//------------------------------//
// Socks: The story behind the fashion craze! 
// Story: Sisters 
// by Bad Horse 
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"AND SO," Princess Luna concluded, "WE HOPE THAT THE NEW RULE OF LAW WILL INCREASE THE SWIFTNESS OF LEGAL PROCEEDINGS, AND REMOVE UNCERTAINTY ABOUT WHAT MAY AND MAY NOT BE DONE IN EQUESTRIA. SIMPLY LOOK UP THE RELEVANT LAWS, AND YOU MAY BE ASSURED THAT NEITHER WE NOR OUR SISTER SHALL OVERRULE THEM.  UNLESS NECESSARY, OF COURSE."

She smiled at the assemblage of nobility and press nearly filling the audience hall, and at Twilight in particular, who had come up with the Rule of Law idea in the first place.  There was a quiet just long enough to hear a pin drop as the echoes faded and those ponies in the front rows recovered from her use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, before the room was full of the buzzing of ponies talking excitedly amongst themselves.

Oddly, the lavender unicorn had on the same puzzled frown she wore when she found an unchecked box on one of her checklists.  Well, Twilight always did manage to find something to be puzzled about.  "ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS?" Luna asked.  That had also been Twilight's idea.

The crowd immediately pressed forward up against the palace guards, with practically everypony's mouth gaping at her as they called out "Princess Luna! Princess Luna!"  They reminded Luna of the goldfish surfacing to snap at her left-over peas when she threw them into the royal fish-pond.

"PRINCE BLUEBLOOD," she said, addressing him first as was accorded by his rank.  He was expecting this, and was one of the few ponies not stamping a hoof or bobbing his head for attention.  The room quieted.

"I think we all know the question everypony is wondering," he said, and flashed the crowd a gracious smile before turning back to the princess.  "Who made those amazing socks?"

One advantage of being the Princess of the Night, with hair the color of the midnight sky, was that it was difficult for anypony to tell when she was blushing.  The socks in question were black, with stars and moons in light blue, and covered her legs from below the fetlock to just above the knee.




Royal Canterlot Socks by egophiliac


"WE DO NOT KNOW," she replied after a pause.  "THEY WERE... A GIFT, FROM OUR SISTER."

This revelation led to an even greater hubbub as the ponies all turned to tell each other what they'd all just heard.  Luna sighed.  She looked for somepony from the press, who would have a more intelligent question, and singled out a brown earth-pony mare who was jumping up and down particularly vigorously.  "YES, THOU, WITH THY NOTEPAD."

"Princess Luna! Tabby Lloyd from Equestria Daily.  Does this mean we can expect to see Princess Celestia wearing socks as well?"

"WE SINCERELY HOPE SO," Luna replied through gritted teeth.  She looked for Twilight, and finally found her, a lone, quiet figure amidst a multi-colored sea of unicorns whose shoulders and rumps rolled like waves as they bobbed their heads and shifted eagerly from one hoof to another.  "MISS SPARKLE," she said.

As always, Twilight looked surprised to be called on.  When she finally realized everypony was staring at her, she asked, "Princess, when you said 'unless necessary', isn't that like saying that the written law will be the supreme law of the land, except when you decide it isn't?"

Luna smiled. "THAT IS IT EXACTLY," she boomed.  Of course Twilight would understand; the Rule of Law was her idea, after all, and was really supposed to reduce the number of arguments she and Celestia had been having while ironing out their new co-rulership.  It was odd for Twilight even to ask the question.  But Luna was grateful to have gotten off the subject of socks.  "THOU, OF THE RED FLANK AND YELLOW MANE," she said, looking at a unicorn who seemed a bit lost and so might at least say something unexpected.  "AND DO NOT ASK US ABOUT OUR SOCKS."

He blinked stupidly, then rolled his eyes up and left, then up and right, fishing for a question.  Then he asked brightly, "What kind of socks does Princess Celestia have?"

"THERE ARE TO BE NO QUESTIONS ABOUT SOCKS!" Luna thundered.  "HATH ANYPONY A NON-WARDROBE-RELATED QUESTION?"

The ponies all looked at each other in confusion.

"THEN WE BID YOU A GOOD DAY AND A GOOD NIGHT," Luna said curtly, and swept out the audience hall's rear entrance, her nose up in the air.  The crowd noise immediately crescendoed.


* * * * *

Twilight hurried out of the hall to escape the noise and get a breath of air. Still more reporters waited outside, and several accosted her, cameras flashing, notepads in their hooves. "Miss Sparkle! Was this a surprise to you?" one asked.

"Well, not exactly," she said, blinking away the after-image from the flash. "We've been talking about the relative authority of written law versus royal decree for months, and..." She trailed off as she realized the pony who had asked the question was staring at her uncomprehendingly.

"What's that got to do with socks?" he asked.

"Are they silk?"

"Do the princesses wear them inside the castle?"

"STOP!" Twilight shouted at them. "She said there are to be no questions about socks!"

They stood stunned by her answer just long enough for her to escape and push through their line towards the gates of the palace grounds and the relative freedom of the street beyond.


* * * * *

"It's dreadful," the slender, pink-maned unicorn whispered in a quavering voice now husky from crying. "Simply dreadful."

"Oh, my," the smartly-dressed white unicorn said, as he adjusted his monocle, leaning over the newspaper which she had just tossed onto the table next to his mid-afternoon ponzu braised spinach. He shook his teal mane in excitement. "This changes everything!"

She pushed the paper away and threw herself into his forelegs, sobbing. "Oh, Fancy! You don't understand! The gallery opening is in one hour, and everypony who's anypony is going to be there, and I have no socks!"

"Fleur, my darling, my delight," he said, holding her. "Have no fear. I shall scour the garment establishments of Canterby Street, and I shall return–with the finest socks in Canterlot!" He stroked the soft hair of her mane gently, but the stallion's blue eyes hardened in a way that bode ill for any clothier who failed him now.


* * * * *

"Well, I saw this coming years ago," the silver earth pony stallion said, tossing his elegantly-coiffed white mane over one shoulder and ostentatiously holding up a foreleg to study the starched white cotton ring around its hoof. "Unlike some ponies."

"You? You know nothing from socks!" the light-blue mare shouted, her face nearly hidden behind enormous violet sunglasses and shrouded by vast white bangs. She leaned towards him aggressively, and he leaned right back at her, until their respective smirks and sunglasses almost touched. "Those are cuffs! Cuffs!"


* * * * *

The aquamarine unicorn mare grinned maniacally as she strutted back and forth across her dressing room, her head nearly bumping the ceiling and her legs splayed like an alligator's due to the four massive purple socks she wore, as big around as tree trunks and covered with images of stars and moons that shimmered and glowed.

The foals wanted socks? Trixie would give them socks!


* * * * *

"Why, why, WHY didn't you TELL me?" Rarity sobbed. A copy of the latest Equestria Daily lay on her kitchen table in front of her and Twilight. The front page showed a photograph of Luna stomping her way out of the audience hall, with the socks on full display. Underneath, in all uppercase, it said: SOCKS: NO QUESTION ABOUT IT!

"Rarity, I'm telling you again: I've never seen these socks before!" Twilight insisted. "I've never seen anypony wear socks before! She didn't tell me about it, I didn't ask her, and–why are we talking about this? Don't you understand that Equestria is now under the Rule of Law? Doesn't anypony understand how big this is?"

Rarity threw her head back and let forth a long, anguished wail of misery. "Socks!" she sobbed. "If I'd known just one day in advance, Twilight. Is that too much to ask? Just... One... Day!"


* * * * *

"I think this one's especially beautiful," Celestia said, watching from the balcony of the palace, pointing her horn towards the horizon where the sun was just disappearing, and watching the sky's color deepen from red to purple. "Yes, I think I'm going to remember this sunset for a long time. In fact, sometimes I think I'd like to hold it just like this, forever." She sighed wistfully.

"Set it DOWN!" Luna snapped. "SET IT DOWN NOW! Thou hast dragged this day out over-long already!"

Celestia laughed. "In a hurry, Lulu?"

Luna stamped one still-socked hoof, and the balcony shook. "Thou knowest full well!"

"Oh, I meant to ask you. How did that audience go? You know, the one on Twilight's little project."

"IT WAS HUMILIATING! AS THOU INTENDED!"

"Oh, come, now. You were going to make me sing to them if you won."

"THOU HADST BEST PRACTICE! FOR THOU SHALT SURELY SING WHEN NEXT WE PLAY TIDDLYWINKS!"

"Luna," Celestia said, "haven't you learned a lesson about betting?"

"'TWAS A FLUKE! AN' THOU WOULDST NOT GO FOR TWO OUT OF THREE!"

"Please," Celestia said, "the voice."

Luna grunted, then fell silent. They watched together as the sun's last rays faded. Then Luna bent over and tore the socks off all four legs with her teeth in a most undignified manner, as though she had momentarily forgotten she were a princess and an alicorn. She spat the offending garments at the nearest pegasus guard.

"Your majesty," he said, as they bounced off his face.

"Take these things and burn them. Then SMASH THE FURNACE IN WHICH THOU HAST BURNED THEM, AND BURN ITS WRECKAGE IN ANOTHER FURNACE!"

"At once, your majesty!"

"THEN TAKE THAT FURNACE AND – "

"Luna," Celestia said sweetly.

"And that will suffice," Luna concluded. The guard picked up the socks in his teeth, saluted as smartly as one can with a mouthful of stockings, then spun about and flew off towards the servants' quarters.

"You realize he's going to spend the entire night trying to get brick and steel to burn?" Celestia said.

"'Twill be an easier task than burning away my shame!"

"Well," Celestia said, turning to a small basket she had brought out onto the balcony with her, "at least I've still got these." She opened it, and out floated another pair of silk stockings, these ones horizontally striped in alternating light and dark purple.

"NO!" Luna shouted, jumping back as if from a snake. "I WILL WEAR NO MORE STOCKINGS!"

"Silly Lulu," Celestia said. "Did you think I was going to let you have all the fun?" She unrolled the stockings and began pulling them on. "These are for me!"





Socks for Princess Celestia by Junglepony