Celestia sat inside the meeting room, anxiously shifting her weight from side to side as she stared at the huge, closed, golden doors. The meeting with the teenage griffin king Grifon was about to get underway shortly, and to say that she was nervous was an understatement because she had decided to make a rather large, and personal decision to benefit both her, and the young king. Celestia thought back to her “day off” with Luna and what she ended up doing after the tennis game had ended. Her ears drooped to her head as she let out a whimper, to say that she was ashamed of her actions was putting it mildly. She had actually gone out of her way to find the griffon empire, tear it out of the ground like it was a carrot, and destroy it by simply bumping into it with her hip, terrifying all of the creatures inside, particularly the young king. Closing her eyes for a second, Celestia thought back to that particular moment, when all of her unstoppable power and her insurmountable size had started to go to her head:
“Giggling like a filly, Celestia lit up her horn and a golden glow surrounded the griffon empire. There was a rumbling noise as the whole empire began to rise out of the ground, the entire domain on a portion of earth the giga sized sun princess had effortlessly plucked out of the ground like it was a weed. Celestia raised the empire to her face, looming over it, her face darkened by the sun behind her “Now really young king, you should learn to treat your elders properly. Didn’t your parents raise you better? Looks like somepony will have to discipline you.” Ignoring the tiny high pitched indigent squeaks coming from the little empire, Celestia simply levitated it a bit lower before turning around.
And promptly hip-checked it.
The whole mass of griffon empire exploded in a shower of dirt, dust, infinitesimal buildings, and fell to the ground after getting hit by Celestia’s gargantuan twin suns. The princess herself scanned the mounds of uprooted soil after it had settled before lighting her horn once more. This time the glow surrounded one single extremely tiny individual, Celestia plucked up the little King in her magic and lifted him to her eyes, sternly looking down at him like a disappointed parent “Now you listen here young cockerel, act better in the future. No more of that high and mighty nonsense in my castle when you come to negotiate, or you’ll be getting another visit from big ol’ me.” With a huff, Celestia stuck her nose into the air and flicked the little griffon king away with her magic. Grifon fell flailing into a lake and resurfaced. Only to just barely avoid being stepped on by Celestia’s colossal foot as she strode past Luna, who had been watching the whole thing unfold from the sidelines.”
Celestia re-opened her eyes and reflected on that moment “I really let all that power and size go to my head. Who do I think I am? Tirek?” She thought glumly, putting a hoof on her cheek and leaning against it with a tired sigh. But what bothered the sun princess even more was what her titanic self didn’t see after she had started to walk away from the ruined mess of tiny griffon empire. Specifically, Grifon’s face. Luna had told her about the look of pure terror that was in his eyes after Celestia had left, terrified of her overwhelming size, power, the overall cruelty of the act, and probably because she had almost squashed him while she was leaving. The young king knew full well that if Celestia had wanted to act meaner during the encounter, she could have done so without a second thought and there was absolutely nothing he could have done against her unstoppable might.
But after she had her epiphany while floating around in space, playing marbles with planets, she never did shrink herself back down to a more manageable size and right her wrongs as “Giantlestia.” She never went back to repair the damage she had done to the Griffon empire or the Minotaur kingdom she had carelessly swept away, or even apologize to that poor little colt she had terrified when she first gazed down onto the planet she held. Even though it was all a dream, like Luna said, it was not a good mindset to get into. She did wrong, so she should have gone back and corrected it. Perhaps use her unstoppable dream magic to repair the entire Griffon empire and Minotaur kingdom, and after she was done, shrink back down to normal size, find that poor colt, and console him for terrifying him.
But what disturbed Celestia the most was, in her drunken ecstasy of power, she brough up Grifon’s parents in a backhanded comment while she was taunting him “Now really young king, you should learn to treat your elders properly. Didn’t your parents raise you better? Looks like somepony will have to discipline you.” Grifon’s parents had passed away long ago, leaving the adolescent cockerelto ascend the throne at such a young age. But like with any kingdom, those in power saw an opportunity to seize more for themselves and did everything they could to try and get into the young king’s good graces so they could leach favors off him. Throughout most of his life, while Grifon still had his fair share of tutors and others who tried to guide him on the right path, like his parents, the overwhelming amount of bad influences around him from noble griffons trying to get more power was staggering. Leading to Grifon to adopt a similar mindset as them: rude, disrespectful, and spoiled. But deep down, Celestia had a feeling that Grifion only acted like that because he felt like he had no other choice. Because that was all he had known his entire life after his parents passed when he was still little.
Celestia had been a very good friend to the griffon royal family, she almost felt like another member of their family for the past few decades. But with so much that had happened in Equestra for the past few years; like Luna returning, Discord being set free, the Changeling invasion, The crystal empire reappearing, Tirek escaping, and the Changelings reforming, she had little to no time to keep up relationships with other nations properly. When she had heard of the griffon royal family passing away due to illnesses, it had been around the same time Luna had been fated to return, so she could only send a hastily written letter before Nightmare Moon confronted her and banished her to the moon an hour later. But there was no excuse now, she had been apart from Grifon’s life for too long now, she was practically his aunt for goodness sake! the casual disrespect the griffons showed her and the ponies working in the castle was partially her fault because she didn’t offer support to Grifon when he needed it, so he fell into a bad crowd for support. But the only times she had seen him was in formal settings. But that was going to change today, this, she was sure of.
Celestia was jerked out of her thoughts as she heard a knocking on the door. She looked up to see Luna, poking her head in though the opening, looking over at her. “Sister, it’s time. The delegates from the Griffon empire have arrived,” she said. Celestia nodded “Very well Luna, send them in please.”
Loud. That was really the only word that could be used to describe the delegate who had arrived. There were three total: The first was named Gareth, a new delegate. Well, to call him a delegate was being extremely generous. He was more of a noble griffon who bought his way into the government. Gareth had constantly pestered Grifon to become a delegate mostly so he could see places around the world for free and not have to pay for anything himself. He really didn’t know anything about politics, he was just there for the food and drink.
The second griffin delegate who had come was named Gemma. She was about as spoiled as they come. A constant daddy’s girl as Celestia found out, when Gemma wanted to take home Celestia’s antique tea set. When she refused, Gemma threw a fit and threatened to ‘call her father on her.’ How she convinced Grifon to allow her to come back was anyone’s guess. If Celestia was honest, her attitude bore a lot of resemblance to Ever Wealthy.
And the final delegate was Grifon himself, clearly the youngest present, at only 18 years of age. But as Celestia observed, his mannerism seemed to stem from the two around him, just as she suspected. The way he composed himself was like the two, his speech was alike, and his boisterous nature was similar as well. In Celestia’s opinion, this was less of a meeting, and more like a one-sided frat party. Gareth and Gemma were busy guzzling down the expensive wine Luna had laid out while Grifon helped himself to the entire biscuit tray. The three were loudly discussing amongst themselves all the policies they were going to talk to the “Old Mare” about. Celestia bristled at the comment, she’ll have them know she was no older than 1,100 years old! Definitely not that old. But that was beside the point. She had a job to do, and that was to reconcile with Grifon. Call it a personal friendship mission.
“Grifon, do you have a moment? I wish to speak with you,” Celestia asked, interrupting the trios’ lively conversation. They all blinked and made to stand up all at once, however Celestia held up her hoof “Not everygriffion, I wish to speak to Grifion alone please.” She said.
The others blinked and looked at each other before shrugging “Sure, you can have em” Gareth said uncaringly as he settled back in his chair and took another glass of wine, Gemma nodding as she went to do the same. Grifon’s ears drooped slightly at the harsh remark before he recomposed himself. Hopping out of his chair, he followed Celestia outside and down the hall, away from any prying ears hoping to eavesdrop.
“Ok, Celestia I’m here. Let’s get this over with,” Grifon grumbled “What do you want?”
Celestia paused, as she stopped in front of Grifon and took a deep breath “Grifon…I just wanted to talk to you. ACTUALLY, talk to you, because I feel as if I haven’t properly done that since you were a chick, learning to walk for the first time,” she said, looking out the window, smiling sadly, yet fondly of the memory.
Grifon looked confused “What are you talking about? I didn’t meet you until I became Emperor,” he said
Celestia shook her head solemnly “That is not true dear Grifon, I’ve known you since you were a baby,” she said, looking back into his eyes sadly “I used to be very close friends with your parents, they were practically a second family to me, I used to come visit all the time, not even for official business, but just to play with you and spend time with your family,” Celestia’s horn lit up and a picture frame popped into existence.
She lowered it slowly to Grifon, who took it in his claws, which was beginning to tremble slightly. There, on the photo frame was his familiar room back at his castle, decorated for Hearth’s warming eve. But around him, in holiday sweaters, was the smiling and laughing faces of his parents. Who were both standing on either side of a sweater wearing Celestia. And in Celestia’s hooves, grabbing onto her nose in the picture, was himself. A baby version of himself.
Tears began to gather around Grifon’s face for the first time in years, as faint memories of his beloved parents began to seep back to him slowly. He remembered them as loving and caring, always wanting the best for him, until one day, when he had come home from school, he was greeted not by the smiling face of his parents, but of the teary-eyed butler, who gently informed him of what transpired. From then on, his life seemed to be blur; an endless cycle of going to school, meeting with tutors, noble griffons coming to see him, and meeting up with friends so he could try to have some semblance of normalcy in his life. Gemma and Gareth were his friends too, right? He had met them recently and they offered to accompany him on his visits to Equestria so they could act as ambassadors and help talk about policies they could negotiate with Celestia and Luna.
Celestia watched as Grifon tried to subtly wipe the tears from his eyes and hide the sniffles as he slowly looked back up at her, a spark of anger beginning to grow in his eyes “Why now?” Grifon asked “Why bother talking to me now Celestia? If you were as close to my parents as you say, why didn’t you ever bother to write to me before in the past? Heck, why didn’t you even show up for their funeral?! You said yourself they were practically your second family!” Grifon ended with a screech, tears flowing freely down his face as he broke down sobbing, the weight of the moment finally bearing down upon him. Emotions he had kept repressed for several years finally burst out of him.
Celestia said nothing as she slowly walked up to the broken griffon, sat back on her hunches, and wrapped her forelegs and wings around him, pulling him into a warm hug. Grifon jolted at the sudden contact, resisting for a split second, before settling down into the warm fluff, wrapping his arms around Celestia’s barrel as she let him cry on her shoulder, letting him release years of pent-up sorrow.
When Grifon seemed like he had no more tears to shed, he just laid limp, still embraced in the hug as he sniffled slightly. Celestia moved her head over and began to gently nuzzle him as she spoke softly “I wanted to come see you so many times, but unfortunately, recent events have halted me from doing so. I see now just how unfair that must have been for you, how unfair I have been to you. When Luna returned, she needed all the support and love possible from me because she was still hurting from our last altercation over 1000 years ago, but I stayed by her side to make sure she was able to pull through all right. But I neglected the fact that there was one other who needed my support just as much as she did. Someone who had barely anyone there for him. Grifon, I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there to help you in the past, but with your permission, I would like to start now. Will you let me?”
Grifon looked up at her with wide eyes, hardly daring to believe it, before they hardened again “How do I know you won’t just take advantage of me and the crown?” He asked suspiciously. Celestia shook her head “I don’t, and never will, have any inclination of doing that dear. But if at any point you feel uncomfortable, then don’t be afraid to let me know and I’ll keep my distance if you’d permit it,”
Grifon thought for a minute, before a weak smile began to spread across his face “does that mean I get to call you Auntie Celestia?” he asked with a small laugh.
A smile broke across Celestia’s face as well “Of course, my dear nephew,” she said with a wink
Grifon began to hug her again tightly, a newfound sense of happiness coming over him at the family member he gained while Celestia allowed him to melt into her arms, content that she finally managed to reconcile with Grifon and that she had managed to remember Luna’s lesson. To be there for ponies and creatures in need. To give them the Celestia they could truly rely and depend on. After a few minutes of silence had passed between them, they finally broke apart, a wide smile adorned Grifon’s face as he shined with a new light, having seemed to have found a piece that was missing from him.
“Shall we head back?” Asked Celestia as she began to grin “I’m sure your two…friends have already finished off that wine bottle Luna left and have moved onto the biscuits,”
Grifon paused, before looking back at Celestia with an ashamed look “Princess, I’m really sorry about those two by the way. I know they aren’t the best and have terrible manners but if you could, allow me to deal with them when I get back to the empire,” he said “I’ll see to it that I can get actual dignitaries instead of griffons just trying to buy their way in,”
Celestia nodded “Of course dear, and if you need help with anything else, please don’t be afraid to reach out to me.”
Grifon nodded “Of course…auntie,” he said with a smile “I’m sorry for the way I acted before by the way,”
“No apology needed,”
“I understand. Now I believe we can go over the policies we wanted to review. Together.”
“That was so sweet of you Sister, becoming young Grifon’s auntie. Does that mean I’m his auntie now as well?” Luna asked playfully as she and Celestia watched the griffins fly away. The meeting had ended on a high note, with Grifon beginning to take the meeting more seriously and they had managed to negotiate several policies that will benefit both nations. Much to the annoyance of the two dead weights who had tagged along for a royal treatment.
Celestia giggled “why yes dear Luna, I believe that would make you his aunt as well. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to him so you can get to know your new nephew better,” she said happily
Next to them, the Minotaur dignitaries were getting into pony powered pulled carriages, as they too were set to be taken back to the train station. The meeting with them had gone extremely well too. Celestia had realized (from her brief encounter in her dream) that Chief Adonis greatly respect strength (as evidence from him challenging her when she was a giant) so the only way she could ever get the stubborn Chief to respect her, was to display her strength to all to see. And the way she was able to do that was very simple: challenge the chief to a hoof-wrestling contest in front of everypony. If she won, then the two would discuss negotiations in a very civil matter, and if she lost, then she would grant one of Adonis’ requests for free. Of course, Celestia being Celestia, easily managed to overpower Adonis in seconds, with the prideful chief not being able to move her arm an inch. But what surprised them all was the fact that usually hot-headed Adonis, simply smiled and congratulated Celestia on her victory, before proceeding to comply with her terms calmy. Luna guessed that all Adonis needed was to see firsthand was that all that talk of Celestia’s power wasn’t just talk, there was actually merit to it, and since the minotaurs respected strength so much, they were happy to work alongside somepony who could give their leader a good challenge.
As the two royal sisters watched the groups depart, Celestia looked to her side, there clutched under her wing was a small letter that Grifon had hastily wrote to her before he left. Inside, there was a list of all the things he wanted to write about in the future and all the things he wanted to stay in contact with her for. Celestia had offered to give him advice should he need it at any point which the young king gladly accepted from his parent’s old friend.
Celestia simply smiled as she looked across the horizon at the two departing groups she had once been at odds with. She had extended a hoof of friendship to them, and she was relieved that they had excepted. All she and Luna could do now was look to the future and face it together, with, of course, the help of their newfound friends and allies.