Celestia internally groaned as she sat at the table, where most of the nobility at the table were arguing from all angles, some even verbally insulting each other with vulgar language beneath their class. Her eyelids threatened to close from boredom as she considered sleeping a fine alternative compared to staying aware of the argument, much like what Rockhoof and Flash Magnus were doing a short distance away. This was one of the few times she actually envied them, since they realistically wouldn't contribute much to administration and thus could just zone out at will. The other Pillars, including Stygion, were sitting at attention, albeit with varying levels of interest.

They were all sitting in the conference hall near the throne room, a week since she had first arrived. At the moment, the nobles were 'discussing' the need for new taxes, and who the taxes should go to. Despite Lord Regent Thunder Spark continuously insisting that the state does not need any more revenue and that the peasantry cannot handle any more taxes, the nobles kept on bringing the topic back up and Thunder finally relented.

Now they were just arguing what percentage goes to who in the nobility. Celestia sighed. 'This does not involve me at all', she thought to herself. She excused herself from the table, to which both Thunder and Starswirl gave a incomprehesable expression to, which she didn't notice, got off of the chair and walked out of the door, closing it with her magic behind her.

She gave a sigh of relief. She was finally free to go visit Luna, who was sleeping in her room. She was about to walk off when a voice suddenly appeared from her side.

"I wonder what the Princess is doing out here, instead of being in there?"

Celestia turned her head and came face to face with Cordial Humility, who simply stood there, both disappointment and curiosity written all over her face. Celestia's mood instantly darkened at the sight of her.

"I was about to visit my sister", she finally got out, despite gritting her teeth together. "And I was tired of being in there with the nobles simply arguing about nothing." Celestia paused as she realised the words came out of her mouth.

Cordial's eyes just narrowed.

"Nothing?", she said in a accusatory manner. "In this case nothing is the lifeblood of the ponies that live in Equestria!" She practically shouted the last words, causing Celestia to involuntarily step backwards in shock.

Shock quickly turned to anger as she bared her teeth and stomped up to Cordial, until the space between them was almost non existent.

"I should really have you be taught respect", Celestia snarled out, fuming. But then, out of the abyss, Celestia felt something rise up inside of her: concern. She arched an eyebrow.

"What do you mean the lifeblood?"

Cordial's hostile expression cracked and undertook a transformation into something more neutral as if she was re-evaluating Celestia.

"Most of the wealth of both the nobility and the royalty come from taxes", she started to explain. "While the premise itself is fine, since we have to get money some way, the fact that the nobles keep on increasing the taxes on the citizens of Equestria and remove their own taxes is unacceptable! Especially since the ones paying the taxes are those who are too poor to sustain themselves." Cordial shook her head, sadness now evident on her face.

"My father has been attempting to bring down the taxes on the poor and make the nobles pay taxes again, since they handle having to pay a small percentage of their wealth for the state. In fact, Equestria would get more money than the current balance of taxes!" Celestia was surprised to see a tear run down her face, further cracking the stoic image of Cordial that she had come to know and hate over the past week, and her stamping her hoof down.

"But the nobles will do anything to reverse anything my father proposes, using the loopholes in the constitution to circumvent the power of the Regent. And all because they are greedy, self serving, don't care about the other ponies living in Equestria and they hate having a Pegasus as Lord Regent!"

Celestia was stunned. Both at seeing Cordial almost lose it this way and at the ramifications of what she said finally hitting her. She was about to walk away so she could be left to her own thoughts, but Cordial wasn't done yet.

"And you!", she shouted, pointing at Celestia furiously. "You aren't much better!"

Celestia's anger returned in full force, throwing all other thoughts into obscurity for the time being.

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" she viciously responded. "This is the first I've heard of this issue!"

"Because the same taxes that the nobles want to raise are the same ones keeping your lavish lifestyle intact! Do you think that all your luxurious furniture and baths are free?! No, the poor ponies who can barely feed themselves pay for it, with none of the money coming from the wealthy!"

Cordial then looked away for a brief second before turning back. "The poor are starving out there, with no money to feed themselves and their families. And you're doing nothing to stop it!"

She then stomped away, leaving a fuming Celestia in place.

'How dare she insult me in front of my face!', she thought to herself, not noticing the miniscule fire starting to burn within her iris. 'No Pony has the right to...'

'But what if she's right?'

Celestia paused in her rant, her fire diminishing as that thought ripped right through her consciousness, seemingly from the depths of nothing. She looked around, finding no pony else nearby and presumed it to be her imagination. She scowled, ready to get back into ranting.

'But what if she's right?' the voice in her head repeated. Now, Celestia was confused. Was it another pony infiltrating her thoughts? Immediately, she discarded that possibility. When she was younger, Starswirl had tought her how to recognize any foreign influence on her own mind, and she could see none here. That left that it was a section of her mind that was voicing their opinion.

She was about to reject the voice when she stopped to consider the words the voice spoke. And what Cordial had said as well. For the first time in her life, Celestia began to consider the lives of others over herself as she stood there in the corridor, unmoving.

She shook her head, as she needed to see for herself. But if she went missing now, it would raise some issues with everypony else in the meeting, since it was mandatory for her. But how to get out of it?

She smiled as she came up with a solution. She turned around and strode back into the conference hall where they were still arguing. Celestia scowled for a brief second as she could hear some of the arguments the nobles were giving each other, some examples being that one would state that they are more important than the others and deserve more money. This proved at least some of what Cordial had said.

She couldn't believe that she was believing somepony of a lower status from her, but a small part if her took pride at that in a perculiar manner. So she composed her face into a more pleasant expression and walked towards her seat at the head of the table.

Thunder Spark was the first to notice her return and nodded to her in respect. Starswirl quickly nodded to her as well, though he looked at her in a different manner, as if he was looking at something new.

She politely coughed as a means of grabbing the attention of the whole table, succeeding in stopping all conversation and arguments, making everypony turn to look at her.

Celestia gathered all of the diplomatic skills she had and began to speak politely.

"Thank you all for your important discussions about the new taxes", she said though she really wanted to spit out in disgust at the word important, "but I'm afraid that due to all the hard work your speeches have taken", many of the nobles seemed oblivious of the sarcasm she unconsciously emited, "we should postpone this discussion for, lets say, a week." This caused many, especially Starswirl and Thunder to raise their eyebrows in surprise. However, both quickly recovered and nodded in agreement.

"I wholeheartedly agree", Thunder spoke out, with many nobles scowling at him. "And as Lord Regent, I officially postpone this meeting until next week, on the Friday."

It took a few minutes for the grumbling nobles to leave the room after Thunder's declaration, leaving just Celestia, Thunder and the Pillars.

Thunder turned towards Celestia with a curious expression. "Now, I must say, Princess", he said to her, "It was surprising to hear you ask for a break in the tax negotiations. May I ask why, if you permit me?"

Celestia chuckled nervously, trying to think up of an excuse when the door opened and a Royal Guard, a Unicorn, walked in, with a set of boxes and a letter, before striding towards Starswirl.

"Message for you, sir", he said, giving the letter to Starswirl, "from Moonlight Hunter."

"Moonlight Hunter?", Starswirl said, opening up the letter, "haven't heard from him in years." He looked at Thunder Spark with an expression of concern. "That pony is normally totally focused on his sites and he never sends any letters." Thunder's face took on a more weary expression as Starswirl began to read the letter, while a confused Celestia walked up to a newly awakened Flash Magnus.

"Who's Moonlight Hunter?" she whispered to him.

"An old acquaintance of ours", Flash began to explain, looking at Starswirl's ever darkening face with hidden concern. "He fought with us on the frontlines of the dark war and has since become Equestria's greatest expert in understanding the corrupted magic of Count Spectre and his army of lost souls. Thus he spends most of his times at the sites of old shrines and battlefields from the war. In fact, it is due to him that we learnt that Count Spectre was searching for a great source of magic, which was why he was able to..." he stopped as he realised he was saying too much.

"To do what?" Celestia asked, but Flash moved on to another topic. "Anyway, Moonlight is obsessed about his work and would go days on end without contact with any pony while just analysing a simple scroll written in corrupted Equestrian about the most boring of topics."

"He sounds, interesting", Celestia stated, with Flash nodding in agreement. But her mind was already at work setting aside what Flash was saying before, and what he didn't say, for another time.

"Pillars!" Starswirl's voice echoed throughout the room, "we leave at nightfall for Saddle Arabia!"

"What's the matter", Mistmane asked, even as Rockhoof and Flash grabbed their weapons and equipment.

"Moonlight has discovered a new development, and requires our presence", he eyed Celestia as he knew she would not like what he was going to say next, "along with Princess Luna."

Celestia stiffened, her face instantly hardened, at this and she walked straight up to Starswirl, etiquette forgotten. "No", she said. "She's too young for anything! She can barely walk at this age and now you want to take her to a barbaric land? I forbid this!"

Starswirl looked at Celestia with a calm expression. "May I remind you, Celestia, that you went on a similar, though admittedly much closer journey at her age? Saddle Arabia is not barbaric, only of a different culture from ours and as well as out ally. Also, you do not have the authority yet to command me."

Celestia grinded her teeth together in an effort to prevent her from shouting, but Starswirl simply put his hoof on her shoulder. "I know you are just being protective of Luna, but I assure you, nothing will come to pass that will harm her. If anything has the intention of hurting her, it will have to go through all six of us."

Celestia relaxed slightly as she knew they were right. But she still pressed on. "At least let me go with you to keep her company."

"That won't be necessary", Starswirl said. "remember, you are needed here, to learn the final lessons to be ready to rule Equestria with Luna."

"But you haven't told me what those lessons are", Celestia complained.

Starswirl simply smiled. "You'll know when you are ready."

With that, the Pillars, along with Thunder and the messenger, left the room, leaving Celestia alone with her thoughts.

After minutes of thinking negatively about the scenario, Celestia finally thought of a positive. 'At least I can now find out for my self in secrecy the state of my future subjects.' With that in mind, Celestia finally left the room, out to fetch a cloak to disguise herself.

Solar Comet whistled as he walked through the muddy landscape of Aberlonia, an old battlefield from the dark war that is now a graveyard for both loyalists and corrupted alike. His golden armour was covered in mud from traversing the terrain after three days of constant rain, and his fur drenched. Despite his expression and mannerisms showing calmness and confidence, Solar was worried, really worried.

He was assigned to the company keeping guard at the battlefield in order to prevent any wayward pony or creature from accidently reawakening any remnant of corrupted magic and potential causing havok on Equestria. He had been there for five years, longer than most ponies could endure, and has had a mostly uneventful tour of duty. Until now.

Within the last day, all contact was lost with the nearby town. This was not uncommon, or a sign of worry normally, as the vestiges of corrupted magic usually caused the weather to occasionally become so horrible that the graveyard was essentially cut of from the rest of Equestria. What was the real problem was that it wasn't the type of weather to cause that, even though it was pouring.

In addition to that, multiple large areas were discovered to have been dug up within the past hour, like as if somepony was searching for something. What was really weird was that these dig sites didn't look like they were excavated by a simple tool or magic, rather like the soil and dirt had disappeared, leaving just gaping holes in the ground, with many decomposed bodies remaining. Most of the bodies had also been tampered with, being ripped apart like an autopsy.

After three hours of analysing the locations and patterns of the newly dug up sites, it was revealed that all of these sites were the location of large quantities of magic left behind from the battle, mainly the corrupted magic. But from the magic still being present at the sites, the company commander deduced that whoever was responsible for this occurrence had not found what they were looking for.

And now ponies were disappearing at an alarming rate. Within the last hour, Solar's squad of fifteen had lost two members, when they went out on separate patrols. To find the culprit, the squad had been ordered by the company commander to have one volunteer to go out alone on a "scouting mission" while the rest of the company follows under a blanket of concealment magic.

Solar was the first to raise his hand and was thus the "Honorary Sacrifice", as his squadmates called him. So at this moment, he was walking past one of the sites, pretending to be on patrol in an effort to snuff out the culprit.

Yet it was quiet, too quiet. Solar began to sweat as he started to think that the culprit had left, thus leaving the mystery unsolved (one of his secret hobbies was reading mystery stories).

His fears proved unfounded as a flash of orange light appeared in his peripheral vision, illuminating the almost pitch black area. What caused his stomach to clench in fear and horror was the fact that the light emanated from where the company ponies were concealed at, and the screams that quickly erupted from there.

He turned around in an instant, but all he could see was ponies left and right falling to the ground, disintegrating into orange dust before fading away or being thrown about as they were ripped apart by something that was covered by the mass of ponies trying to fight it, and the darkness of the night. He was about to run into the fight to help when one of the ponies turned to face him, his commanding officer.

"Go! Warn the town!" she ordered to him. "We have to..."

That was all she said before something wrapped itself around her head, a hand that was black with what looked like glowing orange markings on it, and crushed her head like it was nothing but a mixture of sand mashed together.

He sprinted away with all of his might, the sounds of screaming and fighting beginning to falter too quickly to be reasoned as his just increasing the distance between the battle and himself. Soon it was quiet once more, the only sounds being the thunder now booming across the land and the sounds of his own breathing.

He ran into a large forest, where he stopped as soon as he was hidden amongst the close knit community of trees so he could catch his breath. He trembled in fright as he pondered about what had just happened.

"What did all of this?" he asked out loud before his face set in a resolute manner. "I have to warn the town, and send word to Canterlot!"

"Hmm, Canterlot?" A low yet distorted voice echoed between the trees, causing Solar to jump in fright and pull out his sword. He slowly spun around, looking at every angle of sight, only finding darkness. "I wonder what I may find there." the voice returned, taunting Solar from all directions with its vicious tone.

"Wh...Who are you?" Solar fearfully shouted back in an attempt to cause the voice's owner to reveal himself, yet he was met with a booming set of laughter, causing both his anger and fear to rise up together. "Show yourself!"

This only caused the laughter to intensify, making Solar quite uncomfortable where he was standing.

"You won't find sanctuary at the town you are searching for." the voice remarked with a hint of smugness and amusement, causing Solar's to freeze in fear.

"And why is that?" he asked, almost too afraid to hear the answer. He was too focused on what he had heard to notice the orange oval ring of burning light that appeared a few metres behind him, nor the large figure that emerged from the void inside the ring, obscured by the darkness as the ring contracted and disappeared in a blink of an eye. The red fluid that was the blood of ponies dripped from the fingers of the figure's right hand before it started to rearrange itself and morph, becoming a jagged blade.

Solar slowly backed away from where he was looking at, unknowingly walking straight to the figure. It was then that he noticed the glow of orange coming from behind him. That was when he heard the voice speak again, malice and eagerness tinting it.

"Because you'll share the same fate the vermin that inhabited it suffered."

He spun around, only to see the blade approach him to fast for him to avoid, along with the bright glow of two orange lights high above him that glowed brighter as it drove the blade right into his neck.

His screams filled the vast emptiness of the forest.

Author's Note

Hi everyone,

So, Celestia begins to discover more about the tax system of Equestria, along with the hint that the Pillars are keeping something from her. And something is on the hunt, but for what?

Please post your thoughts and criticisms in the comment section below, along with any errors you've come across

Until next time,
dalek117