It was midday in Equestria while our favorite human was busy leading an exodus of diamond dogs through the northern griffonian forest, commonly referenced as The Frosted Emerald Sea by the locals, to a new home that will hopefully be the last time this group of diamond dogs will ever have to leave their home again. The griffons were busy repairing their nearly ruined village and the minotaurs were at the moment trying to figure out where one of the crowned princes has gone off too, to bad neither of the two groups know just what is about to happen in the future.

Equestria on the otherhoof was busy going about their daily businesses of a brisk Spring midday, purchasing wares, talking about the latest happenings in their homeland and the current juicy gossip that seems to be spreading between friends and family alike all the while wearing scarfs and sweaters due to the chill of the steadily rising temperature as Spring has finally come to Equestria. In about a week or two the scarves and sweaters will be replaced with sun-hats, sunglasses and glasses of lemonade to combat the future heat of summer and late spring.

All was enjoying the first day of Spring, all but two ponies in particular.

Sitting in one of the Canterlot Royal Palace's many waiting rooms was none other than the rulers of Equestria and protectors of ponykind, Princesses Celestia Dawnbringer and Luna Duskbringer, alicorns of the day and night, and right now they were busy playing a game of chess.

For the alicorn of the sun her mind is far away, thinking on the events happening in Griffonia and how things have changed for the griffon kingdom as a whole. A few months ago, it looked like that it was on its last legs and that it would implode upon itself, and all of its fragmented kingdoms would go to war over the scraps before falling into anarchy themselves, but now?

Now the griffins are helping one another, rebuilding their homes and their lands that has been on the brink of total collapse, and most importantly, their sacred relic has been returned to them by the most unlikely of heroes. A single diamond dog whose heritage she cannot recall having ever seen nor remember ever existing, and it was this diamond dog that delved into the depths of the Abyssal Abyss, climbed down and came back up and returned the relic back to its proper owners and asked for nothing in return.

This was a quality that was never seen before in a diamond dog as they were seen as a greedy lot, mining for gemstones for an unknown purpose, enslaving one another and crippling their culture to the point where most clans can't even remember their purpose nor the reason why they hunt for gems in the first place.

Almost every encounter she has had with the diamond dogs is to lay siege and invade their warrens that appear in her lands to retrieve the ponies that get captured or ponynaped, and from every pony she has rescued they all said the same thing, that the diamond dogs were savages and forced them to labor away in their mines looking for gems, ignoring any ore they found and to work to the point of collapse and total exhaustion. This infuriates her to no end but the solar diarch calmed herself down with a sip of tea and resumed her chess match with her sister all the while thinking of about this one lone outlier of a diamond dog.

'Who was this diamond dog? Which clan did he come from? How did he resist my sister's magic as if it was nothing? And why did he help the griffons retrieve their ancestral artifact and continue to help them afterwards? What is he thinking? I thought he was just a simple mercenary who was hired by a retired griffon senator, what does this dog hope to gain?'

And as for the alicorn of the moon, her mind was abuzz with how so much has changed during her thousand-year absence as the kingdom she once helped rule. From the politics and policies that now dictate how things are run down to mannerisms, language, and the laws that have been passed in her absence. In the past she could do whatever she wanted within reason, and she had clearly thought that taking a task force to rescue a captured soldier in a foreign land was reasonable enough. What she did not know however, that in the past she could do that and nopony would bat an eye at their leader for wanting to rescue one of their own, but now in the modern world there was an extreme amount of bureaucracy, politics, favors and in some cases, underhoofed acts of skullduggery.

Now here she is, dealing with the fallout of her actions. Equestria has to pay a rather hefty price tag for the 'unauthorized rescue operation' and for the 'unauthorized and entirely unnecessary invasion of griffon lands' which is to say putting a rather large dent in the royal coffers but also has placed a target on her back from the nobility. Several noble houses have now made it their mission to constantly block any changes she attempts to make be it laws, reforms, new regulations that she thinks that will be helpful for her ponies, or anything in general it gets clogged in litigation and red tape to the point where her sister has to step in to get things passed.

On many occasions this has angered the lunar princess, angered her in such ways that it bought about dark thoughts that nearly had her relapse into her old self, something that she truly wishes to never repeat ever again.

Also, Luna was thinking what will be served for dinner tonight, she was hoping it was the prench onion soup as she was now taking a liking to it.

"So, Luna, you gonna make a move or is this your way of telling me that you concede?" Celestia says as she looks at her sister, smugly looking at her all the while taking a sip from her teacup.

"Nay, sister, We will make our move against you, we were just thinking on how to proceed without giving thee an edge to hold over us to use at thy leisure." Luna says as she studies the chessboard again, trying to find a way to turn this losing game around but so far cannot find a means to do so for the time being.

"Luna, you're slipping again." and with a casual push of a hoof Celestia moves a pawn and lays claim to Luna's rook that she foolishly placed into its path.

"...sorry." the lunar sister said as she scowls at the bored and moves a pawn of her own on the board, hoping that her sister won't claim this one as well.

"It is okay, you are still getting used to the new ponish language, it will take you some time before you get used to it. And besides you only really slip into old ponish when it is just me you are talking to instead of to everypony that comes to see us." and like magic the solar alicorn moves her bishop and takes the dark pawn to her side of the board, claiming yet another piece from Luna.

"But still sister, we... I only wish to be accepted by everypony and yet it would seem that no matter I try it never seems to be enough." Luna says as she slothfully levitates a knight and knocks over the alabaster bishop, claiming the piece and places it at her side.

"That is because you are moving too fast, Luna, your policies are still the same from a thousand years ago when we could do things that none of the ponies could object to, but now we are a system of checks and balances. You have to take things slowly, make connections with the nobility and get them to see things your way, and if necessary, make compromises with what you want to get done and with what can be done." Celestia counters her sister by sliding her queen diagonally from its position and captures the knight, adding one more to her steadily growing collection of obsidian pieces.

"Is that how you did things while I was...away?" Luna says quietly, not taking her turn as her head lowers ever so slightly, mind lost in thought.

"Sadly, yes, after you were banished to the moon the nobility made their move and created a series of laws to bind me down to prevent me from having absolute power over everypony even though I only want what was best for our little ponies. Alas it wasn't meant to be, they passed their laws and edicts and as a result most of our power has been stripped from us, although I have managed to get most of those laws repealed there are a few that cannot be undone because the ponies who had those particular laws signed are no longer with us and their line has come to an end." Celestia said as Luna moved a pawn over, away from her sister's pieces that can reach it as her sister takes her turn and moves her rook to claim a different pawn on the other side of the board.

"Could you not just get it vetoed and put an end to it?" Luna says in a questioning manner as she moves her queen to the side, keeping it away from Celestia's as her sister smirked and simply moved her bishop to claim another pawn.

"I cannot, when those particular laws were originally signed, they were signed in blood and bound by magic. The only way for those documents to be undone is if the heirs of those households all agree to unbind themselves from it, but sadly those same heirs are no longer with us." Lunar Queen to solar bishop.

"You mean that-" Solar Queen to Lunar Queen, the end draws near on the board as Luna begins to make mistake after mistake.

"Yes, they have moved on to Elysium, Luna, and unless you wish to practice forbidden magic to raise them from their graves to repel those laws than we are forever bound to them until such a time that Equestria no longer has need of us." Lunar Rook to the solar knight, another piece falls and another piece claimed as the solar queen is pushed across the board and knocks over the rook.

"I see...well then, I guess there is nothing that we can do about it." Solar Queen to the bottom row, forming the final nail in the coffin to the lunar forces.

"Indeed, also, it looks like I win again." Celestia says as she smugly slides her rook into position, earning herself a checkmate as Luna stares at the board for a few seconds before her horn glows a pale blue for a moment and in an instant the chess board is reduced to ashes as she crosses her hooves.

"I hate this game." Luna says as her horn glows for a moment and the pile of ashes disappears in a flash of light, leaving the table clean and missing the scorch marks from the instantaneous magical disintegration.

The solar alicorn lets out a sigh and shakes her head at her sister's actions before her own horn flares to life and reconstitutes the boardgame and its pieces.

"You were getting the hang of it, maybe with some more practice you will be able to beat me someday." Celestia says with a smile as her sister frowns at her before blowing a raspberry, one that gets interrupted when the doors are pulled open and an armored pony trots into the chamber.

"Princess Celestia. Princess Luna. A message has arrived for you from the griffon lands." the armored stallion said as he trots closer to the two celestial alicorns before giving the two a salute.

Normally the ponies can be told apart due to their wildly different color schemes and their cutie-marks giving away their names due to their marks being what their names are, but due to working for the diarchy and to protect their identities from those that are corrupt or from foreign power trying to get them to spy for them, the armor they are wearing has been enchanted to make them all look alike. The same goes for the maids, the chefs, groundskeepers, really anypony that works for the diarchy are given enchanted workwear so that they appear the same colors, but what nopony knows is that the clothes and armor they are given are given a secondary enchantment to where only the owner can wear the armor and have their colors and voice changed to be clones of one another. Those that try to wear said attachments find out the hard way that not only doesn't their fur and mane not change color, but they also get zapped with enough volts to be rendered unconscious. Funny enough, when the proper pony is wearing the proper gear, they themselves are still the same as the enchantments made to them are only an illusion, they still see the other workers as they are as it only affects those that are not a part of the royal workforce or guards.

And as for Celestia and Luna, they have learned to see through the illusion so that they can quickly identify those that are approaching them and give them their proper names instead of trying to guess who approaches them like so many noble guests and foreign ambassadors.

"Ah, thank you for the message Private Cold Front, you are dismissed." the solar alicorn said as her horn glowed as a pale golden aura enveloped it and the envelop levitated its way towards her before being dropped on the table.

The letter itself was basic in shape, rectangular and folded as neatly as one can do with hooves, but what set it apart from the usual equestrian letters is that this one is a faded beige in color and that it smelled musty and partially of soot with the smallest tinges of iron.

"Well sister? From whose hoof penned this letter to you?" Luna said as she grabbed one of the many bananas that Celestia has left on the snack table, peeling it with ease before chomping it in half.

"It is one of my agents in Griffonia...and from this letter's appearance, something has happened..." Celestia said as she opened the letter, carefully peeling off the wax seal on it but stopped when she noticed that the seal was somewhat lopsided and partially cracked.

Humming to herself at this she opened the letter and began to read it but as she got closer to the end she frowned, and that frown only grew deeper all the way till the end until that was when she noticed that the scent of iron was coming from the letter she was levitating and that the bottom portion was stained a faded brown splotch.

"Sister, what does the report say?" Luna says with impatience in her voice, clearly frowning and isn't happy that her sister is taking too long to read the message.

"It's not from my agent...it's from his wife." Celestia finally says as she reads the report a second time, this time trying to gleam anything that may be hidden within the ink but to no avail did she find anything.

"The wife? Why did she send the letter?" Luna says, confused as to why the wife of a spy would be the one to send the letter instead of the spy themselves.

"Because...because her husband is dead..." And the truth is dropped like a mallet on an egg.

"WHAT? How?"

"She says that the village they were stationed in was attacked by a veritable horde of diamond dogs that came to Talon's End because of a group of minotaurs came to their village seeking shelter." The solar monarch says as she passes the letter to her sister who quickly took it into her own hooves and started to read it.

"Why did diamond dogs attack the village?" All she got from her sister was a shrug, not even the ruler of the sun knows everything that transpires beneath its rays.

"I don't know, Luna, the letter doesn't go into detail as to why they attacked or why the minotaurs were there, only that the dog knight of Griffonia was there to oversee a construction project that the king had ordered and roughly three months later it was done, and they were throwing a feast for it being a resounding success." At the mention of 'dog knight' Luna's ears perked up immediately as she knows who that person is.

The one being who actively resister her magic and fought her guards to a standstill with blunted weapons.

A person that she wants to have an exchange of words and actions with.

"I see...anything else?"

"Yes, Mrs. Honey Bale and her foal are returning to Equestria, she has already sent her resignation letter..." At the mention of return, both mares knew exactly why that is happening. To retire and try to forget the horror and pain they had witnessed in Griffonia, to grieve the loss of a husband, the loss of a father.

The loss of an irreplaceable spy that knew more about Griffonia than anypony in Equestria.

"Shall we send another to replace her?" Luna says this she puts the letter down along with the bananas skin, no longer wishing to keep eating as her appetite has faded away.

"No, I don't think sending another group of ponies to Griffonia will do us any good." Celestia says as she takes out an empty parchment and an inkwell, a letter of condolences had to be written.

"And why is that?"

"Because they stick out like a sorehoof and we cannot hire any griffons because they are becoming wary of us. We may have to engage in more...underhoofed tactics to get an inside view of what is happening behind that iron curtain of theirs."

And the two were silent for a few moments, neither wanting to be the one to speak up until Luna sighed and stood up from her seat.

"...I shall make the arrangements." the lunar alicorn said as she left the room, leaving her sister to write the letter for the grieving widow.

Now alone in the waiting room, the solar monarch lifts her head and looks out the window, her eyes hardening as they gaze to the east towards the horizon, a new resolve in her eyes as small wisps of smoke begin to emit from her body.

'Whoever is responsible for taking the life of my precious ponies...I will have their heads for this!'

Next Chapter: Rise of a new Alpha Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 60 Minutes