"SO, MY CHILDREN, LET US GET DOWN TO BUSINESS."

Celestia smiled as she stepped closer to her long-gone father. "Yes. Of course. We have much to catch up on. I'm sure you're wondering all that we have done since we assumed stewardship of Equestria."

If Solaris could actually move his head, he'd have nodded. "INDEED. FOR INSTANCE, HOW GOES THE GREAT CAUSE I CHAMPIONED?"

Celestia blinked, and while Luna looked to her with a knowing smirk, she herself remained nonplussed. "The...cause, Father?"

"YES. TAKE THAT PONY WHO WAS INSTALLING THIS DOOHICKY IN MY HEAD A WHILE BACK. I COULD NOT HELP BUT NOTICE THAT SHE WAS NOT, IN FACT, AN ALICORN."

Instantly, understanding came for the elder sister, and she glanced to Luna, who simply shrugged. "Well, sister? Do you want to tell him, or should I?"

Celestia grumbled, then forced a smile for her father's benefit. "Well, Father, I realise that idea was very important to you all those years ago, and I realise too that it would indeed be of great benefit to many ponies..."

"YOU HAVEN'T DONE IT, HAVE YOU?" Solaris interrupted.

Celestia, in a move she probably hadn't done in thousands of years, drooped her ears like a child being scolded. "Well...no, Father. I haven't."

Walking beside her, Luna patted her sister's shoulder before looking to their parent. "With respect, Father, we did attempt your great vision for a time after we assumed responsibility for this nation. But, after a while, we felt it might be for the best if ponies were allowed to live out their lives. To not impose some great standard upon them and pressurise them into becoming something they might not be ready or willing to become."

"WHO, IN THEIR RIGHT MIND, WOULD NOT BE WILLING TO BECOME AN ALICORN? IT IS THE ABSOLUTE PINNACLE OF PONY POTENTIAL, AND A GOLD STANDARD THAT ALL, FROM THEIR WAKING MOMENTS, SHOULD ASPIRE TO BECOME. DO NONE OF THEM APPRECIATE THE GREATNESS THAT WAS MY HOPES FOR OUR KIND?"

Luna rolled her eyes as she kept her voice quiet. "Here we go."

"IMAGINE IT, MY CHILDREN. A REALM FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH NIGH-IMMORTAL FLYING MAGES. A SHINING BEACON OF POWER AND GREATNESS THAT ALL OTHERS IN THE WORLD WOULD LOOK TO WITH AWE AND RESPECT. A NATION WHO RISES HIGH AND PUTS ALL OTHERS TO SHAME WITH THEIR SPLENDOUR."

Celestia nodded and sighed. "I'd almost forgotten how much you liked saying all that, Father...every, single day."

"YOU'RE DARN RIGHT I LIKE SAYING IT. AND I THOUGHT I'D ONE DAY WAKE UP TO FIND IT HAD BEEN DONE. APPARENTLY NOT."

Here, Celestia decided to refute him. "For your information, it's not as if there have been no new alicorns since our day!"

Solaris paused, but only for a moment. "OH? THEN TELL ME. EXACTLY HOW MANY ARE WE TALKING HERE? A THOUSAND?"

"...No," Celestia confessed.

"...A HUNDRED?"

"No."

"...FIFTY?"

Luna facehoofed herself. "Oh for the love of... it's three! There have been three new alicorns!"

"IS THAT IT? ALL THOSE CENTURIES AND THREE WAS THE BEST YOU COULD DO?"

Luna shrugged. "Well, technically speaking, Celestia only really guided one pony to alicornhood. The other sort of happened without us and the third was the child of the latter. So...yeah."

"...YOU KNOW, I ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT SOME PARENTS FEEL WHEN THEIR KIDS COME BACK FROM SCHOOL WITH AN 'F', AND NOW I KNOW."

Celestia rubbed her temples after that. "Practically bring him back from the dead and this is the thanks we get. Typical."

"VERY WELL, IF THE DREAM OF THE GREAT ALICORN RACE IS TO HAVE A PIN IN IT FOR NOW, THEN SO BE IT. BUT I HOPE AT LEAST YOU'VE SUCCEEDED IN HAVING EQUESTRIA TRIUMPH OVER ALL OTHERS?"

Both sisters looked to him with, if possible, even more unease than before. "Ah, yes. Part two of your grand scheme. World domination," Luna remarked with no small amount of sarcasm.

"I TOLD YOU ONCE AND I'LL TELL YOU AGAIN, LUNA. I AM NOT SOME CONQUERING WARLORD. BUT YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO THAT IT IS THE DESTINY OF PONYKIND TO STAND TALL ABOVE ALL OTHER PEOPLES OF THE WORLD. FOR EQUESTRIA'S FLAG TO FLY PROUDLY WHEREVER THE WIND BLOWS. FOR ALL WHO LIVE TO LOOK UPON OUR KIND WITH AWE, WITH WONDER, AND ABOVE ALL WITH RESPECT. THAT WAS MY DREAM. NOT SOME BASE POWER FANTASY OF WARMONGERING AND SUBJUGATION."

Celestia chuckled drily. "Oh, certainly, I can definitely see how your dream sounds totally different from the mindset of a conqueror. I don't know what we were thinking mistaking one for the other." Like Luna, her sarcasm was palpable in this moment, and the two princesses shared an amused look to one another. "You care to take this one, Lulu?"

Luna nodded briefly before looking again to the skeleton before them. "Well, Father, as you've no doubt assumed by now, that too is something we have yet to make happen. And I hope you realise that we weren't exactly comfortable with the idea of making everycreature in the world feel like they were subservient to us."

"I JUST HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT A LETDOWN THIS IS FOR ME. I GET STUCK HERE AS A SKELETON FOR CENTURIES, HOPING THAT ONE DAY MY DAUGHTERS WOULD MAKE MY HOPES FOR OUR PEOPLE A REALITY. AND WHEN I WAKE UP, WHAT DO I FIND? THAT EQUESTRIA IS IN EXACTLY THE SAME STATE I LEFT IT IN. ONE WONDERS WHAT YOU TWO HAVE EVEN BEEN DOING ALL THESE YEARS."

After the sisters looked to each other again, then turned, putting their backs to their father, with Celestia especially looking stressed with the whole ordeal. "Lulu, I love Father to bits, but I really don't know how much more of this I can take."

Luna nodded in agreement. "Indeed. He always was the type who was best in small doses." She tapped her chin. "But we can't just leave him here alone."

Celestia pondered that. "True. He needs someone to stand beside him now that he has returned. He needs a guardian. A..." She smiled. "He needs a custodian!"

Luna scoffed. "I was going to say 'glorified babysitter', but your word works too."

After that, Celestia appeared deep in thought. "But who could we get who'd be willing to put up with him just because a princess asked them to?"

At that exact moment, the doors of the chamber creaked open, and a familiar, armoured pegasus entered, bowing instinctively to the elder alicorns. "Excuse the intrusion, my ladies. But Princess Twilight heard you had returned to Canterlot, and so wished me to bring you to her so you may speak."

The two sisters blinked to him, looked to one another, then looked back to him with a shared mischievous grin. "Mr Sentry...how would you feel about a promotion?"

Well, wouldn't be a TTS homage without a golden boy to soak up all the craziness