When Princesses Celestia and Luna visit a public art gallery, they come upon a painting of Celestia, banished to the moon. They react to this in the only reasonable way: artistic criticism and analysis.

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Cover art by that paragon of good sportsmanship and all-around talented person, Rocket Lawn Chair.

Originally written for the Reversal of Fortune writeoff, with the cover art as the prompt. Thank you to everyone there for the pre-reading and advice, and to Pascoite for his (always invaluable) additional help and editing suggestions!

Now available in Spanish, courtesy of SPANIARD KIWI.
Now available in Russian, courtesy of oranzinispegasas.

Princess.

Some hear the word and think of power. Others take it further. To move Sun, to create the cycle of day and night... surely that indicates something more. Something which can be called on. Pleaded with.

Celestia knows what ponies believe about her. She also knows there's no way to make them stop. Because there are times when the most powerful weapon against despair is faith...

...and the blade is always double-edged.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

This story is a sequel to The Moon Glows Gently

When you're the immortal ruler of an entire kingdom, the most important quality to possess is self-control. No princess can rule her nation if her emotions rule her. Celestia knows this better than anypony, and mastered them long ago.

So long ago, she may have forgotten that a little bit of passion can come in handy now and again.

The graffiti did not bother her. The art of vandalism was, in some form or another, as old as civilization itself. The content, on the other hoof, was an entirely different issue. “Princest Is Wincest,” it said. Bad grammar and spelling were one thing, but this was an attack on the Equestrian language.

Luna frowned. She would have to ask Celestia about this at the first opportunity. Perhaps there were spare funds for a literacy program. If nothing else, Tia might be able to explain what exactly the phrase meant.

Thanks to Wade and Sereg for prereading. Thanks to Burraku_Pansa and especially Midnight Rambler for editing.

Dramatic reading, courtesy of CaptainBron3y.

Having learned much about Equestria from both Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, the two principals from CHS have always been curious about what the world is really like. Luna finally proposes the idea that the two should find out themselves just what its like to be a pony...and not just any pony but royalty as well. What could possibly go wrong in this situation?

Twilight could probably name about thirty of them.

After Celestia humiliates her at a dinner, Luna storms off and ends up snooping around in her sister's room. There, she stumbles upon the journal Celestia kept immediately after the banishment of Nightmare Moon.

Cover art by bunnish on dA.
This story now has a reading by Craft Arts. Go check it out!
Featured on Equestria Daily on August 22, 2013.

Princess Celestia, tired of the constant pressure that ruling a nation puts on her, decides to take a day off and let Luna take her responsibilities for a day, something the younger alicorn is more than happy to do. She disguises herself as a pink maned pegasus pony named Sunny Skies and decides to go walking around Canterlot without any supervision. Unfortunately for her, not all parts of Canterlot are as safe as the palace, and she finds herself at the wrong end of a gang of muggers, who decide to kidnap her for a ransom when they see how much money she has on her.

Luna freaks out.

Celestia thinks it's hilarious.

Find this story and more in a print copy! Just click these words here!

Featured on Equestria Daily 8/15/13

Go here for the French translation!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/CUBPvKI.png[/img]

Edited wonderfully by sqarishoctagon and Cloud Hop

Updated cover art by Dominatore

The princesses gave their magic to Twilight to prevent Tirek from stealing it. As a result, they end up stuck in Tartarus.

Marvelous place, Tartarus. Really brings ponies together. The fact that things manage to go downhill here says a lot about the wonders of family and alicornhood.

Spanish translation by SPANIARD KIWI

Audio Drama by Espa_Roba_5 and Ajvasquezbrony28
Live reading by The Living Library
Live reading by Astro-Brony

Proofread by Octavia Harmony