Celestia silently longed to take her financial advisors and lock them in a room till they learned how to get along.

What had started as a minor review of expenses, with the usual suggestions on ways to cut costs, had devolved into a heated debate between the various accountants and bankers on best financial practices and who knew more about money and investing then who. THIS had devolved into a shouting match involving credentials and experience, and now Celestia was sitting silently, somehow keeping her usual calm composure, as the supposedly expert advisors to the crown now stood around calling each-other names while their aids looked on helplessly.

She took note of the assistants who at least tried to take initiative and steer things back on course. Those ponies promised to do better then their predecessors, especially with a little push in the right direction.

She would have liked to blame Discord, except he had been out with Fluttershy for the day, and only reappeared once he sensed the chaos. Thankfully he chose not to get involved, though Celestia suspected that had more to do with his lack of interest in paperwork related chaos then any real attempt to be nice, though to be fair, he had been better since Tirek.

Closing her eyes she carefully weighed the events leading up to this argument. Opinions, appearances, attitudes, and carefully decided how much longer she should let this go before intervening. Too short and she'd have to use more force than necessary in declaring a decision. Too long and ponies might start to think she's overwhelmed. But if one waits just the right amount of time, then the arguing parties will be too tired to resist, while she simply attempted to give them a chance to work it out themselves first. Even if she had done this enough times to know she could have walked away and come back an hour later to the same mess.

Her action decided in a mere moment, she opened her eyes again and began counting the time. A part of her regretted having told Luna she could handle this on her own. Had her sister attended, it is unlikely things would have gone this far, as Luna had become known to have a very low tolerance for modern politics. Still, it was for the best. Luna needed her sleep, and Celestia didn't need any more terrified advisors, even if they deserved it.

After a few minutes it looked like the 'conversation' was starting to take another downturn. She was about to readjust when to intervene when the doors to the throne-room burst open, and a contingent of Royal and City guards stormed in, a cloaked figure hunched over in the center of the formation.

All activity stopped, and the once bickering financiers fled out of the way of the rapidly advancing formation. Celestia noted that while the guards acted like they were in the middle of a high risk arrest, instead of crowding their target to prevent escape, they instead kept a careful distance, well out of arm's reach...

...And tail's reach, Celestia realized, as she saw that the figure they guarded was in fact a dragon. Standing from her throne she sternly looked down at the guards, and challenged their interruption.

"I hope you have a good reason for this intrusion Lieutenant." Though thankful for the interruption, the fact was it was hardly needed just to quiet a dragon that had decided to cause trouble.

Bowing, the gold helmeted guard waved forward a City guard sergeant, who mirrored the action and replied, "With respect, your majesty, we are acting explicitly on your own orders, regarding Blackstone Dragons."

Celestia felt like she had been punched in the gut, and barely even registered the prisoners displeasure at what he likely interpreted as species-ism. There was only one order relating to the denizens of Blackstone, and while it had to be why they brought him here, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

"Lieutenant, you are sure." She hoped none noticed the slight waver that had slipped through in her speech.

The lieutenant and sergeant both nodded, and the sergeant marched back to the dragon. "Show her the ring." It wasn't a request, and he held his glare as he stepped away.

Though scowling back from where he stood, the dragon tore his gaze away towards Celestia, as if weighing unknown actions. Eventually he turned his claws. Not in the usual fist forward one would expect most to show a ring, but instead palm open and towards him, with the claws together pointing up.

Celestia couldn't help the slight gasp that escaped her muzzle, before her teeth clenched and she raised her voice.

"CLEAR THE ROOM!"

Stunned the assembled ponies hesitated for a moment, before most began to file out. The majority of the guard held their post though.

The lieutenant spoke up, "you're majesty, we would like to remain in support of-"

Celestia cut her off, coming dangerously close to Luna's 'royal Canterlot voice'.

"CLEAR THE ROOM!" She left no chance for questions this time, and the assembled guards quickly retreated, leaving only Celestia and the cloaked dragon.

With a flick of her wrist Celestia deftly conjured a sealing spell, preventing any attempt to spy on what would happen next. Turning, she walked towards the window, now blacked out on the outside, as her sun sat low in the sky.

"Where did you get that ring." She looked over her shoulder towards the dragon, awaiting his answer.

The dragon stared at her from under his hood, his steel eyes fixed on her own. "I inherited it from my father, as he did from his, through our line."

Celestia looked away, trying, and failing, to remember any other than just the one Blackstone line who used that signet. Finally she turned back around, staring into his eyes for any sign of deception, "Who are you."

Again the drake paused, before standing to his full height, and lifted his cowl to reveal crimson scales crowned with dark grey horns and a jet black mane.

"I am Callixis Steelwing, Tsar of Blackstone."

Author's Note

Art once again by the great http://cylnx.deviantart.com/ , a bit more dramatic then even in the chapter, but i loved how it came out ^_^

And yes I'm still looking to commission more art for this story, feel free to message here or on my dA if interested: http://nikolai60.deviantart.com/

Hopefully I'll start these chapters going longer soon.

Comments welcome ^_^