It promised to be a beautiful day in Canterlot. Celestia had just raised the sun and was making her way to breakfast when she was joined by Luna on her way to the breakfast table to eat her dinner.
“Morning Tia.” Luna yawned.
“Good morning dear sister. I trust the realm of dreams was peaceful last night?”
“Mmm, not really. A new bestseller that featured monsters hit the shelves yesterday and most of Equestria's stallion population had nightmares and wet their beds.” Luna grumbled. “You might want to avoid the Solar Guard's barracks, sister. I hear they're still cleaning up.”
Celestia nuzzled her sister affectionately. “Ha ha, I happen to know just what books were recently published and the only one that featured monsters is the new Everfree Encyclopedia.”
“Have you checked the bestseller boards?” Luna asked tentatively.
“Well, no.” Celestia admitted.
“Then avoid the barracks if possible.” Luna smirked and quickened her pace.
Celestia rolled her eyes and followed her sister into the informal dining hall that served as their personal breakfast chamber.
“Two hayburgers and a glass of red wine.” Luna ordered.
“The usual for me, if you please.” Celestia said to the cook before turning to Luna. “Red wine with hayburgers?”
Luna shrugged. “As I said before, it was a rough night.”
The meals were brought out, the hayburgers and wine for Luna and toast and hash browns with oranges for Celestia. The two ate in silence for a while, giving Celestia an opportunity to look over the Canterlot Times as she ate. On the front of the paper in big bold letters read: “BARON SNOB FOUND GUILTY OF FATHERING ILLEGITIMATE DAUGHTER! ESTATES SEIZED!”
Her reading was interrupted by Luna when she finished her burgers and took a long sip of wine. She sighed contentedly before absentmindedly taking her tiara from her head and turning it in the light.
“It is good to have my old crown back.” Luna remarked.
Celestia peeled an orange in her magic before answering. “It's no different from the replica.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “The replica didn't fit right. I told you that the minute I put it on.”
“And every minute of the day from that point forward.” Celestia huffed.
Luna frowned. “Well maybe if you had kept better security around my personal belongings during my absence, I wouldn't have had to wear a replica.”
“It was a thestral guard that stole it. I thought your guards were supposed to be loyal!” Celestia shot back.
“Well excuse me for not being able to review personnel files while I was stuck in the moon!” Luna's voice was rising in volume.
“Well I'm sorry if I had to rule a country by myself when my sister went crazy!” Celestia yelled.
Both of them froze.
“I'm sorry, that was completely uncalled for.” Celestia said quickly.
“No, I took the argument too far.” Luna countered just as fast.
“It was-”
“I shouldn't have-”
The two cut each other off and stopped. An uneasy silence settled in the room. Luna was the first to break it.
“Remember back when all we had to worry about was Discord?” She asked.
“Those were the days.” Celestia sighed. “Just blow the villain away and everypony was happy.”
Luna laughed. “We had so much fun back then.”
Celestia laughed along with her. “Yes, we did.”
Their laughing slowly stopped, like an embarrassed couple that just told an awkward joke.
“What happened between us?” Luna asked slowly.
Celestia took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We had to grow up I suppose. Equestria needed its rulers.”
Luna sighed unhappily. “Some days I just want to go out and make spectacle of myself, if only to show the kingdom that we are ponies just like them.”
Celestia nodded. “Some day, our subjects will realize that they have the power to survive on their own.”
Luna snorted. “And may be they'll stop having nightmares as well. Face it Celestia, when we took this job, we signed up for the duration.”
“True, but that does not mean we cannot take a break every now and then.” Celestia smiled. “After all, there are more than just two princesses now.”
“Quite true.” Luna nodded. “Twilight may be in Poneville, but that does not mean she's free from government office.”
The two contemplated the future for a few moments before Luna decided to bring up an issue that had been bothering her.
“You know, I've read the report of the theft of my crown and it still confuses me.” She stated. “It says that there are multiple wards and spells made by you surround my tiara, how did a thestral disable an alicorn level enchantment?”
Celestia frowned as she recounted the events. “I'm afraid that's my fault. According to the report, there were two guards on station in the display room when one of the guards went to investigate a noise. The remaining guard was a young lieutenant named Night Watch. We never did find out how exactly he did it, but I have a pretty good idea. When the other guard was investigating the noise, Night Watch used this time to activate a rune that he somehow acquired from the rune vault that radiated my magical signature and fooled the wards set around the display. You see, I visited your display often, and I grew tired of having to constantly deactivate the many alarms I had set, so I set them to ignore me. Night Watch had to have been a professional thief before joining the guard because he picked seven different locks in the five minutes it took for the other guard to make a search, disabled the alarm and stole the crown. The other guard returned and failed to notice the missing crown, and neither did their relief. In fact, it wasn't until the Solar Guard took over in the morning that somepony sounded the alarm. As soon as he was relieved, Night Watch walked out the front gate with his twin sister, and they were never seen again.”
“I never saw anything about a sister in the reports.” Luna balked.
Celestia hummed in annoyance. “Hm, that would make sense. There was nothing to connect her to the robbery save for the fact that she and Night Watch were related, therefore the captain of the guard refused to place her in his official transcript despite my direct orders to.”
“I take it you were none to happy regarding his decision.” Luna said.
“Shining Armor was promoted the very next day.” Celestia smirked. “However, the report had already been finalized and nopony bothered to change it. The facts all point to his sister, Dusk Maiden, having a hoof in the theft; she was the floor maid and had access to high level areas, including the rune vault. It's likely that she also lured the other guard away as well. ”
Luna nodded. “That would be the logical conclusion. Although I curious as to why there are runes that replicate your magic in the vault.”
Celestia shrugged. “Energy boost, I made the runes myself and poured some of my magic into them. If ever I am drained of power, I can use one of the runes to give me a small amount of magic. It's not much, but it's something.”
Luna frowned. “That sounds like it would have been useful during the wedding invasion.”
“Don't remind me.” Celestia growled.
Further conversation was interrupted by a familiar noise attracting the elder alicorn's attention. Celestia turned to see a spiral of smoke curl in from the window and materialize into a letter in front of her. With a faint pop, the letter burst from smoke to parchment. Celestia grasped it in her magic and broke the seal to open it.
Dear Princess Celestia,
The past few days have been a whirlwind of emotions and events. Silent Hooves and his daughter's reunion was a tearful affair that had the whole town crying for joy inside of an hour. We would have had a song about it afterwards, but Mr. Hooves refused to sing.
Our homecoming party was nothing short of spectacular thanks to Pinkie's antics, not to mention the twelve foot cake that she baked. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had a competition to see who could eat the most cake. Applejack won, but not by much.
“Tia, you're drooling.”
My reunion with Starlight and Spike was a happy one until I found out Starlight had been messing around in my lab again while I was gone. Needless to say, having my cutie marks jump off my flanks and start running around the castle led to a rather long discussion with my student.
It's strange how normal everything seems. Even the recent monster was pretty boring, I mean, what kind of monster is named Rudy? My time aboard the Marblehead got me thinking about how vulnerable me and my friends are.
Longhorn wasn't some world dominating villain trying to take over Equestria, he was just some pirate that saw a way to use our own strengths against us. The way he manipulated me into inaction by using my friends as hostages all but neutralized me, and with just a few well placed hints, he tricked the entire Equestrian Navy, and you, Princess Celestia, into an all out war with the pirate fleet at Tortoise Island.
I am frightened at the possible outcome that awaited me and my friends had the Marblehead's crew not been there to save us. It just goes to show that villains don't have to be giant magic sucking monsters or revenge-crazed unicorns that are ridiculously overpowered. (Please don't show this to Starlight!)
A real villain can be just somepony with bad intentions like Longhorn or even a noble who's willing to use their power to take advantage of some poor mare in a tight spot, but what's amazing to me is that for every villain, there's a hero out there ready to stand up for those who cannot.
The crew of the Marblehead had no real reason to come rescue me and my friends, we had barely gotten to know them when Longhorn captured us. They did though, and that gives me hope for the future knowing that such selfless creatures are out there, defending others.
Your ever faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S. I've been experimenting with a few steam engines to try and recreate the Marblehead's power plant. Can you possibly find out if the Crystal Empire can fix my castle? I may have accidentally blown out a wall or two.
Celestia smiled as she set the letter down on the table, her eyes sparkling. Luna took note of Celestia's expression and assumed the reason for her sister's happiness.
“Letter from Twilight?” She asked.
“Yes, she's-” Celestia started but the door was suddenly thrown open.
“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” The unicorn guard said urgently, holding a letter in his magic. “Urgent news from the coast! One of our merchant ships has been raided!”
“Not again!” Luna said in frustration.
Celestia's smile slowly vanished, and her eyes could have burned a hole right through the guard had she chosen. There was a creaking of wood shortly before the table shattered underneath the pressure of Celestia's hoof.
“It had better not be who I think it is.” She said slowly.
The guard nervously glanced between the letter and his princess. “Ummm-”