The first thing Celestia noticed was the smell, a strange stench washing over her as the doors opened before her, almost like someone neglected using a mint and proceeded to breathe with all their might. It took Celestia's years of experience to not gag at the smell’s strength.
Her eyes scanning the room for the source of the odd scent, her sight got fixed to a figure in the room.
Sitting at a table within the center if the room sat a lone stallion.
He was rather uninteresting to look at, an earth pony in stature, mane combed over in a fashion that many old folk do to hide their retreating hair lines, the faint grayness of his hair more pronounced near the edges where stifled and groomed by far too many hair products, giving it an almost shiny-like appearance, a nice pairing to the brown fur of his coat.
He was wearing typical attire for one in a meeting such as this, a normal plain business suit that undoubtedly cost more than what most of Celestia's subjects could afford in a year. It's dark grey hue, while matching well with the old fellow's hair, clashed almost sinfully with the colours of the rest of the room.
The stallion was flanked by another figure, female by the looks of it, a unicorn, she was dressed less than regally when compared to the stallion but nonetheless held the same amount of refinement as the stallion beside her. Dressed in a simple business dress with a pair of glasses almost too big for her face, the simple outfit meshed well with her light blue fur.
Probably the ponies I came to meet Celestia figured.
Upon her entrance the couple in the room seemed unaware of her presence, seemingly in their own world with their discussions about various subjects, barely registering their surroundings, preferring instead to muse among one another, until one of the Guards by the door that had followed Celestia in, spoke up.
"Her royal majesty, Princess Celestia, has arrived!" He announced with authority. His voice echoing throughout the room, Celestia internally cringed at the enthusiastic amount of loudness put into the shout, her sleep-deprived ears still picky about the volume they get subjected to.
Almost immediately the pair snapped to attention and faced Celestia, seemingly pulled out of their little world in an instant. Their faces each held a neutral expression and they regarded the Princess. Standing up, they both bowed out of respect before rising again in an almost uncanny unison, before the old stallion let a small smile loose on his face.
"It's so nice to meet you Princess," he said with genuine pleasure, his voice filled with an energy almost unfitting for one his age, "I was beginning to worry we had missed our appointment."
"Oh, no need for concern, I assure you," Celestia responded, smiling with all the strength she could muster to combat the strains of sleep. "It was my fault for arriving so late, the castle has been somewhat busy as of late.”
Understatement of the century the back of Celestia's mind snarked. She could almost feel the eye rolls of the guards surrounding the room at her comment.
She didn't blame them.
"Nonsense! Such matters need not damper her highness, such matters should be typical of a castle." The old stallion said, almost without a second thought.
You have no idea. Celestia slightly smirked.
Making a gesture with his hands the old stallion beckoned Celestia over to the table.
"Please join us so we may get started, your majesty. We both are very probably busy people after all, so let's not delay!" The old man said this while continuing his beckoning, almost comically so as if he was unaware to the extent his arms were moving.
Letting out a chuckle at the enthusiasm, but mostly display, the stallion was performing, Celestia made her way to her spot at the table, a giant stone platform too big to have any right to be called a chair lay dormant at the end of the table, cushions littered around the seat almost excessively, a giant sun engraved near the top.
Reaching her chair flanked by two guards at either side, Celestia sat down with a less-than-graceful flop. Maintaining enough dignity to pass as acceptable but nonetheless careless.
It took Celestia all of her will to not fall asleep into the comfort the cushions gave her tired self.
Before her will gave out the old man broke the silence.
"Okay now let's get to business Princess." his loud voice snapping Celestia out of her brief stupor. Regaining her composure and steeling herself for the final meeting of the day, Celestia sat as upright as she could and gave the stallion as much attention a sleep-craving brain could, trying to ignore the somewhat rude opening the stallion just used.
"Very well sir let us start." Celestia responded with somewhat genuine longing for the end of the meeting already,
"As you wish your majesty." the old man replied before snapping his fingers. Almost immediately, the mare who had been silently, staring at the two behind him snapped to life nearly in an instant, with a brief glow of her horn and a small spark a stack of paper materialized in front of the assistant.
Snatching the papers out of the air with her magic, the mare levitated the papers over to Celestia, placing them on the table in front of her with a small thud, with not a single paper out of place. Satisfied, the stallion, with a wave of his hoof, the mare returned to his side without a word, like a ninja she strolled back to his side, her footsteps nearly inaudible.
Creepy.
Taking the papers laid out in front of her, taking care to not disturb the organization the ninja mare had left them in, Celestia levitated them up to her face. Her eyes skimming the pages through her magic's golden glow.
Once the old stallion had seen this, his attitude had taken on a far more solemn stance, the cheer seemingly evaporating from him. Even Celestia felt somewhat disgruntled at the sudden change in the stallion before her. Then he began to speak in a far softer yet authoritative manner.
"To get straight to the point, our employer has asked us to discuss some advertisements regarding his corporation." He began as if rehearsed endlessly to perfection, "to be brief we hope we can resolve this manner as fast as possible."
Raising an eyebrow at the discreteness of the stallion, Celestia spoke up.
"Your employer? Are you not the stallion who owns this corporation?"
Raising the papers slightly for emphasis, having only barely gotten through the second page, nothing of interest yet, just liabilities and rights.
"Goodness no Princess, I am not." The old man said, almost appearing appalled at being compared to this mystery man. As if it was like a man being compared to a god.
Maybe i should have read that list more…
Raising an eyebrow at this Celestia continued.
"May I inquire as to who your employer may be then? It would certainly make these negotiations far simpler if we met face to face."
Celestia knew something was up from the anonymous nature of the employer and the business stallion in front of her’s cryptic attitude, but she had yet to sense any malicious intent from them, and from her years of experience she knew pressing for information in such a matter was a no go.
Wincing a little at her comment, the old stallion fumbled in place a little, his eyes rolling slightly in contemplation. After slightly more shifting he seemed to light up at receiving an idea.
"For personal reasons our employer has opted to remain anonymous, he is very fond of his privacy, so I'm sorry Princess, but I'm contractually obligated to not disclose his name, seeing as how I don't even know it." The stallion finally got out.
Celestia was not unfamiliar with business ponies doing this, it would seem that they would prefer to have absolute anonymity from contracts. Most likely to try and avoid the full weight of any public or legal outcry at the deal.
While not illegal to do so it is somewhat frowned upon by the legal system, but it would seem that despite the nonsense that has ensued before due to this legal grey area, the nobility are unwilling to make any changes.
Most likely due to the massive repercussions of being completely transparent.
Guess there's no beating it then, too tired to care. Celestia mused. Once again it would seem that nothing has changed, nobles refusing to help the little guys in favor of keeping themselves safe.
After gazing through the pages some more, Celestia decided to press a little.
“May i inquire as to what your names are then?” Celestia figured that she might as well test her luck, as she was growing somewhat tired of the guessing game that was ensuing around this meeting.
With a minor pause and a look of contemplation, a brief awkward moment followed Celestia’s request, then letting loose a smile the stallion nodded his head in an obedient bow.
“Of course, your highness. My name is Busy Body,” letting loose a shrug he gestures to the mare beside him “and this is my assistant Rosa Booker.”
At the revelation of her name the one called, Rosa Booker let loose a mild head nod towards the princess before seamlessly resuming her military-like stance beside the old stallion.
Smiling a little at the small victory and her information gain Celestia glanced back to the somewhat-neglected piles of papers on the table, having forgotten about them for a moment.
Picking them up, Celestia resumed from her place within the pile of papers, briefly skimming through a seemingly endless chart of liabilities and conditions and the typical legal requirements of a advertisement deal such as this. Though, to her surprise, it had yet to disclose what, exactly, they were planning on advertising.
Figuring it would be further in the pile, Celestia sped up her speed reading of the legal agreements of the document, having grown used to what they would normally say.
About three quarters of her way through, the papers suddenly took on a different color, the usual browning grey of parchment was replaced by a slick black smooth paper, smooth enough that Celestia had to strengthen the grip of her hands to keep it from slipping.
Though what drew Celestia’s attention more than the quality of the paper was the big bold letters covering the top half of the page. With a series of words written underneath each letter.
E.M.W.L.
Equestrian Mares Wrestling League.
“And this brings us to the roots of our meeting” the old stallion spoke up, noticing the Princess turning to the page. “I was hoping we would get to this soon.”
“The Equestrian Mares Wrestling League?” Celestia repeated what she read on the paper, slight confusion in her voice. Celestia was really wishing she had read the briefing more thoroughly now, having no idea this meeting was for something like this.
“Yes your majesty, this is the company we have come to represent.” Busy Body replied, picking up on the Princess's confusion.
Reading further ahead to the next page, the document held what was a complete hundred eighty degrees from what was beforehand, no legal rights were in sight, but instead a series of reviews and charts were scattered neatly throughout the paper.
What stood out about the charts Celestia noticed that every one of them had something in common, they each displayed a decrease in something.
“As you may be able to tell by the charts, our company is losing money. It would seem that despite the massive amount of popularity we have, we can barely cover the funds of hosting each match.” Busy Body said grimly. “We are on the verge of bankruptcy at the peak of our popularity. It would seem that ponies have found ways to see the matches without having to go to the arena.”
Abruptly standing, Busy Body began a slight pace around his side of the table, face twisted into a deep and concerned look.
“Every advertisement we have made seems to be only minor gain for long term loss, costing more then they make us… having celebraties visit us, posters on every street, even once having every billboard in the city showcasing our sales and deals of prices for our business has cost us more than it made us.”
His voice growing ever more passionate with each word he said, a big contrast to the confident stallion Celestia saw when she entered, his concern for this business was apparent from miles away, his increasingly exaggerated words seemed almost unintentional to Celestia.
Even the silent mare beside him seemed just as invested as he was, though she hadn't said a word, her eyes seemed to be just as passionate as the ranting stallion.
Busy spoke up once again.
“We had hoped that this final attempt at advertising and promotion would be able to pull us out of tor downfall, we are prepared to offer our biggest amount of money yet to you in exchange for what we ask.” he gestured for Celestia to turn the page once again, almost as if his life depended on it.
Having a sneaking suspicion at what the stallion was requesting, Celestia turned to the next page at the stallions silent request. There in front of her in bold and clear font was something she would have never expected a company like this to pursue.
‘The E.M.W.L cooperation humbly requests that our royal highness princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna attend the latest match hosted in our facilites tomorrow night, we are prepared to cover any and all expenses that may come of this.
We hope you consider our request.
From V.M.
I should have known
It was not completely uncommon for businesses to request the princesses’ appearance at one of their hosted events, though usually it was the sort of festivities or events that were somewhat small in scale, or relatively quiet in nature. She had never received a request to attend something like this in a very long time.
“So what do you say Princess? Will you and your sister attend?” Busy asked, his eyes almost seeming like a child begging for a cookie.
Regaining her thoughts Celestia prepared her response, deciding to play this by the books as of now, though deep within her, a growing feeling began nagging at the back of her mind.
Something different...
“While I appreciate your offer Mr. Body. Wouldn't it be wiser to consult Luna on such matters? I cannot think for my sister after all. Besides, she is the one in charge of any night going activities.”
Giving a sheepish grin Busy seemed to have a slight bashful smugness about him.
“Actually Princess, we asked her before we asked you.” Rubbing the back of his mane with his hand. “And she was very much enthusiastic about it too, take a look”.
Gesturing for the mare behind him to come forward again, she produced another piece of paper seemingly out of thin air, and approached celestia with it, her stoic expression still ever present on her face, though once again her eyes betrayed her by having a faint glow to them.
I should have known
Taking the papers from the mare Celestia glanced at the writing on it, in bold font was the exact same message left to her by Busy, the only difference was swapping places of names and appropriate vocabulary. With Luna’s unmistakeable writing proudly on top of the space for her agreement signature.
Celestia wouldn't have guessed that Luna would have had any interest in a sport such as wrestling, though then again she was enthusiastic about sports as a young mare. And she had a colorful history of joining things without her sister being informed.
Sighing, Celestia handed back Luna’s agreement paper using her magic to Busy, seemingly out of nowhere Rosa snatched it out of the air with the grace only gained through years of practice, Busy barely flinched at this, as if used to this.
“So… I assume everything is in order then?” Busy inquired, that filly-like look returning to his face. “Can we expect you to join us tomorrow night?”
Letting out a small sigh Celestia nodded her head.
“Very well Busy Body, I believe it is settled then, my sister and I shall make our appearance to your festivities tomorrow night”
Celestia’s horn began its golden glow, before a small poof appeared over the paper, a small pen being levitated by magic began writing Celestia's signature over the paper. From the corner of her eye, she could see Busy getting happier and happier with every letter she wrote on the contract. Even Rosa seemed overjoyed at this, at least as joyful one can be while mimicking a statue.
A smile which got uncanny in size once Celestia finished writing, with a small flash the pen disappeared and Celestia levitated the papers to Busy, but unlike before Rosa didn’t snatch the papers out of the air, instead it would seem Busy himself wanted to hold the document.
“I cannot express how happy both myself and the company I represent you have just made Princess.” Busy said with a bow filled with enthusiasm. “We will see to it that your visit is as comfortable and enjoyable as possible”.
Standing up, Busy and Rosa began to make their leave, with a final bow they walked towards the door Celestia came though, the guards instinctively opening it in mere moments with trained perfection, turning around Busy muttered a final word to Celestia.
“Thank you.” He said with a smile and a small wave, before the door closed behind him.
What have I gotten myself into?
Sighing in relief that the weird meeting was at its end, Celestia stood up and she too began to make her way out of the meeting room.
Her mind racing over the events that had just transpired. The stallions jumping from one personality to another and his seemingly desperate need for Celestia to sign the paper had left her in some confusion, but no shortage of intrigue as well.
He seemed almost too well prepared for this, Celestia couldn't decide if the speech Busy made was a well-rehearsed act or genuinely came from his heart, it seemed almost flawless in delivery yet filled with emotion as well. And the fact he had convinced Luna beforehand to sign his papers.
Perhaps I should consult with Luna Celestia thought, just wanting to make sure nothing out of order was occurring. She made her way through the castle in search of her sister.