> A Love Beyond Worlds
>  by Viatorem
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter I: Sunrise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It's finally over," Arceus thought as he took a deep breath, “It's finally over!” He said with a chuckle and an amount of joy he hadn't felt in centuries.

He was standing on the edge of the Destiny Tower rooftop, watching over his world while the sun was rising, marking the beginning of a new day, just like he had done hundreds of times before, but this time it was different, there were no threats, no dark forces, alterations in the balance of the world, disturbances in the flow of time and space, a crisis, or anything of that matter… there was only peace.

For a long time, the alpha Pokémon did nothing; he just stood there enjoying the peace that he and his family of legendary Pokemon, some of the normal Pokémon, and even some humans, had made so many sacrifices to restore.

However, after relaxing for a little while, Arceus started to think on what to do next now that everything was back to normal, he began to consider visiting some of the villages and towns scattered around the continents, he actually had a particular desire to visit Treasure Town, not only because he had never been there, but also for the interest that some of the members of his family had developed for that little town, especially Dialga, who spent most of his time in the small town instead of his home, the recently repaired Temporal Tower.

“It would be nice to take a break with the rest of the family”, Arceus said to himself while turning around to walk from the edge to the center of the tower rooftop, “It has been so long since all of us had a break,” he added with a more nostalgic tone of voice.

Arceus stopped walking, trying to remember when the last time all the members of his family did something together, that didn’t involve their respective duties, after going through his memories he then realised that the last time his entire family had done anything together, that wasn’t work, was over 1000 years ago.

At this realisation Arceus started to feel upset, he had been so obsessed with restoring peace and making sure that said peace would never be lost again, that he had, in a certain way, neglected his family; this feeling of sadness was replaced by a strong sentiment of guilt when he remembered how particularly hard the last years had been for everyone in the family.

This sensation of guilt was able to overwhelm him, a single tear managed to escape his right eye. The tear slid down his face until he took it with his right hoof, Arceus stared at the tear but his mind wasn’t there, it was lost going through the events of the last years.

Arceus had lost track of time before he finally lowered his hoof, his mind had shifted from thinking about the past to thinking about the future, more precisely, he was thinking about how to make it up to his family for being so careless. “Well… the first step should be to call them for a meeting.” He said to himself with a tone of characteristic of those who are starting to put a plan together.

“Then… I should offer an apology for not holding a meeting with all the members of the family earlier.” He said while walking in a circle, before suddenly stopping, “that’s right! I almost forgot that Mewtwo, Deoxys and Genesect haven’t officially been introduced to the entire family”.

After that Arceus went quiet, trying to remember if he had missed anything else important, it was at this moment when he realized that this meeting was also the first meeting after the long lost peace was restored, making this reunion even more important than he had originally thought.

Arceus sat down and brought his right hoof to his chin, he was puzzled, wondering what else he could do for such a special occasion, after spending a couple of minutes coming up with ideas and rejecting them almost immediately, he decided to change his angle of approach to this problem, starting to focus on things that he and his family haven’t done in ages.

Then almost out of nowhere a tiny laugh of joy escaped his mouth, he had finally thought of something special to do, something that he and his family haven't done since his family consisted of only 5 members, something that will be as special as this occasion, but most importantly, something that will finally give him and his family a well deserved break.

Arceus closed his eyes and sent a call to all the members of his family to a reunion, but he didn’t include any information regarding his plans for this meeting, he wanted it to be a surprise.

After that, he emitted a white flash, disappearing from the rooftop of Destiny Tower and reappearing with the same white flash in his seat at the meeting room at the Hall of Legends, then he just waited for his family to arrive.





Princess Celestia walked to the balcony where Luna was fulfilling her duty as guardian of the dreams, as Celestia got close to her sister, she smiled at the realisation that Luna had the blanket she had given her as a gift two days ago on her back. Luna also had her eyes closed and was emitting a white light from her horn, both clear signals that she was still in the realm of dreams.

Celestia then shifted her attention to the horizon, her horn started to glow with a golden tone, after a few seconds, the sun started to rise, illuminating the ground with a relatively weak yet warm, orange light covering the snowy fields of Equestria, marking the beginning of a new day.

As the sun rose, its light it started to illuminate the mountain where Canterlot was located, the light then reached the capital city, giving the usually white and purple buildings of the city an orange tone.

The sunlight finally reached the balcony where both princesses were standing, covering them with a relative warm light, something that Celestia appreciated, even when it wasn’t that warm, at least it was warmer than the darkness of winter's night, Luna on the other side, didn’t seem to appreciate the sudden and direct beam of light in her face, an expression of discomfort appeared on the face of the princess of the night before the white light disappeared from her horn.

Luna then opened her eyes, or to be more precise she tried to do it, the sunlight turned out to be too bright for the eyes of the princess that was too used to being in the darkness of the night, this made the princess turn her head to the left, where her sister was standing, she also rose her frontal left hoof at eye level to use it as cover.

When Luna's eyes finally got used to the sunlight, she took notice of the presence of her sister, Celestia, however, didn’t appear to realize that her sister was no longer in the realm of dreams, she was looking at the horizon, but her eyes were closed to protect them from the direct sunlight, however, the most notable thing was the tiny smile of joy on Celestia’s face,

Luna wanted to clear her throat to get the attention of her sister, but an involuntary yawn managed to escape her mouth before she was able to do anything, Luna decided to go with It, as it appeared that the yawn had managed to get the attention of her sister, “good morning dear sister,” Luna said.

“Good morning Luna,” Celestia answered, but without opening her eyes or looking at her sister.

Celestia then took four steps, this action confused Luna, thinking that something was wrong she asked, “Is everything all right, dear sister?”

“Everything is fine Luna,” Celestia said, she then opened her wings extending them completely, “I just wanted to avoid hitting you with my wings,” Celestia added.

This action confused Luna, even more, she was so confused that she tilted her head to the right, in a similar manner to the one of a confused puppy, “sister,” Luna said, “If it is not that problematic to thou, can we know what exactly art thou doing?”

“I’m just enjoying the sunlight.” Celestia answer, before elevating her head, allowing her neck to be touched by the sunlight, “It's really nice to feel this warm light during the winter,” Celestia then turned to see her sister, she rose her frontal left hoof and started to move it in a way that invited her to get close to her, “you should try it out”.

Another involuntary yawn managed to escape Luna’s mouth, “sorry sister but after spending Hearth’s Warming with thou-” Luna was interrupted by herself with another yawn, “not that we did not enjoy being with thou dear sister, it is just that-” another yawn interrupted Luna.

“I get it, you are tired,” Celestia said with anderstanding tone, while Luna yawned, “do you want to eat something before going to bed? There are some cupcakes, apples, and cake left from yesterday”

“A cupcake would be nice,” Luna said while starting to walk inside of the castle.

Celestia then started to follow Luna, “I’m coming with you, I haven’t had breakfast yet”.

Both princesses entered the castle and sat in front of the table where they always had their breakfast, well more like breakfast for Celestia and dinner for Luna, the table had the remains of a cake the princesses had eaten the previous day, as well as some cupcakes, and apples, the food wasn’t fresh but that didn’t make it less delicious.

Luna took a cupcake while Celestia took a slice of cake and a green apple. “What art thou doing for the day sister?” Luna asked before taking a bite of her cupcake.

“I’m just going to make sure that we can do our visit tomorrow without any problems.” Celestia answered her sister without looking at her.

“Is that the only thing thou art going to do?" Luna asked, after swallowing a bite of cupcake she had taken a few seconds ago.

“Well,” Celestia said while tapping her chin with the fork she was using to eat her cake, “now that you mention it, I think I’m going to go for a little trot in the royal garden, the warn sunlight will make it very enjoyable.”

“Now that we think about it,” Luna said while looking outside through one of the windows, “Is the sky not supposed to be full of clouds for the winter?” Luna then turned to see her sister.

“Yes, I actually received a letter from Cloudsdale before I raised the sun.” Celestia then started to levitate an open scroll of paper, she then started to read it, using her fork as a guide to not lose the row she was reading, “apparently, there was a malfunction with the cloud machine causing the clouds to be of inferior quality of what is stipulated, causing them to not last as long as they were supposed to.”

She then made a pause while skipping a part of the letter, “the engineers are not sure what the problem with the cloud machine is, and the cloud experts are recollecting samples from all of Equestria to know what places were affected, but so far Baltimare, Fillydelphia and Canterlot have lost a considerable amount of their snow clouds,” Celestia then lowered the scroll and looked back to her cake taking a piece with her fork.

Luna, who had finished her cupcake while her sister was reading the letter, got up and looked at her sister, who was happily eating her cake, "so it is just another problem to be solved?” Luna asked.

“Yep,” Celestia said after swallowing the piece of cake she had in her mouth, “but the engineers in charge had said that there is no way they can solve it without interrupting the vacation of many employees, most of which aren’t even in Cloudsdale, so I'm considering ordering them to leave Equestria with a less snowy winter,” Celestia then turned her attention from the empty plate to the apple.

Luna simply yawned, “well good day sister, we shall see thou tonight.” she then started to walk to the door to go to her room.

“Sweet dreams Luna.” Celestia said to her sister while waving her right hoof.

After a few minutes Celestia finished her apple, she took the dishes to the kitchen and started to wash them, something that she rarely did, due to all the servants working in the castle, but now most of them were on their Hearth’s Warming vacations, so she had to do some things that she wouldn't do normally, although this wasn’t a big problem for the princess, a change of activities in her day was welcome and she kind of enjoyed having to do chores, at least they were more stimulating than sitting on the throne signing papers all day.

She then went back to the room where she and her sister ate their breakfast and started to walk towards the door, she was heading to the royal garden looking forward to a relaxing walk, but little did she know, this little walk will mark the beginning of a new chapter in her life.
> Chapter II: In The Meeting Room
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Hall of Legends, or to be precise, The New Hall of Legends (the original had been destroyed centuries ago), is located in a small floating island suspended in time and space, that exists between the normal world and distortion world, at the middle of the island, a mountain-size-temple stood, made of the whitest and purest marble.

The temple was surrounded by a forest made of incredibly tall trees, but unlike places like the temporal tower or destiny tower, the forest was simple decoration, and not a defence line or last trial for those who dare to try to enter the temple.

This was done to have a more open place outside the temple, so the legendary Pokémon could have an area to recreate and play, and because Arceus thought that whoever made it this far had already gone through enough trials to deserve entering the hall, and, the white background of this place was kind of unsettling, even for Arceus, in fact, that was the only reason that made him decide to surround the temple with trees.

Inside the temple, multiple rooms cover all the necessities of every legendary Pokémon, but despite all the luxuries that the hall had to offer, the meeting room was, a simple rectangular room with a couple of windows, a gigantic table and 53 seats, one for every legendary Pokémon, was the most important room of the entire hall.

But right now, the meeting room wasn't giving the impression of being that important, the usual highly important discussions that characterize it were not present, instead, the room was full of different conversations, the majority consisting of old friends catching up, the only remarkable thing was the amount of attention Mewtwo, Genesect and Deoxys were getting, as this was the first time they meet face to face with other legendary Pokémon, other than that, there was nothing that relevant happening in the room.

This was due to the fact that the reunion hasn’t started yet, and because Arceus had retired from the room to go wait for Dialga, who was taking too long to arrive.

Arceus not being present in the room helped to create a more relaxed and joyful ambience, as his presence made the room feel more solemn, as all the legendary Pokemon have a lot of respect for him, something that Arceus actually didn’t like that much, he even insisted that they can treat him like Mew does, respecting him, but treating him in a more relaxed and less formal matter.

However, not all the legendary Pokémon were enjoying this relaxed ambience, Mew, one of the most childlike, in behaviour, legendary Pokemon was getting worried for one of her big brothers, Dialga, who as stated before, was taking too long to arrive, but, she also wanted to know why her father had called for this reunion, Arceus didn't mention the reason for the meeting, something that made her wonder what her dad was hiding.

“So, Celebi, why is your dad taking so long to arrived?” Mew finally asked her little niece, Celebi, who had been talking with Keldeo and Virizion since they arrive at the meeting room.  

Celebi, Keldo and Virizion turn to see Mew, who had interrupted them; Celebi was about to answer her aunt, but Keldeo spoke before she was able to say anything.

“Mew I don’t want to be rude, but we were talking…” before Keldeo was able to finish, he was interrupted again, but this time by Cobalion.

“Keldeo! Miss Mew wants to talk with Miss Celebi, stay quiet!” Cobalion ordered with a commanding tone, he immediately regretted doing that, because Virizion immediately jumped to defend her friend.

“Cobalion!” Virizion said with an aggressive tone that felt unnatural coming from her, one of the most relaxed legendary Pokémon, a tone that even made Keldeo, her close friend, feel a little intimidated.

“You know that lord Arceus told us that we don’t need to be that formal! And even you have to admit that interrupting us was very rude on Miss Mew's part! You should offer Keldeo an apology and…” once again, as it was becoming a tradition in this conversation, she was interrupted, this time by Celebi, who was starting to feel uncomfortable with the discussion.  

“Everypokémon! Please don’t fight!” Celebi said, sounding like a child who wants to stop its parents from arguing.

“S-sorry Miss Celebi”, Keldeo and Virizion said to the young legendary, Cobalion wanted to protest, but he realized that Palkia and Giratina had taken note of the argument their little niece had gotten into, so he decided to play it safe and apologize as well.

“Now,” Celebi turn to see Mew, “what did you want to know aunty?”

“I just want to know why Dialga is taking so long to arrive!” Mew answered with a tone of concern in her voice.

“I don’t know aunty,” Celebi answered with a sad tone, “daddy has been acting a little weird… since…” Celebi lowered her head and closed her eyes and sighed, “…you know…that happen…” she finally said without opening her eyes or looking at her aunt.

Mew, feeling bad for her little niece, and, some guilt for reminding her about the events of the last years, got close to her niece and taking her by surprise with a hug, “I’m sorry for bringing that up,” Mew said while hugging her surprised niece.

“Its OK aunty,” Celebi answered to Mew, while she was hugging her.

Mew separated herself from her niece and asked, “I’m going with your granddad to wait for your dad, do you want to come with me?” 

Celebi answered with a simple nod of her head.





Arceus had been sitting in the grass outside of the hall of legends for a while now, he had been playing with some leaves by levitating them around to form all kind of patterns, 

“Hi, dad! Hello granddad!” Arceus was surprised by the voice of his daughter and granddaughter, coming from behind him, he was so surprised, that he even dropped the leaves by accident.

Arceus turned to see both of them, he greeted them with a simple. “Hi,” he then asked, “what are you two, sweethearts, doing here?” 

“We decided to accompany you while waiting for Dialga to arrive,” Mew said while she got close to her dad, and sat to his right.

Arceus smiled at his daughter. “That’s very considerate on your part honey, it was getting kind of lonely here”.

Arceus then turned his attention to his granddaughter, “Celebi, you can sit next to me if you want to,” Arceus knew that his granddaughter had always, like most of the legendary pokemon, felt a little intimidated by him, and obviously, Arceus wanted to change that, that’s why he acted more friendly and less commanding around them.

Celebi was a little hesitant at first, but considering that her aunt wasn’t nervous next to Arceus, and the fact her granddad had given her permission to sit next to him, made her feel comfortable enough to sit next to Arceus.

“So, granddad, how much time is it going to take for my dad to arrive?” Celebi asked a few seconds after she sat next to Arceus.

“Not that much,” Arceus answered while he started to levitate the leaves again.

“Are you sure he is OK?” Mew asked, with the same tone of concern she had in the meeting room.

“Yes, granddad!” Celebi added immediately, “are you sure that my daddy is OK? He might be in trouble; I mean he has never arrived this late.”

“You two are worried about him, aren't you?” Arceus asked sounding comprehensive, but relaxed at the same time.

“Yes,” Celebi answered, ”aren’t you?” She asked while looking at her granddad in the eyes.

“No I’m not, and you two shouldn't be either,” Arceus said, surprising Mew and Celebi, realizing that his answer was a little rough, he decided to be more precise, “sorry if it sounds a little rude but, Dialga," he then turned to his left to see his granddaughter, "your dad," he then turned to his right to see his daughter, "your brother," he then returned his attention back to the leaves he was levitating, "is one of the most trustworthy and capable members of the family, I can guarantee to both of you, that he’s OK.”

“Do you really trust my daddy that much?” Celebi asked her granddad, surprised that Arceus held her dad in such high regard.

“Of course I do,” Arceus answer, “and you should do the same sweetheart, he’s my second in command after all”. 

“HEY!” Mew said sounding outraged, or as outraged as a small cute pokemon can be, that being not that much, in fact, that 'Hey!' was incredibly adorable.  

“Sorry, one of my second in commands,” Arceus said to his daughter after a chuckle.

“I just want to know, why dad is taking so long to arrive,” Celebi added after a few seconds of silence.

“Well,” Arceus answer, “why don’t you just ask him?” 

“What?” Celebi asked her granddad, trying to know what he was talking about; but she realised what Arceus was trying to say when a dark blue flash appeared in front of the three legendary Pokemon; out of that dark blue flash, Dialga, the pokemon of time, appear.

Celebi flew directly to her father and hugged him in the face, “Daddy! Why did you take so long to arrive?”

“Hi, Celi!” Dialga said to his beloved daughter, he then turned to see his father and little sister. “Hello father, hi Mew". 

Dialga lowered his head. “Sorry for arriving so late”.

“Its OK son,” Arceus answered, “but, can you tell us, why did you take so long to arrive?” 

“W-well, this is going to sound like a bad excuse, but…” Dialga started to scratch his neck, “well the thing is that... the explorer team that reunited all the gears of time, invited me and one other member of their team to some drinks in Spinda’s Café, and I didn’t want to be rude so I decided to stay for a while”. 

“Is that it?” Arceus asked, he knew that there was more his son wasn't telling him.

“Well… the other member of the team, a Lapras, well… she has become a good friend, and I didn’t want to just go suddenly...” Dialga answered.

“So basically you didn’t want to be rude with the explorer team that saved you?” Mew asked.

“W-well, basically yes,” Dialga answered, “s-sorry for taking so long father”. 

“Its OK dad,” Celebi said before her granddad was able to say anything, “you didn’t want to be rude to that team; but next time, tell us that you are going to be late”.

“Well,” Arceus had already gotten up, turned around and start walking to the hall of legends; he then turned his head to see his son, daughter and granddaughter, “the others are waiting for us, we better get going”.

“Wait, dad!” Mew said while quickly flying to her father.

Dialga was about to start walking when Celebi sat on his back, “Daddy, can you take me there?” she asked with a happy and playful voice, that Dialga was incapable of resisting. 

“Of course Celi,” he said while smiling to her.

“By the way dad, can I meet that Lapras, you know, that new friend of yours?” Celebi ask.

“W-well honey, the thing is that... she is very shy... and she is intimidated by legendary pokemon... she actually fainted when I meet her… but I will see what I can do,” Dialga answer, sounding oddly nervous about the idea of his daughter meeting this Lapras.

After a while, the four legendary Pokemon finally arrive at the door of the meeting room, Arceus open the door and let Celebi, Mew and Dialga enter first; Celebi and Mew were received in a playful matter, while Dialga was received in a more serious matter, but when Arceus enter the room, it went dead silent.

After all four legendary had taken their seats, Arceus cleared his throat to call the attention of everypokémon in the room. “Well, now that we are all here, we can finally start, now first, I want to formally introduce Mr Mewtwo, Genesect and Miss Deoxys to the family,” Arceus then rose his left hoof pointing to the three young legendaries.

This took the young group of legendaries by surprise, Deoxys was so surprise that she involuntary changed to her defensive form, luckily for them, Mew began to communicate telepathically with them, telling them to stand up and thank Arceus for accepting them in the family.

Arceus smiled at them, “you are welcome, you can sit now,” he then turned his head to see the entire room, “now, I know that some of you maybe have some doubts about accepting them in the family,” Arceus didn’t move his head but his eyes quickly look at Rayquaza, who had some problems with Deoxys in the past, “if any of you has any doubt about it, I can talk with you after the meeting is finish”.

Arceus then took a deep breath. “Now… now I want to apologize with all of you”.

“WHAT!?” was the only answer that all the legendary pokemon were able to give, all of them were surprised, even Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and Mew, who knew him the longest, were surprised.

Giratina managed to ask, even when he was trying to recover from the surprise. “B-but why do you want to apologize father?”

“Well,” Arceus lowered his head, “I realized that I have been neglecting all of you for a while now, we haven’t done anything that hasn’t been work for almost more than a millennium and I didn’t call for a general reunion until now and with the recent events… I realised that I need to take more care of all of you-“ Arceus rose his head.  “Can all you forgive me for being so careless?”

For a few seconds that fell like an eternity, no one said anything, until Yveltal, one of the boldest legendary pokemon, although, at that moment, he did feel that bold, spoke. “I-I d-do”. 

Arceus looked at the pokemon of destruction, ”You do?” 

“Of course I do,” Yveltal answer, he then felt that someone touch him from his right, he turned to see who it was, it turned out to be Xerneas, who simply nodded her head, Yvelta then moved his right wing and put it in Xerneas back, then the two turned to see the alpha pokemon. “We do,” Yvelta said talking for him and Xerneas.

After that, every one of the legendary pokemon, left and right started to say that they forgive Arceus, when all of them finished, the alpha pokemon, was smiling, he was happy, he simply nodded his head and said. “Thank you, every one of you, thank you”.

Arceus then cleared his throat, “well,” he cleared his throat one more time, it was obvious that he had been affected by that emotional moment, “I still want to make up for being careless, as well as celebrate that the balance of the world has been restore, and give a special welcome to the new members of the family; so I have decided that we are going to take a break, but not any regular kind of break, a special one, a type of break we haven’t had since Dialga, Palkia and Giratina were little children, before most of you were born."

These words confused most of the legendary pokemon, but the trio of creation and Mew were not confused, they were excited, all of them, even Giratina, one of the most serious legendary Pokemon, had a smile from ear to ear.

“Dad, please tell me that you are saying, what I think you mean with that!” Palkia finally said with eyes full of excitement.

“Yep!” Arceus said with an incredibly joyful tone, “we are going to another world!”
> Chapter III: Meeting An Old & New Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had been out in Canterlot for half an hour by now, the unusual sunlight had increased the general temperature of the city, however this small rise of temperature wasn’t enough to make the inhabitants of the city leave their homes, but this was not the case for a young-looking unicorn mare.

She had left her home a few minutes ago only taking with her a red wool scarf that contrasted with her white fur but combined with the scarlet colour of her mane as well as her blue eyes.

Aside from walking in the streets of the city alone just two days after Hearth's Warming, or the fact that she was a little taller than most ponies, she looked pretty normal, her cutie mark, a golden-toned feather and inkwell, was something normal in Canterlot, as most of the writers in Equestria live in the capital city,  however, she being a normal pony was a far cry of who she actually was.

After a few minutes of silence, she started to hum a song to herself while she kept walking, she looked like she was walking to nowhere and that was partially true, she wasn’t walking to arrive at any place, she was only looking at the beautiful scenery that was the streets of the city covered in snow and sunlight, although she was also avoiding the streets of the city with tall buildings, as they prevented the sunlight from reaching the street and therefore were preventing it from warming up, something she disliked as she was trying to enjoy the unusually warm winter morning.

She kept on walking until she arrived at Canterlot’s main park, the park was located behind Canterlot castle and contained the famous Sculpture Garden of Canterlot, as well as the massive maze, known to be the place where the spirit of chaos “Discord” had challenge the carriers of the elements of harmony almost 5 years ago, but the park was also connected to the royal garden, making it a sort of extension to the garden or a mega-backyard for the castle.

She decided to enter the park, she already knew of its beauty and she wanted to see it covered with shiny golden-toned snow, after walking for a few minutes, she arrived at the centre of the park where the sculpture garden and the entrance to the massive maze were located, she then got close to one of the benches and sat down to contemplate the unique landscape.

“Wow!” She exclaimed, “I knew that I did a good job when I decided to make sunlight shine in this way on snow, but I really underestimated how well it would look, I should have made the cloud machine malfunction years ago,” she stopped and sighed, “I only hope Celestia and Luna leave it like this for a few more days”.

Suddenly out of nowhere a dot of white light appeared just a few steps in front of her that was followed by a strong wind, however, she didn’t look like she was interested in this weird phenomenon, in fact, she appeared to be annoyed by it.

“If you want to get in, you better tell me: who are you and what you want!?” She said to the dot of light without looking at it, a masculine voice came from the dot and answered, “Hello there, Miss Faust…” before the voice was able to say anything else, the dot of light increase its size and brightness, so much that the unicorn had to raise her right hoof to eye level to not end up blind, at the same time, the wind started to blow in such a strength that the redheaded mare felt that it was about to blow her away.

Finally, after a few seconds, the brightness and wind stopped completely, the dot of light was replaced by what looked to be a rift in reality, an open door limited by a tight white toned margin of light, appeared where the dot used to be, and at the other side of that door, the alpha pokemon, Arceus, stood.

“Arceus!” The mare said while jumping off the bench she was sitting on, running through the portal and launching herself to hug Arceus; this took Arceus by surprise, causing him to almost lose his balance and fall, however, he was able to keep his balance making him able to hug his friend back.

“I’m so happy to see you again!” Faust said to Arceus while the two were hugging each other. 

“I’m also happy to see you!” Arceus answered to the mare unicorn.

Faust separated herself from Arceus.,“where are my manners?” She said to her old friend, “how have you and your family been?” She asked, without realizing that she was in the meeting room. 

“I have been fine!” Arceus said happily. “As for the others, why don’t you ask them?” Arceus answered while turning his head to the right.

“Mph?” She said while turning her head to the right, but before she was able to see anything, Mew launched herself to Faust’s face and hugged her, “Faust!” The young said while hugging the unicorn mare. 

“Hi Mew!” The mare answered the young pokemon, “Eh Mew… I don’t want to be rude but, can you please stop hugging my face, you are kind of squishing my nose”.

Mew quickly separated herself from Faust’s face, but she didn’t get away from her face that much, “Sorry… but I'm really happy to see you,” Mew said to the mare in front of her.

“It's OK, and I’m also happy to see you little one,” Faust said to the young pokemon that still was a few cementers/inches away from her face.

Just after Faust had stopped talking with Mew, another masculine voice, that sounded familiar to the unicorn mare but she wasn’t able to recognize, came from behind Mew, “Sis, if you don’t mind, we also want to say hello to Faust”.

Mew quickly turned around and answered to the voice, “Oh, yes, sorry Dialga”.

Mew moved to the side allowing Faust to see Dialga, as well as his two brothers, Palkia and Giratina; when Faust saw the three brothers standing in front of her, her mouth opened a little bit, she was surprised by their size, as the last time she saw them, they were just a little bit bigger than Mew, and now they were as tall as Arceus, “Wow! You three have REALLY grown-up”. 

"I'm also happy to see you Faust," Giratina answered, a little annoyed.  

“Oh sorry… Hello?” Faust said to Giratina, she raised her right hoof waiting for Giratina to do the same

But Giratina surprised her by hugging her with his wings, “I’m so happy to see you”.

Faust started to hug Giratina and said, “I’m also happy to see you big guy”.

After the two had finish hugging, Giratina handed over Faust to Palkia who hugged the unicorn mare, after the two had exchanged greetings, Palkia handed over Faust to Dialga.

It was really an interesting image to see, as the mighty creator of an entire world was being passed like a plushie to be hugged by the three brothers that were also powerful beings, but, all that power to influence reality didn’t seem to matter at the moment, at that moment they were only old friends greeting each other.

After Dialga and Faust had finished hugging each other a female childish voice started to talk, “granddad… Are you going to introduce us your friend, or what?”

“Hum?” Fast said while getting around Dialga so she was able to see who this mysterious new voice was, what she saw surprised her to the point of disbelief, a group of what looked to be over 45 pokemon of different sizes were sitting around a gigantic table.

Before she was able to say anything, Arceus, who had got close to her, raised his right hoof and said, “Faust, I want to present to you the rest of my family”.

Faust quickly turned her head to see her friend, “WHAT!? You have a family of… what… 50 members!?” She asked surprised and somewhat annoyed.

“Well, its technically 52 without counting me,” Arceus answer.

“Wait so there are…” Faust started to count in silence for a moment, “…48, yes 48, 48 members of your family that I haven’t met yet, why didn't you tell me about this before? You know that I love your family!”

“Sorry,” Arceus said while scratching his neck, “I wanted to visit you and the others, and believe me when I tell you that I really wanted to see you again, but we have been really busy since we finish creating my world, I’m sorry”.

Faust smiled at her friend. “Its ok Arceus and I know from experience how hard things can get running a world, I mean at least you were smart enough to create some extra help, unlike me who decided that It wouldn’t be exhausting to do it alone.” 

Arceus chuckled, “really? You decided to not create any helpers?” He asked his friend with a smile.

“Yep! And I have been regretting that decision for a long time,” Faust answered her friend, but she didn’t sound angry or annoyed for recognizing her mistake, she actually sounded happy, “I mean, I have created some creatures that help me, as well as some relics, which, by the way, have been a lot of work, especially over the last 1000 years.”

“Ha! Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with a rough last millennium,” Arceus said jokingly to his friend.

“Wait... What do you mean? What happened?” Faust asked her friend, she said it jokingly but also genuinely concerned.

Arceus lowered his head, “Oh well… I don’t really want to talk about it”.

Faust quickly realized that not only Arceus but every Pokemon in the room didn’t seem that excited to talk about what had happened to them during the last 1000 years. 

“Sorry for asking,” she apologized, making Arceus turn his head and smile at her. 

“It's ok, and you don’t need to apologize, it was my fault for bringing it up,” Arceus answered, making Faust smile at him.

“Anyway!” Arceus said joyfully to his friend. “I’m pretty sure that you want to meet the new members of my family,” Faust nodded her head, “then we better start if we want to finish before sunset.” He said jokingly while guiding her to his personal spot in the meeting room and helping her sit on it, as it was quite a big chair in comparison to her.

Just after Faust sat down Arceus, who was standing next to her, started to talk, “well that little adorable green sweetheart sitting next to Dialga.” This description made Celebi blush and start looking at the floor. “Is Celebi, she’s Dialgas’s daughter and-” Arceus was interrupted by Faust who had grabbed Arceus’s head and turned it around to see him face to face.

“A DAUGHTER! DIALGA IS A FATHER NOW!?” Faust released Arceus and launched herself to hug Dialga on the neck. “OH MY! I’m so happy for you! She’s beautiful!”

Arceus chuckled at the scene that was happening in front of him, "oh, this is going to be fun," he thought to himself with an ear to ear smile.





Celestia’s little walk had extended beyond what would be considered little, she had been walking around the royal garden for an entire hour by now, and she knew that, but she didn’t want to get back into the castle, even with the cold wind that forced the princess to wear a scarf, the rare beauty of the golden-toned snow that covered the garden and the warm sunlight was enough to make her stay out, well that, and the fact that she didn’t want to go back to the castle to work, so she was trying to get at least a bit more free time.

However there was a problem, the princess was getting tired of walking through the same garden, yes it was incredibly beautiful, but, the problem was that she knew this place very well, its small size only made the walk less interesting, and the amount of time she had spent in the place only helped to make it more repetitive, in fact, she had passed in front of the castle door at least 4 times by now.

But as stated before, Celestia wasn’t going to finish her walk yet, because she knew there was a place where she could go to extend and make her walk more interesting, Canterlot’s main park.

As stated before, the park and the royal garden were connected, making the park the perfect place to go for an extended walk, although there was a gate and some protection spells that prevented ponies and other creatures from entering the royal garden without permission or the key, however, it wasn’t like Celestia wasn’t able to go back to the castle and get the key, in fact, she had already done that and was heading to the gate.

After reaching the park and closing the gate behind her, Celestia started to walk again, she wasn’t trying to arrive at any specific place, she was only walking around enjoying the warm sunlight.

She kept on walking without course for almost 20 minutes when she arrived at the park’s center, the place was so open in comparison to the other parts of the park that Celestia decided to stop her walk for a while and go sit on one of the benches.

While walking to the bench, Celestia started to hear a group of voices relatively close to her, but the thing was that there weren't any ponies or other creatures close, or at least she was not able to see them.

Celestia started to walk in the direction of the voices; she had already gotten close enough to make sense of what they were saying.

“Anyway, Arceus, I’m pretty sure that you are here for another reason apart from visiting, do you mind telling me?” A female voice that sounded familiar to the princess for some reason, asked.

“Well, we have been having rough times recently, and we really need a break, so I decided to come here and have a sort of vacation, I mean if you don’t mind,” a masculine voice said to the female voice, that masculine voice captivated Celestia, he sounded strong but compassionate.

The female voice immediately answered she sounded happy and excited, “of course you can! I’m honoured that you decided to come here of all places! Heck, you know what, I’m going with you, I’m going to be your personal guide… but with one condition, you need to show me your world”.

At that point, Celestia had already gotten close to the place where the voices were coming from, a portal, Celestia recognized it immediately, as she had seen thousands of them during her life, and although she had never seen some of the details of it, like it’s a rectangular shape and it’s thin white borders that contrasted with Equestria’s portals with their oval shapes and colourful and thick borders, she was certain that she was going to know what was at the other side of that portal.            

The masculine voice that the female voice had called Arceus, answered, “what kind of request is that? Of course I was going to show you my world! In fact, there are some things that I being dying to show you”.

Celestia had already gotten in front of the portal and was looking through it, what she saw made her a little concerned but also confused, a white pony sitting in a massive chair was talking with what looked to be a white and grey pony, but it was a little bit taller than Celestia herself, it also had what looked to be a golden ring around him.

Celestia also saw other massive looking creatures, what looked to be three dragons, one was white and pink, one was dark blue with silver armour and the other one, was grey with black and red and had some strange black wings, were sitting at the left and right side of the chair were the white pony was sitting, she also saw what it look to be a green Breezie, but bigger.

The white pony in the chair started to talk, “like this uninspired windows?” The pony on the chair was the female voice that Celestia was sure she knew from somewhere, she appeared to be joking with the pony-looking creature.

The creature with the masculine voice that the white pony had called Arceus answered, “oh, I actually want to put something more decent there, but I have been short on ideas, perhaps I can get an idea from your world”.

“I hope you do,” the mare pony said to this 'Arceus', “well, before you can go into my world, there are some things all of you need to know,” suddenly the white pony jumped off the chair that she was sitting on, that’s when she realized that Celestia had been looking at them at the other side of the portal.

“Princess Celestia!” The white pony screamed in surprise, this caught the attention of Arceus who turned around to see what had made his friend scream.

When the alpha pokemon saw the princess at the other side of the portal, his eyes started to glow bright and the princess started to be pulled across the portal, Celestia tried to get away but a powerful force was pulling her through the portal mede it imposible, but weirdly enough the princess wasn’t feeling afraid, there was something about this Arceus that made her feel strangely calm.
> Chapter IV: An Agreement
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia was finally pulled across the portal, making her able to see more of the meeting room, what she saw would have been enough to make any pony scared to death, what looked to be a group of at least 50 creatures of different sizes, colours and shapes, some of which looked somewhat similar to creatures and animals from Equestria, were staring down at her.

But the princess didn’t feel intimidated, she had dealt with inter-dimensional threats before, that being said she wasn’t that sure if there was a threat at all, Arceus and that white familiar pony seem to be old friends for how they talk with each other, and she had heard them talk about visiting Equestria as a sort of vacation, there was also the fact that even when Arceus had pulled her across the portal, he was giving her some sort of feeling of trust.

However this was not enough to convince the princess to blindly trust Arceus and the other creatures, however, the princess had been too distracted in her thoughts to realize that the white pony had bowed in front of her and had called her by her title, basically how most of the equestrian population greeted the princesses, but while Celestia was too busy analyzing her surroundings to notice the pony in front of her, Arceus not only realized that his old friend was bowing in front of this princess, but was trying to figure out why she was doing that.

“Why is Faust doing this?” Arceus thought while looking at his friend. “Faust is the creator of this world, she is not supposed to bow in front of anything… unless,” Arceus stopped his thoughts when he remembered a conversation he and Faust had during one of their last travels.

Back when Arceus and Faust used to travel together, they sometimes would talk about what plans they had regarding their worlds, similar to artists talking about their creations, this time they were talking about how the different gods they have visited interacted with their creations, and how the creations saw their creators. They have seen gods live among their creations as rulers, or simple people hiding their true identity, others chose to be a thing a force, others to just watch, and so on; but there was something in common with all of them, they were worshipped as gods, but Faust didn’t want that.

Faust told Arceus that she wished to coexist among her creations as a normal creature without being worshipped, as she said it: "a world without a god." Arceus saw this idea as a little extreme, but he respected his friend, and in a way, he agreed with her, he also wanted to live among his creations, he wanted his creations to view him as a father, a protector, but not their leader, being seen as a living legend, and apparently just like he had chosen to go ahead with his vision, Faust had decided to go with hers, although he was wondering why Faust didn’t decide to have wings or be taller, just like the princess...

...The princess... Arceus had finally taken a good look to the princess, she looked just like Faust did, just quite taller and with wings, as well as the obvious colourful and flying mane that heavily contrasted against Faust's scarlet and simple mane, the eyes of the princess were also different from the ones of his friend, Faust’s eyes were light blue while the eyes of the princess were pink? No, that’s not right, they had a purple tone? Arceus stared at the princess's eyes, trying to determine the right colour, something difficult as they were constantly moving, it was obvious that she was looking for something dangerous, but finally, her eyes stopped moving, but only because they were looking directly at Arceus, and for some bizarre reason, Arceus started to feel weird, but it was somehow a nice feeling.  

Celestia had been busy looking around the room trying to see if there was any danger, she especially put a lot of attention on the creatures; most of the small creatures didn’t seem to be dangerous as they seemed to lack fangs and claws, but she knew that even the smaller creatures can be dangerous if they had some kind of power, as for the big ones, that was a different story, most of them seemed to be dangerous as they had fangs and claws, and the ones that didn’t have fangs or claws had horns or other pointy and sharp looking things, or were big enough to give her a good hit. Howver Celestia had almost forgotten about Arceus, almost, the princess finally looked at Arceus, she realized that he was staring at her, he was looking directly at her eyes, she did the same, looking directly to his green/red eyes, she did this hoping that it would show Arceus that she wasn’t intimidated, but when she looked at his eyes, she started to feel weird, but it was a nice kind of weird.

“Princess, are you alright?” Faust asked Celestia, concerned that the princess was in some kind of shock, this managed to broke the somewhat hypnotic, eye to eye stare between Celestia and Arceus.

“What? Oh, yes, I’m alright,” Celestia answer, she sounded a little surprise, almost like she had forgotten everything around her, “thanks for asking, misses… Sorry what was your mane?” Celestia asked trying to discover the identity of this familiar-looking white pony, although Celestia suspected that the white pony had already said her name, only that she didn’t hear it for been distracted by looking at Arceus, somewhat beautiful, eyes.

“It’s Golden Feather, princess,” Faust said, this name click in Celestia's head, or at least partially, she was still trying to remember where she had listed that name before, as for Arceus, that name also click in his head

The fake name remind Arceus of some of his travels with Faust, in some of the worlds they had visited, the gods and spirits will live among mortals by using fake identities, the name also made sense base on the image that Faust had on her flanks, an image that Arceus just had notice, that been said the image and name also remind Arceus of Faust obsession with puns and the meaning of names. However while Arceus was remembering things, the anxiety to know what was going on of the other legendary pokemon was growing.

Finally, Mew, trying to avoid making things difficult by asking directly, started to use her psychic powers, to communicate with her dad, “Dad, what is going on? Who is she and why is Faust acting so weird? Why is Faust using a fake name?”

“Relax Mew,” Arceus answer by using his own psychic powers, “I think I have an idea of what is going on, but right now I need you to use your powers and tell the others to stay quiet while I take care of this, alright?”

“Alright dad,” Mew said, knowing that she can trust her dad. “One more thing dad.”

“What is it, Mew?” Arceus ask, knowing that it was probably going to be a joke. 

“Put attention to their conversation, it will be rude if you don’t listen to them,” Mew said trying to sound commanding, but just like before she turned out to be cuter than anithing else.

“I will,” Arceus said with a chuckle cause by the cuteness of her daughter, that been said, Arceus had been listening to the conversation between the princess and his friend, while talking with Mew.   

“Oh! I know you, you have a small column, behind the coupons, in The Canterlot Chronicle, where you write short stories, and your experience around Equestria,” Celestia said to Faust finally remember where she had listened, or in this case read, her name before.

“Yep!” Faust said, proud to know that the princess knew about her fake identity, but also a little ashamed that the princess knew about her stories because they were that interesting text behind a 25% off coupon for a sandwich, “by the way, is a pleasure to finally meet you, princess” 

“Is also nice to meet you, miss Golden Feather, but, I really want to know what is going on here,” Celestia answer, trying to be polite but without forgetting of the situation she was in.

“Fa-Golden, I think it will be a good idea if I take care of things from now on,” Arceus decided that this was the right moment to enter the conversation.

However it was obvious that Faust wasn’t sure that it was a good idea, Arceus almost call her by her real name and not the fake one, but, she also trusted her friend, and that small mistake was understandable, after all, she had lost account of how many times she almost said her true name rather than the fake one, that been said, she was not going to take any risk. “are you sure Arceus?” She asked, sounding obviously worried.

“Yes, but if you see that I need help, or I’m making a mistake, please tell me, Ok?” Arceus answer to his friend, trying to make her feel a little bit more comfortable with the situation.,“anyway,” Arceus turn to see the princess. “We haven’t been formally introduced, I’m lord Arceus, and for what I have heard you are princess Celestia, right?”

“Yes, I’m Celestia, and is a pleasure to meet you, lord Arceus,” Celestia said to the alpha pokemon, one will think the princess was trying to be nice for just for the sake of formality, which was somewhat true, but for some strange reason, she was actually pleased to meet him.

“The pleasure is mine, princess,” Arceus answer, similar to Celestia, Arceus was trying to be nice, after all, he was visiting Equestria for a relaxing vacation, not troubles, and somehow knew that she was a nice pony.  

“Please, just call me Celestia,” As usual, the princess was trying to avoid the somewhat annoyance that was the unnecessary formalities that came with her title.

“In that case, you can call me Arceus,” Arceus answer, while a small smile appeared in his face, he was happy to see that the princess appeared to have a similar position to him and Faust regarding titles and formalities. 

Celestia saw a smile appear in Arceus’s face, or at least what she thought to be a smile, he didn’t have a proper mouth, just a simple black line that bent to the shape of a smile, but even when it was hard to the princess to tell if there was a smile or not, she was sure that Arceus seemed to be happy hearing that she prefers to be called by her name and not her title.

“Very well,” Celestia said in response, “now Arceus, can you tell me what do you want with Equestria?” Celestia asked.

“Well, you probably overheard somethings, but we are basically coming here for what will you call a simple family vacation,” Arceus answer.

“Wait, what do you mean with 'a family vacation'?” Celestia asked in surprise.

“Simple me and my family want to see this place, take some time off and relax, you knew the usual,” while Arceus was telling that to the princess, he rose his right hoof to point the table where the other legendary pokemon were sitting.

“Oh!” Celestia said, realizing that she had forgotten about the other creatures. “Wait, so all of these different creatures are your family?” The princess was surprised, not by the number of creatures, she knew of families in Equestria that were probably bigger, like the Apple family, but because how different they were to Arceus.

“The tern is pokemon, not creatures, but yes all of them are my family,” Arceus said, without realizing that the princess had some doubts about his relations to most of the pokemon sitting around the table.

“There’s no way that all of them are your relatives,” Celestia said, trying not to sound rude.

“Well, some of them are second relatives, like Mewtwo (even when Mewtwo wasn’t Mew’s son but instead her clone, he prefered to be treated as her son, as it gave him a sense of belonging, and didn’t remained him of his true origin as a human experiment), and Celebi, who are my grandsons, and we also have adopted some pokemon into the family, like Deoxys and Genesect, but at least half of them are eider, my sons or daughters,” Arceus said to Celestia, who was looking at Arceus with a rather obvious but comical face of disbelieve, reason told the princess that what he was saying was a lie, but how he talked and especially that weird sentiment of trust that Arceus gave her, told the princess that he was saying the truth, most of these creatures, that didn’t look remotely to him, were his sons and daughters or at least grandchild’s.  

Arceus noted the face that was making the princess, “Celestia, are you alright?”  He asked, extremely worried that something bad had happened to her.

Celestia blinked several times before responding to the question, “Yes, I’m fine, I just… It doesn’t mather” She said, not sounding sure about her own words.

“Are you sure?” Faust aka Golden Feather, asked the princess while getting close to her.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Celestia said to Arceus and Faust/Golden Feather.

“Are you sure that you don't want to at least sit-down?” Arceus asked, it was obvious that he was very worried about her; almost more than Faust was for her, and Arceus knew that he was been a little overprotective, but he didn’t know why he was so worried for her.

“Yes, I think I’m going to sit down,” Celestia said, she didn’t need to sit, as she had told them before, she was fine, she might have a small shock but she was fine, she had gotten used to surprises, especially in the last five years, however, she accepted the offer, but only because she wanted to keep the conversation going, and that will only be possible if they were not worried about her, but the princess had to admit that the concern that Arceus had shown bout her wellbeing, was the main reason that made her accept the offer.

The princess began to close her flanks to the floor, but before he was able to sit down properly, she began to float in the air, like she was lifted by magic, but this wasn’t magic, it was the same force that pulled her across the portal a few minutes ago.  

“Hey! What!?” Celestia asked in surprise, she then realised that Arceus was the one who was levitating her, “Arceus! I can walk on my own, I don’t need your help,” Celestia said a little annoyed but also, somewhat happy, she even fell that her cheeks were starting to get warn, she was blushing! 

“Sorry Celestia, but you are my guest, and won’t let any of my guest to sit on the floor,” Arceus said while he moved the princess to his personal couch next to the table where the other legendary pokemon where sitting, Arceus sound somewhat happy while he moved the princess.

“Arceus I don’t know how things are in your world, but here in Equestria is very rude to levitate somepony without their permission,” Faust started to lecture Arceus while he gently put the princess on his personal chair/couch.

“No, is ok,” Celestia said before Arceus was able to apologise to her, she didn’t look at him, trying to hide her little blush, however, the princess quickly move her eyes to look at Arceus face, and she was certain that he was blushing as well, it was hard to tell because his dark grey face made difficult to distinguish the light red colour, but she could swear that he was blushing as well.

“Anyway,” Celestia said before clearing her throat, “what we were talking about?” 

“About our vacations,” A male voice said across the room, Celestia quickly turned her head in the direction that the voice had come from, only them the princess realise that she was sitting next to the table where the other legendary pokemon where sitting around, the pokemon that had said this was what Celestia will describe as a massive looking black and red eagle, the eagle had his wind crossed and was giving an accusatory look to the princess with his blue eyes.

Celestia, a little afraid rose her right front hoof and moved it little bit site to site it in a motion similar to a hi. “Oh yes! Thanks for remaining me, mister?” She asked sounding nervous, not only for the eagle looking pokemon, but the rest of the legendary pokemon that were also looking at her, and, as stated before some of them were a little intimidating to the princess, especially a massive flying green snake, that been said, irrational fear to snakes was something common among equines, in fact, according to Shining Armour, during the time that Chrysalis pass as Cadence they had an incident with a snake that made the mighty ex-queen of the changelings look like a scare little filly.

“Yvelta” the eagle looking pokemon said to the princess, he didn’t change his expression or move at all, it was obvious that he was annoyed with the princess, however, his expression quickly changed to one of pain, apparently a blue deer looking pokemon that was sitting next to Yvelta, had hit him under the table for his bad matters.

“Well,” Celestia turn around to see Arceus, she only did that to avoid looking at the other pokemon, for how uncomfortable they made her feel, especially the snake looking pokemon, “so about your vacation here, I have some things to say about it” 

“Like?” Arceus asked.

“Well, I don’t think most of the ponies and other creatures are going to feel comfortable around your family,” Celestia answer, she was trying not to offend Arceus or the other pokemon.

“And why will they feel uncomfortable?” Arceus ask.

“Well… to be honest… some of them are… well kind of scary” Celestia was trying her hardest to not be offensive, but she had to be honest.

“True, but I have a plan to make things simpler,” Faust/Golden Feather said to the princess.

“And what is that plan?” Celestia ask.

“Simple, we only use spell that change appetence,” Faust answer with a smile.

“You know that those spells are hard to do, right?” Celestia asked her.

“Yes, but I have been practising the easiest one to do, one that only lasted a little more than 12 hours,” Faust respond sounding certain in her skills.

“I’m not sure,” Celestia answer

“I can give you a demonstration,” Faust said, she then turned to see the other legendary pokemon. “Hey Regigigas, can you please come here”

The massive white pokemon got off his seat and started to walk where the three were discussing, Celestia had to admit that the creature was intimidating her.

Regigigas finally got in front of Faust/Golden, “thank you, sweetheart, now this is going to fell a little weird, but everything is going to be fine, just don’t move,” Faust's horn started to shine in a golden tone, she then directed the light to Regigias who started to shine in the same golden tone, finally after a few seconds the light stop and were Regigigas use to be, appeared a rather big white earth pony with a black main and eyes and a cutie mark that resemble steel, rock and ice.

Celestia was impressed by the abilities of the unicorn, however, that when out of the window when the only thing that came out of Regigagas was his name in a robotic voice.

“Oh! Let me fix that,” A pokemon that resembled a hairless pink cat whit a long tail, got off her chair and levitated towards Regigagas, she placed her hand on the head of the pony and close her eyes, after a few seconds she tucked her hand off the head of the pony, “now, try to say something.” 

“Hello,” Regigigas voice was kind of deep but it was better than the robotic voice.

“As you can see princess” Faust/Golden turned around to see the princess, “we have that cover, and before you ask,” she showed her a pocket watch, that Arceus was sure came out of nowhere, “the spell will whore off at 8:00 pm, enough time to see a good part of the city”.

“Ok you have that cover, and for what I overhear, you are planning to be the guide, but I’m still not sure if letting then free in Equestria is a good idea,” Celestia said to Faust.

Just after the princess had finished talking a good amount of the legendary pokemon started to talk in outrage, Celestia had basically call them savages and they were obviously a little annoyed by that, however, they didn’t talk that much, Arceus simply clear his throat and everyone went silent.

“Why is that princess? why do you think is not a good idea for us to visit Equestria?” Arceus ask sounding calm as usual.

“Well, we only meet a few minutes ago and even when you and Golden seen trustworthy, I can risk the well been of my little ponies base on the feeling of trust you give me, or what a small writer tell me, I’m sure that you understand, right?” Celestia answer, she also sounded calm but she was a little scare.

“I understand, I myself won’t let anyone come to my world if I think they are dangerous,” Arceus said. “But we really need this, is there any way we can make an arrangement or something”:

Celestia closed her eyes and sight, “well, if you let at least one of my guards to go with you so they can tell me what are you doing… and, that don’t be enough to let you in, I really want to let your family in, they look nice but, I don’t want to take any risk,” she knew that the guard won’t be enough, but she really wanted to let them in, as they didn't seem to have any altered motives to come to Equestria or any interest in hurting her ponies, but she didn’t have any idea of what to ask for to let them in Equestria.

“What if I stay with you?” Arceus ask surprising everyone in the room.

“But father-” Dialga started to talk, even when Mew told him that Arceus had given them the order to not interfere, Arceus quickly interrupted him before he was able to say anything else.  

“Dialga, you and the others can take perfect care of yourself, and you know that this vacation is for all of you, and I’m pretty sure that this will be the only way that Celestia will let all of you in, right?” Arceus said.

“Yes,” Celestia answer. “I think is reasonable to ask that at least one of you stays with me, I’m sorry” 

“You don’t need to apologize, is the most reasonable option,” Arceus said to the princess.

“You don’t understand,” Faust/Golden Feather said to her friend, “two days ago was hearts warming, a festivity in Equestria where families get together to pass a good time, I think Celestia doesn’t want to separate a family, especially in this time of the year.” 

“But you also don’t want to ruin our vacation, right?” Arceus ask, looking at Celestia.

The princess simply nodded with her head, “yep, that’s basically it.”

“So we are not going to have our vacation?” Celebi ask, whit the cutes voice she was able to do, she was trying to manipulate the princess whit her cuteness just like she had done sometimes whit her dad and granddad 

Celestia turn to see Celebi, she had to admit that the pokemon was very cute, and she appeared to be sat over the fact that they were not going to have a vacation in Equestria, however, Arceus knew exactly what his granddaughter was trying to do, making him feel a little guilty for letting Celebi manipulate Celestia.

“Sorry, little one but-“ Celestia answer, starting to feel guilty by the look that Celebi was giving her, the worst part is that she knew that tactic, Cadence, Twilight and Blue Blood used it a lot with her when they were little, “I mean it's not like I don’t want you to have your vacation, is just that I don’t want to put any ponies or you in risks, I mean, is not like I don’t trust or your family or anything, but I only meet to make sure that everything will be fine, but whit out forcing anyone to past the vacation away from the rest of the family, I just that… well,” Celestia knew that she was falling for the cuteness trick, but she was trying to give a fight, a fight that she knew it was pointless but at least she will fight to the end.

“But my granddad just told you that he was willing to stay with you, right granddad?” Celebi turned to see Arceus. 

Arceus knew that this was his time to enter the conversation, “yes, it will be good for your dad as well for Palkia, Giratina and Mew to get some practice as seconds in command”. 

“Wait, are you sure that we can manage the responsibility dad?” Mew asked Arceus also entering the already confusing conversation.

“Of course Mew, I mean, so far none of you had destroyed something, in purpose,” Arceus answer, it was about that he was joking with her daughter, “So, Celestia, are you going to let us in?”

Celestia, between the extreme cuteness of Celebi, the fact that Arceus family seemed to be very nice, and the simple fact that the plan Arceus had to offer her was very reasonable, finally made her give up, “Ok, you can come to my world, but Arceus has to stay with me, and at least one of my guards has to escort all of you.”

“Yay!” Celebi said while launching herself to hug Celestia in the neck, “thank you so much, princess!” 

“Yes, thank you, Celestia,” Arceus said to Celestia, while the princess was distracted with Celebi, who was still hugging Celestia’s neck.

“You are welcome,” Celestia said smiling to the two of them.

Arceus then turn to see the other legendary pokemon, “alright, everypokemon, make a line so Golden can apply the spell on you".
> Chapter V: The First Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the legendary pokemon, as well as Faust and Celestia, were already in Canterlot’s main park, The portal had been closed.

Everyone was ready to go, the only reason why they haven’t moved yet, was because Arceus was giving some last instructions to Mew, Giratina, Palkia and Dialga; who were in their pony disguises. In fact, all the legendary pokemon were already in their pony disguises, with the exception of Arceus who didn’t see the point of using the spell on him when he was going to stay with Celestia.

The legendary pokemon group wasn’t that special, except for some of them, like Dialga, who was kind of weird looking thanks to his silver/white mane that heavily contracted with his dark blue colour. As for the others legendary, some of them were quite big in comparison to the average pony, but in general they were a pretty normal group of looking ponies, of the three different races.

But with the other exception being that all of them have light blue scarves around their necks, it was a gift from Celebi and Arceus part. 

From what Celestia understood, some time ago Arceus and Celebi went for a walk to a frozen lake. During that walk, because of the cold weather and some kind of ‘type disadvantage’ -something that Arceus promised to explain later to Celestia-, Celebi needed some clothes to keep herself warm, so she brought 2 light blue scarves, one for her and one for Arceus. Celebi them decided to give one to every member of the family and with help of Arceus she prepared scarves for everyone, sadly she wasn’t able to get any colour other than light blue .

All that aside, Celestia had to admit that the scene where Celebi distributed the scarves was one of the funniest and cutest things she had seen. Most of the pokemon were still in their normal form, so basically, you have a small green creature giving light blue scarves to creatures from 2 to 10 times her size, and even helping the ones who didn’t have hands to put them on, something that almost killed Celestia due to an overload of cuteness.

After around 10 minutes Arceus finished talking with his sons and daughter, he started to walked towards Celestia, who had been talking with Faust/Golden Feader. 

“All right Celestia, I’m ready to go,” Arceus said.

“Perfect, let’s go then,” Celestia answer while walking towards the direction of the castle.

Arceus followed Celestia until they arrive at the border of the center of the park, limited by the trees that surround the open area that was the center of the park. Arceus then turned around to give a final goodbye to his family by waving his hoof, the rest of his family returned the gesture, Celestia couldn’t avoid smiling at the scene, she had always liked these demonstrations of paternal love. 

After a few seconds, Arceus finished waving goodbye to his family and started to walk next to Celestia, the two of them follow the path towards the castle. 

“So Arceus,” Celestia said, “can you please tell me, what is that-“ Celestia interrupted herself with an involuntarily shiver, due to a breeze of cold wind, there might be a warm sunlight, but it was still winter, so things like the wind or the general temperature were low.

Suddenly Arceus started to shine in a white light that made the princess look at him. What Celestia saw surprised her, Arceus’s golden ring and hoofs were now of a red colour, but more interesting of all, the princess started to fell warm, it was almost like somepony had made a fire to warm her.  

“What was that? Why did you turn red?” Celestia asked, surprised by the transformation of her companion.

“Relax Celestia, I simply change to the fire type.” Arceus answered calmly, almost like nothing had happened. 

“But why did you do that?” Celestia asked, trying to get a more clear answer.

“For you,” Arceus answer, not thinking in what he was saying.

After hearing that, Celestia fell that she was blushing again, and apparently Arceus was blushing as well, like he had realised what he had just said. “W-what do you mean with, you did it for me?” Celestia asked, trying to hide her blush.

“Well- because of the cold weather… because you shivered.” Arceus was feeling a little nervous, making it difficult for him to explain what he was trying to say. 

“You see, fire type pokemon tend to emit heat, just like a fire will do, and well, seeing you shiver made me realise that you needed something to warm you up, also to be honest with you I also was starting to feel cold as well, not that I only did it for me, I did it for the two of us.” Arceus was feeling nervous, but he was trying to not make a fool of himself.

“Oh well, in that case, thank you.” Celestia answer, feeling a little bit less nervous, but more calm none the less.

“You are welcome,” Arceus said in response.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Celestia started to talk again. “Anyway, we better get going” 

Arceus simply nodded his head, and the two of then restarted their walk to the castle. Unlike before, Celestia was walking closer to Arceus this was due to the heat that Arceus was emitting warming up the princess like she was next to a fireplace. She actually wanted to get closer to Arceus but she kept her distance due to Arceus’s ring. However, Arceus did notice that Celestia wanted to get close to him, so to the surprise of the princess, he began to move closer to her.

"Arceus, wait-" Celestia said in protest, trying to bring to her companion's attention that his ring was about to collide with her. However, to her surprise the red ring that surrounded Arceus passed through her body without her felling anything. If fact if Celestia hadn't been looking at the ring she wouldn't have even registered what had happened.

"... Wait, what?" Celestia asked, still looking at the ring that was now basically in the middle of her body, yet she didn't feel a thing.

Arceus simply chuckled at the reaction of the princess, something that gained the attention of Celestia, who had almost forgotten that the red ring she was looking at actually was part of a creature. Celestia turned her attention to the face of her companion, Arceus gave her a silly smile mostly caused by Celestia's confused expression.

"Surprised?" Arceus asked, holding back a childish tone for one more similar to that of a magician or inventor who had just presented something that had stolen the words of his entire audience.

"Very," Celestia answer, turning her attention back to the ring, before looking back at Arceus, "How did you do it?" She asked.

"Simple, despite what you might think, my ring isn't solid. Most of the time it is just visible but any kind of thing can pass through it." Arceus answered. However, he quickly realised that Celestia might need an answer that was easier to understand.

"Think of them like your wings, you have them folded at the sides of your body. It is the same with my ring, but, instead of coming close to my body as your wings do, my ring simply loses its physical presence, leaving an image that can't collide with anything."

Celestia seemed to understand this time. "Fascinating," she finally exclaimed, looking at the ring again, before quickly turning back to Arceus as new questions came to her head. "Wouldn't it be easier to just leave it there rather than making it a projection? Also, are you sure this is safe? I don't want to end up with that inside me." At the same time as Celestia spoke that last part, she moved a little away from Arceus, worried that his ring might impale her.

"Don't worry Celestia," Arceus answered with haste after noticing the wariness in the princess's tone. "Just like how you can't open your wings against a wall, my ring can't become physical if it's inside something. In fact, that's the reason to why my ring isn't a physical object most of the time, otherwise I would easily get stuck in things. It would be like you going everywhere with your wings open." Arceus' delivery of his explanation gradually changed to sounding more relaxed, just like how Celestia seemed to relax.

"So is it completely safe?" Celestia asked. She believed Arceus, however, she still wanted a more direct confirmation.

"Celestia, you are safer next to me than anywhere else in the world."  Arceus answered with a soft yet assuring tone, because he knew that what he was saying was true. After all he was the alpha and creator pokemon, there wasn't a place safer for Celestia that right next to him, even if she didn't knew how true that statement was. 

And it seemed that answer worked, as Celestia moved close to Arceus. In fact, she moved closer to him, to the point that the two were closer than before, as the warmth that Arceus body was emitting was something that Celestia was enjoying quite a lot

“So, what were you going to ask me?” Arceus asked, trying to restart their conversation after the two went silent for a minute or so.

“Oh! Right! Thanks for reminding me.” Celestia answered.

“You are welcome.” Arceus said with a smile.

Celestia returned the smile before she started to talk. “I wanted to know about those 'types' you were talking about.”

“Well, there is quite an amount of things that you need to know in order for you to understand the types.” Arceus said, not looking forward to explaining all of that to Celestia. However, he knew that he would be getting information from Celestia about Equestria as well, something that interested him. Besides, it will be rude on his part to not explain to her.

“Well the walk to the castle is quite long, so I think it will be enough time to talk about it.” Celestia sai. Like Arceus, she wasn’t really looking forward to a long boring explanation.

”In that case, we'd better start with the basics.” Arceus answered, the ring around his body began to shine, and quickly, in the middle part of his body, between his neck and the ring around his body, began to emit two small white lights, from the lights, two six-angle shape plates. One of the plates was of a dark blue colour and the other one was of a dark green colour. After the plates emerged completely out of Arceus body, the two lights in his torso disappeared, and he levitated the tables in front of Celestia.

“This is the Meadow Plate,” Arceus said while pointing at the dark green plate. “And this is the Splash Plate,” Arceus added while pointing at the dark blue plate. “Now the Meadow plate represent what we call the ‘Grass Type’ in my world, as for the Splash plate it represents what we call the ‘Water Type’, you follow?”

“Yes, I do,” Celestia answered while looking at Arceus, but she kept glancing at the plates with curiosity. “However, I still have a few questions, however, something tells me that your explanation will be answered them, so feel free to continue.”

“Very well,” Arceus said as he turned his attention back to the plates. “Now, the types are basically a way to classify different kinds energy that are related to different elements of qualities of my world. For example, water, or vegetation, the last being represented by the grass type.” Arceus paused a moment, turning to see Celestia and check if she was following along.

Celestia had been listening to Arceus explanation. She began to compare this 'types' to equestrian magic, in particular the magic used by the three pony species. She then took notice of how Arceus had stopped talking and was looking at her. She quickly deduced that Arceus wanted to know if she was following along. Celestia simply smiled, at the amount of attention Arceus was giving to her as well as make sure that she was following. She then made a gesture with her head to indicate to Arceus that he could continue with the explanation.

“This elemental energy, are one of the key pillars for the life of any Pokémon. They give us tools to survive, make things, the ability to survive in certain environments, some of them incredibly hostile, as well as access to certain skills. And most importantly, it allows them the ability to create powerful and different kinds of attacks based on said energies, as well as tank any damage made by said abilities and even counter any damage they might make.” Arceus made another pause, turning to see Celestia and once again check if she was following.

Celestia had been able to follow Arceus' explanation mostly out of fascination, a fascination she hadn't felt since Star Swirl taught her and Luna about magic. Or well, more like the first week he taught them about magic, before everything descended into 5 hour-long lectures about stuff neither Celestia nor Luna ever ended up using in their 1000 year plus lives. However, leaving aside the failures of her teacher and going back to that sense of wonder, Celestia was quite interested in what Arceus had told her. True, Equestrian magic had similar effects, with pegasus, as well as any creature with wings, having the ability to stand on clouds, and earth ponies being able to basically turn the most infernal wasteland on a splendid garden, being good comparisons to what Arceus was describing. However, from what she could deduct, this types whet a little farther in comparison to equestrian magic, and had a major emphasis on attack and defense.

That being said, she still had a few questions she needed answers for, so she decided to take advantage to the paused Arceus had made in her explanation to asked said questions. “What do you mean with tank and counter the attacks?”

“Oh that, well. Certain types are weak or stronger when confronted with other types, meaning that certain types will be able to resist or even be immune to certain types, while other types can be incredibly weak to other certain types... let me give you a demonstration.” Arceus explained, before pointing at the plates.

“Now, this might sound a little estrange, and I should probably use the “Flame Plate”, that’s the plate for the fire type, to make this a little easier to understand. However I’m currently using it to keep us warm, so this will have to do the trick.” Arceus explained to Celestia.

Celestia simply nodded. “Yes, as much as I want to understand this ‘types’, I prefer to keep ourselves warm.” She said with a joking tone, “anyway, please continue.”

“Very well.” Arceus said before turning his attention to the plates. “Now like I said before, both plates, or well more like the types they represent, are made of a kind of what can you call ‘elemental energy’. Said energies can be a little incompatible with each other, resulting in both taking damage, however, depending on what types are interacting, they will take more or less damage, even no damage at all.”

After finishing his explanation, Arceus began to levitate the plates closer. “Now, put attention to how they interact.” Arceus said to Celestia, who began to look closer at the plates.

What Celestia saw was quite interesting to say the least, as the plates got closer, a black spot began to appear in the middle of both plates, and as the plates got even closer the spot began to grow, not only in size but also like if it was extending similar to the root of a plant penetrating the earth. She wasn’t sure but it almost looked like small cracks, similar to those one would see in glass or crystal were starting to appear in the plates, giving the impression that they were about to shatter. However, she noticed that the effect of decay was affecting the blue plate, that according to Arceus represented the 'water type', while the green plate, the one that represented the 'grass type' was considerably less affected.

“I think that’s enough, I believe I understand it now.” Celestia told Arceus, as she separated herself from the two plates. “Although, I still have 2 more questions, but, I doubt the plates will be needed to answered them”.

“Very well, shoot!” Arceus answered, at the same time he levitated the plates back to his body.

“Well, I want to know if Pokémon from a certain type can be damaged by the thing that is represented by the type they are weak to. Basically, can a fire type Pokémon can be damaged by simple water?” Celestia asked, looking at Arceus with curiosity.

“I was actually expecting that question.” Arceus said with a jovial tone.

“Really?” Celestia asked, turning to look at him.

“Yep,” Arceus said with a joking tone. “That has been a ferally common question and relative misunderstanding throughout my word’s history. Is not weird to hear a young Pokémon make that question to their parents.” Arceus explained with a smile, remembering how even some of the legendaries made that question when they were very young.

“But, going back to your question, the answer is no.” Arceus finally said, after remembering that Celestia had made him a question. “Pokémon can’t be damaged by the element of the type they are week towards. Is true that they might be a little bit more at risk when interacting when the element they are weak towards, for example, a fire Pokémon is more at risk of drowning that a Pokémon that is not weak to the water-type. However, that doesn’t mean they can be taken down by a splash of water, of they can’t go for a swim. In fact most Pokémon, even fire type, need to drink water to survive”.

“That’s, quite interesting…” Celestia said with a tone of surprised, “and a mouth full too.” She added with a joking tone when she realise that Arceus explanation had been a little too long.

“Yep!” Arceus said with a chuckle. “Oh, and before I forget, most Pokémon don’t care that much about the types besides combat, they have no problem living with Pokémon of a type they might be weak or strong. Well, as long as the weather and biome is pleasing for them. Also, is possible for Pokémon of different types to reproduce with each other, even if they are weak or stronger to the type of their partner.”

Now that really surprised Celestia, she was expecting for Pokémon to prefer living with the Pokémon of their type, instead, they were a more open society, similar or arguably better than Equestria.

“By the way, what’s your other question?” Arceus asked, getting Celestia out of her thoughts.

“Oh? What?... oh right!” Celestia explained as she remembers that she still had one more question to make. “I just wanted to know how many types exist?”

“That’s an easy question to answered.” Arceus said, he was honestly expecting something a little bit more complex, “there are exactly 18 types”.

“18 types!? That’s quite a big number don’t you think? I mean how do Pokémon keep track of what type they are strong and weak towards?” Celestia asked genuinely surprised.

“Not really,” Arceus answered, keeping his calm attitude. “For a young Pokémon, or in your case, a newcomer, the variety of types might be a little overwhelming, but it doesn’t take that much to learn. As Pokémon, especially the young ones, tent to learn quite fast, besides they usually have their parents to help them and teach them about the types, is one of many main cornerstones of common knowledge in my world”.

Celestia took a few seconds thinking about the answer, and she realised that just like how in equestrian knowledge about magic is common knowledge, knowledge about the types most be common in Arceus world. “Well… now that I think about it, that makes sense, although, I still want to know what are all the types.

Arceus simply nodded. “Well the types can be divided into two groups, the ‘Elemental’ group and the ‘Attribute’ group. Now, the Attribute group is the bigger of the two groups by 2 types, that being said, there are more species of Pokémon of elemental types that there are of the attribute kind. However, there is an exemption for both groups and you also have to consider that some Pokémon can be of two different kinds of types from both or just one group”.

Arceus made a small pause, to see if Celestia had any kind of doubt, she didn’t, so she simply told him to go on.

“Now, you are already familiarised with 3 of the elemental types, thus being: Fire, Water and Grass.The other 5 are: Ground, Rock, Electric, Steel and Ice, by the way, ice is one of the exceptions I told you about, as ice-type Pokémon are the most uncommon of all the Pokémon with an elemental type.”

“As for the attribute group, the types that enter this category are: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Psychic, Dragon, Dark, Fairy and Bug. I’m Normal type, but I have the ability to change my type using the plates, also, bug is the other exemption, as Pokémon of that type are some of the most common”.

After Arceus finished his explanation, a few things came to Celestia’s mind. “So you are telling me that there’s a type that’s literally 'Normal', look I can get behind the idea that there are a 'Psychic', 'Poison' and even 'Bug' type, but 'Normal' it’s a little too much of a stretch for me. I mean normal type fells like something that shouldn't be a type at all, I mean how is something with the powers you just describe, or the one’s you have, normal?” Celestia said while looking for the keys to open the garden gate.

“That’s a valid observation, however by its characteristics and how they compare to the other types, you can say that…” Arceus stop when he saw that Celestia was acting a little weird.  “Celestia, is everything all right?” Arceus ask concern for what Celestia was doing.

“The keys, I can’t find them!” Celestia said while looking under her right wind, Celestia's horn started to shine, however after a few seconds nothing happened. “I think I let them on your world.”  

“Why is that a problem? Why don’t you use your magic? Or something, I mean is just a door.” Arceus asked.

“The thing is that the garden is protected with magic to avoid any pony from entering without permission or the key, and well, I kind of forgot the counterspell.” Celestia answer.

Arceus didn’t say anything, he just started to walk towards the gate passing next to Celestia.

“Hey! I cast that spell almost 1000 years ago.” Celestia said while Arceus started to shine to finally change to ghost type.

“Wait, what do you mean with over a 1000 years ago? How old are you?” Arceus ask, surprise for what Celestia just had told him.

“Well, I’m a little over 1000 years old.” Celestia answer, it was obvious that she wasn’t very comfortable talking about her age in front of Arceus.   

“Interesting, I wasn’t expecting to find creatures that old in this world.” Arceus said without realising that he just had call Celestia old.

However, it didn’t take more than a second before Arceus realised his mistake. “ I mean, is not that I think you are old, you don’t look old at all, in fact, I’m older than you, and you actually look quite young and beautiful.” Arceus said, trying to not get himself in an awkward situation, or at least a less awkward situation.   

“Thank you.” Celestia said not trying to put attention to Arceus complement, however that didn’t work as she started to blush again, but when she realised what he had just told her, her red checks stop been her priority when she noticed what Arceus had just told her.

“Wait, you are older than me?” Celestia asked, surprised that she had met a creature that was older than her.

“Yes, I'm actually much older, an awful lot more older than you.” Arceus answer.

“How much?” Celestia asked.

“Well, let’s just said that my age is written with 7 digits.” Arceus answer.

Celestia stud there speechless for a few seconds before she was able to simply say. “Wow! Well you don’t look old at all”

“Thank you.” Arceus said while nodding with his head. 

“Anyway, we better get going to the front door.” Celestia said after a few more seconds of silence, however, Arceus didn’t follow her, he started to walk towards the gate. “Hey Arceus, what are you doing?” 

“I want to try something.” Arceus said while closing his eyes.

“Forget it Arceus, that protection spell was created by my old teacher, it will take a lot of effort, even for myself, to overcome it.” Celestia said with a dismissive tone, not realising that Arceus had become transparent.

“I have no doubts about your capabilities Celestia.” Arceus said while walking to the gate, he kept on walking until, for Celestia surprise, got through the close gate, like it wasn’t even there. “But clearly that spell wasn't ghost-prove.” Arceus said while opening the gate for Celestia.

“Considering that as far as we know, there are no ghosts in Equestria, I think is reasonable that is not ghost prove.” Celestia said while passing next to Arceus, she was both impressed and a little worried for Arceus abilities.

The walk towards the castle was pretty normal, and with the exception of some encounters with the guards (with one being sent to escort, Faust and Arceus family)  as well as the walk to the thrones room, there wasn’t any kind of problem, which mean that Arceus was able to finish his conversation when they arrive at the door of the thrones room, something that Arceus wanted to use as an opportunity to ask a few things to Celestia about her world and her. 

However, Arceus attention quickly shifted to the thrones room one’s it was open. He was amazed by the beauty of the place, and even when there were a few things that he found kind of pointless, he was captivated by the place, but what got almost all of his attention were the stained glasses windows, he found them to be quite charming with their simplistic art style.

“Celestia, can you tell me: who made all of these stained glasses windows?” Arceus ask Celestia, who was standing next to him while looking at one depicted 6 ponies fighting against a bigger dark pony.

“A group of Equestria fines glassworkers.” Celestia said.  

“Sorry that’s not what I mean, I was referring to the design, who made it?” Arceus ask, with the same relaxed tone that characterised him.

“Oh! Well, it was me.” Celestia answer.

Arceus turn to see Celestia. “Really?”

Celestia also turned to see Arceus. “Yes, I actually made most of the other designs as well, it’s a relaxing activity to do, and more interesting than reading…” Celestia sighed and began to talk again, “legal documents.” She then turned around and started to walk, towards her throne, she had just remembered why she had come to the throne room, and she wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

Arceus was a little confused by Celestia’s actions, he was about to ask if everything was all right, but he realised that Celestia was walking towards what he supposed to be her throne and right next to it was a relatively big mountain of papers.“Let me guest, paperwork?” Arceus ask while following Celestia.

”Yes, luckily is not that much, but I need to finish it today if I want to be able to visit my student tomorrow, speaking of which, you don’t mind travelling in train, do you?” Celestia said while sitting on her throne.

“I prefer more natural methods of transportation, but I don’t have any problem travelling in a train.” Arceus answer, he knew about trains as they were a very important method for transportation in a lot of other worlds, in fact back when he used to travel with Faust they realise that trains were the second most popular form of transportation in many worlds, the first one been the airship or zeppelin.          

“Perfect, that’s one less problem, by the way, why did you ask about the tainted classes?” Celestia asked while levitating a bunch of papers and a keel next to her.

“Do you remember those windows in the meeting room, the ones that Golden called: 'uninspired'?” Arceus answer.

"Yes, I do." Celestia answer, remembering the conversation she overheard while making her way to the portal, as well as the short time she spent looking around the meeting room the time she was on it. 

“Well, I been wanting to replace them with something more elaborated and creative, but I haven’t been able to come up or find something acceptable, until now. Celestia, your designs are beautiful, do you think I can ask you for some designs for my temple? Oh, and of course I going to pay you, although is going to be with goods, unless you accept pokes.” Arceus said as always, his voice was calm.

“Oh, well, thank you Arceus, but, I think that’s going to be difficult, you see these designs take a good amount of time to make, but, I can recommend you another artist.” Celestia answer, not separating her face from the papers, but not reading them either.

“What a shame them, like I said before your work is really beautiful.” Arceus answer.

Celestia started to blush again, she was used to receiving praises, it was something normal for a princess, but most of them were just empty words, but not Arceus, he sounded honest. “TRhank you.” Celestia said, closing the papers even more to her face.

“You are welcome.” Arceus answer, he then started to get closer to Luna’s throne. “Do you think I can sit here?” Arceus ask while pointing at the throne next to Celestia.

“Well, that’s my sister’s throne, but I don’t think she will mind if you sit on it.” Celestia answer without looking at him, as she was still trying to hide her light red cheeks.

“Sister?” Arceus ask.

“Oh! Right, I didn’t tell you about her, you see I have a little sister, Luna, she and I are co-rulers of Equestria.” Celestia answer while Arceus sat in Luna’s throne.

“Can I meet her?” Arceus asked.

“Of course, but you have to wait until the sunset, she is sleeping now.” Celestia answer.

“Wait, why is she sleeping instead of helping you?” Arceus ask in confusion. 

“Well, is complicated, she has her responsibilities as the princess of the night, just like I due as the princess of the day,” Celestia answer.

“What do you mean with 'the princess of the day and night'?” Arceus asked even in more confusion.

“Well, that’s kind of complicated.” Celestia said, she didn’t want to waste time explaining her abilities to Arceus, not that she wasn’t willing to explain it, is just that she wanted and needed to finish the paperwork, but she didn’t want to be rude with Arceus.

“Does it have something to do with that image on your flank?” Arceus ask while pointing at Celestia’s cutie mark with his left hoof.

“Yes, but as I said before, it’s kind of a complicated thing, that i will need a lof of-” Celestia was interrupted by Arceus, who was now standing next to her and with his left hoof on her back.

“I get it Celestia, you need time to finish all of that work, you don’t need to give me and explanation right now, I can wait.” Arceus said to the princess with a smile.

Celestia returned the smile and nodded with her head, she then returned to read the paper she had been levitating in front of her face for a few minutes by now, finally been able to go past the first paragraph.

However, after finishing reading the first paper Celestia quickly turn around to see what Arceus was doing, he had returned to sit on Luna’s throne, but he also had a bunch of papers floating around him. Celestia was about to ask him what he was doing when she realised that he was trying to draw, constantly looking at the other papers floating around him, probably using them as a reference.

After seen that Arceus was busy, Celestia return to her own work, the 2 of them kept on working for a few more hours. They work in silence, only hearing the noise normally cause by working with paper, from time to time, Arceus or Celestia will turn to see how the other was doing, they kept working like that until sunset, with only a small break to eat.
> Chapter VI: At Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arceus found himself following Celestia, the two of them were walking down in a big hallway, illuminated by the last lights of the sunset. According to the princess; they were heading to the area of the castle were the sleeping rooms where located.

Suddenly, a dark blue pony, a little bit smaller than Celestia appeared around the corner, causing Celestia to stop.

“Goodnight Luna,” Celestia said to the dark pony, at that point, Arceus was able to see that the pony had wings and a horn, which according to Celestia, makes a pony an alicorn.

“Good night dear sister,” Luna said, without realising of Arceus presence.

“So this is your sister Celestia, she is a little bit taller than what I expected,” Arceus said, as he moved to get next to Celestia.

After a few seconds of silence, in which the princess of the night and the alpha pokemon look at each other, Luna started to talk. “Sister, do thou mind presenting us to our guest”.

“Oh, of course, Luna this is Arceus; Arceus this is Luna, my little sister”. Celestia said while Luna started to walk close to Arceus.

“Nice to meet you,” Arceus said while looking down at Luna.

“Is also a pleasure for us to meet thou Arceus,” Luna answer, she then turned to see Celestia, “Sister, can we talk with thou a minute?”.

“Of course Luna,” Celestia answer.

“In private,” Luna said with a cold tone, trying to not look at Arceus.

“Oh, yes…” Celestia then turned to see Arceus, “can you please wait here, you don’t mind right?” 

“Not at all,” Arceus answer, with his usual relaxed tone.

Luna started to walk and turn around the corner where she had appeared a few moments ago, Celestia followed her, only to be dragged to a nearby cleaning closet by her sister, causing a lot of noise caused by some of the cleaning material falling to the floor as the princesses struggle in the small closet.

“Luna, what are you doing?” Celestia asked, before hitting something with one of her wings.

“What art we doing? We art the one who is supposed to make that question, we thought thou said that both of us will have some free time for the both of us, neither thou nor we weren’t supposed to receive any kind of dignitaries, or whatever the hay Arceus is,” Luna said with indignation; indignation that didn’t last long as she hit one of the walls and a bucket fall next to her, scaring both Celestia and Luna.

“Look Luna, it was something that just happened, he is only going to stay with us a few weeks while his family sees Equestria and that’s it, so relax,” Celestia answer, trying to not hit anything.

“Very well sister, but he is thy responsibility,” Luna said, also trying to not hit anything just like her sister; however despite their best effort, they end up hitting and dropping even more things when a nocked came from the other side of the door.

“Celestia, Luna, are you two all right?” Arceus asked at the other side of the door, worried for the two princesses after hearing so many loud noises.

“We are fine Arceus,” Celestia said while opening the door; only to find the face of a very concern Arceus.

“What happened here?” Arceus ask while moving away so the princesses could get out of the closet.

“We kind of under- WOAH!” While Celestia made her way out the closet she slipped doe to soapy water that came from a bucket that eider she or Luna hit while they were on the closet, causing her to fall to the floor the same way a pony who doesn’t know who to used skates.

“Celestia!” “Tia!” Arceus and Luna said while getting close to help Celestia; however, the two of them had different degrees of success, as Arceus was able to get close to Celestia, while Luna, just like her sister, ended falling to the floor after sliding doe to the same soapy water that made her sisterfall.

“Are you all right?” Arceus asked Celestia while using his right frontal leg to help her to get up.

“I’m fine Arceus” Celestia, now standing, answer to the alpha pokemon, she was about to thank him and go help Luna when she slipped again, however this time she managed to stop her fall by grabbing her frontal legs around Arceus neck, basically she hug Arceus to avoid falling to the floor."

“I’m so sorry for this Arceus,” Celestia said while 'hugging' Arceus and ones again trying to hide her light blush.

“You don’t need to apologize” Arceus answer while looking down at Celestia, realizing that she was trying to hide the light red colour of her cheeks.

Celestia began to separate herself from Arceus and therefore, relaxing the grip of her “hug” around Arceus neck, but suddenly her back legs slipped, however this time, due to her weaker grip around Arceus neck, Arceus had to catch her by using his frontal right leg.

“Easy there,” Arceus said while using his right leg to pull her closer to him, even closer of what Celestia originally did, as she was able to hear what she supposed to be Arceus heart, this made it look like Arceus was returning Celestia’s “hug” while Celestia responded to this action with a stronger and tighter “hug”.

While Arceus helped Celestia, the cheeks of the princess started to gain an even more red colour, Celestia was feeling so embarrassed, or at least she thought it was embarrassment what she was feeling (as she was also having some kind of problem identifying her emotions), that she began to feel worried that she might end up bleeding for her nose doe to how strong her blush had become.

But, even when she was certain that her blood bezels in her nose were about to explode, Celestia, out of curiosity, turn her head to see Arceus, just to see that Arceus was looking down at her, and “worse” -or best depending on how you see it- of all, both made the mistake of looking at each other eyes, entering in the kind of hypnotic stated they had fallen back at the meeting room on the Hall of Legends that morning.

However, this time, unlike in the morning, Celestia and Arceus minds were able to form thoughts instead of going blank, although neither Celestia nor Arceus were able to move, or do anything for that matter.

H-he is l-looking at my e-eyes… a-again! … W-why d-does it f-fell g-good? Celestia thought while standing there, immobile.

H-her e-eyes… w-why I’m l-looking at h-her e-eyes? ... W-why d-does it f-fell so n-nice? ... W-what is h-happening h-here? Arceus ask himself while looking at Celestia’s eyes.

Fortunately -or unfortunately- they state of trance was broken when an annoyed Princess Luna, who was now flying at a low altitude next to them after many failed attempts of her own to stand up, talk. “We art fine, thanks for the help thou two”

After her “trance” was broken and realising that her sister was flaying, Celestia brooked her “hug” with Arceus to join her younger sister, who gave her an accusatory look.

“We will recommend thou to take this off,” Luna said pointing at her sister's hoof regalia, that’s when Celestia realised that her own hoof regalia, as well as Luna’s, who had already taken them off, and now were floating next to Luna, were completely covered in soapy water.

After Celestia took off her regalia, she and Luna landed right next to Arceus, Luna started to talk, “now if thou excuse us, we art going to rise the moon,” she then turned to see the closet and the mess she and Celestia had done. “And get somepony to clean all of that, good night sister.”

Celestia didn’t respond, she was looking at the floor and with her head tilted to the right side, looking away from Arceus. “Sister, we said, have a good night,” Luna said, annoyed that her big sister didn’t wish her good night.

“Oh? What? Oh, yes, good night Luna” Celestia answer but without putting much attention.

“Are thou alright sister?” Luna asked, worried for her sister strange behaviour.

“Yes, I’m alright, just a little tired,” Celestia answer, however, Luna didn’t believe her, but before she was able to make any question Celestia yawn as she was genuinely tired; is worth pointing out that, for some reason, Arceus found the yawn of the princess to be completely adorable, making a smile appear on his face.

Seen this, Luna was convinced that her sister wasn’t lying, “well, in that case, we will recommend thou to go to sleep, unless thou want to have some kind of problem tomorrow while visiting Twilight”

“Yes, I better go to my room, good night sister,” Celestia said.

“Good night sister,” Luna answer, she then turned around and began to walk down the hallway.

After Luna disappear of sight, both, the princess of the sun and the mighty alpha pokemon, stood there in silence, and with the exception of their chest expanding due to their natural need to bread, or their eyelids quickly close and open due to the need of their eyes to be wet and clean, the two didn’t make a single move at all.

Finally, after the moonlight started to enter the hallway, which meant that Celestia and Arceus had been standing there for over 10 minutes by now, Celestia, without saying a word, turned around and began to walk, Arceus did the same and began to follow her, the two of them walk on silence, without saying anything, however, while the two of them might look like there are relax, their minds were everything but calm.

“What is wrong with me!? Why every time I look at his eyes I lose control of my body? …”

“Why I lose control of my body every time I look at her eyes? Does she have some kind of hypnosis ability?  …”

“… and why I get so embarrassed around him? I’m acting worse than a little filly …”

“ … No that doesn’t make sense, maybe It has something to do with magic, I need to ask Faust about this later…” 

While the two of them were concentrated in their thoughts, they didn’t realise that they had already arrived at the door of Celestia’s room, Celestia, without putting much attention to her actions, opened the door of her room and entered it, Arceus, who also didn’t realise that he was entering Celestia’s room, follow her.

After Arceus had entered the room, the two guards, who were standing at both since of the door, close the door a few seconds later, after needier the princess of the alpha pokemon made any effort to close it, and exchange confused looks, not so much for Arceus as they were aware of his presence in the castle, but because the princess had taken the creature to her room.

In the meantime, Celestia had entered her bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face, in the hope that the cold water will help her stop thinking about Arceus and concentrate in her surroundings.

While Celestia was on her bathroom, Arceus got close to the chimney to get warn as a fire was already burning in it (probably started by one of the few castle employees that weren’t on vacation for hearts warming) he sat next to it, and extended his frontal legs to the fire, he began to look around the room; the decoration didn’t impress Arceus, so he kept looking around it until he stopped and his cheeks started to gain a red colour, as his eyes ended looking at the bathroom, to be more precise looking at Celestia’s flank; the princess had forgotten to close the door of the bathroom and because the sink was literally in front of the door, her rear was completely visible.

Now, despite walking behind Celestia for a considerable part of the day, Arceus didn’t try to look at Celestia’s rear, but not this time, he was taken by surprise and because he was sitting on the floor and Celestia was standing, he was able to see her rear without any problem or effort, to his credit, he tried to not look but his primary instincts made it impossible, he even shake his head, but his instincts made it impossible to stop looking.

While Arceus Was distracted with Celestia’s rear, the princess, began to take off her crown and golden regalia around her neck, she finally, to Arceus instincts disappointment, turn around, and then she screamed, “Arceus! What are you doing in my room!?” 

“Oh, w-what? What?” Arceus said in surprise while getting himself off the floor.

“You are in my room,” Celestia answer while trying to hide her blush.

“Wait, this is your room?” Arceus ask while looking around the room, finally realising that the room he had been looking around was actually Celestia’s room.

While Arceus was busy looking around him, Celestia was able to see that Arceus was blushing as well, but she didn’t put that much attention to that at that moment, and began to talk again. “Yes, this is my room, now what are you doing here?”

“W-well to be honest with you, I don’t know, I simply follow you here, and well, I ended up here without realising,” Arceus answer.

“What, you didn’t realise you were in my room?” Celestia asked with an incredulous tone.

“Yes, I’m sorry for that,” Arceus answer.

“No, you don’t need to apologize, to be honest, I also forgot that you were following me, or realize that you were here,” Celestia said trying to hide a chuckle for the ridicules of the situation, as well as a face-hoof as she realised that taking a 'stallion' to her room without realising, will make those nasty rumours come back.

“Wait, really?” Arceus asked.

“Yes, lest just say that just like you, I also had my head on the clouts,” Celestia answer, with a small smile.

Arceus return the smile and ask. “Well, you don’t mind showing me the room were I'm going to stay?”

“Of course, follow me please,” Celestia said while walking towards the door of her room and opening it.

“Is the room just in front of us,” Celestia said pointing ad a door that was right in front of Celestia’s room.

“Thank you, Celestia,” Arceus said as he passed the princess and began to open the door of his room, he then turned around to see Celestia, “Good night Celestia”

“Good night Arceus.” Celestia answer before entering her room and closing the door.

After entering his room, Arceus took a quick look before walking towards a bureau with a mirror, he stared at his reflection while he started to think on what had happened during the day, but his train of thought was broken when he realised that his cheeks still had a light red colour as a result of his “sneak peek” at Celestia’s rear, remembering the incident made his cheeks go from a light red colour to a very dark red colour, and worse of all an involuntary, small smile appeared in his face, seen this Arceus sight before screaming, “What is wrong with me!?”

Meanwhile, Celestia was now sitting in front of the chimney, and just like Arceus was reminiscing of the events of the day, in particular the little incident in her room, she was putting a lot of attention on Arceus blush. 

“He looked like a tomato, but why?” Celestia thought to herself while trying to figure out why Arceus had blushed, after a few seconds of thinking, she turned her head to the bathroom, it was them when she realised that she had let the door open the whole time she was there, her mind quickly connected the dots.

“H-he he was looking at my… NO, HE WILL NEVER DO THAT!” Celestia thought to herself, then, she sight. “I better go to sleep, I thinking pure nonsense” 

Celestia then extinguished the fire of the chimney, got on her bed and turn off the light. “… I mean, I’m 1000% sure that he will never do something like that on purpose, maybe it was an accident … in a way we are both responsible … at least he didn’t say anything offensive about it, he acted like a decent pony … not that I had minded if he had to say…” Celestia, now In her bed stop her thoughts. “… About it…”.

Celestia, realising of what she thought and said, turn around and took one of her pillows, she buried her face in it and scream in frustration, she then separated her face of the pillow, sight and asked, “what is wrong with me!?”
> Chapter VII: Problem At Dawn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia opened her eyes, her alarm clock had awoken her, signalling that in a little over 30 minutes she had to rise the sun, marking the beginning of another day in Equestria.

Celestia, like any other living creature that is suddenly awaked, wasn’t ready to leave the bed yet, however, just like any other creature Celestia had responsibilities, meaning that she had to get out of bed regardless of her wishes.

After rubbing her eyes with her hooves, the princess changed her position from laying on the bed to sitting on it, and began to stretch her legs, wings and neck, yawning while she stretched.

After finishing with her small stretching session, the princess got off her bed, turn off the alarm clock and walk to her bathroom for a quick bath with cold water, that was incredibly uncomfortable for her, but she knew that it was the only way to make sure she woke up completely, finally after finisher her bath, Celestia emerge from her bathroom, with all her ornament on, fresh and without a single sign revealing that she had just woke up a few minutes ago.

Now, feeling ready to raise the sun, curious to see if Arceus was awake, and with her stomach protesting for breakfast, the princess opened the door of her room.

The guard, a mare bat-pony from Luna’s night-guard, named Night Star, was standing at the left of her room’s doors turned around to see and saluted her. “Good morning princess," the bat-pony greeted the princess with the same tone she had used since she had offered to take that position during the Hearth’s Warming season, although Celestia knew that Night Star and the other guard taking care of her door during the day shift (Golden Spear) were starting a relationship, something unusual as he was a normal white unicorn, and bat ponies didn’t tend to find unicorns, or any other kind of pony, or creature for that matter, attractive. 

“Good morning Night Star,” Celestia answer with a cheerful tone, before turning her head to the right and realising that Golden Spear wasn't there, “excused me Nightlight, but, where is Golden Spear?” Celestia asked.

“Oh, your guest, Lord Arceus, woke up earlier and asked if he could be guided to the kitchen, Golden Spear offered to do it while I stayed here,” the bat pony answered, with an emotionless tone that characterized both the night and day royal guard.

“Thank you Night Star,” Celestia said, before asking the guard, “do you want to come with me for breakfast?”

Contrary to what one will believe, Night Start didn’t act surprised, after all, she had been one of the few guards staying in the castle during the Hearth’s Warming season, meaning that Celestia and Luna were making sure that they fell like at home in the castle, so this was not the first time that Celestia had invited her,  “no thank you, princess, I just had breakfast and even though an early lunch would be nice, I'm also trying to keep an eye on my weight..."  the bat-pony began to scratch the back of her head, adding with a low tone, "let's just say that last year I got a little excited with the foo, and well, when I returned to my duties after the end of the holidays, I had spent some extra time in the gym".

Celestia held down a chuckle as she heard Night Star explanation, although to be fair with the bat-pony, that wasn't a problem exclusive to her, or the royal-guard, as it was normal to gain a little of weight during the Hearth's Warming season, even Celestia and Luna themselves tended to have a rounder belly after the holidays. 

"Well, in that case, I will recommend you to go and prepare your and Golden's thing, remember that today we are going to visit Twilight," Celestia answer, with a little, smiled caused by the memory of Luna's comment about how gaining weight was an unofficial tradition of Hearth's Warming.

"Yes, princess," Night Star answer with a nod, before giving the princess and military salute, turning around and walking towards the guards quarters.  

Celestia did the same, although she made her way in the opposite direction, and after walking through some hallways, with only 10 minutes to rise the sun, Celestia arrived at the kitchen; she was expecting to find Arceus eating breakfast and Golden Spear guarding the door, instead, when she opened the door, she found Arceus reading a recipe book on the kitchen table, in front of the book there were 3 plates, knives of different sizes and 3 forks, at the left of the recipe book, there were some bowls with different ingredients, however at the right of the book, there were 20 bowls of 3 different sizes, full of ingredients Celestia wasn’t completely able to recognise, although they were kind of familiar. 

The biggest bowl had what appeared to be 5 red apples, but these apples were almost as big as a melon; 5 other bowls of a middle size, were full of berries of different colours, each bowl containing berries of the same colour; as for the smallest ones they had what appeared to be gummies, and just like the berries, every bowl had gummies of the same colour, adding up to 18 deferent colours of gummies, as for Golden Spear, he was sitting on one of the kitchen chairs, happily eating one of those melon-size apples.

Arceus, hearing the door open, look up from the book and greeted Celestia with his usually calm and collective tone, “good morning Celestia, how are you today?”

Celestia was about to answer Arceus greeting, when, Golden Spear, realising that the princess had entered the kitchen, quickly drop the apple and jump off the chair to salute Celestia with a tone more similar to a battle cry and not a normal salute,“good morning princess!” 

Now, due to Golden Spear actions been executed so quickly, he managed to startle both Celestia and Arceus, causing them to rise one of their frontal legs, close their eyes and, in the case of Celestia, open her wings, who after the literal jumpscare turned to see Golden Spear.

“Good morning Golden,” Celestia said, before closing her wings, “please don’t do that again I’m not deaf, I can hear you perfectly,” she added while rubbing one of her ears with her hoof.

“Sorry princess,” Golden Spear said while looking at the floor.

“Is Ok, but no guard should be looking at the floor on the presence of his princess,” Celestia answer, with a joking tone to cheer up the young guard.

This made Golden Spear look up to see the princess, Celestia smile at him, and he returned the smile, “now, take your apple and go to your quarters, Night Star is already waiting for you,” Celestia said with a joking tone while using his magic to levitate the apple next to Golden Spear, the guard, who was now blushing, took the apple, saluted the princess and made his way to the guard’s barracks with the ‘apple’ on his back.

After Golden Spear left the kitchen, Celestia turned to see Arceus and finally return his greeting, “good morning Arceus, and I’m fine, thanks for asking, what about you? Are you enjoying your stay in the castle?” 

“I’m quite fine, and so far I will say that the place has been lovely,” Arceus answer before turning his attention back to the recipe book.

“What are you doing?” Celestia asked while getting next to Arceus, to see what recipe Arceus was reading.

“I’m making breakfast, for you, Luna and me,” Arceus answer while moving to the side, allowing Celestia to see the book.

“Oh, that’s very nice of your part,” Celestia answer, she then turned to see the unknown ingredients and added, “what are duos by the way?” 

“Oh, well, this is food from my world” Arceus answer.

“Really?” Celestia asked, looking closer to the bowls with the mysterious food. 

“Yes, I made a quick visit to my world to bring them,” Arceus them raised his right leg and began to point at the different bowls and talking about their content, “these are perfect apples-”. 

Before Arceus was able to continue, Celestia interrupted him, “sorry, but what do you mean with perfect apples? Are you trying to tell me that these melons are apples!?”

“Indeed, these ‘melons’ are in fact apples,” Arceus answer with a giggle as he found the comparison to be quite funny, he then began to explain more about the apples to Celestia, “look, most apples in my world have the same size that apples from your world, however, there are variants of apples that are a lot bigger than usual, this variant is not only one of the biggest ones, but is also consider to be the ones with the best flavor”.

Celestia stared to the apple before asking, “can I take a piece?”

“Of course,” Arceus answer, before cutting a piece of one of the apples and giving it to Celestia.

Celestia took the piece with her telekinesis and with hesitation she bit it, her hesitations immediacy disappear after tasting the small bite, as she quickly began to eat the whole piece, a small moan of pleasure escaped her mouth as she ate the apple. “This is delicious!” Celestia said after swallowing the piece of apple.

“I knew you will like it,” Arceus said, he then turned back to the table and restarted his explanation, pointing at every bowl respectably. “Now these are berries, the blue ones are call: Oran, they are incredibly good for your health and recovering your energy, Sitrus berries also have the same effect, just a little bit stronger; this are Rawst berries, they are useful to treating burns; Cheri berries are good to treating injuries related to electricity, and finally, what I think will be the most useful berries to you, Pecha berries, they are basically a strong antidote that can counter any kind of poison, or at least any kind of poison from my world.” 

“Really!?” Celestia asked while taking one of the Pecha berries and looking at it.

“Yes, in fact, I’m going to give you a few berry trees as a Hearth's Warming gifts, I thinking they will be useful to your world, due to the effects of the berries, as well as the fact that all the trees grow berries during the whole year, independently of the weather, and, at least from my point of view, the trees are quite nice looking,” Arceus answer.

“Wait, Hearth's Warming gifts?” Celestia turned to see Arceus, “Arceus thank you, but, you don’t have to give me any kind of gift; I appreciated but is not necessary.”

“But I want to give you a gift,” Arceus answer, he then added, “and Faust told me that: 'If I want to know Equestria, I need to participate in our festivities, and there’s no better festivity to do that, that Hearths Warming'.”

“I can agree with that suggestion, and I will accept the trees, but I will need to also give you a gift, and before you protest, I WANT to give you a gift, giving and receiving gifts is a part of Hearth's Warming, a small part as the idea of this festivity is to past time with your family, but a part of the ‘experience’ non de least,” Celestia answered.

“Well, if it’s part of the experience, I’m willing to take the gift, I’m quite curious to see what are you going to give me,” Arceus answer, with genuine curiosity to see what Celestia is going to give him, “now, back to the ingredients!” He added with a cheerful almost childish tone.

“Can I ask you something before we go back to the ingredients?” Celestia asked Arceus.

“Sure” Arceus answer.

“Who is Faust?” Celestia asked, showing a face of confusion for that name.  

That question made Arceus’s blood go cold, he had just realised that he had said Faust real name, instead of her fake name, Golden Feather, knowing that Faust had trusted Arceus with keeping her real identity as the god creator of the world of Equestria as a secret, Arceus quickly thinked of an excuse, he tried to deliver it in his characteristic calm tone, however, it appears that Celestia is also affecting his 'ability to lie', as his delivered of the excuse was done with a nervous tone, “Faust, well, i-it’s the nickname Mew give to Golden Feather, I know it’s a weird nick name, but you knew how kids are, they have a lot of imagination”.

Now, as anyone who has watched the show knows, ponies, with the exception of Apple Jack and other ponies (the latter only applying for plot convenience or to make meme faces) are terribly at detecting lies, even when the lie is painfully obvious; and well as the fact that, despise been under Celestia ‘influence’, Arceus lying tone was more convincing than most other ponies.

Celestia believed the lie, and responded. “Yes, small kids tend to have a lot of imagination that sometimes doesn’t make sense, besides, that’s not the weirdest nickname that I have ever hear, that will be ‘rainbowy-marshmallowy”, that’s how Blueblood used to call me when he was little; and, for some reason that nickname... for some reason, it kind of fits her a lot more than Golden Feather”.

“WOW! Faust didn’t lie, all of her creations are so innocent, that, not only aren’t able to lie; they aren’t even able to realise when someone is lying to them,” Arceus thought after Celestia had finished talking.

Arceus stop thinking on the situation and what Faust had told him and answer, “anyway, can I go back to my explanation?”

“Of course.” Celestia answer with a smile.

Arceus return the smile and turn his head back to the table, he rose his right leg and pointed and the bows containing the gummies, and began to talk, “now the gummies, they have two particularities, the first one: it increased intelligence after consumption; as for the second one, depending on the type of the pokemon, she/he/it will prefer one type of gummy, as for the preference, they are the following: dark type pokemon love black gummies, for fire type-“

“I’m sorry Arceus, but unless I ended up been a fire type pokemon, I think I will skip this explanation.” Celestia thought while Arceus explain her what type of pokemon prefer what type of gummy; her thoughts concentrated in the food and their particularities. “This food is amazing, the berries alone will probably change potion-making forever, I really hope Pecha berries work, I will need to send some example to the royal laboratory for testing, I need to make sure that Twilight gets some examples later, knowing her, she probably went insane for the festivities and needs a break. I wonder what perfect apples will do to the apple stock market; I hope they don’t collapse it as zap-apples did-”

Celestia’s thoughts were interrupted when she realised that Arceus was using his telekinesis to hold a plate with small pieces of every berry, as well as one gummy of every type, in front of her, “now, in order to make your breakfast, I need to know which ingredients you like and which you don’t; so if you don’t mind,” Arceus said, to Celestia, while putting out a small notebook and a pencil; his expression changed to the one of a predator, ready to attack his prey at any moment; Celestia smile at this, she was finding Arceus to be incredibly considerate with her, one will think she was his guest and not the other way around.

Going back to the ingredients, Celestia tried the berries first, she found Sitrus berries to be the best ones, follow by Oran, Rawst and Pecha berries; she found Cheri berries to be very mediocre in taste. As for the gummies, she found Gold, White and Red gummies to be the best ones; follow by Grass, Sky and Water gummies; as for the rest, she found them to be mediocre at best and nauseating at worse.

After Celestia had finished with her tasting session, Arceus turn his attention back to the recipe book, constantly looking back at his notes; Celestia followed his movements for a few seconds before asking, “its everything alright?”

Arceus simply sighed, “it’s just that, well, combining ingredients from 2 worlds in just one worlds recipe is a little bit more difficult than what I expected,” Arceus answer.

“Do you need help? I’m relatively good at cooking, maybe we can figure out something together,” Celestia said while looking at the recipe book, realising that Arceus had changed the page, now the book showed a picture of a much more complex salad in comparison to the one Arceus was originally planning to make.

Arceus close the recipe book and turn to see the princess, “thank you Celestia, but as I said before, I’m making breakfast for you, you are not supposed to help me, besides-“ Arceus entire body began to shine, it was a light shine so Celestia didn’t need to close her eyes, a third part of the content of every bowl at the left of the table, started to float in the air, the same happen with the ingredients from Arceus world, but only the ones Celestia liked, the knives, one of the plates and one of the forks also began to float; without any kind of signal, the knives launch to cut every ingredient at the same time; while all the ingredients were been cut, Arceus concluded his sentence, “-I’m don’t want to show off, but as you can see, I’m very good at creating things.”

When Arceus finish talking, the plate, now with a salad that was a perfect replica of the picture in the recipe book, with the exception that it had perfectly cut pieces of Sitrus, Oran, Rawst and Pecha berries, and was decorated with Gold, White and Red gummies, and the fork gently floated in front of Celestia's face, “there you go Celestia, an exotic salad prepared with food from both worlds, much better than those balls of colourful wheat your recipe books call cakes, anyway ‘bon appétit’.

Celestia was too impressed by what she just saw to take immediate offence in Arceus criticism of her favourite food; she looked at Arceus and answer with a smile, “nice prench, and that was quite impressive, show off.” Arceus simply return the smile. Celestia then used her magic to grab the fork and used it to take a piece of the salad to her mouth, just like before, a small moan of pleasure escaped her mouth, the salad was probably the best one she had ever had in all her life.

Celestia was about to complement Arceus cooking ability, after all, he had just put to shame more than 1000 years of cooking in just a few seconds, however, she remembered what Arceus had said about her favourite food, so she decided to tease him, “is good, but is nothing in comparison to nature's most perfect food: cake!” Celestia almost started to laugh after saying that.

Arceus responded to her comment with a small chuckle, he then answered with a similar joking tone, “Celestia, I can make you such a good cake that you will be begging me on your knees to stay here and cook for you.” 

Celestia decided to keep the joking tone and answer, with an exaggerated face of indignation, “contrary to popular belief, you need more than just cake to please me”.

Arceus smile and said, with a tone that involuntary sounded more seductive that joking, “believe me Celestia; I can please you beyond what you will think possible”.

Celestia expression change to one of surprise, Arceus was flirting with her, and judging by his expression, even he was surprised by what he had just said.

Celestia and Arceus weren’t sure how to answer, Arceus was about to apologise when suddenly the other door of the kitchen, the one that led to the table were Celesta and Luna usually eat, as well as their favourite balcony to rise the sun and moon, violently open, revealing a worried princess Luna.

“Sister!” Luna said while running to Celestia, “where have thou been!? The sun was supposed to be out over 15 minutes ago!”.

Hearing that, Celestia face when pallid, her magic crib on the plate and fork disappear, luckily, Arceus manage to catch both before they hit the floor; Celestia then sprinted out of the kitchen while repeatedly saying. “Oh no!”.

Arceus turn to see Luna and lower his head. “Sorry, I’m responsible for your sister not rising the sun in time”.

Luna simply answered with an emotionless tone. “We art not the princess thou have to apologise with”.

Arceus simply sight and turn around to see Celestia, who was raising the sun as fast as she was able. “I know”.
> Chapter VIII: Breakfast
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The kitchen had fallen in almost complete silence after Arceus had finished explaining the berries and gummies to Luna, and she had indicated what ingredients she wanted in her salad, but more importantly, after Celestia had sprint through and out of the kitchen to, according to Luna: “Make sure Equestria doesn’t enter in panic and collapses… again.” A stamen Arceus might have found amusing or even hilarious if wasn’t for the fact he was responsible for the whole situation to begin. 

Now, the only sound of the kitchen was the noise of the knifes Arceus was using to cut ingredients for his and Luna's food, although slower and with less grace that before, but delivering plates as beautifully made and delicious as before.

While cutting the ingredients, Arceus head was occupied insulting himself, the insults were as simple yet classic one world profanities such as “moron”, “idiot” and “stupid”. To more complex insults like “divine idiot”, “god of the screw-ups” and “the alpha imbecile”. Even a few jabs to his past: “well done you massive idiot, literally just yesterday, after years, you finally finish fixing every mistake you made over the last 2000 years, you can finally have some peace, but no, you can wait more than one day to star screwing things up again don’t you?”.  

Finally, after finishing preparing the food, Arceus and Luna sat down to eat; Luna immediately started to eat her salad, made with Sitrus, Pecha, Oran and Cheri berries, with Gold, White and Dark gummies. Luna, after taking the firths bite of her salad, turned to see Arceus hoping to start a casual conversation, however just by looking at his face, the princess knew that Arceus wasn’t in the mood for any kind of conversation.

Arceus look with distaste at his salad, made with every type of gummy and berry, but mainly made with White gummies and Sitrus berries, he was incredibly upset with himself to even eat, not that he needed to eat, or even sleep for that matter, after all, he was a god, he just did that because he found them to be enjoyable activities. 

Arceus, wishing not to ruin the food by eating it with such a sower mood, began to simply play with it, moving the pieces of berries and goonies around the plate using his fork.

“Celestia and we might have exaggerated a bit,” Luna said, bringing back Arceus from his trance.

“Excuse me, Luna, what did you say?” Arceus asked as he turned to see Luna, the comment of the princess might have taken him away from his trance, but that didn’t mean he knew what she had just said.

“Celestia and we might have exaggerated a little,” Luna said, “the days after hearth’s warming tend to be very slow, most of our subjects spend their time in their home with their family, we even remember hearing a member of the castle personnel mentioning how: ‘time seems to not exists the week between hearth’s warming and new year’, so we imagine that it would not be much of a problem if Celestia raised the sun 30 minutes late”.

Arceus smile, “well, that seems reasonable, still, I want to apologise with Celestia for distracting her”.

“Knowing my sister, that will not be necessary, she is very ccomprehensive,” Luna answer before using her fork to ate a piece of her salad. 

Arceus return his attention to his salad, he was starting to recover his appetite, however, he decided to not eat it until after apologising with Celestia, he was about to say something else to Luna when the doors of the kitchen open, revealing Celestia, who had a bunch of papers levitating at her right.

“I think I exaggerated a little,” Celestia said while walking towards the kitchen’s table.

Hearing that Luna turn to see Arceus, “see,” was all she said before Arceus left his seat and walked towards Celestia, Luna then return to her salad, eating it with enthusiasm.

“Celestia... I will like to apologise for distracting you of your duties,” Arceus said to Celestia.

“That won't be necessary Arceus,” Celestia answer before putting the papers on the kitchen table and turning to see him, “to be perfectly honest I was equally responsible, I got easily distracted back there, and like I said before, Luna and especially me, overreacted a little.”

“Still,” Arceus said before walking around Celestia, and behind the chair next to her, moving it back so Celestia could sit on it, “I will like to help you with anything you need.”

Seen this Celestia smile, Arceus had some of the best manners she had to seen in a long time, “thank you Arceus.” She then sat on the chair, and, after she made herself comfortable Arceus move the chair close to the table.

“Arceus, you know that you are supposed to be our guest and not vice versa, right?” Celestia said, now that she was sitting in front of the chicken table.

“True, but I have never been a big enthusiast of been served, it makes me a little uncomfortable,” Arceus answered, standing behind Celestia, “now, is there anything I can help you?” Arceus asked, as he leaned over Celestia right side, where all the papers she had been caring where.

Celestia smiled, although she wasn’t sure if it was for Arceus offering to help her, or because he was so close to her, “thank you for the offer, but, most of these documents touch on delicate elements of Equestria, so I will prefer to read them myself.”

“Do thou want any help, sister?” Luna asked from the other side of the table, she was still eating her salad.

“That will be lovely from your part Luna,” Celestia answer, before half of the papers next to Celestia began to levitate towards Luna on a blue aura.

“Well, I can’t help with the papers, is there anything else I can help with?” Arceus ask while moving Celestia’s plate with her salad and putting it in from of her.

“Thank you Arceus,” Celestia said, before eating a piece of the salad using her fork, “but I don’t think you can help us with anything, maybe you can write a letter to some very specific newspapers explaining that my alarm clock didn’t work… well maybe not that excuse, those newspapers can be very picky and will probably try to track down the company or even the pony that made my clock and will star to pester him.”

“Do not thou think, thou art exaggerating a little sister? We too know that some newspapers can be very ‘picky’ as thou said, but it is the Hearth’s Warming season, we doubt they took notice in something as minimal as the sum been late for 30 minutes.” Luna said with a piece of salad still on her mouth.

“True, but better be safe than sorry, remember that picture of you and I laying on the floor, that some photographer took after I trip and landed over you, and how some papers turn It into a story of us been in a more personal relationship?” Celestia said, causing a smile to appear on her face.

Hearing that Arceus chuckle, while Luna, who was also blushing hide her face behind one of the papers she was reading, “did thou need to bring that up, sister?” Luna asked, still hiding her face.

“At least you have to admit that it was an interesting week,” Celestia answered, causing Arceus to share a little laugh.

Hearing Arceus laugh Celestia quickly turn to see him, before quickly turning back to see Luna, “see Luna, even Arceus finds it kind of funny.”

Arceus cough, trying to hold his laugher bact, to talk, “excuse me princess Luna, but you have to admit that’s at least a little bit funny, although I must say that it was a move of very bad taste from that newspaper if you ask me”.

“At least we can agree on thy last comment, indeed it was a move of very bad taste, now can we please talk about something else?” Luna answer, lowering the paper she had been using to hide her face.

“Ok sister,” Celestia answer, before signing another paper. “What do you want to talk about?”

Luna, seen an opportunity to have a little revenge on his sister answered, “maybe we can talk about that time that newspaper accused thou of been in a relationship with prince Shining Armour?” 

Luna’s little trick work immediately, this time she was the one smiling while Celestia hid her face behind a paper, she was about to say something when Arceus began to laugh again, however, when he realised that Celestia was looking at him, he quickly tried to recover his composure.

Arceus cleared his throat, “the newspapers form your world seen to very fond of gossip, luckily for me; I haven’t had to deal with that, yet” 

“I’m jealous of you,” Celestia answer, “at least one of us has to deal with that kind of articles at least one time a year.” 

“But why?” Arceus asked, “it’s painfully obvious that all those articles are full of lies, why would anyone buy them?”

“Maybe is out of boredom? Honestly, I don’t know,” Celestia answered.

“Sister and Arceus, we beg thy pardon for interrupting; however I need to inform thou that Celestia is falling behind on her duties,” Luan said, gaining the attention of Arceus and Celestia, it was only then when Celestia realised that she, indeed, was falling behind, she had only signed 5 documents, while Luan had already signed 20 of her documents.

“Your sister is right Celestia,” Arceus said before separating himself from Celestia’s chair, it was only then when he and Celestia realised that he had been leaning right next to her for most of the time, Arceus then took a piece of paper and a pen, “you better turn your attention back to your work; I’m going to start writing the letter for that newspaper”.

Arceus sat down next to Celestia and began to write the letter while eating his salad, Luna kept on working while also eating her salad, Celestia did the same, and soon she began to catch up with Luna, although the two sisters were far from finishing with the documents.

To the surprise of no one, Arceus was the first one to finish, signing the letter off with a quick move of the pen, making a line under his sign, “done.” Arceus said to no one in particular, before folding the letter and putting in an envelope and closing it, “it’s there anything else I can help with?” Arceus asked as he left the letter on the table.

Celestia stopped reading a report on regards to the taxes of in Ponyville, and turn to see Arceus, “maybe… wash the dishes?”

Arceus frowned after hearing that, not because he had a problem washing the dishes, he was planning to do that anyway, after all, even when he considered himself to be very organised, cooking always tended to make a small mess and, he had the idea of cooking on the firths placed, he had a problem with that because he wanted to help in a more meaningful way. “Isn’t there anything more important I can help with?” Arceus asked.

Celestia simply smile at Arceus, it was obvious to her that he wanted to make it up for his early screw-up, but, there wasn’t a thing he could help them with, “look Arceus,” Celestia said to the pokemon sitting next to her, “I don’t what to sound rude but, as I had said before, these are documents that require of our attention, so, unless you have a way to make us finish with them faster, there’s no way you can help us”.

Celestia was expecting for Arceus to accept defeat and go wash the dishes, instead, the alpha pokemon smile, “you know Celestia, I think I can help you with that”. Arceus said, before closing his eyes.

“Wait, what do you mean with that?” Celestia asked Arceus, intrigued by the conversation, at the same time she lowered the document she was reading and turn to see Arceus.

“Just give me a second and you will see.” Arceus answer to Celestia, before starting to shine on a white toned light. “I hope Faust doesn’t mind if I do this.” Arceus thought to himself before he stopped shining, he then open his eyes and look around him, before smiling and turning to see Celestia, “I hope this helps you,” Arceus said with a smile.

“Arceus?” Celestia said with a concern tonne, “what did you do?”

“A 'gap in time,” Arceus answer before turning back to the table and taking a blank paper and a pen, and then turning back to see Celestia, “allow me to explain, a gap in time is something that Celebi and Dialga came up with to protect the temporal tower from humans.”

Arceus then quickly draw a circle on the paper, “the basic idea is that you have this space, this area separated from time,” Arceus said while poiting the center of the circle, “this area is it is basically located between the parts of a split second, inside of this area time flows while on the outside not even a second has passed, I just put up a miniaturised version on the kitchen so you and Luna can take as much time as you want with this papers”.

Celestia and Luna turn to see each other, not sure of what to say, however, Celestia decided to take the initiative and do what one will usually do after doing something that might help you, “thank you, Arceus?”.

“It was noting, Celestia,” Arceus answer, not taking notice that the tone of the princess, was more doubtful that anything else.

“Excuse us but we have a question,” Luna said, getting the attention of Arceus.

“Yes, Luna? What is it?” Arceus asked.

“Thou said that time has stop, yet that clock behind thou its working normally,” Luna answer, pointing with her fork to a clock on the wall.

Arceus turn to see the clock, before taking it off the wall with telekinesis and turning back to see Luna. 

“That is quite simple Luna,” Arceus said before levitating the paper he had used for his explanation, “as I said before, we are in a space separated from time itself, however, that doesn’t mean that time is not flowing relatively normally inside of this space, meaning that things like clocks can work in here, although the time they mark is wrong, so at best they are useful to keep track of how long we had been here.”

Arceus then walked towards the door of the kitchen and open it, the outside of the kitchen look normal however a thin like-membrane of energy was visible at the margin of the door. “Let me show you what I mean.” 

Arceus then levitated the clock outside of the kitchen, with its face facing the kitchen allowing the princess to see that, indeed, the moment Arceus took the clock outside of the kitchen the Second-Hand stop working as well as it characteristic noise. “See?” Arceus said, proud that his little trick had work.

“Indeed,” Luna answered, before stopping to think about what this ‘gap in time’ meant, “wait, do this means that we do not need to worry about finish these papers on time in order to get to the train station?”

“Well, this is a miniaturised version of a gap in time, so it won’t last more than a few hours, but is not like I can’t put up another one, so yes.” Arceus answer.

“Huzza!” Luna said with enthusiasm, before putting the papers aside. “Thank thou Arceus, we art not found of going paperwork while eating”.

“You are welcome Luna,” Arceus answer, before taking the clock inside of the kitchen and closing the door, he then put the clock back on the wall and return to his seat.

Celestia, who had been silent during the whole exchange, took a look at the paper she had been reading before putting at her side following Luna’s example, after all now that the time wasn’t passing, she could take things a little bit easier; Celestia then turned her full attention to her salad and sunk her fork in it before taking it to her mouth, finally been able to fully enjoy the unique flavour of the dish, “I think I already said this but Arceus this is delicious”.

“Indeed”, Luna said with excitement, “thy cooking prowess is excellent Arceus, it has been long since we had tasted a dish as good as this.”

Hearing Celestia’s and Luna’s compliments towards his cooking, Arceus smile before making a small reverenced, “thank you, but its just a simple combination of the ingredients, I really didn’t do that much”.

“Oh, Arceus you don’t need to be so humble,” Celestia said before taking another piece of her salad.

“I’m not been humble Celestia,” Arceus answered, “liked I said before, it’s something really simple”.

“Yet it’s delicious,” Celestia said in response,” plus you need to remember that you combine ingredients from 2 different worlds, as simple as the combination might be, this can be considered an accomplishment”.

After hearing Celestia’s complement, Arceus began to blush, he turned his head to the left trying to hide his blush, before taking his right leg and starting to scratch the back of his head. “Thank you, Celestia”.

“You are welcome,” Celestia answered with a smile.

After a few seconds, when the light red colour disappeared from Arceus checks, he began to eat his salad; after a few minutes, Luna was the first one to finish eating her salad, she staring at her dish before turning to see Arceus, “excuse us Arceus,” Luna said turning to see Arceus. 

“Yes, Luna?” Arceus asked as he turned to see the princess.

“Do thou think thou can make more salad, please?”

Arceus was about to say yes to the princess, but Celestia entered the conversation before he was able to say anything. “Luna, remember that we are going  to Twilight’s castle today, she is probably going to give us something to eat, so it will be better if we don’t eat a lot”.

Luna look like she was about to protest, however she knew Celestia was right, it will be mean to show to Twilight's castle and not eat any of the food she has to offer, and Luna also has to admit that the food Twilight and Spike always cooked was good, “good point sister,” Luna answered, before turning to see Arceus, “we will like to retire our requests for more salad”.

Hearing that, Arceus smile at Luna’s particular way of talking, before answering, “Very well then, no more salad”.

“Although,” Celestia said entering the conversation, “snacks for the train ride will be nice, maybe some cupcakes or sandwiches”.

“Excuse us sister, there’s still some food left from Hearth’s Warming, it will be better if we finish it all first,” Luna answered, trying to get back at Celestia for denying her extra salad.

“True,” Arceus answered to Luna’s comment, “however if I remember correctly you have been eating that for 3 days, so I’m pretty sure that not only you two are tired of the flavor, but something also tells me that you two want some fresh food, instead of something that has been re-heated who knows how many times”.

Luna went silence for a few seconds after Arceus comment, before finally saying, “Thou art correct Arceus”.

Upon hearing that Arceus smile, “in that case,” he then began to levitate the recipe books he had consulted to cook the salad for Celestia and Luna, “you better start choosing what kind of sandwich you two want.”

Celestia and Luna spend around 5 minutes checking several of the sandwich ideas in the recipe books before the two finally choosing an elaborate variation of the famous daisy sandwich.

After looking at Celestia’s and Luna’s choice, Arceus began to levitate ingredients from the chicken’s cabins to star making the sandwiches, “well, while I make the sandwiches, you better get back to finish that paperwork”:

Upon hearing that, Celestia and Luna expression change to one of sadness, it was rather obvious that both Celestia and Luna had completely forgotten about the paperwork, seen the princess like that, and especially Celestia, Arceus tilted his head. “Cheer up Celestia, it’s not that much, you can take as long as you want.”

Celestia simply sighed, “I know, to be honest, I’m been kind of over melodramatic”.

“Well, stop been over melodramatic,” Arceus answered, “you don’t look as beautiful with that depressed face”.

“Eh- tank you, I will,” Celestia answered feeling a little flutter after Arceus called her beautiful, even when it was in a more casual tone, although it was obvious that Arceus was also feeling a little flutter, it was very evident that he didn’t really think what he was saying, Luna took notice of the situation, before going back to reading the paper she was levitating in from of her, Celestia follow Luna’s example while Arceus began to prepare the sandwiches.
> Chapter IX: To The Train
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arceus found himself wearing his light blue scarf while walking through the streets of Canterlot, following Celestia and Luna to the train station while been escorted by both Golden Spear and *Night Star*. He was amazed with the design of the city, it had certain elements of human cities he had seen in the past, as well as elements from pokemon build cities, that were starting to pop up around the planet, but Canterlot also had elements denoting that it had been built by equine creatures.

However there was another reason why Arceus was looking at the city, he was trying to ignore the conversation of the princesses, as Luna was teasing Celestia after she took notice of how Celestia’s behaviour changed around Arceus, and even though the teasing was done in a playful matter, like sisters will do, both Celestia and Arceus were feeling uncomfortable with it.

Luckily for bout the alpha pokemon and the solar princess, Luna stopped teasing Celestia after the group stumble across two white unicorns.

“Happy new year, Princess Luna and Celestia!” One of the unicorns, who was wearing a black coat as well as a bonnet and a scarf of the same colour and also was sporting a monocle and a mustache, said, getting the attention of bout princess Arceus and their escort.

As the two unicorns were walking in the opposite side of the street; the other unicorn, who was also wearing a coat, a bonnet and a scarf, but of a pink colour that matched the long pink mane of the unicorn mare that was wearing them, taking notice of the princess presence stud upright and made a military salute, before greeting the princess, “Happy New Year princesses”

Upon taking notice of the two unicorns, Luna smile, before greeting them, while walking towards the two. “Happy New Year to thou too, my good friend Fancy Pants and lady Fleur De Lis!”

“Happy new year to you too,” Celestia said, also making her way towards Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, before adding, “Fleur, you don’t need to salute us like that, you are no longer on duty, and please just call me Celestia”.

“Excuse me prin- I mean Celestia, force of habit,” Fleur responded, before lowering her hoof and taking a more relax and casual posture.

“Excuse me Celestia, but do you think you can introduce me.” Arceus, who was standing behind the two princesses asked, getting the attention of both Fleur De Lis and Fancy Pants, at the same time, Celestia moved a little to the right, making enough space for Arceus to stand between her and Luna, and allowing Arceus, Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis to get a good look of each other.

Upon seen Arceus, Fleur De Lis try to get in from of Fancy Pants, as even though she hadn’t been in the royal guard core for almost 7 years, her training was still on point, as she had spent most of those years as Fancy Pants bodyguard; however, before she was able to get in from of Fancy Pants, he blocked her and quickly got infront of her, something that even surprised Fleur, but before she was able to protest, Fancy Pants began to talk, “yes princess, I think an introduction will be appropriated,” he said, without taking his eyes off Arceus.

Celestia and Arceus took notice on how the two unicorns were a little intimidated by the presence of the alpha pokemon, so evidently they try to change said first impression, however, there was a problem, the two had different plans to do so, and the two acted in a sort of impulsive way.

“Celestia I think it will- Yes, of course, this is-” Arceus and Celestia said at the same time, resulting in an untellable mess of words, that thankfully didn’t last long, as the two quickly stop to look at each other.

“I’m sorry Arceus for- Excuse me Celestia for-“ Ones again the two when silence, however this time, a small smile appear in Celestia and Arceus faces, as humiliating as the whole situation might be, they found it to be quite hilarious, if not a little cliché.

“Please you go first. Please you go first.” Celestia and Arceus said in another untellable mess of words, however this time, not only did Arceus and Celestia smile became a little wider, but they also chuckle a little.

“No, please you go first. No, please you go first.” One’s again, the two said at the same time in another jungle of worlds, however this time, not only Arceus and Celestia chuckle, but Luna, Fancy Pants and Fleur also chuckle, although the latter two were a little more hesitant.

“I- I-“ Arceus and Celestia said at the same time, stopping immediately, while their audience chuckled a little more, “all right this is getting ridiculous,” both said at the same time, and after realising the two had said the same thing at the same time, the two began to laugh, at wasn’t a long laugh, but that didn’t stop Luna, Fancy and Fleur to hold back a laugh as well.

“That has been enough, do not thou think?” Luna said while holding back a laugh, making Celestia and Arceus turn to look at her, and hopefully ending the perpetual circle of saying the same thing Arceus and Celestia had been doing for almost a minute by now, “we think it will be better if Celestia introduces thou Arceus:”

“I was actually trying to say that Luna,” Arceus answered before turning to see Celestia, he made a gesture to the princess, inviting her to talk, “Celestia, can you please introduce me,” Arceus added with a playful tone. 

“Of course,” Celestia answered with the same playful tone, before turning to see the two unicorns, “Fancy Pants, Fleur, this is Arceus, he’s a friend (its worth pointing out that Arceus was delighted that Celestia called him a friend despite only knowing him for just 2 day) of mine who is staying with me and Luna while his family travel through Equestria; and Arceus, these are Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, he’s the public event organiser of Canterlot, and Fleur, she’s a retired and honorary member of my solar guard, and she’s currently working as Fancy bodyguard.”

It appeared that bout Fancy and Fluer wanted to add something to Celestia’s introductions, however, Luna talked before any of the two were able to say anything, “in addition to that, this two fine unicorns art good friends of us, which remains us, we have not had an opportunity to see thou since that play at Twilight’s school, it will be wise to take this opportunity and catch up with each other.”

“Yes, in fact, there are a lot of things we need to tell you, princess-” Fancy Pants answered before he was interrupted by Fleur De Lis. 

“Honey as much as I will like to catch up with Princess Luna, we need to take a train, remember that my parents will be waiting for us at the train station on Vanhoover,” Fleur said while pointing at a clock at the other side of the street. 

“Oh! Right! Thanks for the reminder sweetheart,” Fancy Pants answered while looking at Fleur, before turning back to see Luna, “I’m sorry princess, but, as much as we want to talk with you, right now we are in a bit of hurry, I will hate to leave Fleur's parents waiting for us.”

“Well, considering we are also trying to catch a train, I don’t see why you can’t catch up with each other while we walk to the station,” Arceus said, entering the conversation.

Bout Fleur and Fancy Pants turn to see Arceus, “really?” Fleur asked.

“Yes, we were going to take the train to Ponyville, we are visiting Twilight,” Celestia answered.

“Well, in that case, we better get going, if I remember correctly the train leaves the station in 5 minutes.” Fancy Pants said, before making a gesture with his right frontal hoof, at this Fleur got next to him, and the two began to walk down the street that will take the group to the train station, Luna quickly got next to the two unicorns, with Celestia and Arceus walking next to each other while following the princess of the night and her 2 friends, as one will imagine, their escort was following the entire group.

“Anyway, now that we have time, what were those things thou wanted to tell us?” Luna asked the two unicorns as they walked.

“Well… where can we star?” Fleur asked Fancy, it was rare for her to search for guidance, but, considering the changes involved the two unicorns, she wanted for the two to agree in what they should talk about first.

“Is that... there have been a lot of changes recently,” Fancy Pants explained to Luna after she looked the two unicorns with interest.

“Well, if you want my advice, I will recommend you to star with the most important of those changes,” Arceus said, as he was overhearing, and have become interested in the conversation between the unicorns and the lunar princess.

“That’s a good advice,” Fancy Pants answered, “but there also have been several important changes too, so it’s still difficult for us to choose where to star.”

“Hmm, well, if you ask me, I think the biggest change has been that ‘little gift’ we received in Hearth’s Warming, but what do you think honey?” Fleur said while locking at Fancy Pants.

“Hmm,” Fancy Pants said while scratching his chin with his right frontal hoof for a few seconds before answering, “y-yes, I think that will be the best place to star,” he then turned to address Luna, “princesses, this will make me look like an uneducated pony, but I need to ask you and your companion to please keep what were are about to say as a secret, I don’t want any newspapers to pester me, and especially pester Fleur or her parents.”

Luna, who was looking at her friend with interest, as Fancy Pants was never known for being very secretive, hesitantly answered, “of course, we will keep this as a secret, is not that corrected sister?”

“Y-yes, of course, I will keep this as a secret,” Celestia answered.

Fancy Pants then turn to see Arceus, “What about you… eh-“

“If you want to refer to me by my title, then call me lord, although I prefer to just be called Arceus,” the alpha pokemon said after the unicorn made it obvious that he didn't knew how to formally address Arceus, “and yes, for my honour as the alpha pokemon, leader of all the legendries and father of my sons and daughters, your secret is safe with me.”

Fancy Pants and Fleur, as well as Celestia and Luna, were a little estranged by Arceus rather curious oath, however, it seemed like the two unicorns accepted it, as Fancy Pants turn to see Golden Spear and Night Star, “What about-“

Fancy was interrupted by Fleur, who said, “don’t worry honey, us royal guards are experts at keeping secrets,” she then turned to see the unicorn and bat-pony and asked in a more militaristic voice, “isn’t that right!?"

“Y-yes ma’am!” The two guards answered with a little bit of intimidation in their voices.

Fleur then turned to see Fancy, giving him a warm smile and a small nod of approval, completely opposite to how she had address the two guards, Fancy return the nod and smile before asking, “well, now that that’s out of the way, Fleur can you do me the honour of telling our companions what’s that ‘little gift’ we received during Hearth’s Warming”.

“Of course!” Fleur answered with a happy tone, before turning to see Luna, “I’m pregnant”.

“And I’m going to be the father!” Fancy added in a cheerful tone, before hugging Fleur with his right leg and kissing her left check, who returned the gesture by kissing him.

“T-that is wonderful!” Luan answered before hugging the two unicorns, although it was obvious that she was extremely surprised by the news, and that she was acting mostly out of courtesy.

“Hang on a second!” Arceus exclaimed, getting the attention of the entire group, “I thought she was simply your bodyguard, not your mate.”

“I was actually about to say the same,” Celestia said, looking directly at the two unicorns with interest.

“Indeed,” Luna added, as she separated herself from the two unicorns, “we always thought thy relationship was one of an employer and employee, not anything more intimate.”

“Well, we have been dating for over a year by now, however, we have been keeping it as a secret for almost every pony, with the exception of our parents,” Fleur answered.

“We have been wanting to tell you, princesses, however with all the public events we haven’t had a chance,” Fancy Pants added.

Luna rice one eyebrow to Fancy's excuse, Fleur noticed this and elaborated on what Fancy said, “we would have told you at the play, but there were too many ponies, and like we explained we want to keep our relationship as a secret, at least for the moment”.

“That seems reasonable,” Luna answered, with a more relax and comprehensive tone, “however there art a few more things we want to know.”

“We can tell you anything you want to know, as long as is in private, like we said before we want to keep this as a secret until we have all the details for the wedding cover, as it will be a nightmare to prepare it with all those pesky reporters spying on us,” Fancy Pants answered.

“The wedding was indeed one of the things we wanted to ask thou, however there art a few more things I wish to know,” Luna said with a more friendly tone, she was about to say something more, when she was interrupted by a train whistle sounding at the distance.

“I hope that isn’t our train,” Arceus shouted over the sound of the whistle.

“Yes it is, and if we don’t run, we are going to lose it,” Celestia answered, also shouting over the whistle, before starting to run towards the station, with the rest of the group following her.
> Chapter X: On The Train
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Can I sit next to you Arceus?” Celestia asked, as she received the train tickets form the ticket-pony, who was making sure that every creature in the train had their tickets.

“Of course,” Arceus answered while moving himself towards his right, closer to the train’s window, making enough room for Celestia to sit.

“Thank you,” Celestia said as she sat down next to the legendary pokemon, “I hope you don’t mind my presence, it’s just that I tend to talk a lot while travelling, and well, Luna is busy right now,” Celestia added while looking at her sister, who was sitting on the other side of the train, catching up with Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis.

“It’s not a problem at all Celestia!” Arceus answered with a jubilee tone, “I have always liked to talk with other creatures, especially those who are lovely to be around with”.

“Thank you,” Celestia answered to Arceus complement, while keeping her attention on her sister and her two talking partners in an  attempt to hide her lightly coloured cheeks, “why do I blush every time he gives me a compliment?” she thought to herself.

Celestia’s thoughts were interrupted by the whistle of the train, “NEXT STOP, PONYVILLE!” the ticket pony scream from the next train car, after that, the train made a jerking movement back and forward, signalling that the train brakes were now lost, Celestia, due to her experience travelling by train, moved with the whole train car, keeping her balance, the same can’t be said for Arceus, who almost fell to his face if it wasn’t for Celestia, who stopped his fall by using her right leg.

“Careful there,” Celestia said as Arceus regained his balance on his seat, at the same time, the train began to slowly move forward.

“Thank you, Celestia,” Arceus said to the princess while looking at her, before clearing his throat, despite Arceus's dark grey face, Celestia could clearly see that his cheeks had a light red colour just like hers.

“Well, at least we are even now”, Celestia thought to herself, as Arceus turned to the window, only to see darkness as the train was passing through a tunnel, “Never been on a train?” She asked in a non-serious tone, as she already knew the answered to her question, after all, Arceus had told her the day prior that he had no problem travelling by train, she just wanted his attention back so they could start to talk with each other.

“More like lack of practice, the last time I was in a train was a few thousand years ago,” Arceus answered with a somewhat similar tone to Celestia’s own non-serious tone, however, his tone also made it somewhat clear that he wasn’t very keen on talking about how he almost planted his face on the cabin’s floor.

Celestia seemed to take notice of that, and began to think of something else to talk about, she didn’t think for a long time, as a simple glance to the other side of the train, where Luna was still talking with the soon to be parents, give her an idea.

“You know, in retrospect, it makes sense that those two ended up together,” Celestia said, without taking her eyes off Fleur and Fancy.

“Really?” Arceus asked while turning to see Celestia, “because it seems that the news of their engagement also took you by surprise”.

“Of course it surprised me,” Celestia responded, “but what I’m trying to say is that thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense that those two ended falling in love, I mean, they have been living together for almost 6 years, and during that time they built a very close friendship aside from their relationship as boss and employee, so, liked I said, it makes some sense that they ended as a couple.”

“I guess it makes sense,” Arceus answered, before adding, “although there are two things I don’t understand.”

“Well, whatever it is, I will recommend you to wait and ask Fleur and Fancy directly,” Celestia answered.

“No, you misunderstand me, Celestia, it’s nothing personal, it’s simply two little things that you seem to know by what you have told me,” Arceus explained. 

“Well, I will try to answer whatever doubt you have, however, as I said before, it will be best if you go and ask them directly.”

“Thank you, and I will keep that in mind,” Arceus answered, before saying, “anyway, my first question is: what do you mean with, they have been living together for almost 6 years? I thought they said that they have only started dating over a year ago.”

“Oh, that! Well, that’s quite simple, you see, Fancy offers his house employees, like the cook or the housekeeper, the opportunity to move with him at his mansion basically rent-free, Fleur decided to move with him after she accepted the offer to work as his bodyguard.” Celestia answered, before turning her attention to the cabin door that had begun to open, allowing a mare pushing a little cart packed with sweets to enter, as usual, upon seen Arceus, the mare became a little hesitant to enter, Celestia took notice of that, and made a small gesture to indicate to the mare that she wanted to buy something, she also gave the mare a small assuring smile, the mare began to slowly move the cart and after a few seconds the mare stopped next to Celestia, who began to look at the sweets on the cart with great interest, however, she was distracted from her choices when Arceus began to talk.

“Celestia, I wish to remind you that we brought some food with us,” Arceus explain, before levitating a small basket, with 5 sandwiches, one for each member of the original group of 2 alicorns, one unicorn, one bat-pony and one pokemon that have left the castle.

“True, but a piece of cake is the best companion for any kind of food,” Celestia answered while eyeing a small circular chocolate cake in a crystal container that was already cut in 8 uniform portions.

“Also, you said you didn’t want to eat that much, as it will be rude to show up to Twilight’s castle and not eat most of what she was offering us,” Arceus asked with a playful tone.

“Since when you decided to become my mom Arceus?” Celestia asked as she turned to see the pokémon.

“I’m just saying what Luna is thinking right now,” Arceus answered while looking at the sweet cart.

“Wait, what?” Is was only then when Celestia realised that Arceus was shining a little, indicating that he was using one of his powers, she then turned to see her little sister, who had stopped talking with the two unicorns and was now looking at her with very judge-full eyes.

Celestia simply smiled to Luna, before turning to see the mare in charge of the sweet cart, “I will take one slice of cake and some hot chocolate,” while the mare separated a slice of cake and began to fill up a blue mug with chocolate from a kettle on a lower level of the cart, Celestia turned to see Arceus. “Do you want anything?”

“Oh yes!” Arceus answered, before pointing towards a small bowl full with mini-chocolate-chip-cookies, “I will take those cookies and another mug of hot chocolate, please.”

“Yes sir, right away,” the mare responded before following Arceus's instructions, in a few seconds she delivered the two orders.

“Thank you,” Celestia answered as she took both orders from the mare and passed Arceus his order.

“Thank you, Celestia,” Arceus said as he used his own powers to levitate the bowl and mug in front of himself, “and thank you too, misses,” he added as he turned to see the mare.

“It wasn’t a problem sir,” the mare responded before turning to see Celestia, “anything else, princess?”

Celestia, who was taking a sip off her mug, turned to her left and using her magic took Luna’s sandwich out of the basket, and put it on a plate in the cart, “yes, can you pleased give this to Luna, as well as this muffin,” Celestia levitated a vanilla muffin on the same plate and put it next to the sandwich, “and a mug of hot chocolate”.

“Understood princess,” the mare said as she prepared the mug for Luna, “are you sure that you don’t need anything else, princess?”

“No, that will be it,” Celestia answered before taking another sip from her hot chocolate, while the mare simply made a small reverence with her head before she started to push the cart towards Luna.

“So, just saying what Luna is thinking’ eh?” Celestia said as she turned to see Arceus, “care to explain”.

“Oh, that, I just used one of my powers, it’s very simple really,” Arceus answered with a nonchalant tone, although he perfectly knew what she was actually asking.

“So, for what I’m understanding one of your powers allows you to read the thoughts of other creatures, is that right?” Celestia asked while getting a little closer to Arceus face, looking at him with similar eyes, to Luna’s accusatory eyes, although a lot more accusatory.

However, despite her best efforts, Arceus keep his nonchalant tone, although he showed a little discomfort., it that was mostly due to Celestia getting so close to him, “you are correct Celestia, however, this is a power that I rarely use, most of the time there isn’t a lot of interesting thoughts in the mind of most creatures, so contrary to what you believe, with a few special cases, it isn’t a very useful power.”

“Really?” Celestia asked with a little more relaxed tone.

“Yes, you'd be surprised of how many times I have used this move trying to get some kind of valuable information, only to listen to a very bad hum of the chorus of a song, or pure trivial things like I need to do this, or buy that, I forgot to do that, I wonder where she or he is, and my personal favourite, I wonder what that tastes like,” Arceus added, this time with a more joking tone, to infatuate what he was saying.

“In that case then, why did you read my sister's mind?” Celestia asked, her tone was reliably relaxed and showing a certain curiosity on the whole topic.

“You saw the face that Luna made, right?” Arceus said before taking a sip from his mug of chocolate, allowing Celestia to answer to his question with a quick nod. “Well, I saw that face too and I wanted to know what was going through her mind, well besides: ‘I'm going to end you if you dare to take anything from that cart’”.

Celestia held back a chuckle with Arceus's last comment, it was obvious to her that Arceus was trying to escape the little lecture she wanted to give him about violating someone’s privacy by using one of his powers, and she had to admit, he was doing a good job, however, just like him, she had her own experience in circumventing nonsenses to get what she wanted. 

“Well, I must admit your powers are quite impressive, however, I would have been perfectly capable to know what was Luna thinking without any kind of powers,” Celestia said with a playful tone, as she prepared to lay her trap.

“Oh really?” Arceus asked with interest.

“Mmm-hmm," was all Celestia said, she knew short answers were a good way many creatures act in a non-meditated way.

“Does that include the diet?” Arceus asked with a teasing tone.

“Ha! Gotcha!” Celestia thought to herself, her little trick had worked, she had Arceus where she wanted, “especially the diet, you have no idea how many times Luna has been insisting that I need to lose some weight,” Celestia answered with a small smile, caused both by the whole nonsense of the diet and her little trap working.

“Well, in that case, you probably know that I completely disagree with her and that I think that you look perfect,” Arceus said with a cheapish tone while turning to see Celestia, he followed her previous example and got uncomfortably close to her.

“D-do y-you really… i-I m-mean… t-thank you,” Celestia said as her cheeks began to win a red colour, she turned her head to her left, to avoid looking at Arceus; it seems she had underestimated Arceus's own abilities when it came to avoiding nonsense to get what he wanted, but that’s what happens when a creature that is only a little over 1000 years old, that comes from a very innocent world tries to manipulate another creature that’s at least 1,000,000 older than her. “That’s not fair Arceus! You know that I always bush every time you give me a compliment, and thinking about it, why the hay do I blush every time he compliments me?!” Celestia thought to herself, she could not believe her trap had backfired.

Things only got worse for Celestia, when she heard Arceus's voice inside her head, who simply said, “Well you know what they say, Celestia, all is fair in love and war,” with a playful tone.

“Arceus?” Celestia thought to herself, although she knew that what she was thinking was no longer reserved just for her, as she turned back to see the alpha Pokémon.

“Yes Celestia?” Arceus said in and outside of her head, at the same time, Arceus made a small nod, before taking a sip of his mug with chocolate.

“Get out of my head!” Celestia thought, her tone had become quite childish.

“Of course,” Arceus answered, still inside of Celestia’s mind, “just promise to not lecture me about why using this power of mine is bad, because like I explained to you before, not only do I rarely use it, I also don’t like to invade the mind of others, which by the way, I apologise for entering your mind”.

Celestia couldn’t believe what was happening, “Arceus! This is exactly why I wanted to lecture you!” She REALLY wanted to shout back at him, but she also didn’t want to make a scene.

“Oh Celestia, you can be so cute some times,” Arceus said while eating a few cookies, while Celestia’s blush got a little bit redder, “Don’t act like you didn’t try to put up a trap to lecture me.”

Arceus had done it now, in a few moments he managed to make Celestia feel both angry, and ashamed of all things, true she tried to manipulate him, but manipulating anyone wasn’t a thing Celestia has ever been proud of, so when he confronted her on that, she began to feel terrible, the mix of emotions made it worse, she wanted to both apologise and lash at Arceus. “At least I didn’t give you a false compliment,” was the only thing Celestia was able to think, her tone was a mix of both shame, anger and a little bit of sadness.

Now Arceus might have been trying to avoid a lecture, but he didn’t want to make Celestia upset with him, “that complement was not a lie, I honestly think you look, w-well, e-excellent”.

Celestia, who seemed to have forgotten that Arceus was reading her mind, turned to see the alpha Pokémon, who was taking a rather long sip from his mug, she wanted to say something, anything, however, before she was able to say anything, she realised that Arceus was blushing as well, this gave her an idea, an evil idea that will allow her to get things even between the two, and judging by how Arceus had become a little bit tenser, something he didn’t like, “of course, you will think I look perfect, after all, you stared at my rear in my room yesterday, you little pervert!”

Saying that might have made Celestia’s face even redder (somehow), but it was worth it for her, as she now was even with Arceus, who, just like her, had very red cheeks, and had lower his head, or at least that’s what she thought, because suddenly Arceus face turn into one of confusion before smiling a little, he then turned to see Celestia, “D-don’t act like you didn’t l-like it, Celestia! I-I k-know you did, I’m still reading your mind.” His tone lacked most of his usual confidence, it was obvious that he was both ashamed and a little flustered as well.

As for Celestia, she wanted to disappear, to be swallowed by the floor, she had never felt this embarrassed in her entire life, and her cheeks, they were so red she was starting to feel worried that she might start bleeding from her nose.

While the two were at it, both were too distracted to notice the unicorn in armour that was walking towards them. “Princess, are you all right?” A very concerned Golden Spear asked, getting the attention of both Celestia and Arceus.

“What? Oh yes, I’m all right Golden,” Celestia answered as she turned to see the guard.

“Are you sure princess? You look very red,” the guard answered, he then tried to move one of his hooves to put it on Celestia’s forehead, however, he stopped and simply asked, “yo you have any kind of fever or something similar?”

“F-fever? N-no I’m alright is just that- well…” Celestia answered with haste, not thinking of a good excuse to explain her red face, “it's just the heat,” Celestia finally added, not with a lot of confidence.

“The heat?” Golden Spear asked while tilting his head a little to the left.

“Y-yes the heat!” Celestia answer, this time Celestia was more confident on what she was saying, a little bit too confident, as her tone was more similar to Twilight’s own tone when she was freaking out, “I mean, even when is winter, remember that there are fewer snow clouds that previous years, so, the temperature is hotter of what I’m used to for this season.” Celestia added, trying to make her lie a little bit more convincing.

“The same goes for me,” Arceus added, also trying to justify his red face before the guard asked anything, his tone showed a lot of haste, and none of the calm that was so characteristic of him. 

“It’s probably due to the hot chocolate, in fact, let me open a window so we can cool down a bit,” Arceus quickly added before turning around and opening the train window he was sitting next to, letting a quite annoying breeze of cold air enter the cabin.

Golden Spear simply stared at the princess and alpha Pokémon, before shrugging, “Well, if it’s the heat, then I think I will bring you a glass of water for you two, is that alright?” Golden asked.

“Yes please, some water will be nice,” Celestia answered quickly, while trying to keep her body as still as possible, as she was shivering due to the cold breeze of air that was entering the cabin through the window Arceus had open.

Golden nodded before making a salute and quickly walking down towards the door and leaving the cabin.

Celestia and Arceus simply stay there in silence, as neither of them wanted to go back to their discussion, what else could they say that didn’t embarrass them more? 

However after seen Celestia shiver again, as well as shivering himself, Arceus decided to change his type to fire, to warm the two of them, just like he did yesterday, but, Celestia had a similar idea; as just as Arceus change his type to fire, and his body began to naturally emit heat, Celestia opened her right wing and moved Arceus a little closer to her, wanting to share her heat with him after she saw him shiver.

As Celestia moved Arceus closer to her, she took notice of Arceus's change in his type, feeling the heat emitted by his body through her wing; doubting that Arceus was willing to get closer to her, she stopped moving over him with her wing, however, Arceus took the initiative and moved even closer to her, under normal circumstances, Celestia might have protested, but the heat emitted by Arceus body and the cold air entering through the window, made her prefer to stay quiet.

Celestia enjoyed the heat emitted by Arceus body, while he simply enjoyed being close to her and the ‘hug’ she was giving him with her wing, something that actually surprised Arceus, it would seem that he underestimated how much he actually needed some kind of physical contact, the two remained like that, in silence for a few minutes, until both finally decided to speak up.

“I’m sorry Arceus- I’m sorry Celestia-“ The two said at the same time, as they turned to see each other, just to stop and hold back a chuckle.

“Are we really going to do this again?” Celestia asked, remembering their scene during the walk to the train station.

Arceus, who also remember said scene, simply moved his head from one side to another, before making a gesture with one of his frontal legs, indicating to Celestia that she could talk first.

“Well, I wanted to apologise for well… trying to manipulate you, doing that is something that I’m not really proud of, and I promise that I will never do it again “. Celestia said, lowering her head a little.

“And I’m sorry for entering your mind,” Arceus answered. “and I swear that I will never use my powers in you, or your sister again”.

“Do you swear it for your honour as a pokemon, and… sorry how did your oath went?” Celestia asked, with a little of a joking tone.

“Yes, for my honour as the alpha pokemon, leader of all the legendries and father of my sons and daughters, I will never use my powers with you your sister unless it’s an emergency,” Arceus said with a little smile, he then added, “also, I will never talk about any of the humiliating things we said to each other,” with a similar tone to Celestia’s non-serious tone. 

“Arceus you don’t need to swear for me to know that you are not going to talk about that,” Celestia answered, “although is difficult to trust you in the first place when you don’t seem to take your oath seriously”.

“What?” Arceus asked in confusion.

“You make a very silly smile every time you do that oath,” Celestia explained.

“Oh, well, I’m sorry, is just that, I haven’t made, or even heard the version of the oath that calls me as a witness, be used in a few millennia, it brought back memories of a simpler time.” Arceus explained, before adding, “I was kind of hoping that it would come back, I've never been a big fan of excessive formalities, but there’s a certain charm to them, although I can’t complain that much, my name is still used as an expression”.

“Oh, well that makes sense,” Celestia answered, before adding with a cheapish smile, “I have an idea for a joke that you might want to use.”

“Oh really?” Arceus asked.

“Yes!” Celestia exclaim with excitement, “you see, my name is also used as an expression here in Equestria, but most ponies don’t feel comfortable using it in front of me, but when they used it, I like to pretend that I didn’t know it existed, so I ask them to explain the expression for me, they get incredibly awkward while they try to explain the uses of the expression, it usually ends in a good laugh, and its an incredible way to put overpompous nobles in their place, or simply show my little ponies that I’m just like them”.

“You know”, Arceus said as he scratched his chin, “that’s a good joke, I might use it when I get back to my world, there’s this little lovable town next to the ocean, called ‘Treasure Town’ that I been wanting to visit for some time.

“Do you think you can take me there?” Celestia asked. “For what few things you have said about your world, it sounds like a lovely place, plus visiting a nice and warm beach during the winter sounds very inviting, and between you and me, any excuse to get out of the castle is good for me and Luna”.

Arceus smile, “Of course I will, I think Fau-“ Arceus cut himself, one’s again, he almost made the same mistake in regards of Faust and her real identity as the creator of this world; luckily for him, it seems that Celestia didn’t hear him, as Golden Spear had finally returned with the two glasses of water.

“Here it is your majesty and lord, a glass of water, sorry for taking so long,” Golden explained, as he used his magic to levitate the glasses of water in front of Celestia and Arceus.

“Thank you Golden,” Celestia said while taking the glass in front of her with magic, Arceus did exactly the same, although he used telekinesis as he lacked magic.

“You are welcome,” Golden answered, he began to turn around before stopping, “princess, may I ask you something?”.

Celestia look at the guard estranged, “yes, of course, Golden, what is it?” 

“Why is lord Arceus under your wing?” Golden asked.

Upon hearing that, Celestia panic a little, but before she was able to come up with an explanation other than we were freezing, Arceus began to talk, “Oh, that, you see, Celestia told me that pegasus feathers are a very cosy material, and she decided to show me, and I can say that she was right,” Arceus then began to rub himself a little against Celestia’s wing before adding, “these are very comfy”.

Golden simply shrug, “very well then, if you need anything else, I’m at the door”.

Celestia and Arceus simply nodded before putting the glass of water aside, “so, do you think you can take me and Luna to your world?” Celestia asked.

“Of course!” Arceus answered with enthusiasm, this time not making the mistake of mentioning Faust, “although keep in mind that you two will attract a lot of attention”.

“Just like you do?” Celestia asked with a somewhat sassy tone.

“Touche,” was the only thing Arceus said, before going silent for a few seconds, “although now that I think about it, I will also attract attention as well, I’m kind of important in my world too, so it will be like if we interchange roles”.

“So, Luna and I will be the curiosities, and you the figure of authority that already attracts attention?” Celestia asked, before taking a sip from her chocolate mug.

“That’s basically it”, Arceus answered before eating a cookie.

“Well, getting some unwanted attention for a vacation in a tropical paradise sounds like a nice exchange for meed, even though we will only be able to stay there one day”. Celestia said, before eating a tablespoon of her piece of cake.

“Why is that?” Arceus asked.

“Well, because Luna and I have responsibilities, remember that our magic is necessary to raise the sun and moon”, Celestia explained, “I mean, it's not like Luna and I can create some kind of magical artefact that allows any pony to lower and raise the moon, making our talents, you know, the thing that we do better than no one else, and where we got our names, pointless”, she then added, holding back a chuckle, as the simply ridiculous idea amused her.

“Or you could simply put an alarm early and rise the sun, and go back to sleep, and do something similar for the moon, instead of that oddly specific thing”, Arceus answered.

“Yes, I don’t know why I said that” Celestia answer thoughtfully.

“Indeed, it was almost like you were voicing the complains of a fan, about a plot convenience that made his two favourite characters pointless, just so the writers could end the series the way they wanted, in a somewhat convincing way, instead of respecting all the new characters and things they set up for the last 2 years and continuing the story in some kind of logical way, also completely changing the status quo the series had since its conception, something that is especially annoying when they have already make a situation similar before, and resulted in nothing but some minor changes to the dynamic of one character, that were rarely present trough the series run, resulting in a situation where everything they started to build for the finale felt force and fake;  making you wonder if the all the events of the show after certain point were only a dream of one of the characters, because everything is as disconnected and that makes as little sense as a dream.

Celestia look at Arceus with an expression of confusion in her face, she was about to say something when Luna, who was standing next to them said, “Hey! Dreams might be confusing at times; however, they have their own architecture and structures!” Luna then used her magic, and slammed shut the window Arceus was sitting next to, startling both Arceus and Celestia, “Also, we art freezing here, so could thou please do not open any of these windows!” She added, before walking back to keep talking with Fancy and Fleur.

After that, Celestia turned back to see Arceus, and asked, “don’t you think that what you said was also oddly specific?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask that to Viatorem?” Arceus responded while looking at the ceiling.

“Who?” Celestia asked with a lot of confusion.

“No one”, was the only thing Arceus said, before eating another cookie.

“Alright then… so what we were talking about?” Celestia responded/asked, hoping to get back the conversation back on track.

“That you were only able to enjoy my world one day, something that, you are wrong about, by the way,” Arceus answered with a carefree tone.

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Celestia asked.

“Celestia, remember that I can manipulate time, I can take you and your sister to my world, and you can stay there for days, months, years even millenniums, and I can take you back to Equestria, a second after you left”, Arceus answered, with a normal tone, like if he’s abilities were something really simple.

“Wait are you serious?” Celestia asked incredulously.

“Of course, I’m been serious, didn’t you and Luna see me manipulate time before?” Arceus ask as he turned to see Celestia.

Arceus couldn’t avoid making a small smile as he saw Celestia’s face alight with excitement, her eyes were wide as dishes and her smile was enormous, “Oh Arceus that’s wonderful!” Celestia exclaimed before hugging Arceus with her frontal legs and kissing him on his left cheek.

Celestia separated herself from Arceus, although she kept hugging him, not even acknowledging what she just did, and began to talk, “Luna and I can finally take a break that lasts more than just a few days, that’s just amazing, Luna will be so happy,  thank you so much and…” Celestia stopped talking, as she saw Arceus rubbing his left cheek, that now had gained a light red colouration, as he was blushing, with his left leg.

It was only then when she realised what she had done, her cheeks also began to win a pinkish-red colouration, “I’m terribly sorry Arceus… I got a little excited, I’m just-“ Celestia separated herself form Arceus, she began to take her wing off his back before Arceus gently press against her wing.

“I-it's OK Celestia”, Arceus said, interrupting her, “I understand, and please, keep your wing there, like I said before they are very comfy”.

Celestia did as Arceus told her, and rested her wing on his back, “Now”, Arceus said, making Celestia turned to see his face, he also got a little close to her, “can you please explain me why did you react in such a way”.

“Well, as much as I loved been the princess of my little ponies, its a very tiresome task, true since Luna's return things have been easier for me, but it still takes most of our time, we are lucky if we get at least a few free hours a day, and our only break is at the end of the year, and only because pretty much everything in Equestria slows down, and we are lucky if we get a little over a week to rest”, Celestia explain, slowly, as she wasn’t very fond of complaining.

“So that’s why Luna wasn’t very fond of me when we first meet?” Arceus ask.

“Yes, we were lucky enough to get two weeks off this year after torturing ourselves doing the paperwork for two months in just two weeks”, Celestia explained, before adding with a somewhat joking tone, “so I guess she didn’t want to lose all that effort babysitting you”.

“Babysit me!” Arceus said with exaggerated indignation, almost like he was trying to cheer up Celestia, “I’m sorry Celestia, but I’m an adult perfectly capable of taking care of myself!... Now give me your crown, I’m bored, and I want to play with it”.

Celestia simply chuckle by Arceus antics, “well, I think she has quickly warmed to you, at least I have, you are very lovely, especially when you change to fire type and become a walking fireplace”, after saying that, Celestia move a little closer to Arceus and closed her eyes while taking a sip of hot chocolate.

“A fireplace?” Arceus asked, “I was going form something more like early morning sunbeams”.

“I’m sorry Arceus, but the best way to describe the heat your body emits is that of a fireplace, and trust me, I know, after all, I been present in every sunrise for the last 1110 years”, Celestia explained.

“Well, maybe you can teach me later, how to emulate early morning light”, Arceus answered before eating a cookie.

“Yes, but later, now, I want to go back to your question”, Celestia said, before taking another tablespoon of chocolate cake.

“Oh, right that, I almost forgot, well, I wanted to know, why did you let Fleur take the job with Fancy Pants? She seems to be a very competent and dedicated guard”.

“And that’s exactly why I had to convince her to take that job”, Celestia answered sharply.

“What do you mean?” Arceus asked, completely surprised by what Celestia just said.

“Let me explain”, Celestia answered, “as you said, she was a very competent guard, but she was specially dedicated, to the point that it was almost bad for her, you have probably realised that in the castle there are very few guards, right?”

Arceus simply nodded, before making a gesture with one of his legs, indicating Celestia that she could continue.

“Well, that’s because most of them are in their rest for the season, however, some guards tent to volunteer to stay at the castle, well, Fleur volunteer to stay at the castle 3 years straight instead of taking the opportunity to see her parents, not only that but, I think I was her only friend during all that time, being a guard was starting to affect her social life”. Celestia explained, while looking across the train car, to were Fleur was sitting next to Fancy, talking to Luna.

“Anyway, so after her third stay at the castle during the hearth's warming season, I basically forced her to take an extra-long leave, and I was only able to convince her to take that leave, under the condition that she could come to the castle to guard me during tea hour, something that actually worked in my favour, as I was able to talk with her and know if she was making any kind of progress,” Celestia then took a sip from her glass of water, as her throat was starting to get a little dry.

“Now it was during that leave that she met Fancy Pants, and when I heard the news that he had offered her a job, I basically spend the next two months talking to her as a friend to convince her to take that offer after her 4 years of service were finished, as you can see, she listened to me, and now she’s about to get married and be a mother”. Celestia smiled while looking at Fleur, who was been kissed in the cheek by Fancy.

“Wow, Celestia!” Arceus exclaimed, “I knew you were a good leader, but I wasn’t expecting you to be this caring”.

“Thank you, Arceus, but it wasn’t that much, it's just that, I have learned that it’s necessary to respect and help a pony with their personal life if they need anything, after all, it’s the least one can do for those who put a lot of effort in their profession”, Celestia answered, with a humble tone. “I just wish my little ponies did the same for me,” Celestia added to herself in her mind.

“So that’s why you let those two doves act all lovey-dovey despite being on service?” Arceus asked while looking at the end of the train car, were Night Star was eating a fruit Golden Spear had brought for her.

“Yes, well, that, and Cadence will be incredibly mad at me if she discovers that I block any kind of romance, especially between a unicorn and a bat-pony, she really wants to know how their descendants will look like”, Celestia explained while she smiled.

“Who?” Arceus asked as he turned to see Celestia.

“Oh, right I forgot that I haven’t mentioned her to you, Cadence is my adoptive niece, she is the princess of love and co-ruler of the crystal empire with her husband and Twilight’s brother Shining Armour”, Celestia answered, “in fact, she, her husband and daughter are at Twilight’s castle for the season, I can present them to you when we get to Ponyville”.

“I can’t wait to meet them”, Arceus answered, before asking with a more mocking tone, “princess of love?”.

“Yes”, Celestia answered, “too cheesy?”

“Not at all”, Arceus answered, “I mean one of my daughters is named Diancie, and she’s basically a massive pink diamond with a head and arms and is embedded in a rock and wears a white dress, and she also floats around, trusts me, Celestia, my family is cheesier than yours”.

“It will seem that is indeed the case”, Celestia answered while looking at Arceus, “by the way Arceus, I been wanting to know more about your family”.

“If you want, I can talk about them, just keep in mind that my family is quite big, so I will need a lot of time to tell you about them”, Arceus answered.

“Well, this is a somewhat long train ride as well, so I think you have enough time”, Celestia said, before taking a sip of water.

“Then you better get comfortable because this is going to take some time”, Arceus answer, also taking a sip of water in preparation for the long conversation ahead.

Celestia simply moved a little closer to him, before resting her head on the seat, “done, feel free to start”, she said before eating another spoonful of cake.

Arceus simply smiled, “in that case, let me star with Mew, my oldest daughter”.
> Chapter XI: Making Things Clearer, Part I of IV
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How can thou remember the complete extent of thy family Arceus?” Luna asked, as she turned to see the Alpha Pokémon and her sister, who were still talking with each other about Arceus's family, despite not only not being on the train anymore but also being just a few streets away from Twilight’s castle.

“I don’t think its THAT complicated,” Arceus answered, before turning to see Celestia, “Or is it? What do you think Celestia?”

“I mean, to be fair with Luna, you needed the whole trip to talk about them,” Celestia answered.

“Yes, but that’s because we keep changing the subject the whole time,” Arceus answered, before adding with genuine confusion. “I’m still trying to understand how we went from talking about my adoptive grandson, Mewtwo, to the apparent value of desserts as an anti-invasion weapon”.

“Yeah… that’s a good question”; Celestia answered, she tried to remember what kind of confusing chain of topics she and Arceus followed to end up linking Arceus's grandson, that he had described as cold and serious, to using food as weapons, she would normally put all the “blame” on Pinkie Pie, after all, the pink pony was usually what ended up being the missing link that connected and held together an absurd conversation, however, the pink pony wasn’t mentioned until much later into the conversation, so for once she was out of the picture, resulting in Celestia simply giving up on the whole thing.

“Well, at least now I know more about your family”, Celestia said with enthusiasm, she was looking forward to seeing Arceus’s family, now that she knew a little more about them.

“And, I also learned a lot about your family, as well as your student, Twilight, and her friends”, Arceus added with the same enthusiasm as that of Celestia’s.

“Glad to hear that, it will aid to make presentations shorter, and hopefully avoid occurrences similar to what happened when thou meet Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis,” Luna said, her tone made it quite obvious that she wasn’t very fond of Arceus unintentionally intimidating her friends.

“Yes, hopefully”, Arceus answered, “I don’t really like scaring ponies, or anything for that matter, however, by what Celestia told me, introductions will still need some time, in particular when it comes to Pinkie Pie, probably Fluttershy too, but mostly Pinkie Pie, but I can handle her perfectly”, Arceus said with his normal calm tone, showing no arrogance about his capability of handling the crazy pink pony.

Celestia stopped for a second, needing time to process what Arceus just said, “No offence Arceus, but I doubt you can handle Pinkie Pie, only her family can, and even they have problems with that”.

“Celestia, I took care of almost 50 creatures with powers to manipulate the elements, climate, and even reality, since they were new-borns, I doubt a hyperactive pony will be able to overwhelm me,” Arceus answered, with a more nostalgic tone, reminiscing of the time when he taught his family  how to use their powers.

“Good point”, Celestia answered, as she began to remember her school for gifted unicorns and how… challenging it could be for both her and the foal’s parents to keep some kind of order without going a little crazy.

“Eh, excuse us Arceus?” Luna asked, turning to see Arceus, “did we hear that correctly? Do thy descendants have the skills to manipulate such things as reality?”

“That’s a good question Luna”, Celestia said, also turning to see Arceus, “you didn’t tell me any of that when you told me about your family”, Celestia seemed to be a little upset with Arceus.

Arceus was taken back a little by Luna’s question and in particular, with Celestia’s attitude, he looked at the flor and after sighing, he turned to see the 2 princesses, in particular Celestia, “Look, I apologized for not telling you about me and my family's abilities, I will also be upset, after all, I will also not be very happy if there is a group of creatures with powerful abilities running around my world…”

He made a small paused, expecting for any of the two princesses to say something, but neither Celestia nor Luna said anything, so he continued with his explanation, “however, you have to understand that this travel is just a vacation for me and my family, we have recently gone through a lot of hardships, so the last thing any of us desire is causing or getting into more problems, we just wanted to relax, keep a low profile and enjoy the peace of this world”.

Both Celestia and Luna seemed to believe in what Arceus was telling them, Celestia in particular, after all, the only reason he was with her in the first place was that she and Arceus negotiated that he would stay with her while his family visited the rest of Equestria being guided by Golden Feather and one of the royal guards, at the time, not knowing the true powers that Arceus or his family had, seemed reasonable, but now she and Luna will need to need to re-negotiate them; however, she was still a little angry at Arceus for hiding such important information from her.

“Very well, apology accepted”, Celestia finally said, this took Luna and Arceus by surprise, making the lunar princess turn to see her sister with a judge full expression, while Arceus simply smiled.

Luna was about to add a protest to her stare, but Arceus managed to add a “thank you”, to his smile.

“You are welcome Arceus, however, I need to know what kind of powers your family has”, Celestia answered with a mix of her typical and more severe tone

“We also desire to send a considerably bigger group of troops to keep watch of thy family, and if necessary, deny them of access to certain areas of Equestria”, Luna, who finally saw an opportunity to enter the exchange, added, with a more severe tone than that of her sister’s.

Arceus reacted calmly to Celestia’s request, feeling relieved since he didn't cause a situation that put his family in an inconvenient position, however, this sensation was completely thrown out the window by Luna’s demands, “Princess Luna, please, I know that I don’t deserve your trust but, pleased don’t put my family into more problems, this is my fault, not theirs, I know you want to keep your and your sister’s subjects safe, but there has to be another way to keep tabs on them without having an army follow their every move”.

Celestia was taken back by Arceus words, mostly due to a memory that came rushing to her mind, she had being a position similar to Arceus years ago, just after Luna’s return, some of the nobles (and to the surprise of no one, Blueblood was among them) began to ask for certain restrictions to be put on Luna due to her past as Nightmare Moon, they also asked for a regiment of guards to keep an eye on her at all time, Celestia, of course, defended her sister and tried to keep the whole situation as a secret for Luna, fearing that it will affect the somewhat fragile emotional state she was in at the time, however, Celestia later discovered that some information inevitably slipped through the cracks, and was one of the many elements that motivated Luna to create “Tantabus”.

So with all that in kind, Celestia decided to side with Arceus, she turned to see Luna, “I have to agree with Arceus sister”, this took by surprise both Luna and Arceus, “I know he deliberately hid information from us, but he has already apologised for that and he’s willing to cooperate, and I trust him enough to believe he will”.

Arceus had to contain himself to not jump and hug Celestia, simply conforming to turn to see her, with an ear to ear smile, “Thank you so much, Celestia, for trusting in me”.

Celestia return the smile, although it wasn’t as big, “you are welcome”, she then turned to see Luna, who had clear her throat in a very low way and now was looking at Celestia with the same aggressive look she had used on the train when Celestia was looking at the sweet cart; Celestia quickly caught that her sister had some objections to make, Celestia turned to see Arceus asking, “but I still need to know what kind of powers you and your family have”, she added with what was supposed to be a sever tone but that came more as hesitant due to Celestia’s eyes constantly looking at Luna.

Arceus chuckle at the two princess antics, he was about to say that he agrees with Celestia’s terms but, before he was able to utter a word, a voice of a female creature, coming from Twilight’s castle (or at least close to it) exclaimed, “SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!” with extreme excitement.

The group turn their attention towards the castle, at first everyone was confused, although Luna and Celestia quickly shrugged off, after all, this was Ponyville, a pony screaming something at top of their longs was part of a usual day in the town, but Arceus seem to recognise the voice, turning to see the two princesses, “Hey Celestia, why don’t we ask them personally”, Arceus exclaimed with joy, before running off towards the castle.

Celestia and Luna were confused by this, but quickly began to pursue Arceus, with Golden Spear following them by foot and Night Star flying right next to him, the persecution continued down the street, Arceus quickly reducing the distance between himself and the castle, the rest of the group struggling a little to keep up with him.

Finally, the persecution ended when Arceus arrived next to the last house before the castle, where he quickly hid behind the last house of the street, allowing the group to see where he was, he even made a gesture to his persecutors with his frontal right leg, indicating them to join him in his hiding space, but not allowing any creature that was on the area of the castle to see him.

Luna was the first to arrive, followed closely by Celestia, Night Star was the next one to arrive, landing behind the two princesses, at the same time as she landed, Golden Spear arrived, as he had managed to keep up with Night not being able to fly; however, despite who had arrived first, the 4 ponies needed a few seconds to recover.

“Arceus, why did you run off like that!?” Celestia asked in annoyance, although her tone and volume were a little weak after she was trying to recover her breath.

Arceus simply turned around and playfully but gently shushed her, before making a gesture to the group to follow him, he peeked his head around the house corner, followed by Celestia who had to peek under Arceus’s head due to his height, something that was actually a first for the princess, Luna did the same thing, peeking under Celestia’s head.

Luna was surprised and a little confused about what she saw, a considerably big group of ponies, around 50 or more, of the three main types of ponies, they were accompanied by a royal guard and apparently they were following a somewhat tall white unicorn mare, some of the members of the group were kind of odd, being taller or shorter than most ponies, and other had fur and manes of odd colours and combinations, like a dark blue unicorn that had a platinum main, a grey pegasus with red eyes, a long pink mane that look similar to that of a crystal’s pony, and was wearing an incredibly simple white dress, the kind of dress Twilight would love to use, that were marvelling and studying Twilight’s castle.

“Excuse us, but who art they?” Luna asked, looking up to see her sister.

“They are Arceus’s family”, Celestia answered while looking at Luna.

“Yep”, Arceus answered with a joyful tone while looking down at the two princesses, “let’s give them a surprise, shall we?” He added with the same playful tone he had used before running off, he then left his hiding place, walking towards the castle.

“Excuse me miss”, Arceus call out, still walking towards the castle, this made every pony, including Faust and the guard, to turn to see him; Arceus then stop walking, “but screaming out loud this early in the morning isn’t the kind of good manners I taught you, isn’t that right Diancie?”

“Hi dad!” a pink pegasus filly exclaimed, before flying towards Arceus and hugging him.

“Hi Mew”, Arceus said while returning the hug.

“What are you doing here?” Mew asked after separating herself from Arceus embrace.

Arceus turned his head to where Celestia and Luna where hiding, “why don’t you asked my babysitter?” he answered with a joking tone.

“Hmm?” Mew asked, before looking over Arceus shoulder, it was then when she took notice of Celestia’s and Luna’s presence, who were now walking towards Arceus; Mew separated herself from her father and flew towards the two princesses, stopping and hovering in from of the two princesses, “Hi princess Celestia!” she exclaimed with a happy tone while waving with one of her legs.

“Hi Mew”, Celestia answered with a smile, for her it was enduring to see how much enthusiasm the Pokémon disguised as a pony showed, acting like she had known Celestia for years and not just a few minutes.

Mew then turn to see princess Luna, and with the same enthusiasm and happiness she had greeted Celestia, she asked, “Hi, who are you miss?”

“Luna, princess Luna”, Luna answered, watching the pink filly with interest.

Arceus, who had been watching the reunion between the two princesses and his daughter, turn around to see the rest of his family, “aren’t you coming to say hello?” Arceus asked, before walking towards them.

Three ponies from the group were the first one’s the get close to Arceus, one was a white with a light pinkish tone unicorn with white hair, the other one was a grey Pegasus with a golden mane, and the last one was a unicorn of as dark blue with a platinum mane, the three were a little taller than the averaged pony, but they weren’t the talest in the group.

Arceus reconciled these three ponies as his three oldest sons, better know as the “Creation Trio”: Palkia, Giratina and Dialga; the three greeted their father differently, Palkia simply said. “Hi dad”, Giratina been always so serious, used a more formal “Hello father”; Dialga used a mix of both, greeting Arceus with, “Hello dad”, however, he was a little distracted, like his mind was somewhere else.

Arceus simply greeted the three with a “Hello there”, with a cheapish tone in his voice happy to see his family again, “so, how are things going along?” Arceus asked, mostly out of protocol as he had no doubt that the four legendary Pokémon, let’s not forget that Mew was also put in charge, had been perfectly capable of taking care of the rest of the family.

“I will say that we are doing quite well,” Palkia answered with a relaxed tone.

“Indeed,” Giratina added, “things have been quite easy”.

Dialga took a little longer to simply add, “I can’t complain”.

It was then when Arceus realised that his son was distant, he wanted to ask what was wrong, but before he was able to say anything, Celestia, Luna, Diance and Faust got close to him.

“Hi Arceus,” Faust said with a smile.

“Hi, Faust,” Arceus return his friend’s greeting.

“Are you-“ It took a few moments for Faust to realise that Arceus had greeted her with her real name instead of her fake name (Golden Feather), worse he had done it next to the princessed.

“And who art thou miss?” Luna, who was right behind Arceus, asked, as she looked at Faust, who was starting to feel a little nervous, fearing that her cover might be at risk.

“Oh, she’s an old friend of Arceus,” Celestia answered, “Her name is Golden Feather, although Arceus calls her Faust,” Celestia explained to her sister.

Arceus simply nodded, not looking at the princes or Faust, and instead keeping an eye on Diance

This seen to alleviated Faust, who made a small bow, “indeed, nice to meet you princess Luna, and hello princess Celestia”.

“Please, my little pony, there’s no need for formalities,” Celestia said, as she gestures to Faust to rice, “Luna and I are in a little vacation from our royal duties, so right now we are just Celestia and Luna, two sisters visiting their family,” she added as she turned to see Twilight castle.

Luna, however, was still looking at Faust with interest, “excuse us, miss Golden Feather,” Luna asked, getting the attention of Faust.

“Yes, princess Luna, what is it?” Faust asked.

“We wanted to know what art thou doing here of all places, and why is Arceus’s family here too?” Luna asked as she looked at the colourful group of ponies travelling with the white unicorn.

“Well…” Faust answered, “Arceus asked me to be some sort of tour guide for his family while they are here on Equestria, you see I have travelled across the kingdom several times, so I know it like the back of my hoof, and well, what better place to start the tour than here? The world-renowned town of Ponyville!” Faust explained with enthusiasm, before adding with more of a carefree tone, “also, princess Twilight’s castle sticks out like a sore hoof, so Arceus’s family wanted to come and see it up close, especially Diancie,” she added while turning to see the pink legendary Pokémon, that had been talking with Arceus while Luna and Faust spoke to each other.

Going back a few minutes, around the same time as Luna asked Faust why she why they where in Ponyville; Arceus, who could see that Diance was a little distressed, walked towards her with Celestia following him.

“Diance, sweetheart, is everything alright?” Arceus, who was now standing next to Diance, asked, although he had a fairly good idea of what was wrong.

Diance, who had her hooves behind each other, and had her head down, answered with a shy tone, “It’s just, well, you are right, it was rude for me to scream like that”.

Arceus let out a small sigh, “I was joking,” Arceus answered, with a compassionate tone, “you know, trying to make a comedic and sudden entrance,” he added.

“Really?” Diance asked as she looked up, looking towards him.

“Yep,” Arceus answered, “you don’t need to apologize,” Arceus made a small paused, “well, now that I think about it, maybe you should apologize, but only to anyone you might have woken up, but considering that is winter and that most of the citizens of this town are probably on vacation, they most likely slept right through your scream, or are too lazy to go out, so if I were you I wouldn’t worry about it”.

Diance tilted her head, “well… that sounds reasonable,” she said, with a more secure tone.

“Now, can you please explain to me why you screamed? Whatever it was, it was enough to get you quite excited,” Arceus asked with a smile.

“Well…” Diance said with a tone that although hesitant, was less shy that of the one she had used before. “It’s just like I said, or well screamed,” she corrected herself, giggling a little, Arceus simply chuckled as well, and a smile appeared on his face, “This is beautiful, a palace made out of crystal recreating the form of a tree, why didn’t I think of something similar before!” She exclaimed, before flying off to look at Twilight’s castle rambling about the architecture, angles, composition of the crystal, the colours and much more.

Arceus couldn’t hear what Diance was saying, she had flown too far for him to be able to pick up anything that she was talking about, however, he still followed his daughter with his head keeping up with her if he couldn’t hear her, at least he could see what was making her this excited.

Celestia, who as said before had been following Arceus at a decent distance, got next to him, and turn her attention to the grey pegasus that was flying franticly around her old student castle, “she seems more energetic than what you described to me,” Celestia said to Arceus but without turning to see him.

“Can you blame her?” Arceus asked with an amused tone, “if you remember correctly, she’s a being of crystal after all”.

“Yes, I remember that,” Celestia answered, “I can only imagine how excited she felt, seeing something like this castle”.

“Indeed,” Arceus answered, still keeping his eyes on Diance. He kept himself silent, he had noted something on Celestia’s tone, most likely concern, but for what, he did not know, so he instead decided to wait for the princess to talk.

After a few more seconds of silent, Celestia turn to see Arceus, “Arceus can I ask you something?” she asked, her tone been more serious than before.

Arceus turn his head to see her, he knew what she was about to ask, and he didn’t like it, “yes Celestia, what is it?”

“I-is your family afraid of you?” Celestia asked, although she wasn’t so sure of her words, the expression Arceus had given her had made her wonder if she was making the right question, or even is she should be making any, but she needed to know, something made Diance and the other legendary tensed around Arceus and she wanted to know what it was, but for the expression Arceus had in his face, she knew that it was something he detested, something that made him sad, for a second, he even reminded him of herself, showing a gentle, compassionate, playful and caring face, all that in an effort to make himself look normal, to get over asome kind of fear, just like she did with her subjects, her little ponies, trying to make herself look like a normal mare, and not just a monarch with the power over the sun, all this reflection and memories of Arceus's earlier confession about hiding the kind of power his family, and more importantly, he had, made her wonder what kind of power Arceus had that even intimidated his own family.
> A Quick Update Before The End of The Year
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone, is me Viatorem, before I begin, merry (late) Christmas, and happy New Year!

So, as you probably realised, I haven’t updated since May, yes, I basically repeated my “banishment act” of last year, I even went away 7months, which was the same amount of time as last year… oops 

Anyway, so as I explained in the author’s note in the last chapter, this school year has been quite a nightmare for me, well, more like for everyone, because everyone I know both in real life and the internet has had a horrible time with online classes as well as with everything else, 2020 has been quite the show, hasn’t it?

Well, leaving problems aside, despite dealing with this mess of a year, and with quite a few horrendous teachers, I managed to secure at least all my Fridays of this next semester, if not even the whole 2021 free, time that I plan to not only write new chapters but also finish this fic… or at least try to, I’m still a somewhat slow writer.

Now I’m going to try and post a new chapter this January, however, I have something to make it up to you guys after only uploading 3 chapters this year, you probably noticed that the “unedited” between parenthesis that was in the title of several chapters are missing, and that is because I spend the last week editing the fic using “Grammarly” (it was supposed to be a Christmas gift for you guys, my readers, but it took me longer than I thought it will be, so enjoy your late Christmas gift), meaning that I’m 99.9% sure that the fic is now free of errors, not only that but I added some text to some of the chapters, in particular, chapter V, I also changed the name of chapter VI and VII to something less ridiculous (I was never happy with the title of those chapters), so you might want to give the fic a reread, be sure that it will be a better experience than before, the same goes for new readers.

Now, that’s basically all I wanted to say, this "update-chapter" will be deleted when I upload the new chapter, the only reason why I wrote this as a chapter instead of a blog is that I wanted to make sure that as many people as possible could see this update.

I hope you enjoy this improved version of my story and I will like to remind you that comments are welcome.

That’s all, I wish you all a Happy 2021! And I hope to see you soon.

-Viatorem
> Chapter XI: Making Things Clearer, Part II of IV
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a few seconds of silence in which neither Arceus or Celestia said a thing or made any movement, and only keep looking at the other, Arceus finally ‘gave up’, lowering his head to look at the floor, almost as if he was working the courage to tell Celestia the truth; he them let out a deep sigh and turned his attention back to the solar princess.

“I-t’s… complicated,” Arceus answered with a hesitant yet sad tone.

Celestia was taken back a little by how Arceus delivered his answer, she recognised that tone, or at least the emotions that it carried, it reminded her of Luna when she told her about the living nightmare that had being living as Nightmare Moon, a tone that showed regret and sadness over how that dark power had separated the two, but it was also the same tone that Celestia had when she apologised with Luna for letting her own powers and found love as the solar princess separate her from her little sister. Celestia had realised that just like she and her sister, Arceus was saddened by how power had formed a gap between him and his family. 

“Arceus… what are you? … how powerful are you that even your family is afraid of you?” Celestia thought to herself as she analysed her friend’s answer.

However, to the relief of both, Diancie flew back to where her father was standing, she was still talking so her voice brought Arceus and Celestia out of their thoughts, although neither was able to catch everything she said.

“…but the most impressive thing is its size, I can feel how this castle is part of something bigger, something connected through roots that extend beyond this village, like if it was a single living being made out of multiple crystal trees of immense power base on balance, and, as I being saying before this crystal-tree being is a she, although I can’t tell if she has a name of her own,” Diancie said to Arceus as she moved and floated in front of him, her tone was a mix of a biologist that just discovered a new species but also that of a simple child telling her dad about something new she had just found.

Arceus turned to see Diancie, his previous expression of distress had been completely replaced by the same smile he had before Celestia had made any question, although, the sadness that Celestia’s question had caused him was still present, it was just barely notable. However, there was also intrigue, what Diancie had said, or at least what Arceus had managed to pick up, had awoken his interest.  

“She seems interesting,” Arceus said in a slow tone, he was still looking at Diancie, although his attention was now directed towards the crystal castle.

“Interesting? She’s fascinating!” Diancie answers, getting closer to Arceus’s face, giving more emphasis to her words.

Diancie then floated away from Arceus, but not by much, just to get closer to the castle. “I wish I could see the inside of the castle too; it might help me to understand her better, maybe I could even get her name… and well, I’m also curious to see her inside,” Diancie added, still looking at the castle even though her words were directed towards Arceus.

“I might be able to help you with that.” Celestia, who had been putting quite a lot of attention to Diancie and Arceus' conversation, said, getting the attention of the small diamond Pokémon.

As soon as the words left Celestia’s snout, she found Diancie right in front of her, as if the little Pokémon had teleported herself in front of Celestia -although, in reality, Diancie had simply flown/floated towards the princess-. “Really!?” Diancie asked Celestia with excitement.

“Oh!” Celestia exclaimed, while at the same time, by reflex, she moved her head back and rose her frontal right leg, she had been startled by how fast Diancie had moved, however, she quickly regained her composure. “Of course,” she answered to the incredibly exited Diancie, who was still floating right in front of Celestia’s nose, “my old student, Twilight Sparkle, lives here, we actually came here to Ponyville to spent some time with her for the holidays, but I’m pretty sure she would have any problems letting you in to examine the castle, in fact she will love to welcome your entire family”.

Diancie smiled after hearing that, before launching herself to hug Celestia’s neck, something that resulted a little difficult for her, as she wasn’t completely used to her disguise as a pegasus. “Thank you so much!” Diancie exclaimed with excitement as she hugged Celestia.

Celestia simply looked down and smiled at the odd looking pegasus, “you are welcome Diancie”.

Arceus, who had watch and listen to the exchange, took advantage that Dianice seemed to have calmed down to move closer to the 2, he had a smile in his face, he found it endearing how the younger and more childish member of his family, like Diancie and Celebi seemed to like to hug Celestia on the neck, it reminded him of how they greeted other bigger member of the family, including himself.

“Eh, Celestia,” Arceus said as he moved closer to the princess and one of her many daughters, “Are you sure there wouldn’t be any problem if we ‘crash in’ like that? I mean, are you sure Twilight will be OK with welcoming over 50 strangers into her home? Especially when she was only expecting you and Luna.

“Don’t worry about it, if anything you should be worried that Twilight might not let your family or you leave the castle” Celestia answered, looking at Arceus’s family rather than the alpha Pokémon.

Celestia didn’t notice it, but hearing that made Arceus a little tense, “and… why is that?” He asked with a cautious and somewhat aggressive tone.

Hearing the change of tone in Arceus’s voice, Celestia turned to see him fearing that something might be wrong, “Arceus, is everything alright?” Celestia asked him, concerned yet confused.

“Yes, everything is alright,” Arceus answered, his previous, almost interrogative tone still present, “I just want to know what do you mean with Twilight not letting my family or me leave the castle.”

“Oh, that?” Celestia asked, more confused than before, trying to understand why Arceus reacted in such a way to what she saw as a simple joke. “Well, Twilight Sparkle has changed and grown a lot in this past 5 years, but a few things about her remain the same, and one of them is her thirst for knowledge and discovery, and well, a family of over 50 different creatures from a different world with abilities to manipulate reality is certainly going to pique her interest.” Celestia them locked at Diancie, “especially when one of them can help her to discover more about her castle and in particular the tree of harmony,” she added as she smiled at Diancie, and even thought the scarf the scarf Celestia had around her face made it difficult to see, Diancie recognised the gestured and just like the princess, she returned the smile behind her light blue scarf.

“So, she’s just very curious, them?” Arceus asked Celestia, with a tone closer to his usual nonchalant manner, but not entirely calm, there were still tracers of doubt in his voice.

“More like extreme curiosity,” Celestia answers, “so much so that Twilight kind of… let’s just say becomes too passionate to the point of being bad for her… now that I think about it, it might be better if your family comes to visit later, maybe in a few days.”

“What! What? Why?” Diancie, who had still been listening to the conversation, asked in a distressed tone, almost spitting her scarf out of her mouth, as she was worried that her opportunity to learn more about the castle was about to be taken away.

“Sorry, is just that… well… how do I put this?” Celestia answer as she turned to see Diancie, “Is just that, well, Twilight sort of gets over-excited about this sort of things, and well, knowing her, she probably freaked out about Hearth's Warming, so it might be better to give her a break.”

“Aww,” Diancie said in disappointment.

“Don’t worry little one, like I said you can visit later,” Celestia said, trying to cheer up the jewel Pokémon.

“Yes, don’t worry about it,” Arceus said, getting closer to the two, his tone had completely gone back to his usual calm one, “remember that Celestia is basically family to Twilight for what I understand, so she could easily arrange you a stay at the castle”.

“I know that,” Diancie answered, not looking at either Celestia or Arceus, as she felt a little uncomfortable with all the attention, “It’s just that it is incredibly frustrating to be this close to something so exciting only to be told that I have to wait”.

“Yes, I know that feeling,” Celestia answer, her mind being assaulted by memories of looking at cakes while they were in the oven, “but as Arceus said, I can talk with Twilight, she will be more than happy to let you stay as long as you need, you just need to wait a few days”.

Diancie turned to see Celestia, “Thank you.”

“Don’t even mention it”, Celestia answered with a smile.

However, Celestia’s plans were quickly thrown out the window when one of the castle doors opened, letting the head of a young purple and green dragon peek out to see who was the voice that had been flying around the castle rambling; although, the fact that his nightcap was still on his head or that his eyes were barely open, or his annoyed yet tired expression, it was quite obvious that he had been awake for less than 10 minutes and that he was planning to go back to bead as soon as he dealt with whoever had awoken him.

“Excuse me…” Spike said, interrupting himself with a yaw, “could you please go somewhere else, we are trying to sleep here,” he added, rubbing his eyes, not even noticing that he was directly looking at Celestia.

“Hello Spike?” Celestia said, turning to see the dragon at the door, concerned that he didn’t recognise her.

“Oh, hello Celestia,” Spike answer, his half-asleep brain that was working with only 2 brain cells didn’t even register that he was talking to Celestia or the fact that Luna was also there, or that there were over 50 different Pokémon disguised as ponies present too, “well, anyway, thank you for stopping all your noise, have a good day princess.” Spike answered, like if someone had said something even though no one had said a thing.

Spike then began to slowly close the door, only for a sleepy voice of a mare to call him from the inside the castle, “who was Spike?”

Spiked turned to look at his back, to where the voice had come from, “princess Celestia,” he answered in a low groan, as he began to close the door.

“WHAT!?” The voice from inside the castle shouted, this was followed by the castle doors slamming open, revealing the princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle, still wearing her pyjamas just like Spike, however, her expression was similar to that of a pony that had just been awakened by the use of a bucket full of icy water; one could also see Spike making his way back to his room, not even bothering to turn around.

“Well, there goes that idea,” Celestia said to Arceus and Diancie in a low voice as she looked at Twilight.

“It looks like it,” Arceus answered, with the same low voice as Celestia.

“Hello Twilight, how art thou this morning?” Luna asked as she walked towards the castle.

“Hi Twilight,” Celestia added, following her sister's example with a wave.

“Oh, hello, I’m fine Luna… excuse me what are you two doing here?” Twilight answered then asked, looking at the two princesses as they walked towards her with Arceus and Diancie walking next to Celestia.

“We decided to do a surprise visit for the season,” Celestia answered, “you know, chat a little, spent some time together, eat lunch, basically relax and enjoy some quality time together.”

“Ok, but why didn’t you tell me you were going to visit? The castle isn’t exactly… all that clean.” Twilight said with a forced smile as she turned to see behind her, looking at what remained of the green pudding monster that Flurry Heart had accidentally created during Hearth's Warming Eve; it was less of a mess than before, as the majority of the thing had been removed, but considerable parts of it remained on the floor and walls, needing to be clean.

“Because you were going to freak out,” Shining Armour, who was holding Flurry Heart with his right frontal leg, and had been watching the hole exchange take place, called from a door at the end of the main corridor.

“What!? You knew about this!?” Twilight asked in a shout, looking angrily at her brother.

“Yes, we did, in fact the surprise visit was my idea,” Cadence answered, walking next to Shining Armour, she then smiled before tilting her head to the side, allowing her to see Celestia and Luna. “Hello aunties!” She shouted while waving one of her hooves, before studently stopping and tilting her head, “eh? So, who are your friends aunties?” She asked while walking towards the door, trying to get a better look of Arceus and Diancie.

“Hmm?” Twilight asked, before turning around, finally noticing that the princesses were alone, and to be frank she was quite confused by what she saw.

There was a very odd-looking pegasus filly who was hovering behind Luna, she was of a grey colour, similar to that of very well polished rook and with ruby-like eyes, that was wearing a white dress and simplistic as the one Rarity had given her during the first birthday Twilight celebrated with the girls, although the oddest thing about the pegasus was her hair, she had had a long pink mane, with the same sparkly effect as that of a crystal pony, an effect that as far as Twilight knew was impossible to achieve without been a crystal pony or been under the effects of the Crystal Heart, a filly that didn’t seem to notice Twilight but instead was occupied trying to get a better look of the inside of the castle.

The other creature was even estranger for Twilight, he was tall, even taller than Celestia, the tallest equine creature Twilight knew that wasn’t a giraffe, he looked like a mix of a pony and a deer, but only a little, as his mostly white body, with his grey underbelly and odd-shaped head, made the comparison quite weak, what was even odder was the golden ring in the middle of his body and his face, it’s grey colour, how it seems to sink to be protected by the white exterior, his green cheeks and eyes, with red pupils; Twilight had seen and read about many creatures, both real and from the realm of fantasy, both form Equestria and the human world, yet she had never come across something that even resembled the creature that was right in front of her.

“That’s a good question…” Twilight said, as she looked at Arceus, “who are you?” She asked in a loud tone, still looking at him.

“Twilight, Cadence and Shining Armor,” Celestia said, as the 3 adult ponies moved closer to the door, her tone been an exaggerated bombastic one, trying to make the situation more light-hearted, in an attempt to avoid the same kind of ‘stressful’ introduction Arceus had with Fleur and Fancy Pants early that day.

Celestia then moved to a side, letting them have a better view of Arceus, “this is Lord Arceus, although he prefers to just be called Arceus, he’s… well… how do I put this?” Celestia then turned to look at him, trying to figure out the shortest way to explain who Arceus is.

“Just say that I’m a creature from another world that arrived literally yesterday and that you and Luna, but in particular you Celestia, are basically babysitting while my family goes around as Equestria’s most odd-looking group of tourists,” Arceus said, with the same exaggerated tone as Celestia’s and a silly small smile, one that Celestia imitated while holding down a giggle.

“As simple as that narration is, we can agree that is the correct,” Luna answer, slowly shaking her head from one side to the other with a smile on her face in reaction to Arceus and Celestia’s antics.

“And this is one of those odd-looking tourists, one of Arceus’s daughters, Diancie,” Celestia added, looking at the Pokémon disguised as a pony.

“Hi!” Diancie exclaimed with a wave, imitating her dad and Celestia’s tone.

“Wait, hold on a minute! What do you mean with one of his daughters? She is a pony, an odd looking one but a pony nonetheless, how can he have a pony daughter when he has only been here for a day?” Twilight asked, looking at both Arceus and Diancie with a confused yet critical expression.

“I was about to ask the same question,” Cadence added, looking at Arceus with suspicion.

“Oh, I can explain that,” a female voice called form behind the Arceus, Celestia, Luna and Diacnie, who moved out of the way to let Faust/Golden Feather get close to the castle.

“You see princess, Arceus is a friend of mine, and he asked me to be his family’s guide during their visit to Equestria, and due to them being… well quite ‘striking’ I had to use a simple transformation spell to help them blend in,” Faust/Golden Feather explained while making a small bow now that Twilight, Cadence and Shining could see her, after all, she needed to act as any other pony will do in front of any of Equestria’s many princes and princesses if she wanted to keep her real identity as a secret.

“I see,” Cadence answered, giving Arceus a quick glance before looking back at Faust/Golden Feather, “excused me but I didn’t catch your name”.

“Oh, my apologies, your majesty, I’m Golden Feather,” Faust answered with a small bow using her head.

“Wait! Golden Feather? Is that really your name?” Twilight asked, as all her attention seemed to suddenly shift from Arceus to the somewhat tall unicorn mare with a red mane in front of her.

“Yes, is its princess, why do you ask?” Faust asked, tilting her head in genuine confusion, trying to figure out why her fake identity had caught Twilight’s complete interest.

“Golden Feather? A writer for The Canterlot Chronicle? The author of ‘Through Equestria, The Everyday Wonders of Travel’? The column right behind the coupons? That Golden Feather!?” Twilight asked while her voice increased in volume, walking towards Faust as she did so, getting uncomfortably close to her.

“Yes, that’s me,” Faust/Golden Feather answered with an awkward smile as Twilight was breathing right in front of her.

Twilight’s face changed into a massive childish smile, accompanied by her eyes becoming as wide as dishes, “Oh my Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed, completely forgetting that Celestia was right behind her, “I had been wanting to meet you for years!”.

Faust/Golden Feather was surprised hearing that, she never expected Twilight to be this fascinated by her fake identity’s column, “Wait, really? You've been wanting to meet me?”

“Of course! You are the only reason why I haven’t cancelled my Canterlot Chronicle subscription,” Twilight answer with excitement, “I been reading your column for a decade now, you are like the everyday version of Daring Do, even though Rainbow Dash said your work was too boring to be compared with Daring Do but forget about that, is just that, the way you describe things, how you narrate thing, trying to figure out their story, constantly mentioning Equestrian history and quoting all kinds of works, from literature, to games and nursery rhymes, plus your brutal honesty... is all just... so wonderful to read.”

As Twilight explained why she loved Golden Feather work she began to turn around, passing as she spoke, “but even more fascinating is the mystery, there’s barely any information about you, looking for information about you was like researching an almost forgotten author, I went to every Canterlot writer’s convention trying to meet you, yet I didn’t find you anywhere, sometimes I began to wonder if you were real, I even once consider getting a job at the Canterlot Chronicle to try to meet you and get…”

Twilight then quickly turned to see Faust/Golden Feather, a look of realisation on her face, “your autograph and a photo with you… give me a second!” Twilight’s horn began to shine and soon Twilight disappeared, teleporting to somewhere inside the castle.

“Did I mention Twilight loves reading?” Celestia asked, taking advantage of a sudden silence that she knew will be short, she tilted her head towards Arceus so he knew she was talking to him.

“No, you didn’t, but I can see what you mean,” Arceus answered, still looking in the direction to where Twilight had been going all ‘fan-girl’ about Faust work as Golden Feather.

“That was… odd,” Faust/Golden Feather said, still looking at where Twilight had been standing. "I might have gone a little over the top with her”, Faust thought to herself, she knew how Twilight overreacted after all Faust had created her, she had seen her do that a bunch of time, yet now that she was responsible for Twilight’s overreaction, she began to wonder if she had gone a little too far in a few places when creating her.

However, before Faust/Golden Feather could finish her self-critic, Twilight teleported back in front of her, holding one book, a pen, an inkwell and a camera with her magic, “can you please autograph my collection of your columns?” Twilight asked, holding the book in front of Faust/Golden Feather, leafing through the pages with her magic from the last page to the first, allowing Faust/Golden Feather to see that every page contain cut-outs of all the column she had written in the last 10 years, all glued to the book pages.

Twilight didn’t let Faust/Golden Feather answer, as she levitated the camera closer to her, “also, can I please take a photo with you, and can you please sight it? I want some evidence that you exist and that I meet you,” Twilight explained with a big smile that tried to have the same effect as Sweetie Belle’s puppy eyes, but that only managed to make Faust/Golden Feather feel uncomfortable.

Faust/Golden Feather then turned her head to see Celestia and Arceus for help, looking for a bit of advice on how to deal with the over-excited lavender pony in front of her, Arceus smiled at her, making it clear to Faust/Golden Feather that he understood her situation, that he too had been in situations where one of his creations had made him unsure of how to act or what to do; as for Celestia, she held down a giggle and simply moved one of her legs, making a gesture indicating Faust/Golden Feather to just say yes to Twilight’s requests; and that’s what Faust/Golden Feather decided to do.

“Of course,” Faust/Golden Feather answered, her voice recovering some sort of the security Arceus knew her for, “so, which one do you want me to sign first?” She asked as Twilight passed her the feather and ink.

“First my collection, then the photograph,” Twilight answered, holding the book that contained her collection, still one on the first page, holding it on her light-lavender coloured magic.

“Ok,” Faust/Golden Feather answer before turning her attention to the technically “fan made”, cover page, and with a few agile yet elegant moves of the feather in her ruby coloured magic aura Faust had sing the book with her fake identity of Golden Feather, probably the first time that she had autograph anything under that name.

“There you go,” Faust/Golden Feather said as she returned Twilight the book, who simply smiled as she looked at the signature on it, mentally crossing Faust/Golden Feather’s name out of her mental list of books she needed to get autographed.

While Twilight was occupied looking at the sigh, fascinated to finally get what she had thought in more than one occasion was a sigh she will never get to see as it belonged to an non existing author, Faust/Golden Feather took the camera off Twilight’s magic grip and into hers, “excuse me princess,” Faust/Golden Feather said, getting Twilight’s attention back, “weren’t we going to take a photo?” Fast/Golden Feather asked as she moved to get next to Twilight so the 2 could be in the photo.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” Twilight answered, tuning the entire book so that the page with the signature could appear in the photo.

Taking the photograph was considerably faster now that Fast/Golden Feather was a little more comfortable with Twilight’s eagerness, the same went for the autograft, as soon as the picture came out of the camera, Fast/Golden Feather took it in her magic, signing it in an instant before giving it to Twilight.

“Here it is princess,” Faust said as she handed Twilight the picture, the feather and the ink.

“Thank you,” Twilight said, at the same time writing in the bottom with part of the photograph where and when the photo had been taken and putting it on the inside of the book.

Celestia, seeing that Twilight was finished, cleared her through, getting the attention of her fellow lavender princess, “so Twilight, do you think we can come in?”.

“Oh, yes of course princess, please make yourself comfortable,” Twilight answered with a somewhat surprised tone, like she had forgotten that her former mentor was at the castle doors.

“And that includes you… lord and… misses,” Twilight said as she moved close to Arceus and Diancie, a little unsure of how to refer to both of them, “I have so many questions for you two,” Twilight added, her famous scientific curiosity and thirst for knowledge showing themselves as she moved around to get a better look at both.

“Does that invitation extent to the rest of my family?” Arceus asked looking at Twilight.

Twilight just looked at him confused, Arceus smiled at her before pointing at Twilight’s back, it was only when she turned around that Twilight finally realised that there were over 50 different odd-looking ponies in front of her castle.

“Wait, how big is your family, how many are there?” Twilight asked, in an incredulous tone, turning to look at Arceus.

“53 counting Diancie,” Celestia answer, turning to see Twilight, “mostly daughters and sons, although there are a few grandsons and granddaughters, although some of them are adopted,” Celestia explained turning to see Arceus, who smiled at her, happy and honestly impressed that Celestia did indeed paid attention during their entire ‘little chat’ on the train.

“Yep, and all 53 are unique, with their own abilities,” Arceus said with a nod before turning to see Twilight, curious to see how she reacted.

Twilight remained in silence, processing what was going on, something that didn’t take that long, “wait, so are telling me that the day princess Celestia and Luna make a surprise visit for Hearth's Warming, they brought with them an author that I thought I will never meet because the possibilities of her not even existing were incredibly high, and a family of over 50 members from a different world for me to study?” Twilight asked, her excitement tone increasing with the length of her question.  

“I mean,” Faust/Golden Feather returned to the conversation, “I and Arceus’s family are only here because they wanted to see your castle, we didn’t organise any of this, it was just a coincidence,” Faust/Golden Feather answer, not even surprised that this had happened without her intervention, she had learned a long time ago that coincidences could spawn into reality without the interference of the creator of said reality.  

“Indeed,” Luna added, cosigning what Faust/Golden Feather had said. 

“Well, whatever the case might be I’m not wasting this opportunity,” Twilight answered, before turning to look in the direction of Arceus’s family and shouting, “every pony please come in!”

Before anyone could even move, Diancie shouted “YAY!” Before basically disappearing from Arceus side, flying as fast as she could to the door at into the castle, and as soon as she passed the castle doors her body shined in a white light, and less than a fraction of a second later the shined disappeared, revealing not a dark grey Pegasus with a pink crystal pony mane wearing a simple white dress, but a humanoid-like figure with horns, invaded in stone, a massive pink round diamond on top of her head flanked by two long pink diamonds simulating ponytails plus other pink more brutish diamonds in the stone, and that was also wearing a simpler white short dress; basically, her pony disguise had been undone, revealing her real Pokémon form, and Diancie didn’t even notice, she keeps moving during the whole process, all her interest dedicated to learning more about 'she’ (aka whatever was the living being Twilight’s castle was part of).

“Excuse me, but why did Diancie change?” Arceus asked, turning to see Twilight.

“I put up an anti-disguise-magic-barrier,” Shining Armours answer, surprising not only Twilight and Arceus, but Cadence, “there’s a pony quite dangerous out there, who doesn’t really like me or my family, and she makes use of that kind of magic so I prefer to be prepared,” Shining Armour explained, looking at his sister and Arceus but her eyes drifting towards his wife and daughter.

“I understand that,” Arceus answered, giving Shining a small nod of approval before turning to see his own family, “well, kids, what are you waiting for? You heard Celestia’s friend, please get in the castle it is freezing out here,” Arceus said in a joking tone.

They listen to him and soon they began to make their way into the castle, Twilight, Celestia, Arceus and Faust/Golden Feather stayed outside, mostly to make sure an accident didn’t happen as a result of the considerable size difference between some of the legendary real form and their pony disguise.

“By the way Arceus, can I ask you something?” Twilight asked, looking at the congregation that had formed outside her castle.

“Of course, Twilight” Arceus answered.

“Why did Diancie react in such a way when I said that your family could come in?” Twilight asked, her confusion based on experience, she knew that somepony, or somepokemon as Arceus had thought her that that was the proper expression, only reacted in such a way when something related to their most deep passions happened.

“Oh, you know, she can feel that your castle is alive,  and is part of what I assume is the Tree of Harmony, she can even sort of understand her, you know the usual,” Celestia answers in a sort of joking tone.

“WHAT!?” Twilight exclaimed before taking off, flying in the direction of Diancie, “wait Diancie, I need to talk with you!” Twilight shouted; her desire to know more about the Tree of Harmony overshadow anything else, so much so that when she flew next to Rayquaza, who was already inside the castle in his real form, her feral equine fear of snakes didn’t even register that there was a massive snake looking dragon on her house.

Arceus and Celestia simply chuckled at Twilight’s antics, however, soon after Celestia turned to look at Arceus, her expression becoming serious, and it didn’t take Arceus a fraction of a second to know what she was about to say.

“Arceus, do you think we can continue the conversation we were having before Diancie interrupted us, later of course?” Celestia asked, still looking at him, but her expression made it clear that just like him she wasn’t exactly looking forward to that conversation.

Before Arceus could answer Faust/Golden Feather also made a similar question, “hey Arceus, do you think we count also talk later too? There are a few things I need to tell you about your family’s trip”.

Arceus simply nodded, “Ok, I will talk with both of you, just later”.

Celestia then turned her head towards the castle, only to look back at the alpha Pokémon, “Arceus, I think I and Faust aren’t the only ones who want to talk with you.”

Arceus turned  to see Celestia, trying to figure out what she meant, but he didn’t need to ask, because he also saw what Celestia had seen to make her say that, it was Cadence, she was looking from the inside of the castle at Arceus with a mix of judgeful, angry, yet compressive, confused and sad eyes, like she was trying to figure out something about him.
> Chapter XI: Making Things Clearer, Part III of IV
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Do you want something, aunty?” Cadence asked, turning her head to see Celestia, who was sitting next to the kitchen table.

“Hmm? Sorry, what?” Celestia asked in an absentminded tone. Turning her attention from the kitchen door where she had been looking at Arceus presented Luna to some of the members of his family.

“I asked you if you want something to eat.” Cadence explained with the same patient and caring tone as the one she had used when asking her for the first time.  

“Well…” Celestia thought about her answer for a second. She had already eaten a light breakfast in the castle, and lunch on the train, meaning that she wasn’t hungry.

“Just some tea please.” Celestia answered while turning her attention back to the kitchen door, where she saw Arceus introduce Luna to Giratina.

“Just tea?” Cadence asked, confused that her aunty didn’t ask for something more, like cake.

“Yes, just tea. Luna, Arceus and I ate lunch during our train ride here. I don’t know about him but I’m not hungry.” Celestia answered, still looking to the outside of the kitchen, where she managed to notice something on Luna’s and Giratina’s face. She wasn’t sure what it was, but for her, it looked like the two were flustered.

“Very well,” Cadence said as she poured water in a kettle. “What about you miss Golden Feather?” She asked, turning her attention towards Golden Feather/Faust.

“Well, if it’s not much of a problem, a coffee and some cookies will do fine princess.” Golden Feather/Faust answered. She was acting, or well, at least trying to act like she was uncomfortable with Cadence offering and preparing food for her. After all, Golden Feather was the identity of a normal, although a little famous author, so if Faust wanted to keep that appearance, she needed to act like  said pony will do when interacting with the princess.

“It's not a problem at all dear.” Cadence said as she moved to open a cabinet to her side, where Twilight kept the dishes.

Cadence used her magic to take what she thought was the top dish out of the cabinet. However, she didn’t realise that the dish she had taken wasn’t the one on top of the pile, as there was another, smaller one. The small dish slipped and fell on the floor, making loud noise as it did so. This resulted in Cadence turning in the direction of Shining Armour, who was carrying a sleeping Flurry Heart in his frontal legs.

Cadence and Shining stared at their daughter, hoping that the noise didn’t wake her up, and for their fortune, it didn’t, Flurry kept sleeping as if nothing had happened. Both let out a sigh of relief, before Cadence returned to prepare the drinks and Shining tried to make small talk with Golden Feather.

“It seems you two are getting better at handling Flurry,” Celestia remarked with a cheeky grin and joking tone while Cadance poured her some tea.

“You could say that, then again, anything is an improvement compared to our first day with her.” Cadence answered while giving Golden Feather/Faust her mug of coffee and cookies. 

“Though she can still be a little inconvenient for others.” Shining added while Cadence sat between him and Celestia.

“For example, she woke up at 4am today and spent a few hours wanting to play. We can keep up with her because we're used to it, but Spike and Twilight don’t have our experience.” Cadence added while taking Flurry in her forelegs and lightly rocking her.

“So that’s why Twilight and Spike looked so tired when we arrived” Celestia reasoned, finally understanding why Spike didn’t recognise her or Luna, or why Twilight had such a messy appearance.

“Yes, even when Spike was struggling to remain awake, Flurry kept trying to make him fly after her.” Shining added, remembering how Flurry had teleported Spike out of his bed multiple times.

“I apologise for taking so long,” Arceus said while finding a seat next to Celestia, finally being able to join the group. “So what did I miss?” He asked while pouring himself a cup of tea.

Before anyone could answer, Flurry slowly began to wake up, letting out a yawn before making her best efforts to stretch while in her mother’s embrace. Cadence tried rocking her back to sleep, but her daughter had enough of that. Flurry was now ready to play around again until the next nap time, or whenever she felt hungry, whatever happened first.

“Good morning little one,” Arceus said, still using his calm tone before taking a sip of his tea. 

Flurry’s attention was immediately directed to Arceus, not surprising considering how he had managed to attract the attention of every creature he had come across. She quickly left her mother's forelegs, flying past ‘Aunty Celestia’ before flying around Arceus, looking at him with interest.

Arceus just chuckled, while looking at her. “She seems to be quite curious and energetic.” He commented while Flurry tried to interact with his right hoof, baffled as to why hers and later her entire body could go past through it as if it wasn’t there.

“You could say that,” Shining answered in a somewhat sarcastic tone, knowing full well how hard it could be to keep up with his daughter.

“She does seem to enjoy flying quite a lot,” Arceus added, finding it weird that her first instinct had been to fly rather than just crawl or walk towards him.

“Yeah, despite her age she has gotten quite good at flying; and to be honest, that's the main source of problems taking care of her, unlike most fillies her age, she can easily reach places a baby isn’t supposed to be in.” Shining answered, remembering that little incident where Flurry had flown to the top of the castle in the crystal empire, and the scrabble to find her that took place while she was happily enjoying the view.

“Yes, fortunately flying also gets her quite tired, so she will probably be back to sleep soon.” Cadence added, trying to not get distracted with her daughter. 

“Shining, do you think you can take Flurry to play in our room?” Cadence asked, turning to see her husband, who was already digging in their baby bag looking for Whammy so that Flurry could play with it.  

“On it,” Shining answered before moving to Arceus, where Flurry was still looking at him with curiosity. “Look who it is Flurry! It’s Whammy! She wants to play with you!” Shining exclaimed with a childish tone while levitating the snail plushie in his magic, quickly gaining the attention of his daughter.

Upon seeing her favourite toy, Flurry lost most of her interest in Arceus, taking a last look at him before launching herself towards Whammy. Shining tried to move the plushie around using his magic, but before he could, Whammy was already being hugged and chewed by Flurry; much to the annoyance of both Cadence and Shining.

Arceus simply chuckled at the display, as it reminded him of the difficulties he faced while taking care of her kids, and how, later on, he had to help them when they decided to have kids of their own. Arceus' chuckle got Flurry’s attention back, as she flew back at him and started to happily show Whammy to Arceus.

“She’s quite the cute little thing,” Arceus said as Flurry continued to show Whammy to him. The compliment was directed towards both Flurry and her parents; though Flurry herself didn’t catch that, believing it was directed towards Whammy, still, she was happy to know that the strange creature found her plushie cute.

“Flurry, can you please come with daddy?” Shining asked as Flurry sat on Arceus's back; Flurry didn’t listen to him, finding Arceus’s back as the perfect place to sit and play due to its softness.

“Do you want some help?” Arceus asked before turning to see Flurry, or as well as his neck allowed him to do so. “Hi Flurry! Would you like to fly with Whammy for a bit?”

Just like with her dad, Flurry ignored Arceus, prefering to simply continue playing on his back. “That’s not going to work, she doesn’t find being levitated fun anymore.” Shining exclaimed to Arceus while the 2 were looking at Flurry.

“That isn’t exactly what I meant.” Arceus answered with a childish tone, his body then emitted a faint golden light, mixed with an even more tenuous azure-blue and pink colour light. 

The light got the attention of Flurry, distracting her from her plushie, not noticing that Whammy itself was starting to emit the same light too. After a second Arceus stopped emitting the light, leaving Flurry briefly confused before she turned her attention back to Whammy, only to discover that her plush was flying in place, using some sort of ghosty wings to do so.

Flurry immediately noticed that something was off about Whammy and her levitation, as even though she was still a baby, she didn’t feel any sort of familiar magic presence. Flurry turned to look at Cadence and Shining for any sort of guidance, but her dad was confused while her mom was busy looking at Arceus with suspicion; she then turn to see aunty Celestia, who gave her an encouraging look, knowing that whatever Arceus had done wasn’t dangerous.

Seeing Celestia’s encouragement, Flurry turned her attention back to her plushie and touched it. A second later Whammy began to flap its phantasmagoric wings, leaving Arceus’ back and hovering over him. Flurry kept her eyes on her now flying plushie, looking at it with confusion.

“Say Flurry,” Arceus finally said, getting the attention of the confused pony-toddler. “I think Whammy wants to play with you. Why don’t you follow her?”

Flurry then turned her attention back to her plushie, before taking flight too, slowly moving upwards until she was in front of Whammy. Whammy then began to perform a few basic tricks while remaining in place, like a barrel roll, a knife fight, a loop among others; despite her confusion Flurry copied the tricks, having some difficulty with some while showing that she had performed others before.

“She’ll definitely have a fun time,” Arceus commented while finally sitting at the table, between Celestia and Golden Feather (Faust). At the same time, Whammy and Flurry began flying around the room at a relatively low speed, while performing some of the tricks to make the flying more interesting, with Flurry laughing as they did so.

“Thank you Arceus, but we would prefer for our daughter to play with magic of our own world,” Cadence said in quite the harsh tone, making her way close to the table and standing next to it.

“My apologies Cadence, I should have asked if you were ok with it.” Arceus answered in an akward tone; before turning his attention to Whammy and Flurry, who were still flying around them.

“Let me remove the effect.” Arceus’ body then began to shine, but before he could return Whammy to her wingless state, he was interrupted by Shining.

“Eh, Arceus, before you ‘removed the effect’, as you said. What exactly did you do?” Shining asked; he might not be such a scientifically or magically curious individual as his little sister, but he was still fascinated by Arceus’ trick.

“Oh, well. It’s quite simple really,” Arceus answered, the golden light disappearing in his body. “I infused Flurry’s plushie with a little of raw flying, and an even smaller bit of psychic type energy.”

“The quote on quote, magic, in Arceus’ world is divided by different types. ThinK of it like how a unicorn's magic is different to that of an earth pony’s or pegasus’.” Celestia chimed in the explanation, trying to reduce the number of further questions.

Arceus simply nodded, happy to see that Celestia had paid attention to all the explanations he had given her in the last 24 or so hours. “It’s a little trick I learned while my sons and daughters grew up. Flying toys help develop their finer flying skills, just like how certains toys help them with walking. However, while telekinesis works for those without wings who can fly; it’s better for those with wings to observe and learn from a toy that also has wings.” Arceus explained.

“Basically, monkey see, monkey do.” Shining said, simplifying Arceus’ explanation.

“Pretty much so,” Arceus answered with a shrug.

“That does make sense,” Shining answered while scratching his chin. “It would explain why Flurry gets distracted whenever she sees a pegasus fly, she’s trying to learn from them.”

“Well, considering all the times my son, Dialga, had to follow his daughter around forests because she kept flying after pokemons with elytras or other bug-like wings; I think it is fair to say that you are correct.” Arceus added, remembering a few of Dialga’s own anecdotes regarding young Celebi’s forest adventures.

Arceus then caught a glance at Cadence and cleared his throat, “do you still want me to remove the effect?”

“Could you teach me how to do it?” Shining asked, after taking another look at his daughter and seeing how much fun she was having.

“You would probably have better luck asking Twilight for a similar spell,” Celestia said from across the table after taking a sip of her tea.

“Indeed,” Arceus said with anod. “Besides I don’t think the magic of this world or the energies of mine can interact; and to be honest, I’m on my vacation so I don’t really feel like testing it.” He added with an unapologetic tone, followed by an exaggerated yawn that got a chuckle out of Celestia and Golden Feather/Faust.

“But being serious now, the effect should go away in a few hours, or when Flurry falls asleep, whatever happens first; but if you want, I can remove it now.” Arceus said after returning to his more calm tone.

“You said it was safe, right?” Cadence asked, as she had realised that Flurry was having too much fun to cut it out.

“I can assure you that there was never a problem when my sons, daughters and grandkids played with any object under that effect. Though, because we are indoors, there’s a possibility of Flurry crashing against a wall, so it would be wise for one of you to keep an eye on her.” Arceus answered, knowing full well that the last part of his warning wasn’t needed as he had noticed that since Flurry took flight, the eyes of both of her parents were almost always on her.

“I suppose she can keep playing with Whammy,” Cadence answered with a sigh. “Shining, could you take Flurry to the main hall and keep an eye on her?”

Shining nodded before leaving his seat and opening the door, and turning to see his daughter. “Flurry! Whammy! Why don’t you two come to fly in the hall?” He asked, just for two pinkish blurs to pass right next to him.

“Well, I will keep an eye on them while you talk with Arceus,” Shining added with a cheeky tone.

Cadence just looked at Shining with a bit of shock and disapproval. “How did you know!?”

“Caydy, I’m your husband, I can tell when there’s something bothering you.” Shining answered, before closing the door behind him; and right after that, he asked, “Hey Flurry, who’s your new friend?” 

“So, what do you want to talk about Cadence?” Arceus asked, turning his attention back to the smaller alicorn in the room.

Cadence, who had been staring at the door with a light blush caused by Shining’s use of THAT nickname, turned her attention to Arceus, and after a deep bread she sat down at the table right in front of the pokemon. “Is less of a chat and more a concern of mine. I suppose aunty Celestia told you what I’m the princess of, right?”

“Yep,” Arceus answered. “You are, as Celestia called it, ‘the princess of love’”.

“Well, despite how cheesy that title is, I still take my role as such very seriously.” Cadence said with quite the solemn tone. “And there’s something that has been bothering me since I met you regarding that. It is quite obvious that you care for your own children, however, I’m a bit concerned that I haven’t seen any of their mothers.”

The alpha pokemon just stared at Cadence for a second; seeing as Arceus didn’t come up with an answer the aforementioned princess of love continued. “I can accept poligami to a certain degree, but having over 30 partners is over the top; and seeing as you didn’t bring any of them with you, it is fair to say that you don’t have a healthy relationship with any of them.”

Arceus let out a deep sight while Cadence continued talking, turning to Celestia for some sort of advice or help. Fortunately for Arceus, Celestia had noticed the awkwardness Cadence’s light tirade had created, as even Golden Feather/ Faust wes trying to ignore what was being said by looking around the kitchen.  

“I think I forgot to tell you that Cadence can be a bit overreaching at times,” Celestia commented, interumping Cadence.

“Aunty!” Cadence exclaimed with indignation while turning to see Celestia.

“Though, Cadence is still right about one thing, you never explained to me where your offspring came from, you just said it was ‘complicated’.” Celestia added, she might be willing to interrupt the awkwardness but she still wanted answers.

Arceus turned to see Celestia, who winked at him. “Well, I did promise you to explain ‘where my family came from’.” He answered, remembering how when the 2 were making their way to the castle for the first time, where Celestia made a few questions regarding the ‘mothers’ of his sons and daughters.

Arceus began to pour himself a glass of water using his telekinesis. “Before I begin, please keep in mind that this might be a bit confusing for you, I will try to keep it simple and explain everything as I go along.” He then took a few sips of the water before starting his explanation.

“The best way I can put it is that my sons and daughters weren’t made in what you could call ‘the usual way’, but rather, they were conceived by giving them a part of my powers.” Arceus paused for a second to look at Cadence’s and Celestia’s facial expressions, noticing a bit of shock and interest; Golden Feather/Faust didn’t react, as she was more than familiar with the story.

“You see, a long time ago I was incredibly powerful, yet I was also quite lonely, and I also wanted a family, particularly sons and daughters; so I began to make them, using parts of my powers so that they could exist.” 

Arceus then turned to see Cadence. “Think of it like you giving away most of your pegasie magic so that Flurry could exist; you can still fly, as you haven’t given away your wings, but such things as your control over the weather have been greatly diminished.” Upon hearing that Cadence slowly turned to see her wings, knowing that she would be more than willing to go so far as to lose her wings for Flurry to be in her life.

Arceus then continued with his explanation. “The first ones to be born were Mew, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, yes they are quadruplets despite how different they look!” Arceus exclaimed, a bit of the happiest he felt watching the birth of his first daughter and his first three sons coming back with the memory.

After a second of Arceus then cleared his throat. “The rest is, well, history; I relinquished parts of my power so that my sons and daughters could live, and soon after, they did the same. My granddaughter, Celebi, for example, was born when Dialga relinquished some of his own power…” 

“I feel like I've been talking too much.” Arceus added, with a joking tone, rather than the most serious he had used throughout most of his explanation and that had created a rather tense ambience in the kitchen.

“Not as much as some nobles I know,” Celestia chained in, using a mocking tone, trying to give the conversation a bit of a comedic tone, though she still had another question on her mind. “What about those you have adopted into your family?”

“Oh well, there’s a myriad of reasons as to why we decided to welcome them into our family.” Arceus explained before taking another sip of water. “They either helped protect other pokemons, or came across some power they used for good, or they helped us during a crisis, one of them literally fell from space…” Arceus tone and expression then changed to a more sombre one. “Although, some have a darker past, and well, we wanted to give them a home so that they didn’t feel like outcasts anymore”.

Cadence sight, lowering her head. “Arceus, I have to offer you my apologies, I shouldn't have made such accusations.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, you're not the first one to come to such conclusions,” Arceus answered in a nonchalant tone

Cadence however didn’t take Arceus’ words well, as she figured that Arceus was probably sick of having to answer the same question; as Cadence herself would definitely be more than annoyed if everywhere she went someone asked if Flurry was really her daughter.

Fortunately, before Cadence could bury herself in self reprimands, Arceus (with a bit of help from the Mind Plate), took notice of Cadence’s change in mood. “If anything I would have been concerned if you didn’t come to that conclusion.” Arceus added, trying to get Cadence’s attention back. 

“If someone showed up to me, with a big group of creatures who he/she claims are her/his family despite few of them looking in any way related to whoever this individual is; I would be a bit suspicious to say the least.”

Cadence seemed to cheer up a bit with what Arceus said, glad to know that even Arceus himself agreed that he and his family were a bit of an eyebrow raiser.  

“There’s still something I don’t understand; if you wanted a family so badly, why didn’t you find a partner?” Celestias asked with a bit of hesitation, having to take a sip of water afterwards as she felt her mouth dry for some odd reason. 

“Well, I have tried, believe me I did;  but, I could never find the right one for me,” Arceus explained, reminiscing of feminas that had caught his eye over the years.

“For example, before my family was born I was quite the traveller, and during that time I met a few that were interested in me,” Arceus added. “There was this girl called Athena, we flirted for a bit, but her family was a bit… dreadful, especially her father, and even though it was rare, she did imitate his behaviour a few times, so I ended up cutting ties with her. There was also Isis, she was quite smart, but that was also her weakness, I was told she poisoned her father Ra just so that he could give her a bit of knowledge that was forbidden, so I ended rejecting any advance she made just as a precaution”.

“Well, at least you were smart, and avoided any sort of toxic relationship,” Cadence said, quite disgusted by what Arceus had told her.

“Indeed; to be honest I was more interested in one of my travelling companions. 

“You see, during my travels I came across others that were also travelling through other worlds and we stuck together for a while. There were 4 sisters in our group, triplets and a younger one; I was attracted to one of the triplets called Din, though it was more of a silly crush that never got anywhere, as I said we were mostly a bunch of strangers turned friends travelling together.” Arceus stopped remembering the shenanigans of those early days.

“Could you tell us more about your travelling group?” Faust/Golden Feather asked, just like Arceus, she wanted to reminisce about those times, even if just a little while.

Arceus just nodded at her. “Well, there was this guy who called himself The King of All Cosmos.” Arceus said in a joking tone and pose, to accompany the ridiculous title. “He was the oddball of the group, though, he was the only one with a family of his own; a wife, who was smarter than him and a baby boy who was probably too young to remember anything of our travels.”

Faust/Golden Feather giggled, “something tells me he was the king troubles.” She said, remembering the sort of silly things the king would do, and all the small problems he got the group into. It was a shame that they couldn't share their stories without the risk of blowing Faust’s identity, though she made a mental note to talk about it later with Arceus in private.

“Anyway, shortly after Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and Mew were born; I mentioned my travels and they… I was going to say asked, but it was more like begging me to take them on a tour. Fortunately I was able to reunite with my travel group, but after my children were born my taste had changed.” Arceus continued, remembering how odd it was for him to return to the group only after a short while and realising how he had changed. “By then, I didn’t find Din that attractive, I was more captivated by Nayru, another one of the triplets and Hylia, the youngues of the 4 sisters, yet arguably the most mature; but just as before, it was just a light crush, not really that important.”

“What about your world Arceus?” Cadence asked.”Did you ever have a crush on someone native to your world?”

“Well, I did find a few females from my world attractive throughout the years.” Arceus answered, tapping his chin. “There was this, Rapidash, a Milotic, a Kangaskan, a Lopunny, a Nidoqueen. There were also these three girls, called Cynthia, Phoebe and Nessa; but again these were just interests I had over the years, nothing serious.” Arceus added, a bit distracted and with a nonchalant tone.

As Arceus stopped talking about his previous crushes and love interest, Celestia let out a sight she didn’t know she was holding; there was something about hearing that Arceus had a few previous love interests over the years, though she didn’t understand why. Fortunately for her, neither Arceus or Cadence seem to notice; though Celestia wasn’t so sure if Golden Feather / Faust did, as she seemed to be looking at Celestia with interest.

Then a visibly excited Twilight entered the kitchen. “...I might be able to revisit that project for a forest of Trees of Harmony; I just need the help of Starswirl to make the seed and convince her to help grow the trees. It would be like giving her a sibling… or maybe we should help her roots extend and flourish? A forest made of one single tree like that clonal colony of quaking aspen… Nope, this whole idea is to not depend on a single tree, or well, organism of harmony, it would be better if the forest was made of individual trees rather than just being a collective.” Twilight rambled, using her telekinesis to surround herself with papers and notes; not acknowledging anyone’s presence and most likely, not even being aware where she was.

“Now, the tree chose my students as students to serve as bearers of the elements when the girls and I were trapped, so finding bearers for a new posible tree wouldn't be that hard… then again, if a new tree were to be planted it should be in Canterlot, is the capital and one of the most strategic points in Equestria after all; maybe the princesses can wield those elements like they did with the originals… maybe even the pillars can wield a new set of elements!” Twilight continued, walking passing around the kitchen, scribbling down her ideas as they came.

Arceus just watched with amusement at Twilight’s shenanigans. “So, Twilight, I assume that my daughter has taught you quite a lot about your home, right?”

“Oh, you have no idea!” Twilight exclaimed, sitting in the same chair her brother had been using not long ago. “I knew there was some sort of connection between my castle and the Tree of Harmony, but I never suspected it would be physical! Not only that, but from what Diancie told me, the tree seems to be smarter than what I thought; Diancie might be able to convince her to talk to me!”

“And let me guess,” Cadence interrupted in a joking tone. “Diance asked you to let her try alone, because you going all Twily-nanas wasn’t helping with convincing the tree.”

Twilight blushed a little, “...maybe.” Was the only thing she said, flustered, that her sister-in-law had used that expression in front of not only Celestia, but Arceus and Golden Feather; even though it was unlikely that any of them knew what it meant.

Suddenly, and with a flash of light, a very odd and lanky figure appeared above the table and right in front of Twilight. 

“Hi Twilight!” Discord exclaimed, “oh and Cadence!” He added, in a nervous tone after noticing the pink princess.

“Discord, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked, staring at the draconicus and crossing her forelegs.

“What!? Since when I can’t come and-” Discord quickly answered, quickly scanning the room, looking for something to say, and soon he found it, “and hello Celestia!” He added, with haste, turning in the direction of the princess, waving at her.

“Hi Discord,” Celestia said, waving back, curious to see what shenanigans will unfold.

“Discord,” Cadence called out with a calm yet stern tone, trying to get him to turn and see her.

He ignored her, finally noticing Golden Feather / Faust as well as Arceus. “And who you might be?” He asked, looking at Arceus with more interest.

To Discord surprise, Golden Feather / Faust spoke first. “Well, I’m the writer of a small travel column, not much else.” Her tone was a bit nervous, she knew that if anyone could discover her real identity was Discord, even if it would probably be by accident.

Arceus noticed that Golden Feather / Faust was nervous talking to Discord, and decided to intervene. “She offered to take my family on a tour across Equestria, oh and by the way, I’m Arceus, nice to meet you.”

Before Discord could say a thing, Cadence called him by his name again, her tone more severe than before, yet still remaining calm.

“Can’t you see we are talking here?” Discord asked, although rather than sounding annoyed, he appeared to be nervous, not even turning to see her.

“Mmhmm,’”Cadence answered with a sarcastic tone, staring at the back of the draconicus.

Discord just rolled his eyes at Cadence’s answer. “What?” He asked in exasperation, and still not turning to look at her.

“You know what.” Cadence answered, returning to her collected yet severe tone.

“I already told you, I’m here because I wanted to say hi to Celestia, Miss Silver and Arkeuz here.” Discord answer, finally turning to see Cadence, while awkwardly trying to find a place between the solar princess and the alpha pokemon.

“It’s Golden Feather and Arceus.” Celestia corrected, getting an annoyed look from Discord.

Cadence just stared at him, shaking her head. “Why aren’t you with Fluttershy, meeting her parents like you said you would!?” Cadence finally asked, done with the draconicus nonsense and choosing a less subtle approach.

Discord bited his lip, “W-well… eh-” He babbled for a second, trying to think of an excuse.

“Discorld, I told you that it will be fine, Fluttershy’s parents mig-HMM!” Before Cadence could finish, Discord snapped his fingers,  making a handful of cookies appear into Cadence’s mouth, taking her by surprise, and most importantly for the draconicus, silencing her.

“Excuse me, but I was talking,” Discord said in a fake tone of indignation, pretending to have been offended by Cadence's technical interruption of his babble. 

“As I was saying, I’m here because I wanted to have some fun, instead of spending the days leading to New Years with Fluttershy and her parents, who I might disturb and…” Discord stopped talking, realising that he was dangerously close to revealing his insecurities in a ramble.

“ENOUGH TALKING! LET’S HAVE SOME FUN!” Discord exclaimed, snapping his fingers multiple times.

On queue things began to change in the kitchen. The table begang to levitate; the cookies stod and rolled, getting together and forming a sort of proud-standing 2D wiggling snake; the few dishes on the table stud and began to roll around; while the cups began to spin in place, the spoons inside the cups acting like childs on a theme park ride; the tablecloth began to move around like an out of season Nightmare Night ghost costume; and the chairs all had being sitting on where replace with a baby chair for Cadence, a stone throne for Golden Feather/Faust, a sofa for Twilight and with Celestia and Arceus sharing a lying tree trunk.

Suddenly, Arceus’ ring began to shine, and with a flash of golden light, everything went back to normal. The table and everything on it returned to where it was, the chairs all changed back to their original shape; but more surprisingly, Discord found himself sitting on one of the chairs, looking at Cadence

“I apologise for interrupting your ‘fun’, but Cadence was talking with you.” Arceus said with a bit of a strict tone.

“Thank you Arceus,” Cadence said, before turning to see the confused draconicus. “Discord, if you want we can talk about this in private.”

Discord ignored her, looking at Arceus. “You know, it has been a while since I came across someone or something that could reverse the effects of  my chaotic powers so easily. ” He asked, leaving his chair and flying close to the alpha pokemon.

“Well, I had a lot of practice,” Arceus admitted in a nonchalant tone. “You don't raise a bunch of toddlers capable of moving entire mountains or bending reality without having to clean a few messes.”

Cadence then cleared her throat getting the attention of both the alpha pokemon and the spirit of chaos. Arceus nodded at her, before returning his attention to Discord. “As I said, Cadence wants to finish talking with you, so could you please?”

Discord looked at Celestia and Twilight, looking for answers regarding their surprisingly powerful companion. Twilight didn’t notice as she was frantically scribbling down something; Celestia simply made a gesture with one of her hoofs indicating him to go with Cadence.

“Alright, mister boring.” Discord said, rolling her, standing off the chair and following Cadence outside the kitchen.

“Now Discord, do you remember what I told you yesterday about meeting your partner’s parents?” Cadence asked as the two made their way out the kitchen; whatever answer Discord gave, it wasn’t heard by Arceus, Celestia, Golden Feather / Faust and Twilight as Cadence closed the door behind her.

After the 2 left, Twilight turned to look at Celestia, confused regarding what Arceus had just said about his family, Celestia just nodded at her; meanwhile while Golden Feather / Faust returned her attention back to her coofie and cookies like nothing had happened.

“So Arceus, you never told me what powers your family has.” Celestia said, getting the attention of the alpha pokemon.

“I knew I was forgetting something!” Arceus exclaimed, before remembering that neither Celestia nor Luna were happy with him for not mentioning said powers before. Arceus awkwardly scratched the back of his head, “Well I did tell you that it would be more of a demonstration, so… do you want me to get Luna?”

“Yes, please.” Celestia answered, taking a sip of her tea.

“Very well, one second please,” Arceus said with a nod, leaving his chair and making his way to the door that led to the main hall.

Once he left, Twilight quickly teleported her chair right next to Celestia. “Can his family really do all that?” Twilight whisper.

“I don’t know,” Celestia answered in her normal tone of voice. “I saw him do some interesting stuff,” she added, remembering how he trespassed the security spell at the gates of the castle garden, and the Gap in Time he had created during breakfast earlier that day. “But I’m not 100% sure.”

“Well, Diancie definitely has some interesting powers, so maybe he’s not exaggerating and just telling the truth.” Twilight reason, looking at the notes she had taken while following the gem pokemon around her castle.

Twilight then turned to look at Golden Feather / Faust, who had been happily eating her cookies and coffee, unaware of what had happened. “Do you know anything about this Miss Golden?”

“Hmm? Sorry, do I know about what exactly?” Golden Feather / Faust asked, finally bothering to know what had happened since Discord left.

“About Arceus’ and his family’s powers, do you know anything about it?” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh! Well… I did know about it, and if you ask me, you shouldn't be concerned about them.`` Golden / Faust answer in a nonchalant tone. “From what I see, Arceus is a very responsible father, and even though some of them have quite a playful personality, it seems that the same goes for his family.”

“Besides, I can undo any damage they might make.” Golden Feather / Faust thought to herself; this was her world after all, she made and she could fix any damage, or well, almost any damage.

“We are here, sister.” Luna said as she made her way into the kitchen.

Arceus then poked his head in the kitchen. “Say, is there any place where we can do a demonstration without affecting the environment?” He asked, looking at Golden Feather / Faust, almost asking for her permission.

“Well, there’s a mountain range south of her, between Equestria and the Badlands.” Golden /Faust answer, after tapping her chin for a second thinking of the right place.

“Agreed, it's so out of the way and barren that any change wouldn’t affect any living thing… if there’s anything living there.” Twilight said, showing Arceus the location of the BadLands in the same map of the continent she had scribbled on when theorising about planting new trees of harmony.

“Very well, are you four ready?” Arceus asked, turning to look behind him; whatever was standing behind him, seemed to agree as he nodded before turning back. “We are ready here.”

“Likewise,” Celestia answered with a calmed tone.

“Do you mind if I tag alone?” Golden Feather / Faust asked.

“Of course not!” Arceus answered with a joyful tone, at the same he started to shine, preparing to teleport everyone with him.
> Chapter XI: Making Things Clearer, Part IV of IV
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a flash of golden light, the group reappeared at a small valley between  mountains made of dark grey rock, with small traces of dirk, dust and sand.

Before anyone could move or say something, a strong gust of wind flew through the valley; the wind was wet yet hot at the same time, similar to the climate of an abrasive jungle, though the dirt, dust, sand and water in the wind made everyone feel like the wind was throwing mud at them.

“I don’t understand why nothing lives here, this place is lovely.” Arceus exclaimed with a sarcastic tone, removing the particles of irritating mud that were now all over his body.

Celestia just chuckled at Arceus's comment, while she, Luna, Twilight and Faust/Golden Feather helped each other get the mud out of their coats and manes.

Before they could finish, another gust of wind, this time in the opposite direction flew through the group, the air was now cold and dry, like that of a desert at night, now throwing an equally dry mix of dirt, dust and sand at the group.

“Tell me, princess Twilight.” A robotic voice called behind the group, a voice that Celestia immediately recognized as Regigigas “Is it common for tornadoes to be born here?” he asked, as the group, with the exception of Arceus, turned to see the gigantic pokemon and his kids, the regies.

“Hi Regigigas!” Celestia exclaimed while waving at the gigant.

“Greetings princess Celestia,” the gigant answered with a nod, before turning his attention back to Twilight.

Twilight just observed Regigigas with awe and a bit of fear; in her excitement with Diance she had completely ignored the giant, not even noticing him when she made her way back to the kitchen, when Regigigas could be found sitting in the main hall, getting to know Mewtwo and Deoxys. 

“W-well,” Twilight muttered, stumbling in her words. “T-there’s cold and warm wind as… well, you feel; but the mountains make sure that only a few small dusters can form in valleys like this.”

“Thank you for the information,” Regigigas said with a nod, before turning back to see the regies, who had scatter around the valley; both Registeel and Regirock were looking at the mountains that surrounded the valley, their eyes emitting light in random intervals; while Regice was touching the ground, her eyes also shining at intervals like that of her siblings.

“Report please” Regigigas said, standing behind Regice.

“Mostly sedimentary rock.” Regirock answered, before pointing to a mountain in the north. “Though there's small traces of igneous rock, and the mountain has high amounts of metamorphic rock, it is likely that it used to be a volcano at some point.”

“He’s right,” Regice said, standing to look at her father. “The groundwater here is cold, if magma was ever present here, that was long ago.”.

Regigigas stroked her head, before looking in the direction of his other daughter, Registeel. “What about you dear, anything interesting?”

“Diance would definitely hate this place, and I wouldn’t blame her.” She answered, making her way towards her father and siblings. “Compared to Canterlot and Poniville, though evidence supports that this applies to the rest of Equestria; there are no crystals here and barely any metal deposits, just some small veins of manganese, magnesium and iron.”

Regigigas pondered the information for a moment, his eyes lighting in different patterns. “Your analysis indicated that this location is unremarkable, however, there’s potential to. Any suggestions?”

The eyes of the three young regis began to shine in different patterns just as they had done before. Seeing as none of them will be talking for a while, Celestia asked Arceus something that had been at the top of her mind. “Well, they do certainly know about geology, but what exactly are they planning to do?”

“To be perfectly honest I don’t know,” Arceus answered with a joyful tone. “Despite their more machine-like manners, Regigigas, his daughters and sons are more similar to artists. The same way some artists see a piece waiting to be awakened in a blank canvas or a piece of stone; my son and grandchildren see stonish and unique landscapes where most just see a piece of land.”

“Machine artists? That sounds a bit contradictory.” Surprisingly it wasn’t Twilight who said that, but Faust/Golden Feather. She found the idea a bit weird, and wanted to know how Arceus had come up with something like that.

“At first glance it does,” Arceus said, turning to see his disguised friend. “But, making beautiful landscapes it’s about an art and a science; an artist is needed to imagine the space, a machine is needed to calculate how to achieve it, and both are needed to make it a reality.”

“Wait, so they are calculating…? Twilight asked, though struggling to find the right word to describe what the regis were doing.

“Everything? Yep,” Arceus answered in a calm tone, juxtaposing the visible excitement in Twilight’s eyes. “The effects of whatever they are planning to make in the environment, how it will change the climate, the flora and even fauna, how to make natural formations as complex as cathedrals, how it would look in thousands of years because of the effects of water, storms, landslides. Everything you can think of and more is being calculated by their minds”.

“So where did you get the idea?” Faust/Golden Feather asked, her curiosity regarding this odd concept of machine artists isn’t satisfied.

“It was before I met yo- my travelling group.” Arceus answered, again almost making a mistake regarding Golden Feather’s true identity. He was used to talking about this sort of creating matters with her, and it was kind of hard to ignore the habit.

“I went to this world that was honestly dreadful, as it had been conquered years prior and it was still recovering. However, hidden away underground was this laboratory run by a living machine named GLaDOS. She had some sick tendencies that matched her world, however she also had some sort of interest in art, particularly music and cooking. She wrote a few songs and even an opera and had an odd interest in cakes. She left a bit of an impression on me and the idea of a living machine artist stuck with me.” Arceus explained.

“So basically you took inspiration from a maniac machine living in a bunker with artistic tendencies.” Faust/Golden Feather commented, just like Arceus, her comment had come out of old habit, as the two at times would banter about what had inspired the other. 

“Yep,” Arceus answered in a nonchalant tone.

Hearing that, Celestia cleared her throat quite loudly, getting the attention of both Arceus and Faust/Golden Feather. Glaring at Arceus when they turn to see her. 

“Don’t worry Celestia, making maniacs isn’t my thing. With the exceptions of a few ‘wanna be comedians` my family is generally very calm.” Arceus said in an assuring tone trying to calm Celestia’s well justified concerns after he recognized that some of his inspiration had come from a ‘not so sane’ character. Though the chuckle he had to hold down after referring to the more playful and joke-loving members of his family, many attempts of being comedians seemed to have been more assuring to the princess.

“Father.” Regigagas called, getting the attention of the group.

“Yes?” Arceus asked, turning to see the creature that was taller than him.

“Could you please take the others to the north-west side,” Regigagias explained, pointing at the mountains in front left of the group, the picks that separated the valley from Equestria. 

Arceus modded, turning to see his companions, “It’s show time.” He said in a joking tone, moving aside, letting the ladies -or well, hidden goddess and princess- go first, with him following behind.

As Arceus walked next to Regigigas he stopped to look at his son. “Should I put up a shield?” He asked, normally he wouldn't take that sort of precaution when seeing his kid and grandkids work on landscapes, but he wanted to make sure Celestia, Luna and Twilight would be safe.

“Our plans won't affect or send any debris to where you and the others will be standing. Though our work might result in a small cloud of dirt and sand.” Regigigas assured his father. He and his kids made the calculations with care and most importantly precision.

Arceus nodded. “Very well.” Before making his way to where Celestia and the others were standing.

“So, what exactly are they planning to do?” Twilight asked, styling trying to figure out exactly what Regigigas and his kids were planning to do.

“Don’t know.” Arceus answered with a playful tone. When all three princesses and Faust/Golden Feather turn to look at him, Arceus just shrugged. “As I told you before, that part of their ‘artistic skills’ is the element of surprise, So what’s the point of spoiling the surprise?” He added in the same playful tone.

“Good point.” Celestia answered, imitating Arceus’ tone. Getting a chuckle out of the legendary, and causing Luna to roll her eyes with a smile at the antics of her sister.

Suddenly, Regigigas emitted a metallic ground that was heard all across the valley. This took the entire group, including Arceus and Golden Feather/Faust by surprise. They all turn to look in front of them, to the rather underwhelming, and honestly pathetic, sight of Regigigas pushing against one of the many rock peaks that surrounded the valley.

“Eh… excuse us Arceus, what is thy son trying to achieve, exactly?” Luna asked, her eyes shifting between looking at Arceus and Regigigas.

“Is he… trying to move that mountain?” Twilight asked, with the same confusion as Luna.

Arceus just looked confused, or at least tried to look confused. “No idea, I have never seen him do that.” He was lying, a bit of an act to keep the surprise factor; something that with the exception of Faust/Golden Feather, all seem to believe.

“Maybe… he’s…” Celestia trailed off, trying to figure out what to say.

Sudety, just as before, the group was taken by surprise. This time by a loud thunder-like sound and what felt like an earthquake, They all turned to the source of the sound, all but Arceus, who instead turned to look at his companions for their reactions.

The three princesses and the covert goddess were greeted by the sight of Regigigas pushing the mountain he had once struggled against. The ‘thunder’ they heard was the mountain being torn off its rocky foundation as the legendary began pushing it to the east, creating a small corridor between mountains that led to the Badlands. 

At some point the mountain Regigigas was moving seemed to have been stopped by the mountains on its path. However, soon another thunder, this one laughter than the previous one was heard. The mountain began to move again, this time pushing the other mountains, making the half of the south ‘wall’ of the valley shift to the east. Though, was even more impressive for all with every second Regigigas seemed to put less and less effort into moving the mountains, like his force was crowing incrementally.

All three princesses were out of words, not even the stoic mind of Luna, or the inquisitive mind of Twilight seem to be able to form a coherent thought. Even Fauts/Golden Feather was struggling to keep her mouth closed. However, Arceus' attention was directed to Celestia’s reaction. Unlike the others, Arceus noticed a smark of amazement in Celestia’s eyes, she seemed oddly happy.

Whatever it was, it was contagious, as Arceus began to laugh. “He’s a bit of a slow starter, but once my son gets going, nothing can stop him.” Arceus exclaimed a bit triumphantly, feeling quite proud of Regigigas. Who, upon hearing his dad turn to look at the others, removing his left hand to give them a thumbs up. A gesture only Twilight, Faust/Golden Feather and Arceus recognize the meaning of.

“That was…” Celestia said, thinking Regigigas was done, but she was interrupted by Arceus.

“Sorry for interrupting, but he’s not done.” Arceus said, pointing back at Regigigas. Who had made his way across the mountain corridor he had created and was now pushing the other half of the south ‘wall’ of mountains to the west. Unlike last time, Regigigas was able to move all the mountains instead of starting with just one. He also seemed to need less effort to do such a titanic task, looking more like he was pushing a shopping cart.

After less than a second, Regigigas stopped. He looked around for a second, judging how wide the corridor between mountains had grown. He then pushed the west group a bit more before pulling the east group closer. After that he nodded, satisfied with how it looked, before making his way to where his kids had been standing.

All three Regis moved aside, letting their dad confront the most east mountain. Regigigas looked at Regirock and nodded, who then returned the gesture. Regirock then extended his arm and pointed at the mountain in front of them. 

Wherever he pointed the rock seemed to crack. Soon the cracks form the outline of a dome in the side of the mountain. Regirock then pointed at the rocky ground that surrounded him, his sister and father. With the sand and dirt sinking into the outline marked by the cracks.

All four stepped out of the outline. Regigigas then graved the mountain with one of his hands and the ground with the other. Despite the awkward angle Regigigas was able to yank the entire marked segment of the mountain and ground as if they were a single piece. Creating in the proces a small cavern in the side of the mountain and a relatively medium sized oval crater that extended to the inside of the cavern.

Regigigas then carried the massive chunk of stone over his head, with a groan he tossed against the northern mountain that according to Regirock’s analysis, used to be a volcano. The rock chunk smashed against the peak of the ex-volcano, causing chunks of rock of all sizes to fall all around the valley as well as a landslide.

Despite his assurances that it wasn't necessary, Arceus ended up putting a shield around him and the group. However it proved to be unnecessary as not even a small boulder landed close to them, though the princesses still seem to appreciate the gesture.

After the dust and sand the rocks had created when slamming into the ground settled. The group was welcomed by the sight of Regice, who seemed to have been waiting for the dust to settle. She then raised her arms slowly, as she did so the ground began to shake. Suddenly at the center of the newly created cavern a massive chunk of ice, that had the same pentagonal shape and pointing end as Regice’s body, rose to the surface. Looking as if it had crashed through the hard rock ground.

Regice then lowered her arms, the ice chunk smashing against the ground. She then moved her arms, the ice moving at the same time, cutting through the rock and making a canal. As the ice moved, water began to pull out from the hole the ice had created and began to fill the crater and the canal.

As she continued moving Regice made it slowly turn to the corridor between the mountains her dad had created. The ice continued to move, making it to the Badlands, pushing through the sand for a few seconds before stopping. Regice spun one of her hands, as she did so, the ice began to spin, digging another hole.

After a few seconds Regice stopped, content with the dimensions of the hole she had created in the sand. As she lowered her hand, the ice seemed to lose all integrity quickly melting, creating a small oasis, though lacking flora.

Registeel stepped forward. Just as her sister she raised her hands, her palms upwards, like she was summoning something. The entire valley began to vibrate, not shake, but vibrate. A fine rock dust fell from both the monaints faces and the smashed rocks around the valley. The dust left the aforementioned  small deposits and veins of manganese, magnesium and iron shining like glitter.

“Ta-dah!” Arceus exclaimed when it seemed clear that his son and grandkids were done. Just as before his tone was lightly playful, and this time he also shook one of his forehooves to give the ‘spectacle’ a bit more emphasis.

For a second all four of Arceus’ companions were silent. Processing how in a few minutes they have seen a basically death monotonous valley transform into a spectacle, true there wasn’t any flora to speak of, but still what the four 'machine-artists’ had achieved was incredible.

“That was incredible!” Celestia finally exclaimed. Finally getting to say the words that had been stuck in her throat since she saw Regigigas move the mountains.

“We agree. That was quite the marvellous feat of strength and talent.” Luna said, her tone not as monotonous as normal. 

Twilight didn’t say a thing, she was just begging to go towards the four Regis. Her mind is full of questions as well as a scientific desire to run numerous tests to determine the strength of the Regigigas and the extent of the abilities of his kids.

Celestia then cleared her throat, seeming to remember why they had come here to begin with. “Well, as impressive as the demonstration was. It has given me some concerns regarding your family vacation in Equestria.”

“Well, we came here so that you could see my family’s abilities.” Arceus answered in a worried yet compressive tone. “So, what changes do you wish to make to our agreement?”

Celesita remained silent for a moment. Despite the background noise of Twilight’s begs to the Regi family to run some test and the still cold wind flowing through the transformed valley, her mind remained concentrated on the issue at hoof.

“Excuse us Tia.” Celestia was pulled out of her thoughts by the voice of her sister. “Could we speak with thou for a minute?”

Celestia nodded, the two sisters finding a private spot to talk. In the meantime Faust/Golden Feather addressed Arceus in regards to a concern with how the corridor had created a ‘hole’ in the natural frontier between Equestria and the Badlands.

“So, what art thou thinking of doing, in regards to Arceus’ family?” Luna asked.

“Well, with how little guards we have at our disposal because of the Hearth’s Warming and New Years break. We have to be smart about it.” Celestia answered. Already thinking of,  and discarding possible solutions for the conundrum they found themself in.

“Not that it would be pragmatic to deploy a large number of guards to, as they say, ‘keep an eye’ on them during their visit.” Luna added.

“Yep,” Celestia said with a nood. “There's also the issue that Arceus didn’t seem to be acting out of malice.”

“He did hide the extent of his family's abilities to the both of us.” Luna retorted, a bit confused.

“Did he?” Celestia asked. “He has been so nonchalant with his family's abilities, and so willing to explain. I think it's less that he’s keeping it as a secret and more that for him this is normal. Remember how open he was about the properties of his world’s food in the morning?”

Luna nodded. Remembering the rather rambely explanation Arceus gave her regarding the berries abilities to treat several ills, and the intellect busting abilities of gummies.   

“Maybe pokemons moving mountains in his world is as normal as a pegasus moving clouds.” Celestia explained.

“Or maybe, it is as rare as a pony rising both the moon and sun.” Luna retorted. “Sister, art thou sure thou art not giving Arceus preferential treatment?”

Celestia began to feel a bit flustered, though she didn’t know why.  “Why would I do that?” She asked, trying to move her scarf to cover her reddening cheeks Only to realise that with the teleportation, she and the others had left what little winter clothes they brought.  

“That we do not know, however, we have noticed that thou have been a bit distracted since he arrived.” Luna answered.

Celestia didn’t answer immediately. Luna was right, just that morning Arceus had distracted her enough to result in a late rising of the sun. Besides crises like Nightmare Moon or the kidnappings she had suffered, that had never happened. Even during the small holidays she gave herself, she had always raisined the sun in time. It was part of herself, her brain and even the sun will nag her to do so. She couldn't even oversleep without the sun waking her up, pulling at her magic, asking just to please let it out, telling Celestia she could go back to sleep again afterwards. And yet, Arceus had made her ignore all of that, she didn’t even register the sun pleas until she stopped talking with Arceus.

“You’re right.” Celestia answered. “Arceus has been distracting me.”

Luna nodded, hiding a small cheeky smile. She might be above teasing Celestia, but as the little sister she couldn’t avoid feeling extremely happy whenever Celestia adminited that Luna was right and she was wrong. 

“Very well. We were thinking of assigning six guards to shadow Arceus’ family.” Luna said with confidence now that Celestia admitted that she had a point.

“Four, two of my solar guards and two of your night guards. And follow them with their knowledge. Arceus has been very cooperative, I don’t want any shady business.” Celestia argued back.

“Five, and the idea of the ‘shady business’ as thou call it. Is so that they can not easily stop any vital information from getting to the both of us.” Luna answered, her tone severe, though also mocking her sister’s tone when talking about spying Arceus’ family.

“I’m not going to spy on the family of a friend.” Celestia answers back.

“As if thou did not do the same with Twilight, or during the days of S.M.I.L.E.” Luna retorted, annoyed with her sister's apparent hypocrisy.

“For the billionth time Luna. S.M.I.L.E. never spied any pony! It was an agency to hunt down magic creatures, why would it need to spy on ponies!?” Celestia answered exasperated. She and Luna already had this conversation several times, and yet Luna couldn't let it go. “Besides you help me keep an eye on Twilight, miss dream invader.”

Luna just let out an annoyed snort. She knew that she and her sister knew exactly how to rebuttal each other's arguments, so there was no point in initiating a stalemate.

“How about we meet at the middle ground?” Celestia asked, already noticing that Luna had also become a bit annoyed. Wanting to deescalate the situation because she knew that Luna had a point.

“What art thou suggesting, sister?” Luna asked.

“Simple. My guards will send a report of the things Arceus’ family did that day at sunset. And yours will send a report at sunrise in case something happens at night.” Celestia answered, a bit proud of her plan.

Luna, however, didn't seem to find the plan as brilliant as her sister. “Though we admire the brilliance of Equestria’s mail system and infrastructure, we world prefer a more express means of getting said reports.”

“Agree,” Celestia said with a nood, her sister’s concerns already accounted for in her plan. “One of my guards will be a unicorn, one that I will teach a similar magic to what Spike uses to send me letters. That way if something were to happen, we’ll know right away.”

“And what if something were to happen to that unicorn?” Luna asked, still not convinced by Celestia’s plan.

“Well, I could send two unicorns instead of one, the castle would be a bit short but a bit short of unicorns but we can step up and take care of it. Besides, you can also use the dream land to get some extra information.” Celestia added, already thinking of who to send. She couldn't just send the Gold Spear and Night Star. Cadence would get incredibly mad if she found out her anty got in the way of a blossoming relationship by putting them in different attention intensive shifts.

Luna remained silent for a moment. “We accept thy suggestion sister, under one condition.”

“And that is?”

“We do not wish to risk another of our nieces tiredes, as such, please do not send Gold Spear or Night Star as part of the vigilance teams.” Luna said with a bit of distaste. She might have grown to love Cadence as much as Celestia did, but her rants about love could be as headache-inducing as Flurry Heart’s tantrums.

“Already accounted for that.” Celestia answered with a chuckle.

“Then, we suppose it will be wise to inform Arceus of the changes to his family’s vacation.” Luna answered. 

The two sisters turned in the direction of the corridor to the Badlands, where the others had been standing, only to find it completely blocked by a bunch of rocks.      

A bit hesitant, the royal sister made their way to Arceus, who was talking with Faust/Golden Feather. 

“Uh oh.” Faust/Golden Feather said, noticing the princess walking towards her and Arceus. “I think you are in trouble.”

Arceus looked at the two before turning back his attention to his friend. “That seems to be the case.”

“Arceus, do you think we can talk with you in private?” Celestia asked, after reaching him.

“Yes, of course.” Arceus answered. “Faust, do you mind? He asked, making a gesture with his head to indicate if she could go.

“Oh, yeah no problem.” Faust/Golden Feather answer, walking away.

“Excuse us Arceus, what happened to the corridor thy son had created?” Luna asked.

“Well, Faust explained that there wasn’t supposed to be any easy way to travel between Equestria and the Badlands.” Arceus answered, turning to see his friend. “Though as always, they accounted for that. My grandson Regirock basically commanded the rocks to form an avalanche and block the corridor. With the exception of the water to the small oasis, nothing should be able to get through there.”

Luna and Celesitis exchanged glances for a second, did they really not hear an avalanche while discussing their plants?

“Well, that wasn’t all we wanted to talk about with you.” Celestia said, ignoring her concerns for now.

“After what thou demonstrated today, we have developed certain concerns regarding thy families proxese.” Luna chained in.

Hearing that Arceus began to look worried, something that Celestia caught and oddly began to feel uncomfortable because of. “I-its not because we don’t trust you or your family, but Luna and I have to protect our little ponies. We only want to send a few guards so that they might keep us updated.”

Just like Celestia, Arceus began to feel uncomfortable seeing the solar princess like that. “Is ok Celestia, I understand.” He said, in a soft voice, putting his right foreleg on her elbow, calming her down a bit.

“Irs just, I feel like you have been very open about all this, and well. I didn’t want to offend you or betray the trust you have put in me.” Celstia answered.

It was now the time for Arceus to feel bad. His so-called honesty was mostly by accident, not used to keeping secrets had left him to almost reveal Faust's true identity as a goddess, and subsequently his as a god. It didn’t feel right to keep things from Celestia when she was getting this worked up over his apparent trust in her.

Arceus bit his lip. “Don’t worry about it Celestia, I don’t feel offended, if anything I’m honoured that you are putting so much consideration on me.”

He answered, the back of his mind nagging him to tell her about his godhood, but in doing so he would betray Faust’s trust. Though that didn’t seem to matter as much as the inexplicable fear he felt in regards to how Celestia would perceive him if he told her. So, even though it felt wrong he decided to keep the secret, for now at least.

“Well, then we shall make preparations to send guards to accompany your family.” Luna chained in, distracting both Arceus and Celestia. “Now, Arceus could thou please teleport us back to Twilight’s castle to make the required preparations?”

“Oh, of course.” Arceus answered, glad that Luna had distracted his troubled mind. He turned to see his son and grandkids. “Hey! We are going back to the castle, are you ready?.”

All four Regis answer with flash patterns thought their eyes, at the same time Twilight and Faust/Golden feather walk to where Celestia and Luna were standing. 

“They are ready to go.” Arceus answered, turning to see the ponies, who nodded at him.

Arceus’ body them admitted the same he used to teleport the group, and in an instance, they found themself back at Twilight’s kitchen, with the regis ending outside in the massive main hall as to not damage anything with their size.

“Well, that was certainly illuminating.” Twilight answered, looking at her notes. “I still need to run some tests with the regies, but I definitely want to see what the rest of your family can do.”

Arceus just looked at Twilight, smiling as he had noticed something that had flown over the head of the researcher turned princess. “Before you do so, I think Diancie wants to introduce you to someone.”

“Huh?” Twilight asked, looking over her notes. Only to be received by the sight of  the legendary pokemon sitting next to a ghostly and somewhat stiff yet sparleyly version of herself.

“Hi, Twilight.” Diancie said with excitement. “This is… well, your castle and the tree of harmony.”

Twilight left all her things falling to the floor, flying almost as fast as Rainbow Dash. “Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!” It’s you!” Twilight exclaimed, her nose would have touched that of the spirit of the tree and her home if it wasn’t because the spirit didn’t have any sort of physical presence.

“Greetings, princess Twilight Sparkle, elements of magic.” The spirit said, not even blinking or showing discomfort at how close Twilight was to her face.

“Thou should probably keep an eye on Twight sister. We will start to send the orders to bring Arceus’ family scort.” Luna said, fascinated by the apparition with feeling concern for her.

“Good idea.” Celestia answered before walking to her old apprentice. “Twilight, let the poor girl breathe.” She added, sitting on the floor next to Twilight.

“Greetings princess Celestia, old bearer of generosity, kindness and magic.” The spirit said as Celestia made herself comfortable on the floor.   

Faust/Golden Spear smiled at the display.

“Can we call later at night?” Arceus asked, whispering in her ear.

“Yes, of course.” Faust answered, getting a smile out of her old friend. Who seemed to be a bit distressed.

“Excuse me, miss. But what's your name?” Arceus asked, sitting next to Celestia.

“Greetings lord Arceus. Your daughter Diancie told me about you.” The spirit said, looking at Arceus, whether it was of interest or other thing, Arceus couldn't tell as she remained inexpressive, not even blinking.

“She doesn’t have a name.” Diancie explained.

“I have not had the need for such a thing, but if you wish, you can refer to me as Tree of Harmony or Twilight’s castle.” The spirit answered.

“Well, how do you feel about Harmony as a name?” Celestia asked, fascinated by the spirit.

“It does sound adequate.” The spirit answered, her tone sounding thoughtful rather than monotonous for a change.
> Chapter XII: Catching Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faust peaked her head into the room where Shining Armour and Cadence were staying, though she wasn’t interested in the married couple, but rather their daughter. Despite Flurry being clearly exhausted by all the fun she had chasing her animated plushie, Faust wanted to make sure she, and by extension her parents, didn’t wake up. Arceus had asked her to talk in the privacy of the deep hours of the night, so she would rather make sure to avoid any accidental eavesdropping; well at least eavesdropping of the pony variety, as she didn’t saw the point of doing the same with Arceus’ family.

Conjuring her authority over the world as its creator, making her entire body shine in a golden light, she ordered their bodies and minds to remain asleep until past 10:00 am. This sort of heavy authoritative approach wasn’t something she particularly liked, but she decided to make an exception for Arceus (even though he never asked her to do it); still she at least tried to make sure each group woke up at different hours. With Celestia getting to sleep until 6:00 am; while Twilight and Spike would sleep until 9:00; with Luna, and the boards the princesses had brought along as escort, were ordered to stay asleep until 11:00 am, give or take a few minutes. 

“I mean, I’m technically doing them a favour. Cadence and Shining probably haven’t had a sleep like this since Flurry was born.” Faust thought to herself as she made her way to the room where Arceus was staying, trying to find a good side to what she had done.

Arriving at the door Faust didn’t have time to knock before Arceus opened it. “You are late.” Arceus said, holding the clock that was at his bedside, marking 4:00 am. Though despite the late hour she wasn’t late, it was the time they had agreed on. Arceus' tone was also playful, as if trying to imitate the tone of a parent whose child had arrived late because they had gone to a party.

“Sorry dad, I had to take care of something to make sure we weren’t interrupted.” Faust answered as she walked beside him and into the room, her tone imitating an annoyed teen.

Both snickered at their little game of pretend. “You can sit in there, also I made you some tea.” Arceus explained pointing at a small table being flanked by two chairs, with two mugs on it, one with vapour coming out of it the other apparently cold.

Taking a sip of her tea before sitting down Faust made a face of disgust accompanied by a guttural sound of distaste. “This is so bitter, did you put any sugar in it?” 

“Yes, two sugarcubes.” Arceus answered confused, taking the mug on his telekinesis to look at its content.

“Ah! That’s the issue,” Faust exclaimed before materialising two more sugar cubes. “I like my tea with four,” she explained as she dropped the extra cubes on the mug.

Arceus lightly shook his head. “You and your sugary nonsense, last time I saw you, you told me you wanted to stop eating so much of that thing”.

“And I did, before I took my tea with five cubes”. Faust answered, with both a smug tone and smile on her face.

Arceus just chuckles at his friend's nonsense, while at the same time both sat in front of each other. In a way it was a bit of a hilarious scene. The small size of the table and of Faust’s disguise form compared to Arceus, made it look as if Arceus was a father awkwardly trying to sit in his daughter’s kid chair for a tea party. 

“So how are my kids doing?” Arceus asked blandly.

“Didn’t you ask them that already? Besides, you didn’t see them for less than a day and we barely travelled anywhere, nothing really happened.” Faust replayed, with a confused tone.

“First it was more than a day, it was some 26 ish hours,” Arceus paused to take a sip of water from his mug. “Second, can you blame me for wanting to make sure they are 100% ok?”

Faust sight before smiling at Arceus. “Good to see you haven’t changed old friend, still the old worried dad I knew, or at least the one you became after your kids were born.” 

“Well, the time I spent showing them Canterlot they seem to be doing alright. They were a bit distracted though, but I don’t blame them. I suppose that like you they enjoy wilderness and rural areas more, and Canterlot being on a mountain has amazing sights to look at and get distracted by Equestria’s many villages, towns, forests and so much more.” Faust stopped to take a sip of her tea.

“In the end of the day, and after many pleas from Diancie to come, I decided that it would be best to take them to Ponyville. Besides Twilight's castle and school there isn’t much to see here.” Faust stopped for a second, before shaking her head. “Nah, that wouldn't be a good idea.”

“What?” Arceus asked intrigued.

“Well there’s the Everfree Forest and the ruins of Celestia and Luna’s old castle, but I would rather your family don’t go there.” Faust answered with quite a sharp tone. 

Before Arceus could ask why, she continued. “The ruins are inside the Everfree, and not only is that place relatively dangerous, it is also packed with powerful magic creatures. And I would rather not have your kids fight a pack of Timberwolves, an Ursa Major or the adult green dragon that lives in the Everfree. Especially since the forest is close to Ponyville.”

“Alright, no Everfree.” Despite finding her tone and attitude a bit rude, Arceus answered calmly, after all, he understood why Faust had such a defensive attitude towards her own world and creations. That being said, he wanted to get back at her with a bit of teasing. 

“So, Timberwolves and Ursa Major, eh?” He asked with a soft mocking tone. “I’m gonna bet one is a collection of sticks in the form of a wolf, and the other is a very big bear.”

Faust puffed her cheeks and looked away from his friend, trying to hide her blush. “Yes, you know me and my weakness for puns.”

Arceus snickered, happy that he had succeeded at teasing his friend. With that out of the way he decided to get their conversation back to his family, though not before giving Faust a small victory. “If it makes you feel better, one of the creatures I created is a massive bee with drills for hands, and the species name is beedrill.”

Faust turned to look at him, with a childish smile on her face. “What can I say, your puns kind of got to me.” Arceus added, making her chuckle.

“I knew they would get into your thick head,” Faust chuckled.  

Arceus lightly shaked his head, with a small smile on his face. “Now can we please get back to my kids and your plans for their tour?”

“Ah, yes of course!” Faust answered, almost taken off guard. “Well, even though I would have preferred not to, stumbling onto Twilight might be a blessing. Ponyville is located right in the middle of Equestria, so we can either teleport or take the train to anywhere from here. Plus using Twilight’s castle as a hotel will be good for keeping my identity a secret”.

“Why is that?” Arceus asked after taking a sip of water.

“Well, as a goddess I might be able to create a sack of bits from nothing. But Golden Feather is supposed to be a columnist for the Canterlot Chronicle, so it will be more than suspicious for her to have enough money to pay for hotel rooms for more than 50 pokemon disguised as ponies. I mean, why do you think I asked Palkia to teleport us to Ponyville? I wasn’t going to waste what little money I’m supposed to have with such a short train ride.” She replied, her tone a bit sarcastic to mock the fact that Arceus hadn't thought of that.

“Oh, well, yeah… I suppose that makes sense.” Arceus was a bit flustered, feeling a bit silly he had overlooked such an obvious detail.

“It’s ok, you are just a bit distracted.” Faust said with a playful tone, her expression changing as the last world that left her mouth made her remember something. “By the way, I just remembered that Dialga is acting a bit distracted, like something back in your world is bothering him. Do you have any idea as to why?”

“No, I mean I noticed that he was acting a bit distracted.” Arceus answered, remembering that when he had called his family to the Hall of Legends, he had noticed that something was apparently bothering his son. “Maybe if he could travel back to my world to check on whatever is bothering him, he might be less distracted.”

“Good idea, if you want we can talk with him and open a portal back to your world. You know I love your son and I want him to enjoy his stay in my world so whatever helps him is ok with me.” Faust said, her mind flooded with memories of when Arceus introduced the recently born Mew, Giratina, Palkia and Dialga to her.

“Thank you Faust, that means a lot.” Arceus replied, his friend however didn’t say a thing, instead she stared at her tea, a melancholic expression on her face. 

Arceus quickly noticed her mood changed. “Faust, is everything alright?” He asked, moving to try to get a better look at her face.

“What? Oh yes!...” She replied after taking a second to return to the present. “Sorry, I just got trapped in my memories for a second.”
Arceus didn’t believe her, however, he realised that whatever was bothering her, it would be better to wait for Faust to tell him about it rather than pushing her. “By the way, I’m really enjoying my visit, you did an amazing job building Equestria”.

Hearing that, Faust's mood seemed to improve, turning to see Arceus with a small smile on her face. “Thanks, but I doubt you have seen much.”

“True, but what little I saw has impressed me.” Arceus repaid, not looking at her but instead taking a sip of water with his eyes closed before continuing. “Canterlot seems like a decent place to live, though as you said, I think I prefer Ponyville, it’s definitely more cosy. Not to mention the landscape I got to see while travelling on the train.”

“Thank you, but I can only take credit for the landscape, and not all of it. Besides influencing or taking special care of some key elements, I mostly left my little ponies to do things naturally.” She answered, the smile on her face getting bigger.

“And, judging by the fact you wanted to avoid her. I suppose Twilight was one of those elements you took personal care of?” Arceus asked, intrigued as to what his friend had planned for the owner of the castle.

“Yep!” Faust answered with an energetic nod.  “She, her friends, technically their families, Celestia and Luna, as well as a good part of Ponyville. Were things I crafted myself!” Suddenly, just as before, she seemed to remember something. “I mean, not everything has gone as I planned, but those are minor details. You know how this is, things progress in such a way you have to sort of change some parts of your ideas for the future.”

Hearing his friend’s words, Arceus' own memories of how ‘things haven’t gone as planned’ in his world began to emerge. Trying to not think about the pain his family, pokémons and him had gone through, his mind searched for a distraction. And to Arceus' surprise, he found it relatively quickly. It was Celestia, thinking of the princess helped Arceus calm down.

“Yes, I suppose so.” Arceus said, answering a bit absentmindedly Faust’s rhetorical question. “By the way, I have to congratulate you about Celestia, she’s well… a very enjoyable pony to be around.” Arceus added, his mind struggling to find the proper words to describe her, and feeling a bit weird about congratulating Faust for her ‘work’ making Celestia, even though not a second ago he had done the same about Equestria’s landscape.

“Thank you, though like with everything, Celestia grew and changed in different ways to what I had planned. You could say she’s more like my daughter than my pure creation. Just like a kid she evolved to become her own pony.” Faust’s tone made it clear she was proud of what Celestia had become. 

“By the way, I’m glad to know you are enjoying your stay with the princesses.” She added, before taking a sip of her tea, after noticing that it was starting to get cold.

“You could say so.” Arceus replaid, his mind going back to the incident his first night in the castle, when he accidentally stared at Celestia’s rear. Feeling his face heat, he looked away, trying to hide his blushing face from his friend. Not that he needed to do that, as Faust was more focused on manipulating reality to reheat her tea.

“You know,” Faust said, before blowing on her tea. “As much as I love living among my little ponies, I kind of missed talking with a fellow creator.”

Arceus was confused, and kind of taken back by what he had just heard. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember you telling me you wanted to invite young creators to see your world. What happened to that?”

“I did, it’s just that, well, eh-” Faust interrupted herself with a bleh, while trying to get her ideas in order. 

“Look, I misspoke. I have invited several creators to my world, I even let them create replicas of my world to get a chance to practise creating things.” She explained, now that her ideas were better organised. “And let me tell you, they have done amazing things. Some of the replicas have been relatively simple, others completely wild and almost unrecognisable to my own work. Not to mention that the few times I have travelled to new worlds, I have been able to identify little details that trace back to my own work.”

Faust seemed to stop, but before Arceus could say anything, she smelled the table. “Hay! One time I even let Zeus come visit!… Or well he tricked me into letting him in.”

“Wait what!? How!?” Arceus asked in absolute confusion, he didn’t even register that Faust had used ‘hay’ instead of heck.

“The clown used a different name! That’s how!” She explained, resisting the urge of hiding her face out of embarrassment at the memory of falling for such a basic trick. 

“Apparently the Hellenics, you know his and his pantheon followers, were conquered by a people called the womans?” She stopped for a second, trying to remember the name of the conquerors. “Gomans? Tomans? Troyans?  Romans? Yes! They were conquered by the Romans!”

Faust took a quick sip of her tea, only to regret it, she needed something cold and refreshing. “Anyway, these roman people adopted the hellenic cult, not before changing a few of the names. And when Zeus showed up he used the new name they gave him, Saturn.” Faust continued, saying Zeus’ new name with a mocking tone.

“And how much damage did he do?” Arceus asked, intrigued by what mess the annoying god of lighting had done.

“Fortunately, nothing, well besides making me age a few centuries.” Faust answered, a bit more calmly but definitely still annoyed about the memorie. “Since I thought he was a new creator looking for inspiration and advice, I put up some power limiters when creating the portal.”

“Power limiters?” Arceus asked with concern in his voice, looking directly at his friends’ eyes.

“Don’t worry Arceus, I didn’t put any up when I let you open a portal here. I know and trust you as well as your family.” Faust explained, noticing his friends' justifiable concerns. “Besides the limiters I put are relatively weak, an experienced and patient creator can break them. Perfect for keeping novice creators and reckless ones, like Zeus, under control.”

“Very well, and thank you.” Arceus replied, his composure and nerves relaxing. “Wait, if you had a way to keep him under control, how did Zeus manage to get to your nerves?”

“Simple,” she answered. “Even though Zeus didn’t have access to most of his powers, he could still be a problem. So I basically had to babysit him for the week or so that he stayed here.”

“Ouch!” Arceus exclaimed almost out of instinct. His mind cringing at the mere idea of such a painful task.

“Yes, it was horrible!” Faust said, while dragging down her forehooves across her face. “It was like taking care of a toddler with a knife while I only had a leash! You have no idea how thankful I was when he got bored and decided to go away. I spent almost two weeks in bed resting after that nonsense”.

“I think it is fair to say that was the worst visit you ever received.” Arceus said with a somewhat playful tone, as bad it had been, he was certain Faust now found the whole situation a bit hilarious. Yet, as he took a sip of water he noticed that his friend’s expression had changed back to a melancholic one.

“Faust, seriously, is something bothering you?” Arceus asked, extending a hoof both physically and metaphorically to her.

“No I’m-” She interrupted herself with a sigh. “To be honest, there is something… and I think I would rather tell you than keep holding it back.”

For a second she reached for Arceus’ hoof, but she ended up going back at the last second. Instead she stood up and opened a portal to the exterior, probably some local park by the look of things.

“Could we talk about it outside?” She asked not to look at Arceus. Yet he managed to catch a glimpse of her eyes, eyes that were clearly holding back tears.

“Yes, of course!” Arceus exclaimed while jumping out of his seat, quickly joining her at the other side of the portal before it closed behind them.

The place was indeed a local park, indicated by a cobble path illuminated by lampposts, with the silhouette of Twilight's castle not far away. Faust however didn’t follow the path, instead she began to walk in the grass covered in what little snow remained. Arceus walked next to her, but remained just a little behind her to more easily follow Fausts’ apparent aimless walking.

“You remember earlier, when you mentioned our old travel group. You know the ‘Royals of all cosmos’ and the ‘Four golden sisters’? Faust asked, not turning to look at Arceus, yet neither putting any attention to where she was waking.

“Yes…” Arceus replayed a bit confused, noticing that his friend was walking in circles as they made their way back to the cobble path. “Did anything happen to them?”

Faust seemed to shake when hearing that, yet she continued walking. “The royals are okay. I’ve visited them a few times, well, I technically have only seen the queen and their-”She stopped talking for a moment after almost walking into one of the lampposts, apparently while she was walking in circles, the size of said circles was decreasing. “-younger kids. Every time I’ve been to their world, the king and their first kid, the prince, are busy with something they call kata - mari? I don’t know exactly what it is, I just know that the kids and the king ask me to keep it a secret.”

Hearing her explanation, Arceus realised that the thing bothering Faust was the ‘four golden sisters’. The old triplets Din, Farore, Nayru; and their younger sister Hylia. He was about to ask what had happened to them, when Faust froze.

“Faust… we can stop if you want to.” Arceus said, putting his right forehoof on her back, trying to offer some comfort.

She instead shocked her head and continued to walk in circles, resembling more a blind animal trying to find light than the creator of a world. “Do you remember how Din was more… headstrong and rash than the others?”

“Yes. I think I mentioned earlier today that I used to find her attractive because of that.” Arceus replayed, with several ideas of what Din could have possibly done or said to hurt Faust this much making their way into his mind.

“Well she… when they were making their world… I don’t exactly know, but…” Faust stopped walking again, but before Arceus could say or do anything she opened a portal back to his room. She jumped into the bed and buried her face on his pillow, her pony disguised as Golden Feather disappearing, making a pair of wings appear at her side while making her crow, turning into an alicorn taller than Celestia, her white fur and red mane gaining a pale yet divine shine.  

Arceus ran behind her, though after crossing the portal he began to move with care, slowly making its way from it to the bed. He sat on the foot of the bed, letting his friend cry in peace for a second before resting his hoof on her back, letting his friend know that he was there for her.

They spend some time like that, almost in silence if it wasn’t for Faust’s soft sobs. “I-I’m sorry… I thought walking would distract me b-but… well it didn’t work.” She finally explained between sobs.

“Is ok. Feel free to take as long as you need, I’ll be here.” Arceus replied. He sadly had experience dealing with this sort of thing because of what had happened to himself and his kids, so he knew that it would be best to just wait for her to let it all out.

Neither of them knew how long it took, but after a while Faust sobs slowed down. Finally she turned to look at Arceus, her eyes were still glassy but it seemed like she had stopped crying a while back, she also was hugging the pillow she had been crying onto.

“So… I think it would be better if I just said…” Faust said, while she was looking in Arceus’ direction, her eyes were closed. 

She then took a deep breath and continued. “Hylia is dead.”

Those three words hit Arceus like a bag of bricks. The youngest of the “golden goddess”, the little sister of the triplets, someone that at some point someone he had a crush on, was dead. 

“What happened?” Was all he asked. It was admittedly an stupid question, but only one time in all of his travels, did he or his travelling group come across a situation that had led to the death of a creator, or well god.

“They lost control of their world,” Faust answered with a sigh. 

“When they were making their world,” she continued. “Din strength created the land, the mountains, volcanoes, oceans everything that expresses wild power, you know what she is. While Nayru brought everything under order, and Farore created all life”.

“For a long while things were peaceful, civilisations were born and species began to establish themselves.” Faust pause, using telekinesis she brought herself the mug of water Arceus’ had left on the table where the two had been talking not so long ago. She took a sip clearing her raspy and dry voice.     
 
“I don’t know exactly what happened, if it was Din’s own rashness, or the power of what she represents lashing out. But all three lost control and suddenly monsters began to emerge from the earth, among them a vile creature known as Demise.”

Faust took another deep breath. “It brought with himself war and destruction, but most importantly, he was responsible for Hylia’s death. You remember how she was right?” Faust asked, finally looking at Arceus.
“I’m not interested in creating, but guiding and protecting.” Arceus answered, quoting something the young goddess had told the rest of their travelling group millennia ago.

“Indeed,” Faust said. “While her sisters went to the skies, Hylia stayed, guiding, protecting and leading the species of the land during the war. And while she had been victorious, Demise was just defeated, not killed. He was sealed by Hylia’s weakened divine powers, meaning he would be able to return. In the end she decided to use what little divinity she had left to reincarnate, and to influence the creation of a knife that could be born to stop Demise.”

“All while Din, Nayru and Farore couldn't do much besides influence a few things trying to help her.” Arceus added, 
speaking from his personal experience.

Hearing that Faust turned to look at her friend, wondering what he had experienced. Yet she didn’t say anything, choosing to continue her narration. Arceus had given her the chance to wait until she was ready to talk, the least she could do for him was the same.

“It took centuries but it finally happened, Hylia was reborn as a girl named Zelda. She and the knight were able to defeat Demise…” Contrary to what Arceus expected upon hearing that, Faust’s expression and composure seem to become sadder. 

”Yet it wasn’t enough,” Faust continued. “That monster managed to somehow bind the land and its inhabitants to a course. Ever since the sisters have completely lost control of their world, to the point even parallel timelines get created out of their control.” 

“What little can be created by the cultures and creatures of the world gets damaged, destroyed or forgotten whenever those forces return; millenia have passed and they remain frozen by the course. Worst, Demise's reincarnations connection to power means Din can’t do anything as her own abilities are turned against her creation and what remains of her little sister. One of the followers of the damned bastard even kidnapped Din at some point.” Faust continued, shaking as she spoke, her mind flooded with images of something similar happening to her own creations.

Arceus moved closer to his shaking friend offering Faust a hug, she accepted without trepidation. The two stayed like that for a while until Faust calmed down again.

“You know what’s worse about all this?” Faust asked rhetorically while separating herself from Arceus. “Is that they lied to me”.

Arceus turned to look at her confused, but before he could utter a single word Faust explained herself. “For a long time Farore was the only one who visited me. The poor girl was a wreck after losing her little sister. It took me a while to convince her to bring Nayru and finally after a long while Din…”

Faust sighed, moving completely away from Arceus. Going back to lying on her belly and burying her face on the pillows. “All that I told you about Din not being able to do anything, and that maybe all this was a result of the power she represents lashing out? Turns out that Nayru and Farore had never listened to Din. They kept blaming her for everything that had happened, no matter how many times she apologised, tried to help or what she did, they still hated her.”

“Poor Din,” Arceus said in a whisper. He couldn't imagine how miserable the whole situation was for her.

“But the worst part is that they started to fight,” Faust continued. “I don't remember why, for what they told me had managed to get the whole alternative timeline under control, yet they were still mad at eachother. And I became so angry, I ended up kicking them out of here. That’s why I cut this winter short, and why I was so hostile when you tried opening a portal here. Because I was angry, and I didn’t want to feel miserable anymore.”

Faust then turned to look at Arceus. “The thing is. I don’t know if I was mad at them for lying to me, or because they started to fight, or because I miss Hylia and I blame all three.”

She then holded her forelegs out, almost begging Arceus for a hug. He obliged Faust’s request immediately, moving closer to hold her more easily. 

“I’m such a terrible friend.” Faust said in a tired whimper as she apparently had run out of tears.

 
“No. You are not,” Arceus replayed in a reassuring tone while strengthening his hug. “It was a very emotionally charged situation, one you were very personally involved in since you knew all 4 sisters. It was bound to affect you.”

A small smile appeared on Faust’s face hearing that. “Thank you Arceus… still I should probably apologise with them, is what a good friend will do.”
Arceus broke the hug so he could look at her face, taking his forelegs to her elbows like a parent that’s trying to motivate their kid. “Indeed, but only when you are ready.” He said with a small smile on his face.

“Yes, only when I feel ready,” Faust assured him. She then slowly moved out of the bed, and once she was standing on the ground she reapplied her disguise. Her stature and other proportions diminished, her wings disappeared and her crimson mane stopped flowing. Faust was back to being Golden Feather, a normal looking unicorn that was just a bit taller than average.
 
“If you don’t mind, I’m feeling a bit tired.” She explained while walking to the door. Arceus didn’t blame her for wanting to sleep after such an emotionally charged explanation, he knew that he would also be quite tired if he was in the same situation.

“Go ahead, rest as long as you need.” Arceus replayed with a reassuring tone.

She made her way to the door, opened it and began to leave the room, only to turn around halfway to look at her friend. “And Arceus, I'll be here for you. We can talk about what happened to you and your family, but only when you are ready”.

Areus smiled when hearing that, “thank you Faust.” He answered in a soft tone with a nod of his head.

She then closed the door behind her, with Arceus turning to look at the table where they had started their conversation. A tear running down his face wondering what he had done to deserve such a good friend.