The Queen had no other place to go for help. Not that this was a bad choice, but it was a bad situation. She was waiting for the very pony she had known for most of her life, her trusted adviser and friend. She was nervous as to what she was about to ask him to do, but the other choice was to do nothing. She knew that if she was to do that, she might as well have handed the throne over to a tyrant. This wasn’t an option. Action had to be taken to save her little ponies.
A stalwart white Pegasus with a blond mane marched into the room and knelt before the Queen. He was dressed in a white uniform and a cape that seemed to split light. “What is it Your Majesty desires?” he asked in a solemn tone.

The Queen was even more regal. A unicorn with a mane of black like a raven feather that also seemed to glitter every color of the rainbow. Her dress started as a dark blue at the hems, changed to a white and reaching gold at the neckline. Her headdress was an intricate weave of black and white.

He already knows, the Queen thought as she turned to her adviser. “Arise, Astaral, I am in need of your opinion.” He rose and they both sat down at the table in the room. “I have my doubts concerning the direction the king wishes to take the kingdom.” The look of shock was obvious on the face of her adviser, and she could see a question starting to form. “The reason I have asked for you is to see what we can do to curb the new direction and keep it far safer for everypony.”

The stallion regained his composure quickly, bringing his hooves together to form a peak. “Permission to speak freely, Your Majesty?” Being a former military adviser from when the Queen ran the kingdom alone came with its habits.

“Permission granted.”

“From what I have heard, the king isn’t threatening the country, he’s threatening you.”

The Queen sighed. “Yes, but that isn’t what I have called you for, and it has not escaped my memory so soon.”

“But why do you tolerate it?”

“Because he wants me to get some distance away from him, and if I do that, he will have even more control. I cannot allow that yet.”

“’Yet,’ Your Majesty?”

“That is why I’m asking for your advice.”

It was the advisers turn to sigh. “As long as you are willing to take action to look after yourself, I’m willing to lay my life down for you.”

“I know you are, but what I’m going to ask you to do is much harder than dying for me.” The look on his face made it clear that he wasn’t going to shrink from his duties.

“You know my devotion is not just loyalty based. I won’t let anything happen to you that you don’t want to happen.”

“You say that now, and you say that every time I ask you to do anything. What do you mean by it?”

At this point the royal adviser looked away, flushing. “I have dedicated my life to you, and in my family, there is a saying, ‘If you serve someone with all your heart, you will learn to love all that they are.’ You have served your people nonstop for your entire life. You have learned to care for every stallion, mare and foal that has ever lived. I have learned to stand by your side and stand with every step you have ever made, even when I disagreed with it, because of my devotion. I know I could never have made the right choices all the time, but you did.” He looked up and into the eyes of his leader. “But you’re asking for the source of my devotion. It is because I don’t just think you’re a better leader than I. It is because I love all that you are, Aurora.”

A quick intake of breath was all the hint she gave that she was surprised. The Queen suspected this for some time now, but it was an entirely different thing to hear it from the pony you held in the same regard. Still, if she let her emotions rule her, she would never find a way to stop the king. “Then we may proceed with the meeting. Just know that, in that moment of sincerity, you held my heart and inspired me to do more for my people.” She continued in a more solemn voice. “You are what I value most in this world.”

* * *

“Your plan is…” he paused trying to find a more respectful word, but failing, he proceeded, ”crazy.” The speaker was a politician with a brown coat and a thinning silver mane.

It was several years from that fateful night, and things hadn’t gone well in the kingdom. The Queen was with child. Astaral was in a meeting with several members of parliament in his estate. The topic was opposition to a recently enforced law that was to help water wells be dug, but it actually made it more difficult. Simply the latest point of the monarch’s idea of reaching the utopia he had been painting for the last 6 years, and all it did was add a hoop to jump. “If you really think that this plan will make it to the front of parliament, you have another think coming. Everypony here knows that the head of parliament is in the king's back pocket, and the pauper down the street knows that he sets the agenda for the whole parliament.”

“That doesn’t change our obligation to the people” Astaral responded. Turning to address the entire group, he started the speech he had written for just this opposition. “As you all know the queen has been trying to do everything she can to keep this country from falling into anarchy and an absolute monarchy.” Making eye contact with each of the filly and gentlecolts present, he continued. “This is a near impossible feat with our current configuration of government. The king has final say on all issues, but can’t make a decision outside of what’s presented to him. The parliament brings forth the points that the citizens want to be heard, but have no real say at large what happens. Finally the veneration branch looks for anything that could help the current order of things, including military might, and brings issues to the king. It is the Queen's line that inherits the throne, but as queen, she is allowed to only advise the king, and over rule him if he is seen to be fighting the people. This helps protect the people from a full dictatorship because the king can’t create and pass things without the will of the people being consulted. But lately, the veneration branch has been infringing on more and more of our business. Things aren’t fully right in Equestrea, and you know it. Now, I’m not calling any one coward; by all that’s good, we have done all we can, but we need to continue to stand up for all...”

“Daddy?”

Astaral immediately turned to the door. Standing there is a small, young, white, unicorn foal dressed in a nightgown, and a pink and messy mane going down her back. She even had her mother’s eyes of light purple. At the moment, however, her face looked like she was a little frightened. Astaral turned to the others gathered together and excused himself for a short period of time. He knew that the speech's effectiveness would be neutralized by the pause, but knew that his daughter’s composure was rarely shaken, even by this much.

He approached his daughter, knelt down to eye level, and in a soft caring tone addresses her. “What is it dear?”

“I dreamed about her again,” she says meekly.

He smiled. She had never seen this Pony, but she had created an image of this mare in her imagination, and every once and a while, she would have a dream about her. “How is she tonight?” he asked.

“She said good bye,” she responded. With tears in her eyes, she looked up, directly into his eyes. “But I don’t want her to go. She told me that she loved me and she was going to do what had to be done, but I don’t want her to go!”

“oh, hush sh sh.” Picking her up and pulling his cape over her in an embrace he calmly carried her out of the room and started going up the stairs with her. ”She will never leave you; she loves you far too much for that to happen.”

“But she said goodbye!” the young girl cried.

“Honey, listen to me.” Astaral said as he opened her bedroom door. “She will never abandon you; she may go away for a little while, or a long while. But nopony would ever abandon someone that they love.” The young unicorn climbed into bed, got under the sheets, and looked back at her father as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “Now I have a question for you. Does she love you?” She took a moment to think then nodded her head. “Then she will never abandon you and you will always be able to feel her love right here.” He said as he nudged her chest.

She giggled, sniffed, and then smiled. He smiled back as he got off the side of the bed. Heading to the door he heard his daughter say, “Dad. Who is the lady I keep on dreaming about?”

He turned back to look at a drawing on the wall of the mare, one of her favorite drawings. The way she described this pony as kind and benevolent. He has an almost sad look on his face. Turning to face his daughter he forced a smile. “Well, if you let her be, she will become you.” He walked back over to her and kissed her forehead. “I will see you in the morning.” He said as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

He started heading back to the meeting. When he entered the room, everypony was standing up and was arguing back and forth, trying not to yell, but trying to be heard over the rest of the ponies present.

Knowing that the speech was worthless now, he cleared his throat, preparing to regain their attention, when his royal insignia ring started to heat up. A simple messaging magic, that was as old as the first spell. A heat like this told him that he was wanted, so he called an end to the meeting to depart for the palace.

Author's Note

Okay, got myself an editor, so we will see if I can make this actually take off this time. By the way, just as a heads up, I am writing this at my pace. I will not be able to provide regular updates, but I can keep those interested in the story up to date with what I am doing with the story. click to fallow me, and I will make an effort to keep people posted on my work.