Winds of An Immortal Empire

by Artistic Dawn

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Bells rang throughout the hallways. Several hundred foals ran into the halls as soon as the bells started. There were some dozen older ponies with saddlebags of their own carrying mostly paperwork. However, the halls were flooded with fillies and colts alike as they ran to the doors of the school.

The courtyard was suddenly crowded as ponies came rushing out. Celestia was among them, only instead of running out she trotted out. At first she had a bit of a smile on her face but only for a second as she suddenly frowned.
Three weeks.

That's how long she was grounded. Literally apparently. No flying what so ever. Her wings are currently wrapped up in a series of a cloth made into a sling to hold them in place, folded to her side. Not for simply healing reasons, oh no. She just needed to rest them off, they were better now. Wrapping them up was she that she wouldn’t start flying off when no one was around.

Father tried to talk her mother out of it but it was hopeless.

It didn’t matter how much her father was secretly proud of her.

Mother wouldn’t listen.

“You could have really hurt you're hurt yourself!” her mother had told her last night as she was wrapping her wings up. Boy did she get the lecture of a lifetime. Three hours of nothing but ‘how she was supposed to look after her sister’ this and ‘you're too young for this sort of flying’ that. It was just awful.

She was brought out of her mopping to see a familiar group of ponies standing by the flag pole. A smile was then painted on her and she ran up and shouted to them.

“Hey guys!”

The group of foals turn to face her with equally joyful expressions as they greeted their friend. One of them, a light orange filly with a long tied up dark pink and orange main leaning against the flag pole wearing a dark purple vest, nodded over for Celestia to come over.

“Hey Celly,” said the filly as Celestia stood next to her.

“Hey Titanium Tang! What's new?”

“Nothing much, got old mare Zephyr Myth at my case again about not passing. Can you believe that! She’s always on my case I swear.”

“You really shouldn’t swear Tang!” said a light red coat with a curly, long, tied up purple mane, “You could get into trouble again!”

“Oh lighten up Mousy! I was only stating a point.”

“I’m just saying that if you say that...you-know-what word again Headmistress Scale Mind is going to get you expelled! She said so.”

“Whatever,” Tang said as she rolls her eyes. “So Celly,” Tang says changing the subject, “Heard about the meeting?”

“What meeting?”

“The one that's going to be held in the Castle tonight,” said a yellow and pink filly with a bright puffy pink mane.

Mousy looked at the filly and spoke in a soft tone,“You mean the one that might be about…”

“Yea…”

“I heard about that,” said another colt with a light blue coat with a zig zag black and white main, “My uncle was talking about the council deciding on possibly...you know...that thing.”

“You mean about…” Celestia said knowing that it may imply.

“The punishment about the three tribes,” Tang blantly said in loud tone.The sound of other fouls gasps were heard around them. She rolls her eyes once again. “Why cannot you guys just say it for tartarus sake.”

“Titanium Tang!,” shouted the yellow-pink filly.

“Oh stop being such a high horse Jelly Spin.”

The blue colt was about to speak.

“Don’t even start, Written Way,” Tang says beating him to the punch. “You ponies need to stop being such fouls and just say what you mean.”

Tang started to away from the flagpole and the group started to follow her.

“Celly,” Tang started, “Your dad is part of the council right? Like Written Way’s Uncle?”

“Well sort of. He is in charge of documenting the meetings and works with the empress on other important documents.”

“Ok so then, do you go to any of the meets.”

“Oh no, they don’t let anypony in unless they’re part, or somewhat part, of said council. I thought you already knew that?”

“Oh I did, but isn’t strange then that they’re opening up a meeting tonight to the general public?”

Celestia had to take a pause at that. Titanium Tang had been right about that. Why is there going to be an open meeting? She remembered Father only vaguely telling Mother about it a few weeks ago. She thought that the meetings were private for a reason. She of course didn’t know why they were private but they just were. As far back as she could remember from what she learned in history class to her own acknowledgement, never before had a meeting ever been opened to the public. So for a meeting such as the one that is to take place this very night is nothing short of astonishing. And a bit suspicious.

Tang didn’t bring up the meeting again as she when on instead discussing her views about some of the teachers at school.

Later, after Tang went home; she, Mousy, Jelly Spin, and Written Way went to the local park. If she wasn’t cloud bound, they would have when over to Mousy’s for snacks. His father really knew how to make a good batch of apple tarts.

Even though they could have went to Jelly Spin’s place seeing as her dad as well would be home, but then Jelly remembered that it was not a good time to have company right now. It has been three years since her mother passed away after a horrible sicken struck the family. Her father and her got better but her mother wasn’t so lucky. It was the anniversary of her mother’s passing. Even though she loved her mother dearly and missed her greatly, Jelly Spin was not one to focus on the pain of the past as much as most ponies would. If there was one thing that Celestia admired from her friend, it was her positive view of life. Jelly believed in the afterlife as her grandmother and family did before her. Her father however, though while still believing in said afterlife, was not so willing to forget the past pains so easily. Thus every year, he says home from work and silently mourns his lost love.

As the group of foals approaches the park, a large group of adult ponies comes into view. They appear to have a variety of differing expresses of both worry and anger. Some of the angry ones speak with great vigor.

“The council having a meeting open to all?! Absurd lies have been spoken!”

“Why would such a meeting has to be? Why now?!”

“Has the council become unfit?!”

“Impossible!!”

“But is there true to such thought?”

The more worried members of the giant group had questions quite similar, if not the same. However, they spoke with concern in their hearts and breathes.

“What should we do if the news is horrid?”

“Why much the council bring up such news to the public instead of paper where is to be decided then.”

“Could something be wrong with the members themselves!?”

“Wouldn’t they at least tell their ken if something was wrong?”

“Maybe it’s not they who are wrong but what if..”

“Don’t speak such thoughts into existence!!”

The crowd grew in numbers when the group’s voices got louder. It got to the point where the park was cut off from the young foals. Celestia’s mind begin to wonder of the meeting once more. Could it be something really that bad? Was the empresses herself in good health? Why did the group of adult ponies act like they didn’t already know what the council was talking about? Unless they truly didn’t know. Maybe the punishment was only a vague rumor then. It made more sense when she thought about it. Why would the council care about the three tribes anyhow.

It wasn’t like they cared about them anymore.

Author's Note:

Sorry this chapter took a while to upload. Just ahead up for the future, due to the fact that I go to school, the chapters maybe random at upload times.

Hope you enjoy!