Chapter 3
The purplish black night sky was almost starless as the moon shined down upon the grand Castle of the Alicorns. For as long as most could remember, it’s stood as a beacon as well as a home for well refined royals. A symbol of their own strength that has carried throughout the generations. Columns of gold and walls of pure Ivory. It stood grander and larger than any other as it looked down upon the builds around it. As if the very divine carved and created this masterpiece. Windows taller than the doors of most smaller buildings. The grand front doors were even more so, as they stood taller than a small shack that would be found upon the earth grounds. They too glimmered with pure polished gold. Tonight, they open for it’s ponies.
Due to the fact that her father was a sort of messenger for the council and for the Empress herself, they were one of the first of families to show up. Celestia gazed upon the inside of the Castle with awe and wonder. It truly was a marvel. The massive long carpet alone was a dark red with a brilliant golden border. It was also surprisingly quite, safe for Luna’s giggling and jumping about. Like Celestia, it was little Luna’s first time in the grand Castle as well. The same could not be said for their parents of course as their mother tries to calm the energetic nature of her little sister with whispers of silent. Their father, who looked far more serious than he is at home, walked before them leading the way. He had on his normal uniform while the rest of them were dressed quite formal dresses. After all, one does not simply walk about in the nude in the presents of her Majesty. Her mother had on a long flowing dress of almost a cream like color with hints of pink and green around the bottom. Her sister’s attire was of a puffy dark blue with star sparkles with puffed up sleeves. Now her dress was more similar to mother’s only with shorter sleeves and a golden necklace with a purple glittering gem.
Soon they were in front of a large set of doors with blue and purple squiggly lines. They had this sort of pretty pattern to them. With his magic, her father opened the closed doors to reveal a giant room. The room had several rows of seats that sat upon rows and rows of balconies. There were almost five, maybe six balconies all around them. All facing a round area in the middle of the room. It was on the lowest floor with a round table. There were around twelve or so chairs. Then, as she and her family walked down the one of the aisles, Celestia spotted a single golden throne against the farthest wall.behind the table. It had a large red cushion and looked as miraculous as the Castle itself. Celestia smiled as she finds herself on the bottom floor.
Her father guides them to an section of seats that are located on the bottom floor, theses seats were almost cut off from the other sections of seats. She sat down where her mother and sister sat while her father stood by the throne, looking a little nervous but still quite serious.
After almost 10 minutes of just sitting in her seat, being extremely bored after a while, more ponies started entering the room. Most of them sat in the higher up sections while only a few ponies came down the bottom floor. Either those ponies came alone or with one or two of their family members. The members of their families sat at the same section as Celestia, her mother and sister. After a while, she spotted Written Way and his uncle and aunt come down. She waved. Written Way tried to wave back but his aunt told him to put his hoof down and to turn back to face the front. She frowned a little but then suddenly she heard the sound of blaring horns go off. She turned to face the door that was located on the bottom floor. Aura’s of magic opened the double doors to reveal her royal majesty; Empress Radiant Gold.
Celestia never got to see the Empress up close before. If ever she say the Empress, it was always in some sort of grand event where she was standing in the crowd while the Empress was on some sort of platform. If the Empress stood completely still, she almost looked like a golden statue instead of a real live pony. Red Rays of the sun came from her head and tail. Eyes were the same color as a fresh picked red apple. Cutie mark…Well, she couldn’t really see her majesty's cutie mark. Whenever she made some sort of appearance, she wore some sort of large gown that when trailing behind her. Jewels of all kinds adored her neck. And her crown. Oh how it glimmered in the light as the reddest of rubies was engraved in the center. Seeing her up close, she looked even more radiant.
However…
Now Celestia didn’t want to be rude.
No.
Not even in her own thoughts.
But…
The Empress enter the room with guards standing by her side. Everypony stood and bowed to her, including Celestia after she stopped gawking. Then after, the Empress sat down upon her throne, then everyone else sat back down.
The room, by this point, was filled to the brim with alicorns of all kinds. From the classes of the simplest farmer to her royal majesty. The table in the middle of the room was also full. Celestia looked up only to see her father sitting right next the Empress herself. He sat on the ground with only a small blanket under him. She was quite surprise to say the least. Everypony else had somewhere to sit, even the guards had stools if then need to rest! She looked around but no pony else paid mind. Even her mother looked not at her husband but at the Empress. Celestia turned to face the Empress once more seeing how it no other saw any harm done.
The room grew quiet.
Very quiet.
….
….
….
“Good citizens of the empire,” said one council member finally who stood up and face the crowd “Most all of thee are wondering as to why such a meeting, as of this one, is taking place tonight.” He paused for a moment then continued, “It has come to this council's knowledge that the three tribes of the Unicorn, Pegasi, and Earth; are still fighting with one another. For generations, this has been going on. It has gone on long enough. The Empress had a vision.”
Loud suddenly gasps of shock were heard echoing throughout the room. Celestia was not exception. It was well known throughout the empire’s history, that even before the existence of said empire, alicorn visions are not only important but rare. One or two alicorns in each few generations have the gift to see into the future. However, the visions are difficult to summon much less see. It is said that if you were one of the gift ones, even you could only see so much of said vision for it was also so blurring that it would take an alicorn of great strength of mind, body, and soul. For the Empress herself to have the gift was nothing less than extraordinary.
The member continued, “In this vision of the future, she sees destruction and chaos; buildings topped over, cries in the streets, massive storm clouds of snow and ice covering the lands. Ponies frozen in pure ice. As you can clearly see by this terror of what's to come, this is of course caused by the tribes.”
More gasps were heard.
Even louder than before.
“How is this possible you may ask? The Empress made it clear that her visions were quite vague as to how but is quite clear that the tribes are to blame. Such actions of war. Ice and snow is the weapon of choice. They fight to protect but yet endanger their own while doing so. By the end of it, the lands that are ancestors once ruled over will be a literal frozen wasteland!”
Celestia heard cries of anger and rage among the crowd as hooves stamped onto the ground. It was getting too loud so the guards had to quiet down some of the really rowdy ones by having them leave the room.
She looked up to see the Empress in more pain than before. Her eyes alone had the look as if they were filled with worry.
Her father did not look any different than before however.
Still serious.
Still quite.
It looked so wrong.
When it got down to a reasonable level of noise, a few more members of the council got up to walk next to the speaker.
“Thus, with all this in mind. There still is the matter of what we should do about this. What we should do to prevent this grand war of ice and blistering snow. It is in the best interest of all pony kind that this must be prevent by only the mightiest of the races. The only one that knows the true ways land, the clear masters of the skies and the magical elements of the world. Theses other races, they are only good at one thing. That thing is to populate the world with useless waste, to destroy this world’s foundation with their very presence. In other words, it is clear what must be done…”
The angry alicorn speaks this next words.
“The three tribes must meet their judgment day.”