Celestia and Luna walked side by side down the empty castle halls, nodding to the occasional guard they passed by who performed a curt bow to their co-rulers. Soft rays of sunshine from the setting sun streaked through the stained glass windows situated against the hallway walls, casting a dull, golden colored illumination upon the pair.
“Well, dear sister, you’re looking quite regal for the Grand Galloping Gala preparations,” Luna mentioned. Luna arched a brow at the extra accessories added onto her sister’s appearance: extra eye shadow, red blush, bright crimson lipstick, a gown of the finest satin red that hugged her sides generously, and her mane dolled up into a ponytail that caused many an eye to stare at with astonishment.
“Oh, all I added was a touch or two of make-up. No big deal,” Celestia said, a small smirk brightening her face.
Luna tapped Celestia’s side with her shoulder and grinned. “Oh really? It wouldn’t have anything to do with Mister God Emperor of Mankind, would it?”
Celestia’s cheeks blushed even redder than they already were. “Geom? He’s just a guest is all.”
“A guest who just happens to be your date?”
“Well… uh…” Celestia bit her lip and turned the corner before Luna could spot the shadow of doubt in her eyes.
Luna hurried to her side, brushing the tips of her wing along Celestia’s back. “Tia, you haven’t even asked him yet?”
“Well… I’ve been busy is all.” Celestia shook her head slowly. “A-and with running the country and all of my other duties, I just haven’t had the time.”
Luna blocked Celestia’s way, looking at her sister with a disapproving frown. “Sister, sister, sister, I expected better from you. You’re over a thousand years old, and you still can’t even ask a guy out to a dance?”
“Hey, you’ve never asked a guy out either!” Celestia pointed out.
“That’s neither here nor there. Geom has been living in the castle for the past two weeks, and all the two of you have done is go out for coffee or walks through the park. And now you have the perfect shot at a truly romantic date with him, and you won’t even take it?”
Celestia shuffled her hooves, looking everywhere but her sister’s eyes. “I want to, Luna, I truly do. I’m just, well, how do I put this?”
“Scared?” Luna guessed.
Celestia snorted. “Scared? Of Geom? Heaven’s no, he’s one of the nicest, sweetest men I’ve ever met. I could never be scared of him.”
“From what I’ve heard of Twilight in Ponyville, he unleashed a power that outshines even you, dear sister.”
Celestia frowned. “I am not scared of his power, Luna, because I know he’ll never use it on me. I trust him, so I respect rather than fear him.”
“Then instead you fear what he’ll say perhaps?”
Celestia didn’t speak, instead, her head and ears drooping downward. That was all the answer Luna needed.
Taking a step forward, Luna lifted Celestia’s chin up with the tip of her wing. “Sister, you know that of course he’ll say yes if you ask him to accompany you to the Gala, right?”
“I do know that, Luna. I’m just not sure what else he’ll say…”
Luna titled her head, ears perked up. “Whatever could you mean?”
Celestia sighed. Her eyes shifted to the window, where the light of the sun upon the stained glass caused a rainbow pattern to fall on the floor. There, she stared for several seconds, the light becoming dimmer as time went on.
“Luna, I find Geom fascinating. The way he walks, talks, thinks, and even the way he looks, it all seems so… so… so perfect. Like he really is a god he proclaims himself not to be. Yet there’s something else behind that beauty and kindness. Something I’m not sure I want to see.” Celestia gulped, her eyes downcast. “He still hasn’t told me anything about his world. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because I don’t have the heart to ask him. After his performance at Ponyville, all I could remember was him in that dark void, fighting those monsters. Fighting them for 10,000 years, he told me. And I keep on asking myself why? Why did he fight these horrors, why doesn’t he return back to his people, who does he instead choose to remain here?”
“Yet you can’t ask him yourself?” Luna shook her head. “Celestia, do you fear his answers?”
Celestia nodded.
“Dear sister, your relationship with Geom cannot last unless you have it in your heart to grow closer to him. I’m sure he wants to open up to you, yet you yourself have to take the effort to reach out. If you truly believe that you two have a chance, then you’ll do it.”
Celestia’s head stayed low for a moment or two longer, but then her neck rose up so that Celestia’s smile met Luna’s own. “When did my little sister become so wise?”
“Romance novels, dear sister,” Luna said, turning around to trot onward. “Read a few dozen of those, and you understand this type of stuff in a cinch.”
“I would like to think that my relationship with a near god-like entity why I myself am an immortal alicorn princess is a bit more complex than what you’d typically find in a romance novel,” Celestia said, returning to her sister’s side.
Luna chuckled mildly. “Oh, Celestia, next to teen paranormal vampire romances, your relationship is one of the most clichéd.”
The God Emperor sat in his room, crossed-legged in its center. His eyes were closed and his breathing even and tempo with the beatings of his heart. He had no need for air anymore, but the action allowed him to easily slip into meditation.
As the universe spun in its perpetual motion around him, the Emperor was an unmoving island in the sea of existence. As the waves of Chaos broke and crashed against his shores, he stood tall in his eternal fortitude, never giving way to the all the storms the Warp had to offer.
Here was the prison he had spent the better part of ten millennia. Trapped in his undying battle against the forces of Chaos, he fought on a daily basis their gods, standing tall before the most vile and malicious power in the galaxy. He never gave way, lost ground, or even gave the merest hint of surrender against the Chaos Gods.
Yet even that was not enough to stop them.
Opening only his eye in the void of the most maddening darkness, the Emperor spotted the horrors that Chaos has caused. The Imperium of Man was broken and scattered, humans fighting on the very edge of extinction just to survive. Chaos never let up, throwing everything it had to stamp out one of the last forces of resistance against them.
However, even though the assault against the Imperium was relentless and the odds hopeless, mankind never gave up. In fact, they pushed against the forces of Chaos with equal levels of ferocity, mankind’s drive to survive a will that not even the mightiest Chaos Gods could shatter. The Emperor may have left mankind to stand on its own when he had died, but that did not mean mankind itself lost the will to live. In fact, with him gone, the Emperor noticed something new in his subjects.
A new reason to survive, perhaps?
The Emperor’s concentration was broken, however, before he could determine this answer. A knock at his door was the reason, so the Emperor got up to answer the door.
Celestia was there to greet him, looking positively resplendent in the most royal way possible. “Why hello there, Geom,” Celestia said.
The God Emperor bowed low to one knee, head now at eye level with the princess. “And a hello to you too, your majesty. Might I say you look quite ravishing this evening.”
Celestia’s blush spread all across her face and threatened to turn redder than even her lipstick. “Why thank you. Kind words from you are always a pleasure.”
“But not as much as a pleasure to give them, my dear.”
Celestia giggled, her laugh ringing like silver bells. “Oh wow, keep this up and you’ll have to be renamed the Emperor of Flattery from now on.”
The Emperor smirked, returning to his standing position, slightly crouched due to the low ceiling of his room. “Any title from you is an honor, Celestia. As is your presence, which I am guessing has something to do with the events planned for later tonight?”
Celestia coughed into her hoof and ended her merry chuckle. “Why yes, about that. The Gala will soon be upon us. Most of the nobles and social elites in Canterlot will be arriving there. Along with my student Twilight and her friends from Ponyville as well.”
“Ah, yes, I have fond memories of the pink one, who is conveniently named Pinkie if I recall correctly.” The Emperor shook his head and chuckled. “What a comical one she is. It will be quite the treat to meet with her once again.”
“Yes, well, I was hoping we could meet her together. If you’d be so kind as to accept my offer as to be my date to the Gala this evening.” Celestia turned her head away and bit her lip. “That is, if you have no other plans for this evening. I’d hate to be a bother.”
“A bother?” the Emperor asked, arching a brow while a smirk teased his lips. “Why, my dear, spending an evening with you beats any plan I could possibly conceive of. So that’d be a yes to accepting a date with the most beautiful mare in the universe.”
Celestia waved a hoof while her cheeks grew warm. “Well, I don’t know about the entire universe…”
He nodded. “Trust me, you are. I’ve seen the entire place.” He tapped a chin and shrugged. “Not as impressive as one would think.” Looking back down to Celestia, he said, “I’ll be just a moment, and then we can be off. I need to slip into some evening attire.”
“Wouldn’t your armor do?” Celestia asked, having never witnessed him dressed in anything but the foreboding battle armor.
“Not for a party. Let’s just say what I have in mind is going to wow everyone.” The Emperor winked. “And in more ways than one, I can guarantee.”