“Page, would you happen to know why I have gotten complaints from the nobles that you used dark magic on them during court?” Celestia asked as I closed the door behind myself, entering her chamber. She were sitting by her desk, papers floating in her magic as she shifted through them before putting them down when I walked inside.

“Hello to you too, Sunshine,” I said and then moved to pour myself a cup of her tea, “Likely because I did. If you want to be technical about it.”

She dropped the papers and looked at me in surprise, “What!?”

“I mean, the shadows formed from the illusion were dark and the room did get darker,” I admitted with a smile, “So, technically ‘dark’ magic. But if you’re meaning actual dark magic, then no.”

Celestia sighed and shot me a small glare, “I suspected as much. Did you have to do that?”

“...Well technically no,” I admitted and shifted my wings as I sipped my tea, “But it was really funny.”

She raised her wings quickly, “Page!”

I frowned at my cup, “It was to get them to actually shut up.”

Celestia glared at me for a second before she flicked her ears and folded her wings, shaking her head, “I suddenly understand my sisters tendency to bite your ears.”

I smirked and sipped my tea before I looked to her, “Don’t they understand there is a war on?”

Sighing softly again, Celestia shook her head, “I am afraid that might be my fault,” she said softly.

I looked at her, “Huh?”

Celestia sipped at her cup of tea for a moment before she answered, “Equestria has not seen war in… a long time. Hundreds of years. They don’t know what it’s like. To them war is stories in history books, heroes and ponies in gleaming armor.”

“...Yeah, I suppose can see that,” I said and flicked my ears before I frowned and sipped my tea again, “Maybe I did go a bit overboard with the shadow thing. I just tried to restore some order. I’m sorry.”

“Everypony is under a great deal of stress right now,” she said and moved out from behind the table, walking to look out the window over the garden, her cup floating in her magic next to her.

I moved to stand next to her, “Do you really think it will come to…” I started to say before I sighed, “actual open warfare?”

Celestia hesitated before she shook her head with another small sigh, “I… I just don’t know, Page. We are the closest we have been for a very long time. I think it depends on how… receptive the Storm King is to your application of dream magic.”

Oh great. So no pressure there.

“So what now?” I asked and shifted my wings, sipping my tea, looking out into the sunlight, “Just wait?”

Celestia hesitated for a split before she nodded, “We wait.”

“What?”

She blinked and looked at me in surprise, “What do you mean, Page?

I flicked my ears, “You hesitated,” I said as I studied the larger alicorn, “when you said we were going to wait.”

Celestia shook her head and turned back towards the garden outside, “You are getting almost uncomfortably good at that.”

“At guessing what you are thinking?” I asked with a smile, “No, I just read minds.”

She looked at me in surprise and then snorted softly in amusement, “Very funny, Page.”

“A little funny at least,” I said with a small smile and shifted my wings again, “Well?”

Celestia sipped her tea again, looking out into the garden before she looked to me again and frowned, “It would be good for the Guard if somepony visited the border facing towards the Storm King's territory along with additional reinforcements.”

“...That does sound like a good idea,” I agreed as I nodded and finished my tea. An alicorn walking among them, raising morale would hardly hurt things, if anything it would help a lot.

“And something you are absolutely not doing,” Celestia said and turned to look at me firmly, her wings rising as she floating her own cup away to set it down on a table, “You are too vulnerable and valuable to put in that kind of danger.”

I looked at her in surprise, “That’s a rather unfashioned view for you to have there, Sunshine,” I said, “Especially for somepony that has an all male guard.”

“...Those views, while barbaric now, were perfectly natural while I grew up,” Celestia said and looked to me firmly, “And they had a real reason then. There were even fewer stallions per mare than there are now because the world was a lot more dangerous and many didn’t make it until adulthood. If too many were lost, the family or maybe even the tribe couldn’t survive among the rest. I pushed to change that along with my sister once we formed Equestria. That was one of the reasons for my Guard! So show that colts could handle themselves and didn’t always need to be protected.”

“I know,” I told her, “I read the history books and heard the real stories from Luna.”

Celestia nodded and then moved closer with a small sigh and giving my right ear a small nuzzle, “...But… we can’t lose you, Page. It has been close several times already. The invasion was just the latest one. You are the only alicorn stallion in the world, Page. We… we can’t lose you, Page. We just can’t risk you like that.”

As much as I disliked it, I had to admit that she had a point. There were only five alicorns… six now if you counted Midnight... and I was the only male. It wasn’t the same as if I had been the last earth pony or something, I wasn’t sure alicorns even worked like that, but…

“Who’s going?” I asked, looking up at the larger alicorn.

“I was thinking to ask Twilight,” Celestia said and smiled a bit down at me, “What do you think?”

I thought about that for a moment, scraping my hoof against the floor in thought before I slowly nodded, “I think Cadence would be better, but she had her own Empire to worry about and she has already gone through a lot,“ I said and flicked my ears, “Twilight would do a good job.”

Celestia nodded and gave my ear a small nuzzle, “Thank you.”