//------------------------------// // orbiting earth // Story: Viva La Lunar // by amf studios //------------------------------// Chapter 2: orbiting earth. Princess luna was rubbing her forehead with her hoove, this was by far the most stressful meeting since the forming of the republic.  She admitted this was the touchiest subject they had ever discussed but that didn’t mean this wasn’t still unbearably annoying. The way Her thirteen senators argued it was like the war for the crystal empire all over again. “Quiet!” she screamed in her royal canterlot voice which effectively shut everyone in the room up, “we should be discussing this rationally like grown creatures but instead we are bickering like foals!” “With all due respect, your majesty,” a blue unicorn stallion with a white mane said with a slight british accent, “no one in the republic has spoken to anyone in equestria, since the great divide, it’s understandable that some of the senators would be uneasy at the thought of rejoining them.”  this was senator Rules Card, each dome had one senator who was elected by that dome’s citizen, Rules was the senator for dome 1, and luna’s right hoof stallion. “Uneasy?!” yelled senator rutherford, the yak senator from dome 9, “we left equestria because they gave us no choice, you know how many died, if we go back we, we’ll face the same problems that made us leave!”   “N-now, now, senator rutherford, calm down, that was more than a thousand years ago, perhaps our leaving was the wake up call celestia needed to finally resolve these issues,” senator thorax  said nervously. He was a changeling from dome 4 and the youngest among the senators. He was mainly teal with a sea green underbelly, violet shell and lilac wings and eyes(different conditions made it so he wouldn’t like he did in the show.) “If celestia was going to do anything, we wouldn’t of had to leave now would we!?” rutherford shot back. “Now look,” luna yelled getting all of the senator’s attention, “we all know this situation is less than ideal, I for one don’t want to be part of equestria again, however we are in the middle of the longest water crises we have ever faced, if we do not find a solution we will all die of thirst, if rejoining my sister’s nation is what it takes to keep my subject happy and healthy, than so be it.” At that moment a thestral guard entered the room, “twilight sparkle has arrived at the gate as per your request, your majesty.” Luna looked to her senators and said, “we shall take a recess, we will continue this in two hours.” The senators left their seat as luna flew down to the guard and said, “tell her to meet me in my private study.” Meanwhile in canterlot, equestria’s capital.  Princess celestia entered the courtroom trying to contain her excitement, it had been a thousand years since she had seen her sister, and now she had the chance to be able to see her on a daily basis at least.  But of course she knew she wasn’t in the clear yet after the first and last letter luna had sent her earlier that morning. Celestia completely remembered what it had read, “Dear Princess Celestia, I have read each of your ludicrous number of letters, and I have decided that I will consider your proposal.  Like you, I have a nation to look after, and we have fallen on hard times, so i am required to make tough decisions to make it go as smoothly as possible.  Before I and my senate make our final decision, we wish to see all equestria has to offer, just name the time and place. Sincerely, Princess luna. P.S. please stop sending all these letters, I have literally had to start burning them.” She sat down at her throne as other nobles entered the room and took their respective seats. “Alright,” she said when everyone was in their spot, “let us begin.  Now normally we would start with something like taxes or what not, however today however, we have something more pressing, and a bit more exciting.” The nobles eyed her for a moment, some whispering to each other. “Have any of you ever heard of the lunar republic?” she continued. “Ah, yes that old foals’ story about the monsters on the moon,”  a noble named fancy pants said. “But what does that have to do with anything,” prince Blueblood, celestia’s nephew asked. Celestia rolled her eyes, she loved her ponies, but sometimes they weren’t the smartest bunch, she then said, “those stories are actually based on a real event called the great divide.  One thousand years ago, there was another alicorn, princess luna, she ruled over equestria during the night due to her nocturnal lifestyle, one night she and her subjects left equestria and the planet itself, though nopony really knows the reason.  For years i’ve tried to get in contact with her, and earlier today, i’ve finally gotten a response.” Celestia took out luna’s letter and the court began passing it around.   “What proposal is she referring to?” blueblood asked as he read. “The idea of the lunar republic rejoining equestria,” celestia said.  This gathered intrigue from most of the court, especially blueblood. “All luna asks is that she and a few of her…” celestia paused and looked at the letter again, “senators? see what they have to gain from the merger, and request that they come here to discuss the details face to face.” “Pft, if i were them, i’d join us just to be apart of the greatest nation on the planet,” blueblood said snootily. “However you are not them,” another voice said.  This voice belonged to princess celestia’s niece, princess mi amore cadenza, or as she preferred to be called cadence, “and thus we have to make a good first impression, the summer sun celebration is only two days away, what if we invite them the day before, and if all goes well we can announce it during the celebration.” Celestia smiled, “not a bad idea, cadence.  It is settled then, we’ll begin preparation for their arrival, I will personally write to luna about this decision.” Back in the lunar palace, twilight was being led to luna’s private study by lieutenant Pharynx.  He was a black changeling, with a red mane and wings, and purple shell and eyes, legs with more holes than swiss cheese, and was wearing his black and silver armour. He was thorax’s older brother and a good friend of twilights. “So, I’ve heard that something big’s going on, some of the other guards have been spreading rumors of princess luna receiving strange letters, you know anything about it?” pharynx said striking up a conversation.   “No, although that might be why she called me, what do think it is?” twilight responded. “No idea, all I know is that it had the senate in an uproar, they were yelling and screaming just before you got here, could hear em half way cross the palace.  haven’t had the chance to talk to thorax about it yet, if he’s even willing to say anything,” the changeling responded. “Pharynx, you know senators aren’t allowed to discuss these kind of things with citizens until they’re made public,” twilight said.   “I know, I just hate being left in the dark, makes it harder to get things done,” pharynx sighed as they reached a door, “welp, here we are.”   “Thanks for walking with me, pharynx,” twilight said causing said lieutenant to blush a bit, “no prob.” Twilight knocked on the door, and was answered with luna opening it, “aw, twilight, come in, come in.” The unicorn mare entered the study to find it was messier than she’d ever seen.  Whatever luna had wanted to talk to her about, it had her so busy she didn’t have time to clean her study, that or this was organised chaos, but luna had higher standards than this.   Twilight telekinetically lifted up something from the floor, it seemed to be a horn written letter, which was very rare thanks to emails, written on parchment, which was downright impossible to find because it went obsolete with the invention of paper.  Twilight looked to see at least thirty of these scattered over the floor. “Okay I know some ponies still wright things by horn, wing, or mouth, but parchment?  Who would still have any?” twilight questioned. “My sister apparently,” luna sighed, “that’s actually the reason I called, you know about our little water crisis, yes?” “How could I not, my neighbor, rainbow dash, is always complaining about how much overtime she’s had to work in dome 2 over it. do these letters have anything to do with it?” twilight replied. “Well, it has been nearly a decade since the last comet flew by the moon, and our supply is starting to run thin, these letters are from my sister, princess celestia, who may have a solution to it, however myself and most of the senate, don’t care for what it entails,” luna said sadly, “she wants me to rejoin equestria, we’d have access to a multitude of resources, but we would lose our independence.” “WHAT?” twilight exclaimed, “princess you can’t do that, sure we need the water, but what if things haven’t changed down there, what if they are still violent toward thestrals and changelings, what if they use this opportunity to steal our technology, i mean for your sake, they still use parchment, how advanced could they be?” “Twilight, your breathing exercises,” luna said, being her teacher she had come up with this when she found out about twilight’s meltdown problem, it seemed that every time something stressful happened twilight’s imagination took over causing her to only think of the worst case scenario until she calmed down.  Luna still remembered that incident where twilight got half of dome one to fight over one doll because she needed a new spell for a report and was afraid if she didn’t she’d be sent back to magic kindergarten, after that it became clear luna needed to deal with this problem before it got out of hoof, if it hadn’t already. Twilight took three deep breaths then said, “i’m good, i’m good.”   “Unfortunately, you are correct, I learned long ago that one cannot simply just trust my sister’s word.  As such, I wish to send you there ahead of me, I want you to gather intel, see if they can be trusted, you are my most trustworthy student afterall,” luna said calmly, “but if you don’t want to go, I can’t make you.” Twilight looked at her for a moment, “of course I want to, princess, helping you and the republic, while learning about a completely different culture, how could I say no?” Luna smiled at this, “very well, you are aloud to bring two ponies with you, and I’ll arrange for lieutenant pharynx to accompany you.  You’ll leave sometime tomorrow, I would recommend using today to pack and rest.” “I won’t let you down,” twilight said. “I know you won’t,” luna replied. With that twilight left the study and luna returned to her work. “So how’d it go?” pharynx asked as twilight closed the door to the study.   “Guess what,” twilight said with a huge grin, “were going to equestria!” Pharynx blinked and said, “I don’t follow.” “Princess luna is sending me on a very important mission to the planet, and she’s going to arrange for you and two other ponies who I have yet to decide who the will be, to come with me!” twilight explained. “Oh,” pharynx said before realising what this would entail, “wow, when do we leave?” “Sometime tomorrow,” twilight said, “I’ll see you then, I gotta go pack.” “See Ya,” the changeling called back, and with that it hit him, it was gonna be a long day tomorrow.