Letter
Everypony Has Secrets
Chapter One: Secret
By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A. Feasttalon
Luna looked out the window and could see Celestia's sun going down, this meant it was time for her to take Celestia's spot on the throne and raise the moon and stars. Canterlot Castle was almost dead silent at this time. All of their subjects had left and most were getting ready to sleep. The only people left were the Royal Guards and their large crew of maids, servants, butlers, chefs and chauffeurs, all of whom were dead silent. Both Luna and Celestia found the lack of noise creepy. It seemed as if the castle had been abandoned, leaving it an empty shell
Luna proceeded from her room, at the top of one of the towers, down to the throne room on the ground floor. She never really got why she even bothered making the trip. The official reason was so that she could talk to any of their subjects if they came in, but none ever did. This was mostly just a formality, a custom like the Royal Canterlot Voice or the fact that they both had to wear the full Royal Regalia while in public. "Nothing but a stupid tradition," she thought to herself.
After walking down countless flights of stairs she opened a large pair of doors, which separated her tower from the rest of the castle. When Luna opened the doors the pair of ponies guarding them saluted her. This was also just another formality that she didn't care about. There had been times where she had seen guards sleeping on duty, talking to each other, and even kissing once. She was supposed to report them, but it didn't really matter to her.
After exiting the stairs she took a left towards the Throne Room, she looked down at the carpet as she walked, it was red, her least favorite color. She contemplated getting the Royal Guard's Engineering Corp. to come in and remodel Canterlot Castle, well at least her half of it. She could picture it, deep blue carpeting, lighter blue curtains, more pillars, and of course, a stained glass window of herself.
After thinking about what she would do about her half of the castle for while she hit something headfirst. She rubbed the spot on her head where she had just been hit and said, in frustration, "Hayseed!" She then looked around to see if anypony was there to hear her brief lapse in manners, to her relief it was just her. She then looked to see what she had hit; it was a statue of her elder sister raising the sun. She immediately knew where she was; the statue was kept right outside of the throne room, next to a statue of herself raising the moon.
She turned left again to go into the throne room. When she was about to open the door she heard her elder sister's voice, it wasn't calm and collected as usual, it was worried. And what she was saying was nothing to be proud of either; she was letting out a string of profanity that would have made a sailor scared. Luna burst into the throne room expecting the worst; maybe somepony was trying to kill her sister.
She threw both doors open and rushed in with a spell of destruction lit up on her horn. She surveyed the scene, there was no assassin, no danger, just her sister sitting there, reading a scroll. "Thank Celestia" she thought. "Tia are you alright? I heard what you were just saying," Luna asked.
Celestia's face contorted in weird way and she said in an awkward, more formal, voice, "Yes, Luna everything is alright." This seemed odd to Luna for several reasons, the most prevalent is the fact the Celestia was calling her Luna. She almost never called her Luna, except when she was angry, most of the time she just called her Lulu.
"Sister are you sure you're alright? You seem a bit off. Are you sick? Because if you are I could take over raising the sun for a few days," Luna asked. Celestia's mouth formed into a big smile.
Celestia then opened her mouth and said, "No, I'm fine. I feel just great! No need for that."
"Now Tia, we both know you're fibbing. Remember that I was the Element of Honesty, and I can tell that you're lying. Now why don't you tell me what's wrong, is it that scroll?" Luna replied. Celestia's horn then started to glow and the scroll levitated upwards. When Luna saw this she instantly took flight and tried to get the piece of parchment. She was a few inches away from it when it burst into flames, destroying whatever was written on it.
Luna's eyes fixed onto the burning piece of paper instead what was in front of her, due to this momentary lapse in judgment she crashed into a pillar. After being stopped in mid-air by the column of stone she fell straight down, landing in Celestia's lap. While Luna was incapacitated in her lap Celestia said, "Shouldn't you take me to dinner first?"
After a few seconds Luna realized where she was and half jumped half fell backwards onto the red carpet below. She then stood up and glared at her sister, rubbing her hoof against where she hit her head. After a few seconds she piped up and said "Very funny sister. Why don't you tell me what was on that scroll."
"Nothing, there was nothing of importance. Nope, nothing at all," Celestia replied. Luna's imagination ran wild. Celestia was lying, destroying scrolls, and cursing, what could possibly be going on. Could it be Discord, no she wouldn't hide that from her. Parasprites, no she wouldn't hide that either. Debt, maybe, but that didn't explain the scroll. Would her sister even hide something from her, at least voluntarily? Probably not. If you add that to the previous three clue that meant one thing.
Celestia was being held hostage. Could it be possible? Is it possible that Celestia is, somehow, being held against her will? It makes sense. The scroll could have had a list of demands, and she'd have to pretend that nothing was wrong. The only problem was that there were no obvious signs of where or how somepony was holding her hostage.
"Sister, if you are being held here against your will blink twice," Luna said. She then stared at her sister's eyes. She just blinked once.
"Luna everything's fine, now I'm going back to my room and you can take the seat on the throne, I'll see you later," Celestia said. After finishing she stood up and began trotting towards the door. When she got close Luna teleported in front of her and blocked her way.
"Sister, I know something is bothering you, and you are going to tell me what it is," Luna told her. Sweat started to bead up on Celestia's face, she opened her mouth, then feigned running to the left and ran to the right, trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Luna rushed after her and tackled her after a few seconds; the pair tumbled across the carpet, out of the room and into the hallway.
While they were rolling out of the room Celestia's horn came alive once again. " Oh no you don't!" Luna exclaimed before hitting her sister on the horn, causing whatever spell she was casting to turn into a shower of sparks. Celestia flinched back from the pain. It wasn't that painful per say, it was more because the sensation was unexpected. In this short period of time Luna had managed to stop rolling and had taken a position above her sister, holding her on the ground
"Luna, let me go, I command you!" Celestia shouted angrily. She was contorting her body in weird ways trying to get out of Luna's grasp. But it was all in vain, Luna held steadfast in holding her sister to the ground.
"No, not until you tell me what's happening." Celestia once again tried casting a spell, but like before was foiled by a simple smack of the hoof, though the pain was more manageable this time. Luna was also conjuring up her own magic, making sure to leave her own horn out of reach of her sister. Luna's horn lowered towards her sister's face, Celestia braced herself for the worst, who knew what that spell could be. Instead she felt a soft tingling sensation in her horn.
The feeling was unmistakable. Spells almost always caused sensation to different parts of the body, depending on where they are cast, and the tingling sensation is characteristic of a magic blocking spell. Luna then conjured up another spell, which materialized into a glowing pair of hoofcuffs. Celestia, reflexively, tried casting a barrier spell, but nothing happened other than a slight glow on her horn, as if it had been turned into a nightlight. With no resistance Princess Luna was able to hoofcuff Celestia around one of legs of one of the statues.
"Now, all I want from you is the truth. And I want it now. Not tomorrow. Not after breakfast. Now!" Luna commanded. Celestia just shrunk back at the sudden forcefulness from her sister; her sister hadn't been this aggressive since the Nightmare Moon incident.
"Guards! Guards!" Celestia shouted in a last desperate gamble to get away from her sister. Luna could hear armor clanking and hooves beating as the guards tried to pin point where the princess was. Under most circumstances the Royal Guards are a very big help to the princesses, though this time it was different. Luna had to figure out how to figure out how to get rid of the guards before they got to Celestia.
"GUARDS, THIS IS PRINCESS LUNA! RETURN TO YOUR POSTS OR YOU WILL BE COURT-MARSHALED! THIS IS AN ORDER!" Luna commanded, using the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice to great effect, while also plugging Celestia's mouth with her hoof. She both scared and stunned the guards into listening to her instead of Celestia, even though she had a lower rank than her sister.
The Royal Guard immediately turned around and returned to their various posts around the castle and the castle grounds, afraid of what would happen if they didn't. To Luna's relief not one of them second-guessed the order. The last thing she needed was for somepony to find out about them two fighting and leak it to the press. The Canterlot Chronicles would have had a field day with that.
Luna then said, in her normal voice, "I'm going to take my hoof out of your mouth, don't shout, don't call for the guards. Got it?" Celestia moved her head up in down as much as she could. Luna then pulled her hoof out of her sister's mouth, Celestia then coughed for a few seconds before speaking.
"Do you know my personal student?" Celestia asked.
"Star Swirl the Bearded? He's still alive? It has been a thousand years. Are you sure you're okay?" Luna said in confusion after mulling it over for a few seconds.
Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. She then explained "No. I have a new student, you've met her before; she's the Element of Magic."
Luna acknowledged this new revelation and thought to herself, "Makes sense. If she was powerful enough to wield the Element of Magic Tia would have wanted the wielder to study under her, and not somepony with darker intentions". She then said, "Yes, I have. So what is it about your protégé that has you so troubled?"
Celestia gulped and said, in a meek voice, "Well, you see, it's that, well, I... I... I..."
"Sister you can tell me!"
"It's because, of the fact, that, I... I... think..."
"Yes? Yes?"
"I think I love her! There I said it!"
Luna just stared at her sister for a moment, unsure what to think. Had her sister really just confessed that she loved her student? This was crossing the teacher/student boundary a little. Then again, who was she to judge her sister; after all she had never been in love before. Luna eventually broke the silence "And that scroll was?"
"It was a letter I had written, where I expressed how I felt. I was thinking about sending it to her," Celestia replied rather dejectedly.
Luna then moved back off of her sister and leaned against one of the large pillars jutting from the ground. Celestia then stood up and sat down on the red carpet. "I cannot say that I know what love feels like, or what it could drive people to do, at least when that love is for a person. But as your sister I will stand by you no matter what your decision on this matter is," Luna told Celestia.
"Thank you Luna. But right now I just need to decide what I should do, should I even tell her. And if I do, do I write a letter? Do I visit her in Ponyville? I don't know," Celestia replied. She was as confused about it as Luna was.
"Why don't you have her come back to Canterlot? Tell her you found some new book. I mean Rune could never resist a book, and he was the wielder of the Element of Magic, if I'm not mistaken," Luna said. Her sister then stood up and trotted over to her.
"Yes, that sounds like a plan," Celestia said.
Celestia put the last period on her letter to Twilight and put the quill back into the inkwell. She then got up from her seat at her desk and levitated the scroll with her. Next to her was Luna, who was trying to be as supportive as she could.
"Do you think this is the right thing to do?" Celestia asked.
"I don't know."
"Do you think this will work?"
"I don't know."
"Should I even try?"
"Sister, just do what you think is right. It doesn't matter what I think, I'll stand by you no matter what you do."
Celestia, now reinvigorated with confidence, said, "Alright let's go send this letter!"
Celestia and Luna walked away from the desk towards the balcony of Celestia's tower. Celestia then put the scroll slightly above eye level, and then Luna shot a bolt of blue magic at it, incinerating it using a special spell for transporting mail. She then flew up a little bit and tried to give Celestia a smile, it turned out looking slightly awkward looking. Celestia looked at her sister, and the smile plastered on her face, and started laughing.
"Very funny sister," Luna said indignantly.
*Burp*
Then there was a knock and the door swung open, revealing Spike, who was clutching a scroll in his hand. "Twilight, letter for you from the Princess," he said. Then he tossed the scroll to Twilight, who was on her bed reading, and closed the door and went back to what he was doing. A letter from the princess? Now!? Twilight was frantic, afraid that she had done something wrong. She then slowly opened the letter, breaking the Royal Hoof Seal, expecting the worst.
Dear My Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle,
I am sending this letter to request that you come back to Canterlot as soon as possible, do not fret; you are not in any trouble. I have just been informed by the royal librarian, Codex, that she has found a book detailing the exploits of Discord. I would like you to come back and examine the book with me, Luna and Codex. We will need to both assess its authenticity and to try and see what we can do with the knowledge learned from it, if it is real.
Your mentor and princess,
Celestia
"A book about Discord?" Twilight thought to herself, "I've never heard of one of those before. And if the Princess needs me to help examine it then it is my duty to her to leave for Canterlot now." Underneath this formal skin was a layer of her that was thinking "Yay, new book. Yay, new book. Yay, new book!" She was giddy over what she thought was an ancient text, the purple mare had no idea what a ride she was in for.
But for now she was blissfully unaware at what was to happen over the next few days. All she cared about was her new, fictitious, book.
End Chapter One, the One and Only Chapter