She wasn't spouting crazy talk. As much as Celestia was held up as a sort of all-loving mother-figure of Equestria, she was also often considered to be kinda... eccentric. Her obsession with cake, for one, often made the tabloids and gossip rags, though it was rarely scandalous, and the Princess always laughed off anypony who approached her about it. A couple of times a year 'Canterlot Match' would manage to snap a photo of her halfway into some unbecomingly enormous mouthful of cake, for example. 'Princess Celestia spotted gobbling down thick chocolate roll,' that sort of thing. But the interesting stuff came from ponies who regularly attended Day Court, where Celestia had a reputation of being 'playfully cryptic,' in the words of Canterlot Match's political correspondent. Exerting a little influence like selecting general staff versus field officers based on sociability would be just the kind of decision she might make.