We entered the castle from a basement loading dock, and smelled the kitchens. Cobalt magic blinded us again and we were walking next to Luna, instead of Merlot, and she unlimbered her sword to hang more naturally across her back. Blizzard Walker bowed and split off, disappearing.
Guards snapped to attention. Servants bowed. Luna raised her head and nodded at them, greeting each by their title and full name: "Hile, Deputy Chamberlain Fast Hooves." "Hile, Platoon Sergeant Wind Striker." "Hile, Garçon de Cuisine Pot Scrubber." And dozens more.
I'd been in the throne room once, on a school trip. We'd come in through the foyer of gigantic stained glass windows and marble columns, they'd looked even bigger back then.
This time we came in through the back door.
Celestia looked up from a stack of parchments, and a uniformed chamberlain levitated the papers away from her.
Rosie and I genuflected.
Celestia waved for us to stand, and we did.
Luna bowed slightly and flared her wings. "Elder sister."
Celestia nodded back and flicked her wings, and I saw she had some stitches and a mangled ear, as well. Her left foreleg was wrapped. "Sister. Luna. ........Luna, I heard there was swordplay in Little Griffonstone."
"Sister, I used braggadocio and the Royal Canterlot Voice to prevent swordplay."
"I haven't seen you since yesterday morning. I hear congratulations are in order for your promotion to doctoral candidacy. When will you throw off your disguise?"
Luna snorted, flicked her tail, and stomped. "The day before the hooding ceremony. The department chair and I discussed this at length. Not until I have earned my doctoral hood and all paperwork is signed. I wish no favoritism. I introduce Ms. Red Rose Bayes, known as Rosie, doctoral candidate; and Dr. Proof Pudding, known as Proofie, postdoctoral research associate. They will attest to my soberness."
Rosie and I both bowed.
Celestia said, "Dr. Pudding. Your sister is a pleasure to teach. She's a little firecracker! She's proud of you, by the way. It is my honor to repay your father's service to the Crown by taking your sister into my School. And a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Bayes. Your great-grandfather saved thousands of lives. His death saddened me, and his name is engraved on the Health Ministry's Wall of Honor, as one who died in the line of duty. The hoofpox outbreak killed him, but his intervention prevented a pandemic."
"Thank you, Highness," I said, inclining my head.
"You honor my family," Rosie said, flaring her wings formally.
"Both of your families honor Equestria with their service. My sister drank no alcohol in your presence today?"
"None," I said.
"Just coffee and water," Rosie agreed.
"Sister," Celestia intoned, "If you had brought your guards with you, you could have maintained your disguise and kept Necromancer's Bane sheathed. How long are you sober?"
Luna's face paled. Her wings drooped and touched the ground. She swallowed several times, and her voice was almost too quiet to hear. "It has been three months, six days, and nineteen hours since my last drink."
Celestia said, "Luna... dear... had you been forced to draw blood from one of those silly nincompoops, it would have sent you scurrying back to the bottle. Don't deny that."
"Yes. 'Tis true, Celestia, but I couldn't let them brawl. They were armed with knives and hoof dusters, and drunken beyond reason. The Guard was minutes away. Somepony might have been injured, or killed. I have seen too much blood and death to let it come again preventably. The day I discover I am inured to casual bloodshed is the day I cease to be the daughter mother raised and I become no better than.... her."
Luna's voice was so harsh that I had no doubt who 'her' referred to.
"You care for your subjects' health more than you care for your own. I love you, but I assign Blizzard Walker and the others to you for a reason. You are an adult, now, please act like one. Members of the Royal House are less free than anypony else in Equestria. You are a Princess of the Blood, and Diarch. Your precedence is higher than that of even Twilight or Cadance. Accept that fact, and the constraints it imposes."
Luna bowed her head and flared her wings. "I hear, sister, and I will try to obey."
Celestia stood and came down from the throne. She kissed Luna on the mane, between the ears and just behind the horn. "Next time," Celestia said, "consider an immobilization spell."
"Mine are inferior to Twilight's. Non-lethal attacks are orthogonal to my inborn talents, and practice has only taken me so far. ......I should spend a weekend in Ponyville and take tutoring."
"Indeed," Celestia said. "Stay away from Sweet Apple Acres. Cider season's coming."
Luna's face paled again and she swallowed, then nodded.
Then, Celestia extended a hoof to Rosie and I. We each gave a gentle hoof bump to the immortal monarch of the realm. "Thank you. My sister has great trouble making friends; at least, outside of my political allies, the element bearers, and Starlight Glimmer. You realize you two are the first friends she made without mine, political, or magical intervention? She has been looking forward to this afternoon for a week."
Celestia looked and Rosie and I and quirked one eyebrow. "Luna positively capered around my chambers like a filly last Thursday when she told me she was planning this outing."
"Sister!"
"Do you deny it?" Celestia asked.
"No... but you embarrass me. I told them the story of how I earned my wings. To picture that same Luna of red wrath and fell violence capering around in excitement will scramble their mortal brains."
"You told them that story?!? You are her friends. It took mother and I two years to get that story from her. Be welcome in my house," and Celestia made a sweeping gesture to the throne room. "Any friend of my sister's is a friend of mine."
Then, Celestia sidled up to Luna and threw a wing over her. From her tone of voice, it was obvious she wasn't speaking to Rosie and me. "You never capered when you were a foal, Luna. Times were too cruel. I have been cruel to you since you returned, but I am trying to do better. I'm glad you are learning to caper again."