“P-Princess Luna!”
The night (and a marvelous one at that) had been going for hours now, during which the aforementioned princess kept watch, searching for signs of trouble with the aid of a telescope, on the balcony of a particularly high tower. Nothing worth noting turned up, no trouble or riot seemed to stir under her moon. This was supposed to be a good thing, but it didn’t help the alicorn at all with one of the most recent mysteries she had in her hand. One in which the stallion that intruded in her thoughts just now was most likely going to update her.
Luna turned her head around. Certainly a royal guard, respectfully lowering himself, as they usually did. It wasn’t one of her personal guards, but one from the castle itself, an earth pony with white fur and golden armor. She definitely had trouble telling one of those from similar others, though at least today, she had been expecting a particular one already. The princess lifted one of her hooves, pointing it to the guard.
“You may rise. Tell us what thy search uncovered.”
“It was just as you said, Princess.” The guard straightened his front legs, a look of deep concern now visible in his hardened features. “Princess Celestia is nowhere to be seen around the palace, nor did I get any response from her personal study or room. It’s just the same thing as yesterday.”
She groaned, her head momentarily going back to the telescope. She had already made sure the places in the visible spectrum of it were safe, but she just wanted something to do as she thought what to do or what to say next.
Celestia’s actions could be pretty cryptic to her subjects, and it wasn’t uncommon for her decisions, if told aloud, to cause some commotion, before the realization settled that whatever she spoke was indeed working out, or was really the best way to deal with a problem. Free Discord in order to reform him? Pretty dangerous and questionable, but it did work out in the end, at least on the surface. Trust the fate of an over-a-thousand-year-long-lost-empire to her young, inexperienced protégée? Even Luna herself had doubts back then, and it worked better than expected.
That might lead most ponies into a sense of trust and security, to the point where they wouldn’t be contesting any of the sun princess’ decisions anymore. But fortunately (or unfortunately?), Luna knew better. Her sister was blessed with knowledge and power, to be sure, but that didn’t make it impossible for her to fail. And not having even a hint of what she was trying to do this time didn’t bode well in Luna’s head. She wanted to at least know what her sister was doing out there in the middle of her night without her knowledge, and why she had done this more than once.
Her stomach was slowly turning. She was worried.
“We thank thee for the report. You may now leave this matter to me.” She enjoined at last.
Luna couldn’t tell for sure, but by the light sound of the rustling armor and the lack of any galloping away from the place, he seemed unsure. Perhaps he had been expecting to be sent in a search party after the princess?
“We promise that our sister will not come into harm’s way until the sunrise. Now rest, soldier.”
That seemed to be enough. Soon after this, the guard trotted away, leaving the alicorn to her own devices. She still waited until his hoofsteps died out before her eyes left the gadget she had been using, and stared straight at the moon. It was still a marvelous night, but she couldn’t possibly enjoy it as well after the news. Sure, it wasn’t such a complete shock: she had been suspicious before, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked the aid of the guard in confirming what she thought. But still, it didn’t make her concern any less powerful.
Without saying much of anything else, Luna spread her wings wide and jumped from the tower, taking to the sky easily, going higher and higher, until she could oversee Canterlot as well as the surrounding landscapes. It was time for her to start searching, personally. She forsook the idea of taking a carriage to aid her in that: this would mean letting more ponies in on the secret, and that might stir some panic. In addition, whatever was causing her to be absent was strong enough to give it secrecy and attention by Celestia’s part, but not strong enough to contain her from going back to the castle and taking care of her royal duties just as normal. So it was likely to be a personal thing; and if it was, Luna much preferred to know about it without having anypony else eavesdrop.
Guided by the pale moonlight, she made a lap around the city she had just left from on high, considering where to search. She had been on the telescope all night in hopes of catching signs of trouble, anything to which her sister might be responding to, which would explain the whole thing. Nothing turned up, but at least she ruled out flying that way. As her lap continued, she found herself facing the mountain on the side of which the capital stood. She gazed up to its top.
It was impossible to see around it from Canterlot, so it was the first place that the mare tried to check. She just found more landscape, bathed in her dearest’s light. While beautiful, there wasn’t a soul in sight. She traveled onwards, passing over a nearby river, a meadow and a small flower field breaching the limits of a thick forest. Nothing so far. Luna wasn’t expecting it to be easy, however. She pressed on.
As she hovered over the aforementioned forest, however, the princess halted. A continuous faint sound could be perceived, even from so high up, and it most likely came from the trees below. It couldn’t be produced by the trees themselves, though. The note this sound seemed to play was familiar, too, having a magical feel to it. It was only after a few more seconds, and a gradual descent towards the source of it, that Luna identified it as definitely being the sound produced when an unicorn (or in this case, she hoped, an alicorn) used magic.
Luna landed on the first spot she had vision on, which was still a tad away from the forest, and trotted inside. It was very dark, but she didn’t mind. If she didn’t like the darkness, she’d make it for a rather sloppy princess of the night. And this way, it’d be easier to make out where a glow of magic was coming from. Which she actually didn’t have difficulty tracking, for it was a large one when she finally got in range to see it.
So large, in fact, that it almost scared her.
The place she came to seemed to be a clearing at first, for there were few trees in the span of its circle, but it somehow was still shielded from the night’s sky, possibly due to the trees still present being so very large. In the space available, however, what seemed to be a hundred dead trees floated around, lapping slowly on that space, all while covered with a bright-yellow glow, the only light available in that place. In addition to those, particularly large rocks floated, even slower, and closer to the center, where stood…
“… Sister?”
Celestia could only be seen at every other second, for all objects were orbiting around her. She was sat on a stump and her eyes were closed, but her face was contorting with effort put into the spell through her also glowing horn. No wonder. She was keeping an awful lot of things under magical hold, and moving them too. This would be utterly impossible to do for a lesser unicorn, and Luna wondered whether she would be able to do it herself.
But most important now was to ask her why she was even doing it. Well, at least she was safe. Luna felt like a weight had been lifted from her belly.
She decided to call out again, a bit louder this time, but not quite traditional Canterlot Voice yet.
“Sister!”
This finally caught the other mare’s attention, at the expense of interrupting her focus and, thus, the spell. In a moment, the whole place went pitch-black, and the rather loud thuds and cracks of the objects falling assaulted Luna’s ears, making her flinch. Some seconds afterwards, however, the night mare lit up her own horn to produce a purple light, and spotted her sister again, still in the same spot as before, and unharmed by the avalanche just before.
“Ah, Luna! I apologize for that.” Celestia moved towards her sister, jumping two trees on the way. She seemed chirpy enough, but was sweating considerably. “I was just not expecting any company… Is it time to raise the sun already?”
“Nay, be at ease about that,” Luna spoke, her tone not yet matching the warmth of her sister’s. “We have- … I mean, I have been searching for you when I noticed you left during the night. That’s all.”
“I see” Celestia replied, with a slight smile on her face. It was the same smile she used in most of her social interactions with her subjects, and it may or may not have secrets hidden behind it. Luna was not very amused, but wasn’t outright angry either.
“Pray, what have you been doing here, Sister?” She looked around to the clearing, despite the fact that her lit horn didn’t show most of the objects she saw before. “Is it perchance to have some sort of ‘fun’ I’m still not acquainted with?”
The sun princess chuckled.
“I wish I could say it was. But no, I was… practicing, you could say.”
Luna raised an eyebrow.
“All the way out here, in the woods?”
“There’s no danger of accidentally hurting anypony in here.”
“Fair enough. Why did thou not announce thy leave, then? At least so anyone coming upon your absence wouldn’t worry!”
Luna probably came out saying that with a bit more emotion than she’d normally have, what with the stress on the last sentence. Celestia’s smile seemed to expand.
“I’m sorry if I worried you.” She attempted to nuzzle her sister, which retreated her head for the moment.
“I n-never said that! And don’t change the subject!”
Celestia still chuckled after that, but eventually drew her features back to her usual smile.
“Ironically, it’s just that. I didn’t want anypony to worry or be concerned about why I’m practicing. A ruler shouldn’t show signs of weakness too often, you know.”
“We- Ugh, I understand that as it applies to other ponies, I think.” Luna had a hoof under her chin, and was thoughtful for a moment after speaking. “Why the sudden concern for showing weakness, however?”
Celestia showed no change in expression. Luna half-expected her to continue talking her way out of the real problem, if there was one, as she was prone to do. Right now, however, she was most definitely considering something else. And as it turned out, when she did speak again, she preceded it with a weary sigh.
“It’s a bit complicated, sister.”
“Try me,” Luna insisted, without hesitation. This seemed enough to make Celestia continue.
“I just… don’t feel strong enough.”
Some silence ensued. It was Luna’s turn to chuckle.
“Pfft. Nonsense, if I ever heard some. You ARE aware of who you actually are, correct?”
“All too well, Luna.” Celestia shook her head. “Well enough that I know of every failure of mine through all these years. I couldn’t prevent Discord from threatening Equestria, or Queen Chrysalis from invading Canterlot. I couldn’t even prevent Nightmare Moon when it took you over.”
A cold shiver went down Luna’s spine, but she endured it. She rather heard this to the end than give Celestia any chance to stop and then chance the subject again.
“I’ve done much better in the past, really.” Celestia looked up to the blackness of the trees, but it was obvious to Luna that she was remembering the Sun. “At least I’d like to think I have. So I’d like to go back to that level. The royal duties constrain me, to an extent, so I make use of your lovely nights to practice, you see.”
“But… we have the Elements.” Luna blurted out. It didn’t pay off as a good reaction, because Celestia now seemed to frown. Not at Luna, but at the sky that she couldn’t see.
“Yes, the elements. They haven’t failed us yet. And I wholeheartedly trust in them, as well as in my student. But I can’t stop there. I shamed my record for not doing anything considerable in the recent disasters. I don’t want to give that a chance to happen anymore. And, even in the unlikely event that we can’t have the elements, we have to be prepared, right?”
She stopped, taking the time to breathe in and out a bit more loudly, as well as turning her head away at an angle. Luna recognized it as her sister suppressing a stronger emotion. Some more silence ensued.
It was the night mare who broke the silence, again, by laughing.
“Oh, sister. You’ve been left alone for too long.”
Celestia shot a more inquisitive glance at the other alicorn, which continued:
“You should not be doing this alone. We agree that we princesses need to strive to do our best for the kingdom. But remember that you’re not the only one with your rule. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza has the Crystal Empire to worry about. And we- I should be sharing the kingdom’s responsibilities with you! Yet, right now, you aren’t giving me a choice. Stop shouldering the responsibility by yourself.”
Luna gave out a sigh.
“I have been gone for a thousand years, I know, and you’ve been alone in your rule for the same amount of time. But that should be all the more reason for thou to share your duties. It would be too stressful otherwise. It probably already is.”
There wasn’t any immediately reply, so she concluded:
“You really need a few more friends, sister.”
Celestia chortled, quickly covering her mouth with a hoof, as if to excuse herself for it. She finally looked back at Luna.
“I suppose you’re right.” She admitted, though something in her tone didn’t convince the night alicorn that she was done. The perks of knowing someone for thousands of years can be quite hard to explain.
“Is not that what you are preaching to your student anyway?” Luna mocked as she turned around completely, facing the way she had come into the forest from, and beckoned with a wave of her head for her sister to follow her back. “That friendship is magic? Logically, gaining more friends yourself might make you a more powerful magician, right?”
“Hah, something like that.” Celestia chimed as she trotted along, going back to her initial chirpy self. “I DO need to take my own advice more often, then. … And yours too, my dear sister.” She added, just as the duo reached the edge of the forest, and the marvelous night was visible again. The combined power of the sky’s beauty and her sister’s praise made Luna smile wider than she had all day to her sister.
“I’m glad to help.”
And with that, both alicorns spread their wings and took the skies, heading back to their castle, each feeling a bit lighter on their hearts, and thankful for the sister that each had.