Princess Celestia, Goddess of the Sun found herself smiling. Her once student, and now present friend Twilight Sparkle was going over her calendar for the School of Friendship. Nopony present for the meeting – aside from Twilight herself - thought it was necessary, but Celestia was always amused when her advisors were forced to listen to Twilight passionately regale them all in her plans.
Things had certainly calmed down after the incident with Cozy Glow, and with the school now fully accredited by Neighsay, it really seemed like the dust was settling.
“And for the autumn season, Pinkie’s suggested we throw two dances. Now, she originally wanted fourteen, but…” Twilight happily rattled off, punctuating her speech with diagrams drawn using her magic. Celestia caught the Economic Advisor drifting off to sleep, before he caught himself and shook the sleep away.
It took everything in Celestia’s power not to giggle. These monthly meetings were important to hold, of course, the country needed to run, but they were always so boring. Luna had greater patience for bureaucracy, so any revenge for having to sit through them was nice.
She checked her internal clock, noting that they’d just entered their second hour, “Two more to go,” she sighed silently. Maybe Discord could interrupt their meeting again? Anything that made time move faster was appreciated. Maybe she could she just make it night time?
No, it wouldn’t be right, moving the sun wasn’t something she was allowed to do as a joke; the angry mobs from years past reminded Celestia she needed to move it across the sky, slowly, throughout the day. You don’t make it do loop-de-loops, you don’t make it spin like a top, and you don’t push and pull because it’s funny when it changes sizes. You don’t do a lot of things as the Princess of the Sun.
Silently, Celestia wondered if Luna ever felt the urge to rearrange the stars so they spelled out a message. ‘Eat more fruit’ could make the night sky more fun, probably help ponies diets too.
“Bored, Celestia?”
The diarch of Equestria looked around the meeting room – slowly so as not draw attention to herself – to see where the voice was coming from. The action served the dual-purpose of seeing if she was the only one who had heard it.
She sighed when she realized that yes, in fact, she was the only one to hear the voice. Celestia made sure she appeared attentive, before leaving her body behind and entered her mindscape.
“Hi Mark, what do you want?” Celestia asked bluntly, caring little for how she sounded.
From the misted mental space, a cocked pair of brown eyebrows appeared, forming from the nothingness Celestia chose to visualize. The small white lights that kept the space illuminated moved aside as more of a bipedal shape took form. The being before her was non-descript in appearance, leaving only a lasting impression from the clothes he didn’t take care of. Rarity likely would have had a stroke after laying eyes on the state of his jeans.
His expression was always one of condescension; it reminded Celestia a lot of Discord back during the reign of chaos. “So rude,” The being responded almost instantly, “I give you a reason to leave that meeting of yours and this is how you repay me?”
Celestia sighed, she had little patience for Mark. “What is it?”
“Well, I come bearing the latest news,” He offered excitedly, throwing his legs up leaning back against the mindscape, floating in a relaxed psition. Celestia merely raised an incredulous eyebrow, he laughed in reply, “It’s fine, It’s the last time I’ll be coming around and bugging you.”
The alicorn scoffed, “you act like you haven’t said that before.”
Mark waved his hand dismissively, “Whatever you may have heard in the past, I can assure you I’m telling the truth this time.”
Celestia visible shook before she started pacing, “What else could there even be?! I’ve done everything you told me. I made Twilight my student, I gave her the vaguest instructions for years and never meddled in anything I should have! I did it all!
“Do you even know what it’s like to be so useless? I’ve sat back and watched Equestria get thrown into danger countless times! My own sister is at least partially convinced I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m just lucky; and I can’t even prove her wrong because I’m not supposed to tell anypony about you!”
Mark just put his arms behind his head and smirked, “Maybe,” he offered, letting the pony vent her frustrations, “But because of me, Luna’s back from the moon, Twilight’s an alicorn, Tirek’s been thrown in tartarus, the Storm King’s dead and that’s just off the top of my head. I’ve been helping you cheat for almost a decade.”
Celestia sighed, her anger subsiding. While Mark was wrong about it being 10 years – it was really closer to half that – he really had been right about everything he’d said, frustratingly so. Collecting herself, she realized that like it or not, he knew what she had to do next. Another villain from the past was probably gathering power in the shadows and planning their first strike, that’s usually how it went.
“What is it you want me to do, Mark?”
He stood bolt right and smiled, “Glad to hear you cooperating again. As for what I want you to do? Well that’s easy, I want you to take a vacation.”
“WHAT?!” Celestia screamed, staring him dead in the eyes, “What would taking a vacation do besides put the country in jeopardy?! “
“C’mon, relax, you’ve done a lot of work and it’s time you retire.”
She was speechless, how could he say something like that? Parts might be boring, but she loved her job and knew how important it was. If she weren’t the one on the throne, leading her country, who would? Her ponies even had an expression based on her! That’s how much they loved her!
“Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies,” The being chuckled.
Celestia shook her head, “Absolutely not, I refuse to step down from the throne, not even temporarily.”
Mark looked confused a moment before he realized what she meant. “Right, sorry, figure of speech, it’s retirement, not a vacation.” Celestia stood firm, her refusal hadn’t changed. “It’s fine, you’ve been grooming Twilight to take your place the entire time I’ve been helping you.”
“Be that as it may, I can’t just step down; it should be a process, taking months or even years.”
He shook his hand back and forth a bit, “eh…it won’t be immediate, as soon as you announce it to Twilight, it can get done in about three days. The paperwork isn’t that complicated in Equestria.”
She couldn’t help feeling defeated, there really was no arguing with somebody that was always right, no matter how much she wanted to. How could Princess Celestia retire though? What would she even do? Would Twilight be ready? And what about her friends? Luna? How would the country react?
Mark stretched before walking away, “I’ll be in touch, but the only thing you need to do right now is mention retiring to Luna, she’ll get it.”
Celestia sighed deeply, this was a lot to take in, and she would doubtless be thinking about it for quite a while. Collecting herself once more, she re-entered her body, ready to continue the meeting. Only to find herself walking the halls of the castle. At first mild confusion overtook her, but she quickly realized that Mark had slowed down her perception of time for the rest of the meeting.
“And don’t say I never do anything for you,” his voice echoed in her mind. Suppressing an eye twitch, Celestia started walking to Luna’s room, hoping her sister was awake.
Author's Note
Just a short little trip into the mind of the first princess.
