The ground was red with blood. The sky hazed with a black smoke from countless blazes tearing asunder a land that was once green with life. Death had a stench that could be sensed for miles. Zebras and Griffons alike lay lifeless on the fields of what used to be farm land. Screams of agony and suffering resided through the landscape as officers on both sides did damage assessments. One Zebra general braved the sea of death. He was decorated in full uniform, with medals all across his front. A helmet with two stars capped his head and an entourage of junior officers followed in his wake. He wore a pistol on one side of his belt and a bull-whip on the other. His presence struck fear in any enemy his troops faced. He was fierce in battle and his soldiers had intimate respect for him. For this general, war was his life.
As his hooves connected to the ground, so did his mind connect to what had just happened. The battle was over, but the war seemed endless for him. He was losing too many troops and too fast. Even though his campaign against the griffons had technically been successful, no officer who lost this many soldiers would consider it a victory. The griffons fought too relentlessly for the Zebras to ever have a true victory: with no Zebra deaths.
As the medics finally arrived to the scene, some of his men finally caught a glimpse of hope. Their leader, however, knew that no hope was to be found here. More would die if he didn't do something.
He finally made his way to the epicenter of where the battle raged on a few hours ago. It was truly a nightmare. Machinery and weapons broken and smoking. Bodies lay in heaps and pseudo-graves being dug by survivors. He stood there in silence, watching the blood seep onto his freshly shined boots. The blood that he caused to be spilled. He looked to his aid and said,
"Get me Celestia."
War might have been raging in a far away land, but Equestria was untouched by the ravages of violence. In fact, Equestria hadn't been at war in hundreds of years.
Which is exactly why both sides asked Princess Celestia to come and try to make peace with the stubborn nations. Mediating peace talks was an honor only given to the wisest leaders in the world and Celestia did not take such an honor lightly. She would represent peace and amnesty, and maybe teach a lesson to the more... barbaric nations.
She could imagine herself going to the talks and forcing the two nations into peace, much like forcing two bratty foals into sharing toys. She would wear her regalia to represent the refined qualities her nation possessed. She would refrain from yelling and only talk in a smooth, calm tone. She would be an example to the other nations of what a true leader acted like.
Whilst she sat in the day courts listening to two ponies dabble on a matter that no one cared about, Celestia felt a smile coming upon her face. She caught it just in time before the expression took over. Usually nothing made her so wild and giddy, but this was special.
This is going to be good, she thought.
No matter the outcome of the talks, Celestia would look good. If they made peace, they would see her as a motherly figure who intervened on their behalf. If they went back to fighting, she could cast her legendary disappointment upon them. If the leaders went to arms in the talks, she could disarm them with her magic. In fact, she could show that new Griffon leader that Celestia would hold her own in a 1v1 duel. That could knock that giant chip off of the Griffon's wing. Of course, hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
But being the most powerful thing alive did kind of negate any anxiety towards fighting, so she would be fine.
No, she thought. This will be perfect.
This DID however leave a problem for the great Sun Goddess. With her gone for possibly weeks, she needed to find a pony that could keep the kingdom running while she was gone. Now a few centuries ago, Celestia might have just picked her highest ranking general, or her top adviser.
However, a few centuries ago her sister was still on the moon.
It would be a dishonor to not have Luna run the kingdom... right?
Suddenly that smile wasn't fighting for room on her face anymore.
A knock sounded off at Luna's door. Still sleeping, Luna tossed in her bed.
Another knock presented itself, this time a bit louder.
Luna groaned out, "Stargazer! Tis too early for such frivolities!"
The door opened and moments later a hoof poked Luna's shape in her bed.
With a giggly groan Luna complied with, "Alright then, Star. If you insist."
Celestia spoke out, "Luna, it's me. Stargazer is on vacation, anyways."
Luna, still completely underneath her covers, suddenly changed her mood. "Well now," she quipped. "This is most disappointing."
"Luna you were supposed to be up three hours ago." Celestia ripped the covers off of Luna's bed.
Luna took the covers with her magic and wrapped herself in them like a cocoon. "I shall leave this room when the Royal Body is ready to its fullest!"
"Luna," Celestia pleaded. "You know you won't be able to sleep when I'm gone! You acting like this just makes me worry."
"Sister!" Luna shouted as she peeped her head out from the cocoon. "How is one to function with no sleep for weeks at a time?"
Celestia's face fell into a disappointed slack. "I don't know Luna, I slept once per year while you were gone. It's not that difficult."
Luna eased her head back inside the linen shield. "Tis not our fault, is that?"
"Well you did try to kill me," Celestia droned. "So yes, it pretty much was your fault."
"Tis too early in the morn for logic, dear sister!" Luna whined. "I pray thee to leave us alone for five more minutes."
Celestia had enough of this and teleported both of them (minus the blanket/cocoon) into the throne room. Celestia landed herself right in her throne and smiled. Luna, however, landed about seven feet off of her throne and plopped right on the ground. Celestia saw this and stifled a giggle, then teleported Luna into her respective throne next to Celestia.
"Now Luna, you must learn to participate in the day and night courts when I am gone. You do a fine enough job with the night courts already but you can't just leave when you're tired or hungry anymore. You also can't teleport any pony out of the court when you don't want to hear them anymore. That's considered rude."
Luna shook herself out of a daydream and responded "Tia, please. Thou cannot believe the insolence we deal with at the night courts."
"I'm afraid I do believe, and understand," said Celestia. "There is even more of it in the day courts."
"More??. Impossible!" Luna yelled out.
Just then, a Canterlot noble entered the day court and demanded to receive more money from the Royal Equestrian Reserve because his neighbor had a bigger pool than he did, and he HAD to have the bigger pool.
Luna facehoofed with legendary force, while Celestia politely explained through detailed law why there wasn't a chance in Tartarus he would get free money.
"Now, Luna... are you sure you can handle this?" Celestia asked.
Luna opened her bleary eyes once more and pulled the covers off of her. It was clear she would not be able to go back to sleep. "Sister, we are not a small foal any longer. We are a grown alicorn for mother's sake. Continue with thy bag-packing lest you waste more time." She flopped out of bed and followed her sister into what would be Celestia's chambers.
"I know you're not a foal anymore Luna. It's just... you remember what happened last time?"
Luna's face went from beautiful with peace to angry and nasty in record time. Her eyes stared daggers, literal daggers into her sister's eyes. Or so she wished. "SISTER. THAT WAS OVER A MILLENNIA AGO. SHALL WE ALSO BRING UP THE CHOCOLATE CAKE INCIDENT OF 1283?? "
A swift look to the side from Celestia already gave Luna the answer she was looking for. "No, I guess not."
Celestia paused to give her brain room to think. It's true that last time Luna was in charge bad things happened. But Luna was true to remember that Celestia has had moments of weakness... even if it were focused on bakery products. That were TO DIE FOR. Still, Luna had a thousand years to grow on the moon and she seemed to have matured since then. Celestia was sure Luna could handle this.
"Or shall thy send us to the moon once more??" Luna quipped.
Ok, Celestia was pretty sure Luna had matured.
Celestia gave Luna a look of motherly disappointment and replied with "No Luna. I'm not sending you to the moon again."
Either way she couldn't really ask anyone else to do it. Cadence was busy with her own nation now. The nobles were about as useful as a five pound sack of fertilizer. Asking Twilight to rule a nation after she just turned alicorn was asking for disaster. It was similar to going to Joe's Famous Taco Stand in Canterlot: It was famous for the massive and epic diarrhea it caused, every time. After a moment of self-query, Celestia decided she would rather have the diarrhea than a rioting kingdom.
Which said quite a lot, since Celestia wasn't the biggest fan of diarrhea.
Still, the situation presented problems. While Luna was definitely an alicorn, thereby a born leader, she had a tendency to go a bit overboard. Not EVERY time, but it had happened more than once.
Celestia had confronted the fact that she would never be at true peace when she was away from the kingdom, no matter who was in charge. Trying to get Luna to understand that would be the hard part.
"Luna, what should you do if a rebel uprising takes place in the kingdom?" Celestia asked.
"We shalt smite them with great fury, as to make an example of them," Luna said with a smile, confident she had the right answer.
An unamused face from Celestia was plenty proof that she did not have the correct answer. "No, Luna. You contact me immediately and refrain from violence."
Luna's pout face pleaded at her sister. "Tia, please! We can handle such thing by ourselves!"
There was also the fact that she has yet to fully adjust to the new society and its new practices. Celestia would need to test Luna and make sure she wouldn't go too overboard with the old ways.
"Luna?" Celestia asked. Luna stopped her browsing through her sister's closet and gave her attention. "What would you do if a stallion cat-called at you?"
Luna's eyes faded into a dark red and her body slowly lifted itself off the ground with her black and blue alicorn magic. Celestia could feel the Royal Canterlot Voice charging up and folded her ears back.
"WHY, WE SHALT BURN THE OXYGEN STRAIGHTWAY OF HIS LUNGS AND PERCEIVE HIS LIFE TAKE FLIGHT FROM HIS BODY UNTIL THE BLOOD HIS MOTHER GAVE HAST BEEN COUGHED FROM HIS PORES."
Celestia felt her eye twich, then her ear followed suit.
It could have been a worse answer...