Celestia sat on the cold stone throne and stared at the letter. Luna had kept her promises so far. Celestia had not, not entirely, but Shining hadn’t complained. Almost three years had passed since Luna had been rescued and Shining had made his audacious requests. Shining Armor’s harem was now seven ponies. All five of the other element bearers had joined, along with Cadence. Celestia was still upset about Cadence’s joining, and had made her opinions clear. Shining seemed to have forgiven her, but Cadence had not.

She still didn’t understand how it had come to pass. Wasn’t Cadence supposed to be the alicorn of love?

It had started with letters. After only a month of exchanging letters, Cadence decided to visit Shining and Twilight in Ponyville. She had yet to officially leave from the first visit, and it had been over a year now. Cadence now lived full time with Shining and Twilight, unlike the rest of his “Harem”. The other girls all had lives of their own, and often only met a few times a week. Cadence lived in their library and happily played homemaker with Shining while Twilight went on adventures with her friends.

It was an absolute waste of an alicorn, and Celestia had made her complaint known. Cadence hadn’t taken it well.

Shining spent nearly as much time alone with Cadence as he originally had with Twilight. Apparently they never ran out of topics to discuss with each other. Whenever the element bearers returned from a mission, they’d celebrate with Shining and Cadence.

In their basement. With a series of powerful privacy wards set up. All together at once.

Celestia preferred not to think about that too intently.

Luna had mostly returned to her former glory, and stood above the rest of their ponies with Celestia. She made regular time to meet with Twilight, as promised to Shining, and was honoring her silly self imposed promise to stay chaste. Celestia didn’t know why Luna bothered.

Celestia was hardly worried that Shining would succeed in his task. Twilight was a very impressive mare, and had improved dramatically socially, but was nowhere near ready to be an alicorn. If anything, Twilight had proven time and again that she simply wasn’t ready.

Now, though, she needed Luna’s agreement without delay. The letter had been direct. The yaks had some overly egotistic demands of her sister, but this missive would clear up the last of the mess left over from Luna’s return. The Yaks had really not liked having their day and night cycles flipped, and had demanded recompense. Most of it was easy. A few bits, the return of an old yak relic from the vault, dropping the charges of vandalism against their last diplomat—all very easy payments.

Except this one.

They wanted a yak constellation, and demanded a response before midnight. Celestia hated arbitrary diplomatic deadlines, but she was also ready to put this behind her. This was the final diplomatic mess from Luna’s return, and finishing this would start a clean new chapter in their lives.

There had been a strange energy coming from the far north, and Celestia wanted to be able to focus on that. The actual problem was likely weeks, or months, away, but these sorts of things were better of nipped in the bud. Perhaps she’d found something to send Cadence to investigate.

It was unfortunate, but tonight she’d have to interrupt Luna’s “Twilight Time.”

Hopefully Luna wouldn’t mind.

Author's Note

This is too short for a daily chapter... Hmm...