“Thank you for coming darlings, and if you need any adjustments feel free to come back anytime!”

Rarity smiled as she closed the door, happy that business had been picking up now that she had finally found somepony who would look past her station to critique her work, thus she didn’t have to worry about ponies simply buying her goods due to the fact that she was an alicorn.

As she headed back upstairs to the living portion of her home, she found both her mates going over what looked to a map of Equestria with various pieces on it in their study, and she could not help but glare as she walked inside. “Darlings, what have I told you about taking this particular part of your work home?”

“That it gives you to many bad memories of when we were in the war room planning out our venture into the lands that would one day be known as Equestria,” said Yang, “but we could not leave this work as something troubling has been cropping up recently.”

Sighing in the realization that she would most likely regret this, she moved closer to the map, and noted that many of the pieces were on the boarders of Equestria. “Well darlings, what is going on?”

“We have been receiving reports of probings along our boarder from our various outposts, and the nature of those probes seems similar to the ones conducted along the boarder a few years after the banishment of Princess Luna.”

Rarity quirked an eyebrow at this, “do you suspect an attack like before?”

“We’re not sure,” said Yin, “which is why we have been looking over the reports and mapping things out, for we want to rule that out as a possibility. However one thing we are taking into account is that unlike before, there are far more alicorns now then when Luna was banished.”

“That is true,” said Rarity, “but it could be that the amount of alicorns has set many of these people on edge…so you better take me through this bit by bit, for I will need to be well informed when I present this information to Twilight and Luna.”

*

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE ONLY HAVE A MONTH TO PREPARE!!!”

Luna grimaced at the volume of Twilight’s Royal Canterlot Voice, for it reminded her much of Celestia’s, which was not surprising given how much time Twilight had spent with her sister.

“My mother did not inform me till the day prior,” said Luna simply, “thus we only have a month to get everything ready for the arrival of the Circle.”

Twilight took a moment to calm down, and then sighed before speaking once more. “Ok, so how should we prepare?”

“I already have Canterlot Castle being prepared as we speak,” said Luna, “what I will need you to do is gather all the other alicorns and bring them to Canterlot so that we can get them ready for meeting the circle, for Gale demands that they all attend.”

“All of them?” asked Twilight.

When Luna nodded, Twilight sighed once more. “That’s going to be hard Luna, for many of them are still out their looking for their soul mates, and a lot of them are really going to be against going to an event of this nature.”

“Well unfortunately Gale will not accept anything but the entire lot, for anything less he will perceive as a challenge to his power.”

“He sounds paranoid,” said Twilight.

“Extremely,” said Luna, “ever since he took the head seat of the Ascendancy he’s convinced himself that every other ascendant, including his own children are conspiring to take the seat he believes is his by right, and we are the ones he suspects the most.”

“But why,” said Twilight, “Faust never sought a seat, like her mother before her, so why would he expect us to try and take his?”

“Because Gale does not trust those who have immense power yet only exercise a scrap of it, that and he was always jealous of mothers place in Zacherle’s heart, and of the fact that she was born ascended, unlike the rest of the Ascendancy who had to earn it.”

“…I’ll gather the girls and get to work then, meanwhile, I know you said you were prepping Canterlot Castle for their visit, but is there anyplace you can think of that might make a better meeting spot?”

“…Now that you mention it, your castle would be best,” said Luna. “For it has the most guest rooms, but worry not, I shall handle the arrangements while you travel.”

“Thank you Luna,” said Twilight, “now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bunch of wayward alicorns to corral.”

She then teleported away, leaving Luna to sigh before she headed off to collect Twilight’s castle staff, for they had much work to do.

*

The first place Twilight teleported to was Rarity’s shop, but after the mare did not respond to her calls, she headed up to the residential section of the shop, and was surprised when she found that Rarity’s living room was in a state that made it look like a war room.

“What in Tartarus?”

“Twilight Darling,” said Rarity as she noticed her, the mare walking over and giving her a hug before pulling back and smiling. “Sorry for the mess, but we got caught up in something that is rather troubling to be frank.”

“How troubling?”

Rarity guided her over to the central table, where Twilight saw a map of Equestria with all of its various boarder stations marked, as well as what looked to be sightings and dates near said boarder stations.

“…Someone is testing our boarders.”

“Yes,” said a male voice, Twilight looking to see that Yin and Yang had come in with food, “and from all we have been able to deduce, the pattern of these tests matches one to one the same testing of boarders that began happening after Princess Luna was banished to the moon.”

“But that can't be right,” said Twilight as she continued to look at the map, “that was a prelude to invasion brought on by the other kingdoms thinking us weak due to the absence of Luna, and while yes Celestia is gone now, the number of alicorns has increased by a substantial margin.”

“And because of that line of thinking my brother and I had the thought that maybe this testing of boarders was due to the various kingdoms now fearing that with new alicorns we may start looking to expand our own boarders,” said Yang, “but Rarity quickly dissuaded us of this notion with her own theory.”

Twilight glanced at Rarity, which prompted the mare to speak. “…Twilight, do you recall what we learned about Celestia in regards to the Badlands?”

When Twilight nodded, Rarity continued. “Well it prompted me to do some digging into how the other kingdoms reacted to that incident, and what I found was that after that incident…each of the other kingdoms adopted a new moniker for Princess Celestia, ones that denote her as someone who should be feared.”

Walking around the table and moving a book aside, Rarity picked up a list and then began to speak once more. “The griffins know her as The Burnt Ivory Queen, the dragons know her as The Sun Unconquered, the Abyssinian's call her She of Scorching Sands, and there are many more such titles.”

“Your point?” asked Twilight.

“My point is dear that compared to that, none of us, even Luna have such titles, which makes me believe that…well that either one or all of the kingdoms who might have eyes on Equestrian territory may see us as lacking our greatest weapon, that being Celestia.”

Twilight simply stared at her for a long moment, and then she sighed before looking back to the map. “You may be right, which makes what's coming next all the more troubling.

“What is that darling?”

Twilight quickly filled her and her lovers in on how they would soon be playing host to the Ascendancy Council, and once she was done Rarity got a contemplative look on her face as she spoke. “Hmm, this may work to our advantage, for if any of those ascendants are tied to the kingdoms near our boarders, we may be able to find out who is doing this and stop it before it escalates like it did before.”

“That’s a good plan,” said Twilight, “but if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and round up the others, I just hope it won’t take too long.”

“Well why don’t I and my loves help you darling,” said Rarity, “for we were actually about to start packing all this up when you arrived, so we are free to help.”

“That would actually be quite helpful,” said Twilight, “but I’ll be back later to look all this over, for if someone is planning an invasion, Luna and Faust will need to be alerted.”

*

“Um…Princess Faust?”

Faust looked up from her latest work of art, which she was painting in the royal gardens of the palace, to see Blueblood standing behind the canvas she had been using, looking hesitant.

“Blueblood, I am glad you finally answered my summons, I was starting to worry that something may have happened to you.”

“Well to be frank my lady, I didn’t exactly leave Canterlot on the best of terms, especially as the ponies who I once saw as friends were so quick to leave me to rot after I…well after what I did.”

“Well Blueblood, while your second attempt to get the Fell Shadow away from my daughters was flawed, I know your heart was in the right place, which is something I also know is a rarity for you, given the stories I have been told about your character prior to your banishment.”

She saw Blueblood flinch at that, then she turned back to her painting, continuing to work as she spoke to the young stallion. “You Blueblood remind me of another I used to know, he to lost the only family he had when he was young, and a mare who was beloved by all took him into her household and raised him as her own child, making sure he wanted for nothing.”

“As you can imagine, he was much like you when he became fully grown, spoiled, self assured of his place in the world and his superiority over all others, and a true terror to all those around him.”

Looking back up from the portrait to make sure he was still paying attention, she continued. “Due to this, the mare who raised him as one of her own became concerned, and this concern came to a head when he stood before his mother and demanded of her the ultimate gift, to make him into an ascended.”

She heard Blueblood gasp, but didn’t not stop in her speech. “The mare thought long and hard about his demand, and in a bit of foolishness, she decided to give him exactly what he asked for, thinking that suddenly being saddled with so much responsibility would straighten him out…and in the end, it was the greatest mistake in her life.”

Silence rained in the garden for a long while, with the only sound filling the air being the sound of brush making contact with canvas, but eventually Blueblood spoke up. “My lady, if I may be so bold, the mare in the story is you correct?”

When Faust nodded, he continued, “who was the ascended then.”

“…his name was Grogar.”

Seeing his shocked look, she smirked, “I know, one of the most fabled of monsters in all of history having a childhood, well even monsters have families, and he was no acceptation.”

“What happened to him?”

“Chrysalis killed him in the end, for I could not bring myself to, even with so many stating that it was my mistake to fix.”

“And the reason you are telling me all this,” said Blueblood.

Faust smiled once more, “Because unlike him Blueblood, you can still be saved from the darkness which has tainted your life thus far, and though you did not realize it, you already took the first step.”

“How?” asked Blueblood.

“You could have come up with any number of under-hoofed methods to try and discredit or even outright imprison the Fell Shadow, but instead after your first honest attempt to raise suspicion about what she truly was failed, you decided to decided to accuse her of the high crime of using dark magic, which if I am correct, you did to get others to possibly become suspicious of her.”

“…Indeed your highness, for I had hoped that even the suspicion of dark magic would cause others to look into her and discover the truth, but unfortunately I…well I did not factor in how tainted my reputation had become do to my own actions.”

“And it is good that you recognize what your actions wrought, but to make sure this growth continues, I would like to take you on as my student.”

Noting his shocked look, she continued, “I know it must seem strange to you, or that you are perhaps not worthy of what I offer you. But unlike my eldest daughter, not only do I prefer my students to be older in age then the ones she would take under her wing, but I also prefer to take on students who have started to rebuild their lives from what they once were.”

Finishing her painting, it burst into light before taking the form of a pure white falcon with blue eyes, which landed on her outstretched wing as she moved over to the young stallion and spoke. “As is my custom, I present to you this animal guide, to be your light along your long road when it grows dark and cold. So…what say you?”

Author's Note

*looks at time stamp for when last chapter was posted*

Well its not my longest gap between chapters (I don't think anyway), but writers block will do that to you, especially when it's coupled with the fact that you have to find a new word processor due to the one you are currently using starts aggressively trying to push you into using their cloud service to store your documents, before in the most recent update (ten days ago), tying the spell check to an AI program and making it so that you have to either buy premium to have full access to spell check or you can only correct a certain number of words per day (five to three it seems to very).

Anyways, next chapter we will get to see how the other girls are handling their status as alicorns, and we will also be getting our first glimpse of the infamous Gale Galant Mesh (Yes I will be going back to The Princess Consort to make it compliant with the name change), as well as some other members of The Circle. But till then guys, if you have any questions or comments feel free to drop them on by, for I always love hearing form you guys.

(As a weird aside, been binging a lot of Sunset related fic's as of late, so expect her to pop up in a few chapters.)