deer luna
today we went to uncel hopfol
tody we
today was a bad day
i dont want to rite about it
Celestia and Luna sat next to each other in the pew.
Hopeful's body was not brought back to Canterlot. The fillies weren't told why; Dream didn't want them to have to imagine it.
They were used to not having parents, though they've never experienced losing a parental figure before.
It felt empty.
On that day, the sunrise was delayed by a whole hour to honour the death of Hopeful Twist, the same honour given to fallen princes and princesses.
During this time the funeral was held.
Celestia was hugged by her sister. “I-I'm sorry, Tia...”
“It's not your fault.” Celestia grumbled, her eyes fixed on the soulless coffin in front of them.
Dream also sat beside the two girls, on Luna's side. “Your sister is right, Luna... This isn't your fault.”
“T-Then... Who's is it..?” She was in tears.
“Nobody's, darling... Nobody could have prevented this.” Dream held the filly close.
“No, Dream... It was some, Zebra... That's what the stallion said. It was a Zebra's fault.” Tia grit her teeth and sniffed, wiping across her face with a hoof.
“Assigning blame isn't going to help anyone feel better, Celestia.” Dream reached her hoof to pet Celestia warmly.
“No!” Celestia snapped her head away from Dream's touch. “It was their fault! And I'm glad that Zebra is dead!” Celestia yelled out into the funeral hall, war veterans along the pews looked up and whispered groups of shocked hushes to one another in reaction.
“Celestia, please, keep your voice down...” Dream begged with water in her eyes, her hoof beginning to shake.
“NO!” Celestia jumped out of her seat and finally faced Dream, revealing her quivering face full of enraged tears. “I mean what I said! I'm glad that the Zebra is dead! That's what really matters! T-That they got what they deserved! A-All of this! This is stupid! I don't want to just sit here and be sad for an hour! It’s dumb! You're dumb! Everyone is dumb for doing this!!!” She roared and thrashed around the front of the funeral hall and leapt up to where an empty coffin laid on its side. “HE ISN'T EVEN HERE! THIS DUMB BOX IS EMPTY! GAHH!” Celestia was balling, her entire face soaking and dripping with tears.
Ponies began to stand up from their seats and prepared themselves to stop the raging inferno of a filly's tantrum, but Celestia's horn lit up first, and gasps echoed through the hall at the sight of her intense and burning magic.
Her little horn blew up in flames, a cascade of anarchistic magic exploded around her in a large and blinding aura which she used to set fire to the coffin.
Everypony screamed and the unicorns in the crowd immediately turned on their horns to attempt to snuff out the fire, and Celestia used this time to shoot a beam at a nearby glass-tinted window and shatter it into millions of sparkling segments, before running and jumping out of it.
She ran and ran away, down the streets of Canterlot, her tears overpowering her rage.
Ponies rushed to the front and the magic of dozens of unicorns sealed around the burning coffin, but the flames did not yield, the wood of the soulless box was being burnt up.
Dream ran to the shattered window and looked out to try and find Celestia, but the filly was gone. She looked back to Luna with dread.
Though Luna had actually gotten calmer, she had dried and wiped away her tears and was sitting with a blank stare at Celestia's unending flames that the panicked ponies failed to extinguish.
“Luna... A-Are you all right..?” Dream asked while trotting over very carefully to her to place a hoof on the filly's shoulder.
“Yeah... I'm okay. And Celestia is right... This is dumb.” While Celestia ignited her emotions and let them take over, Luna's emotions became frozen deep inside of her, she did not let the energy that came with the feelings of pain and fear take over. She saw that her sister was correct, and that what mattered right now was supporting one another, not going through some pesky ritual.
She stood up and ever so calmly made her way up to the coffin, not being noticed by the panicking crowd which desperately called for aid from the outside. She slipped in between them all and placed her hoof on the coffin to hold her weight, the flames repelled away from her touch.
Her wings pulled back and she focused that feeling of energy that came from being scared and wanting to be with her sister into them. With one focused flap, a torrent of air blew around the coffin, the fire vanishing as quickly as it had erupted. Everypony else was blown over onto their sides and gazed up to Luna in awe, while she just looked back to Dream.
“I'm going to go find Celestia now.”
Dream didn't have words. “O-Oh... O-Okay...”
Luna didn't say another word as she flew out through the smashed window, swiftly gliding down the path her sister had taken.
The two sisters fled down the same road, one only moments behind the other, down exactly to the same place.
In only a few minutes of galloping, Celestia arrived at her sister’s and her favorite spot in all of Canterlot.
It was a place dug deep into the forest protruding from Canterlot's base, just under the cliff closest to their home. There was a quarter-acre clearing among the trees tucked under the cliff-face. It was populated with rocks, single scattered oaks and an overhang from the cliff that protected it from rain.
During the spring the field would be filled with flowers and countless butterflies, while the winter bore mounds of snow to play with for months.
Celestia went down to hide under the mountain and sob, the expanse of grass and trees having been scorched and set ablaze along the path she took leading from the street.
Luna arrived soon after, putting out the fires left in Celestia's wake with touches of her hoof or bursts of wind from her wings before a forest fire could begin. Once she reached the clearing, she finally saw her sister hiding her face, crying and covered in patches of fire.
“Tia!” Luna blasted forward into flight and landed on top of her sister.
“D-Don't! I-I'll hurt you!” Celestia pulled up her hooves, her face pouring with a river of tears that burnt up and evaporated before they could drip off of her.
Luna didn't stop, she hugged her sister, wrapping her wings and hooves around her. “No... It's okay... You won't ever hurt me...” She spoke with distant melancholy, her own tears beginning to flow as she held her sister, her emotions melting out of her as she lost part of her control.
The flames surrounding the filly's horn and fur hissed and extinguished at her sister's cooling touch; Celestia could feel her emotions return under partial control. “T-Th... Thank you...”
“You're welcome...” Luna sniffed.
They hugged for a good bit.
Celestia's anger was gone by the time she broke the silence. “H... H-How... Do you do it... L-Luna?... How do you stay s-such... C-Calm... E-Even now?...”
“I don't feel calm...” Luna gulped and wiped at her watery eyes with a gentle feather, “I feel scared... So scared it's so hard to cry... Y-You make me feel safe... S-Safe to show how I feel...”
“R-Really..?” Celestia choked on her word.
“Mnn hmm...” Luna nodded.
“W-Well... I'm really scared t-too...” Celestia whimpered in her confession, “I-It makes me really mad... I-I'm sorry I lost control...”
“I-I forgive you.” Luna tried to force a smile.
“Thanks...” Celestia's cheeks heated up a little and her eyes darted away, “C-Can I tell you what makes me the most scared..?”
Luna nodded eagerly, her eyes never losing their cooling calm.
“I...” Celestia shut her eyes and scrunched up her face, more tears emerging.
Her lips failed her. She couldn't speak.
“You can tell me, it's okay.” Luna added, tipping her sister over the edge.
“P-Promise me you won’t never ever die! Not in a thousand years! I-I don't want you to be gone like uncle Hopeful!” Celestia cried out, her eyes transfixed on her sister, begging for an answer.
“I promise.” Luna smiled, her youthful mind not yet knowing what dying really meant. “I promise I'll be with you forever, and we won't ever die.”
“Y-You... Y-You promise?” Celestia's vocal cords wavered from despair to hope, just like her sister, her young mind had not yet learned of the true nature of death.
They were simply too young to know.
“Promise.” Luna spoke with a confidence far beyond simply her own.
“Thank you.” Celestia magically grabbed Luna's wings and pulled her back in, refusing to let go. “I was so scared that one day you would die too...”
“I was scared of you dying.” Luna embraced her sister with immense loving strength.
“W-Well I'll make sure never to die, I promise you too.”
“Thank you, but you're so strong that I don't think anyone can make you die.”
The two fillies giggled.
“Yeah, and then I'll promise something else. Since you're not as strong, I promise I'll always protect you! Forever and ever!” The sun-filly smiled.
“T-Thank you.” The moon-filly whimpered, “I trust you.”
“You're welcome.” Celestia's smile died back down as quickly as it had burst up, “I'm sad uncle Hopeful is gone. I miss him so much.”
“Me too.” Luna agreed and nuzzled her sister, she felt warmth and comfort from her heated fur.
“D-Do you think... It will stop hurting ever?”
“I don't know. I think I'll always miss him.”
“I think I will too...” She laid herself back against the stone cliff. “I wish I could punch that zebra that hurt Hopeful...”
“I'm happy the zebra is gone too, that means they can't hurt anyone else anymore.”
“Y-Yeah... I'm just... Mad...” Celestia yawned. “And tired... I... Used a lot of magic... Swirlbutt says that using lots of magic will make me tired.”
“I-I'm tired too...” Luna set her head down against her sister's fluffy chest. “I'm going to close my eyes for a bit...”
“Me too...”
Celestia and Luna washed away from the world and drifted into their dreams.
Another several hours would pass before Dreamscape would stumble into the site and find the fillies asleep on top of one another.
“G-Girls? Are you all right?” They were both nudged
“M-Mn?” Celestia grogged, “D-Dream?”
“Yes, it's me, I'm here to bring you home. I've made some strawberries and cream for you two when we get there, wouldn't you enjoy that?”
“Strawberries..? Thank you, missus Dream.” Luna yawned and opened her eyes.
“It's all right, you're very welcome. Let's just get home, okay?”
“Okay...” Both fillies replied.
They were brought back to their home.
It felt empty now.
The two of them were allowed to bring their strawberries and cream to their rooms today, it was the only time Dream had ever allowed them to bring food up to their room.
They ate together, but not much was said. The pain was still fresh and talking about it just made it hurt more.
The sunset was a thousand years away, and once they finished eating they just sat together until then, saying little things every once in a while.
The last thing that was brought up that night before bed was the Diary.
“Celestia... A-Are you going to write about today?” Luna took the tome from her bedside table and lifted it to her unenthused and frustrated sister.
“I dunno...” Celestia huffed, “I can try...”
“All right. It's okay if you don't feel like writing much stuff.” Luna placed down the book, along with a quill, by her sister.
“Thanks.” She magically opened up the large sun-covered face and flipped to the last open page.
She gave up on writing and went to sleep a few minutes later.
Dear Celestia, my lovely sister.
I found it! And I cannot wait to begin writing this diary again with you! I am also really excited to see your reaction when I show it to you, it's been so long!
Anyways, I'll celebrate with you later. Since this is a journal, what I should write you about is today's events. (Despite the fact you already know what happened today, I do think it's nice to get another perspective on events even if you were there for them yourself.)
So here we go!
Today started out fairly regular, though the snow was absolutely lovely from the balcony. I took a peak last night at the Pegasi setting all of the clouds up and I thought it was marvelous.
Then when the morning came, you and I awoke to Miss Dream's voice...
“Celestia! Luna! Breakfast is ready!” The voice came up the stairway, the now eight year old duo quickly attending to her call.
“Yeah, Dream, we're coming!” Celestia called out and knocked through their door and ran into the hallway, Luna taking a hop to the doorway and following right after.
“Celestia, wait for me!” Luna cried out giggling and took flight after her sister, the two slipping down the halls and to the staircase, where Celestia jumped onto the railing and wrapped her lower half in her magic, using it to slide down the railing while she floated herself along. Luna skipped the railing completely and just glided down to the bottom floor gracefully.
“Calm down, you two, it's on the table.” Dream approached them and stepped aside and watched the kids run into the dining room and hop up onto side-by-side seats.
The two of them went down on their plates of cream and strawberry coated waffles, Celestia made a bit of a mess but finished quickly, and another minute or so after Luna had finished carefully eating hers.
“I hope you girls enjoy your day off, you both really deserve it. Remember not to go out too far.” Dream wiped down the table and took away their plates.
“We know, Dream, we'll be responsible!” Celestia hopped out of her chair.
“Hehe, yes, I'll make sure we are.” Luna slid off of her seat too.
“All right, well you're excused. Have fun out there.” Dream opened the door magically from across the room, letting the two little fillies gallop out together and giggle.
Once they broke through the doorway they gasped at the fields of snow before them.
The front yard of their home was coated with several inches of the purest white fluff, their fences were now snow-mounds and the bushes now castles of soft ice.
“Awesome!!!” Celestia jumped out and crushed her hoofprints into the frost piles. “It's so much!”
“Yeah! Fritz and the other Lieutenants do such a good job organising all the weather teams! I was watching them last night!” Luna skipped into the snow and played with it, kicking it around softly.
“Did you sneak out with your flying friends again?” Celestia nudged Luna over and made her stumble back.
“No, I just went out by myself!” Luna jumped over to Celestia and pushed her back.
“Are you starting a snow fight?” Celestia lowered her gaze and growled like a predator.
“Maybe.” Luna spread her wings out to try and overshadow her sister. “Do you wanna?”
“Always!” Celestia's horn lit up bright like a beacon and Luna knew it was on.
Celestia sent herself up into the air by floating her hooves and landed a few meters back, balling up nearly a dozen hooffuls of snow from the ground around her.
Luna took her wing and scooped up a massive snowy pile while she jumped behind a bush, using the cover to ball up her own ammo.
“Come on out!” Celestia barked out, “You can't hide, Luna!” She bolted through the snow and leapt on top of the bush her sister was hiding behind and readied an attack.
Celestia launched three snowballs, one after another, directly down at Luna who was covering the top of her head with a wing. The snow exploded and fell apart against her feathers as she threw a counter attack up to her sister, throwing the entire set of snowballs she had in her other wing. They splatted over Celestia's chest and she was knocked over back into the snow.
“Hey! How did you know I was going to come up there!?” Celestia's horn was quickly back at work, digging up snow for a rebound assault.
“You weren't exactly very quiet!” Luna replied and hopped on top of the bush with another snow pile loaded in her feathers' hold, which she promptly threw down at her sister.
Celestia's horn rose up in flames and she waved her head at the snowballs coming her way, melting them instantaneously in the air and then evaporating the water as it touched her skin. “Ha!” She then threw her own attack back at Luna and splatted the blue filly into submission, having to protect herself with her entire wingspan.
“H-Hey! That's cheating!” She flew up into the air out of her sister's reach and started whisking her hooves together and a small cloud forming out of the air began growing, “If you can use your fire magic, I'll use my weather making power!”
“Hehehe, I wanna see you try your hardest!” Celestia started hurling snowball after snowball up at Luna, but she soon realised they were just being sucked into her cloud. So, instead she engulfed her forehead in fire defensively.
The pegasus in the air was soon covered in a tiny snowstorm made of a single cloud, and snow poured out of it and down to Celestia where it was melted while falling. Luna wasn't phased though, as she hopped up on top of her cloud and gathered a thick snowball in her wing and then kicked the cloud down at her sister, giving it a big boost in speed with a big flap of her wings.
Celestia threw out her flames and swallowed the cloud up whole, laughing loud and hard. “It wasn't big enough! Hehehe!” She blurted out without concern, though she was quickly hit by the realisation that Luna was no longer where she last was, while at the same time she was actually hit in the back of the head by a snowball thrown by her. “Oww! That was sneaky!”
Celestia turned around, “Yeah! It was a distraction!” Luna said and gleefully fluttered her wings with a prideful smile, standing out in the open.
“Yeah, but now you're mine!” Celestia sprinted at the widely open Luna, lifting snow on the way and then hurling it at her. She then jumped up on top of her sister and knocked her right over, leaving the pale-furred Unicorn on top of the deep navy Pegasus.
“Hey! G-Get off!” The pinned filly laughed and yelled up as she thrashed her hooves against Celestia, pushing her off into the snow for only a moment.
“It won't be that easy!” She jumped right back on top of Luna, this time her legs pressed down her sister's to stop her from struggling while her horn lit up to seize some snow slowly. “You can't get out now without your hooves! Hehehe! Say your last words!” She giggled perfidiously as she gathered up a massive wad of snow and raised it telekinetically above Luna's head.
“Who said I needed hooves?!” Celestia's eyes widened and she felt the wind under her shift as Luna's wing scooped up a layer of snow and slammed it into Celestia's eye, knocking her over, this time for good.
Celestia covered and wiped her face, “Ah! I always forget you have wings... Ow... T-This stings...” She kept her face low and hid her eye from her sister.
Luna's playfulness vanished and she knelt down beside her sister. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry! P-Please fo-”
She was then hit in the back of the head by a massive pile of snow, as well as realising that Celestia's horn never stopped glowing. Luna fell over limply into the snow.
“I'm fine! How about you?” Celestia dropped the act along with the hoof from her face, her right eye was perfectly unharmed.
“Yeah... I'm fine too... A bit tired now though.” Luna shook her head clean from the melty snow bits, thankfully this was all just a game and she was perfectly unharmed too.
“Me too.” Celestia and Luna hugged and shivered together, the cold starting to get to them, but soon their hug had warmed both of their cores. “Hey, why don't we see if Dream's made us any cookies or something?”
While Celestia stood to trot to the home's door, something caught Luna's eye. “You can go check, I think my friends are here.” She looked up into the sky, behind a plump cloud, where she saw the faint tails of her flight-school friends peer over the edge.
“Hehehe, don't take too long with them now. I still want another few snowball fights!” Celestia skipped into their house and Luna bolted into the air, and with a gust and a clapping of wings she had risen a few dozen meters into the air and floated above the cloud.
A light-lime filly with a pale white, fiery-tipped mane sat with a grey-toned colt with a deep dark mane on the cloud.
“Hey, Zip and Quiver! What are you guys doing here so early in the day? Sorry I couldn't come last night, Celestia got grounded and I didn't want her to be alone.” She gently set herself down on the fluffy cloud.
Zip, the green filly sat up with a smile. “Hey, Lu! Don't worry, we thought something like that happened. No worries!”
Quiver, the grey colt chuckled softly, “Y-Yeah, It's no problem. W-We actually came here about something else that happened last night...”
The two looked at each other and giggled.
“W-What? What happened? Did your parents catch you sneaking out?” She spoke with cautious concern.
“Nah! Never dummy, my mum couldn't catch me if she tried!” Zip laughed.
Quiver went to explain. “Y-Yeah, we actually found something you might really like to see.”
“Oh? What is it, guys?” Her ears peaked.
Zip stuffed her wing into the cloud just under where she was sitting, digging out a hidden little relic. “Remember... This?!” Suddenly a large leather-bound tome with a sun on one side and a moon on the other appeared in her wing.
“OUR JOURNAL!” She squeaked and wiggled her hooves together, her eyes sparkled and widened into two big full moons. “We looked for it for so long! Where did you find it?!” Her wings took the book from her friend and she inspected it closely with mouth agape.
Quiver laughed a little and ruffled his mane, “W-We were just hanging out in the forest... And I messed up while flying and I had a small tumble... I'm okay, so don't worry, but I landed in some mud and I felt something weird where I landed...”
“Yeah! We spent like thirty minutes digging it up! And we were covered head to hoof in mud, my mum really didn't like that when I got home.” Zip giggled to herself.
“I-I told you we should have cleaned ourselves in the river...”
“It was cold! In the middle of the night! I much rather just be a mess and take a hot bath at home.”
While they babbled on the book was opened and closely caressed with dark blue, gentle, young hooves. The cover and pages were still in pristine condition. “T-There isn't any mud on it at all... It looks just as good as I remember it.”
Zip and Quiver snapped out of it, Zip giving her attention with the first words. “Oh! Yeah, after we dug it up, it just cleaned itself up! Like totally.”
“Y-Yeah... It was glowing... I think it's magical.” Quiver added on.
“R-Really? That's so cool...” Her hooftip traveled along the maze of pages to the last entry, a short unfinished scribble by Celestia, though it still made Luna smile. “I can't wait to show this to my sister! She'll be so happy to see we got it back!”
“Y-Yeah... Wasn't Celestia the one that lost it..?” Quiver questioned.
“Yeah...” Luna's navy cheeks hue'd purple with a blush. “She got really sad and angry because it reminded her of uncle H... Of our old uncle... And she used her magic to just throw it as far away as she could, she was really, really sorry afterwards... We looked in our forest for months, but we gave up after that. I'm so glad you guys found it! I'm never gonna let it out of my sight! Thank you so, so much!”
“Heh, you're welcome, airhead... Though you still gotta make up missing our hang out last night.” Zip laid back against the cloud, her hooves pillowing the back of her head.
“Tonight, for sure! I'll make sure of it! You two are so awesome! I'm so glad you're my best friends.”
“U-Us too. Heh...” Quiver smiled with his own blush.
Celestia had returned from their manor, “LUNA!!! THERE'S COOKIES!!!”
“Oh, I have to go! Thank you so much, guys, I'll be back later today and then we'll also hang out tonight, okay?” She stood up with the tome nuzzled under her hooves as her wings spread.
“You're welcome, moonbutt!” Zip waved her off with a wing and she smiled but furrowed her eyebrows at the same time.
“I told you not to call me that!” She giggled.
“Yeah... You did.” Zip giggled.
Celestia called out again, more shouty this time. “LUNA!!!!!!! SHE WON'T LET ME HAVE ANY UNTIL YOU COME DOWN!!!”
“I'm coming!” Luna replied down and her eyes wandered down to the journal in her hooves, “I should keep this a secret for now... I want to write a passage before I give this to her. Can you guys keep it safe and give it to me later tonight?”
“S-Sure, happily!” Quiver took the book from her.
“Thanks again!” She then glided down to the snowy lawn of her home.
Celestia and Luna then ate a lot of cookies together.
Today was a good day.