"When are they coming?" Stelimus asked.

"Oh..." Grimliss made little circles on the floor with his hoof. "Tomorrow."

"But we won't have time to prepare anything!" Copper shouted with the same volume.

"Oh..." Grimliss pulled an hourglass out from between his ribs and mouthed 'Oh!' again. "Looks like I lied and they're coming today."

Stelimus' eye twitched.

"What's wrong with you?" Yolumay asked.

"You mean apart from him being a walking, talking skeleton?" Radivus asked.

Both Yolumay and Stelimus glared him down and, in response, the small deer chuckled nervously and covered his face with his helmet.

"I did this simply to get them to see what your kingdom looks like without preparations...Not that the others would say anything."

"But...If we're seen so broken..." He looked at Copper with worry on his face. "Wouldn't they see us as potential targets for a quick war?"

"Stelimus!" Copper scolded. "The princesses aren't like that!"

"I don't know about that." Stelimus gulped loudly. "I kinda...I kinda know about country leaders invading others under the guise of 'helping'."

Grimliss lifted an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Copper asked.

"I can't tell you."

"I'm your wife!"

Stelimus frowned at her. "We're not even married yet," he answered bluntly.

The mare became silent, crossed her forelegs, and pouted. "That's not a reason. I'm still your soon-to-be wife."

Grimliss rolled his nonexistent eyes.

"If you two are done with what will become your future, there's something standing in front of the throne room entrance." Yolumay pointed at the doors.

Two very tall ponies stood in the doorway. Both had the same horn and wings as Cadance but were white and night-blue respectively. Their appearances were quite strange compared to Cadance and even the other ponies. To be truly honest, Stelimus was quite terrified of the way they looked. They looked otherworldy and reminded him to much of the 'god-kings' he had grown to know. The reindeer guards moved out of the way, but was it because they were being professional or trying to show 'how much better' they were to ponies was a ebate for another time. Once in front of the podium, the two bowed respectively.

"Greetings, King Stelimus," the white one said.

"My sister and I have been bid an invitation from your uncle," the other added.

Both of them stood up and looked at the two directly. The white one had an uncomfortable smile on her face, something that made Stelimus feel like she was trying too hard to be a motherly figure. The blue one, on the other hand, looked very serious but somewhat lenient, something like the local goth kids of the schools Gregary's daughter would go to.

"No names?" Stelimus asked.

"We were getting to that," Luna said with an undertone of aggression.

The king and queen both heard and saw them mumble something but was the conversation was shot down by the white one who walked forward first.

"I am Princess Celestia of Equestria."

"And I am Princess Luna of Equestria."

"A diarchy?"

"Yes," Luna confirmed.

"So, why did my uncle invite you here? We weren't prepared for such a visit."

Grimliss stepped in front of the two, rather rudely, to answer. "I already told you why."

"No, you told Copper."

"And by association, I told you." Grimliss' smile crushed what would have been a face.

Celestia and Luna leaned to either side of the stag. "That is...basically it," Celestia added.

"I am also rather distraught to see a pony with a tundran deer."

"Luna!" Celestia scolded.

"What? It's true. They've never been kind once to our people no matter how many times we tried to open friendly relationships with them!"

Yolumay stepped in and cracked her neck audibly to gather the attention of the bickering mare. The sound made Stelimus cover his ears and cringe in pain.

"Yolumay! You shouldn't DO that! It's gross and can hurt you!"

"Pfff." The doe looked at her hoof. "With this corruption I can heal myself faster than normal."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've tested the extent of my new abilities personally."

Stelimus slumped in his seat and Copper forced back some vomit.

"That's too much information," Copper whined. "I don't want to think of what you inflicted onto yourself."

"Well," she let her warhammer flip and drop onto the floor and kicked the would-be assassins against the wall, allowing the guards to grab hold of them and pull them away. "I cu myself with various utensils, I--"

"THAT'S MORE than enough!" Stelimus complained.

"Can we focus?" Grimliss yelled.

"Oh! Right," Stelimus said. "Copper, let's get down there to meet them face-to-face. I don't like being on this podium."

The two did just that, but Luna still seemed suspicious of something.

"So, what happened to King Anglacite?" she asked.

Grimliss was checking his hooves to see if they had grown any. "He's dead," he answered as bluntly as always.

"Oh!" Celestia gasped. "I'm so sorry, Stelimus. I thought he stepped down."

Yolumay scoffed. "Like he'd ever do that."

"And I suppose one of you killed him then," Luna said. She chuckled in a taunting manner. "That wouldn't be too far from the way the tundran reindeer's society works."

"What was that?" Yolumay growled.

"You heard me."

Yolumay hopped down the elevated ramp on the side of throne room and went, quite literally, face-to-face with Luna to th epoint where they were now butting heads and horns.

"Is this more of the 'friendly aggression' of the reindeer I've heard so much about?" Luna hissed as she forced her head forward.

"Noooo. This is the 'friendly friendliness' of our society," Yolumay answered with a mocking tone of voice. "Maybe you should start 'singing' about how da mean deew wouldn't pway with you in da sandbox. You pony-song always start singing for the most mundane reasons."

Stelimus facehoofed.

"I'm sorry, Stelimus. I didn't know this would happen," Copper Blossom sighed. "Princess Luna was never like this."

Celestia chuckled. "You don't need to worry. Both of them seem to have similar personalities. They might become good friends in the future..." Celestia's assured expression quickly turned to worry. "I hope." She looked at Stelimus and realized that they were at eye level, something she found to be rather surprising. Then again, many deer were very tall compared to ponies, so she shouldn't really have been surprised by this. "Can I be so bold as to ask how he died? I worry because I don't know much about reindeer culture and am afraid I might insult you."

Stelimus opened his mouth to say something but didn't manage to even exhale that Grimliss spoke in his place. "I killed him!" he said with a raised hoof.

"WHAT?!" Luna shouted. She pulled away so quickly that Yolumay lost balance and faceplanted against the ground. "Why would you openly admit to that?"

"Because it's not something that concerns you. These were familial concerns. If you want to know more, you can always go to the Crystal Kingdom and ask Shining Armor."

"But--"

"Ask. Him," he insisted.

"So--" Celestia interrupted herself before speaking an unintentional pun.

"Princesses," Copper said. "I know this might be sudden, but perhaps you would like to come outside? There's a market this and today is its third day. I'm sure you would love to see the tundran reindeer culture and their baubles."

Celestia nodded. "I would be glad to see them."

"By the way," Stelimus asked as he leaned towards Celestia's mane. "What's with this stuff?" He passed his hoof through the pastel colored 'flag'. "Is this some type of holographic flag thingy?"

"N-no. That's my mane."

"Why does it flow like this? It looks like one of those 'Handsomen' that dramatically pose in front of power fans to make their hair flow behind them 'majestically' and entice you to think 'That's just beautiful'."

"What?"

Luna pulled her hair in front of her face to analyze it and ended up even more confused.

In the tundra, three figures wearing extremely thick, tan-colored cloaks approached the immense, frozen walls of the reindeer capital after trekking through the frozen wastes, and knocked loudly on the doors. Even with a blizzard raging the ringing of the metal could be heard for miles.

Wanna know what goes on in Grimliss' head on a constant basis?
[youtube=OZBWfyYtYQY]