowned.

“No. I have warned her about it, and she believes me, which is comforting. However, she thinks that forging a peace treaty will solve this problem, as if a piece of paper will allow tens of thousands to defy a looming death.” Luna turned back to Bianca. “I envy her so much, Bianca. Her life is bordered with joy and growth.”

“Maybe, but you’ve got things she doesn’t, too,” Bianca pointed out. “She can’t see into dreams. That’s like, an infinite number of worlds hidden from her.”

“Yes,” Luna sighed. “Worlds great and terrible, but ultimately unreal. What worth is there to a world where you can change it at a moment’s notice? There is no victory to be had when you have total power and control. I used to spend years simply dreaming, enjoying fantasies where the world was perfect.” Luna snorted. “It was foolish. The world isn’t perfect.”

“Are you saying you don’t think it could be better?” Bianca frowned. “It sounds like you don’t want to even be happy.”

“No, no,” Luna shook her head. “That’s not it at all. You see, my student, this is perhaps a valuable lesson in your training. Everypony has a dream they seek, and it is struggling to reach it that gives meaning to their lives. In a perfect world where everything is free for the taking, life would have no meaning, nor would death.”

Luna walked over to Bianca and ran a hoof through the thestral’s mane. “Come, now. Help me clean this mess, and perhaps apologize to my sister for treating her unfairly.”