Luna woke to the soft music of a flute, somewhere outside. There was a maid who had taken to practicing in the gardens when the castle was almost empty, and now that ponies had returned they seemed to not mind.
The princess of Equestria looked out of the small gaps in heavy curtains to spot the tops of a tree, leaves rustling gently in the slight breeze, the sunlight giving them a shine. It was a fine evening to wake to, but she wished she could have passed it by. Let somepony else raise the moon. Perhaps Celestia would return and rule as a despotic tyrant for a while, to give her a break.
It was a terribly amusing thought.
Luna got out of bed and spread the curtains to take in the mostly sleeping Canterlot under the scorching sun. A few delivery workers and early risers were up and about, but the streets were mostly clear.
But she couldn’t watch her ponies wake, not without leaving other duties unfinished.
As soon as she opened the door, her guards were by her side, followed soon after by Black Ink, the manager of the castle staff.
“Your Highness,” Ink said softly as she followed along.
“Good evening, Ink,” Luna sighed. “How can I help you?”
“We’ve received word that some of the griffin staff who had left during the war are seeking to return.”
Luna nodded, rounding a corner to the doors of the Great Hall. “Very well, allow them to return without any penalty or restrictions. We need to put this all behind us quickly, and that means easing tensions with griffins of any nationality.”
“Of course,” Ink nodded, writing down the exact words as Luna opened the doors to find two doctors fussing over Vivid, who was sitting next to the throne, smiling.
Luna couldn’t help the wide grin that broke out on her face, as she ran ahead of her group and took flight, to land just in front of Vivid.
“--idea,” one doctor was muttering.
“Well, if it helps her,” the other sighed to her colleague before turning to face Luna, trying to smile. “Your Highness.”
“Why aren't you in bed?” Luna chided gently.
Vivid grinned, winced, then grinned again before reaching up and exploring the space in front of her to find and touch Luna’s nose gently.
“Dreams. Of you. But you were an earth pony, heh.”
Luna laughed a little, sitting back to admire the smile on Vivid’s face. It was a simple smile, untroubled by all the stresses and pains of Vivid’s life, her sins and fears all seemingly vanished in the face of the pain she’d endured.
“That wouldn’t be so bad,” Luna said happily. “I could be an earth pony, still be a princess, just not have to worry about raising the moon.”
“Silly, you still rose the moon,” Vivid said, tilting her head to the side. “But you did it with your earth pony powers.”
Luna looked to one of the doctors, an earth pony, who just rolled her eyes. But Luna didn’t mind.
“Of course, my earth pony powers. Have you eaten yet tonight?” Luna asked Vivid, while glancing to the doctors who shook their heads.
“We-- I was wait...” Vivid objected with a slight frown. “For you.”
“Well I appreciate it,” Luna said gently, leading Vivid and the doctors back to the hallway and then into the dining room. “But we must make sure you are eating enough.”
They were halfway through the hall when Vivid suddenly stopped. Everypony else continued for a few steps before pausing and looking back at her. Vivid had stopped in a beam of sunlight that came in from the large bay windows, and was smiling serenely into the sunlight.
Luna looked to the doctors but they didn’t seem alarmed, so she walked back to her side and sat.
“It’s like my garden,” Vivid said with a wavering smile, the corners of her eyes gathering tears.
“Back in Bitain,” Luna concluded. “Where you grew your food.”
Vivid nodded. “I’d L--L-- go back sometime.”
Luna gestured to the doctors for them to get some food, before laying her wing over Vivid’s back.
“I can take you,” Luna said, smiling as she watched Vivid turn her face to warm her other cheek in the light.
“Yeah? We’d go soon?” Vivid asked hopefully.
“Soon as you’re well enough to travel,” Luna promised. “Then if you can’t travel by magic, I’ll take you by ship across the sea.”
“Then what?” Vivid asked breathlessly.
Luna didn’t answer for a bit, hugging her a bit tighter with her wing.
“Wou… um… rest in the grass with me?” Vivid asked hopefully.
There was a slightly childish quality to her voice, and Luna could not stop herself from tearing up. Yet she was smiling. She may have lost her Vivid, the quick wit and sharp tongue, who took her princess to task as often as to bed, yet there was now… A vulnerable gentleness to her. One which tempered the sense of loss in Luna’s heart with a new sort of wonder. For the first time, Vivid would let Luna care for her, and be simple together. Simpleness that was so rare in Luna’s long life.
“Of course I would,” Luna whispered, voice heavy and hoarse with emotion. “We’d make sweetgrass and lemon tea after, and you’d show me your carvings.”
“Ooh… Carvings,” Vivid laughed softly, smiling. “Sunny shine carvings, you can give to sister!”
“Oh, most certainly,” Luna said without hesitation, kissing Vivid on the top of her head as a few tears fell into her mane. “But first, it is breakfast time. You must eat.”
The doctors had returned, with food. It didn’t take long to guide Vivid to a table and one of the doctors to start feeding her, but Luna hung back with the other doctor, drying her eyes.
"Are you alright, your highness?" The doctor asked gently.
"I'll be fine in time," Luna sighed. "But… will she really last long enough to go to her home village?"
The doctor hesitated before nodding.
"I believe that she will. In a week or two, she should be healthy enough to travel by your moonlight."
Luna looked up with a curious smile. "My moonlight?"
The doctor sheepishly nodded. "I thought that was how you moved from place to place with magic."
Luna grinned and stood. "Well, it might as well be. I like it. A week or two then, and she'll be ready to go. I… am also curious how long she may last in general?"
"It's impossible to say. It's rare for unicorns to survive a complete break of their horn. As long as she doesn't use it, she could live a full life, another thirty or even fifty years."
"And if she does use it? On instinct?" Luna asked, her grin fading.
"It could work fine, or kill her instantly. Or any number of complications in between."
Luna nodded and returned to Vivid's side.
"How is it?" She asked cheerfully.
"Oh, good," Vivid said happily as she took a bite of eggs from the offered fork. "Sh' good."
"Well then I suppose I should get a plate," the princess chuckled, heading off to stand in line despite many Ponies urging her to skip to the front.
But as she waited in line, patiently, she found more tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. This whole thing hurt terribly, and was so confusing, but when did a princess have time to rest and adjust to her loss? It wasn’t as though ponies stopped dying. After her first love, so long ago, she’d been distant to most ponies. She’d allowed for the world to spin around her without concern or obsession seizing her. Could she manage this pain again and again? Hundreds more years until Celestia returned and burned Equestria to the ground, thousands of ponies who were meaningful, beautiful, handsome and brave. Thousands of days just like this, full of loss.
Then again, would the alternative be worse? If she adjusted and hurt less each time, then would she be a cold and distant ruler? One for whom death meant nothing besides the ending of one story and the beginning of next?
“Your highness?”
She blinked away her tears and gave a grateful smile as she took the plate of food a guard had prepared for her as she’d sat there numbly.
“Thank you,” Luna whispered, smiling as she cleared her cheeks and eyes of moisture and took a few steadying breaths.
There had to be a middle ground, she knew. There must be a way to slowly learn to ease the pain, while remaining a good princess, remaining a pony at heart.
“You’re back!” Vivid said brightly as Luna sat down next to her.
“I am,” Luna said, feeling a bit better just from hearing Vivid’s voice as she started eating her own meal. “I like the hollandaise sauce.”
“A-- So focused on sauce,” Vivid said with a chuckle. “There’s good food with no sauce.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Luna said fondly, wiping her lips before kissing Vivid on the top of her head. “And yet every one of them would be made better with the addition of sauce, I think.”
“Pastry,” Vivid said, jabbing Luna in the side gently with her hoof.
“Cream sauce, jam can be used to make all sorts of delectable toppings, sugar when liquid is a sauce--”
“Fine, meat,” Vivid said with a grin, believing her unique past gave her an unquestionable point.
“Did you know you can make gravy out of the drippings?” Luna asked, trying not to smile too much as the doctors looked between the two ponies who had just revealed they’d eaten meat in the past.
One of the doctors pushed her plate away, looking a little green, as the other listened in fascination.
“Doesn’t count,” Vivid said quickly. “That’s part of the food, not a new thing.”
“Fine,” Luna said, thinking for a moment before her smile returned. “Horseradish sauce.”
“What’s that?” Vivid asked curiously.
“Don’t tell the doctors, but I’ll have our chefs get a proper griffin meal together for you sometime, meat and all, and horseradish sauce,” Luna stage-whispered to Vivid.
“Not hiding it very we-- good,” Vivid pointed out, grinning.
“No, no I’m really not. Are there any health risks I should know of?” Luna asked the less squeamish doctor.
“Not that I know of, besides the normal restrictions. Cooked through, nothing Equine, Bovine, or Cervine to avoid thaumic staining,” the doctor listed off as the other one stood and walked away to a nearby balcony to get some fresh air.
“You know, in the years long past, ponies ate meat when ill. It was said that it had healing powers. Who knows, it might help you out, my dear,” Luna said hopefully.
“Oh, it-- an odd sort of treat,” Vivid admitted before digging back into her eggs.
The doctor raised her hoof, waiting for Luna to gesture for her to speak.
“Would you mind if I joined you two for that meal?” the doctor asked with a nervous smile.
“Adventurous little pony!” Luna chuckled. “Very well, you can keep an eye on my love while we eat.”
They finished eating, smiling and as Vivid went back to the infirmary Luna headed into the kitchens on Canterlot Castle.
It was a different world, in a way. Outside of the kitchens, Princess Luna was in control of everything, she had absolute power and the respect of every pony that crossed her path. But in the kitchen, as it had been for hundreds of years in every castle in Equestria, the Chef rules supreme. She could even have the Princess removed by force if she wished.
So, Princess Luna stepped into the kitchen's coat room and stood there as prep cooks and other white-jacketed workers bustled past, sparing her a curious glance before going along their way. After several minutes one of the sous chefs stepped into the room and gestured.
“Breakfast service is over, the Chef will see you now,” the stallion said simply before going back into the kitchen, Luna following.
Whereas Canterlot castle was a building of white and grey stone with birch and oak wood, the kitchen was copper and spruce wood, with white tile flooring, walls, and ceiling. Each stove was made of cast iron with occasional blue flames licking the bottom of pans.
The Chef sat at the head of a large prep table, watching her chefs clean up from breakfast and prepare for lunch.
She was a pegasus, with a cream coat and bright yellow mane. Her mane was pulled into a bun and under a chef’s hat, and her wings were covered in her chef’s coat. Her cutie mark was a pair of knives crossed and bound with a bundle of herbs.
“You need to speak to me, princess?” the Chef asked, finally looking to her after watching a cook pour spare sauce into a jar.
“I have a special request,” Luna said with a nod. “If it could be worked in.”
“What do you need?”
“A griffin dinner for three ponies tomorrow.”
There was a tense silence as suddenly every pony who had heard the statement stopped what they were doing to try and listen in.
The Chef cleared her throat, and the activity resumed around them.
“That can be done, we do keep a small reserve of pork and chicken on hoof if that is sufficient?” the Chef asked as calmly as though they were discussing the wine choice.
“It is, can you also make a horseradish sauce to accompany the pork?” Luna asked, trying to remain calm considering that she hadn’t eaten meat in hundreds of years, and no modern pony would know about it.
The Chef held up a hoof, before fetching another cook and sending her off to check the stockroom. They sat in silence until the cook returned.
“One and a half hooves of root left, Chef,” the cook said before returning to their work.
“Yes. We can make a horseradish sauce,” the Chef nodded. “Anything else specific to this meal?”
“It will be served in the private dining room, and one of the ponies attending has not eaten meat before,” Luna said with a slight smile. “So… Some extra veggies may do her well.”
The Chef actually rolled her eyes. “And have a bucket nearby, yes, we will take care of it.”
“I never had a doubt,” Luna said with a nod as she turned and left the kitchens, returning to the now empty dining room.
The sun was ready to set, and Luna went to the nearest balcony instead of going back to her room. Lighting her horn, she seized the sun.
But there was no scream of rage and struggle from it this evening. Luna hesitated and looking into the bright spot, the same outline of her sister still etched into the sun.
“Four hundred years?” Luna whispered. “Is that how long it took for you to grow tired?”
There was no answer, of course. But Luna nodded and gently set the sun so the moon could rise, and so that Equestria could wake.