“You want to… what?” Celestia looked up from her travel brochure. Sitting in her bedroom with two bags fully packed, she was planning her next adventure abroad, even in the middle of the night. Silver Shoals was an excellent retirement community, of course, and the city of Seaward Shoals was a charming place to spend her downtime. Even so, there was always another location, another adventure, another sight to behold.
And Luna was fine with it. “I want to start a band.”
She had her own goals in her mind. Coming up to see her sister, letting herself see the bags that have already been packed to go away again, was all for a better cause. Her own cause. She wanted to try her hooves at music.
Celestia’s lips curled up, despite her best efforts to stifle her laughter. “You mean as a manager, right? I’m surprised music even interests-”
“I want to perform, sister,” Luna clarified.
“Mhm, I see.” Celestia set down her brochure and got out of her reading chair. “Excuse me, for a moment.”
Luna nodded and stepped aside while her sister left. She waited a moment, long enough to count the crystals hanging from the mini-chandelier in the room. And then a roar came from the kitchen downstairs.
“Ha! Oh that’s- Haha! I can’t even-!” The laughter echoed against all the walls of their house. Luna’s eyes twitched, annoyed once again at her sister’s judgemental attitude. She let the frustration grow, and then she released it in a single breath.
It couldn’t be helped. Ruling for a thousand years would change even some pony as steadfast as Celestia. Acting like the motherly ruler who held all the answers was just how she was. And ruling over Equestria alone only seeded and grew that personality of hers.
Luna clenched her teeth. She just wished it was easier to be looked down on by her sister.
“Sorry,” Celestia said as she walked back up the stairs, “I was thirsty so just needed a cup of water first.”
“Apologies are not necessary,” she told her, “you’ve been planning your trip so much, I was beginning to worry for your health. Oh, how terrible it would be if you fainted from dehydration all of a sudden.”
“Uh-huh. So what were you saying just now, what’s all this about a band?”
“Well, during your last adventure to Abyssinia, I started contemplating about myself. I thought about what I want to do now that Twilight has some of my power. With so much free time, I thought I could experience something new like you.”
“Aren’t you still guarding dreams?”
“Well, yes,” Luna lost her concentration, “but that’s only part-time! With Twilight’s help, I can finally know what it’s like to sleep every night. And that’s given me a lot of time to decide what I want to do with myself, at least for now.”
“Okay, it’s good that you’re getting more hobbies. I was getting worried that you were going to spend the rest of your retirement reading books at the beach.”
“Yes, well, perhaps I was a little hasty to rush into a calm retirement. It’s been, what, eight months since we left Canterlot? I’ve run out of things to do here in Seaward Shoals. But starting a band is one of those goals I have never had the chance to accomplish.”
“But why a band?” Celestia continued to crack a smile. “We haven’t imagined being in a band since we were kids. Oh!” She grabbed a scrapbook off the small bookshelf in the corner of her room and sat on her bed to look through them. In the middle were sections of old tapestries depicting the Two Sisters in their youth. “Remember when we’d act out the perfect concert? We used to love the sound the organs made in the music chapel.”
If Celestia meant to belittle Luna’s conviction, she didn’t show it. The older sister smiled reminiscently at their memories, even if the younger’s heart bore the weight of the insult.
“Back then we always played what you wanted,” Luna muttered. “I just wanted to hear what you thought about my band idea. I will not stand around and let you call it a child’s fantasy.”
“Luna,” Celestia pursed her lips, “you know I’ll support you no matter what you want to do. You’re my little sister.”
“Meaning if I wasn’t, you’d think a band was a bad idea?”
“I didn’t say that,” Celestia recoiled slowly, pulling her legs up into her bed. “You know that’s not what I mean. I just… I’m still not sure why you’re hung up on a band of all things.”
“Because of this!” Luna stuck her hooves out at Celestia’s luggage. “You found your next calling, travelling every part of the world you couldn’t see before. I still haven’t found my next stage. Ever since I returned from the moon and put the past behind me, I’ve been moving forward as a Princess. I want to know what it means to move forward as Luna.”
Celestia hung her head down, setting aside the scrapbook. “You never said… I didn’t-”
“You could not have known, dear sister,” Luna said. “But, that is why I am telling you now. Making music is something I have to do if I want to know what it means to be me. Every last one of my problems came from not being accepted as a Princess. You remember. If I want to discover myself then I must let Equestria know who I am.”
Celestia smiled gently at her sister this time, spreading her wing out to caress Luna’s side. “The ponies already accept you. Just think about Nightmare Night or all the dreams you help heal.”
Luna chuckled. “I wish I could stay as simple as that. But those were my duties as a princess. At the end of the day, I still don’t know if they accept me for me, all the bad mixed with the good.”
“You’re not bad, Luna.”
She shook her head firmly. “No, I am. I have a dark personality. I used to use the Tantabus to scare myself away from becoming Nightmare Moon, but I didn’t do it because I hated being her. I was worried because some part of me still likes it. I still like the nights, the shadows, and all the powers of the darkness.”
Through the hesitating breath that was half caught in Celestia’s throat and half dancing a tender tap on her lips, Luna’s smile cut like a razor through hair.
“And that’s alright,” she beamed at her older sister. “I can’t get over it if I don’t accept it. And I want the rest of Equestria to accept me this time too. I think once I’m done, I’ll finally be able to find out what it means to be me, and just me.”
Celestia nodded and finally freed the air that she didn’t know her lungs were holding. Memories of memories, faded images of old nightmares wracked with guilt. Images of being banished by Luna as revenge, or being forced to exile her sister repeatedly, irked at Celestia’s imagination.
“It sounds,” her voice cracked and shook before making a slow recovery, “like a great idea. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Have you, uh, thought of a band name yet?”
Luna looked at her sister with an oddly knowing grin. “I think I’ve had a good name for a while now.”