As Luna finished packing the cases, she sat on the bed and smiled to herself. She let a hoof drift over to the still warm spot of where Lulu had slept. She smiled and levitated the nearest games console into the case. "Priorities first," she giggled as the X-Bon nestled nicely on top of the Manecube. She suddenly sat up and looked around. "Damn, drums downstairs. I'll have to be quick."
She trotted over to the open door and once again began her descent down to the rec room. On the way, she started thinking more and more of Lulu, the human she knew next to nothing about, yet loved with all her heart.
Luna giggled cheerily as she thought of the human's hair, and her skin and her general... awesomeness.
She shook her head and continued forwards, eventually pressing up against the rec room door. With a sigh, she pushed gently forwards. The door responded by promptly falling off it's hinges and clattering on the floor below.
"Well then," the princess muttered as she stepped over it. "I'll have Tia send somepony down to fix that later. For now, I must... oh..." she murmured as she lifted it up and propped it up against the door frame.
No way was the whole set going to fit in her case. Not even with alicorn science. "Hmm. What to do?"
*Knock knock knock*
Came the rapping, the rapping at the rec room's wrecked door. Said door once again fell forwards with another clatter, revealing Celestia standing there, looking at her sister with a questioning glance.
Luna shrugged and stared back. "Can I help you, sister?" she queried.
The alabaster alicorn stepped over the door and smiled. "Lulu was looking for you. We thought you'd be up in your room, but apparently you're here. Enjoying some alone time, sister?"
The Night Princess straightened her neck up. "I came to get my drums, for your information," she replied, inspecting a rather suspicious brown mark on her sister's cheek.
Celestia chuckled. "Oh you're not thinking of taking those are you? You'll scare Ponyville's ponies half to death with them."
"Well they won't fit in the case and- Tia what is that on your face?"
Celestia frowned as she raised a hoof to her face and wiped some of it off. Luna spotted some more around her lips and in the corners of her mouth as she inspected more closely. "I... mustn't have gotten it off. Whoops. It's chocolate spread, Luna. Lulu showed me some human food - crumpets. Delicious things they are.
She extended a hoof with a bit of chocolate spread on it. "Go on, try it."
Luna sniffed it suspiciously and scraped as little as she could off with her own hoof. She sniffed it again and extended her tongue, just barely grazing the substance. Her lips smacked together as she registered the taste.
"Nice, isn't it?" Celestia asked with a smile.
The Moon Goddess nodded slowly and licked her lips. "Yes. Really nice, actually. Can we go get some more? I'd prefer having it off my own hoof, not yours. I mean... off a spoon, of course," she quickly added at seeing Celestia's raised eyebrow.
The elder sibling nodded thoughtfully. "Of course you did. Come on, I believe Lulu is still looking for you. She's up in your room. Or is that her room too?"
"Tia!" Luna protested, turning scarlet.
"I'm only asking if we should acquire extra bedding. Oh wait..."
"Tia!" the younger sister repeated, turning an even deeper shade of red. "We haven't... got that far yet..."
"Really? I could have sworn I heard you two-"
"Stop talking."
Celestia tittered and inclined her head for a nuzzle. "Alright, alright."
"I meant," Luna said through gritted teeth as she reluctantly returned nuzzles, "that we haven't gotten to the point where we... discuss... things..."
"Oh. I see. Would you like some assistance?" the Sun Goddess ventured.
Luna made to shake her head, then stopped and thought for a moment. "M.. maybe," she whispered.
Celestia flicked her ear and tilted her head sideways. "I'm sorry what was that?"
"Maybe," Luna repeated again, slightly, ever so slightly, louder.
"Once more?"
"Maybe."
The older of the two mockingly let her jaw fall open and gave a dramatic gasp. "My word, Luna, art thou feeling alright?" she cried in a mock royal voice, grinning even wider as her sister's cheeks turned slightly pink. "Thou must be feeling unwell, for thou never asks us for help!"
"Oh shut up," Luna grunted and walked away from her giggling sister. With a glare worthy of Tartarus, she turned back and spoke to the white alicorn. "Do you really want to help?" she quietly asked with baleful eyes.
Celestia quickly trotted up to her, still grinning from ear to ear. "Yes. I feel I should at least offer to help," she replied, repeating her motion of nuzzles again. Her nose touched her sister's cheek tenderly. "You're my sister, Luna. I want to see you happy, no matter what, and I would like to view Lulu as my own sister too. Someday."
Luna's dark blue cheeks once again turned bright red at her sister's words.
"But for now, just work on building your relationship. That's more or less why I'm sending you to Twilight for a while. She knows more on friendship than either of us, and I believe Lulu is quite excited about meeting her."
"Mhm."
They nuzzled each other affectionately before they set off once more for Luna's room.
***
Lulu sat on the bed and gazed around at the room. She'd done a lot in this room in such a short time. And she enjoyed every single second of it.
"Mischievous face," she said to herself in a monotonous voice. Think Microsoft Sam.
She pushed herself backwards and lay down on the bed, feeling it's warmth and softness through her shirt, but her eyes suddenly welled up as an image of Celeste filled her mind. "Ugh... goddamn," she sniffed as she rubbed her eyes. She sat up and looked around the room again.
Her fingers absent mindedly drummed against the bedside as she sat there, waiting and thinking. Waiting for Luna, thinking about home.
The door opened ajar, and a disembodied head of a blue pony poked around.
"Hello Lulu, sorry I kept you waiting," the head said.
Lulu nodded and returned to gazing around the room, hoping and praying that Luna didn't see her watery eyes.
But of course Luna did and immediately rushed forwards, disregarding all meaning of the words ''personal space'' as she grasped the human's face in her hooves.
"What's wrong? Have you been crying? Are you crying?" she demanded while inspecting her friend's face.
Lulu felt the sadness in her belly rise up as another image of home and Celeste flooded into her brain. "Miss sister," she mumbled.
Luna released her friend's face and hopped onto the bed next to her, then wrapped her wings around her and held her close. "I am so sorry."
"For what?" the human sniffed as she rested against the blue body of her girlfriend.
"For being so selfish, for keeping you here. For bringing you here against your will. If you want to go back I... I could do it now, if you wanted."
Lulu reared backwards and shook her head. "Nonononono, none of that. I miss my sister, that doesn't mean I want to go back yet."
"But I should have asked first..." Luna murmured and turned away, reluctantly removing her wings slowly.
"Ashk, smashk," Lulu chuckled and waved a hand, forcing one of the wings around her again like a feathery blanket. "I would have said yes anyway... I love being here. With you."
Luna blushed and shyly brought her hooves up to her face and flexed her wing. "I love you being here too."
The door creaked, making both of them look up nervously. Celestia smiled as she peered around. "That's lovely you two, but you really must get a move on if you are to catch your train."
Luna nodded and hopped off the bed, still somehow keeping her wing wrapped firmly around Lulu. She stopped and looked around sadly. "But... my drums... I couldn't fit it in."
Lulu snorted with laughter and immediately turned scarlet. "My mind needs scrubbing."
"Don't worry, I'll send them along once you're there. With Lulu's guitar too," said Celestia with a smile.
The younger sister nodded and widened her eyes. "Yes. Lulu's guitar. Sorry Lulu I - I completely forgot about it."
"It's fine. I did too, I guess," Lulu apologetically said. At Luna's saddened glance she quickly added, "Just caught up in everything."
Luna nodded and moved beside her companion, nuzzling her arm and smiling. "Should we move then? Our cases are all packed." She patted the large luggage case next to her on the ground with a flick of her tail.
"Let's then," Lulu replied.
Celestia smiled again to herself as she stepped aside to let the girls leave the room, hand in wing. She sighed contentedly and quietly followed them, casting a glance at the soon-to-be quiet room. "It's been a while since this particular room was empty. Are you sure you'll be alright, Tia?" she asked herself.
She didn't give an answer. Merely closing the door and following her sister.
At the foot of the stairs, when Luna and Lulu were quite a ways away, their case floating behind them in Luna's magical grasp, she had an idea. A wonderful, marvellous idea, accompanied by a mischievous grin.
With this idea in mind, Celestia called out to the two in front. "I've just remembered something terribly important, girls."
Luna expectantly turned back and frowned. "Like what?"
"The council has been asking about Lulu, I just remembered I need to tell them where she's going. As a precaution. You know how they admire their rules and lists," Celestia chuckled through a lie. "Don't worry, I'll be back in time to see you off. Go on ahead without me."
Lulu tugged at Luna's wing. "She said it's OK. C'mon."
The blue alicorn twisted her mouth into a half smile, half worried expression, eventually letting her friend lead her away. "See you soon, Tia. Don't be late," she said and waved a temporary goodbye.
Celestia waved back and trotted back into the castle, towards her office and personal study.
***
The alabaster princess pushed the doors to her office open wide. "Hello Philomena. Would you be a dear and find that book about ''travel'' for me? The one I was reading before?"
The majestic phoenix, while not appreciating having her jimmies rustled from the sudden awakening, quickly flapped upwards to find the book her owner was talking about. She carried it down swiftly and flapped back to her roost, where she tucked her head under one wing and fell back asleep.
Celestia flicked through the tome and grinned again. "Oh yes... This will be fun indeed," she chuckled.
Sorry about the tediousness of this chapter. I just honestly didn't know what to write about, but plans were formed, stuff was scrapped, and now we have Tia being ridiculous. *Winky face*