An Unexpected Party

by Gallifrey

Presents

Luna stared dumbfounded, eyes wide as dinner plates.

“I-I did not expect that to happen,” she stammered weakly, her hooves unstable and shaky. She turned to her sister, and they locked eyes.

“Happy birthday,” she mouthed.

Celestia couldn’t take any more and tears fell freely from her eyes as she walked towards Luna and gave her a loving hug. There were no words, there was no need; Celestia expressed everything she wanted to in that hug. By the time they broke apart, the crowd seemed to have recovered from the shock. There came a deafening roar from down below. The two Princesses raised their hooves in acknowledgement and the noise just became louder. Fluttershy had completely lost her head, screaming and hollering louder than anypony. Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts landed next to her, panting loudly, utterly speechless and exhausted.

Eventually, Princess Celestia raised a hoof again, and relative quiet descended.

“Well,” she said breathlessly to the crowd, “that was certainly… unexpected. You have all just witnessed something unprecedented in Equestrian history, the likes of which have never been seen before, and are unlikely to ever be seen again.”

Thunderous cheers came from the crowd.

“I thank you all once again for coming, I am moved and humbled by your enthusiasm today, thank you.”

With that, she turned and led the way back into the Palace. The others followed, except Soarin’ and Spitfire, who left, Soarin’ with a pie that Applejack had prepared for him at Rainbow’s request.

Once she was back inside her room, Celestia turned to them.

“I don’t know what to say. Did you all plan that?” she asked them warmly.

“Not that!” said Luna, “I planned the eclipse, but we had no idea Rainbow Dash was planning to do that.”

“Twilight? How about that extraordinary magic you just performed?” said Celestia, turning her head to her.

Twilight glowed at her praise.

“I don’t know where that came from, the idea just came to me and the magic did itself.”

“Very interesting,” mused Celestia, “you have always been a mare of mystery Twilight Sparkle.”

Luna coughed loudly from a corner.

“Though not as much as a certain somepony,” Celestia chuckled.

“Er, Princess?” said Applejack, “Is there any chance we could get summat to eat? I don’ know ‘bout you gals but ah’m mighty hungry.” There were nods all round, including Celestia herself.

“Yes, I guess we could all do with a bite to eat couldn’t we, after all that excitement?”

-------------

Celestia was so incredibly happy, sitting in the small cosy room of the Palace.

Twilight, Luna and Fluttershy were sitting around the coffee table, with a large pot of tea, and much toast and crumpets, discussing small talk. Applejack and Rarity were on one sofa, bickering on how to correctly prepare the scones they were making. Rarity couldn’t remember whether the jam went on first or the cream, an order Applejack thought was entirely irrelevant. Rainbow Dash had collapsed on the floor in front of the fireplace and nodded off, while Pinkie Pie was batting Rainbow’s tail left and right in amusement, occasionally drawing upon a slice of cake that came from nowhere.

Celestia herself was lying on her usual sofa, observing the scene. Her mind was reeling. She had never seen anything quite like that eclipse before - and she had seen a lot. She had seen a supernova that lit the night up like day; a gift from Luna for her one thousandth birthday, so long ago. She had seen all the towns and cities flare up across Equestria, entire forests grow out of nothing; she had seen ponies enter the world, their entire lives unfold, and watched them leave. She had seen the Ice Towers of the most northern extremes of Equestria in their full glory; great, thin, spiralling powder blue cathedrals of ice and snow. Celestia had always enjoyed the way they sparkled in the sun, and how the light glittered off them - how they glowed with a pale distant auroral light at night. Unfortunately they were no more, she had been there at their demise thousands of years ago when Discord first assaulted Equestria; his power was monstrous back then, far greater than his feeble machinations of chaos the second time around. Celestia remembered how she and Luna had fought to subdue him, to no avail: he constantly slipped through their grasps and wreaked havoc, melting and boiling those beautiful towers.

She must have looked spaced out because when she finally snapped back to reality, Luna was right in front of her, her tongue sticking out and her eyes crossed comically. Pinkie Pie was giggling hysterically behind her.

“Back with us Celly?” Luna asked playfully.

“Yes, I was just-- remembering some things.”

“Well stop it, because you look ever so silly with such a vacant expression.”

Celestia gave an embarrassed little grin.

“Be nice to the birthday girl,” she said.

“Okay,” Luna’s horn glowed, and a pile of oddly shaped presents appeared in the corner of the room, all wrapped up, which they hadn’t been before.

“What are these?” asked Celestia, knowing the answer.

“Presents!” said Luna gleefully.

“Oh this is wonderful!”

She normally only got one present from Luna.

“Open mine! Open mine!” said Pinkie excitedly.

She was pointing to a large pink box with red ribbons. The Princess brought it to her with magic and opened the box neatly. There was a very large and many tiered cake inside it, seven in fact, each with a different coloured frosting, making the cake a--

“RAINBOW CAKE!” yelled Pinkie.

Celestia noticed that the cake was much bigger than the box it came in. She was puzzled, but was distracted by her next gift.

“Fer you Princess, I’ve heard that you’re mighty fond o’ this,” said Applejack, with a little difficulty, as she had the handle of a hamper of zap apple jam clamped in her mouth.

“I certainly do love your family’s jam, I suspect a certain somepony let that slip?” said Celestia grinning at Twilight, “Thank you Applejack.”

Fluttershy had another hamper in her mouth.

“Um, I got this for you Princess; I hope that you like it… although it’s fine if you don’t, but I hope you do.”

Celestia lifted the cloth off the hamper, and saw lots of pots of different types of honey.

Celestia chuckled, Fluttershy looked nervously at her.

“This is a coincidence: when I have toast, my favourite things to put on them are honey and zap apple jam.”

“R-really?” said Fluttershy hopefully, a smile on her face.

“Why yes, thank you for the gift Fluttershy.”

The yellow mare blushed.

Rarity meanwhile looked terrified and was hyperventilating in the corner as she lifted her dresses up with magic. Luna looked surprised when one of them stopped in front of her.

“Is this… for me?” she asked.

“Y-yes,” stammered the white unicorn.

The dresses were spectacular. Celestia’s was pale gold that melted to sky blue at its trailing end. It was elegant in its simplicity, intricate in detail. Swirls of pale white thread curled across it, like clouds in a summer afternoon. The entire dress seemed to shimmer subtlety whenever it was moved, like it was an illusion.
Luna’s dress was as equally well made. It was of darkest black that faded to dark blue around the edges. Twilight noticed that shooting stars had been enchanted to flit across the fabric and stars sparkled serenely upon it.

“Rarity, how did you do this?” asked Twilight, astonished. “This is powerful magic!”

“I won’t lie and say it was easy, it was a lot of hard work, and it took many attempts, but I would only be satisfied with the best for you both.”

“Thank you for these, Rarity,” said Luna, “they are really something.”

“They are absolutely beautiful,” said Celestia.

Rarity held her head up high, proud that both goddesses approved of her work. Twilight was standing behind her with her huge, veiled canvas. Celestia looked curiously at Twilight. The purple mare would normally be shuffling her hooves nervously and her left ear would be twitching in anticipation. However, the purple unicorn appeared unusually calm as she looked at her beloved teacher. Inside, Twilight was wondering what had possessed her to do this, trying not to let her fear show.

Oh no! What if she doesn’t like it? I’ll ruin her birthday! She’ll hate me forever if I do that, I can’t show her this, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…

Celestia chuckled as Twilight’s ear finally started twitching nervously.

Aaaarrrggghhh! Why is she laughing? Does she think it’ll be bad…?

Celestia gave the petrified pony a reassuring smile as she got up and pulled off the covering with her mouth instead of using magic. It fell from her muzzle and onto the still sleeping Rainbow Dash as she gaped at what Twilight had painted.
It was an extraordinarily detailed watercolour painting of a stormy ocean at night. Celestia herself was at the forefront of the artwork, rearing on her hind legs, lit by an electric blue bolt of lightning that cast her features into sharp relief, a fierce glint in her eyes. A great wave, frozen in time had just crashed behind her, throwing water high into the air. At the top, the black rainclouds melted into a crystal clear night sky with swirling galaxies, vibrant stars and a thin crescent Moon. The entire painting seemed to emanate a mysterious magic.

“Twilight, I--” Celestia began.

“You hate it, I knew it!” she wailed, throwing herself at the ground, waking Rainbow up.

“Hey, what’s the deal-- woah,” she said, looking at the painting.

“Twilight,” Celestia began again, “this is astounding!”

“Huh?”

“This artwork is amongst the most highly skilled I’ve ever seen!”

Twilight's ears perked up and she rose to her hooves.

“Well, I learnt from the best,” said Twilight, fondly looking up at Celestia, “and I wanted it to be perfect.”

The alicorn remembered encouraging Twilight’s creative side while she was a filly in Canterlot, for she was far too academic and Celestia decided giving Twilight a creative outlet would do her good.

“And it is my dear, I can’t think of anything that could make it better. May I ask how long you spent on this?”

“Er, about four months. It was originally just a gift for you, but I have been spending a lot of time recently to get it ready for today."

“Twilight, you shouldn’t have! But all the same, this is stunning.”

“Thank you!” said Twilight, moving towards her.

“No, thank you Twilight Sparkle,” she said as she lowered her head for Twilight, “my faithful student.”