She Did What!?

Edited by and special thanks to The Cake Devil

Celestia let out a content sigh as she levitated the final scroll to her right, signed, sealed and ready for her proclamation next to the other untold number of scrolls swarming the great mahogany coloured desk she sat at. Lit only by the small number of candles that dotted around the enormous desk and a roaring fire inside the wall behind her.

It had been a pleasant day, long, but ultimately fulfilling. Like gardening in the baking heat of the sun, it had been hard work to be certain. But as she laid down her last ‘batch of flowers’ she found herself observing her shrubbery of documents with a proud smile. She had finally succeeded in catching up to her to-do list, which, as of nine am that very morning, was about the length of her whole body, and that was simply the shortened down version. Still though, she had caught up and was proud of herself because of it, and better yet, now that she was finished she was free to enjoy her weekend as she saw fit. Well, she was about as free as a co-Monarch who was in control of a country as vast and disaster prone as Equestria could consider themselves free.

And that meant just one thing. Enjoying one of pony kinds second oldest past times.

Getting blackout drunk.

Inveterately she looked over both shoulders, scanning all of her personal bed chambers from the enormous white bed to the golden engraved doors which lead to the main chambers of her own tower. She felt silly doing so, she knew she was the only one around, not that there was anything wrong with what she was doing, well, she wouldn’t think so anyway. Though at this hour of the night, anyone caught in her personal bed chambers that she didn’t already know about would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.

Igniting her horn with magic, a flash of golden light lit a clear space on her table and brought with it a dusty, old bottle the colour of seaweed, onto the empty patch along with a modestly sized wine glass.

Celestia simply stared at the bottle for a moment, tilting her head in confusion as she recognised that something wasn’t quite right with the bottle. She quickly eyed the yellowy brown label that was peeling ever so slightly on one side, hoping that would give her some explanation.

She ignited her horn again, casting the same spell as before on the bottle, but the bottle stayed exactly where it had first materialised.

It was only after trying this three more times that she came to the shocking realisation. The bottle she had taken from the latest batch of her wine collection was over twenty years old.

She hadn’t enjoyed one of her precious few past times in twenty years!

Then she came to another realisation. If that was the case then this simply would not do, not at all!

Another spell was cast, this time directed at the wine glass, spiriting it away, back where it came, and in its place stood what could only be described as a bastardised version of a pint glass and wine goblet. The monstrosity was forged of metal and embroidered with gordy, crudely chiseled emeralds, which only served to make it more unusual and out of place inside her pristine bed chambers. The grey goblet, now slightly brownish with age, stood on a tiny stock which looked like it threatened to collapse under its own weight at any moment.

“There, that’s much better.” Celestia whispered contently, her confused furrowed expression from before morphing quickly to what one might describe as a cute, proud smirk. She loved the ugly behemoth of a cup and almost cursed herself for not swapping the other glass sooner. It had been far far too long.

Smiling, Celestia merrily popped the cork with her two hooves. After all, she had some class. Magic and wine were two things that were never to go together, lest one turn ‘vintage to vinegar’ as the old folk lore suggested. Like setting up fine silverware, it was a faux pas, as her father had told her many times, to use magic for such tasks. A lesson she had passed down to her little pupil turned princess.

Then again, if any of them were in the room, seeing her pour what would amount to nearly two sixths of the bottle, into the monstrous cup, she was pretty sure both of them would suffer from multiple heart failures.

And morbid as it was, something about that idea made the smirk she wore that much broader on her face. It was a proud thing, ugly but proud in its unsightly appearance and wholly unconventional function. Much like the friend she had won it form was. A half mad, half genius Minotaur who, one day, goaded her through playful insults into a game of legion. A game in which one was to drink a shot of black tar wine every minute for a hundred minutes. By the end of the dare Celestia had staggered her way through the bet with sixty minutes plus on the one hundred mark, where as her friend had passed out in the fetal position, after reaching one hundred and twenty. Though, at the end of it all nobody truly won, not after the sun rose once more and the crushing joint hangovers ruled supreme over the both of them.

But regardless, it did win her the cup, the admiration of the Minotaur tribe she had been traveling with and a new title, which in Equestrian, loosely translated, as ‘The Wine Beast’ or something to that effect.

Celestia raised the cup to the sky. “A toast to you old friend. May your enemies flee you and your one hundred Mares, eh sorry, Cows please you, in whatever afterlife that was supposed to be.” Celestia giggled like a schoolgirl, as she drank deep from the cup, enjoying both freedom for the first time in a while and the haze of juniper and arise that tickled her nostrils playfully as she drank, clearing half of the goblet in two gulps.

However, as a Princess of a disaster hungry country, freedom from responsibility lasted for all of six minutes and twenty four seconds, before she heard responsibility kick in the entrance doors of her tower, followed by a bellowing, bemoaning voice that sounded like responsibility was not fucking around this time.

“I swear if this was her idea of a prank, I’m going to--”

“Sir the princess is not to be disturbed!”

“Shut it Copper Hoof, I’m in no mood for your goody two horse shoes bullshit at the moment.”

“Wow, jeez man, no need to rude about it, I’m only doing my job.”

“Oh will you just *Sigh* Just, Just tell me where she is...please.”

“You know you shouldn't refer to the princess as ‘she’ Silver, it’s rude!”

“Oh, oh I’m thinking of referring to her as something much worse right now, and I swear if she actually did do this as a prank, she going to need that spinning crystal heart, those elements of harmony and the blasted Discord to save her from what I’m going to do to her!”

Putting down the monstrous cup and now more than a little amused at the idol threats that the stallion was making against her from the other room, Celestia decided to end the mystery of her location.

“I’m in my bed chambers Silver Tongue, reliving my halcyon days. But if you’ll be so kind as to give me, say? Ten minutes, to collect all of those things I’ll need to escape your wrath, I would be most grateful.”

The request was met only with silence, then a stomping of hooves on the marble floor that suggested it they were going to need replacing. Both golden doors of her bed chamber flew open at the same time, slamming and cracking the wall behind them, just as she imagined the first set of doors did. But then again, she wasn’t too surprised. Earth ponies were naturally very strong creatures when pushed, even ones like Silver Tongue, who probably never saw a gym in his life, and never would.

The above average sized stallion, that was currently wreaking havoc on every door frame in Celestia's castle, was what one would call a stallion who was comfortable with himself. He wasn’t exactly fat, but one could easily surmise that he liked his food, based on the fullness of his cheek and the bulging of his stomach. But, besides this, he was prim and proper, healthy (to a degree) and most of all groomed. Never in her life did Celestia see a stallion take such good care of his outer appearance. Never so much as a hair was ever out of place, mostly because all of his pitch black hair was greased back to his skull, to such a degree, that it almost looked like a bad action figure, that’s body and hair were one and the same clump of plastic. His favoured Black tailored suit was always sporting a flat metal pocket brush, in which he would use to brush any unruly grey fur, that wasn't facing in the same direction as the others, and sometimes even if it was, it was still brushed anyway.

That was a golden rule in Canterlot. Celestia raised the Sun, Luna raised the moon and Silver Tongue looked fabulous.

Yes, this was a stallion that’s life revolved around him looking as impeccable as possible at every waking moment and perhaps, even as he slept.

So when Celestia saw Silver Tongue at the egress of her chambers, matted fur covered in what looked like reddish slime, pieces of lettuce, yellowish egg yolk and yes, even a bit of frosting from some sort of cake practically congealing into one huge clump, in such vast quantity and viscousness, that it would actually be easier for Celestia to point out all the parts that weren't grime. Coupled with his plastic-like greased mane forward and over his face, in knotted and tangled strands, and his expensive impeccable suit looking like birds had actually pecked at it, she was for once in her very long time shocked, to the point that all her vast vocabulary fled her tongue. She simply couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. That and also his tail was actually smouldering slightly at the tip didn’t help much either.

Silver Tongue looked terrible. The golden rule was broken.

Practically paralyzed with shock, Celestia could only watch as the hefty stallion locked eyes with his target, paused for a fraction of a second, then moved over towards the table, pulled a chair for himself, came right up to her muzzle and opened his mouth to scream some of the worst profanities he could possibly think of, only for his eyes to shift focus to the cup she was holding.

Spotting the wine in the cup, Silver Tongue instead snatched the monstrous wine goblet from her hoof, stared at it in puzzlement for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and drinking the whole cup until not a single drop was left.

Something that also shocked Celestia. Silver Tongue never drank, ever. Something was very very wrong.

After a moment of intensely awkward silence, as Silver tongue stared directly ahead at the wall the table was placed against, seething with rage, Celestia felt like she needed to break the silence. That and because she had to know what exactly that awful smell was currently wafting off the stallion.

“...So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Royal tour across Eques did not go so well.”

Silver Tongues’ only response was a long, low, guttural growl, as he reached over to the wine bottle and dumped the remainder of the potent red liquid into the cup and continued drinking.

“...I see.” Was her reply.

To reiterate, she would have had more to follow, but she was still not over the stallion’s appearance and general behaviour. Of course he was hers and Lunas Public relations advisor, which meant that he got to enjoy a more relaxed relationship with the princesses, that only a select few ponies, or otherwise, got to enjoy specifically; like the Elements of Harmony.

Since it was part of his job to make them look as good as possible in the public eye and insure that any stories or quotes from them were not taken out of context, or spun in a muckraking light. It meant that a certain level of trust and informality was needed from both sides. Seeing as how he was privy to a lot more information on the two sister’s private lives than almost any pony or other on the planet. Something Celestia and Luna found to be a bit refreshing, given the other relationships they had with their staff, which at least in Luna’s case, was for the most part non-existent, outside a professional one.

But what Celestia was experiencing from Silver Tongue right now was not rampant informality taken too far, this was straight up contempt Celestia was feeling from the stallion at this very moment in time, and it was directed at her.

Finally, after a minute of what she assumed was Silver Tongue meditating on his anger, or trying his best to keep professional, as what was perhaps his worst nightmare congealed into his fur and spurred on now by a belly full of very fine, very strong red wine, he began to speak up.

“I suppose you thought that was funny, didn’t you!?” Silver Tongue snarled out, every word practically dripping with venom as he continued to stare at the wall, not meeting her gaze.

Celestia paused before answering, taken aback slightly by the ferocity of the accusation. “Well… I suppose that I would be a rotten liar if I were to admit that this whole situation wasn’t at least a tiny part amusing to me, if only how risible it all is.”

Taking no notice at the jab at his expense, Silver Tongue continued as if her response was not important. “And I suppose, because there is nothing I’ve done to deserve this level of cruelty and embarrassment in recent years, that this is your childish way of getting back at me for the diet I ‘advised’ you to take last summer.”

Well, to be fair, she had been mad at that a tad, if only that by ‘advice’ he meant ‘sign this document stating that it is illegal for anypony to supply Princess Celestia from eating baked goods or other sugary substances of such ilk, from now, until the day of winter wrap up.’ Which was simply horrific, given that she was supposed to be the judge for the annual neighbour park bake off that year, which perhaps she might have rigged a tiny bit, because she was the judge every year. Donning a magical disguise and using a fake alias to sate her surgery avarice unbenounced to her little ponies. But, in her defence, she never expected Silver Tongue would find out about that. But she would never have ever gone that far to somepony she cared, or really any pony else for that matter.

And even still, she had thought she had gotten him back for that by sticking literally hundreds of images of hardcore pornography strategically around his office during inspections week.

“Now Silver, it would be beyond sadistic of me to go out of my way to actively punish you for doing the job I’m paying you to do. Especially whatever it was that left you in this... state, with your fur all covered in… what is that exactly?”

“A pungent mixture of tomatoes, apples, oranges, and egg. Perhaps there is some fish and frosting on the back of my hind leg and rump, but I’m too afraid to check, because, if I do, I know I’m probably going to faint.” Silver stated in a robotic tone, devoid of any emotion, as if his mind had left his body, refusing to go back until it had sorted its life out.

It was a strange feeling Celestia was having right now, for the record, first and foremost she was worried for her little advisor, and long-time close friend and what had done this to him. But on the other hand she was also trying not to fall down laughing and simultaneously trying not to reach from the smell. Speaking of.

“Let’s do something about that.” She spoke in a motherly tone, fixing a spell on the stallion.

“What did you just cast on me?”

“A small spell to nullify the smell. Also the spell slowly cleans the body, it take a bit of time however, considering a normal cleaning spell would be useless with this much mess, so while you wait why don’t you give me the full rundown, of your tour with my sister...Speaking of, how is she, she not in the same state you’re in is she?” Celestia asked with a bit more of a worry in her voice.

“I can still smell it.” Silver asked as he leaned down to sniff his abdomen and crinkling his nose in disgust. His tone shifting somewhat as the wine quickly went about doing its job. At the very least his anger was melting away slowly. Which was a plus in Celestia's eyes.

“Yes sorry it’s more for me, that part of the spell only works one way, don’t worry the cleaning spell will get rid of that soon enough, now Luna how is she, she’s safe I presume?”

And suddenly, with that one name, Mr. anger was back in spades and soon to be tag teaming in with his best buddy Sir drunken rage. “Oh, she’s the picture of health, of course couldn’t be better, in fact she’s asleep in her tower as we speak, because why wouldn't you sleep after something like today!?”

“Oh that’s good i suppose...But then… how come you’r--”

“Covered in my worst nightmare?” Silver asked astringently. “Well, when you don’t have magic to teleport yourself away from a political scandal, that you just caused, in front of every griffon in Griffonstone, you have to use unconventional methods. Like the garbage shoot. And then through the farmers market, whilst an angry mob chases you.... And throws the farmers market food at you, as you realise that you shouldn’t have over indulged in the banquet table before hoof, and you should have remembered where the train station was a little better, and then you start having some sort of existential crisis about where your life has gone and how even now in your late thirties you're running for your life from an angry--

Celestia knew where this was going and didn’t like it one bit, as she reached over with one of her wings and softly stroked the stallion's back, whilst doing her best to stroke the parts least slimy. “Okay, okay, Silver Tongue slow down, easy now, take a deep breath, everything’s fine now, you remembered your inhaler?”

Whatever it was that Silver Tongue was rampaging towards in his verbal diatribe stopped as he looked up at Celestia and blinked. “But I-I don’t have asthma… I’m ninety percent sure I don’t.”

Celestia giggled slightly “I know Silver, but I wanted your mind away from where you were going, so I thought saying something absurd like that would take your mind off things.”

Silver Tongue looked down in thought then hiccupped as the alcohol hit him. “Now that you mention it...Maybe I should check, I don’t go to the doctors enough, and my left sides always itchier than the right… that bad right? And also when I wake up in the mornings sometimes I have this really weird--”

Celestia grabbed him more firmly in her wing hug “Silver, you’re fine, I’m sure you’re fine, well, if anything you could stand to lose a little bit of weight, but besides that you’re fine.”

“Hey that’s not...Ah you’re right... Nice trick by the way, where did you learn it.” He muttered lamely, shrugging his shoulders and breathing in and out like the therapist taught him to do when he got worked up and stressed. Though the wine was really doing wonders for his mood, even if it was making him go on some weird tangents. Then again it wasn’t like he was used to having this much in his system.

Celestia nodded sagely. “When you teach a pupil like my little Twilight you find the unconventional to be the best option.”

Silver Tongue despite himself chuckled at that, remembering what the little filly was like, and to an extent still was. Then his nose got a whiff of his body and he was back to straight up contempt again as he threw off Celestia’s wing from his back.

“So tell me Celestia, because I’m having a very hard time working this out in my mind, as to why you would advise me to place Giffonstone on the list of the royal tour that I and Luna was to take, right in the middle of their most important holiday. Which, need I remind you, is about as important to them as the Summer solstice is to Equestria, given that your sister is, shall we put it nicely, the worst pony at dealing with griffons I’ve ever seen before. And before I hear the excuses, there is no way that you did this by accident. No? Not answering...Well fine, you might as well enjoy your little prank now, because by next week a political hellfire is going to rain down on all of us like confetti from a clown's asshole!”

Celestia stayed perfectly still again, upon hearing those words, save for a lightning bolt shiver that went from the back of her neck to her tail. What she thought to be nothing more than a little misfortune from her advisor and her sister was apparently something much uglier.

Silver Tongue was no doubt the best stallion at his job, somepony who could turn a common thief into a modern day saint overnight, with just a few words and a few little news articles if he was so inclined. So when he said somepony messed up, they messed up big time.

Celestia felt her hooves go up to her face, without even realising it. “Oh no, what did she say this- uh, I mean, what happened?”

Silver Tongue opened his mouth to speak, he had all of the neurons in his mind firing up to counter any argument against some sort of counter accusation he thought Celestia would throw at him. So when he got the reaction he actually wanted he was not quite sure what to do with it.

“Y-you, wait you really didn’t do this, this wasn’t just some sort of prank the both of you planned together, was it?”

Celestia rubbed her eyes, feeling them to be very heavy at that moment. “Silver Tongue, I can honestly say that whatever transpired at griffonstone was not planned.”

“Oh...oh dear, somehow that’s actually worse.”

“If it’s as bad as you say Silver, how is it worse?” Celestia asked.

“Well, it’s better to say it was a very poorly thought out prank at your advisors expense than it is to admit that the co-monarch of this country and the mare who raises the very moon is a racist.”

Celestia almost shot out of the chair at that, bringing her hooves up to her chest “What did you say!?”

“Celestia, I’ve meet some bad ponies in my life, done some business and PR work for some real narcissistic ass’s and some actual narcissistic ass’s, like real donkeys. And I’ve worked with ponies who are, let’s just say, bias against other species. Heck I mean do you remember I had to do some PR work for the elements of harmony after that whole affair with the Zebra got out. Having to convince the masses of Canterlot that they actually didn’t know what a Zebra was and making it seem like a complete misunderstanding, was one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever had to do in my life. I mean really, none of them except Twilight knew. Didn’t they read a foal’s book!? That’s like the first couple of things you’re taught about Eques besides the alphabet and colours.”

Celestia rolled her eyes as she realised the drunk stallion to her right was rolling off onto another tangent again. “Yes yes Silver Tongue, and thank you, again, for that, but could you please get back to the point where you were talking about my little sister.” Celestia muttered feeling a little bit of perspiration on her brow and damning herself for making the fire on the other side of her room so big.

“Right, sorry Celestia, where was I?”

“Something about my baby sister being--

“Ah yes! One of the worst frothing at the mouth griffon haters I’ve seen in my life. I mean, if I was compiling a list of the top five in my head, she’s at least third, on the list only below the leader of the anti-griffons movement, that turned out to be a huge misunderstanding when the logo was misspelled and was meant to read the anti-grifter movement. And it was later revealed that the pony who was commissioned to design the banner ironically, was one of the biggest con artists in living memory.

“And my uncle, who suffers from dementia, and thinks that griffons come in the night and steal his pudding cup. But then, sometimes he blames it on dwarfs, or the nursing staff so maybe he isn’t coherent enough to be called a racist.

”But I digress, what I’m getting at Princess is that your sister does not like griffons, at all!”

Oh the room was getting so very hot at this point for Celestia, she was practically dripping with sweat at the moment, and she would have given anything to fan herself, or dunk her head in a bucket of ice water. But she needed to stay strong, she could work this out. “S-Silver Tongue, I simply cannot believe what you’re saying, haha, to, to imply that my sisters, my loving free spirited sister, is anything but a progressive forward thinking mare, who respects all cultures and --”

Silver Tongue lifted his hoof up, which stifled Celestia immediately. Reaching into his ruined coat pocket, he produced a small, bound, notebook that somehow had miraculously stayed in perfect condition. “Would you like me to go through the list of reasons why me and every griffon in Griffonstone, can attest to the contrary, because I took notes of today's events.”

“E-Every Griffon!?” Screw it, Celestia would take a blizzard to cool her down now, one of those terrifying eternal ones that plagued the crystal empire, yes, that suddenly didn’t seem so terrifying to her anymore, and also it had the added benefit of burying her in a literal meter of snow so she wouldn’t have to deal with this situation anymore. “Ahem, of course Silver Tongue, I will gladly listen to them and pick apart these awful allegations as mere hearsay or misunderstanding.”

“Okay so let’s go through my personal experience of Griffonstone, my one and probably only day I’ll ever have in the capital. Ahhh let’s see, yes I remember nine o’clock am we arrived at the station. Nine o’ five the conductor, a griffon, I should add, comes out to personally welcome Luna himself. In his native tongue. Luna responds with ‘Yes yes meow meow hiss hiss, moew to you to, then walks off the platform.”

Celestia winced at the story but kept her fake reassuring smile. “W-Well she’s never been good with Griffonian before, perhaps she misread something, whist trying to learn the language, it could all be some terrible misunderstanding?”

“With cat noises Princess? Tell me what part of Griffonian sounds like hiss hiss to you?”

Silver Tongue swore he could hear the Princess actually gulp as he continued. “Well uh perhaps when griffons talk about cats?”

Silver Tongue could only started at her with the best deadpan expression he could muster. In his mind he was starting to get a very sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t telling him everything about Luna.

“Celestia, is there something you maybe want to add to this?”

“I-I don’t follow you Silver?”

“Something about you knowing about Luna’s distaste of Griffon?”

“Silver, really now, i-if I knew about this sort of thing d-do you honestly think I would have sent her there.”

Silver Tongue bit his lip in thought mulling it over. Other than thinking it to be the worst prank in the history of his kind, he couldn’t answer that, yet. “...No, no perhaps not, but I know you’re hiding something and I don’t think you’re just going to tell me, so I’m just going to have to continue with this until you realise the gravity of the situation.”

Celestia almost screamed out a ‘please heavens no!’ but caught herself just before it jumped her tongue, instead she just meekly waved her hoof signalling for him to continue. Silver simply shook his head.

“Ten am, oh you’ll love this one princess, we arrived at the palace, we were greeted by the Emperor himself Emperor Richard Fafhrd Hydric the fifth of his name and his Wife Empress Ingrid Gunnhild Hydric the first of her name. Celestia do you know what Richard is short for?”

“Um *Ahem* Rich?” Celestia asked coughing as her throat and mouth went dry.

“No, no it’s Dick. I’m only telling you this because your sister found it to be the funniest thing in the world, she kept pointing it out to him, it was hello king Dick, You must be a hard ruler Dick, It must be hard growing up with all those Dicks in the family?”

“I see, yes that is--”

“Did you run into complications with all the Dicks around growing up?”

“I suppose I can see how that would be a prob--”

“What's it like being married to the strongest Dick in this land?”

“Yes okay Silver, I think I got the gist of it!”

Silver reached back massaging his brow tiredly as he read the notebook, having at least fifteen more of those that he could recall yet knowing there were far far more than that. “Celestia, she just wouldn’t stop, even after his wife politely asked him to refer to the Emperor as Richard or Rich if she must, it only seemed to spur her on.”

Celestia’s left eye was twitching at this point, something that only happened when a correct mixture of embarrassment and unbridled rage correctly boiled inside her chest.

Silver cleared his throat as he flicked a few pages further into the notebook. “*Ahem* One agonisingly long hour later, we began the tour around the upper echelons of Griffonstones market district. Luna, as I recall, was amazed over the lack of birdbaths in Griffonsone. And when I, I suppose now in hindsight, stupidly asked her why that was so strange, she came to conclusion, that now that she probably thought about it it wasn't so strange, and that’s probably why they all smelled so bad.”

“Well um maybe she was still referring to the birds? I’m sure some of them can--

“Oh, sorry to but-in, but I forgot to actually write this in, just as a little side note to this, she also had me stand at her back the entire time we were in the market, because she wanted me watching her saddlebags, in case one of them got it in their heads to try something, because, and I’m quoting her here ‘that’s just what they do, they see something shiny and they can’t help themselves’” Silver Tongue stated, using his hooves as quotation marks.

“S-She...Wait, she didn’t actually have you do that, did she?” Celestia stated practically stunned by the blatantness of her sister.

“I could go on with all of the little details, but why not skip to all the bigger ones shall we?” Silver Tongue stated in a sarcastically lecturing tone, as he flicked a few pages further into his planner.

Celestia resisted, with all her might, the urge to grab the duct-tape in one of her desk draws, wrap her wings to her body and jump out of her tower.

“Noon, Lunch time, oh you’ll love this too. Apparently now, not only am I the royal public advisor, but I’m also the royal taster, a task that I didn’t think existed anymore, except for when Luna visits her ‘favourite’ species.”

“W-well uhh that, that doesn’t sound so bad? You like food don’t you?”

Silver Tongue rolled his eyes so hard they threatened to go back into his skull. “Yes, but I don’t like being thought of as a poison tester. Not that I thought any of the food was tampered with, but she certainly thought that was the case.”

Celestia slapped her head with her hoof. “Please tell me she was at least subtly about it?”

Silver Tongue just laughed at her. “As subtle as me in a sexy lingerie trying to seduce Shining Armor as Princess Cadenza. The only subtlety in the room was from the royal family who thank the great fields above, pretended not to notice, at least in that regard, I managed to somehow convince them that Luna’s antiquated habits were, something she was still trying to break, rather it being her blatant griffon phobic paranoia. Though she still blasted a hole in the table, because she thought she saw something devious in the soup.”

“So, besides that moment, they simply thought that she did that at every meal?” Celestia stated with a hopeful smile.

Silver Tongue nodded.“Yes, yes they did and maybe still do, well, that is until next week when the news comes out and they’ll most likely find out that that’s completely false and it was just another example of your sisters racism.”

Celestia let out a wailing frown, but not towards Silver Tongue. “Could you stop referring to her like that.”

“What, a racist? I think we clearly established at this point that she is, isn’t she?”

“Ye--No no, she’s not ah, she’s just, just, umm morally bias, to a degree.”

“...Isn’t that the same thing, only said differently?”

“...It sounds less damning.” She sighed, lowering her head in defeat.

“Ahah! So you do admit Luna has a problem with Griffons!” Silver Tongue roared pointing an accusing hoof at his Princess.

Again, Celestia pressed both hooves to her forehead, as she leaned against the table with both forelegs. Like she was in some holy confessional booth in Minotopia. She let out one long droning sigh, collapsing her chest onto the table. “I thought this tour would help her out, I thought that maybe, just maybe if she went to their homelands and saw for herself that they weren't these greedy, bestial, predators plotting to rob us blind at every turn, but just another peaceful nation like Equestria, she’d knock this nonsense off, she's been so good up until now!”

“Don’t you think that that's a bit optimistic on your part Princess?” Silver stated a more sympathetic tone took over his voice and countenance, as he tried comforting his bewailing Princess.

“Yes, perhaps, but nothings worked out so far, I assumed that maybe after a thousand years away she would have a different perspective on griffons! I tried everything! I mean everything! From introducing griffon friends of mine, to counselling meetings, to suggesting recent griffon literature (everything!) It didn’t seem so crazy when it was about meeting other ponies, or Zebras or any other species. In fact, the only reason I tried this tour to begin with, was because I was inspired by our Idea about setting her up for Nightmare Night, that was a resounding success, I hadn’t seen my little sister so giddy, and happy in a very very long time!”

Silver leaned back on his seat, looking down as he tapped his hooves together in thought, passively noticing that the repugnant slime on his fur was mostly gone from his arms now. “Yes, I can see the thought process, and despite being first on a long list of ponies who have or are going to suffer for the repercussions of this, I will admit, it was a solid base for a plan. I just wish you would have come to me for this idea as well, we could have hashed out something together, perhaps approached something a little smaller than the Griffon Empire's capital city, baby steps as they say.” Silver Tongue added, nodding sagely, as his mind wandered through the princesses plan, accessing every plus and backfire of a workable angle, despite it now being tarnished by the day's events.

It took a moment for the princess of the sun to calm herself, unbeknownst even to herself she realised she had been keeping this pent up for some time. But now that it was out, she felt the all the pent up stress in her soul flow out of her, at least she had been able to confess this to her friend first, before the new hungry masses came clawing at her with allegations of today's events. “So…” She started in optimistic ignorance. “Now that this is in the open, can I concur that we are quite done with this, and we can begin with ideas concerning damage control?”

Silver Tongue shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry princess, but it's best you hear about this from me now, considering what she did, you’ll need to hear this because it’ll be unending once dawn breaks, and that's not including all the beak jokes she none too subtly peppered into her conversations with the king. Or her utter amazement that dessert wasn’t just a bowl of cream or milk.”

Celestia rolled her eyes, simultaneously shaking her head. “Another feline joke, I take it?”

“How did you guess?” Silver Tongue asked rhetorically.

“Well, it seems that this was reason enough for you two to have to make a quick getaway via, the garbage disposal was it?”

“No that was just me, she teleported remember.”

“Right yes, um so with all that being said, I suppose I should know how she incited an angry mob?”

“Well we still had to go to the festival's conclusion remember, the very very important festival for the Griffon’s country, the one with the four staffs that they take very very seriously and don’t take kindly at all to anyone interrupting, or insulting or jeering at or using as a scratching post and almost breaking it.

“What was those last parts!?”

“Well its tradition as you know for the four staffs of the great kings of the Griffon alliance to be placed in their allotted slots on the stone floor on the hill of reunion, thus symbolising there unification and the birth of the Griffon Empire atop Griffonstone. Well Luna being a guest of the country, despite the day's events, was given the prestigious honour of being the fourth staff holder… “

“Which she did respectful and without incident?” Celestia pleaded in vain.

Silver Tongue laughed again, without a hint of mirth in it at all. “No, why would she do that in front of two thousand griffons, their nobility, and their beloved royal family. No, instead, she used it to get at an itch, that apparently couldn't wait, on her back, and once the crowd started to protest… Well that's when things got weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yes, she seemed uncomfortable almost shaken, which I know sounds strange, given anypony would, but what with Luna was acting today, this was almost out of character for her, she looked, I don’t even know how to correctly articulate it, disturbed, no no, um oh blast, uh-

“Abashed?”

-Yes, but also no at the same time, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, it was only for a moment, then some fire came back into her and the next thing I knew she all but screamed at them to shut their filthy beaks, proclaimed the whole thing to be trivial and beneath her, then she called all of them brainless rodent chasers, unfit to govern themselves, and then as the young kids are saying these days, ‘peaced out’, via teleportation, but if that wasn’t the worst part of it all, she dropped the ceremonial staff onto the ground.”

“Please tell me it was fine, Silver, it was fine right!?” Celestia asked frantically, leaning dangerously far forward on her chair towards Silver.

Silver tongue went over the memory in his head thinking straining himself to remember. “I can’t say Celestia, I didn’t exactly get a chance to check.”

“...Because Luna left you.”

“Left me in front of about two thousand five hundred incredibly angry, incredibly mob like griffon, who assumed one of their greatest national treasures was broken by some outsider. Armed to the teeth with the moldiest rotten fruit and vegetables I’ve ever had the misfortune of being pelted with, it’s a miracle I escaped with my life. I’ll probably never be able to look another griffon in the eye, without them punching me right in the face.”

Celestia stayed very quiet pondering all that Silver Tongue had told her, it was one thing to take her insults this far, but the staff incident was too far, and something broke in the celestial princess’s mind upon hearing it. Silver Tongue shivered as her blank expression morphed into one of a surreal eerily calm smile, one that looked like one that she wore while taking court, if she had been replaced with a robotic murderous facsimile.

Then, neither too quick, nor to slow to betray her mood, she walked over to her bed, grabbed a medium sized white pillow, and then walked over towards her bed chamber door.

“Um ahh, Princess, where are you going with that pillow?”

“Excuse me a moment Silver, I’m just going over to my sister's room, where I plan to smother her to death with this pillow, then myself, before the embarrassment of this sets in and kills me. Please tell Twilight and Cadence to make a modest funeral for me, no big ceremony and make sure they serving ice cream cake, not that store bought rubbish the real stuff, I’ll know if they don’t.” Celestia stated, turning back with that same spine tingling smile that sent Silvers blood cold, as if she was excusing herself from dinner.

Now not to negate his anger at the nocturnal princess, because Silver Tongue was furious with her. But she was his friend and more importantly the ruler of the country, so the last thing he wanted to be was the instrument in a murder suicide of the royal sisters. He didn't want to escape two angry mobs in the space of one day. Also, he certainly would never get a job again if two of his (royal) clients died, and considering tomorrow's press, they were the only ponies on the planet that we're going to hire him for many many years.

“Princess! Wait, ahah, okay, let's not do something too rash now!”

Silver Tongue raced as fast as his body would allow him, through the doors of the princess's bed chamber, he managed to catch up to her. Racing up to confront her head on, he tried in vain to push her back, but all he seemed to be doing was pushing himself along with her. Despite his above average size and weight, it might as well have been the pillow itself that was trying to stop the Princess’s murder spree. It looked as if nothing was being heard from the now scarily calm sounding ruler of the sun.

“Oh and Silver,” Celestia stared, still with that haunting smile, “Be sure they don’t play any of that dub wub stuff at the wake, I can’t stand that noise. Classical music only please. Or perhaps some old school metal, but only, Black Saddle, or Slayhoof but only from their first five or six albums, if you please.”

Pushing him to one side with a foreleg, she continued her march, reaching the doors to her tower in quick strides.

Silver wracked his brain, wondering if now was the time to drop his experimental, diabolical last resort, break glass here ‘A’ bomb of a PR plan. One that he contemplated on his six hour train ride back home, one that he told himself was insane every half hour of the ride back, but his mind fought back with the notion that it was perhaps the only thing that would save the princesses image and more importantly, his job.

As it looked like this was his final chance he took the plunge, at least, he thought it would have the same effect as the asthma scare from earlier, it might snap her back into her senses. “Princess, Princess okay enough now Princess wait, what if I told you I had another less ‘murdery’ Idea that might help Luna and this whole situation!”

That caused the princess to pause a moment, pillow still set to moon murder, she turned her head only slightly towards him, but flicked an ear directly at the Stallion. Which he took as a good sign.

“N-now here me out, because it will sound crazy- Celestia's hoof began to turn the doorknob- wait, wait! It might sound crazy, but it maybe the only thing to save your sisters image and more importantly, the image of the royal family as a whole!”

Thankfully, again, the princess did not make a move for the door, but she still kept her hoof on the handle.

“Now I’m not sure how you’ll take it, considering I apparently don’t know if you have any um how did you put it, Moral biases?”

Celestias head turned slightly more towards him and she growled morosely in protest.

“Okay, okay, I just had to be clear here. Up until this morning it never even crossed my mind to ask Luna if she disliked certain species, but here we stand. Now I’m asking this because what I’m proposing might mean perhaps a new, ahhh addition to ahhh oh how do I put this subtlety?” Silver bit his lip as he moved slightly closer to the princess, trying his hardest in his drink addled mind to pitch this in the correct way.

“Princess, how do you feel about some fresh young blood around Canterlot castle?”

Celestia turned right around to meet the stallions gaze, lowering the plus nine moon slayer throw cushion, she tilted her head in confusion, raising one eyebrow high. “...I don’t get the meaning Silver, there are lots of youthful stallions and mares around Canterlot castle?”

“Yes, yes I know that, I’m referring to young young blood, like very young, younger than any mare or stallion in this castle, foal like to be exact...or perhaps err hatchling, if you want to use the correct terminology…”

Celestia blinked very slowly and in a very calculated manner as she sat down on her floor and stared thoughtfully at the air before turning her gaze to Silver. “Okay Silver Tongue, you're right, that does sound completely insane. But, I’m going to go back into my room and you're going to tell me this insane plan and then, based on if I think it will work or not, I’m going to decide whether to go with it, or murder my bigoted little sister and myself with this dainty thousand thread count snow white pillow. So I advise you, make it good, and explain it well.”

Silver Tongue brought a hoof to his collar to loosen his noose like tie and let some air into his system, as he was sweating like an Olympic runner who was late for their race. On the plus side, though he all clammy with sweat he was much cleaner than he was twenty minutes ago, so he had that going for him at least. And, as terrified as he was he had given much tougher pitches in the past to board rooms of ponies staring at him like Celestia was now. But then again, the stakes were not quite so high and though he was sixty percent sure she wasn't going to commit sororicide, But by all that was right in the world he wasn’t going to bet on those odds.

“R-Right, no pressure... Though before I start, how about we pour ourselves some more of that wine, aheheh.”

Strange Noises

Special Thanks to The Cake Devil for editing this chapter.

One week after Chapter one.

Luna’s day started like most ponies’ day, staring blankly into a cup of black coffee, waiting for it to cool so she could shot gun it down and wait for it to take its effect, whilst simultaneously trying not to collapse onto her table in exhaustion.

Most pony's assumed that as the princess of the night, she would be nocturnal, a princess of the moon rose with her charge, right? But of course that was silly, if that was the case, how would she work her dream magic? Would she be asleep by day and in a transient magically engulfed state of mind by night, how would she ever eat or bath if she was effectively asleep both day and night?

How would she have any real relationship with her sister or anypony at all for that matter? Who would wait until night for her to come at her court? No, Luna was, as every other diurnal pony. She woke with her sisters sun and did her job in seclusion as she liked best. Then, at night, she worked the dreamscape in her own lucid sleep. Scouring her charges dreams and searching for negative emotions, and traumas via night. Such was her way.

Though to add some credence to the rumour, she did in fact sleep later than her sister. Having to raise the moon and meticulously redesign the sky by night, meant she was up at least four hours longer than her older sibling.

But she didn't mind, she was an artist, and this was her passion, she spent her mornings planning the new constellation changes out on paper, with her tongue sticking comically out of her mouth in full concentration; a habit she had never been able to break since she was just a foal herself.

She slept very little compared to the average pony, but she didn't mind. She knew her purpose, the moon and stars were her children and a caring mother she was to them, devoting all she had thanklessly to them.

And despite what one would think, she had no wishes to change her life as it was now, everything was perfect. Well, she occasionally did wish her coffee cooled quicker, that was her only ever gripe.

Sure, she could have used spells, weaved a temperature manipulation spell towards the cup to make it the perfect brew. But this early in the morning, any capacity of thought towards spells or anything that wasn’t keeping her eyelids open and not falling asleep in the shower was out of the question. She would have an easier time spelling her full second name backwards on her head with her hind legs whilst singing the lyrics to the H.M.S pinafores’ modern major general.

So instead, as all mornings went, she stared almost drunkenly at her familiar surroundings of her room, hoping to distract herself long enough for the coffee to cool.

Thankfully it was one of those days where the god of procrastination and the even lesser known deity of mayhem and comedic timing was on her side and just as she pondered her life so far, something queer and unusual caught her attention.

Flicking her ear to a corner of her room towards her walk in wardrobe, a noise perforated through the two dark blue doors, similar in all but colour of her sisters room, she noticed a sound that was inharmonious to her surroundings.

It wasn't a faint whistling of the wind howling outside, nor the sound of floorboards creaking, nor even the clinking of armour from the guards moving outside her tower entrance.

What Luna heard was familiar, yet utterly alien inside the confines of what was considered the normal noise around her tower, it was a sound of something moaning.

Luna flicked both ears forward this time, lifting her head up from the table she cocked her head to one side in earnest interest and befuddlement. The sound came again this time louder than the first. Another unusual sound, this time between a grunt and a moan. It wasn't something a stallion could make, nor a mare, it was too soft, to quite, like a foal awoken from its slumber in need of its mother, it was too...

Too cute?

Luna, her coffee now forgotten, stumbled towards the closet, her mind entirely focused on what the sound was, trotting the distance to the doors. As she leaned forwards against one of the frames, she pressed an ear against the door, listening intently for the noise.

When nothing came after a few seconds, she began to ponder if it was her imagination, almost ready to turn back to her previous black energiser. the noise sprung again, louder and with more force than the last two times.

The something inside began again with a vengeance, with a noise that Luna could not rationalise away.

It was the sound of an infant crying. The sound, was unmistakable to Luna.

Lunas eyes almost bulged out her sockets, there was a foal in her closet!?

"What in the seven hells!?" She mutters to herself.

The thoughts how, what, where, and why, sprang instantly to her mind all at once. How did somepony sneak an infant in her room, what was it doing here of all places, where did it come from?

And more importantly, why her!?

Not that she was as disturbed by that last part. It was no secret Luna loved children, foals in particular, if the populace had learned anything from Nightmare Night it was that Luna was fantastic with children.

The why was more of a ‘Why the fuck was it specifically in her wardrobe, rather than any other place in the castle!’

Briefly she questioned whether or not it could have been bring your foal to work day. That at least would have been some explanation. Half of those days went from an education bonding experience with your parent or guardian, to why the tartarus are six foals playing with the crossbows in the armoury, or how did they get into the royal sweet pantry, Celestia’s going to kill everypony if she finds out, run, run for your lives!

Or in this case, how did a foal get into by underwear closet!

Luna shook her head, gazing at the calendar across the room, quickly realising that that day wasn’t for another few months.

Luna bit her lip as she decided on what was the best course of action, but as the cries pierced through the doors into the room, Luna ultimately decided only one thing was important at this time. All that mattered right now was the foal’s needs. She had to know it was okay. That was paramount.

Lighting her horn, the doors of her wardrobe opened softly, Luna peered into it scanning the pitch black room.

Everything inside was still and as it should have been, at least without the crying infant somewhere in her closet part. But Luna wanted to be sure it wasn't anything nefarious.

The attack on the castle and the introduction of the changeling race had made anything a possibility, even something as strange as this.
A dark sky blue dress flickered outwards catching Luna's eye, pulled off the rack the dress crumpled over a tiny bassinet obscuring her view of the foal inside. It seems that the possible infant had pulled it down on itself in its tantrum. She could assume that by the small bumps coming from the dress as the baby pushed up from underneath it.

Satisfied that no ambush lay in wait for her and still worried for the health of the foal, Luna levitated the bundle of cloth and, she presumed the cradle that lay in under it all, as softly as she could towards the entrance of the room, as she stayed by the moor of the archway.

"There, there little one, tis okay, we are here now." Luna whispered in a cooing fashion, attempting to placate the foal’s cries.

As the cradle landed by her hooves, the crying stopped replaced by gentle fussing and needy whines. Luna chuckled lightly, a motherly gentle smile on her face. Slowly she peeled back her crumpled dress only to feel the resistance of the foal who was still clinging to its new expensive hoof crafted blanket.

"Ahh tis a strong little one indeed!" Luna joked as she teased the blanket away from the foal who clung to it in a needy fashion.

“A fine warrior you are little one, but we require our clothing back, or Ms Rarity will not be too happy.” Luna cooed as she tugged gently against the little foal. Trying best not to hurt or perturb the sweet little creature who had its claws dug deep into...

Claws?

Luna eyelids shot up as she forced the dress off the foal ripping the light fabric in the process. The shock and force of it causes the thing inside to begin crying even more forcefully than before.

But by then, Luna could barely hear it now, as she stared at the creature in her basket. Trying with all her might not to scream.

Mentally paralyzed by fear of the bundle of fur, Luna’s body went into autopilot Slowly backing away from the basket as the child inside kicked its paws and claws in the air, crying at the shock and pain of the loss of its blanket. Almost smacking her rump on the door frame, Luna shut the doors of her wardrobe as softly as she opened them. Muffling the wailing of the...Hatchling?

Luna feel to her rump, staring with eyes wide and jaw open for what seemed like eternity. Then she rubbed her eyes and lifted a hoof up, and promptly smacked herself across the muzzle.

After that she walked back and opened the door slightly, immediately hearing the ear preaching wails of the confused infant. Before closing the door again.

Then she repeated the process another four or five times until her muzzle hurt too much to continue.

Gathering her courage and her senses, she opened the doors again, and stared down at the infant. The infant's body was contorted as it shifted in a weird fashion kicking its hind legs at the cradle, its tiny beady eyes were closed as small tears squished out the sides, its little yellow beak was open and moaning, but it appeared that it had tired itself out and was losing the strength to keep the wailing going.

Almost shaking with fear and anathema, Luna stared at the creature that inhabited the bassinet, then the bassinet itself. Something about it was familiar, there were large parts of the beaten old bassinet that were brown, from the underwood caused by chipping or simple old age, but Luna immediately noticed the deep dark ocean blue that was still clearly painted onto it. The colour alone would have been enough to trigger some sort of nostalgic memory from her. But it was the unmistakable symbol of the crescent moon that instantly reminded her of whose cradle this had been.

Even after those last four thousand years she could remember her own cradle perfectly. After all it was one of her last keepsakes that her father had made himself.

Her left eye twitched as blind rage took over her phobia, and she slammed the door once again walking towards the tower window. There was only one pony that knew where those family keepsakes where and how to access them, only one prank loving, bubble butted cake destroying pony that would dare have the audacity to do this to her.

Reaching the balcony door, stepping out into cool morning air, she knew in her heart that this had only one response.

“SISTER GET THINE ENORMOUS BUCKING BEHIND OVER HERE, NOW!”

Author's Notes:

Story time line will jump back and forth for this story, so if it feels like it’s jumping the gun a bit, don’t worry. All will be answered.

Additionally word count will vary in order for the story to progress more quickly, I am aiming for a chapter a week or so at this point. But take that with a pinch of salt.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

A Plan in Motion

Special Thanks to The Cake Devil for editing this chapter.

Two hours before chapter 2.

Golden Tongue skipped merrily down the halls of Canterlot castle, dressed in the standard fluffy, frilly yet complementary/classy uniform adorned by all members of the castle maids staff. Humming a random tune that popped into her head, she shook her head and hips in time with the tune. Occasionally, on her trip she would wave over towards a guard posted over by a wall, or next to a yawning corridor, and though she knew they were not allowed to wave back, she knew that they wished her a good morning in return, some with a slight nod of their head or a faint flickering of a smile at the corners of their mouth.

This was how Golden stared every day, trying her best to spread happiness and pleasantry as far as she could. Even employed in a small, mostly powerless job, she found that kindness and happiness were just as vital a skill as accounting or guarding, even if ponies would disagree she considered it a more subtle skill.

Though she wouldn’t describe herself as subtle, not in the slightest, everything from her high pitched bubblegum sweet voice, to her sunlight yellow fur and ruby red mane and tail screamed ‘I’m here everypony’ Not to mention she was completely disaster prone, she was almost a magnet for accidents. It was often said in her presence by her own mother, in jest, that if she was left tied to a chair in an empty room, somehow something was going to catch on fire. And that was testament on the mare's body. Slight cuts and scrapes all over her body was symbols of that. Not a day went by that the mare didn’t sport a new plaster or sometimes if it was bad enough a stitch.

But she didn’t let that bother her, there were always ponies around to help her, and often enough it was a nice ice breaker to meet a new pony, who in her mind was automatically nice through the process of helping her to her hooves. Yes, to her there was a silver lining in everything, even in her little daily accidents. She just didn’t like it happening to often though. She wasn't masochistic or anything like that.

Turning a corner, she spotted another friend of hers, a Pegasus stallion adorned in full golden armour of the Sol guard, who was conversing with a Thestral counterpart of the Lunar guard, by the door of Silver Tongues office. Based on the straightforwardness of the conversation, and the formal cadence of the stallion’s voices, it seemed like a debriefing signalizing the changing of the guard. At least that was what Golden surmised.

“Heya Steel Wing!” She yelled in her usual bubbly tone, waving happily to the butch, grizzled, older stallion who turned from the Thestral towards her.

“Oh, hello Ms Tongue, it’s nice to see you, but could you keep it down? Your uncle is working on something very important and as always he likes everything dead silent when he works.”

Golden pulled back sheepishly, smiling apologetically. “Sorry Steelie, I thought he wouldn’t be so busy this early in the morning.”

“Well... I suppose I should be heading back now, it’s all quiet on this end Steel, not much to report, I’ll see you tonight.” The Thestral announced, moving away from the door and towards the barracks, or possibly his family, based on the age of the pony.

“Yes take care of yourself Scale.” Steel bid farewell with a curt nod, before turning on point back to Golden Tongue. “So Ms Golden, I take it you’re here to see your Uncle.”

“Yeps, he said he had something super important that he wanted me to do, said I was the only one who could know about it, and that I shouldn’t tell anypony about this super, super secret meeting. Only me, Celestia and Silver know about it. Can you believe that!?” Golden exclaimed followed by a gleeful giggle as she stamped her hooves in excitement.

“...” Steel Wing just stared blankly at her, opting not to answer, instead letting the little mare work it out for once. With a small smirk on his face he counted down from ten until the realisation hit the mare smack across the face.

“Yep he didn’t even tell me what it was about, only that I have to be here early and not tell ponies that...that I’m...oh… I just told you didn’t I!?” Golden bellowed falling to the ground and facehoofing with both hooves simultaneously. “Oh, Uncle Silvers gonna kill me!”

Steel laughed giving her a sympathetic pat on the back with his wing. “It’s okay, Golden. If it makes you feel any better, I already know something’s going down today.”

Golden removed one of her hooves from her eyes looking up at the aged stallion with optimistic eyes. “You did?”

“Affirmative, there’s something in the air around here today, when you’re in the guarding business as long as I am you can just smell trouble. And I’d say that today’s just reeking of it.”

Golden got back on all four continuing to stare at Steel with optimism and now awe. “Wow, you can smell trouble, what does trouble smell like?”

“Rotten cabbages.”

“Really?”

It took all of five seconds for the stallion to break his straight faced facade. “No silly, it’s just an expression. Now let’s not keep your uncle waiting, shall we?” He answered with a merry chuckle.

“Oh? Oh! I almost forgot, I’m gonna be late, silly me, thank you Steely, I’ll try and see you at lunch if I’m not too busy.” Golden stated frantically, as she raced over towards the door.

“Wait! Golden don’t run, the doors *Slam*...locked.”

“Owey...my nose!”

Steel shook his head as he stared down at the mare head over hooves on the floor. “*Sigh*, let’s get that under a tap.”

Silver Tongue rubbed his tired bloodshot eyes, grabbing his pot of lukewarm coffee with a shaky, twitchy hoof, carefully pouring it into a cup. He didn’t even bother to put any cream or sugar into it, seeing it as only a barrier between himself and his precious mistress, the coffee bean. Also, as testament to the stallion’s gentlemanly ideology, he only drank straight from the coffee pot two times that night.

A soft yawn broke his concentration on the cup and his bloodshot eyes darted across the room over to a small weather-worn and antiquated dark blue basement by his desk, he watched carefully as she,a small little bundle of fluff and feathers, turned in her sleep, mumbling some incoherent infant noses. Silver watched with utter trepidation as the baby moved her tiny body over to the other side of the cot but sighed in relief, when he realised that the child was in a deep rem. Though it didn’t stop him from sipping from the mug as quietly as physically possible. The last thing he needed right now was for her to wake up ‘cranky’, after finally getting the infant back to sleep. It had taken all night to get the child to sleep, it was only when dusk broke that Silver noticed the whole night had passed him by. And with that any chance of sleeping.

Silver had never entertained the idea of having a child of his own. He liked foals, calves, and hatchlings as much as the next pony. But, ultimately, he knew that he just didn’t have it in him to raise one on his own. Perhaps someday that might change, but after all the chaos of last night caring for the little girl and simultaneously writing down an intelligent structurally concrete speech for Celestia in light of the fallout yet to come of Luna tour, or the ‘Griffon incident’ as he had been calling it these last few days, he was well and truly happy to be childless.

And also, A new reason, more importantly than any of the others in his mind, what clinched the deal on not having foals for many more years, was because this was the first night that he was introduced to the utter incomprehensible horrors of diaper changing. It was only as he stared into that abyss that he knew he would never be the same whole stallion that he once was. And prayed only that his nightmares of a nappy filled world would only haunt him in his sleep.

Thankfully today was the day, the day Celestia would take the hatchling off his hoofs and tell Luna about it, for better or worse. And Silver could finally get some well-deserved rest, at least that was what he prayed would happen.

Walking over towards the sleeping bundle, despite himself, the edge of his lips curled upwards. Despite the hell the hatchling had put him through that night, he had to begrudgingly admit, the hatchling was diabolically adorable in just about everything it did, even in this case, just sleeping. It didn’t help that the hatchling was tiny for its age, at least if you compared it to a foal its age, but that wouldn’t last long, in another three or four years, the hatchling would get a lot bigger. Once Hatchlings were weaned off their mother's milk and given the correct protein, they shot up like a sunflower. That’s what the head director at the orphanage had warned both himself and Celestia. But for now, it would stay around the size of a small dinner plate.

“Hopefully you won't be as round as a dinner plate.” Silver Tongue chuckled at his own joke quietly, as he pulled the displaced blanket over the hatchlings tiny brown body, which had been kicked off in her sleep. He almost pulled back, when suddenly one of the hatchlings claws clasped around a part of his hoof. But found himself giving a gentle ‘Ahh’ as it pulled it over towards her chest, cuddling into it.

“We need to get you a teddy little lady. Can’t have you stealing pony’s hooves for your personal hug pillows.” Silver tongue chuckled again, but despite what he said, he dared not move, instead enjoying the little scene of tiny griffoness snuggling against him and the warmth her tiny body provided.

SLAM

Silver tongue nearly jumped out of his fur as he turned to the noise at the door. It sounded like somepony drove a wagon at it. Then as quickly as he had turned he flicked back to the hatchling holding his breath as she squirmed again, moaning and searching for the stallion's hoof.
Staying perfectly still, Silver looked for any sort of replacement within his reach. Finding nothing on hoof, he pulled a handkerchief out of his pockets, folded it up and placed it gently into the basket.

Thankfully the sleeping infant didn’t seem to notice the difference and latched onto the makeshift hoof with fervour. Snuggling into it and subconsciously munching on the tip of it with her beak, as she continued to dream.

Silver wiped the sweat from his brow then turned back to the door with an angry pout at the incongruous sound, as he heard the tumbler and latch unlock.

“Let’s get that under the tap now.” Steel stated in a slightly jejune, but no less caring fashion that came with dealing with the numerous accidents as a result of being friends with the clumsy mare.

“Mokay” Golden stated meekly, holding one hoof to her sore nose and the other on steels shoulders for support.

“Easy does it, watch the carpet now don’t trip.”

“My mon’t.”

As soon as Steel was past the egress of the door, he gazed around the room spotting the hefty stallion instantly and fixing him an apologetic glance. “Sorry sir, your niece was a bit too giddy to say hi.”

“I meel on my mose.” She muttered again as she gave a weak wave to her beloved uncle.

Silver Tongue sighed shaking his head, as he tip hooved over towards them both. “I’ll take it from here Steel.”

“Are you sure sir, I don’t mind.” Steel stated as he unhooked himself from Golden’s foreleg and made way for Silver to replace his position of holding Golden up.

Silver looked back over to his desk with his peripheral vision, making sure that the bassinet was obscured from view, before answering.
“Thank you, but it’s fine Steel, I need to discuss something important with my niece here, and unfortunately it’s confidential.”

“I understand sir.” Steel answered with a quick salute, he knew that in his profession there were times to ask questions and times to make oneself scarce. It wasn't hard to tell by Silver’s tone which one was required at that moment.

“Oh and if it’s not much trouble could you send a guard over to Celestia chambers, tell them to tell her that it’s almost time, and also, make sure to close the door quietly behind you. I can’t stress how much I need silence right now.”

Steel gave Silver a lopsided stare at the uncharacteristically serious cadence in Silver voice, but quickly corrected himself. “Of course sir, anything else?”

“Not right now Steel, thank you very much.”

“Mhank you Steel, Morry about the tmouble.”

“Shh Golden, no talking until I get you into the bathroom you silly filly.” Silver jokingly chided, as he guided her towards the office bathroom, but stopped himself just short of the precipice and waited until he heard the main office entrance door close behind him. Once he knew it was just himself, Golden, and the bundle of fluff in the room, he proceeded onwards with his cocksure niece.

“Sit over there by the sink whilst I get something to stop the bleeding, and please don’t touch my beauty products, I swear it took me a better part of the day to re-alphabetize them after you knocked them over.” Silver commanded, as he walked over towards a cabinet reaching in for a first aid kit he had used more times than he dared to count.

“Morry Uncle.” Golden whispered weakly, looking down at her hooves in shame.

“Oh hush Golden, we both know it’s not your fault, well, most of the time it’s not.” Silver explained, as he grabbed a cotton cloth in one hoof dousing it with some pungent chemical cauteriser. “Now hold still, this is going to sting a little, okay are you ready? Alright, on the count of three, one…two-three!”

“I knooooOOOoouch pony feathers that’s stingy!” Golden hissed, as the chemical cauterisation agent that Silver had applied to a hand towel touched her nose.

“I told you to hold still.” Silver stated casually, as he reach over and applied the cold compress to her nose.

“You didn’t even give me time after two!” Golden explaimed.

“Yes because you always flinch after three, element of surprise Golden.” Silver explained with a cheeky smirk.

Golden’s only response was to blow raspberries back at her uncle, but with the wet compress on her muzzle and the heat in her face, it looked far more comical than it did petulant.

After a while Silver removed the compress from Golden’s muzzle, satisfied that the swelling had gone down to an acceptable level. “How is your ear anyway, you didn’t have any dizzy spells on the way here did you?” Silver inquired with a sympathetic tone.

“No it’s been really good today.”

“Well that’s something at least.”

“Hey Uncle Silver, I know you and Princess Luna were only gone for a few months, but I missed you a lot.” Golden stated as she leaned in to hug Silver.

Flinching a bit at the invasion, Silver quickly melted into the hug. “Haha so did I Kiddo. How’s my sister doing anyway, is she still driving every pony she meets up the wall as usual.”

“Mom’s fine, she can’t wait for you to come over to the house, she want to hear everything about your royal trip. You know how she keeps talking about traveling.”

“Oh, well I’ll try and make it over as soon as I can, but I can’t say for sure, *sigh* it’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.” Silver tongue
lamented, as he couldn’t help but envision, with expected trepidation, what this morning's press conference would bring, and what sort of fallout will come from it. Especially in the case of the little hatchling.

“How was the tour, oh oh! How was Griffonstone?” Golden chirped breaking Silver from his brooding thoughts in the worst possible way. “I bet it was a blast, not many ponies go there, that’s what all my guard friends tell me. It must have been so much fun!”

Silver left eye twitched as a PTSD treasure trove of horrific images flung to the forefront of his mind. “Y-Yes...fun.”

“Oh Oh did you try the food, Mom says that her friend has a griffon friend who cooks classic griffon style raw vegetables and it’s apparently scrumptious, did you know they have the biggest food markets in the whole of Eques, Steel says it’s because griffons like to barter, even more than ponies do. He says it’s something to do with their culture, I think I can’t remember.”

Silver felt another PTSD flashback at the rain of rotten fruit and veg and meat came flying down on his defenceless pristine coat as he raced through a labyrinth of fish stands. He fought back a gargled scream that lodged itself deep in his throat.

“L-let’s not talk about that, right now (or ever). Right now I’ve got a very important thing I need to show you.”

“OH OH, what is it, is it from Griffonstone, did you get me a souvenir, Oh tell me tell me!?” Golden stated hopping up and down in excitement, she may have been in her early twenties but any filly or mare or pony in general still enjoyed the idea of getting presents.

“Shh, quiet, quiet, you can’t make any noise, understand Golden!” Silver growled in a syncopated whisper. His lack of sleep had left him very much depleted in the patients department, and with Golden, he required it at max at the very least, when dealing with his hyperactive niece.
Golden nodded vigorously, still giddy at the notion of seeing something from Griffonstone.

“I mean it Golden, no noise, none, not so much as a peep out of you, if a mouse squeaks in here, I want it to be the most deafening noise in the world compared to you, are we clear.”

Golden nodded even more vigorously almost doing an impression of a heavy metal fan listening to his favourite band, or a balloon caught between two different fans.

“Okay, so yes, I have something that’s technically from Griffonstone, at least in origin. But first it’s imperative that you understand the gravity of what I am asking of you. Hey! Golden stop looking behind me it’s not behind me okay. Look at me in in the eyes, okay? Okay then.

Understand you are among a very few selection of ponies who know about this, and that’s because your family and I trust you more than any pony.”

Golden almost gasped as she fought back a simultaneous blush and tear that threatened to roll down her cheek “I trust you too uncle Silver.”
“Haha okay shhh sweetie, I know you do. So, here is what I need you to do, I want you take what I’m about to show you and wait in the room opposite Lunas tower chamber entrance. There all you have to do is wait until Celestia, or myself, comes to find you, no pony else. Don’t let go, or lose sight of this for a second. And do not let anypony know what it is. If anypony for whatever reason come in and asks, tell them it’s a welcome back basket of fruit for Luna, or a stack of dirty laundry or something I don’t care so long as they don’t look or come near it. But do not let them see it. Do I make myself clear Goldy.”

“As clear as a crystal empire pony, sir!” Golden chirped, giving a mock salute.

“Right okay then. Well with that being said I have a little lady for you to meet.” Silver announced with a mysterious tone in his voice, waving Golden to follow him into the office room.

“Huh?” Golden questioned, almost tripping over her front hooves, as the wording took her by surprise,. But true to her word, as soon as they stepped out of the office she was as silent as the night.

Both ponies tip hoofed their way back into the office. Silver moved first behind his desk and then after looking behind it for one second, motioned for Golden to come have a look.

When Golden looked down at the basket she almost lost the air in her lungs.

Inside holding the embroidered handkerchief with an abbreviated moniker S.T. stitched in silver on the side, in her claws and beak, was perhaps in Golden's eyes the fluffiest white feathered baby griffon she had ever laid eyes on. It was also her first time seeing one, but that was not the point.

Moving further in, Golden instantly noticed the stunningly vibrant purple feathers around her eyes. The tiny little beak on her face and the rough spiky bed hair on her head. A point that confused Golden was the little tips of feathers that constituted as her mane had little tips of black all on the tips. Like somepony had dunked them in ink, she wasn't sure if that was normal for a griffon. But then again griffons came in all shapes and sizes.

Almost shaking in excitement and gushing over the overwhelming adorableness of the little feather figure under her, she held out as long as she could, praying she could keep herself from making a sound. That was until she noticed the tiny little bushy tail moving back and forth under the child’s beak. Accidentally, the baby was tickling itself in its sleep and when the tail flick around her nostrils the hatchling sneezed itself awake. For just a moment. Before almost drunkenly closing its eyes once more.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

“She's so fluffy!” Golden roared out as she squealed in glee diving towards the baby griffon.

“Golden! What did I just tell you about being loud?”

“Sorry sorry, she’s just so cute, ah look at her curled up into a little ball, I just want to hold her so tightly and pinch her little feathery cheeks.”

“Well, I won’t deny she is very delightful to look at. I don’t know about pinchable cheeks.”

“Ah but the cheeks are the cutest part, she got little baby fat cheeks like you.”

“Yes I suppose it is cute… Wait, what’s that supposed to mean!?”

“What’s her name uncle?” Golden asked with an inquisitive high pitched tone, gazing intently at her uncle.

Silver rolled his eyes, wondering if he would ever meet a mare who wouldn’t insult or make his life hell. So far the count was zero. “She doesn’t have one Goldy, or if she did it’s lost to us.”

“What!?”

Silver pinched the bridge of his nose. “Golden, I swear to the great fields above, one more outburst and I’m kicking you out of this room via the window!”

Galvanised by the notion that the hatchling was nameless Golden began pacing back and forth in front of Silver Tongue. “Why did no pony give her a name, what about her mommy or daddy, how bad of a pony do you have to be to not give her a name?”

“She doesn’t have a mother or father Goldy she is an, I mean was, an orphan.”

Stopping mid step Golden’s ears flattened to the back of her skull. “Oh oh, I’m sorry, I just meant, oh you poor little thing, what happened?”
Silver gave a world weary sigh, staring back down at the incognisant infant. “I’m not at liberty to say, but, well, it wasn’t pretty, but her parents did everything they could to keep her safe. At least their efforts were successful in that regard. She certainly is going to grow up in the safest place on Eques.”

Lowering her posture and her head enough to stare down at an even level with the sleeping hatchling, Golden remembered her little mantra, every cloud, a silver lining. “Well… I guess that’s something, At least we can do everything possible to make Snoozy happy here in Canterlot castle.”

“Snoozy?”

Yepers, that’s her name, look how peaceful she is when she sleeps. She’s practically born to sleep cute, she’s a sleep champion and if no ponies going to name her then I will.” She finished puffing out her chest in defiant pride.

Silver couldn’t have rolled his eyes further than he did at this moment. “Golden, sweet heart. For one, Snoozy is a terrible name for a pony let alone a griffon, and for the other, she’s not yours to name. As I was about to say she has a new mother. One that, well, for better or worse, is going to give her her name. Though her aunt might have more say in that department.”

“So who's this awful mother who won't even give this precious wittle gem her own name?”

“...Luna.”

“Wait! Waxing Luna, the janitor?”

“What, no, Luna Luna.”

“Luna Luna Vela, the Thestral pony who guards the royal vault?”

“No the Luna the Only Luna that--

“You mean The Luna Only Luna--

“Princess Luna for buck's sake!” Silver screamed at Golden in frustration before shoving a hoof into his own mouth, snapping his gaze back at the infant, realising the damage had already been done.

Almost immediately the tiny kitten sized Griffon opened her beady doll like eyes at the shock of the scream coming from Silver Tongue and proceeded to burst into tears.

“Oh great Silver, now look what you did!”

“Me! But you, I--”

“There there sweetie little baby, let's get you away from mister yelly pants over here.” Golden cooed, picking up the little hatchling almost like she was fine china, and simultaneously shooting a venomous glare at Silver who stood aghast at how the situation had suddenly turned him into the bad guy.

“When all this is over, I’m going to Mexicolt, I swear by the sun and moon, even if I have to back flip my way there, with my limbs bound.” He muttered to himself, as he trotted over to the desk and slammed his head down onto the table.

“How did you do that!?” Silver quietly bellowed, pointing a hoof at Golden who was now rocking the disgruntled infant back to sleep, in the crutches of her foreleg.

“What?” Golden asked, with mild amounts of shock as the interrupted silence of the room rang out in Silver bellow.

“How did you make her go back to sleep, It took all night just to get her to sleep, but you, you did it in five minutes!?”

Golden chuckled softly. “Haha it’s simple, I just sung her a little lullaby whilst I rocked her softly back to sleep, and she went out like a fluffy lamp.”

Silver smacked his cheek in order to get his jaw up from the floor. “But, but, but I did that for three hours last night and she only got louder!”

Golden shrugged her shoulders. As she began brushing the little trickles of tears still on the griffonesses feathers, and simultaneously stroking the feathery mane of hers. “Whelp that’s because you don’t have my secret technique down.”

“Oh yeah and what’s that?”

“Uncle I just said it was a secret, jeez and I thought you were the smart one of the family.”

“Evidently not.” Silver muttered, rolling his eyes and fighting the urge not to slam his head onto the desk once more. Instead, he opted to grab another cup of coffee from the side of the room. At least caffeine understood his pain.

The infant squirmed pleasantly in Golden’s foreleg, and much to her surprise, gave off a little almost inaudible chirp in her sleep, identifying at least in Golden’s mind that she was having a pleasant eventful dream.

“Oh my gosh Silvy, she just chirped, she actually just chirped I heard it! She even sounds like a little robin redbreast, do you remember, remember uncle, the ones that used to be in the bushes in grandma's farm, Oh I think I’m in love.” Golden squealed as she began to shake with excitement, nuzzling her cheek over the top of the hatchlings head.

Silver snorted, but adorned a more pleasant grin on his muzzle as he sipped his coffee, and looked over his speech preparations, proofreading it for what would be the final time. “Yes the expert at the orphanage explained that hatchlings chirp when they’re happy, or sometimes for attention, or even simply because they can, though mostly it’s a way for them to expresses that they’re hungry, so I have a good inclination that this little filly will be wanting her morning feast quite shortly. At least she has good timing on that front.”

Golden stroking the cheek of the hatchling as she kept her near her chest looked up at Silver with a raised brow. “By timing, you mean…?”

Silver raised himself tiredly from his seat, walking around the table he set his coffee down with a sleepy tired sigh. “Yes, it looks like it’s about time to set the plan in motion. You remember what you were meant to do.”

“Um, wait for Celestia inside the room next to Lunas room?”

“Yes that’s correct, and what are you meant to tell anypony who asks what’s in the basket?”

“Um I have a basket full of… dirty err, fruit for Luna?” Golden demurely answered.

Despite himself Silver chuckled, “Close enough. Just as long as no pony looks and you don’t let her out of your sight. Celestia and I won’t be long... I hope.”

“Um Silver, not that I don’t mind taking care of Snoozy here, but what are you going to be doing whilst I’m taking care of her?”

Silver turned to his typewriter face away from him in the middle of the desk, peeling off the last page from it, he set it down on top of a forbiddingly large amount of other papers to the right of the desk and hooked them under his left forehoof.

“I’ve called a large press conference, with the princesses permission, I’m setting off now to hand her her speech and supervise the conference, for which she will be the keynote speaker, it's going to be quite a gathering, as I understand it, any reporter worth his salt will be there.”

Golden blinked in surprise. “Oh, what conference is that?”

“The one where Celestia tells Equestria that her sister hates griffons. And how Luna adopted a Hatching against her will.” Silver stated with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

At those words Golden’s eyes almost bulged out of her sockets. “Um, you’re not going to actually say that, are you uncle Silvey.”

Silver shook his head, adorning his own impish smirk, Stacking the papers neatly and putting them in the crevice of his foreleg “No, not exactly that blunt, as much as I would love the payback. I’ll be wording it much much better than that, but it will be focusing on reform, forgiveness and most importantly the addition to a new member of the royal family, which I’ve saved for last. I’ll spin it differently of course. But hopefully it will cover all the bases, I’ll admit I borrowed heavily from the speech Celestia gave addressing Discords reform. But I’ll be stating how Luna has been away for a very long time and so has a draconian view of griffons that has remained yet unreformed; and obviously I’ll be put more sisterly love into the speech.”

“Um, that sounds good and all uncle, but what happens if Luna finds out you said all those things, but you didn’t tell her you were saying them, or, I mean you got Celestia to say all of them.” Golden asked in a worried tone, as she put down “Snoozy” gently into her little bassinet.

Silver actually paused for a moment to think on that question, a question he had posed to Celestia after she had adamantly and enthusiastically adopted his radical plan. Despite his confidence in his own abilities to prognosticate events and read ponies. He too was stumped on Luna’s true reactions to this. Though he had some ideas. “I’ll admit, I don’t know, but I’m confident in Celestia’s ability as a diplomat and her understanding of how to handle her own sister. Regardless to this, Luna is the last pony we need around right now, this needs to be done quickly and with surgical precision. I’ve already heard off the record reports that the latest cargo ship from Griffonstone will arrive in Shanghoof tomorrow, if even one of those sailors go to the presses with a lick of proof, I.e. a single griffon newspaper on the day's events in Griffonstone, this story will spread like dragon fire. This speech will hopefully take some of the fuel out of the story. It won’t get rid of all of it mind you, but it will be nowhere near as catastrophic… At least that’s my hypothesis.”

Golden sat there, listening to the plan in full attention, and even nodding at some of the finer points, even if some of the nuances of it went over her head, having not heard the full story herself, she had little to base these accusations on. But she trusted her uncle enough to know he wouldn’t be lying about something like this. However, ever the caring pony her thoughts were more towards the innocent party in this affair “...And so where does Snoozy fit into all this?”

“As I was getting at, Luna’s adoption of the hatchling will be the main focal point to end on. It won’t take away any of those damaging stories however. But in time, with enough reporters now invested in their knew royalty, plus all the cute photos of the two bonding together and the inevitable false stories from vox pop eye witness accounts of ponies, who will probably swear on some baseless story, about how they were there when Luna adopted the little hatchling, by rescue her from the jaws of some humongous hydra and adopting her on the spot. It may eventually just drown out the controversy altogether, if the planets align in all the right places. Honestly once it’s out, I’ve come to realise that these stories just write themselves.”

Golden bit her lip tightly as she looked back down at the infant, still feeling very uneasy about all of this. Something wasn’t right in her uncle’s plan. “So, um that sound all good and stuff...Well actually no, that sounds like a bunch of lying and cover ups, but don’t you think that giving Snoozy over to Luna might be bad for her, I think Luna is one of the most awesomest pony ever, but if she's going to be mean or unsupportive of Snoozy I wouldn’t want her to be looking after her, not at all.”

“Well to address your first concerns Golden, that’s just backstabbing politics as usual, I'm not okay with it, but it's my job to protect the royal family, a guard protects them physically through any means necessary and I protect them spiritually, and on paper.”

Golden tilted her head in confusion. “That still doesn't sound good, or healthy?”

“Yes Golden that’s why I have to lie to myself, so please don’t unravel my little mental justification.” Silver quipped back, with a practiced repressed tone.

“Oh sorry uncle, but... wait? You still didn’t answer my first question?”

“Sorry, I think I went on a bit of tangent, what was it again?”

“Oh um, is Luna looking after the baby really a good idea at this time.”

Silver threw his head back laughing, almost slapping his foreleg in jest. “Oh Tartarus no, that’s why Celestia will take her into here care.”

“What do you mean, Luna’s not going to get her, like at all?” Golden asked taken aback by her uncle’s declaration.

“OH! Hahaha good fields above no! Didn’t I just tell you about what she did in Griffonstone.”

“...Actually no you didn’t.”

“Oh, well then, let's just say that, after what I saw of Luna's more ugly side, and to be fair she does have a very loving side, but regardless from what I saw of her that day, there's no way in Tartarus that Luna is ever getting near that hatchling, we both decided, and I’m pretty sure Luna would find that agreeable as well.”

Golden felt like her tummy was doing somersaults all the way around her body, she suspected before, but now she knew this plan was all sort of wrong. “But, but if that's the case then how will Luna learn to love her, this won’t solve anything, she’ll just be the same pony.”

Silver tongue shot gunned back the remainder of his coffee, finishing it with a small burp as he walked towards the door stopping by a small mirror mounted on the wall, in order to check his appearance for the final time. He answered Golden through the mirror, as he straightened his clip on tie. “*Sigh* Yes, but hopefully I'll be long long dead by the next royal tour, or whatever else happens.”

Golden stepped forward, but didn’t know what to do with herself, she didn't have the vocabulary of her Uncle or the skills of scheming and planning, but she had an enormous reserve for the right and wrong and right now she needed her uncle to know what he and Celestia were doing was doing. “This isn’t right uncle, Luna loves foals there's no reason she wouldn't love Snoozy, once she gets to know her, if she did some bad things to griffons then she needs to know that hurting others is nasty and wrong, think of all the friendships she's missing out on, Snoozy might be the only one who can change that. Even if Celestia takes care of her, eventually Luna and her lives will cross over, it would be horrible for her if part of Snoozy family didn’t accept her. What if I grew up with you hating me or the other way around?”

Siver shut his eyes grunting as his mind snapped as a wave of guilt and tiredness hit him, though other ponies would laugh at him for saying it, Golden was far smarter than ponies gave her credit for, and she didn’t pull punches. That was for sure.

But it was far too late, the wheels had been set in motion, and he couldn’t have what she was saying clouding his mind, not today.

“Oh for the love of…” Silver almost yelled before catching his temper and turning back to his niece and beckoned her over to the middle of the room, so as not to have to make him raise his voice. “Look, Goldy, first of all stop calling her Snozzy before it sticks, and second of all, Luna will never ever fall for this, no matter what anypony says to her, she hates griffons down to her shin bones. If even Celestia couldn’t make her like griffons what chance do you think this hatching will have. 'Cute' Luna out of her bigotry? It just doesn’t work that way in the real world.”

At that moment, “Snoozy” turned in her crib giving another faintly inaudible chirp in her sleep, drawing a loving drawn out “aww” from Golden who peered over lovingly.

Silver resisted with every force in his being, not to strike his head against every wall in the room.

“Gah! Never mind, my point still stands, it’s been decided, the hatching will never set hoof or claw or paw inside Luna’s quarters, Luna will have as little integration with the baby as we can help and there’s absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt no bucking way in heck she’s ever going to be alone with the little darling, not by the gods intervention nor by ponies!”

Author's Notes:

Sincerest apologies, it seemed like my once a week statement from before turned out to be horrifically false. But in my defense, it has been so hot in England recently that I was unable to stay in my room for more than a quarter hour. And we British people only experience warmth when we are given our daily stipend of gruel from our factory owners. Also it was unfair for me to assume my editor doesn’t have anything better to do than await my chapters on beck and call. At least I hope he doesn’t, though I wouldn’t mind the ego boost.

Regardless I hope you have enjoyed, the next one will actually be forward in time, just in case you thought I had some sort of back in time fetish...Which is ridiculous, and I certainly won't be discussing this any further… I mean who would even cater to something like that... I don't you know!