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Princess Summit [Closed; Princesses Only]


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It was an early day in Canterlot. Celestia had decided that it was time to hold the first princess summit since Twilight Sparkle's coronation. There was much to discuss and to consider for the good of Equestria and the Crystal Empire. Celestia wrote out three letters addressed to her fellow princesses, Luna, Cadence and the newly coronated Twilight Sparkle. The body of the letter read as thus:

The time has cometo discuss important matters of state, and various topics regarding all the recent events.So much has happened in recent months, from the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, the Crystal Empire returning, and the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle among a great many other things, we have so much to discuss, therefore I am hereby calling a summit to be held in the meeting room of the Crystal Empire to happen at the first of this upcoming month. I am looking forward to seeing everyone together for the first time since Princess Twilight Sparkle's coronation.

See you all soon.

Princess Celestia

Celestia knew that much more would need to be discussed, but those were the main points that needed discussing. The security, newly resurfaced empire and the new Princess were top bill for what needed to be discussed. Other topics such as the budget and REA, as well as provisions for disaster relief and current events and how they were and could be handled in the future. Celestia wasn't even sure if they could discuss everything that needed to be touched upon in one short weekend, but they would have to try. Though the fate of Equestria and the Crystal Empire didn't depend on it, the happiness of all the citizens was likely to be directly affected.

Celestia packed her bags and made her way by flying chariot to the Crystal Empire.

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As soon as she got the news from her Auntie Celestia that the Princess Summit was definitely planned for the first of next month, Princess Cadence immediately got to work on preparations. This summit would have taken place at an earlier date, but unexpected circumstances caused it to be delayed at the last minute before royal business could really begin. But this time however, Cadence was sure that this all-important meeting would finally be able to show her sister-in-law, Twilight Sparkle, a taste in what it meant to be a princess.

 

In the days leading up to the Princess Summit, Cadence’s household staff worked to polish the Crystal Palace for the arrival of the other princesses. Special care was taken with the Council Chamber where the group of alicorns would conduct most of the matters of royal interest. Maids polished the surface of the round, dark-blue crystal table in the room’s center so that anypony could easily see their reflection. Other ponies ensured that the maroon carpet below the table appeared without any spot or wrinkle on it. The same devotion was also applied with the blue curtains for the windows surrounding three of the chamber’s four sides and for the glossy floor.

 

As per Princess Summit precedent, Princess Cadence planned to receive her visitors in the Throne Room. But for this meeting, she opted to dispense with much of the pomp and circumstance that usually accompanied the event. Instead of an entire group of trumpeters, Cadence assigned only a single herald from the Crystal Guard to announce the arrival of each guest. And while several hours usually passed before the princesses convened as a council, the pink alicorn actually thought about skipping ahead to start the conference straight away; after all, this Summit had already been considerably delayed. And so Cadence stood at attention in front of her throne, anxiously waiting for her first fellow princess to arrive.....

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Luna had arrived earlier than the other princesses. As her nightly duties twisted around her sleep schedule, so did her arrive time at important events. The meeting, having being held at the popular convenience, Luna often found herself having to make a change of plans in her sleep schedule, so that she would be well prepared for being attentive and assertive during a time in which she is often resting.

She spent the night in one of the royal chambers. With her, she had brought two guards ponies who pulled her chariot for her, both adorning the lunar princess' colors and her likeness. They would be allowed to stand relaxed at the Crystal Empire's hospitality until the summit was finished and Luna would return to Canterlot. Luna rarely traveled with her sister because of schedule conflicts and the interest of diversifying leadership in Equestria.

She arose with plenty of sleep. However, her bearings were still a little unsettled, as seeing window panes beam sunlight through was a rare occurrence for Luna to see. The outdoor corridors Luna was so familiar with in the Crystal Palace seemed like places she had never before seen. The moon rested the aura that Luna gave it, but her presence at this hour remained full, and she would see to it that her hooves played a major role in the decision-making at this summit.

She walked into the throne room. Her smile was absent but her poise remained. Luna squinting slightly at the high reflective colors that bounced throughout the room. She walked slowly passed the lone guard as she made her way towards the crystal princess. She kept silent though, awaiting any presentation or introduction that might be waiting for her.

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Twilight Sparkle had almost missed the invitation at first, lost as she as in the art of trouble solving. It took a unique mindset to look at a diverse nation and see a puzzle worth solving, even if at it's base nature it was a puzzle that would evolve antagonistically with every solution. Most ponies would not envy the task of improving the lot of the many at such high stakes when the guarantee of failure in some small part was hard-boiled into the formula. But she relished the challenge. Tax codes that varied by region, county, city, sometimes even streets and status. Royal Equestrian Army deployments, deficiencies, strengths, reactions, disposition, and status in defense of Equestria. The yield of farms seasonally over the course of centuries compared with growing consumption rates, economic relations with other nations, crime levels, the Everfree's impact on controlled weather outside of the forest itself- all were linked in a grand tapestry and these were but the most obvious signs. Equestria's newest and perhaps boldest Princess was relishing the challenge.

So it had been with a little trepidation that she decided to attend the summit. It was definitely needed. She could more easily present her findings and theories on a dozen subjects or more much easier if they were muzzle to muzzle with one another, and she could tell she needed a break. Referring to friends by their hospital birth identification had been a rather obvious sign that she was simply too deep into it. It was still work, but work came with good food and maybe a few massages. Not a bad thing. Plus she would get to see her sister in law and maybe even her brother, so she could finally tell her parents something they didn't already know about the married couple. But ashappy as it could be, she had to admit to a bit of fear of going back. Her last trip for the first failed summit had turned into the sort of identity crisis which would have consumed less active minds. Thinking that they were all doppelgangers, or that they had doppelgangers, in at least one universe if not infinite ones did a number on her self-identity for a few weeks after the event had passed.

But she had to, for the good of Equestria. She made her reservations and when the time came, arrived in the Crystal Empire with another chriot in tow. She bounced out of her chariot and her two drivers saluted, flying off to await the time of the summit's end. The second chariot arrived with considerably more difficulty, almost tipping over as it landed. The two stallion drivers almost collapsed, falling against the chariot itself. Twilight levitated five columns of papers, each column two alicorns high, out of the chariot which gave a noticeable squeak as it did so. The two stood back up and saluted weakly before flying off to find the others. Twilight levitated the papers behind her as she walked towards the throne room, guards at attention and bowing as she went. The herald announced her arrival as the doors opened, trumpeting and then speaking to the few assembled:

"Princess Twilight Sparkle has arrived!" He announced as Twilight trotted past, smiling as she noticed two of the Princesses. She stopped to form a bow but stopped before she could commit- she didn't need to do that anymore. She continued her trot.

"Cadance, Luna, it's so nice to see you! I HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU!"

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While flying to the Crystal Empire, Celestia had already started going through what should be discussed. Some were obvious based on past events, such as the security of Equestria, others were not so interesting such as the economics of Equestria. Still, all things needed to be discussed and Twilight Sparkle needed to be allowed to give her input as the newest princess. And Celestia was confident that she would rise to the occasion with great ease.

As she finally neared the Crystal Empire she knew the time was finally here for all the princesses to be gathered in one place at once. The chariot landed at the front of the Crystal Palace and Celestia spread her wings and gently and gracefully lifted off and landed on the ground the same way. Celestia cantered into the castle and made her way to the throne room, where the castle guards opened the door for her and her herald announced her enterence.

"Princess Celestia has arrived!" Celestia gave an acknowledging bow of her head to the herald and guard as she trotted past them.

"It is so good to see everyone together again at last." Celestia began. "I'm hoping we can have a productive summit, especially considering the last attempt was less than successful, due to unforeseen circumstances." Celestia continued as she briefly grimaced at the recollection of the issue with Twilight's stolen crown. She quickly pushed such thoughts from her head and smiled looking at the three other princesses before her. "Now we have much to discuss, even more so than last time." Celestia said as she directed her attention to Cadence. "Please lead the way to the Council Chambers, Princess Cadence."

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The first guest to arrive in the Throne Room was Princess Luna, the alicorn that Princess Cadence felt the least familiar with. Between all her prior royal duties throughout Equestria and her current role as co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, Cadence was ashamed to say that she never found much time to spend with Auntie Celestia’s sister. Maybe that error could be remedied during downtime later on during the Summit. “Welcome to the Crystal Empire Princess Luna,” Cadence respectfully greeted the Princess of Night with a graceful nod, not quite knowing how Luna would react to pre-conference small talk; “I trust you had a pleasant trip?”

 

"Cadence, Luna, it's so nice to see you! I HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU!"

 

Princess Cadence’s polite smile morphed into a giant grin as Princess Twilight entered the Throne Room next. In typical Twilie fashion, five absurdly-high stacks of paper levitated behind the lavender alicorn as she trotted in. Cadence had to hoof it to her sister-in-law; Twilight was the sole pony in the world who could make pouring through documents and charts a fun activity, even for even a bureaucratically-inept pony like Cady. “Twilight!” the pink princess excitedly welcomed Twilie without the same decorum she used to address Luna; “So good to see you again! I heard you’ve done a lot since we last saw each other.” That was a rather mild way to refer to Twi resolving the Tree of Harmony crisis.

 

"It is so good to see everyone together again at last. I'm hoping we can have a productive summit, especially considering the last attempt was less than successful, due to unforeseen circumstances. Now we have much to discuss, even more so than last time. Please lead the way to the Council Chambers, Princess Cadence."

 

Auntie Celestia came last of all, and she declared her intention to get straight to business right away. Princess Cadence felt the same sentiment too, and a quick glance that Twilight’s beaming face suggested the same could be said of the lavender mare. With consensus to begin the conference promptly established, Cadence walked away from her crystal throne out of the Throne Room, bidding her fellow princesses to follow; “The Council Chambers are already prepared for us, Celestia. I’m guessing Twilight here is eager to talk about every document she’s brought with her.” Giving a knowing sisterly wink towards the newest princess, Cady added with a jovial grin as the lone Crystal Guard on station opened the door out into the hallway; “I bet there’s no way she can get through it all in one day.....”

 

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Luna stared at Cadence flatly and gave a small shrug. "The trip and stay has been satisfactory thus far." It was hard to impress Princess Luna, even harder to get her to smile concerning trivial things such as talking about the weather or travel arrangements. It was over the years of banishment Luna had acquired the rough facial expressions that now alienate her from ponies she is talking to. She didn't like the fact that it made her look sad or mad when she wasn't, but it was even harder to change it than it was to recognize that she might be coming off the wrong way.

That is of course, unless Celestia was there. Luna smirked as Celestia entered the room. "My sister, it is good to see you again." Luna approached her and leaned her neck on hers, raising a hoof to her sister's back. "Dear sister, you look rather pale, have you not received enough rest?" Luna joked with Celestia, keeping the love for her sister at the angle of indifference. A good summit wouldn't be the same without the ceremonial sisterly jabs.

And then there was the new one. Twilight came with a cart full of what looked like reference documents and scrolls. Cadence suggested they might not be able to get through it all in one day. Luna agreed. "Twilight Sparkle. Are you sure you are prepared for this? Because if those papers are for a lecture, I'll have you know I have a moon to raise later tonight." Given the context, Luna's suggestion could have easily been mistaken for a joke. But she was serious. That moon was pretty important.

Luna continued walking through the opened door towards the meeting chambers.

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Celestia arrived and was straight to business, which suited Twilight just fine. She loved each and every other Princess in deep, if different, ways. But this summit wasn't a social call or a media blitz to make everypony at ease. There were many problems facing Equestria and Twilight was happy to get to work as soon as she could. But that didn't stop her from being polite to both Celestia and Cadance, who had welcomed her so warmly. She was really excited to see her sister in law and get caught up, but that could wait. It'd have to. She wanted to talk some more with Celestia and get caught up on some personal matters, but it would have to wait. She wanted Luna to crack a smile but that'd have to wait until infinity.

"A lot has happened, Cadance. I'm sure some of it will come up, but I think it was meant to be. We'll see. It's all so very exciting!" She said, her voice catching fire knew the end as her wings shot out for a brief second in excitement. Equestria has such a long history and the Princesses such a long memory and a wealth of records, finding something that was a real mystery was rare and invigorating. What wasn't rare was Luna's seeming dislike of Twilight. Or at least she didn't seem to have much faith in her. Well, maybe she was right. Twilight had a lot of work to get through, but it would have been nice for at least one of them to show some enthusiasm for the work! No matter, though. If she didn't have the belief immediately, she'd earn it soon enough.

"I'm sure that both of you will find your current concerns silly in a few hours time. I know what time we have alloted and I'm sure we can do it. Besides, if we can't do it here, I am sure we can do it via letters," She winked towards Luna and nudged Cadance as they entered the throne room, "have some faith in me! I have it under control. Mostly." She laughed, trotting deeper into the room. A table in the shape of a horseshoe filled the center of it, with the Crystal throne not far off. Four seats were prepped at different locations across the shoe. Twilight took one of the ends and laid her stack of documents about a dozen feet behind her. It was very quiet in here, something she had not expected but found welcoming.

Twilight took a sip of water, using a low magical hum to sort and create certain sections of the paperwork behind her to shift in and out of position behind her as she scanned the room.

"So, what should we start on?"

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  • 2 weeks later...

Princess Cadence was as good of a host as ever, she had already made the necessary preparations it seems. This made Celestia pleased, with the feeling that this summit would go extremely smoothly, unlike last time.

“The Council Chambers are already prepared for us, Celestia. I’m guessing Twilight here is eager to talk about every document she’s brought with her.”Giving a knowing sisterly wink towards the newest princess, Cady added with a jovial grin as the lone Crystal Guard on station opened the door out into the hallway; “I bet there’s no way she can get through it all in one day.....”

Celestia smiled as Cadence told her that the chambers were prepared and ready. "I'm glad to hear you have everything well in hoof Princess Cadence," she replied. Then came the jab at Twilight and her rather large stack of papers and Celestia let out a light giggle at the accusation. "While Princess Twilight seems to have brought quite a bit to talk about, I am confident we will be able to get through everything before the end of the weekend. In fact I am sure that Princess Twilight already has something in mind as well." Celestia said with a gentle smile, confident in her former pupil's abilities. Never once did she let her down, and Celestia knew that everypony would see that now. "And we don't need to get through it all in one day. We have the weekend to go over everything needed." Celestia said confidently, she too had her doubts, there was a lot to discuss, certainly some things everyone was eager to discuss and get through, and other things that each princess would want to discuss on their own. Whether or not it would be possible would be up to the organization skills of the four princesses combined.

"My sister, it is good to see you again." Luna approached her and leaned her neck on hers, raising a hoof to her sister's back. "Dear sister, you look rather pale, have you not received enough rest?"

Celestia smiled as Luna playfully joked with her. "It is nice to see you as well, we haven't seen each other since the night before last when we changed shifts. I'm surprised you decided to come here early," Celestia replied to her sister's greeting. "As for my rest, you should know better than any pony that a certain somepony has been entering my dreams lately, which makes it difficult to get a good night's rest," Celestia playfully replied. "Which reminds me," Celestia said in a lower voice. "We must discuss our plans for tonight Luna, please tell Cadence to be ready." Celestia said with a mischevious grin as she looked back at Twilight in tow of her papers.

"I'm sure that both of you will find your current concerns silly in a few hours time. I know what time we have allotted and I'm sure we can do it. Besides, if we can't do it here, I am sure we can do it via letters," She winked towards Luna and nudged Cadance as they entered the throne room,"have some faith in me! I have it under control. Mostly."

Princess Celestia nodded at Twilight's assertions. "I look forward to your presentations Twilight. I am sure you have put much thought into what you have brought and how you will present it." Celestia showed her faith in Twilight, after all she had Twilight read 12 books in one weekend once, if she could manage that, she could manage anything.

"So, what should we start on?"

Celetsia looked at the other three princesses in the council chambers. "I would like to start by first congratulating you Princess Twilight Sparkle. And to ask you if you would like to keep a room at Canterlot Castle in case you need to perform any royal duties there and need to stay over night." Celestia said with a smile. With everything that had happened, she never had the chance to offer this place at the palace. "Of course it is only a room, your home will of course remain in in Ponyville for as long as you desire." Celestia said smiling at the newest princess.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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"The trip and stay has been satisfactory thus far."

 

Princess Cadence couldn’t get a good read on Luna. While the night princess verbally communicated that she was pleased at the moment, her lack of a smile indicated otherwise. Cadence did not try dwelling too much on Luna’s feelings though; maybe the other alicorn just wasn’t one for idle chit-chat. Therefore, the pink princess merely nodded in response.

 

"I'm sure that both of you will find your current concerns silly in a few hours time. I know what time we have allotted and I'm sure we can do it. Besides, if we can't do it here, I am sure we can do it via letters; have some faith in me! I have it under control. Mostly."

 

While the others walked into the Council Chamber, Princess Cadence stayed by the entryway to keep the door open with her magic. Like Twilight, Cadence laughed at the joke Twily made about having everything under control. Meanwhile, some inaudible whispering from Princess Celestia made the pink alicorn realize that once again, her auntie had devious plans in mind.

 

"So, what should we start on?"

 

"I would like to start by first congratulating you Princess Twilight Sparkle. And to ask you if you would like to keep a room at Canterlot Castle in case you need to perform any royal duties there and need to stay over night. Of course it is only a room, your home will of course remain in in Ponyville for as long as you desire."

 

Magically closing the door behind her, Cadence sat down at one of the seats as Celestia commenced her opening remarks. It sounded like the Princess Summit would begin with a relatively light topic of discussion, mainly about Twilight's future living arrangements. Knowing it was the right thing to do as a fellow princess and a sister-in-law, Cadence also offered; "I'll always be glad to lend you a room here at the Crystal Palace when you need to stay for royal duties... or if you want to visit that brother of yours, heh heh." Cady just had to chuckle at that last remark.....

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Being the last one to enter the meeting chambers, Luna passed by Cadance who was to close the door once all the princesses had walked inside. But Luna leaned towards her and whispered. "Princess Cadance, my sister is probably going to give Twilight a little bit of a gag. If and when she does, just play along." Luna smiled and sat on her end of the large horseshoe table.

The other princesses were quick to offer Twilight a space for study, however Luna had nothing to offer her. "My chambers are private and my wing of the castle is fully operational during the night, as to be expected. You are welcome to the that area as well, but I do not think you will need it." Luna spoke pensively, but wished that there was something more important to be discussed with such a topic. So she did the honors herself to change the subject. "So Twilight, tell us what is your news. What have you brought forth to show us today?" Luna looked up at the clock to note the time her lecture might start.

Luna had a complicated discourse involving Twilight. Though her sister was easily the fair opposite in duty and light, Twilight seemed more of a strange pony for Luna to get used to. She wasn't used to having princesses just come out of the ground and start inspiring other ponies with their magic. For the longest time it was just the sisters, their petty arguments went on like sisters would, discussing important things, but also enjoying the values of a happy lifestyle, one Luna still remembers when they lived in the twin palaces. But now, the number of princesses had doubled, and it changed the way they would talk to one another forever. The amount of trust Luna had in Twilight lacked experience, even though she has yet to see the filly fail.

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Both Celestia and Cadance went above the call in offering her places to stay. It may have been her right as a Princess but it still seemed like a favor. It made sense for her to keep locations across the nation for her travels, but she had little in the way of needs. No attendants save for Spike and no need for luxury meant that she could stay just about anywhere in the world that had a roof. Of course, having access to royal palaces benefitted her in one great area and that was whereveer she went she could probably get access to the greatest resources. And despite Luna's somewhat demure sugestion, the same held true even in the night. She had access to everything she wanted anytime she wanted anywhere she wanted, because all she wanted was knowledge.

"Thank you, thank all of you, for the offers. I would be happy to have some place to sleep wherever I go, but if I may- what I would really want is just the closest room to your libraries. If it is room for staff, then they may have guest royal quarters. Closest to the library would be best but...well, thank you!" She ended with a half-bow, stopping herself again. Old habits die hard and habbits you leaned on died harder. But she recovered, levitated a glass of water over, and took Luna's suggestion to heart. She stood up and trotted to the center of the The water returned and three folders were levitated, one for each Princess currently sitting. Twilight's horn glowed for a second and she squinted her eyes with effort, resulting in a dull flash of sparks and suddenly an iage floated above her. Graphs, charts, figures, geograpy, random images that fit her speech flashed in view of the Princesses along with their own pamphlets.

"I am assuming that none of you share my love of economic theory and development, so let me lead with my findings and proposals- which are located on pages three onwards and fifteen to fifty-six respectively- and do it in shorthoof. Then I will detail, also in summation, the methods and figures that made up the findings and how I reached them, which will be pages fifty-seven to six-hundred and sixteen," She coughed to clear her throat and continued, this time with a bit more authority.

"Equestria as a nation has a thriving economy with a superb tax model and base, but nonetheless there are multiple shortcomings that manage to both hurt what we receive and also harms the poorest among us. While these shortcomings are relatively few in number, they are consistent and unchanging. This speaks to a fundamental flaw..." Twilight started, her speech clearly pronounced yet swift like a professor in a hurry. She trusted her fellow Princesses to follow. After two minutes and sixteen seconds, she was finished with her findings.

"So as we can see, the progressive taxation we use is fine in theory but with how many loopholes exist, tends to be ineffective when applied to the richest among us while double charging some of the poor. When you add in the costs associated with progressive taxation and the loopholes, it is a fundamentally flawed system in some ways. I therefore propose the cancellation of the listed tax benefits in the proposal section, pages sixteen through nineteen, and the establishment of benefits listed on pages ninteen through twenty-three. Then we can move on to changing the progressive taxation to a tiered flat tax- difference being far fewer changes and much easier identifiers. That will make up the rest of the proposals in terms of revenue generation. When it comes to collection, I believe..." Twilight continued, listing her changes to the department that collected the revenue. Make it smaller, leaner, faster, more accurate by getting rid of up to seventy percent of the Canterlot based staff and creating smaller deartments across the nation. Transportation of bits became a bigger priority as bit transport airships would be bigger targets for robbers, but Guard coverage would deter all but the most insane. She finished that proposal and took a sigh- explaining it all had taken a half an hour.

"So, that is my report on the tax code's effect on Equestria and my proposal. In a nutshell. Full reports are in front of you," she levitated her water over to her and finished it, "ah, had no water by the end. Anyway, questions? If not, I'd be excited to move to the next topic and we can consider voting on my proposals after discussion and debate."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Princess Celestia watched as Cadence offered Twilight a room as well, and Luna use of her wing during the night. Twilight responded to the offers in an expected way.

"Thank you, thank all of you, for the offers. I would be happy to have some place to sleep wherever I go, but if I may- what I would really want is just the closest room to your libraries. If it is room for staff, then they may have guest royal quarters. Closest to the library would be best but...well, thank you!"

"Well then, it is good that I had the guest bedroom down the hall of the Castle Library prepared for such an eventuality," the princess slyly responded. After all, it was she who had arranged Twilight stay in the Golden Oaks Library when she went to Ponyville, so naturally Celestia did the same for Canterlot Castle. After so many years, you learn things about your prized pupil, and one would have to be blind to not see Twilight enjoyed books and being in libraries than any other place. Naturally if Twilight wanted a more permanent solution it would be easy to find a larger room and fill it with as many books as she could fit. "I do hope that is close enough for your liking Twilight. But as I said, it is only if you need or want it."

Twilight then passed out stacks of papers to all the princesses and started on the driest of subjects... tax law. Now Celestia didn't quite mind the discussion of tax law if it needed to be discussed, but the Equestrian Revenue Service (ERS) seemed to be doing a fine job, but still it was their duty to hear the newest princess out. With that Twilight gave a display of graphs, charts and figures to visualize her findings which were in front of Celestia which she quickly read through [getting through several hundreds of pages of droll tax findings and propositions was something Celestia was quite used to]. Though she did not care to admit it, there was some substance to Twilight's claims, over the years Celestia left it to the ERS to maintain the taxes, but ponies seemed to be taking advantage of the system, not in a large way, but still in a way to negatively impact some ponies throughout Equestria. Perhaps it was from seeing something in Ponyville for long periods of time, regardless it had to be addressed. Celestia felt, however that many of the proposed changes were a bit radical and unnecessary... Still... compromises would likely be able to be made. Perhaps putting in legistlature to standardize taxes so the system could not be gamed. Making tiered system instead of a system purely on income might be seen as unfair, but still it was a point worth discussing... but not now... Celestia had other plans...

Twilight never attended one of these summits before, so perhaps she didn't realize that it wasn't an uptight ruling of Equestria, after all, decisions made would not go immediately into effect as there was still due process, so it was more of a summit of ideas and how to maintain the high quality of living across the Equestrian and Crystal empires. Before laying the papers down Celestia looked around the room, to see the reaction of the other princesses. She knew that not everyone enjoyed talking about the mundane. Luna was studiously looking over Twilight's propositions, to be expected, this isn't the first time that she has discussed such matters, in fact Celestia and Luna often discussed matters of ruling Equestria quite openly in private. Cadence on the other hoof... well... it looked as if Twilight fried her brain with all the numbers and tax laws.

Celestia smiled and shook her head as she slowly closed the portfolio, looking at the two other princesses in the room. "I'm sorry Twilight, but I simply cannot agree with your findings. They are contradictory to the findings and numbers of the ERS." They weren't at all contradictory, really, however they weren't as severe as Twilight's findings. Clearly they didn't see it as much as a problem as Twilight did, and the Princess had considered passing legislature had it progressed further, but Twilight seems to see it as a terrible problem, still... this was Twi's first summit and as such a bit of playful misdirection could be fun. "I had originally planned to leave up the taxes to you Twilight because I was sure you would have them well in hoof, and left behind the report the ERS had prepared for me, and I see now that was a mistake. I'm not sure which Equestria you were looking at but I think you are trying to fix something that is not broken. And proposing radical changes could create unrest as well." Aside from that last part, everything was partially fabricated.

The actual execution would need to be corrected, but the general idea was solid, and Celestia was all for that. Making a more fair system was a good thing, but to propose more radical changes would be a mistake, it would be far easier to easy the legislation in slowly doing it in parts rather than a complete overhaul.

"However, before the matter is discussed further, I do believe you should summarize everything into simpler terms." Celestia suggested, since she was sure that the princess of love did not follow.

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"Princess Cadence, my sister is probably going to give Twilight a little bit of a gag. If and when she does, just play along."

 

Princess Cadence’s instincts served her well; Auntie Celestia was up to her usual tricks. The pink alicorn wondered what Celestia had in mind for the newest princess around; too bad none of the royal sisters thought to involve Cadence in their plans. Just once, she’d like to be the pony who pulled a friendly prank on somepony and be like Auntie; once was all she asked. For the current time however, a knowing wink towards Luna would have to suffice.

 

"Thank you, thank all of you, for the offers. I would be happy to have some place to sleep wherever I go, but if I may- what I would really want is just the closest room to your libraries. If it is room for staff, then they may have guest royal quarters. Closest to the library would be best but...well, thank you!"

 

“I’m afraid there are no guest rooms in the Crystal Palace adequately close enough to the library room,” Princess Cadence half-seriously offered to her sister-in-law; “But if you desire, I can have the staff make a temporary living area for you in the library itself.” Twilight wasn’t fooling the Crystal Princess one bit; the lavender alicorn might as well admit that she felt most at home surrounded by books. With that known to nearly everpony here, why should Twilight bother settling for merely a simple room near the library?

 

"Blah blah blah blah blah..........."

 

This was the moment where Princess Cadence nearly fell asleep. Bless Twily’s heart, but geez, she sure had to start out the Conference in the most obtuse way possible. Cadence regretted not being able to bring one of her advisors in here, for they always performed an admirable job of explaining nitty-gritty financial details to their princess. Their job was very essential, for the pink princess in no way had the stomach for bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo; she was always much better as a pony person. Twilight though, she didn’t seem to understand that outside of an ERS conference room, almost nopony would understand her jargon. Nor did she seemingly mind the fact that taxation in the Crystal Empire was handled by a local revenue service instead of the ERS, making her briefing completely inconsequential to the Crystal Princess anyway.

 

As Twilight took a break from speaking, Cadence used the moment to let off a giant yawn she didn’t realize she held back. The Princess of Love had no clue as to what her Auntie found objectionable with what the lavender alicorn proposed, but something about Celestia’s words seemed... uncharacteristically harsh. Sure, this could turn out to be another instance of Celestia being devilish, but Cadence felt too out of the loop to be completely sure. Rather than let Twilight dwell on her mentor’s criticism, the pink mare perked up to hastily change the subject; “I t-think we should table the taxation discussion and move on to other matters. One that affects both the Crystal Empire and Equestria.....”

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Twilight seemed to be speaking faster and faster as the time slowed down. Luna, wanting to display the utmost respect for all the present princesses, dove into the documents Twilight displayed for her and in the folder, and she began looking through them as she looked. However, it wasn't long before it became harder and harder to maintain focus on what the purple alicorn was trying to present. She got the gist of it. Tax laws should be influenced towards a flat rate, something that legislative ponies around Equestria would constantly turn down for fear of their constituents resisting the changes of a system that worked well enough on its own.

Luna agreed, but Celestia disagreed? What? It wasn't even a few moons ago that the solar sister had small talk with Luna about the possible changing of some of the taxation in Equestria. Did she really change her mind already? But then it occurred to her, a tiny curvature that peaked at the end of one side of Celestia's face and Luna knew that this was a way to get the new princess' feathers ruffled.

Luna wanted the meeting to be productive. And how could she possibly be productive without a little fun to get through the boring literature that was already passed out onto the table. So Luna decided to join in, agreeing with Celestia. "Yes, Princess Twilight. A sudden change is only going to make things worse. And political unrest is something that would ruin what we have recently considered a new wonderful era of princess-rule in Equestria. You really want to risk all of the great things our country is experiencing through harmony and cooperation of the citizens from falling away and withering at the wrath of radical taxation decrees?"

Luna patted her chin and looked at Celestia with disappointed eyes. "Sister, maybe we shouldn't give her that promotion you talked about."

Meanwhile, Cadance looking puzzled at the conversation, desired a change of subject. But Luna would catch her at the end of her request. "Yes. We need all perspectives on this matter. There are more than just one township in Equestria. Which is something Twilight doesn't seem to understand." Luna glared at Twilight with her pensive frown, her eyes not giving any effort to look more enthused at the purple pony than she would be for most anything else.

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Twilight finished up, her mind striding down the staircase of excitement one step at a time. She was a nerd and a statistician by trade and desire but even she knew that maybe once in a while she could drown others under the waves of statistical analysis that they rode upon begrudgingly, if at all. But it was important! Math was a universal language that if applied correctly was impervious to all comers. Mastering that was the first step in mastering magic, as magic followed basic biological and mathematical principles. In that way, wasn't all taxation discussion magical? She was happy that her studies in the field of tax law stretching back three hundred and sixteen years were able to inform her evaluations of tax returns annually for that same time period, a small fact that went into her overall report. But it was just part and parcel of what Twilight was willing to do for the ponies of Equestria and how happy she was to tackle any subject in their steed.

Celestia was a mare of boundless patience and understanding, who led through a certain grace and gentle kindness that informed Equestrians of the proper path for untold generations. She was a mentor and friend beyond all measure. Luna was a bit esoteric in her mannerisms and thoughts, but she doubted Equestria could have asked for a better protector. Twilight had saved Luna and then saved her again, but she felt a certain distance between them. That distance would be made up as they worked closely together. Cadence was a pony who was so in tune with love and the emotions between lovers that she came to be the very ponification of Equestrian relationship, love, friendship, almost any of it. She was a great friend and better sister in law. Twilight had a lot to learn but she also believed her own personality fit in well, and she could do things the others did not. She didn't tolerate the inner workings of government, she relished the chance and hoped to impress upon them her earnestness in helping all of Equestria.

And then the reviews came in.

Her brain froze as if her whole body had been iced. Celestia was admonishing her for her facts and figures being wrong? That couldn't be right! She had quadruple checked them and then had Spike double check the checklist of things she had to do every time she quadruple checked them, and did it again! Her facts and figures were accurate to the very last bit. She had used the most recent ERS reports and then verified them multiple times, clearing up any small issue by meeting with those with the capability to correct it. Was she wrong? Had she missed something? Was her addition wrong?! HAD SHE FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO MATH?! Normal distribution defines the standard normal distribution, a bell shaped curve in which the probability of observing a point is greatest near the average, and declines rapidly as one moves away. Shannon's information theory estimates the amount of data in a piece of code by the probabilities of its component symbols. The logistical model for population growth estimates the change in a population of creatures across generations with limited resources. The fundamental theorem of calculus allows the calculation of an instantaneous rate of change. The logarithm and its identities mean you can multiply numbers by adding related numbers.

She could still do math! Luna was now joining in, oh no! Why? She hadn't done the math wrong, had she made a mistake in the presentation? She turned to where she had been displaying the various graphs and with a sharp flash from her horn she displayed them again, this time cycling through them with a frightening speed as her magically attuned senses dug through her brain and matched all the information correctly. She went through one cycle, then another, each one faster and despite the growing headache she continued! What had she done to earn such a retort from her fellow Princesses? Her ears drooped in despair.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....?!"

How had she managed to disappoint them so much after having made such an effort? What promotion had she been denied because of her own ignorance? She had honestly believed she had done a great job preparing some of significance. Was she so blind, so unprepared, that she had managed to let them down so royally? She didn't feel worthy of this position. She got her through more than her own actions, after all. She considered herself to be as much an collection of the traits she had learned from her friends, and as a pony in many ways more a result of fate and friendship than her own designs. In a small way, she wanted to prove herself. And she had failed to do that in a big way.

"B...but the math is right! Procedures were followed! I-I-I messed up somewhere, but how? Where? How and where?" the papers surged forward and swirled around Twilight like a cocoon, the graphs vanishing as hundreds of papers flew around the alicorn. It also worked as a comfortable shield with which to hide behind, as ashamed as she was to be seen by her mentor, her sister in law, and Luna in her moment of failure.

"I can't find it! I don't know- I can't- I don't know!" the papers fell down in a huge pile, obscuring the purple alicorn underneath, "you're right, Luna. I'm not deserving of whatever promotion I was to be offered...and I...I'm certainly not looking at the same Equestria as you, Princess Celestia...or any, for that matter..."

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  • 3 weeks later...

Celestia knew quite well what her little ruse would bring to Princess Twilight, however there was always a reason for Celestia's actions. Twilight was always rather ambitious and in administration that needed to be tempered with careful deliberation with all parties that would be affected, and Celestia's words were not wholly untrue either. Twilight's numbers did indeed not match all the numbers by the ERS, however there must have been a reason for this, it is possible that the ERS's most recent findings were provided to Celestia directly and did not reach Twilight soon enough. Whatever the reason, though Twilight's plans did merit discussion the Princesses were not the only ones involved and further discussion was warranted.

Luna chimed in on the joke with further confused and frustrated Twilight. Even mentioning a supposed promotion, which in and of itself should have been a tip off to Princess Twilight Sparkle. What higher position would there be? Sure Celestia could appoint Twilight a position in the Equestrian Government, but she would rather wait for the right thing to present itself rather than choose a random appointment, unless Twilight specifically requested something. Still Celestia giggled at Twilight's reaction to her and her sister's play.

"Be calm Princess Twilight, no one suggested you did anything wrong by any means. I was merely trying to convey that further discourse on the matter was needed before making any changes to tax law. Also, though your numbers do differ from the ones I was given, we cannot ascertain the reason for the variance until we look into it further," Celestia began explaining to Princess Twilight and ending her ruse. "What we need to do with tax law is take your findings and bring them to the ERS and discuss with them as well. Tax law is not something that should be trifled with lightly, and though it might be time to reevaluate taxes in Equestria it must be done prudently," Celestia tactfully finished, and put the matter of taxes to bed.

"Now before we continue," Celestia rose from her seat and cantered over to Twilight, while smiling at Luna. She lifted Twilight's muzzle which was looking down through all the tax papers "Princess Twilight Sparkle, do you really think there is a position higher than 'princess' in Equestria?" Celestia inquired to the newest princess. "I certainly cannot think of one, and until a suitable position presents itself within Equestria, we will not be reassigning you anywhere, unless of course you request to do something." Celestia finished as she allowed the papers to settle around them and picked them up with her magic and place them back onto the table.

Celestia returned to her place at the table. "Now as per Cadence's request we should discuss something that would affect us all," Celestia decided a change in topic was necessary. "I believe that we need to discuss the upcoming Equestria Games to be held in the Crystal Empire. I do believe the qualifiers are underway and we need to discuss our participation as the rulers of Equestria, as well as security measures being taken." Celestia looked towards Cadence "Please, Princess Cadence, tell us the status of the Empire's preparations for this grand event?"

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Like Princess Cadence knew would happen, Twilight Sparkle didn’t take the possibility of goofing up her numbers in stride. She didn’t even take heed of Luna’s contradictory claim of there being a position higher than “princess”. Times like these were an important reminder that while Twily was smart, she wasn’t omniscient. Nopony was; not even Auntie Celestia.

 

As Celestia went over to her protege to lift her spirits up, Princess Cadence also walked to where Twilight sat. “Don’t feel bad Twilight,” the pink princess wrapped a gentle foreleg around Twilight’s neck; “Ponies goof up with complicated numbers all the time. I’m sure even Princess Celestia fudged calculations many times… isn’t that right, Celestia?” Cadence hoped that the wise elder alicorn would have the heart to at least humor the question.

 

Once Cadence returned to her seat, it was her turn to brief the other princesses about Equestria Games preparations. Levitating a series of papers in front of her, the Crystal Princess more than eagerly started talking; “Ahem, I’m glad to say that preparations are on-schedule. Construction of all venues is completed, along with the Village for the athletes. I also have it on good authority that the local hotels have enough capacity to house everypony attending the games.”

 

“However… there are a couple of concerns I have to bring up. As you all know, the Crystal Guard remains quite small, and there are worries that they’ll lack the horsepower to keep everypony safe. Which kind of relates to my next point; considerable money has been spent making the Crystal Empire ready to host the games. If not enough ponies from the rest of Equestria attend the Games, we well… might be left in a bit of a financial hole. It won’t be a big one, but it could limit the Empire’s growth for some time.” Cadence looked at the other mares at the table, signaling that they could speak up now.....

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After a smirk of satisfaction coming from getting Twilight's mane in a twist, Luna relaxed her expression on Twilight and smiled with love. But she grew back her stern face of indifference once Cadance started speaking on new business. After Cadance was done, Luna was first to explain her opinion.

"The whole point of bringing the Equestria Games to the Crystal Empire is to help rejuvenate the empire with the rest of Equestria, both economically, but also in love and friendship." Luna spoke straight towards her personal goal, which was to ensure the prosperity of the Crystal Empire, a city-state she regrets seeing fall into vanishing over a thousand years ago. She helped Cadance set up meetings with the Equestria Games committee to increase the sponsorship and likelihood of the games traveling to the returning northern kingdom. She did not want the kingdom to fall again. Having been successful, Luna was now ready for the real success to begin. And it involved all of Equestria falling in love with the Crystal Empire's beauty and existence. "I think in order to help with wages and the cost of environment, the Crystal Empire should get a grant from the royal treasury. And the money should go towards something that will help the Empire with the inclusion of all of Equestria. Therefore, I think the best option is to place it in transportation. Maybe the reason why so many Equestrian citizens are not so keen on visiting the Empire to use their bits is because they hear too much about how cold it is. Provide an ease of access route for them that is more appealing than a halfway decent train station and let their eyes decide for themselves if the Crystal Empire is worth their time to visit."

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Twilight zoned out for a while as facts and figures charged past her mind. No, she had to have had the most up to date numbers and resports from the ERS. She had made sure of it, even hiring two ponies separate of one another whose entire mission had been to ensure all of her reports were up to date. The fact that Celestia didn't consider that the ERS was wrong told Twilight one of three things. In the first scenario, her aides had failed and she would fire them. She wasn't a harsh employer but this was the sort of job upon which the fate of millions pivoted. The second was that she had failed to do basic mathematical work. If that happened to be true than Twilight would likely just have to retire to the Everfree and allow her sapience to be drained until she frolicked in some random field mindlessly. The third was that the ERS itself was wrong and their numbers were off, and in turn Celestias was ignorant of their failings due to her trust. Twilight would have to investigate and if their numbers were off, which they likely where, then some streamling was in order.

As Twilight ran over more than sixty-five different personel variations that she started conjuring up as possible contigencies for the ERS, she gave her ear to the talk of the Games. The Crystal Empire had many great qualities that were well known among the Equestrian populace which was as caught up by the fantasy of the Crystal ponies as they were by the beautiful reality that was the Glistening City and her environs. But for her many great qualities, the Empire had a few problems and Luna had hot the nail on the head with her suggestions for a grant. Equestria was beyond financial difficulty and it could easily aid the Crystal Empire, and investments in infrastructure and transportation would both aid the Empire in the short run and create an important bedrock for great economic growth in the long term. Twilight agreed with Luna's proposal wholeheartedly, but wouldn't dare speak much. She was too far behind the others in terms of decision making to really add anything, after all. Twilight walked back to her seat and levitated the mass of reports and papers into a not so well organuzed stack alongside her larger, older stack. Plus, she was embarassed by falling for their ruses.

"I agree with Luna."

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Celestia looked on as Cadence consoled the frazzled Twilight. When she turned to Celestia for confirmation of imperfection with numbers Celestia nodded and smiled. "No pony is perfect Twilight, and us princesses are no different," she said passingly as Cadence began her report on the Equestria Games. From her report it seems that things were well underway but there were still some difficulties. Those difficulties stemmed from the Empire's location, funds to ensure everything is ready and accessible for ponies and creatures near and far, as well as security.

Princess Luna spoke up about providing a grant from the royal treasury. Celestia found this most agreeable, if Cadence was correct in regards to the infrastructure of the games being completed then all that was left was the transportation. "That is a fine idea Princess Luna. A grant would serve the Crystal Empire nicely to prepare the necessary transportation to and from the Empire." Celestia concurred with her sister. "As for stories about the Empire being cold, I think we can all agree that they are unfounded. The path to the empire is cold by hoof, but the actual empire is quite temperate, and all the transportation, few as they are in number, are rather well heated and comfortable. However efforts must be made to make this information well known to the general public."

The other problem that Cadence was facing was equally easy to take care of. "As for the issue of Crystal guards and their number for the games to protect everypony, I do believe we can aide with that as well. Though I do not think anything will happen, considering recent events I do not believe we can be too careful. We should be able to allocate some REA forces to the Crystal Empire for extra support during the games. Princess Cadence I am sure you have run a survey and should know how many more additional guards you will need." Celestia retorted to the other issue. "If you have that ready now we can discuss those arrangements, as I have a report on the current state of the REA and Royal Guard."

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Princess Luna did come up with some good points; the memory of trekking on hoof to the Crystal Empire through the subarctic wastes had almost been forgotten by Cadence. Travelling by train all the time tended to make the pink princess forget, but most other ponies remember the north for its snow more than the climate-controlled Crystal Empire. And that small train station wouldn’t be able to handle the swarms of visiting spectators by itself. It was going to need a little bit of help.

 

“Both of you are right,” Princess Cadence replied to the elder alicorns; “There might not be much we can do about the surrounding wastelands, but I’m sure we can do something to make travelling to the Empire more convenient.” Brainstorming on the fly, the pink princess came up with a few initial suggestions; “For starters, we can start a public awareness campaign to better inform ponies of how nice it actually is in the Crystal Empire. As for more transportation, perhaps if I get my subjects’ approval, airship facilities can be built out on the outer limits of the city. And maybe I can ask our locomotive designers to build more of those crystal trains that Princess Celestia likes so much.” Nopony could deny the magnificence of the Crystal Train; nopony.

 

Thankfully, Celestia next gave her assurance that gathering extra guard support shouldn’t be an issue. “I’ve got the survey results right here,” Princess Cadence declared, magically lifting the appropriate document over to her counterpart; “To sum it up, bringing about 150 more guards from outside the Empire will guarantee crowd safety during the Equestria Games… or maybe," Cadence stiffed a giggle; "Fill up some empty seats if necessary. We’ve already got the facilities to accommodate the additional guards, so they will be housed comfortably during their stay.”

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Luna nodded with her sister's comments, and then against with her niece's. "Alright then. It's unanimous." Luna looked across the table and saw a timid-looking Twilight. "Oh, what about you, Twilight Sparkle. You've grown quiet all the sudden." Admittedly, Luna almost forgot about Twilight. She was so used to having these meetings with Celestia and Cadance, and before her banishment, the meeting was always a sisterly outing, something that Luna feared was gone forever because of the new additions to the delegating royal family. And in this instance, she very quickly left Twilight out of the conversation. No harm done though, right?

Luna wouldn't expect Twilight to offer too much opinion. She was now a princess, but she was also new to the meeting and nature of the job. One couldn't possibly be that utilizing in their first princess summit. Luna remembers how long it took her to be weened off of petty arguments with her older sister and how because of Celestia always being a step ahead, and so Luna always felt that a new princess would have to follow somepony else's hoofstep for several hundred years, before they felt comfortable initiating any time of new delegation or announcing any sort of useful argument of new business. Which is why Luna thought Celestia's prodding during a small taxation lecture was all too cute. "What say you?"

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Twilight was only starting to get over the confidence shattering incident that had taken place. She had run the numbers through her head at such a speed that she could no longer read the tracks of her mind without running into a full stop at such a pace that she was sure her brain was readying itself to explode out of her skull. She was right, something else was wrong. This was intuition, it was fact, and even if her fellow Princesses didn't have the faith in Twilight to give her the benefit of the doubt when all it concerned was the simple application of proper mathematic principles, she knew it was right. She had prepared for this event for more than a little while and she had brought more than a few proposals on various issues to the table. She was determined to the point of obsession to prove she was valuable member of the ruling order and while their confidence would have been nice to have, it was not something she was willing to demand out of hoof. If she had to bludgeon them over their heads with excellent ideas and proposals until they submitted to at least one, so be it.

And so, the discussion of the Games continued. There were worries about getting enough ponies to attend but the truth was that the issue was never going to be the willingness of Equestrians to visit the Empire. It was portrayed as a beautiful utopia and for the most part visitors to the Empire shared that perception when they returned. No, the problem was purely transportation. But it was interesting that the Guard came up, both as a force to be sent to the Empire for added security as well as a report from Celestia herself. That is where things got interesting and tricky. Twilight herself had conducted her own extensive research into the Guard and found many reasons to be hopeful and also many reasons to be worried about their overall effectiveness. All she could do was hope that she didn't have to correct Celestia if her report was glowing, as Twilight had a suspicion it may have been. No changes to the Guard in generations told that story. In any case, two separate issues and they deserved two separate responses.

"I don't think we should spend any money on advertisement as a means to persuade ponies that the Empire is a good place to go," Twilight spoke bluntly before smiling, "as by and large, Equestrians already consider the Empire to be a utopia. It is beautiful and the ponies are kind- that is what the common perception of it is to most. I have no doubt that tickets will sell out swiftly. The issue is simply transportation. A new crystal train may work, and an airship landing strip would be excellent. We could send some experts from the airship fields around Canterlot to the Empire to oversee construction and safety for the duration of the Event. We could also add a few more train lines for direct access to the Empire from normal trains as well, as several of them currently skirt the Empire. I think if we had some sort of drive to establish a new community inside of the Empire's borders but only halfway to the city, we could ease transportation by enabling a waypoint for maintenance and rest. But that is probably too big of an investment at this time," Twilight finished, sipping her water while shooting Luna confident smile. Yeah, Twilight had it just fine, thank you very much. Twilight's voice mattered just as much- if anything, maybe more. After all, Twilight had far more experience in modern Equestria.

"As for the Guards, a hundred a fifty would be fine, I believe. We could also have a ready force outside of the Empire who could respond quicly to any disaster or attack. In any case, I am awfully curious as to what your report on the Guard says, Celestia, as I conducted my own research and have an interesting proposal. But by all means, please go first."

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  • 1 month later...

Princess Cadence obviously remembered her playful prodding on the line of the apple sale at Sweet Apple Acres, not that it wasn't an incredibly well designed and grandiose train. Truth be told, Celestia probably would not use such a train for herself, as she found it rather ostentatious. Still it made Cadence happy, and it served its purpose well. Celestia still smiled at the playful prod. "Yes, Princess Cadence, it is quite a remarkable piece of engineering, and I have little doubt that the engineers of the Crystal Empire could do more of the same with the necessary funds, which the grant from the royal treasury should give them." The princess concurred as she nodded to the crystal princess's resounding thoughts on what needed to be done.

Cadence then brought forth her survey of the crystal guard, which was as they thought a bit thin for the magnitude of the games. However, the situation was better than Celestia had imagined and the requested number was a mere 150 guards. Not a number that would cripple or even put a dent in the main forces of the REA, though the same could not be said of the Casle guard, but those were irrelevant here. Celestia nodded at the request "I do not think I need to even consult my reports, that is a rather reasonable number, and will be quite easy to accomplish." Just then Luna prodded the very silent Twilight Sparkle, who then made her thoughts known.

Celestia smiled at her long speech and looked at her sister. "It appears that we have been far too long removed from our subjects sister. It seems that our newest princess seems to be more in tune with what they are thinking and saying regarding the Crystal Empire." Princess Celestia said slyly. She trusted Twilight's judgement fully, but she seemed rather over zealous being this is her first summit, so the sun princess took it upon herself to enjoy the greenness of her former protegee. "I would have to agree though, infrastructure is far more important than advertisement. Whether or not ponies think it is a paradise or not, by the time the games are upon us, word of mouth would have likely calmed any fears or doubts naysayers would have had with the bare minimum of advertisement." Celestia concurred with Twilight.

"I appreciate you giving me the floor to discuss the REA Princess Twilight, do you not think you are getting ahead of yourself? I'm glad you concur with my assessment that we have more than enough guards to cover 150, but we have yet to discuss the transportation infrastructure of the Empire, or even if putting an airfield or additional train lines is possible or viable for the Empire." Celestia said as she turned to Cadence. "I agree that an airfield would be highly beneficial though, would this be possible to place within the Empire's protective barrier? I'm sure we would be able to put an additional train line or two, but those require far less space than a full airfield." Celestia inquired of the crystal princess.

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