Formulating a plan (Patreon)

Princess Celestia levitated a coffee cup over to the standing coffee urn in my Equestria dreamscape. With a grace that came from decades of performing this task she slowly rotated the cup's handle was facing away from the urn allowing the cup to fit easily under the tap of the urn.

     With the same levitation she worked the tap and filled the cup. Remembering that Gleaming Shield took his coffee black she filled his cup up to within a quarter inch of the cup's rim. Then she levitated the beverage over to the stallion and set it exactly in the center of the lace coaster in front of him. The Princess of the Sun then poured herself a cup and then addressed the ponies gathered in her office around meeting table.

     "Everypony I want to thank you for adjusting your schedules to make this meeting possible." She glanced over at Luna who was definitely appreciating the coffee. It was 10:36 in the morning and normally her sister would've been in bed a couple of hours ago. Celestia levitated a up a stack of documents over from her private desk. Like her handling of the cups she neatly set them on a lectern in front of her. She'd already memorized most of the reports, but out of habit she glanced down at the first document for a second before continuing.

     "A couple of hours ago I received a report from our expedition at site 73B where the Crystal Empire once existed. Link As everypony gathered here knows; Equestria started this expedition 2 years ago when it came to the attention of the Crown that ponies in the area were detecting a range of unusual anomalies from various sources. For some time many ponies have speculated that at some undetermined date that the spell that Sombra used as his last act of spiteful retribution would eventually collapse."

     "Over time these anomalies have grown stronger and more frequent. The current consensus is that the spell will finally collapse some time in the next 14 months. When that time comes we don't know what exactly will return to our plane of existence. Will any of the subjects of the Empire still be alive? Will they have perceived any passage of time? Were they isolated in a bubble the whole time, or did they interact with any of the Lower Dark Realms and its inhabitants?"

     "When Luna and I finally defeated King Sombra we cast him into what we at the referred to then as The Void of the Icy North. Today we refer to that as being part of the Lower Dark Realms."

     The great white alicorn paused and looked out the window. Golden sunlight was pouring through the windows filling to office with warm light, but in Celestia's mind memories of cold dark days played out in her mind. She took a deep breath and continued.

     "It was perhaps naive for myself and Luna to think that we'd dealt with this monster once and for all." She levitated a piece of paper and stared at. "Since last night there was an incident that occurred at expedition site that has resulted in this emergency meeting today."

     Over the next hour Celestia read Shining Armor's report. Link When she finished Celestia returned the last sheet of paper to the lectern. Then she took a sip of her coffee before carefully returning the cup to its saucer. She then spoke.

     "Needless to say this latest development is alarming." She glance at a stern, older earth pony mare who'd remain silent through most of this meeting. "General Thunder Hoof I know you've been preparing contingencies for the Crystal Empire's return. What are our military options if King Sombra does return with Crystal Empire?"

     General Thunder Hoof had been jotting notes almost nonstop during Celestia's briefing in spite of having her own secretary who was also dictating. The general removed a fountain pen from her mouth before speaking in a rather raspy voice. "Your Highness. When the chance of the Crystal Empire returning became a possibility I reached out to other officers of the Equestria's Armed Forces who had the appropriate security clearance to get their feedback."

     The mare opened a dossier file that her secretary had retrieved for her during Celestia's briefing. Flipping to a particular page in the file she resumed speaking. "Over the last 2 months we've explored and discussed a range of possible scenarios involving Equestria's military assets, and how it might find themselves committed with the return of the Crystal Empire." She tapped the dossier in front of her with a front hoof. "These scenarios range from simply assisting with providing immediate, short-term aid to any survivors of the Empire. To full military mobilization of available active duty forces and the activation of the reserves due to King Sombra's returning, and being able to immediately bring the entire population back under his mental sway again."

     The general looked up from the document and stared at Celestia with cold jade green eyes. "Most of these contingencies can be activated with 24 hours of the Empire's return. What we were unsure of was what King Sombra's specific offensive and defensive capabilities were. Because..."

     The general glanced over at Princess Luna who had spoken very little during the meeting. "Because soon after the fall of the Crystal Empire events in Equestria resulted in the loss of many royal records during the fall of the city of Everfree. It would benefit us immensely if you Princess Celestia and you Princess Luna could give us a more extensive and eyewitness account of your combat with the tyrant."

     Luna looked over at the general with a neutral face. "I believe that my sister and I can aid you in that matter." The Prussian Blue alicorn looked over at her sister. "Am I correct sister that the Royal Court was able to retrieve many of our personal journals from the ruins of the Everfree palace?"

     Celestia was talking to her own senior secretary True Note. The alicorn looked up. "Yes Luna that's correct." She glanced over at a middle aged unicorn stallion who was fanning through the pages of a thick, well worn, leather bound tome at amazing speed. It seemed impossible that he could've been reading anything on the pages. "Crystal Clear can you determine which of those–"

     "Ah!" Exclaimed the stallion as the blur of fanning pages of the book suddenly stopped and his gaze settled on a particular page. "Yes your Highness! Yes, yes! Consulting your personal journal catalog!" The stallion waved the levitated book he'd been searching  "I believe our best success will be to focus on number 59, 63, 78, and 125 from your private journals!"

     Without setting down the first book he used his levitation he yanked another, but slimmer, book from his panniers and once again began fanning the pages until he found what he was looking for. "Princess Luna! I believe Journal 53, 55 of your private journals should be most fruitful. I can have those retrieved from the archives by the end of the day!"

     Celestia smiled. Crystal Clear had an amazing encyclopedic memory when it came to knowing which of the literally hundreds of personal journals Celestia had written over the centuries contained some tidbit of content that she wished to refer to. His knowledge of Luna's private journals was almost as complete. He was the Head Archivist and Custodian of the Journals for the Royal Sisters. As such there was probably nopony alive in Equestria who knew more about the private thoughts of Royal Sisters. As such Crystal Clear was one of the most trusted and protected ponies in the Royal Court.

     Another pony at the table spoke up. It was the elderly unicorn mare Evening. She was one of the palace's head mages and was Overseer of the Time Anchor located deep beneath the Royal Palace. "Princess Celesta. Princess Luna. Are you considering the possibility of deploying the Elements of Harmony in the event of Sombra's reappearance?"

     Celestia arched an eyebrow. "Possibly. Do you have a concern about this?"

     Evening nodded her head. "Yes. Yes I do. I have not read the entire archive concerning the Crystal Empire, but one detail that stuck out to me while reading about King Sombra was his affinity for crystalline structures, and his ability to manipulate and corrupt them to his will. If it becomes necessary to deploy the Elements of Harmony then every effort must be made to keep them away from your Highness. "

     Celestia was starting to a sip of her coffee when she paused and slowly lowered the cup. "Yes Evening. That is correct." She pursed her lips. "We'll keep that in mind as we formulate future contingencies." She looked over at the general. "General, please send me a copy of your findings. I wish to review them myself."

    The alicorn look around the table. "I know that all of us already have plenty on our plate, but we are now confronted with a potential threat that cannot be ignore or put off. We need to prepare for this." Celestia looked over at True Note. "Let's schedule to meet together again in 4 days at this time. That will allow the Court time bring in other qualified and security screened experts to Canterlot that we will be able consult. Needless to say anything we've here discussed today is classified and is not to spoken with anypony who doesn't have White Diamond Clearance. That is all. Dismissed."

To be continued.