Hiatus

by Vargras

October

Celestia and Luna both sat side-by-side within the elder sister's study, both of them hard at work on a puzzle. Pieces flew left and right, flipping and rotating into place - they often had to pick puzzles comprised of thousands of pieces, just to offset how fast they could solve them.

"Honestly, Luna, I would have expected you to be looking forward to this month. Your own holiday is later on, you know."

"Not mine - Night Mare Moon's. I refuse to be associated with that... that..."

"Don't curse, little sister. You're better than that."

"I know, 'Tia. Trying not to. I just want nothing to do with that... fairy tale."

Celestia glanced over at her sister and smiled as she found an appropriate word to substitute. "I understand. Still, don't you at least want to celebrate it? It's usually a fun time."

"How would I even celebrate it? Woo hoo, I can walk around Canterlot and get candy. What a fun time. Every other pony that lives here is too snobby to even have any real fun - all of that's down in Ponyville, and you know I can't leave."

Celestia found herself laughing at her sister's mention of the nobles being 'snobby' - a bit of a mean label, maybe, but it was true. "I know, Luna. I was just trying to offer it as a suggestion. Whether or not you choose to celebrate Night Mare Night is your choice, after all."

"'Tia."

"But I just thought that you might enjoy a day dedicated to yourself. Well, not really yourself but-"

"'Tia."

"-I mean, sure, it's more about Night Mare Moon. And you don't really like to think about her. But who knows, maybe we can slowly shift things aro-"

"'TIA."

"Yes, little sister?"

Luna sighed and pointed at the puzzle. "The puzzle has been finished for the last minute or so. You were just too busy talking to notice."

"Oh! Sorry, Luna. I suppose I got carried away."

"That you did. My order of books came in, so I'm gonna go get started on them." She gave her elder sister a quick hug and hopped to her hooves, galloping off and leaving Celestia staring at the puzzle.

"...so I have to clean up on my own? Oh, you're in for so many raspberries now, missy."

-----

To say she had been disappointed was an understatement. It had only been a few hours, and already, Luna had been through half the books she had ordered. With a sigh, she closed the latest book - "Starswirl the Bearded - A Spell Compendium" - and stared at the wall. "I was hoping these would last me a few days. At this rate, I'll be lucky if they even last one."

Something caught her eye, however. A small bump at the foot of the bed that gradually became larger and larger. It was almost as big as... Luna groaned.

"Oh no..."

"Oh no is right, little sister. This is for making me clean up on my own!"

Luna shrieked as Celestia blew raspberry after raspberry on her stomach, the younger Princess laughing and flailing about as tears slowly welled up in her eyes. "No! S-stop, please!"

"Nope!"

Unfortunately for the two sisters, they had failed to notice that an entire contingent of royal guards had formed outside Luna's door, no doubt summoned by her shrieks and howls. After kicking the door down, several stallions poured into her room.

"Stop right there, criminal scum!"

Needless to say, the situation became very awkward very quickly. Celestia and Luna both stared blankly at the guards, and several of the men slowly backed away, their faces beet-red. "Um... t-terribly sorry for the intrusion, your Majesties."

The guards left just as quickly as they arrived, and neither sister was quite sure what to do for the longest while - until Celestia came up with an answer of her own. She slowly lowered her head toward her sisters stomach once more, a grin on her face. "I'm gonna do it, Luna."

"No, don't you dare."

"Gonna do it!"

"I'm telling you right now, don't do it 'Tia."

"I'm doing it!"

"No, no, no. Don't!"

"Too late!"

In between her fits of laughter, Luna slowly managed to word out 'I hate you' to her sister - it wasn't like she meant it anyways. The two eventually had their fun and went their separate ways. Celestia had an appointment with some unicorn ambassadors, and Luna had some business of her own to attend to within the observatory.

-----

The Princess was furiously scrawling down notes within her journal. It was well past dusk, giving Luna an excellent time to view the heavens. "Oh goodness, I'll surely be featured in 'The Equestrian Astronomy Journal' after this! Just think of it, guardsman! A brand new constellation, and with some truly remarkable properties - isn't that exciting?"

The stallion slowly nodded, only vaguely understanding what Luna had even said. She knew that he didn't care, and it was painfully obvious, but she still appreciated that he had at least been willing to feign interest in it. The Princess let out a shriek, and the guardsman quickly found himself standing at attention. "What is it, Princess? What's the matter?"

"Oh my goodness! I found a comet!"

The guardsman sighed and went back to his post - it was going to be a very long evening, he knew, but at least it was easy work. Such a thing mattered little to Luna, however. She was enjoying herself, even if her astronomy hobby made her feel a bit lonely. As much as she loved it, very few within Equestria understood the subject on the same level as her. The only recognition she often got out of it was from having her finds posted in the national astronomy journal, but that still left much to be desired. She often wished that Celestia was as interested in it as she was - it would have given them something new to do together, after all. Her sister's interests were typically much more down-to-earth, though, and rightfully so. Even if Luna was technically the co-ruler of Equestria, the citizens often viewed her sister as the only ruler. It made sense from a logical standpoint that she would only be interested in things that might affect her subjects.

Luna shrugged and went back to her notes. It wasn't her concern, at least for the time being. For now, she was to simply enjoy herself while she recovered, and she could hardly complain about that. The time seemed to fly by as Luna spent hour after hour enjoying the night sky and jotting down notes when she could. Guards arrived and left as their shifts rotated - sometimes they would be as interested as she was, and others, they simply wanted the shift to be over so they could get some food and rest. She particularly enjoyed the company of the older guardsmen, though - unlike their younger comrades, they often had a much greater appreciate of the arts and sciences.

"What about that one, Princess Luna?"

"That would be Orion, sir."

"Really? I always thought that was one of the Dippers."

"Here, let me show you."

Working with an expert touch, Luna adjusted the telescope to show the guardsman precisely what she wanted him to see. "Just look for the three stars in a line."

"Wait... wait, I see it now."

"Astronomers always thought of that line as being Orion's belt. That's the easiest way to tell that it's Orion too."

"Huh. Learn somethin' new every day. Appreciate it, your Majesty."

She nodded and smiled, quickly resuming her studies. "It was my pleasure, guardsman."

-----

It was one of the more peculiar dreams she had, but not without its pleasantries. She found herself swimming through the countless stars and heavenly bodies in the night sky, surprised at how tranquil it all felt. The laws of physics certainly didn't seem to apply, though they typically didn't apply in dreams anyways - the Princess bounced planets and moons off asteroid belts, seeing how long she could keep it up before inevitably missing one. Constellations essentially became giant drawing boards, and Luna would quickly rearrange the stars to see what new pictures she could form. One constellation seemed to burn brighter than the others, and she could never bring herself to tamper with it.

It wasn't anything overly spectacular or complicated, and she wasn't sure why she spared this one and not the others. It was nothing more than a group of stars that formed a larger, six-point star - even as she played with the rest of the universe, Luna often pondered the significance of such a measly constellation. She had a rather odd feeling as she dabbled about, however - a feeling of falling. That certainly wasn't right, given that there wasn't a 'true' up or down when the heavens were involved, or even a left or right for that matter.

She found herself waking up on the floor, the sheets pulled from the bed and laying scattered about. Her head was pounding, though she wasn't sure if it was from the fall or the dream. Slowly but surely, Luna got to her hooves and made her way to the bathroom, taking long sips from the faucet as she tried to get the headache to die down. A splash of cold water on her face made her feel much better than before, but she found herself looking at her reflection. It may have been a touch of narcissism, but even she had to admit to herself that she was starting to look pretty darn good - her mane had grown out a bit more than usual and was beginning to resemble what her sister already had, and the darker coat looked much more... oh, what was the word? 'Mature'? It would only be a matter of time before Celestia would start teasing her about finding that special someone, though she certainly had no right to speak on such a thing, considering she didn't have one either.

Luna sighed and made her way out of the bathroom, gathering up the sheets and placing them back on the bed before sliding under them once more. She knew she was growing up, and there was no way around that. And though she was eager to return to her royal duties, a part of her was going to miss all the free time that she currently had.

"...oh who am I kidding, I've still got about a year to go."

With Philomena tucked snugly under her foreleg, she drifted back to sleep. Being an adult could wait.

-----

10/30

It's the eve of Night Mare Night. I'm still feeling conflicted about it, to be honest. I know it's supposed to be all in good fun, but it's still about Night Mare Moon. Still, perhaps my sister is right - maybe I can turn things around and make things a bit better?

'The Equestrian Astronomy Journal' also wrote me back the other day, saying how honored they would be to publish my findings. They even wanted to go so far as to name the constellation I found after me, but I refused. I may be royalty, but I still don't want it to go to my head - after all, if I had every scientific publication naming my discoveries after me, what kind of message would that convey to my subjects?

Luna tapped the quill against her chin as she thought about it - to celebrate Night Mare Night, or not? "Hm. What do you think, Philomena?"

She turned and stared at the stuffed bird, slowly covering her face with her hoof as she realized just what she had just done.

"I'm asking my toys for opinions. How smart of me. I think I'll just stay in on Night Mare Night and read - not really feeling the candy this year anyways."

Hopping from her stool, Luna took the calendar down from her wall and flipped through the pages until she arrived at October of the next year. With a red pencil, she circled the 31st - maybe not this year, but next year?

Next year was going to be much different.

Comments

[Vargras]

31194
For the most part, yes. I eventually plan on having Luna finding out her mystery mare's identity (we already know it to be Twilight, of course), and from there, the two of them will write back and forth.

Girl's gotta stay in Canterlot, of course.

WOOL reference. I freaken' love it.

[ChakatFirepaw]

The size of the puzzle is a bit small for what you seem to want to convey: My mother does a few a year and working alone a 1000-2000 piece is only a couple days of casual work, a super-skilled pair of solvers who are working fairly solidly would easily knock that down to a couple of hours.

The one serious reason puzzles tend to top out in the low thousands is that that is where you run into issues of space and reach. Neither of these apply to the princesses.

I would suggest describing the puzzle as being in the 10,000 piece range, (I've seen a puzzle made of of six historic maps of the Earth, each of which is a ~10,000 piece puzzle on its own).

[Princesscelestia1]

AWESOME!

Elder Scrolls reference

[Bronymaster]

"It would only be a matter of time before Celestia would start teasing her about finding that special someone, though she certainly had no right to speak on such a thing, considering she didn't have one either."

Just want to point out that you put someone instead of somepony, which bothered me. That is all.

-Bronymaster

[Sleipnir]

This is why I love the Luna character.
Astronomy - my favourite subject.

[Low-quality memes]

STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!!! Nobody breaks the law on my watch! I'm confesscating your stolen goods. NOW PAY YOUR FINE! Or it's off to jail.

[LucarioFan2066]

Unfortunately for the two sisters, they had failed to notice that an entire contingent of royal guards had formed outside Luna's door, no doubt summoned by her shrieks and howls.

Maybe next time set up a temporary soundproof ward? I dunno.