When she stepped away from the vanity, Celestia had her hair and makeup done and the heavy golden brace around her neck. The crown rested firmly where it always had, right behind her horn, where it dug firmly into her scalp.

All dressed up in chains, she donned her golden shoes and let them bind her to the floor. Metaphorically, that is; even the brace itself wasn't heavy enough to keep her grounded. And pegasus-made footwear wasn't exactly known for its grip anyway. Any other pony wearing them would have a tendency to slide around everywhere.

Yet the Princess walked with a practiced grace and poise down the halls until she reached the throne room. It was a long room, with a large golden dais upon which her throne rested. The red carpet was worn from years of use, a reminder of all the years she'd spent in this chamber.

The view coming in was a lot better than the view from the throne itself. All she got to look at for hours on end was the far wall and door. To counter the boredom, Celestia had long ago ordered that elaborate tapestries be arranged on the far wall for her to study. But even though she had many such tapestries and had them changed frequently, she quickly grew disinterested in the distractions.

But mornings were not a time to be entertaining boredom. For six hundred years, she had allowed the citizens of Equestria to write in letters to her so she could read all about their anxieties. What good was a ruler who could not pay attention to the needs of even her most meager subjects, after all?

A while later she put away the final letter of that morning, from a nice stallion in the west who feared that the summer water regulations would take a toll on his crops, and turned to face the latest arrival.

“Hello Puzzlemint,” she said softly.

“Good day, Princess,” her closest advisor replied, “I wanted to greet you personally before I began my vacation, so I brought you this.” She pulled out a letter, closed by a familiar wax seal.

“My dear,” Celestia cooed, “You can visit me whenever you please. I am not one to hold my subjects to such formalities.”

“I am well aware,” Puzzlemint replied, retaining her official demeanor, “I wish you the best of luck while I'm gone.”

“How will I ever manage without you?” Celestia replied half-mockingly.

“Not very well, I should think.”

She swiftly turned and trotted away. Celestia had glanced up immediately, but couldn't be sure if she had seen a quick smile forming on Puzzlemint's lips or not.

Grinning herself at Puzzlemint's behavior, Celestia picked the letter up in her magic and inspected it. Carefully breaking the seal, she opened it and read the familiar script of the dignitary's scribe. Apparently the representative had found his accommodations suitable and was looking forward to the next day's meeting.

The princess groaned and let the letter fall. Not this again. She knew, as did the delegate himself, that their issues would not be solved in a mere two hours. Ponies and donkeys may be considered equals, but a border was still a border, and neither her nor the United Triple Alliance was willing to give up an inch of the rich mountain territories they fought over. She was just going to have to go all the way to Tenochtitlan itself in order to speak with their head of state about this.

In the meantime, how long would it take before her and the representative reached a mutual understanding? Twenty minutes… ten? What would they talk about for two hours? He would do his job and stay for the full appointed time. The phrase was “stubborn as a mule”, but she'd never met a donkey that wouldn't have it his way. Kind of the origin of this very dispute, actually. It's not like they needed the land, they just felt cheated out of it; it was their fault for squandering the payment she'd given them.

Well, idle hooves were Discord's playthings, and she had too much work to waste time lamenting on what could no longer be changed. Her power could only send the sun forward, after all. So she called up another assistant.

“Yes, your Majesty?” the young mare asked.

Celestia thought for a moment, but couldn't remember the mare's name. “You're new around here, are you?” she asked. The young assistant nodded in reply. Celestia asked, “Would you then tell me your name? I prefer to address my subjects by name.”

“My name…” she seemed terrified at the prospect of speaking directly to the Princess. Celestia had to suppress a smile at the memory of a young Puzzlemint behaving the exact same way. “My name is Woven Reed.”

“Oh, are you a basket weaver?” Celestia asked, craning to get a look at Woven Reed's cutie mark.

“Um… no, your Highness,” she replied, unconsciously shirking from Celestia's gaze, “I-I've always wanted to make little reed figurines, but… I…”

“That sounds delightful,” the Princess told her, “Have you much practice?”

“Um… no, actually, you see… my mother, she said I should stick to what I know, that there was no market for my figures. But I was never any good at weaving, you see, I always wanted to build. I even got a cutie mark in sculpting, kinda, but my mother…”

Her ears drooped at the frown spreading across Celestia's muzzle. What the monarch said next, though, surprised her.

“Tell you what,” Celestia offered, “How about you go bring me the reports I have to look through this morning, don't forget to bring me a pad I can write on, and then you take the rest of the day off, go home, and start working on your figurines. In a thousand years, it is one thing I have yet to see, and I would not be doing my duty to ignore a potentially new form of art.”

It was a half-lie. Wooden figurines like that had existed once in Equestria, but it was mostly before Celestia's rule. Few had survived the thousand years since then; she only knew of five, and one was sitting in her room upstairs. But it was also something that Celestia would love to see make a resurgence.

Of course, that could have just been nostalgia taking hold. It had screwed her over more than once before. For an immortal to get caught up in wishing for the past, it was nearly unforgivable, and the consequences unavoidable. She hoped she wasn't making a big mistake, even for something that seemed so minor, but the look of pure joy spreading over the young Woven Reed's face was worth the risk.

She was ecstatic. “Oh, thank you Princess!” She cried, “I promise, I'll do my very best and bring it back to show you tomorrow!”

“I'll hold you too it,” she replied softly, her tone and expression careful not to betray the inner turmoil settling in her gut.

But Woven Reed returned quickly with what Celestia had asked for, and the work was enough to distract her from the issue, if only temporarily.

Sadly, reading reports and jotting down notes for later wasn't the most exciting thing to be doing either. In fact, it was downright dull. Some of these reports were interesting, but they were just words on paper. What she wouldn't give to have been on the excavation team at Grevy's Rock, instead of merely sitting here reading what they found. At the very least she could be helping citizens New Yolk recover from the recent hurricane instead of sitting here reading up on how the situation was progressing.

A loud chime reverberating through the building told her that it was eleven o'clock. Lunch would be in a scant hour. Surely there was something she could be doing better than sifting through paperwork. She thought about it for a moment, and then grinned.

“Guard,” she said, getting one of the soldier's attention. It was customary not to address the guards by name. Never mind that their armor was enchanted to hide their true identities, it just wasn't safe to reveal their identities even in a time of peace. Too many incidents had proven the need for such unhappy restrictions.

She handed the guard her papers, ordering that they find their way to her private workroom for later. The other tried to escort her as she left the room, but she waved him away. Precautions were necessary, but so was privacy. Besides, where could she go in the castle where guards would not already be?

The courtyard was bathed in late-morning sunlight, yet the elevation of the city made it hard to soak in any warmth. The grounds had yet to be watered, she noted. After a quick glance to make sure nopony but the two guards on duty would see, she slipped off her golden shoes and walked barehoof across the grass.

She could hear the hustle and bustle of Canterlot just over the hedges, a far cry from the peace and quiet she once had in these gardens. Where had her nature gone? Even the garden itself was spoiled by a nearby gardener's shed. Although… she strained her memory for a moment, and smiled once she could remember what she'd hidden within it for such a day as this.

The two guards were more than surprised when their Princess walked over, one outstretched wing supporting a dusty net, and three racquets clenched below her other wing. A shuttlecock was resting over the tip of her horn. She stopped before them, a gleam of hope in her eye.

“Badminton, anypony?”

The guards hesitated and shard a worried glance. Could this be a legitimate offer? Was she just testing them? Going against what they had been taught, they looked their Princess in the eyes, and saw her divine sincerity. Her smile faltered for a moment at their hesitation, and they hastily nodded to keep her happy.

One one of the guards was a unicorn. The poor earth pony was forced to hold her racquet in her mouth. Celestia set up the net on the lawn and took one side. Her guards would be playing against her for once. What a pleasant change of pace, she thought.

“Alright, girls, I'm not going to go easy on you,” she warned. The two gulped in worry and seemed to flinch. Equestria's finest soldiers, huh? She was going to have to pound some confidence into them.

Just as she had predicted, the soldiers seemed to cower away from the shuttlecock as it came crashing down on their side of the field. Celestia just rolled her eyes and said, “Point one for me.”

The unicorn was just as hesitant in picking up the birdie and serving it back to her. Delicately, doing her best not to frighten them, she hit it back over. The earth pony took a chance and came forward, knocking the birdie back with her own racquet. Celestia's smile began to spread back across her face as the two figured it out.

Celestia had the clear advantage, being taller than her guards. The racquet was held by her magic, but it wouldn't be fair to stand still and swing it around the field, so she held it close to her the entire time and darted around like a normal pony. The opposing unicorn must have observed her sense of fair play, because she followed suit.

From there, a regular pattern formed. The earth pony, unable to shift how she held the racquet in his mouth, stood close to the net and would gently knock the shuttlecock back over the net, and the unicorn played the back of the field, darting around and making the harder shots. Their pattern forced Celestia to move around, straining her focus.

After one particularly difficult shot, Celestia paused to catch her breath. There was a twinkle in the unicorn's eye as she saw her chance. Leaping as high as he could, he slapped the shuttlecock down on the other side of the net. The Princess, already down by two points, dived forward and swung with all her might, hearing the satisfactory thwack of the shuttlecock against her racquet before she tumbled to the ground.

The guards ran to her side, the birdie abandoned on the ground where it lay. They stood over the Princess, who was getting to her hooves and wiping the dust off her coat. And she was laughing.

“That was fun!” she exclaimed, then looked confused. “Why'd you stop?” she asked, “You didn't let me win that round, did you?” The two insisted that they hadn't, that they were just concerned for her, but she simply shook her head to assure them that she was alright. “Now, let's get back to it, shall we?”

“Ahem.”

Celestia had to put effort into keeping her ears from drooping at that sound. It was the sound of her work come to haunt her once again. Turning around, she forged a smile at the sight of her assistant Raven. The smart cookie wasn't hiding her frown, instead clearly perturbed at the sight of her Majesty getting “down and dirty” with the guardsponies.

“Princess, an alert has come through from Vanhoover. The town is being attacked by a giant squid in the harbor. You need to dispatch the Wonderbolts immediately.”

“And so I shall!” Celestia replied, growing firm and resolute. She stopped only to slip back into her golden shoes and whisper to the guards, “We'll finish this some other time.” But as she walked away, a terrible weight on her heart assured her that no such thing would occur.

Author's Note

Puzzlemint is actually a character that appears in the story "4 Conversations about 1 thing", which sadly isn't on Fimfiction from what I can tell. I can't say if she's from anywhere else, nor could I find a way to get in contact with the author to ask about using the character. So for all intent and purposes I basically borrowed the character without asking, but it does give me the excuse to promote the other story she appeared in. Go read it. Right now.

Also, I don't keep up with the news, but at the time I'm working on this I kinda heard about some bad weather up in New York (?). If that's the case, the scene that mentions the "hurricane in New Yolk" isn't intentionally referencing that. Not trying to twist other people's misfortunes into my own gain. I haven't sunk that far yet.

I've always thought that, with all the guards except Shining Armor looking exactly alike, there must be something enchanted about their armor that hides their identities. In The Crystal Empire part 1, we see a guard take off his helmet though, sadly disproving this theory. They just must all stem from an unfortunately similar gene pool. But I kept the enchanted armor thing in there anyway. I think it works.

And lastly, I appreciate all the favorites (6 from a single chapter alone!) but I'd also really appreciate a comment if you can spare the time. Constructive criticism is appreciated, and even just a brief "I enjoy this" blurb is still welcome.