Her bright blue eyes scanned over the page with a soft hum of thought. "Can it be that easy?" It may have been wiser for her, had she but realized that things that look too easy may, at times, be exactly that.
She swept a hoof over the page. "I can banish away the parts I do not favor, giving room for those that I do to flourish and grow stronger!" Normal ponies would have seen a therapist and just worked on their failings. Luna was not normal. She had the means and the ability. She would fix it! Even if 'it' was herself. Besides, that pony her sister had suggested always gave her that funny look.
"Stop judging me," she huffed, sitting up properly. "I will address this my way. It will be resolved and that will be that." She clapped her hooves with a satisfied look on her face. "And none can tell me not too."
Her horn began to glow softly as she performed the spell, runed dancing and flowing in the air with the power of it. "Now to focus on what I would excise. I am no foal, no more needless excitement over the smaller things." The runes shifted, some glowing all the more intensely. "I am more than the moon! I am the mistress of the night! I watch over dreams, I keep ponies safe..." Other runes shifted, the glowing intensifying by the moment.
"I am every bit as respectable as sister mine, capable of holding myself with royal refinement!" The runes twisted about her, threads of power running away from her towards them, drawing away those undesired parts of her personality, in theory. She would reshape herself into the very image of what she desired! Oh, how marvelous it would be.
One of the runes contracted, another bent around. The two came together before Luna's fascinated eyes. Was that part of the spell? It had to be. The two parts slotted together, becoming a sphere that darkened to a deep purple, like her own pelt.
Then two eyes opened, blinking at her. "Moon!" squealed the strange little ball, little wings unfurling from its mass and a great big smile on its face. "Moon!" other runes began to come together, forming more and more of those strange spherical little ponies, each sporting her mane cut and the color of her eyes, but the similarities ran a bit dry after that.
"Huzzah!" cried another, bouncing left and right in chorus with four others that seemed eager to join in the dance.
"The fun has been doubled!" Another four landed in front of the first set and they all burst into giggles, finding their shenanigans quite enjoyable to themselves.
It was a shame Luna did not share in their joy. She didn't feel different at all. She was no more stately. She was still Luna, surrounded by little simulacrum. "I command you all to stop!"
"Moon?" Several of them were watching her, their eyes shining with expectation, but what were they hoping for?
Luna rose to her hooves. "I am Princess Luna. Lue nah."
"Moon!" cried another, prompting a wild fit of bouncing and cheers, the crowd apparently quite happy with the title of moon for Luna.
She looked over her shoulder at the sound of something shattering. One of those little round Luna-lets had knocked over one of her vases, shattered on the floor. "This is unacceptable," she huffed, her wings flaring, which only inspired so many of them to spread their much smaller wings apart. "At the least you could have taken what I wanted away." But she felt the same. She was Luna, surrounded by the round balls.
"Huzzah!" cried one, popping out from the pile, thumping its head against a great ball it had found. The others gasped with joy and began to leap for it, a rough and tumble game that seemed to have no particular rules breaking out enthusiastically as they struggled to get the ball... somewhere. It seemed to waver between one side of the room and the next. If there were rules, Luna couldn't determine what they were.
Until one little Lunalet knocked it down into one of her trash bins and the entire room became a chorus of cheers. "How many points do I receive?!" enthusiastically asked the one that had performed the successful goal.
Luna went dark in her cheeks, remembering when last she uttered those words. That was not one of her high points. "I command you all to stop," she boomed with the Royal Canterlot Voice.
It was almost surprising that it worked, all the little round things landed on their bottoms, looking up at her expectantly.
"V-very good, yes." She cleared her throat into an upraised hoof. "Now then, since you are here, I must... accept responsibility." Sure, they were magically created lifeforms, but they were her magically created lifeforms. She would not be seen as an irresponsible magic user! "Do you have a name?"
They glanced at one another, questions asked in soft mutters that were hard to hear until one bounced to the front. "Moon!"
"Moon!" cried the rest in agreement, bobbing their heads as if it was just that obvious that moon had been the proper answer to the question.
As if in celebration, they closed around her. She recoiled in fear, but that proved to be unneeded as they came in to nuzzle and nestle with her, more and more closing in around her to get closer to their progenitor. She was soon buried in a pile of cooing little lunalets. "I... see..." She did not see, not at all. She could but sink to her belly, careful not to squash them on the way. "There must be some way..."
"Sister?" A knocking came from her door. A sleepy sounding Celestia spoke through it, "I heard you shouting. Is everything alright?"
Luna tensed with a new source of worry. "Fear not, sister mine! All is well."
"Huzzah!" cried one of her little creations.
"Sister!" "Sister! "Sister!" they began to cry in loose chorus, bouncing forward towards the door that separated them from Celestia.
"What is that?" came her muffled voice, the doorknob glowing golden with her magic. "Are you alright?"
The door was already starting to open. Luna threw a hoof forward, dark magic shoving against the door, denying the chance for her little doppelgangers to make an escape. "I'm just fine!"
"Sister, dear, I know when you're hiding something." Still, her golden magic retreated. "If you want to talk, I am here." A soft yawn could be heard. "No matter the time of night."
Luna cringed softly, imagining her tired sister trying to lend support despite it. "I do verily appreciate your concern, sister mine. It is most treasured." She put a hoof at her chest. "But I am fine."
"Then you won't mind." In that moment of dropped guard, Celestia casually brushed the door open.
"Sister!" "Sister?" "Moon?" The round little Lunalets rushed at the opened door at the sun princess beyond it, gazing up at her with obvious wonder.
One stuck out their tongue at her. "I am the princess of the night!"
Celestia blinked softly as she was swarmed by the things. "Sister... what is going on?"
Luna huffed softly. "That was most unkind! I thought you were respecting my privacy."
Celestia gestured around at the little balls that vaguely simulated her sister. "Luna, dear... Explain this please? Is this what had you shouting so loudly?"
"I have it all under control," lied Luna. "Moonies, assemble!" She pointed with authority at the ground before her. As much to her own surprise, they began to gather right where she pointed, accepting the title she had just invented for them. "See? There are no issues here."
Celestia's magic glowed, plucking one little moonie that had snuck into her mane at some point. She kicked the door shut behind her as she entered Luna's room. "Sister... Pardon me if I am mistaken, but I do not think this is how you intended to spend your evening." She placed the round ball with its friends, where they began to bounce about, forgetting the command to be still.
"I was... performing an experiment." Not a complete lie, that. "To focus the negative aspects of mine being." Also true! "So I could face them." Well, two out of three isn't bad, right?
Celestia raised a brow at that. "I see." She leaned down, her snout even with the little bouncy furballs. "Little moonies, who is your favorite pony in the entire world?"
They tilted left and right, different ones at different times before they all twirled at once to face Luna. "Moon!" they cried in chorus, in firm agreement.
Celestia smiled gently. "Well, then we have something in common. Moon is my favorite as well."
Luna blushed softly. "Stop that..." She looked over Celestia. "Sister, you are obviously tired."
"Not too--" She paused to cover a yawn. "--tired to help my sister. We were driven apart once by my not taking the time my little sister needed. Never again."
Luna shuffled awkwardly in place. "Sister... Your... Thank you." She smiled timidly. "But I am not a foal. I appreciate your care, deeply and truly, but I am not a foal."
"When we are both old and wrinkled, I will still worry for you." She moved to touch noses with Luna gently. "I will always be your older sister, and I love you, Luna."
Luna huffed softly, ears splaying off to the sides in shameful submission. "That you are, sister mine." She took a slow and deep breath, her sides swelling a moment. "Very... well, since I will not send you to bed until this is resolved..." She gestured at the many moonies. "I would banish them, but would prefer not to harm them. Know you a way to do both of these things?"
Celestia considered the balls that were busy playing tug of war with the tassle that led to the curtains. "They are formed partially of you, sister, but they are becoming their own thing." She raised a hoof to her chin. "Have you considered letting them help you?"
"Help me?!" Luna frowned at the idea. "They can barely occupy my room without making a mess. How would they assist me?"
"They can keep ponies company when you are too busy," she suggested. "Nothing complex, but having something soft and warm that only wishes them the best may be just what some ponies need." She leaned forward a little, a small smile forming. "I should imagine some would be quite pleased to embrace a small rounded form of their favored princess."
Luna's cheeks lit up brightly. "You jest!"
"I do not." Celestia gently batted away one moonie that had been about to go after some jewelry. "You will need to train them, but in this, I think they will listen, little helpers in the dreaming world. Doesn't that sound exciting?"
"Huzzah!"
"The fun has been doubled!" Several bounced back and forth, apparently happy with what they had heard.
Luna inclined her head faintly to the left. "Sister mine, your idea is... strange... but perhaps not entirely impossible." She raised a hoof to her chin, considering all the moonies. "Will you all listen, to help other ponies get all the help they need?"
Great cheers erupted as they gathered around Luna, bouncing up and down against her.
Luna turned away from her sister. "For this, sister mine, I truly will require my own space."
"And in this," half-sang Celestia with a smile. "I will away, back to rest. Perhaps I will see you there, or one of your little helpers." She trotted from the room with a soft little yawn, though confident that her sister would have things well in hoof.
Equestria would never be exactly the same, but there were few complaints about it, in the end.