“She what?” Celestia demanded of Cartasole, her mouth hanging open at his statement, wings flared wide.
Her retainer’s smile faltered. “I…is this not good news?” he asked.
Celestia had begun to pace back and forth, her face holding a confusing mixture of shock, concern, and delight. “N…nay, 'tis, but…I did not think I would…” she paused, looking to Cartasole. “What does one wear to a moonrise with Luna herself?”
The brown pegasus blinked a few times. “Um,” he said. “I…I expect nothing, Majesty.”
“B-but 'tis a moonrise! With Luna!” Celestia began pacing again. “How many ponies get to experience it or see it? Such an arcane and ancient ritual, raising the moon, the very embodiment of magic, and mystery, and protection, and stars know what – ah! Le stelle! Luna shall string up the stars as well, of course she shall, how could I forget…!” She looked around her room, eyes settling on a tall cabinet that she raced towards. Inside, she found a selection of ornate dresses – none of them sized for a mare of her impressive height. “Sarti!” she cried. “Ho bisogno di sarti! Immediatamente!”
Cartasole had rarely seen Celestia in such a state as she rifled through the dresses. “With respect…” he said, sticking to Equestrian as per her Majesty’s command despite her own slip, “The Princess performs this task, quite literally, every night. I imagine that it be something of a routine for her.”
Celestia spun on Cartasole. “Routine?” she demanded. “Routine? 'Tis the raising of the moon and the stars! Who knows what ancient rituals are involved? No doubt my sister dresses in only the finest of imported silk and the rarest of gems, echoing the beauty of the night…ancient words in a tongue heard by no mortal ears are spoken …”
She went on for some time. Celestia, Cartasole had learned over the years, had an extremely romantic view of what it meant to be Princess, eagerly drinking down all the myths and rumors that had surrounded both Luna and her previous incarnation. Secretly, having had ample opportunity to speak with servants of the Exarch of Cavallia, he suspected that Luna’s job was much as the Exarch’s own – long hours of boring tedium and paperwork, broken up by the occasional financial crisis or bickering noble.
“…and then she shall lower the sun and…and…oh, cazzo!”
Cartasole recoiled at that, actually beating his wings in order to propel himself backwards and into the air, narrowly avoiding the admittedly high ceiling. He felt heat in his face. “P-p-princess!” he exclaimed. “How do you even know that word?”
Celestia had a hoof to her mouth, looking surprised at her own exclamation. It was rare, these days, but every now and then, she slipped – forgetting that she was the Sun reborn and instead talking like the earth pony vinter that she grew up as. Curses were not uncommon words on a vineyard, and she could swear with the best of them if she needed to – but that was not how a Princess was supposed to act.
It was, at least, enough to shock her out of her mild panic, as she looked to Cartasole. “What…what if she expects me to lower the sun?” she asked in a small voice, looking at her flank, still covered by her white travelling cape, which she hadn’t removed.
Her retainer came down from the air, though his feathers were still ruffled at Celestia’s exclamation. “Then…” he pondered, “then…I expect, Majesty, that thou shalt have to lower the sun.”
Celestia looked to Cartasole. “But what if I can’t? What if she thinks…what if I am just another impersonator?” Taking her travelling cape into her teeth, she pulled it off, letting it fall to the floor.
In almost all ways, Celestia knew she had a body to die for. She was as tall as any stallion, but lithe as a mare should be; her wings were strong and graceful, her horn long and sharply pointed at its end. Her coat was immaculate and covered with a healthy sheen, her mane expertly maintained, her fetlocks shorn…
But her flank was bare. Despite being twenty years old, her cutie mark had never manifested – instead, at around the same time that other foals her age had been gaining theirs, she had grown sick for several days, too weak to move and wracked with pain in her back and head – and when those days were over, there had been light and ethereal music, and Celestia instead possessed her wings and horn.
Celestia knew that there were ponies who would have traded their right front legs, never mind their cutie marks, for the chance to become an alicorn. Celestia, instead, could only see it as an embarrassment. Every time she looked to her blank flank, she felt like there was something wrong with her.
She was Celestia. She was the Sun. How could she not have her cutie mark yet?
She looked back to Cartasole. “I…I cannot go before the Princess like this!” she stated, turning back around towards the dresses, trying to find one that seemed appropriate, and wishing that she’d possessed the foresight to bring one from Cavallia that fit her. “I shall look like an…an over-large yearling! No, I won’t hear of it. Please, seek thee out a tailor for me!” she telekinetically pulled out one dress, orange and white in coloration, impossibly complex in weaving, and probably utterly ridiculous to be wearing. “Seek thee out many tailors! I must look perfect for tonight!”
Cartasole let out a slight sigh as he made his way towards the door, but paused before leaving. “Er…” he said. “Majesty…thou realize that any tailors brought here would, of course, see thy lack of a cutie mark.”
Celestia froze, blinking at that. She looked between the dresses, Cartasole, and her flank, before letting out a slight cry of frustration. “Necessary sacrifice!” she exclaimed. “I must not look like a foal before the Princess!”
---
Many hours and tailors later – who had kept silent about their opinions on Celestia’s bare flank, thankfully – Celestia found herself standing outside of a pair of large, ornately decorated wooden doors near the top of Canterlot’s tallest tower, feeling like a foal. Her dress of choice had ended up being a white and gold affair, one that had clearly not been worn by anypony in a long time. But it covered her flanks, which was her major concern, while also leaving room for her wings – and, she had to admit, while wearing it, she felt a little more…well, regal. She’d had no shortage of fine dresses back in Cavallia, of course, most of them much finer than what she was wearing now, but nevertheless, it felt right.
The wooden doors opened inwards, and Celestia was presented with a large, wide room, hewn from dark marble. The floor of the room was a vast mosaic, but the alicorn couldn’t tell what the picture was of from this angle. The domed ceiling, on the other hand, was instantly recognizable as having been done up to resemble a star chart – but rather than simple stone tiles, each star was represented by some kind of gemstone. Even given the ubiquity of them in the Equestrian soil, there was a fortune on the ceiling, all of it oriented around a single large object that sat in the center: the moon.
There were no candles, torches, glow-gems, or light sources of any kind in the room itself. Instead, a trio of large balconies with no rails – one directly opposite the door into the room, facing north, while the other two were in the east and the west – allowed natural light in, though that light was fading as the sun continued its descent towards the horizon.
Luna wasn’t in sight. Celestia glanced to a guard, and he nodded towards the door, indicating that she should enter. Gritting her teeth, the Sun reborn did so, head held high as she strode into this sanctum, the perfect example of poise and grace and style – at least until the door closed behind her. It didn’t even close loudly, but it nevertheless was enough to make Celestia yelp and jump into the air, wings beating frantically. After a few moments of staring at the treacherous door, she looked down – and at last saw what the mosaic on the floor was.
At first she didn’t recognize it – it was just meaningless shapes of blue and brown and yellow and green – but after staring at it long enough, she looked to the blues and saw water. The brown were mountains, the yellow vast fields, and the green deep forests. She saw lines of red that represented roads, and markings indicating towns and cities. Flying higher, as high as the ceiling would permit, Celestia realized that she was looking down at the largest map she had ever seen – a map of Equestria, and all nearby lands. There was the Griffin Empire in the north – though Celestia had heard that the Emperor of All the Griffs had recently died without heir, which was probably going to fragment the Empire – Celestia’s own Cavallia and her ancient rival state of Zaldia in the southeast; the vast and untamable Everfree Forest dominating the center of the map, bordering on the Sea of Tranquility, its crystal-blue surface marred only by the tiny and haunted island of Tambelon. The west was dominated by the expanse of the Great Desert, broken only by the occasional marker indicating oases around which great camel cities rose in defiance of the sand.
Celestia lowered herself gently to the floor, taking a closer look at the map now that she knew what it was. The detail was exquisite…
---
Luna suppressed a grimace brought on by long-forgotten memories and feelings of inadequacy as she watched her examining the map of Equestria and beyond, the vast and considerably more detailed (not to mention taking almost half again as long to construct) star chart in the ceiling forgotten. There had been a time, not too long ago from her immortal perspective, when she had felt the night sky and the effort that she put into it every night was being ignored by ponies at large, when she had begun to question if anypony even cared about her or appreciated her beyond her sister. Only a scattered hoof-full of ponies took an interest in the moon and the stars that Luna shepherded – the rest slept.
Of course, that had changed rapidly when Celestia had begun her descent into madness, had gradually become Corona. More and more ponies had begun taking their issues and problems to the Night Court rather than the Day as Celestia had become more unreasonable in her orders and dictums.
That still means that I was merely an alternative, Luna thought morosely. After a few moments, however, she shook her head. That was in the past – fifty years ago and more now. While it did still matter why the ponies had initially come to her, she had been able to strike up true friendships, earn the respect and the love of anypony who came to see her. The Night was no longer a time of necessary sleep, but welcome respite. The darkness wasn’t something to be feared, but rather respected and cherished for protection. And the light of the moon and stars were no longer inadequate stand-ins for the Sun, but rather a gentle alternative to the harsh and unforgiving rays of its tyranny.
None of that truly mattered now, however. A tingling at the base of her horn let her know that the sun was reaching the nadir of its path across the sky – it was time for it to sink beyond the horizon and, more importantly, it was time for Luna to speak to her.
---
Celestia looked up at the sight of a blue flash. At the western balcony, she saw a wave of blue smoke appear from nothingness, swiftly disappearing in a wind that wasn’t there as it slid over and around the suddenly-present form of Princess Luna Equestris. The reigning monarch of Equestria had her back to Celestia, her eyes closed as her horn glowed dark blue. Cautiously, Celestia moved so that she was looking directly out of the western balcony, and she saw, in the far distance, the sun begin to slide beyond the horizon.
Oh thank the Stars, Celestia thought, relieved enough at not having to set the sun that she forgot to be disappointed about Luna not performing any kind of ritual, nor dressing for the occasion in a garment worth more than the horde of an ancient dragon.
When the sun was just under halfway beyond the horizon, Luna turned, eyes opening and instantly locking on to Celestia’s own. She began walking forward, and Celestia found she had to suppress the urge to bow – or should she be bowing? After all, Luna had not formally recognized her as her sister…she settled instead on being frozen in place and just staring back at the Princess. Luna’s face was a picture-perfect example of neutral as she examined Celestia in detail – and, as she approached and veered off slightly, beginning to circle around Celestia, the pink alicorn realized that she really was being examined, Luna taking in every detail of her face, her wings, her shoe-shod hooves...
Celestia bit her lip as Luna circled her. “H…hello,” she said, feeling stupid even as she did.
Luna paused in her circling of Celestia at that. “Forgive me,” she said at length, sitting back on her haunches. She seemed to consider. “I…I have dealt with imposters for some time. I cannot rule out the possibility that thou art simply extremely skilled at crafting illusions and glamors.”
Celestia shook her head. “Nay. I’ve never had any skill with them.”
“Thou sayest,” Luna said, inclining her head. “Of course, if thou were the sort of pony who wouldst cast such figments, then lying would no doubt be second nature to thee, and so I have no cause to trust any of thy words.”
Celestia stared at Luna as the princess got up, but rather than resume her circling of Celestia, she instead walked over towards the east balcony. The sun was now almost completely set in the distance. “I…I am not lying!” she exclaimed despite herself as she followed Luna. “I am Celestia, reborn!”
Luna closed her eyes as she stopped at the balcony, settling once more onto her haunches in the fading light. “Thou sayest,” she repeated. “But I am very, very old. I have been a trickster in my time – and I have been tricked. That is why thou art here, Cadance, now: that I might judge thee, and confirm thy claims.”
Celestia forgot her indignation. “Cadance?” she asked.
Luna’s eyes opened as she looked to the pink alicorn. “I…have done research into the Cavallian rumors that have drifted this far north. That is the name thy mother granted thee, correct?”
“Nay…Cadenza. Mi Amore Cadenza.” She stood tall and firm. “But no longer. I am Celestia. I am the Sun. And I will pass any tests thou set before me.”
Luna’s mask of impassivity dropped slightly at Celestia’s statement, replaced by…sadness? Memory? Regret? Celestia couldn’t tell – but it was up again within moments as the last of the sun slipped beyond the horizon. For several long moments, Equestria was cloaked in utter blackness.
Then, in the east, there was the faintest of lights, as a single star shot up from beyond the horizon, settling comfortably into place in the north of the sky and twinkling for several moments. Then another one, finding its home. Then two, then three – five, six – twelve, twenty – a hundred – a thousand – ten thousand – a million points of light, all bursting from the horizon and swarming across the night sky, twirling around each other as though in chase, arranging themselves into constellations that swirled across the sky. Here, Draco pursued Cepheus as though seeking a meal; there, Corvus and Cetus flew around each other in an intricate dance in three dimensions. Orion fired his bow and loosed a thousand more stars as the arrow sought, but missed, Tauros. Cancer scuttled into place, Canis and Lupus eyed each other warily, Leo and Ursa gave each other respectful distance, and all made way for Argo Navis, the Boat, the largest of all constellations, its crashing keel scattering countless more stars across the night sky.
Like rowdy children, they moved around, fidgeting, settling into place, but their movement only stopped when a bright glow, dwarfing that of any of the stars, appeared on the horizon, and edge of the source of the argent light began to appear in the distance, its glow washing across the land like a slow-moving wave of gentle, silver light – the Moon.
Celestia realized after several minutes that the show was over – and it took her several moments afterwards to realize that her jaw was hanging open, just slightly. She closed it as she looked to Luna, who was no longer regarding her with an arch look, but instead a look of appreciation.
“I…I have never seen anything so beautiful,” Celestia said, stepping away from Luna and towards the edge of the balcony, watching as the silver light of the moon moved across the land, up the sides of the mountain that Canterlot was on, then through the city itself, before finally proceeding to pass over her. The light was cold, but not in a frigid way – more like a gentle coolness, the kind eagerly sought after a hot summer’s day.
Luna smiled gently at that as she joined Celestia, watching her even as Celestia herself looked at the stars and the moon. For several long minutes, there was only silence, before the Princess of the Night finally broke it.
“If thou art an alicorn,” Luna said, “then thou must, in some way, be a composite of all three pony tribes, and yet greater than the sum of thy parts. We shall start with thy wings. Thou art in possession of them, clearly, but canst thou use them?”
Celestia flapped her wings a few times at that, taking off from the balcony. “I can fly,” she insisted.
“Thou canst hover, yes. Soar, maybe. Glide, probably. But I do not yet know if thou canst well and truly fly.” Luna beat her wings – once – and was almost instantly a hundred feet in the air. Celestia’s jaw dropped at the speed, even as a wry grin overtook Luna’s features.
“Catch me, if thou art able,” she ordered, before turning around and shooting off into the east.
Celestia stared, blinking a few times, before realizing that hovering there in stunned silence was going to do nothing towards her chances. Her own wings began to beat as she gave chase to the Luna’s receding form.
And, she couldn’t help herself – she was smiling.