South of Canterlot, a city was booming. Ponyville was spreading out quickly, and had become a new hot destination to move to for those getting bored of the Crystal Empire and Canterlot.
Celestia knew about this, of course. In her throne room, she looked over a recent map of the area. Ponyville had already struck out a name for itself..
“My, Sir Soufflé,” Celestia said, looking over the map one of her royal retainers brought in, “you’re telling me that Ponyville has grown that big, that fast?”
“Sure as the sun rises, Princess,” Soufflé said.
“Oh, no need for that formality, Celestia is just fine,” she always said that, but she didn’t expect anypony to listen. However, it was still helpful in the off-chance they did.
“Sure,” Soufflé said, with no intention of it.
“I’ll need to check out this booming town for myself,” Celestia muttered.
Soufflé left while he murmured something inaudible. Right when she was certain she was alone, Celestia used a quick transformation spell to disguise herself. Not that far off from her actual appearance, but a unicorn. She wanted to carry an air of dignification, but didn’t want to be so above everypony as everypony seemed to think she was as Celestia.
Celestia slipped away, hoping that the royal retainers could handle her duties, because she was frankly getting tired of them. She hopped on a train down to Ponyville, hoping to take the train all the way down. A couple hours off would do me good, she thought.
Well, the train took a few hours to reach Ponyville, but Celestia still wanted to check out the city. So, she was taking a few more hours off.
Hopping off the train at the newly constructed train station, Celestia took a look around.
A few small buildings were around, mostly small wooden houses with nice straw roofs. But a few buildings; namely, a restaurant or two, utilized sharper corners and more defined constructions of brick and mortar.
Celestia took a walk around the streets, thankfully, nopony thought anything of her.
Wanting a break from all the walking, Celestia decided to take a seat in a nearby restaurant, one called the Moonlight Cafe.
She took a seat, settling in comfortably with the low tables and the cushy floors, and went pony-watching for a spell.
One thing about being a princess was that Celestia hardly got the time to look outside and observe the life of her subjects. Mainly, she just watched as they came up to her and complained, and she wasn’t particularly interested in that.
So, she looked in on the daily life of the new inhabitants.
Ponies stopped by the stalls, buying apples from the Apple Family. Currently, they had a Ponyvillian monopoly on fruit production, helped in part due to them founding the city.
Celestia watched the Apples as they washed their apples, meticulously yet robotically. This was natural for them, as natural as Celestia rose the sun… and moon… since the loss of her sister.
Celestia was so enamoured in this, and reminded of what she did in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice when a pony came in and sat next to her.
She took a seat right next to Celestia and said some simple words. “Hello, haven’t seen you around here before.”
Celestia looked at her with a jolt, a dark blue unicorn with a light blue mane. Happy, confident, willing to make new friends out of strangers. “Hello there,” Celestia said, a little flustered, pushing aside her unpleasant thoughts.
The unicorn laughed. “I’m Moonbeam.”
“I’m Cel- Sunny Day,” Celestia said, catching herself before she revealed her identity.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sunny,” Moonbeam said.
“So, Ponyville really just sprung up overnight?” Celestia asked, trying to immediately quench her curiosity.
“Well, no, but it’s certainly grown fast, hasn’t it? Where are you from?”
“Canterlot,” Celestia said, noncommittally. “I still live there, for now. This seems like a perfectly reasonable city, and all the stress of r- Canterlot life can be a lot to take in.”
“It is pretty nice down here, I recently moved here myself. I’m also from Canterlot. Imagining what the princess would have to do kind of made me want to languish in idyllitry for once.”
Celestia nodded. She hit the nail right on the head with that one. “I bet her life is incredibly stressful.”
Moonbeam didn’t pick up on Celestia’s mumble, so she continued, “I respect her so much… I wonder what Celestia’s doing right now.”
Celestia perked up. This was something she could draw personal experience from! However, probably best to give a general overview at the moment. “Probably the same boring paperwork. Talking to nobles, making all the policy decisions, all that. Royal life isn’t for me, from an outside observer, it’s crazy.”
“You think?” Moonbeam asked.
Celestia nodded, “I’d expect she’d want to get away at some point.”
“Couldn’t blame her,” Moonbeam laughed. Looking outside, she turned to Celestia. “I’m going to head out now, it was nice meeting you, Sunny.”
Celestia knew she should probably get going too, so after Moonbeam had left, Celestia left, too. However, she felt like Moonbeam really reminded her of a happier time.
Returning home, she felt like she wanted to see Moonbeam again, but she didn’t know why.
But, knowing all the things she’d have to deal with when she got back to Canterlot, it’d probably have to wait, for a while at least.
“Then, I told that stallion. He didn’t believe that I liked mares, could you believe him? I mean, do I look like I’d like him?”
Celestia had been meeting Moonbeam for 2 months, and she somehow knew that Moonbeam trusted her enough to share some of the more gossipy information about herself. Celestia had eased up, too. There was something nice about being treated like a friend when she met up with somepony. It was always a rarity, having nice social relationships. But there was something about Moonbeam that felt… different somehow, like she was reminding Celestia of somepony.
“I’ve had a share of suitors, too,” Celestia said, continuing the conversation. “Telling them usually drives them away.”
“Is it just a Canterlot thing?”
“That would seem to be most likely,” Celestia replied, smirking. “Lots of stallions seem to be desperate there.”
The two ponies laughed. They were unequivocally friends now. Weekly visits to the Moonlight cafe would do that to a pony. Ponyville had grown bigger still, but it wasn’t explosive, it was more constant now. As with all populations Celestia had observed, exponential growth eventually plateaued.
“You know,” Moonbeam said, “I wanted to move to Ponyville because it was a new start. I could shirk my Canterlot duties and come straight to Ponyville and start again. A place where ponies didn’t know my name, where I could be a nopony. Happy. Idyllic.”
Celestia looked down at the ground. “Sometimes you just want ponies to never know your name. It can be nice living in the background. Could you imagine what being front and center all the time would be like?”
Celestia knew, it was soul-crushing constantly having expectations piled on you. But, Moonbeam didn’t.
“Then why don’t you move to Ponyville? We can be together! We can be friends and not have to meet up weekly at a random cafe,” Moonbeam professed.
“I love Canterlot too much. It’s a beautiful city, isn’t it?” Celestia said, simultaneously hoofwaving the questioj and trying to change the subject. Would Moonbeam still be her… friend… if she knew ‘Sunny Day’ was actually royalty?
“Oh yes, beautiful city, but there’s so much fanciness there. I’d like to be in Ponyville, where I can be myself.”
“I understand that, too,” Celestia added, “probably better than you think. But as it stands, I can’t, or rather don’t want to, move.”
“You’re such a buzzkill, Sunny,” Moonbeam half-joked. “Do you look too much like Celestia or something?”
“One could say that, yes,” Celestia mumbled, trying to not be heard.
Moonbeam, not hearing her, continued, “I should probably go regardless. It’s getting late.”
Celestia watched her leave. I wish I could. She thought. She wished she could move, be with Moonbeam, but there were duties a princess had to do.
She had to head home and be somebody again.
“Sunny, please promise me you’re moving soon,” Moonbeam said.
It had been a year. Moonbeam and Celestia were exceptionally close. Ponies mistook them for marefriends all the time. Celestia had to admit that there was something particularly exciting about visiting Moonbeam, but it was always so short-lived. When she got home, she had to deal with the nobility again, and she hated that. She would much rather be with Moonbeam any day of the week.
“You’ve been pushing a lot more recently, Moonbeam,” Celestia observed.
“I want you to be here with me,” Moonbeam replied. “I hate that you’re caught up in Canterlot doing something or other while I’m here waiting for your return. Is it really so hard to leave?”
“I- I- I’m afraid so,” Celestia replied. She suddenly realized that Moonbeam reminded her of somepony she didn’t want to be reminded of.
There was a bit of dead silence, and then Moonbeam spoke up, almost unprovoked, “You’re kinda cute.”
Celestia, flustered, responded, “I guess… you’re a little cute as well.”
Moonbeam sighed. “Sunny, I know I just sprung this on you. But, you mentioned that you’ve had plenty of suitors before, and that made me think you weren’t into stallions. So, I just want to say, you’ve made me feel like no other mare, and I wonder if we could stop being mistaken for marefriends and just be marefriends.”
Celestia’s thoughts stopped immediately and went into panic mode.
“I- I- I can’t.”
“What?”
“I can’t.”
“Come on Sunny, we can—“
There was nothing. Celestia was already heading out the door. She was going straight back to Canterlot and there wasn’t any way that she could stay with Moonbeam.
Equestria was counting on her to run the country, and what happened if she quit?
Celestia looked behind her. Moonbeam reminded her of times when she was with her sister, happy times. But also, upon closer examination… Moonbeam’s dark blue fur, those bright eyes. They were Luna’s. Celestia… couldn’t deal with that. She’d never see her again.
The crying, the screaming, the punishment.
This wasn’t reliant on the fact she couldn’t run Equestria… but because Moonbeam reminded her of her biggest regrets.
She rushed to the train, jumped on, and cried on the way back to Canterlot.
She never saw Moonbeam again. Her biggest regret was never telling her who she actually was.
Several years later, Celestia notes a particularly bright purple unicorn in her classes. One who never seemed to make friends. She seemed to like it in Canterlot, as it was a place where she didn’t need to.
Celestia looks over the reclusive mare.
She’s purple, like twilight, the meeting of the moon and the sun. Her cutie mark: stars.
Celestia looks at the mare, and makes a note to send her to Ponyville. To send her to Ponyville to live the life that Celestia couldn’t have.
Maybe she would bring out the moon.