“Why... Why did I think this was a good idea?” Celestia groaned the next day. Twilight barely heard it, Luna and Dawn didn’t even notice she spoke, over the roar of the crowd that had gathered. For what was supposed to be the higher ups of the city, they were incredibly moronic and didn’t understand the fact that someone can’t answer hundreds of questions at once.

“THAT IS ENOUGH! FOR THE LAST DAMNED TIME, IF YOU WANT TO ASK A QUESTION DON’T ALL DO IT AT ONCE!” Luna finally yelled out. The room quieted down for a moment but the uproar returned in force moments later. Celestia heard some very disturbing things and it infuriated her that she couldn’t address them, let alone the genuine questions. She was going to have to do it, wasn’t she?

“ENOUGH!” She yelled in a voice far more powerful than her sister’s. It shook the room. Twilight could have sworn she saw a bit of dust from the ceiling fall. That was the first time Anyone had heard that voice in hundreds of years. It was far too powerful to be the royal canterlot voice.

“Now that We can actually hear questions, will you please simply raise your hands instead of mindlessly screaming? If it is a good question, we shall answer.” She continued after a little cough. After the crowd recovered from the booming voice, almost every single hand went up. Celestia pointed to one and prepared for the worst.

“Princess Luna, is it true that this woman you are with is, in fact, Nightmare Moon?” He asked.

“She is as much Nightmare Moon as I am.” Luna replied.

“The Nightmare will never be back again if that’s what you’re asking.” Dawn cut in. The man had nothing to say, so the hands went back up.

“Will you be a princess too?” He asked.

“Not if I can help it. I guess I would be more of a... personal assistant to Princess Luna.” Dawn answered.

“Next, you there.” Celestia said before the man could continue.

“Is it true that you and Twilight Sparkle, who has been your student since kindergarden, are romantically engaged in a relationship?” The woman asked.

“I told you all that yesterday.” Celestia replied. Before anyone could say or do anything else, though, there was a rather pompous laugh that rang through the chamber. Celestia sighed and put her head in her hand.

“What’s so funny, nephew?” She asked, annoyance nearly tangible in her voice.

“Your choice in partner. I mean, age difference and gender aside... The difference in social standard is atrocious!” Blueblood called from his place in the middle of the room. Twilight chose to ignore his words, but when she looked at Celestia she saw that the older woman seemed to be using a lot of strength to not yell some obscenities.

“And what do you mean by difference in social standard?” She asked in a deceptively sweet voice. The kind of deceptively sweet voice in which you could feel the seething anger in the air. The kind of deceptively sweet voice that told you it would be a very, VERY bad idea to piss the source of that voice off.

“You are a princess, my aunt! You are top of the social class, nothing but the best could even hope to compare! Yet you choose this girl from the country, who is little more than a peasant? In terms of importance or social standing , she’s practically not even on the list!” He exclaimed. Everyone was staring at him, some of them in awe at how incredibly stupid he was, others just wondering what was going to happen next. Luna looked mad, Dawn looked royally pissed off. Twilight herself looked a bit taken aback. But Celestia...

Blueblood had finally struck a nerve he really shouldn’t have gone anywhere near. Celestia was fuming. The arm of her throne she was gripping, which was supposed to be able to withstand any force without the slightest blemish, cracked with a resounded crashing sound. She proceeded to stand and start walking towards where he was standing. The crowd split to give her a straight path and he seemed frozen.

“How dare you...” She said softly, almost in a whisper. The tone of her voice made it more like a menacing whisper, though. “How DARE you...” She continued, reaching him and looking straight at him. He was rather short so she was looking down at him. “Blueblood, I’ve put up with everything you’ve done your entire life... But you finally said just the wrong things.” She continued. Her clenched fists were shaking, apparently she wanted nothing more than to physically beat him into nothing. While that would be enjoyable to watch, she couldn’t let herself do it.

“She is a better person than anyone in this room, more important than half of it and more important to me than all of it. She is not only the strongest mage since Starswirl the Bearded, more so now than he was in his entire life, but the element of magic. She and her friends of ‘country girls’ have saved this place, your hide included, more times than any one group of people should!

You think you have all the power in the world, the ego to go with it, but in reality you are only nobility as a favor to your parents! If you would have turned out even remotely like them I would be proud to call you my nephew... but now... Now It’s taking all of my strength not to literally throw you out of this city. You can insult me, but never insult my people. Especially if that person happens to be my girlfriend.” She raged, slowly calming down just a little bit.

“Now, you have five seconds to be out of those doors before I show you the power behind my Voice of the Goddess.” She continued. When he didn’t move, frozen in terror, she put a hand up and slowly counted down with her fingers. When she reached one finger, the hand started glowing with pure light energy. That seemed to get him out of the trance he was in as he bolted for the door, screaming. She blasted the doors open with the bit of power she had gathered, pushing him further.

She noticed something as the doors swung in their hinges. There was a small group of five dragons flying in the distance.

“That may have been just a bit much...” Dawn said. Twilight moved over to Celestia’s side and followed her line of sight.

“Where there’s something you don’t see every day.” She said.

“Looks like we’re going to have to cut this session short for now. I think it’d be wise to clear the room and the courtyard, five dragons landing could be a bit chaotic.” Luna said, Celestia still trying to calm down.

“You really didn’t need to get that mad at him...” Twilight said to her, putting an arm around her waist and pulling her close. Celestia sighed as people filed out of the room, strangely cooperative after the outburst, and turned to embrace Twilight.

“Oh it wasn’t just that... The straw that broke the camel’s back, you know?” Celestia said after a moment and finally managed to compose herself just as the dragons passed over the city limits and descended into the courtyard. After they landed, the smaller one leading them filled the area with a burst of magic and she took on a human form. Well, mostly human. Her horns, wings, talons and eyes were the same; as well a scaly texture to her skin.

“Ryu, it’s been awhile.” Celestia said when she entered. They hugged each other when the dragon-woman reached her and Luna closed the door and sealed it with magic so eavesdroppers would be warded off. It’s not everyday a contingent of dragons shows up on your doorstep.

“It has. I’m afraid me being here is quite similar to the last time.” Ryu said.

“We’ll talk about it later then... I’m afraid I’m not in a mood fit for anything but smashing someone’s face in.” Celestia said.

“I thought I heard your voice of the goddess a few moments ago.” Ryu said.

“Speaking of that, exactly what is it?” Twilight asked.

“Well... There are plenty of ascended beings. It’s rare, but not all that difficult if one is strong enough. I told you that My sister, myself and our partners were Divine beings. Do you know the difference between the two?” Celestia asked. Twilight thought for a moment before answering.

“Well... Ascended Being is the name of a creature with intelligence that has strength of nearly god-like proportions. Magical or otherwise.” Twilight said.

“Correct. A Divine being, though, is different. Not only are they recognized universally instead of only really by their own kind, their power is well over god-like. Case and point, Luna and I have power over the sun and the moon. Ryu here is probably the closest to becoming a divine being than any other ascended being I can think of...” Celestia explained.

“I can create and maintain different planes of existence. They tend to be small, but we can have that conversation later. I’m sorry, Celestia, but I need to speak with you alone as soon as possible.” Ryu said, her voice getting rather serious. Celestia sighed and turned to Twilight.

“You can tell us about it later. We’re starved.” Luna said, leaving the room with Dawn.

“Why don’t you go join them? Or do whatever you wish. I’ll have you down here once we’re done.” Celesia said.

“It’s alright. You still have your duties. I haven’t been to the royal libraries in awhile, you know where to find me. You never finished answering my question, though.” Twilight said.

“Oh, right. The voice of the goddess. I invented it so that all of Equestria could hear me. I barely tapped into it earlier and Ponyville probably heard it.” Celestia answered.

“Wow... And I thought your sister could be loud when she wanted to.” Twilight said with a laugh. She quickly pecked Celestia on the lips before happily walking out of the room, heading towards the library.

“She is definitely a keeper.” Ryu said with a laugh.

“Yes she certainly is.” Celestia said. “But, before we talk about that, let’s talk about why you’re here.” She continued.

“Well the two are kind of one in the same. I’m afraid I’m here to test your partner. You should have known of her status by now.” Ryu said. Celestia sighed.

“She ascended a long time ago. I imagine it would have been when she awoke as the element of magic. Exactly what will this test be?” Celestia asked.

“Well, it’s my job to oversee the ascension of normal ascended beings into divine beings. The test is different for everyone, not even I know what it can be.” Ryu said.

“Does she have to?” Celestia groaned.

“It’s not even her choice at the moment... That’s the way things are... Trust me, I hate doing this to people.” Ryu said, plopping down on Celestia’s throne.

“ I know it’s not your fault... I hope it isn’t something challenging... Do you think I should come with her?” Celestia asked.

“You, your sister and Dawn as well.” Ryu answered. That surprised Celestia. Why them too? Ryu seemed to read her mind.

“Dawn is to be tested as well. I think after today’s events you should be able to take two or three days off to visit Draconis.” Ryu said.

“I see... I don’t know... I can try.” Celestia said.

“Good. You’re a lot more compliant than last time.” Ryu said.

“Well last time I was barely sane. I had just sent my only sister to the moon indefinitely.” Celestia retorted.

“Good point. We can leave as soon as you can, we brought a carriage.” Ryu said. Celestia gave her a look.

“Don’t worry, it’s a relatively small one.” She assured the princess.

“Well relatively small by your standards are nearly the size of a large house by ours... I’ll do my best to get free time and leave some trusted friends in charge. If all goes well we can probably leave as soon as tonight.” Celestia said.

“Perfect. We’ll all be napping in the courtyard.” Ryu said, standing once more and walking over to the large doors.

“Alright. If you didn’t bring food I can probably get something made for you.” Celestia said, unlocking Luna’s locking spell for the dragon-woman.

“We’re dragons, of course we brought food.” Ryu chuckled. Celestia just shook her head and turned towards the door.

“I guess I’ll go get Twilight first.” She said to herself.

Twilight had a very special spot she used to read in before she was sent to ponyville. SHe would wonder the library, grabbing anything and everything she found interesting, and then she would tuck herself away behind a secret illusionary wall she had found. There was an area of the library with assorted places for sitting or resting and back in the corner there was a specific patch of wall that was ever so slightly discolored. Most people never saw it, since it was between two shelves. If one had a small enough frame, namely a rather studious girl, and wanted to find the most isolated corner of said area; it was a rather easy find.

It was a small hole, Celestia was barely able to fit with her wings, but it opened up into a large corridor. It was a bit dark, since it was lit only by torches along the walls, and it wound down under the library itself for a few steps until it reached a room that could fit about ten people comfortably. There were a few shelves down there, stocked with ancient tomes and scrolls. Some of them thought to be lost. Others thought to have been banned and destroyed.

“So did you ever figure out why and how this place happened?” Celestia asked as she reached the room to find Twilight lying on an out of place beanbag chair with an ancient tome on dark magic.

“Last time I was here I found a journal encrypted in runes. In between then and now I found a codex, which was encrypted in a particular book about starswirl the bearded, and I got a little bit translated before I decided to open this up. Apparently this was Starswirl the Bearded’s secret study. Apparently He wanted to go somewhere not even the princesses knew about. Took him five years to finish.” Twilight explained, most of her attention still in the book.

“Why am I not surprised... Normally I’d ask you why you’re reading such a dark tome, but for now there is something incredibly important I need to speak to you about.” Celestia said, plopping down next to her partner. This drew the girl’s attention away from her book.

“I’m guessing it has something to do with that dragon?” Twilight asked. Celestia nodded and tried to find a way to explain it.

“Well for starters, you are an ascended being. All of the elements are. That’s really not important, though.” Celestia started.

Author's Note

so I totally wrote this all in one go
I'm sorry it feels kind of all over the place... my brain is trying to piece stuff together that isn't there and my english class has me read macbeth and a tale of two cities at the same time and it's just all bad...
but hey, i might actually be here for a little bit more than just a chapter