Sudden Attraction
Celestia heaved a deep sigh as she dismissed the final case of the day. With only ten days left things were almost normal as both sisters prepared their final push to victory. She stood and stretched, getting blood flowing back into muscles, before heading back into the waiting chambers.
What she’d told Luna in Vault Six was true; hiding her cake was a good idea. It had certainly slowed things down, due to dealing with the political ramifications of a robbery in the castle, and trying to find her cake. Now time was running short. This prank and the next were both supposed to be finished just in time for her weekend with Twilight. There, by the rules of the war, she would be safe and able to plan the finale that would assure her victory - her first in one thousand years.
She had just checked the contents of her saddlebag and slung it on when Luna entered the waiting chamber. “Are you ready to leave?” she asked spying her sister’s saddlebags.
“The chariot should be waiting, so I’ll be leaving shortly, yes.” The two turned to leave the chamber on their way to the front of castle. “Have you rethought my offer to suspend the prank war for this weekend? After all, there is not much you can do to me down in Ponyville.”
They turned a corner, nodding as one to the guards stationed at the end of the hallway. “Why, are you afraid to lose two whole days while I am ahead?”
“No.” The two walked through to the inner courtyard, where a chariot of Day Guard pegasi stood waiting at attention. Celestia reached over and gave her sister a one-hoofed hug. “I was giving you more time to prepare. Have a nice weekend, Luna.”
As her chariot took to the sky, Celestia watched in amusement as confusion turned to realization to dawning horror. “Celestia!” Luna cried down from the ground as a poor, unwitting guard slowly started sliding towards the Princess of the Moon, despite his hooves scrabbling futilely on the cobbles. “Celestia, you get back here and fix this!”
A smile grew on the alicorn’s face as she heard a metallic ka-thunk as the guard connected with her sister. Oh, what a fun weekend indeed. It probably didn’t really need to be a full weekend trip, she only had a book to drop off, but the peace would be nice.
_--_--_--_--_--_
Luna stared, dumbfounded, at the poor earth pony guard doing his best to maintain stoicism while being dragged by some force towards her. It didn’t help when she had to take an extra step towards him, to avoid the others beginning to slide as well.
Ka-thunk!
“I apologize, Your Highness. I tried to stop,” the guard said, staring straight down. “It must be some sort of powerful spell, ma’am.”
“Yes, so I suspect,” Luna replied, shifting her weight to accommodate the Guard. “We may need to inform your watch commander. I have a suspicion that you will not be leaving my side for quite awhile.”
“S-Should I be fitted for Night Guard armor, highness?” he managed with a half-smile.
“With an answer like that, maybe.”
_--_--_--_--_--_
“You didn’t really have to come all this way just to drop off a book, Princess,” Twilight Sparkle said, sitting across from her mentor at the small library kitchen table.
“Maybe not, but an overnight trip out of Canterlot now and again is good for the soul. Now that Luna is back, I can afford to have small trips like this,” Celestia replied, sipping from a still-steaming cup of tea.
“That’s true.” Twilight took a sip from her own, now considerably cooler, cup. “So, how is life in Canterlot? Anything exciting happening?”
Celestia couldn’t resist a grin. “Well, maybe, but it would be against the rules to tell you.” She tossed a glance over her shoulder, causing Twilight to look past the Princess as well.
“Princess?” Twilight started, but she was softly shushed. After a few more moment, Celestia smiled and motioned with a wing to continue. “Princess, is something going on?”
“Well, things have been changing rapidly since Luna’s return. And, sometimes, it feels as if ponies of this time don’t necessarily remember that before we were the rulers of Equestria, we were sisters, and sisters are what we are, first and foremost.” Celestia paused to take a sip of her tea. “And sometimes... sisters do silly things, things that might seem foalish outside of that sisterhood. And sometimes... sometimes those foalish things destroy an entire hallway and two of the sisters’ bedrooms in Canterlot Castle.”
“Wait, so you mean that newspaper article that Rarity showed me...”
Celestia gave a coy grin over her teacup. “I suppose we have a couple of days to chat. Shall we catch up?”
_--_--_--_--_--_
It had taken four hours to remove Private Softwing from Princess Luna’s side. She’d had to delay Court by almost half an hour, which made the few nobles who came to see her even more testy. Thankfully, none of them had been around to watch her attempt to free her hoof from the waiting room doorknob.
As court ended and Luna retired to her chamber for the evening, her amusement of the situation was beginning to wane. The gold filigree on her bookshelves, the silver inlay on her coat brush, even the pewter inkwell on her writing desk, every single metal object she touched or even walked near shot towards her with painful speed.
She fought with her regalia for an hour before giving up and flopping into bed, resigned to have a very uncomfortable night. She stared at the stars of her ceiling, hoping the enchantment would wear off by morning.
It didn’t.
Come morning, Luna enlisted the aid of the first maid she found in the hall to be her personal metal-helper for the day, though she didn’t say as much. She seemed more than happy to help, which might have been a nice change of attitude in any other circumstances. As it was, Luna felt rather self-conscious having some poor mare interact with all metal objects on their path to the breakfast nook.
“Good morning, Lu...na...?” Cadence trailed off as a random tan mare opened the door to the breakfast nook
“Pardon me, Princess,” the mare said, standing aside to let a bashful Luna into the room. “Shall I wait outside?”
“Y-Yes, thank you,” Luna muttered before walking into the nook, eyeing the door behind her warily.
“Is everything okay?” Cadence, the only other pony in the room asked.
As answer, Luna stuck her hoof over the nearest fork on the table, watching it fly onto her outstretched shoe with a soft chink.
_--_--_--_--_--_
“So you sprayed her with a spray bottle full of water?” Twilight sat on a cushion in her upstairs personal room of the library. Celestia sat in front of her, lounging across two normal-sized cushions.
Twilight had her hair up in curlers, but the etherealness of Celestia’s mane prevented the same for her. “What else was I supposed to do?” the princess asked. “I walked into the throne room to see a rough approximation of Nightmare Moon cackling that, ‘this Night will last forever!’ At three in the morning, on the second run of this, a stern warning and some water seemed like a perfect solution.”
“‘We are not doing this again.’ That’s a stern warning?” The conversation dissolved into giggles lasting several minutes. “Wait, if the newspaper was grounds to almost remove Discord from the judge panel, how does this not break the rules?”
“My Faithful Student, the difference between you and a tabloid is night and day, pardon the pun. The specific rule forbids anything that would ruin our public image. I doubt you will ruin mine or my sister’s public image,” Celestia finished with a small smile.
“O-Of course not!” Twilight shouted. After a pause, her mouth twisted to a mischievous grin. “All night you told me about pranks you played on Princess Luna, but has she gotten you?”
Celestia paused for a fraction of a second. “No.”
_--_--_--_--_--_
Luna was waiting in the courtyard a full half-hour before Celestia was set to arrive. The last two days of her ‘condition’ taught her many things, including exactly how far away she had to be from Guards so they wouldn’t get stuck to her. Rosewater, the first Night Seneschal since Luna’s return, stood nearby, scanning her appointment book with the nerves of a new employee.
Right on schedule, a Royal Guard chariot flew over the castle wall, landing in the middle of the courtyard. Luna didn’t even wait for it to fully stop before storming forward. She didn’t even flinch as the Guard stationed around began sliding forward. “Celestia! Fix this!”
“Fix what?” Celestia didn’t even bother leaving the cabin, instead choosing to wait for her sister to walk close enough that the door clicked open on it’s own. “Thank you.”
But Luna didn’t stop. She extended a single hoof, grinning evilly when it clicked firmly into place on Celestia’s chestpiece. The two stared each other down, neither willing to give in easily.
“Who is your new friend? Attracting more than just metal?” Celestia whispered, gathering energy to dispel her enchantment.
“Hush, fiend,” Luna hissed, letting her now free hoof fall back to the ground. She stepped back and sniffed. “I decided to take a senechal. I may not... strictly... need one, but she aided me during your vacation, and I felt it was a just reward.”
Luna stepped back and pushed the tan mare forward. “Celestia, this is Rosewater.”
“Pleased to meet you, Rosewater.” Celestia stepped forward, extending a hoof to Luna’s new assistant. “Well, Sister, I think a late breakfast is in order, don’t you?”
“It’s almost four in the aftern--” Rosewater hesitantly spoke up.
“Very late breakfast. Shall we?”
Luna looked at her sister for a moment before motioning towards the castle. “Seems reasonable enough to me.”
As the two walked through the castle’s entry, they leaned their heads together. “Are you prepared for the final week?” Celestia asked.
“I won’t even need the full eight days. I think you’ll fold in two.”
_--_--_--_--_--_
“I say five, and I’m not budging,” Discord said. He’d claimed a corner of the room, with a window looping through Luna getting stuck to the first guard, since it had happened. He hadn’t moved an inch.
“Five is way too much. It was good, but Aunt Celestia left halfway through. If Aunt Luna hadn’t been so resourceful, it could have ended poorly; that needs some sort of penalty.” When it became apparent that Discord wasn’t willing to move, Cadence had hung a curtain over his little corner. She’d taken to closing it whenever the draconequus annoyed her, which was often. “Shining, back me up here.”
“Nope. I’m tired of always settling the differences between you two. Maybe I want to score something, just this once.” He barely even looked up from his paperwork. “This week diplomatic trip to Equestria has turned into a huge ordeal. Not that I don’t love being back, but the new Captain of the Guard can’t really take charge while I’m here.”
Both other judges stared at him. “Hun...?” Cadence started, but Shining cut her off.
“No, I don’t want to hear it. Score your prank, move on to the next one.” He paused long enough to finish with the paper before him, then softened. “For what it’s worth, I thought it was pretty funny. Princess Luna was fairly resourceful too, but I don’t think it would have gone too far. I think four, take it or leave it.”
Discord glanced over to the pink alicorn and raised a single eyebrow. She shrugged then nodded. “Four it is,” she said, before pulling Discord’s curtain closed again.
With what privacy they could get, Cadence walked over to her husband. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered. “We might get to make a score without fighting for it yet.”
“I don’t really care about the score. It’s fun, but I just want to go home.”
Cadence took a seat next to Shining and nuzzled into his neck. “Me too. Just eight more days, and we can go home.”