With a wry smile, Princess Celestia looked down and read the newspaper headline written in big, bold print. Her eyes darted over it a number of times, and each time they did, her smile grew larger and larger. It got to the point where her immense grin caused the corners of her eyes to crinkle.
Future prince pulls Princess Luna through streets of Canterlot in chariot, serenades her with song, ‘Blue Moon.’ Who says that romance is dead?
Even with all of the trouble, it was a glorious morning. The engagement gala planning was in full swing. The castle was full of ponies, many of them former students and old friends. The castle felt alive again. It had grown quiet and stale—indeed, for a time, Celestia had thought that it felt like she was living in a museum. But there was life here now, laughter. There were also hungover ponies at her breakfast table.
“Nephew, how are you this fine morn?”
With a groan, Blueblood slumped over.
“And you, Raven?”
There was no response from Raven, who moaned and then rubbed her left temple.
“Must have been quite some night last night.” Celestia smiled and her ears waggled with happiness. She lifted up her tea, slurped it, and then beamed like sunshine. “I am a very happy pony this morning. I don’t know why.”
“Last night was weird,” Raven said in a low, subdued sounding voice.
“It sure was.” Blueblood nodded. “No bits, no bridles, no riding crops. We didn’t even do anything, we just sat on the couch together, drinking wine.”
“He proposed to me—”
“Congratulations!” Celestia’s enthusiastic bellow made everything on the table rattle and both hungover ponies flinched in pain. “Blueblood, Nephew, I really do wish you would reconsider. We could find a way—”
“No…” Blueblood waved his hoof at his aunt. “No no… I’m sorry, but my priorities have changed. I will always be around to help, I will tutor Gosling, but I am done. This crisis was my last. I think we’ve all had an awakening of sorts. You, Auntie, have found your mojo again… your groove, as it were. Luna is starting to have something that resembles happiness, I think, it is very difficult to tell. And I… well, ah… I have found something very dear to me. After all the pain she has caused me, it is time to return the favour. I understand foal birth is excruciating.”
“It hurts,” Celestia said, reflecting back upon the past, “but in truth, I’ve always welcomed the pain. I think I’ve grown to miss it.” The beaming mare let out a sigh that made the tea in her cup ripple and looked over at Raven. “I really do wish you the best of luck. I’m excited that my foals will have little playmates.”
“I’ve had a good life… and I’m really good at what I do… but I am no longer happy doing it. One can only be a bastard for so long. I am sorry, Auntie, for whatever it is worth, I feel as though I am letting you down.” Blueblood slumped over the table in a most uncouth way and closed his eyes.
Celestia’s beaming smile vanished. She sat there for a moment, looking at the pony that few loved, but she treasured. Blinking, she watched him breathing, the slow rise and fall of his barrel. “Cheer up, Blueblood. Every ending is a new beginning. I am not at all disappointed or upset with you. I love you a great deal and I want you to be happy.”
Lifting his head, Blueblood opened his eyes and looked at his aunt. “Sod it, I’m going to start crying.” Saying nothing else, not even excusing himself from the table, Blueblood got up and left. He walked away in a hurry, and the sounds of sniffling could be heard as he departed the room.
“Last night,” Raven said in a voice that was almost a whisper, “as we cuddled together, I realised that I really do want to spend the rest of my life with him. He… well… I don’t know how to say it, but, last night… well, I’m no longer afraid of growing old.”
Hearing these words, Celestia’s beaming smile returned.
“Gosling showed up and suddenly, everypony is a whole lot happier. I can’t explain it. The maids are happier, the castle staff are whistling again as they roam the halls. Kibitz… Kibitz walks around smiling and I keep thinking that changelings have replaced him. Everyone is in a better mood… and we’re in a major crisis! I can’t explain what is going on. I think it is because everypony is happy to see you happy again.”
Celestia, who suspected something different, said nothing.
Eyes half closed, Raven poured herself a cup of coffee as she gave herself a hug, wrapping her forelegs around her barrel. She leaned over her coffee cup, managed a weak, pained smile, and then something that was almost a giggle came out of her mouth.
Raising an eyebrow, Celestia waited, hoping that Raven would say something. Here was a chance to just be mares. Not a princess and her devoted assistant, not employer and employee, but just two mares, who were both in love and wanted to be happy. Celestia felt like a pony again. Not the immortal sun goddess, not the old mare up on top of the mountain, and not the relic from the past. She was a pony, a mare, with needs, hopes, dreams, and aspirations. She had desires, things she wanted, and a nation that she loved a great deal, a love that had been refreshed, renewed.
“Last night was magical,” Raven whispered. “No screaming. No shouting. No violence. Just a long conversation and a whole lot of booze. It started off with wine and little kisses. Things progressed to brandy and neck nibbles. The drinks got harder and the petting got heavier, the booze flowed like water, but there was no need to perform. There was no pressure, no need to relieve stress. We were happy.” She closed her eyes and a hungover grin spread over her muzzle.
“The griffons have a song for nights like that one.” Celestia nibbled on her own lip for a moment, trying to remember what it was.
“Oh?” Raven opened her eyes and lifted her head.
“Ah, yes, I remember…” Celestia inhaled, drawing air into her lungs, and then she prepared her singing voice. “Salmon chanted evening—”
“Boo!” Raven waved her hoof at Celestia and let out a pained giggle as the vice on her brain clenched tighter. Her giggles turned into laughter when Celestia joined her, and Raven enjoyed a mare to mare moment with the princess. “Where is Gosling? Shouldn’t he be joining us?”
Glancing down at the newspaper, Celestia grinned hard enough to make her face ache. “Oh, he was out late last night, and my sister issued a royal decree forgiving him his duties for this day. Both of them attacked me this morning, jumping me in my own bed. We laughed together…” Celestia’s words trailed off and for a moment, her grin vanished. She blinked a few times, shook her head, and then her grin returned, but it was different, it was a happy grin, tinged with sadness. “Luna and I, we haven’t been happy like that since…”
Across the table, Raven kept a respectful silence and sipped her coffee.
“I mean, we’ve had moments of happiness together, we’ve been happy… but this morning… it was… it was like we were foals again… fillies who had not yet been crushed by life, responsibility, and the weight of the crowns upon our heads.”
Still sipping, Raven’s eyelids sagged a little as she hunched over the table.
“It’s funny… you don’t really remember how things were until you experience them again somehow. You can have moments of happiness, even intense happiness, and you can believe that you are truly happy, but then you have this moment… this magical moment where the moon, the stars, and the planets align and suddenly, you are happy again, that happiness from your youth.” Pausing, Celestia rubbed her neck with her wing. “I’m not sure I can explain it. It’s like reclaiming something you didn’t know that you had lost.”
Leaning over the table a little more, Raven propped her head up on her hoof after securing her elbow against the table. Proper manners didn’t seem to matter now. She lifted the cover off of the sugar bowl and began dumping far too many little white cubes into her cup.
“For so long, since Luna’s return, I’ve had to act like her big sister… or her mother. This morning, we laughed like we did a long time ago, before the shadow overtook Luna. Before I had to be the big sister… it felt so good to be that way again… I didn’t realise…” Celestia wiped her eyes with her wings and then smiled, her lower lip quivering as her nostrils flared. “Luna pinned me down so that Gosling could zerbert my stomach, and there was the old trust again. There was no hidden sense of worry, fear, nor panic in the back of my mind. She was my sister once more.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Raven remarked.
“Excuse me, Raven, but I must go. I think I need to speak to my therapist, if she can be summoned at this early hour. Or maybe I can find Cadance.” Celestia pushed back her chair, got up, and then looked down at Raven. “Thank you for listening. I wish you the best of luck with Blueblood, and I hope you find happiness.”
With nothing left to say, Celestia turned about and departed, her hooves clicking on the stone tile floor.
In the bustle of the late afternoon, two figures made their way down the hall. Both moved as though they were tired, both were wearing sunglasses, and both had a most curious accessory—shirts—shirts with a witty phrase emblazoned across the chest. The pair moved together, one limping, the other moving at a slowed gait. Both were messy looking, each of them had bed head.
The larger, an alicorn, with a very messy long blue mane, her shirt said, “Blame my sister.”
The smaller, a pegasus, with a shorter silvery mane, his shirt said, “I’m with stupid.”
As they passed, the maids and stewards chuckled, laughed, and giggled. The pegasus, exuberant, feather-gunned and clucked his tongue at every pony that walked by. This continued for quite some time, until they encountered a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane.
Upon being feather-gunned and tongue clucked at, the white unicorn stallion joined them, and the blue alicorn conjured up a shirt, which the new member of the group put on. The duo, now a trio, continued through the halls. After a time, the blue alicorn frowned as she remembered something vital, and she conjured up a pair of sunglasses, which were given to the new member of the trio.
The white unicorn stallion, his shirt read, “I married the first filly I fronked.”
Princess Cadance had to struggle to keep her composure. She fought to even breathe and each inhale was a struggle, followed by the strain of exhaling. She looked at her husband, then at her aunt, and then at the grinning pegasus. The corner of her eye twitched and for a second, she was certain that she was going to lose it.
“I can’t even take any of you seriously right now,” Cadance said to the group. Her held back laughter came out as a shudder that made her whole body wiggle. “Shining Armor, that shirt… I can’t even…”
“Join us.” Gosling bowed his head. “We’re forming a club. Become one of us, Cadance.”
“No!” Unable to hold it back any longer, Cadance giggled and she was forced to turn away from the group as she bit down on her lip. Great big snorts forced their way out of her nose and her wings flapped against her sides, tickling her, and doing nothing to help the situation. She started to run away, but there was a firm tug on her tail that prevented her from leaving. She turned her head to glare at Shining Armor, then fell apart when he made a duckface and peered at her over the top edge of his sunglasses.
Unable to resist any longer, Cadance accepted her shirt and a pair of tacky sunglasses with chunky white frames. Succumbing to peer pressure, Cadance put on her shirt and slipped the horrid glasses over her eyes. She then feather-gunned the group and made a clucking sound with her tongue.
The trio became a quartet and the newest member sported a shirt that proclaimed, “I fronk on the first date.” Setting off together, the quartet prepared to unleash mayhem in the halls of Canterlot Castle with the hopes of adding a fifth and final member.