The next morning, Celestia awoke to the sounds of shouting in the courtyard, she opened her eyes and realised she had slept in! the servants should have awoken her hours ago!
She looked outside and saw the sun was up... That was strange.
She opened her door, dressed in her usual regalia.
She then encountered a fatigued Luna slowly ambling down the corridor, bumping into things every now and then and looking half asleep.
"Luna? what are you doing up at this hour!?" asked Celestia.
"Night Court only just emptied, all the... Nobles wished to know what happened." said Luna between a yawn.
"Why didn't you wake me?" asked Celestia, concerned for her sister.
"It was Night court, not day court sister, since you were asleep it was not your problem, but now you're awake, you can have all the problems." said Luna with as much enthusiasm as she could muster in her run-down state.
"Where is Corvus?" asked Celestia.
"Barking at the men, he hasn't slept, I believe his exact words to me when I inquired were: 'I'll sleep when I'm dead, your majesty' or at least something along those lines." said Luna putting on an exaggerated deep voice for Corvus.
"I see, well, you get some sleep Luna, if you need me you know where I'll be." smiled Celestia, Luna smiled, nodded, yawned and adjourned to her room.
Celestia headed down to the courtyard training area and saw the men doing push ups in synch and him barking at them, she couldn't make out what he was saying above the grunts and whines of the guards, Castro was squawking in the ear of those that stopped, prompting them to keep going.
"I can't do it!" said one.
"If you don't do it, I'll feed you to a damn timberwolf! now another 5!" yelled Corvus and the guard nodded.
"sir, yes sir!" he said and pushed on, when Celestia made herself known, Corvus raised an eyebrow and turned.
"Men! up and salute your Princess, that's enough for today." said Corvus, and the guards all lumbered up and gave professional salutes when Corvus was happy, he nodded.
"Princess Celestia ma'am!" they bellowed.
She nodded to Corvus and he smiled.
"At ease men, take a dunk in the lake and two hours off, then return to your posts." said Corvus, they nodded thankfully, and left.
"Two hours? that is generous." said Celestia.
"I reward hard work, they deserve a good rest." said Corvus, who didn't look tired in the least.
"So, you are training them?" asked Celestia.
"Yes, they need some good discipline." said Corvus.
"How are you faring?" asked Celestia.
"Fine, better than I've fared in years, I'm finally doing something productive." said Corvus.
"Let me guess, you were sitting on a throne for years, waiting for the day either something interesting happened or an assassination attempt actually succeeded." said Celestia.
"Well yeah, but the assassin would have to work for it." he said.
"I was much the same, until I realised all my little ponies were depending on me, then I steeled myself and carried on." said Celestia.
"I have no such comfort, if I died, my Curate would take over and life would continue, likely Amaleur would mourn me, and keep on keepin' on." he explained.
"So, is there a special somepony back home?" asked Celestia.
"Well, it took long enough for that question, didn't it?" he laughed.
"I suppose so." chuckled Celestia.
"The term is 'somebody' or 'someone' back home, but truly? I don't know, I lost my memory at one point, I didn't even know who I was, so it is possible, but from what I've been told by old friends, no, there wasn't." he told her.
"Well, I'm sure you'll meet Miss Right one day." smiled Celestia.
"Knowing my luck, I'll meet Miss Left." he chuckled.
"So, will you need warriors?" asked Celestia.
"Truly? no, I can do this singlehanded, but I want to train your guards and maybe some others how to defend themselves, just in case, I won't be teaching them to kill, they have to know that if it comes to it they'll have to, but I won't allow them to kill anything if they don't have to." he said.
"You have no idea... How much a relief that is." smiled Celestia.
"I know your ponies don't understand murder, or violent death apart from accidents." he said.
"How far are you?" asked Celestia.
"The men are starting to understand, and Rainbow Dash flew by and I gave her some self defence lessons, I told her to keep a fitness regime, like the men, push ups, sit ups, weights, and so on." he said.
"That is good, will she make a good Warsworn?" asked Celestia.
"By our standards? no. By Equestria's standards? absolutely." said Corvus
"We she become a... Pledgeshield?" asked Celestia.
"Eventually, yes." he said, they suddenly noticed they had been walking through the gardens and were near the gate to Canterlot High Street.
"Well, I better go attend to day court." said Celestia.
"Sure..." replied Corvus, and suddenly he got lost in her beautiful magenta eyes...
She was equally as lost in his red eyes, with light reflection, unless you concentrate they appear brown.
"Ahh aunty, I was- dear Discord! what is that?" came a voice famailiar to Celestia, she slightly growled and took a breath.
"Hello Blueblood, this our guest." she said and stepped aside so he could introduce himself.
"Castellan, Castellan Corvus Frederick, but please, call me Corvus." he said politely.
"Aunty, what is that... Hairless ape doing in the castle gardens?" asked Blueblood, acting as if he wasn't there.
"This 'Hairless ape' is current Liegelord of Ponyville, Prince Blueblood, show some respect toward your social superior, as you only own bars and clubs here in the city." shot Celestia, her words almost laced with venom.
"Hmm, yes aunty." he said and raised his head and walked away.
"Is it wrong that I want to flatten him?" I asked.
"Only if it's wrong that I want to use him to bait the Niskaru by tying him to a tree and waiting for his screams for help to attract them." replied Celestia and they both burst out laughing.
"Anyway, I'm going to hit the town, see you later sweet eyes." he said and walked away and left Celestia blushing at what he said.