After a happy reunion with all of my closest friends the night prior, Celestia had offered to teleport me back to my houses, which had been watched over by Sweetie Drops as well as a few other normal citizens in Ponyville, but I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. I ate a small meal then walked to the room provided for me the first time I came to the Castle for the Council. I didn't sleep alone, of course. Zecora insisted on spending some alone time with me. After Twilight cast the Anthro spell on her, the two of us curled up in each other's' arms, falling fast asleep after a brief makeout session. Sleeping next to Zecora in her normal form was very relaxing and all, but I needed a pair of arms wrapped around me at that moment, and apparently Zecora sensed that. All night long, she held me close and I held her close, her hands running through my long and still waving locks of hair. I ran my own hands through her own lengthening mane, and that was how the two of us went to sleep.

Earlier the next morning, I had been invited to a very private breakfast with Celestia in her room. Not even Zecora was allowed in, much to her annoyance. As I was dressing, Zecora, who had changed back into a normal Zebra sometime during the early morning hours, was helping me into my new royal garb. "Are you absolutely sure I can't come with you?" she asked.

"I'd love to have you there with me," I replied honestly, "but Celestia's note was very clear. No one else can come with me. It's just a one on one breakfast."

"I hope there's nothing wrong," Zecora said as she held my small gold crown out to me.

I took it and placed it carefully on my forehead. It still surprised me just how perfectly this crown fit. "I have a feeling I'm going to find out just what it's about when I get there. I do have a few guesses, though."

"As do I," Zecora said.

I quickly turned to her, kneeling a bit so I could be on eye level with her. "Aren't you a bit freaked out about all this? I'm a fucking Emperor, now. You're dating a monarch. What happens in the event that we get married? What about-?"

Zecora threw her forelegs around me, tackled me to the floor and kissed me with more passion and desire than was normal for her. I quickly reacted, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her back. It felt like she was pouring all of her love, desire, admiration and even her friendship into said kiss, so I did my best to respond in kind. Her grip tightened and I did the same in response. I heard a small moan escape her throat as she pressed her body close against mine. With this reassurance, I felt the tension and frustration escape me slowly. Finally, she relaxed and broke the kiss, gazing down at me with the most beautiful look in her eyes I'd ever seen. In that moment, it felt like I'd fallen in love with her twice over. For the moment, all other cares and worries vanished. It was just her. Just Zecora.

That thought immediately reminded me of Doki Doki Literature Club and I let a small snort escape me. Zecora's sharp ears didn't miss this, and she raised an eyebrow. "Is something amusing, my love?"

"Sorry, I just had a random thought that made me laugh," I replied as I slowly sat up, Zecora sitting firmly on my lap. I reached out and stoked her mane lovingly. "Thank you. Thank you for constantly being there for me."

"I wouldn't be a good girlfriend otherwise," she said, once more using an Earth term instead of an Equestrian one. "You know I worry."

"You're not the only one," I smiled. "Although, now that I think about it, in the event of our marriage and if I'm still the Emperor, you'd become Empress Zecora. Now wouldn't that be a hoot?"

She laughed good naturedly and nuzzled my face affectionately. "A ruler of Dragons you may be, but as for me? Well, we shall see."

Much like Luna's own room, Celestia's old Castle bedroom lay on top of a tower, and there were two Unicorn Royal Guards standing at her door. They both saluted when they saw me, but I raised my hand. "At ease, you two. Right now, I've got a feeling I'm not having dinner with the Princess as her Knight, but as the Dragon Emperor."

"Of course, Your Grace," one of the soldiers said as he knocked on the door. "Your Highness, Emperor Jethro is here."

"Let him in," Celestia said with an air of authority.

The Unicorn guard who had spoken raised his head and the door opened. I stepped in and as the door closed behind me, I looked around. In many ways, this room was the mirror of Luna's room, albeit slightly bigger. I'd taken notice of this during my time reconstructing it, but as I took a closer look at the room itself, I saw that there were more personal belongings. Portraits of noble looking Ponies, with one even looking like a younger Starswirl the Bearded as well as another portrait of the Pillars of Equestria.

One picture in particular that sat on an endtable next to the bed caught my eye. It was a portrait of a younger Celestia and Luna sitting in front of a Unicorn stallion and Pegasus mare. The Unicorn had an amber colored coat with white fetlocks, bright blue eyes and a lit torch for a cutie mark. Sitting next to him, the Pegasus mare sat. She had a light pink mane, a darker blue coat of fur with white spots, pink eyes that matched her mane and her cutie mark was of an eye looking up at two stars, one rainbow colored and one a darker shave of blue with stars within.

As I was looking at the image, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders. I looked down in confusion, then in shock as I noticed that the pair of hands had alabaster colored fur on them. Before I could say anything, Celestia's voice, still coming to me from a place of great height, spoke. "Mother and Father had that portrait of us painted when we were just fillies."

Slowly, I turned back to the portrait, then picked it up and looked closer at it. Celestia and Luna both looked a bit antsy, but they had wide smiles on their faces. They still hadn't gotten their cutie marks yet, but both looked absolutely adorable. The father had his hooves on Celestia's withers while the mother had her hooves on Luna's withers. The father looked proud and the mother had a motherly warm smile on her face. They were standing in a forest thicket, with the sun coming down through the trees, being illuminated by a mist. "I'd have really liked to meet them," I admitted as I put the portrait down. "What were their names?"

"Mother was Sweetheart Starwatcher and Father was Blaze Run," Celestia said as she wrapped her new arms around me, and I felt two massive pillowy weights lowered onto my head. "They would have liked you, I'm sure of it," she said softly.

I wrapped my hands around her wrists and she pulled me back against her chest. I couldn't see them, but if the shadow that fell over my face was any indication, her breasts were exceptionally large. But this was no time for anything like that, so I just squeezed her wrists gently. "They would have been very proud of you if they could see what you've accomplished today, you and Luna," I said.

She tensed up slightly, but that was the only reaction I got. She held me there for a while, then released me. I turned and finally got a good look at her.

If a goddess had descended to the realm of the living and taken on a mortal form, her beauty would still pale in comparison to Celestia's own radiance. She still stood taller than me, although now by a foot and a half, if not more. She was wearing a white silk gown, which to my surprise was not at all see through. However, it still clung to her body to perfectly show off her perfect modelesque form. Her legs were slender, but not skinny, her hips were absolutely divine in their shape, her waist was trim but feminine and her breasts were the largest I'd ever seen on any Anthro version of anyone I had seen, and that included Zecora. Her arms were also not too skinny but neither was there any hint of flab on them. Lauren Faust was right, I thought as I stared, Celestia is the epitome of Pony beauty.

I must have been staring for longer than I thought, because Celestia put her hands on her hips in a fluid motion and smirked at me, making me blush immediately. "I hope you like what you see," she grinned, "I'm not exactly acquainted with what humans find attractive."

I cleared my throat. "Trust me, you are nothing short of drop dead gorgeous," I said. "Honestly, I think even that isn't enough. I know it sounds super cliché, but words alone can't do your beauty justice."

A small blush came to her face, and her grin turned into a warm smile. "I'm glad to hear it." She stepped aside and motioned to a two Pony table standing in front of a large window. "Please join me."

The table was set with not only an expensive looking China tea set (which made me wonder what that was called here), but exquisite plates and bowls all made of gold and emblazoned with a sun and moon within their circle. And the silverware? Sterling silver, with the handles made to resemble a tree. On large platters sat an assortment of breakfast foods, some scrambled eggs, about six slices of toast, four large pancakes, a small plate with room temperature butter, a small jug of honey and a platter of five sausages which had to have been roasted over an open flame if the holes in the sides were any indication.

She sat down at the larger chair, and I took the smaller. Before I could say or do anything else, she reached over, grabbed the teapot and asked, "Would you care for some tea, Your Grace?"

When she said that, I knew that she wanted to speak to me as my role of Emperor and not as her Knight. I nodded. "Please, Your Highness."

She smiled and poured me a decent helping of the tea. Its fragrance filled the air with a sweet melon-y scent. When she had finished, she poured some for herself. I took notice of how graceful she seemed to be with her new body, much like how Luna had been when I saw her. She must have practiced, I thought as she held up the honey jug. "Honey?"

"Yes, please, but not too much, if I could," I replied. I watched as Celestia poured in the perfect amount of honey into my tea than into hers.

When she finished, she turned to me and smiled. "Please help yourself. Guests of the crown are always allowed to serve themselves first."

I bowed my head in acknowledgment and first grabbed the sausages, then took two pieces of toast, two of the pancakes and a healthy portion of eggs. However, I left the better portions to Celestia, who gave me a grateful smile and took the rest onto her own plate. As we began, I took a bite of the sausage, and was surprised to find that it had a sweet but smoked taste to it. It had been cooked perfectly down to its core. I swallowed, then took a sup of the melon and honey tea before I said, "Give my highest compliments to the chef. I'd steal them away if I could," I said in jest.

Celestia's face went red again. "Why, Your Grace, was that a proposal?" she asked coyly despite her blush.

I paused, having a forkful of egg halfway to my mouth. I raised an eyebrow and lowered the fork. "You made all of this?"

"I did. I've enjoyed cooking ever since I was a little filly," she said as she took the teacup in her hands daintily, took a quiet sip, then put it down. "It's a small way to say 'I care'."

"Even the sausages?" I asked curiously, looking down at them.

She nodded. "Including them. You forget, sometimes I've hosted ambassadors from Griffonstone. They're omnivores like you, so I've learned how to cook meat to their satisfaction."

"Well then, my highest compliments to you, Your Highness," I said, raising my teacup in a salute. "I doubt even Gordon Ramsey could find anything wrong with this."

"Who?"

I chuckled. "He's a celebrity chef from Earth who has a reputation of having exceptionally high standards when it comes to cooking. I've never watched any of his stuff, but he's famous enough that even those of us who don't watch him know of him by reputation alone."

"Indeed. Perhaps I could watch this Gordon Ramsey sometime," she said.

"I'll show you when I can," I replied with a chuckle.

She smiled warmly at me, then raised her head. Her horn glowed, and the sound of morning birds chirping outside the room instantly cut off. I could still see the outside, but silence fell. "Let's drop the royal pretense for a while, shall we?" she asked, taking a healthy helping of egg and putting it in her mouth.

I smirked, cut a slice of sausage and ate it as well before swallowing it down with some more tea. "Okay, fair enough. I can only guess why you actually changed into an Anthro form."

Celestia smiled, then reached into her dress, pulling out a golden necklace with a teardrop shaped rainbow colored gem which glowed ever so slightly. "One of my best enchanters discovered a way to create this. I can maintain this form for as long as I am wearing this necklace. I have to provide it with magic every twenty four hours in order for it to keep its charge, but it's a small price to pay to experience this form. I've kept it secret from Twilight for the moment."

"Good call," I chuckled. "Besides, I've brought back plenty of Aelyssian artifacts that should keep her busy for weeks. But you didn't answer my question."

"You didn't ask a question," she said with a smirk. "You just said, and I quote, 'I can only guess why you actually changed into an Anthro form.'"

I groaned. "Trollestia…" I said, but smirked as I said, "Alright, fair point. So why did you decided to come to our breakfast in this form?"

Her smirk morphed into a smile. "I wanted to make you comfortable," she said. "And…I suppose I wanted to show you how I looked as an Anthro. You already saw my sister, so I wanted to show you mine."

"Is that a hint of jealousy I hear?" I asked with a smirk, putting my hand to my ear and tilting my head up as if listening. I was rewarded by Celestia actually sputtering to come up with a response, but before she could, I threw back my head and laughed loudly. "Oh, relax, Sunbutt. I'm just teasing!"

"Sunbutt…?" she asked, her face going an even deeper shade of red.

"It's a name that the My Little Pony fandom came up with for you," I explained as I took out my phone. "Sun cutie mark on your flank, ergo Princess Sunbutt. They call Luna Princess Moonbutt as well."

Despite her still blushing, she laughed along with me as I opened and searched for a particular story. When I found it, I held up the screen for her to see. Celestia looked at it, then her eyes widened. "Dear Princess Sunbutt? What's this particular fanfiction about?"

"Heh, it's a set of letters written to you from Twilight, but penned by a snarky human named Anonymous, or Anon as the fandom calls the character," I explained. "Want me to read you a few of the letters, and some of the responses from the other you?"

Celestia's eyebrow shot up. "Well…yes, please do. Color me intrigued."

"Hope you're ready to laugh," I said. "I can't stop laughing whenever I read it." And with that, I opened the first chapter and began. "Dear Princess Sunbutt, Spike is off doing dragon shit for who knows how long, so I'm making my fuckmonkey write this for me…"

"By Harmony, how many names can this author come up with to call me and Twilight!?" Celestia said, who was laughing so hard that tears had begun to fall. "I mean, Princess Hotcheeks?! Cake 'n Bake?! Twiddle Fiddle?! Tinky Winky?! AHAHAHA!"

I was laughing hard as well. Despite having read these fictional letters a few times, I couldn't read them and not laugh. We'd barely gotten to the sixth letter and the responses, and already about fifteen minutes had passed. A part of me realized just how rare it was to see Celestia letting loose like any other Pony. I actually found her laughter quite enjoyable and lovely. "Hah…hah…this version of Twilight is…hah…just trouble!"

"My sides…my sides!" she gasped, holding onto her stomach as she tried to calm down. "I…I can't take much more! HAHAHA!"

I almost took video or a few pictures of her laughing like this, but thought better of it. Instead, I exited my Firefox app and put my phone away. "We'd be here all day laughing if I continued," I said as I wiped my own eyes.

"Heh…heh…yeah, just give…give me a minute," Celestia said as she took one of the napkins at her place and dabbed at it daintily with her magic.

"You do realize you have hands now, right?" I asked, waving mine up then taking my own cloth napkin and dabbing at my mouth.

"Right…I'm still getting used to this new body," she said as she grabbed her own napkin and resumed wiping her eyes. After she was finished, she cleared her throat. "Right, there we are. I think I've gotten all the giggles out of me now."

"Are you sure, Princess Smacks-a-lot?"

"AHAHA! Damn you, Jethro!" she said, bursting once more into a fit of giggles.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," I replied, "Seeing you laugh like this makes me happy."

She smiled through her mirth filled tears and began composing herself once more. "You mean it?"

"I do," I said. "You put on your Princess persona so much that hardly anyone gets to see the real you. I might be Emperor of Aelyssia now, but I still feel very privileged to see this side of you."

"I only ever share it with those I treasure deeply," she said warmly, "and you're one of those I treasure."

I felt my face heat up a bit. "That means a lot to me. Thank you."

"Speaking of Aelyssia, I have a question for you," Celestia said.

"Sure, go ahead," I said as I took a bite of my buttered toast.

"Are you here currently as a representative of the Empire of Aelyssia or the Kingdom of Equestria?"

I paused for a moment, then began chewing thoughtfully on my toast. I swallowed, then washed my mouth out with more tea. I grabbed the teapot and poured myself more while saying, "I figured this kind of question would come up. If you want to take away my status as a Knight of Equestria, I'd understand-"

"I won't do that," she said sternly.

"Then you're making this harder for me and for you," I replied plainly. I pointed to my new crown. "Like it or not, I'm the monarch of a country which, until just a few days ago, was about ready to invade your kingdom. I'm also a Knight of Equestria. How the fuck am I supposed to reconcile this?"

Celestia looked down at her plate, a contemplative look in her eyes. After a while, she looked up at me. "Jethro…you've been put in a very hard position. I don't envy you, and I wish I could do something to help. I can't just take away your Knight status unless you did something to threaten Equestria, and you haven't done anything like that. There is an option that could help solve this issue, but I doubt you'd like it, and I very much can guarantee that Princess Ember and the other Dragons will hate it."

I pointed my fork at her. "You're talking about a political marriage, aren't you?"

She sighed and nodded. "I'm not particularly sure what the Aelyssian laws are about that, since the Aelyssian Empire of old fell long before Equestria came into being, but there are ancient laws still applicable in Equestria that state that a Princess, either myself or Luna, can marry a foreign monarch if they wish to form a lasting alliance, or in a rarer case, merge their countries."

"See, this is one big reason why I was so hesitant to become a ruler of anything," I said as I angrily stabbed my fork into one of the sausage and jammed it in my mouth, chewing fast and swallowing before continuing. "If I had my way, I'd give the throne to someone like, say, Ember, and abdicate. But something tells me that it isn't quite that simple. The only other option I can see is to promote someone to become Dragon Lord who can rule like a Regent or something in my stead. But even that just seems like I'd be shirking my duties."

"You have a very good work ethic," Celestia said kindly, "and I know you want to do the right thing. I'm sorry I'm making things harder for you."

I shook my head. "It's alright. Maybe there's some ancient law in my new library that can help, but as far as I know, only I know Aelyssian perfectly."

"There are some artifacts in the Restricted Section that can allow anypony wearing them to be able to read a foreign language," Celestia explained. "If new sets of eyes is all you require, I can authorize their use by either Twilight, Sunset, or anypony else you want. I also know an ancient spell that can do the same for anypony within the perimeter of its effect."

"I'd really like that, yeah," I replied, "but that's just a small portion of my problems." I looked at her once more. "The moment I enter the Council room, I can't be your Knight. I have to be the Emperor."

"I'm well aware," she said. "I still wish I could keep you close and protect you. You're still a citizen of Equestria even if you're a foreign monarch."

"And when word gets out that the strange human whose face was plastered all over the world is an Emperor, what then? What happens when the Lycans discover what I am now? The world is changing around me too quickly! All I want to do is go home, spend some relaxing alone time my marefriend, go out on dates with potential members of my potential herd, and live a quiet life!" I found myself clenching onto the sterling silver fork in my hand so hard it was starting to bend. "DOES THE UNIVERSE HATE ME?!"

Celestia stood, rushed over and wrapped one arm around me and placed the other on my head, stroking my long hair gently. My frustration began melting away at her touch and I slowly put down the fork. "I…I'm sorry about the fork," I said softly. "I've got plenty of replacements back in Aelyssia I can give to you as replacements-"

"Hush," Celestia said softly, "I have plenty spare pieces of silverware that can replace this, but there's only one you in this world. Regardless of whether or not you're my Knight or a foreign monarch, aren't we friends?"

I put my hand over hers, taking it and squeezing. "We will never not be friends, Cellie," I replied, looking up at her. "I'm sorry for my outburst."

"You're frustrated and upset," Celestia said reassuringly. "I completely understand." With that, she gave me a gentle squeeze, then released me and returned to her seat.

Surprisingly, I did feel a lot better. Whether it was because of Celestia or the fact that I'd vented a little remained to be seen. I took a deep breath, exhaled and said, "Because we're friends, I'd like to further apologize in advance."

"In advance?" she repeated, "What for?"

"If I make you angry or upset by anything I request of the Council or of the Equestrian government as the Emperor of Aelyssia."

"You're talking about Chrysalis, aren't you?" Celestia said.

"I won't confirm or deny that," I replied, "but I may make some requests on behalf of my new empire that I'm not sure you'll like."

Celestia nodded. "I see. If I do get angry, then I hope you'll forgive me in advance as well."

"Always, Cellie."

She smiled in relief. "Good. Now then, I have another question. How did you appear in my throne room?"

"Ah yes, that," I said. "Well, why don't I tell you about all that happened after you left?" I cleared my throat. "So, after I slept that night, I issued the Call of the Dragon Emperor the next morning at breakfast…"