• Published 8th Jul 2012
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - NavyPony



Luna returns, and one unlucky servant is saddled with far more responsibility than he can handle.

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An Unfinished Conversation

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
by NavyPony

Intermission One:
An Unfinished Conversation

Luna almost sounded petulant, throwing her sister’s words back, “I wasn’t finished, Tia, I-”

“Well I am.” Princess Celestia took another couple steps towards the door, extra loud so that her sister’s hoofservant mighttake the hint. “Have a good morning.” She marched the rest of the way, and began to wrap her magic around the ornate double doors. ‘With any luck,’ she hoped, ‘the young stallion’s made his exit.

She never found out, as her younger sister applied a smattering of countermagic to keep the doors shut. “Tia, allow me to finish. Please?” Maybe… that timbre wasn’t petulance. Maybe it was worry? “I… I did not mean to make you angry, Tia. I’m sorry. But will you please let me finish?”

Acquiescence wasn’t her only option – she had every right to storm out of the room. Or at least exit haughtily. She was the Sun Princess after all, and she really did have important business to which she had to attend. ‘But...’ Even if she had every right to be angry, even though she’d tried to be reasonable several times now, she couldn’t just walk out. This was her co-sovereign, and more importantly, it was her sister. Taking a calming breath, Celestia stepped away from the doors and turned back to hear out the Moon Princess. She acquiesced. “Go on.” Of course, she was still irritated.

“I’m… sorry, Tia,” Luna repeated, moving towards her bed with a gait as weak as her voice. “I shouldn’t be acting like this. It’s just… nothing feels right anymore. Maybe it’s how much Equestria’s changed. I don’t know,” she said, collapsing onto her sheets and beginning to discard her silver shoes. She kicked them off the edge of her bed one-by-one, each landing with a tinny clatter. “And that just makes it worse.”

Celestia gave an internal sigh and her centuries of soothing, mentoring, and especially her politicking kicked into action; it was practically a reflex. “Oh? I think you’ve been managing...” It was hard to think of a word that was both positive and honest. “As well as can be expected, perhaps.” Luna was trying to grapple with a thousand years of magical research, technological advancement, bureaucratic expansion, and societal evolution. From amniomorphics to microwaves, from the tax code to capitalism, it was a thousand years of progress. “You’re doing great.”

Luna didn’t see things the same way, pursing her lips in disagreement. “No. No I haven’t. You’ve made that quite clear.”

“Hush now, Lu,” Celestia cooed, trying to soothe the younger alicorn, “You’ve just had a couple of…” she waved a hoof vaguely, looking for a good word, “... minor difficulties. You’ll learn from your mistakes, and we’ll address them. Fix them. Things will get better, I promise.”

“Tch.” Luna’s body language dripped of skepticism. “You always say that…”

“Of course,” she joked, trying to assuage her sister’s dismay. “That’s because I’m always right.”

Celestia’s words’ had the opposite of their intended effect. “Precisely…” the darker pony groaned, flicking her tiara across the room with a burst of cobalt magic. “I, as ever, err, and it falls upon you to make things right. The first night I reassumed my duties, the moon was late…”

It’s not that big of a deal,’ she lamented internally. ‘Not that she’d be willing to hear such a thing.’ The younger sister was ever a perfectionist when it came to her responsibilities, and Celestia needed some other way of minimizing the incident. “It’s understandable, Lu. Nopony-”

“No, it’s not,” the Lunar Princess reasserted. “It’s unforgivable; I can’t do anything right. Everypony’s mad at me or afraid of me. I don’t even know how to behave around my own servants. And when you try to tell me what to do, I just get mad about it.

“No, no,” Celestia cooed, still struggling to defuse the situation. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I just want to-”

“But you should!” she interrupted, shouting. “I need you to keep looking out for me, like you’ve always done, and I keep forgetting it, like always, because… Actually, I don’t even know why.” She interrupted herself with a self-deprecating tsk and an angry shake of her head. “Maybe if I’d listened to you all those years ago, I’d never have become Nightm-”

Absolutely not. “Princess Luna,” Celestia thundered, cutting her sister off entirely. “You stop right there.

Luna’s expression went entirely blank for a moment, as if surprised her sister could still use the Royal Voice. Wide-eyed and barely audible, she started back up, “Tia, I-”

No.

The younger princess’ eyes began to well with moisture. “But-”

No!” the Sun Princess bellowed again, once more cutting off her sister. “We have already spoken about this at length, and we agreed that it was as much my fault as yours. You are not Nightmare Moon, and you never will be again. Nightmare Moon is finished. All of that is finished and, and…” And Celestia’s voice caught in her throat at the sight before her, at the realization of what she was doing and more significantly, its effect. ‘Oh no. No no no. Please no.’ Luna’s face was wrenched in anguish. Her shoulders were hunched, her normally flowing mane was limp, and her eyes were shut tight. ‘Please no. Don’t cry.’ Centuries of experience seemed to vanish - Celestia realized that she didn’t know what to do.

She was lost, and it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. “Lu?” she eventually croaked, her previously robust voice cracking. “Lulu, I’m sorry. Please stop crying.” Sympathetic tears started forming in response to those streaming down her sister’s face. “Please? I, I-”

She spoke two words. Two little words. “Go away.”

For the first time in decades, the Sun Goddess found herself speechless.

“Go. Away.” Luna rolled over on her oversized bed, refusing to look her sister in the eye. “You have important work to do, you said. Go do it,” she uttered. “Or not, I don’t care. Just go away.”

“But…”

She snapped. “Yes, you’re right, you’re always right!” Luna hollered, still facing the wall, “I’ll keep him as my hoofservant! I’ll stop Staring ponies! I’ll do whatever you want, just go away, please!”

“I’m sorry.” Celestia bowed her head to the floor in regret as she crossed once more to the room’s exit. This conversation had gone wrong, totally wrong. She gave one last look about the room, one last glance at her sister’s trembling frame, before closing the doors behind her. ‘All I want, Lu, is for you to forgive yourself.



She was a third of the way back to the throne room when Snowy Slopes finally intercepted her, stepping out of a side passage with the same clipboard and stony expression he always carried. “Your Highness,” he pronounced stoically, falling into his customary position behind her, “is there something I can do?”

Perceptive as ever, Snowy...’ The Head Steward was aware enough to know that something was amiss, concerned enough to offer help, and subtle enough not to impugn. And he was there to support her when she needed it. “You can listen...”