//------------------------------// // A lesson in leadership. // Story: And I quote! // by Karrakaz //------------------------------// Quotation: "A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done." ~Dwight D.Eisenhower. Author: Karrakaz Luna took another step forward, the cold and dark water hitting her shoe adorned hooves and sending a shiver up her spine, "Sister!" The white mare either did not hear her or could not respond. "Sister you know I'm afraid of deep water!" she shouted, shivering as she looked at the water, cold and deep even though the sun was still hanging low in the sky. and today started out so well she thought with a frown. -- She had woken up earlier than usual that day, in fact she'd hardly had any sleep at all, busy as she had been with preparations for the coming day. Today was the day, she was going to spend more time with her sister one way or another, to that end she decided to take her breakfast in the court halls which, in hind sight, probably wasn't the brightest idea she'd ever had. It had been pleasant enough at first, watching her sister deal with ponies from all walks of life was like watching an artist at work, she liked to think of herself as an artist, she had talent with the brush, but Celestia... Celestia's talent was with ponies. She had watched as her sister asked things of ponies that, if she were the one doing the asking, would be met with flat-out refusal, but the goddess of the sun got nothing but smiles and nods of agreement. But then her older sister had seen her, and any sense of normalcy in the court of the sun had gone down the proverbial drain... She would never understand how ponies put up with her sisters... "antics" since Celestia had seen her, three ponies had left the court halls covered in some sort of cheese, several others had (unsuccessfully) tried to reason with a statue that did not even remotely look like Celestia- probably an illusion spell she mused- and one pegasus had even been catapulted out of an open window by his own creation. (She would also never understand why the royal guards would need a cake launcher.) All in all it really had made for some brilliant entertainment during breakfast. That brilliant entertainment however did not agree with her food, most of it having been either choked on or spat out during another bout of laughter. Her eyes weren't faring any better than her food, strained as they were by a most daunting task: trying to hold back the tears of laughter that threatened to slip past her eyelids every time another pony left the throne room with a bewildered look on his or her face, trying to figure out what the hay just happened. The servants were taking away her mostly empty breakfast plates, while she herself was in the process of sketching the pegasus being catapulted though the open window, when Celestia appeared beside her. "Did you enjoy the show little sister?" the white alicorn asked her with a gentle smile which, as the ponies that knew her best could tell, was a masking smile that carefully hid a mischievous grin. Luna looked up from her sketch and tried to mirror her sister's smile, succeeding to a degree, although she lacked the thousand years of experience that Celestia had with it. "It was very enjoyable, though I must ask." Luna gently levitated the sketch onto her breakfast table before turning to face her sister. "How do get ponies to agree with you so readily? I am certain that if I was the one asking such things of them they would refuse, some of them would even think about rebellion!" Celestia laughed at Luna's intensity, it was a laugh full of mirth, one the darker alicorn hadn't heard in over a thousand years, it made her wish their millennium long separation hadn't happened, she so loved to hear her sister laugh. Unwilling to let Celestia know about the sudden melancholy that gripped her, she smiled her widest smile. It would fade with time, the presence of her sister and the knowledge that they'd forgiven one another helped lessen the negative feelings. "Dear sister." As Luna had expected, her sister's words, together with her gentle smile, made the unhappy thoughts disappear like the snow before her sun. The elder goddess leaned in and continued in a hushed whisper: "It is one of the most important lessons of leadership: everything about being a leader- from ordering a new school to be erected, down to asking for lunch a little earlier than usual -becomes easier when ponies are smiling, and with that she returned to the throne to see to the rest of the court. Which ended with one pony walking on the ceiling for half an hour, trying to find the exit... After breakfast, Luna had managed to convince her sister to take some time off from her duties, and join her for a leisurely afternoon flight, even though both alicorns loved flying- Before her banishment Luna and Celestia had once spent a holiday just flying, they didn't touch the ground for several weeks -they never got to do it as often as they'd liked. They quickly left the castle behind and made a round over the Canterlot city proper, slowing down over the park to take in a little of the scenery, before flying back towards the castle grounds. While flying over the training grounds, Celestia spotted some of the pegasus recruits that were training for Luna's personal honor guard, and turned to her younger sister. "Sister?" Luna, who had been intensely focused on keeping her flying level as well as trying to keep up with her elder sister almost fell out of the sky when her focus shifted from flying -which she hadn't done in a long time- to Celestia's question. With a few panicked flaps, and a face as red as an apple once she'd stopped falling, Luna stammered her response: "Sister.... please don't do that again." Celestia's usually serene smile, was inches away from turning into a grin so wide that, Luna suspected, were it not for her sister's self control the top half of her head would by now be separated from the bottom half. "My apologies Lulu." Luna felt her face up further at Celestia's mention of her childhood nickname. She was convinced that, by now her face was hot enough to be measured in the infrared spectrum, Celestia had almost fallen out of the sky, laughing as she was about Luna embarrassment "I merely wanted to suggest something." she added after taking a few moments to let her laughter subside. It took Luna quite a bit longer to regain her composure, and forming a response took her longer still. "Ahem, alright 'Tia, what is your suggestion?" Two can play that game sister. 'Tia' however seemed unfazed by her former nickname. "Well..." She performed a lazy loop before pointing a hoof at the flight exercises going on far below them. "How about we add our personal touch in the training of your personal honor guard?" "Maybe even provide them with a bit of a challenge?" she added with a mischievous smile that, while not as face splitting as the grin from before was, was definitely pronounced, and very different from the smile that she usually wore. Luna was silent for a few moments while she mulled over her sister's question. "Sister, though both of us may have several hundreds of years experience with flying, I sincerely doubt that either of us would be a match for any of the royal guard, especially those that are former speed devils-" "they're called the Wonderbolts these days sister." Luna cleared her throat, "-Wonderbolts, of course, I was going to say Wonderbolts." She tried to mimic her sister, being performing a loop, which quickly turned to a drop when she overshot and forgot to keep flapping, Celestia on the other hand didn't fall out of the sky this time, even though she was laughing harder than before. "At any rate, i doubt we would provide much of a challenge for any of them." Luna continued after she'd flown back up to where Celestia was hovering. "afraid of a little competition Lulu?" Celestia teased, the logical part of Luna was aware that her sister was trying to goad her into going along with the idea, but -because of the goading- her temperamental part was firmly in the diver's seat at this point. "We are!" She sputtered before clearing her throat again. "I am NOT afraid of a little competition." "Great!" Celestia expression closely resembled a cat that had gotten it's share of cream. "Then let us drop in and see if we can persuade them to have a little race with us!" -- At the start of the race, Luna had been a nervous wreck, she found it hard to keep up with the former Wonderbolts. Midway through the race though, Celestia dropped back and flew next to her for a while. "What's the matter sister? Are you afraid that going faster would be unfair?" Luna snorted "I'm going as fast as I can!" Celestia said nothing, but flew closer and nuzzled Luna mid-flight, the dark alicorn almost fell out of the sky. After that, Luna had been determined to go as fast as she could, and while she didn't get anywhere near the top, she certainly proved that she was a capable flier. Celestia on the other hoof had practically flown circles around all of them. "How do you do it?" Luna asked her sister as they flew away from the training grounds. Before Celestia could say anything however Luna interrupted her. "I swear 'Tia, you're face is going to be stuck like that if you keep it up much longer." Celestia's face turned from 'the grin' to amused befuddlement, before becoming a genuine smile. "Oh, Lulu." She laughed, and after a good minute or so she winked at her little sister, The darker alicorn would have missed it, if she'd not been paying such close attention to her sister. In fact she'd been glaring. "In regards to your question," Celestia began. "do you remember our fly-by-fly week?" Luna nodded. "Well, about.... oh what was it.... I think three hundred years ago, I took a holiday." Celestia laughed lightly and then sighed, "I'd flown so far it took me almost year to get back, you wouldn't believe the amount of trouble ponies get into when we're not around." Luna smiled, her previous anger forgotten, while Celestia had always been the figurehead, she knew exactly how much trouble ponies could get into, which was why she had a hoof in every law in Equestria. "It took me four and half years to undo all the mistakes they'd made, but it was worth it, my flying has become much better as you can probably tell." Luna chose to forgo any further questions about her sister's flying. They landed on the balcony to their bedroom, since Luna's return they shared Celestia's bedroom. Her sister had offered Luna her own bedroom should she desire it, but Luna couldn't stand the thought of sleeping alone, since they had shared a room and bed since they'd been little. While not exhausted, Luna felt winded from the race, and she decided let her sister return to her duties. She herself however, was going up the spiral stairs of one of the towers, to the former room of Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's apprentice. Since Twilight had decided to live in Ponyville, and Celestia had given the room to Luna to use as she saw fit, the former library had been turned into an atrium, which Luna used to paint. She had always loved drawing and painting of any kind, the constellations in the night's sky being the most obvious example, and since her return she had painted every single day. As a result of this, the atrium was full of paintings and drawing in various stages of completion, from a crude drawing of the ruins of the two sisters, to a detailed picture perfect painting of Canterlot at night. Although she mostly painted landscapes and still images, there were a few paintings of herself, Celestia, some of the palace staff, and even one about six different colored ponies engaged in a group hug. She had just settled down and picked up a brush with her magic when the creaking of the door announced the arrival of a visitor. The dark alicorn sighed put down the paint brush before turning around... and freezing on the spot. -- In the door opening stood a white alicorn, clad in an old painter's apprentice outfit, with a big smile on her face. It took Luna all of three seconds to double over in laughter, "S-Sis-ha, ha, Sister?" she managed "Wha-he, he, What brings you here pfffrr, looking like that?" Celestia's smile remained serene as ever, "I came here to learn how to paint little sister." That brought Luna back to Equestria, "What?" was all the shocked princess of the night could utter. While Luna had always been into painting and writing, Celestia had only concerned herself with song and dance, some of which could still be found in birds these days (and the occasional dancing bear). This had meant that they pretty much kept to themselves as far as hobbies were concerned, which made Celestia's announcement staggering to the younger alicorn. "I wish to learn how to paint, and since you are very talented in that area, I thought to ask you." Luna smiled through her shock, "We never once thought that we-I would hear you ask such a thing." As the shock wore off, it was replaced by excitement, finally it would be her that was teaching and giving advice, rather than her elder sister who had filled that role for most of their lives. "Sit down over here and I'll get you a canvas." -- Several hours later her excitement had waned, teaching was harder than it looked. While Celestia's use of the Color palette was beautiful, she couldn't draw if her life depended on it. In three hours time Celestia had made several.... 'drawings' which Luna thought could be replicated by foals. She had gone back to the literal basics of drawing: "Try drawing a Circle 'Tia" If only Twilight could have seen her mentor now, lightly biting on her tongue which hung out of her mouth, feathers on one wing stained by a plethora of colors and her tail softly rustling the paper balls and canvas that lay strewn around her, as she concentrated on drawing a circle. Even basic shapes seemed to be beyond her, although she had made some progress. Finally Celestia stretched her legs and stood "I think that's enough for now." Luna looked up from her one of her sister's earlier attempts "Had enough already sister?" The white alicorn looked thoughtful for a moment, "Yes, I still have some things I need to take care of." "I thought you said you had taken the day off?" Luna didn't think that Celestia would lie to her, but it never hurt to ask. "And I did, but I still need to make some preparations, of a personal nature." her sister replied before walking to the door of the atrium. "Sister!" Luna called after her, "Do you think you could give me Dancing lessons some day? When you're not too busy ofcourse?" Celestia stopped walking and flashed a grin over her shoulder, "I was wondering when you'd ask, come along." This baffled the younger sister, "But you just said that you had things to do!" "So I did, and this is the first of the two." and with that Celestia disappeared from the atrium, leaving Luna to scramble to her hooves and follow her. She took a look at the mess she (and mostly Celestia) had made of her atrium/art gallery and decided to leave the mess for later. The princess of the sun moved towards the great ballroom which apart from being used to host the grand galloping gala was hardly ever in use, being too big for the small parties that were the staple of Canterlot's socialite. By the time Luna entered the room Celestia had already moved to the center of the room, and was waiting for.... She wasn't quite sure what her sister was waiting for. "Coming Lulu?" It was Luna's turn to grin. "Coming 'Tia!" -- By the end of her dancing lessons, Luna felt that, not only did she have a lot to learn about dancing, she had a lot to learn about teaching as well. Every time she had a problem with a certain pose or rhythm movement Celestia would say something that made her laugh. Laughing in turn made it seem like everything was going smoother and easier, not to mention the fact that it was great fun. It wasn't the only thing ofcourse, Celestia's calm and relaxed way of explaining every step was more helpful than her kind but insistent nudging had been. By the time they were done her sister's sun hung low in the sky, signifying evening. Luna was amazed at how time had flown by today, she still felt like she'd just gotten out of bed! "Thank you for the lessons sister." she nuzzled her sister before walking towards the balcony. Celestia did not respond however, but instead walked with her and as soon as they reached the balcony, she jumped off and used her wings to glide to the garden below, walking off as soon as she'd landed. Luna feared that she'd done something wrong, and followed. "Sister?" The white alicorn kept up her pace and had soon reached the gates which led out of the castle and into Canterlot proper. Luna was starting to get worried, Celestia was acting so weird! "Sister!" She tried to root her sister to the floor using her magic, which... did nothing at all. The magic rolled off of the mare like she wasn't even there. By now they had reached the beach, and Celestia was still walking forward, with Luna trying to physically restraining here, which had little to no effect. Luna let go when her sister stepped into the water, still very much unresponsive. -- Luna paced back and forth along the shoreline, hesitant to go into the menacing looking water, taking wing when she saw her sister's head disappear beneath the waves. " 'Tia!" she fluttered over to where she had last seen the white alicorn but could not find hide nor mane underneath the gloomy waves. Before she had any chance to react, she felt something take hold of her left rear hoof janking her down into the water. She surfaced several seconds later, sputtering and spitting out the water she had ingested, her eyes rolling every which way in fear. She was about to call out for her sister again when she spotted a familiar multi-chrome mane out of the corner of her eyes. She turned to see Celestia beaming at her. "Gotcha!" was all the older alicorn said before she winked and disappeared beneath the waves again with a laugh. Luna was furious, she wanted to tell her sister how cross she was, how utterly incensed, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a laugh. "I'll get you yet!" she yelled diving after her sister between waves that were no longer frightening, things were indeed easier when you were smiling.