Chapter 2
A Year Later Part 1
Celestia Winced, a sudden chill rushing up her back. She shuddered and clenched her closed eyes. She wished she could feign ignorance to her surroundings, ignorance was bliss, It allowed one to create their own world, start again, start a fresh where it was impossible to make mistakes.
Celestia knew what day it was, her connection to the sun meant that she had a perfect and instantaneous grasp of time. This morning though, she would have preferred it to simply be a figment of her imagination, nothing more than a nightmare that she could ignore.
Gritting her teeth she rolled over turning her back on the air that dared enter her chambers and try to drag her away from her slumber.
As Celestia rolled over, her sheets folded over themselves trapping the Solar Monarchs right hind leg in a tight grip that merely made her twist further with frustration. Rolling over again Celestia found herself released, but now re-united with the unwelcome intruder from earlier who now had an ally… The sun as it delicately peeked above the horizon for the first time that day.
Celestia cursed under her breath.
Facing defeat in her efforts and a toss up of being between a rock and hard place, Celestia finally gave up. Huffing she blew some random strands of her mane out of her face and cracked one eye carefully open to meet the day as it dawned.
With a gasp, she quickly closed it again due to the burning sensation that resulted. Why oh why had she left the window open last night? Her thin silk curtain did nothing to stop the light and clearly was the source of her original assailant this morning.
Grunting, Celestia lifted her head from her pillow and peered around her room with squinted eyes.
As her tired eyes began to focus, the solar monarch began to take in her surroundings. All the walls were a polished marble colour with an off white tiled floor. Her main Prench floor to ceiling window on her right hoof side had thin white marble columns either side with gold and purple accents slowly twisting up the length, beyond said window was her personal balcony, made up of the same pristine marble and adorned with polished golden railings, it was situated just so, that one could observe all the regions of her kingdom, including the newest settlement in the distance. Ponyville.
To the left of that and facing the room was her bespoke carved dressing table made up of some of the finest ancient oak wood complete with a white marble surface and golden framed mirror. On the opposite side of the room and on the left of the bed chamber entrance was a ponyquin, differing from most in that this was only made up of the head and shoulders, on which Celestia’s golden regalia sat patiently waiting for their owner to start the day. Her golden metal shoes sat at the foot of her bed aligned so that they could be slipped on any the closest convenience when they were needed.
Moving to look further to her left Celestia looked toward the tall bookcase that stood on the far left wall from where she was. To the untrained eye it would look uninteresting, save for some of the historical novels and transcripts that sat upon it. But little did anyone fortunate enough to even be in this room know that behind this bookcase which when activated, opened outwards as two doors to reveal Celestia’s private bathroom. Originally it had not been hidden away so easily, But Celestia had come to find that over time, the serenity of being able to hide away in a sound proofed room and being left with nothing but a hot bath and her thoughts, was the perfect way to unwind after a difficult day of answering to the everyone who entered through the doors of the grand throne room.
Lighting up her horn, the solar mare removed the constricting bed covers and slid off of her grand king size bed. Oh how she would have preferred to stay under the sheets on her cloud infused mattress and stare at the constellations painted on the ceiling of her room, but alas as always there was work to be done.
“I swear If Silver Quill comes to me today even mentions tonight’s festivities I will personally have him flogged”
Celestia grinned at that prospect, She had told that stuck up noble plenty of times that today of all days of the year was not one that she wanted to celebrate, no, Instead short of throwing him out of the throne room, she had instead had to remind him that tonight was a night of reflection for her, and not to trouble her again on the matter.
Originally he had been about the same as any other noble pony, But shortly after that fateful day one year ago exactly, there had been uproar amongst the people. With Celestia a no show and the guard un-instructed on what to do in such a situation, Canterlot had ended up in chaos, including but not limited to looting, violence and general panic from the public. The best that the guard had managed to do was limit the destruction in the center of the city, starting by putting out the flames of some of the burning buildings that had been set alight by the lower classes who had taken the opportunity to revolt about their lack of support from the crown.
To top it off, in the Absence of the now Banished Princess Luna, her personal guard were under direct accusation from the nobles for having allegedly “tainting” the Lunar Diarch into her darkened path. The reasoning? Pure racism.
Luna due to her nocturnal manner’s had used a guard consisting of bat ponies or “Thestrals” these creatures resembled normal ponies in many ways however differed in their leathery bat like wings and front predatory looking fangs which in actual fact were there due to their preference to eating fruit.
Quickly rumors had spread about what actually happened that night, and Celestia for months on end had been working her best to counter the accusations and crush this divided nature that was slowly gripping the nation. And joy of joy’s, where had it all begun? with that purist of them all… Silver Quill.
He was a Stallion of average height, with a white coat and deep blue mane and tail, highlighted by multiple silver streaks down the length of both. Silver Quill was responsible for a large part of the news and reporting groups in Canterlot.
Short of his promise to remain faithful to the Princess by reporting important manners to her and releasing regular information of what was happening around the city to her subjects, he had instead begun to let his bigotry and power go to his head, he had grown cynical in his time as a noble and it was clear from his reports.
With nothing direct to counter this issue, the rumors had spread to the public and with every Stallion and Mare in the city clawing at her golden clad hooves, Celestia had been forced to disband the Lunar guard, for fear of violence turning on their kind.
As Celestia let her musing’s pass, she continued into her bathroom for a particularly long bubble bath to try and steady her nerves for the troubling day ahead of her.