What Celestia and Luna are up to next... · 5:30pm Nov 1st, 2019
STORY PROMPT:
The Call to Adventure
Free from their duties, Celestia and Luna are summoned on a friendship mission.
Vector sources: Celestia's cutie mark,Luna's cutie mark, Cutie Map from a screencap
[art by shamanguli]
...Got your attention? Good. 
The idea of the Immortal Goddesses of the Sun and Moon going into quiet retirement never sat right with me.
Sure, nopony is more deserving of getting time off for a job well done - but the idea of their retirement felt like Celestia and Luna were becoming less "relevant", less "important"; as if Equestria's lore itself, the legend of the "Eternal Goddesses of Sun and Moon" we were told in the very first episode of MLP, was suddenly shattered. 
And that ... that just felt wrong. 
...So it'd be nice to see fanon of them taking on a new role in Equestrian society further down the line. 
Protecting Equestria, leading expeditions into the unknown larger world, going on world-saving adventures themselves for once. Going on friendship missions. Give their lives a new meaning. 
Who knows... "peaceful retirement" might get boring after a while. 
What follows are a couple encouraging story scenarios. I won't be the one to write them (you know my writing pace 
). Rather, I hope this shall serve as inspiration to others. 
I'm not outright asking anyone to "write my story for me", but sure, feel free to take any of these ideas if you want to. ^__^;;
Vectors used: Luna, podium, BackgroundVote Luna for Mayor!
Bored, Luna decides to run for mayor of Silver Shoals as a hobby.
How hard can running a town be after running a country?
“By the Powers of Sun and Moon!”
Celestia and Luna, free from their duties, and somewhat bored with retirement, decide to use their alicorn powers to become “super-heroes”.
Their identity isn't exactly a secret, but it's fun to play pretend, and traveling Equestria and helping / saving ponies is its own reward.* It also gets them more in touch with the everymare.
But darker forces are stirring in Equestria's underbelly – and they've set their sights on the two sisters... surely, now they are retired, that must mean they are weakened!
Will Solaris and Moon-Mare be able to stop them before it is too late?
*Maybe don't focus on just Ponyville this time. ^__^;;
Vectors used: Celestia sitting on her throne, Twilight's cutie mark
Returning to the throne
Princess Twilight, ruling monarch of Equestria, is summoned on an urgent matter out of the country, and it's clear this will take a while.
"Celestia, Luna, I hate to ask this of you – but can you fill in for me?"
It's been 500 years. It's only for a month, right?
Everything's gonna be fine.
Space-Princess Luna
Luna is most intrigued by Princess Twilight Sparkle's endeavors into space travel and plans for colonizing other worlds.
And come to think of it, she's had an awful lot of free time lately...
And, if you want to go meta:
Two parallel Equestrias make contact
The triarchy of Equestria makes diplomatic contact with a parallel Equestria. To Celestia's, Luna's, and Twilight's surprise, the other world's Celestia and Luna are retired, leaving Twilight the sole ruler of the nation.
Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and Celestia, Luna, and Twilight have a chat.
How things are, and how they could've been solved differently.
Lastly... here's something I had cobbled together (from existing vectors) before the s9 premiere had even aired:
Vectors used: Twilight , Celestia , Luna, BackgroundTrue Equals
“You needed room to grow. Yet had we raised the possibility of someday returning to the throne, ponies would not have taken you seriously as a ruler... Will you accept our aid?”
If you have similar story prompts yourself, feel free to leave them in the comments below - and be sure to check the comments for those left by others! 
Additional thoughts:
Celestia and Luna didn't give up their magic. They didn't get de-powered. Meaning:
Celestia and Luna are still immortal.
They didn't retire because "they were getting old", they retired because they wanted to go do something else, and give Twilight room to grow.
- Celestia and Luna could still control the sun and moon, but no longer have to do it themselves. Twilight has that responsibility now.
Luna can still walk the dream realm.
"Ooh, ooh! I call dibs on showing up in everypony's dreams!"
...She might not stay the only dream walker, though. And rather than Dash replacing Luna outright, imagine them teaming up to kick nightmare-flank.
.
Why did Celestia and Luna leave Canterlot?
Simple: If they'd stayed, ponies would still have kept coming to them instead of Twilight. It would've undermined her rule.
That does not, however, mean that they couldn't someday return to live there again, or Ponyville nearby, once Twilight has established herself.
Related blog posts and story prompts:
- "Dragon Science", Immortality, and how to save the ones you love in a world of magic.
- Sleepovers at Canterlot Castle: Seven ways Twilight could see her friends MORE than just "once a month", while staying canon-compatible
- A thought: Cozy's/Chrysalis'/Tirek's reformation does not need to wait until the distant future
- Example of how a "6 months in stone" reformation-fic could go.
- The best way to save Twilight's friends and create a happy future, without playing the immortality blues
. - Implied potential for alicorn-ascension by influencing the IDW season 10 comic writers to change canon itself – slightly less crazy than it sounds.
Going to throw a few more out there:
• Wandering Star: Celestia now has free time, an alien concept if there ever was one. And nopony's decided what to do with Castle Ponyville. And Twilight didn't take the mirror portal with her when she moved to Canterlot. And that first journal still works as a magical connection; it's just too full to work as a form of correspondence.
Given all that, Celestia's going to pay her other faithful student a surprise visit.
• Silver Shines the Nightmare: How better to thank Silver Shoals for hosting the retired princesses than helping with a favorite holiday? Luna's going to give the town a proper Ponyville Nightmare Night!
A shame so few other cities are prepared for a proper Ponyville anything.
• Avoiding Their Hoofsteps: Flurry Heart is at that awkward, rebellious phase, and confides the truth to her Grauntie Luna: She's terrified of Cadence following the diarchs' example and leaving the Empire to her, and suspects it could happen any day now.
5149095
Wandering Star: Hehe, good one.
And who knows, she might actually come to stay over for a while. Immortality begets patience, and vastly different understandings of the term "a while".
How did Sunset take the retirement announcement, anyway? I mean, the Princesses probably had to make doubly sure their retirement announcement wouldn't cause a wide-spread panic, and reassure everypony they were in good health.
Sunset probably heard/read about it from Twilight distractedly mentioning it in a journal entry without context.
Kinda a worldview breaker.
Silver Shines the Nightmare: That would make for some lovely slice of life.
Avoiding Their Hoofsteps: Yeah... that'd be terrifying.
This could also provide an opportunity for Luna to explain her decision to retire alongside her sister - which Celestia might not have originally planned as such, intending to give Luna the spotlight she'd always wanted. But...
"That's not what I wanted. Not without my sister by my side."
Actually, speaking of panicking alicorns - if the epilogue future is good for one thing, it's time travel shenanigans.
Now imagine she let's slip what happens in the future.
"I'm WHAT??! And Princess Celestia is going to WHAT!?!!!!"
It'd be doubly funny, since Luster has never seen her princess so fluster.
Also, I imagine Luster's first choice would've been to ask around for Starlight Glimmer, expert on temportal mechanics. But somehow, nopony has heard of her.
In the end, Luster probably unintentionally created a branching timeline, and future Starlight has to come pick her up from the time stream after she and Twilight set up a temporal / dimensional beacon.
"Well. At least you didn't create another Wasteland future. We're still sending aid to those."
5149095
previous comment updated.
because sometimes, inspiration strikes two seconds after hitting reply.
Just going to single out that art as a pretty impressive prediction... only the show recolored Celestia instead of giving Neo-Twilight a proper design.
re the post and the comments:
Heh, nice. :)
No particular ideas on this seem to be coming to me at the moment, though.
Had my own idea of what to do with them post epilogue but these sound pretty good. Might write one of these later.
5149470
By all means, do so!
Feel free to use the vector cover images provided (can't speak for the paintings, but it'd probably be fine too).
(Credit goes to the people who made the vectors, not really me, though, I just hastily fumbled them together to get a message across.)
5149095
Btw, this is what I imagine Flurry's rebellious phase looks like:
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/68ad0ace-e66f-4db0-85fe-f20e680269c7/dbckag8-12ed6820-2d94-4553-b24b-6719aed587bb.png/v1/fill/w_1017,h_786,q_70,strp/patreon__family_photo_by_silfoe_dbckag8-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9OTkwIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNjhhZDBhY2UtZTY2Zi00ZGIwLTg1ZmUtZjIwZTY4MDI2OWM3XC9kYmNrYWc4LTEyZWQ2ODIwLTJkOTQtNDU1My1iMjRiLTY3MTlhZWQ1ODdiYi5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19._DfOH5uUvK-1B2som4aNO79yH9DwHG-1oAVLAw_kguU
5149095
5149118
I feel like "Carry On, My Wayward Sun" or a similar pun is applicable here.
5151071
If not the story's, it could be a chapter title.
I have always had the idea that both Celestia and Luna would start their lives over after the end. When you think about it they have been bound by their duties for as long as they can remember, especially Celestia. She has been forced to hide behind a queenly mask in order to keep her subjects happy and has rarely gotten the chance to be herself.
As for Luna she still doesn’t have the same level of appreciation as Celestia and after getting back as a princess for less than a decade she retires. I feel like she is the most likely to become a superhero of both the night and the dream world while Celestia just wants to live a normal life, at least for the moment.
They will definitely go on adventures and help Twilight with various things as well, that’s a given but probably not until after they have had their vacation.
Then there is the question of love and family. Celestia definitely deserves someone who loves her for who she is and not because of her status. Same with Luna obviously but I believe that she will remain a bit more adventurous before that.
I fully believe that both of them would be good mothers if they decide to start families but I do wonder if they would remain immortal or if they would choose to give it up to live as a normal family.
Why not tell me what you think?
Don't know if you'd care or not, but here's my take on one.
- MLP: FiM
- MLP Gen 5
- Dark
- Slice of Life
Ruiling Equestria for a month. How hard can it be?G5's tag is there for a reason too 😜.