The Name of Our Mistakes

by ObabScribbler

2. Passion

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2. Passion

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“Luna?” Celestia waited at the door to be allowed entrance. When, after five minutes, she was still waiting, she knocked and called again. “Luna, art thou within?”

She could hear movement, yet still Luna did not answer. Growing worried and irksome, Celestia knocked a third time. She would not have tolerated such rudeness from a lesser noble, but Luna was a princess. Moreover, she was Celestia’s sister and there was much to be said for the forgiving power of a family bond.

And then there was also her health. Of late, Luna had been suffering from such a potent illness that Celestia had marveled at how quickly a robust mare could become the thin facsimile that stared at her through hollow eyes each evening. They had both thought that becoming alicorns would, along with longevity, bestow upon them the gift of immortality. Celestia had never questioned this until now.

“Luna!” she called insistently. “Art thou within? Speak plain or I shall be forced to knock down this door.”

The movements stilled. A few seconds later the door finally opened, though only a crack. Luna stared through it with one baleful eye. Celestia was a little shocked at the size and colour of the ring around it. Luna looked like she had not slept a wink all day.

“Yes?” she asked icily.

Celestia shook off her discomfiture. “Evening draws on, dear sister. Soon it shall be time for moon’s rise, yet thou art still abed.”

Luna blinked at her. It took several seconds. “I understand,” she said eventually. “I shall stir myself. My thanks … dear sister.”

“Luna!” Celestia placed one golden shoe in the door’s path, halting its progress as it tried to shut. “I confess, I do worry at thy well-being. Thou art out of sorts. Perchance some rest would do thee –” She faltered at the flash of white fur behind Luna. A stallion guard – Luna’s own bodyguard, no less – crept through the curtains around her bed and reached for his armour. “-good,” Celestia finished.

Luna’s visible eye flicked from side to side, as if she sensed the guard coming into view behind her. “I do not need rest, sister. I yet possess the energy required for my duties.” She narrowed her gaze at Celestia, almost accusatory.

“And more besides,” Celestia murmured. “Luna, it is not befitting for a princess of the realm to take her own guards to her bed.”

“My private matters remain my own business, sister,” Luna snapped. She opened the door a fraction, kicked Celestia’s hoof away and slammed the heavy wood shut.

Celestia backed away, shocked and perturbed by Luna’s conduct and manner. She had never spoken to Celestia that way before. Neither had she ever bedded any stallion, so far as Celestia was aware. Though she knew Luna to be an attractive mare, in the prime of her youth, she yet held to the notion of her sister as a foal who needed protection. In battle against that tyrant, Sombra, Celestia had taken the lead. In ruling their fledgling nation of Equestria, Celestia made the rules and consulted Luna as she saw fit. She was older and had things had always been thus, long before they received the mantle of royalty.

Luna was growing up. Moreover, she was growing up as a princess. The stresses and strains placed upon her were not the same as they had once been, and though Celestia still sought to protect her from the world, it seemed Luna truly was no longer a filly peering from behind her sister’s tail.

Celestia could not show her consternation while her own guards looked on, so she returned to her chambers and sat out on the balcony, breathing a small sigh of relief when the moon began to lift into the sky.

Comments

[Theresa]

Well it's past time that she learned to treat her sister as equal. She had that problem in the show because she couldn't imagine how hard her sister worked in the dream realm to keep things peaceful.