Week 10 - It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies
-or-
The Cutie Mark Crusaders and the Accidental Alicorn Incident
“I understand you wished to see us on an important matter, Fluttershy.” Princess Celestia nodded at the trembling pegasus and smiled her most reassuring royal smile, which admittedly may have been better received if Luna had not yawned in the middle of it.
“I’m sorry, Tia. It’s just so late in the day.” With a bob of her head and a matching smile, Luna acknowledged Fluttershy’s presence. “Although for the Element of Kindness, we would stay awake as long as thou wisheth. After all, it was thee who consoled me when my beloved Tibbles was having such digestive issues last week, and taught me just how to rub his little tummykins like this.” Luna reached around behind the royal thrones with her magic and brought out the sleeping opossum in question, gently rubbing him on the tummy until his leg began to twitch. “Isn’t he cuuuuuute?”
“Um. Yes. But I really didn’t come here to talk about Tiberius. Unless you really want me to, that is.”
“Don’t be nervous, Fluttershy,” said Celestia, bringing out the Royal Tea Service. “Come here and sit down, and we can have some tea while talking.”
Grasped in Celestia’s golden magic, the teapot poured out four small cups of tea, one of which was opossum-sized, before they sat down and all took a sip.
Fluttershy cleared her throat and began in a quiet voice. “It started back when we all helped the Breezies find their way back home after that nasty accident they had. Seabreeze was so thankful that he gave me a gift before we came back, a book that showed the history of the Breezies all the way back to when they first found the portal to Equestria.”
“Yes, my dearest Fluttershy. I remember that time well,” said Luna, taking a dainty sip of tea at the same time Tiberius began dunking biscuits into his. “They were so frightened of the big, dangerous world that they found, but they needed our pollen in order to survive, so with the help of our little ponies, they gathered their first batch and returned home.”
“And ever since,” said Celestia, gathering her own biscuits before the last ones could be grabbed by Tiberius, “the Breezies have returned every few years to gather pollen from special locations across Equestria, helping our lands and theirs by pollinating some of our most difficult flowers and herbs.”
“No, not that visit,” said Fluttershy, pulling out a book that barely took up half of her hoof. “There was a visit before when two young Breezie sisters by the name of Sunbeam and Selene found the unstable portal and escaped through it after stealing the Breezie’s most precious possession: The Orb of Sun and Moon.”
“Interesting,” said Celestia, her teaspoon pausing in the act of adding an extra dollop of honey to her cup of tea.
“A fable, perhaps?” asked Luna, a half-eaten sugar cookie hovering by her side.
“In the book, it says the Breezies used the orb to control their own sun and moon. Fortunately they had a few spares, or their world would have been destroyed.” Fluttershy looked up from her cookie and peered through her pink mane at the Princess of the Sun, who had seemingly taken a great interest in the ceiling. “Do you remember any Breezie coming through the portal back then, Princess Celestia?”
“No,” said Princess Luna so quickly that it sounded like a chirp. “None at all. No Orb of the Sun, Moon and Stars here. Well, look at the time. I’m sorry you have to be going so soon, but we have a castle to run.”
“Why don’t you just leave that book with us, Fluttershy?” asked Celestia, floating the tiny book off Fluttershy’s hoof and over in front of her royal personage. “I can make a copy of it for Twilight and you both can review it at your leisure.”
“If you read the cover first, Princess.”
There was a note of command in the voice of the shy pegasus, and Celestia floated the book up to her eye and read out loud, “Do You Like Bananas, by Ewe Been Haad.”
“It’s written in Breezie,” said Fluttershy, lifting her wing and producing another small book. “Twilight already made a few dozen copies of the real one.”
“We can explain,” started Celestia.
“Yes, please do,” snapped Luna, raising her wings and scowling at her sister. “We are most upset at thy attempts to deceive the young Fluttershy with thy lies!” The Princess of the Moon remained in her aggressive pose, looking at Celestia’s peeved glare before whispering, “She’s looking at me, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Luna.”
“Oh.” Luna turned and sat back down, taking a sip of tea with an uncouth slurp before adding, “She made me do it.”
“I did not, Luna! You were the one who wanted to steal the orb.”
“Well, as the older sister, you were supposed to restrain my criminal urges. And look at where that got us. Besides, they had spares.”
Celestia took a deep breath and turned to Fluttershy. “You must understand. When we first arrived in Equestria, the three pony tribes were just coming out of conflict, and the Wendigo’s could have returned at any time. They needed a strong leader.”
“Leaders,” added Luna, grabbing the last biscuit off the plate.
“Leaders,” said Celestia. “We did what needed to be done, and for nearly four thousand years, we’ve guided our little ponies through countless troubles and crises.”
“Including a thousand year gap from my error, do not forget that, my sister.” Luna leaned into Celestia with a warm nuzzle, a single cookie wandering from the Sun plate to the Moon plate behind her.
“So, dear Fluttershy, don’t you think we’ve served enough restitution for our previous crimes?” said Celestia with her soft tranquil smile that had vanquished centuries of diplomats.
“Certainly we can just put all of this behind us,” said Luna, nibbling her last cookie and looking at where Tiberius was building a little biscuit fort.
From out in the corridor, came a loud and growing noise, as if tiny hooves were dashing down the hallway as fast as they could run. The noise swelled as it grew closer, until the door flung open and the source was revealed.
“We found it, Fluttershy!” shouted Scootaloo as she skidded into the room and came to an abrupt stop. “Oh. Hi, Miss Celestia and Luna.”
“It was in her sock drawer,” called out Apple Bloom, galloping into the room only to run into Scootaloo and tumble into a pile.
“Your sock drawer, sister?” Luna cast a rather critical look at Celestia, who blushed in response.
“No pony ever gets into my socks, dear sister,” replied Celestia. “But we must concentrate on the most important subject for now. The Orb of the Sun and Moon is a very powerful artifact. It must not be allowed to fall into the wrong—”
“Don’t run so fast,” shouted Sweetie Belle as she ran into the room with a milky orb held in her mouth, only to trip over her two friends and send the object flying.
“Ooof!” went Sweetie Belle.
“No!” shouted Luna and Celestia.
“Eeep!” went Fluttershy.
“*Poomf*” went the orb.
~~*~~
Morning dawned across Equestria as the sun rose slowly into the sky, perhaps with a few more wobbles than usual, but it still rose up, which was doing pretty good for her first time. Celestia regarded the blazing orb with an evaluating eye before giving a sharp nod of satisfaction.
“Very good, Princess Fluttershy,” she squeaked, running one hoof through her snow-white antenna and fluttering down to the balcony guardrail on her insectile wings. “Maybe a few wobbles, but a fine job for your first attempt, and I’m certain you will only get better with practice.”
“She had better,” grumbled Luna in a voice more suitable for chirps than rumbles as she crawled out from Fluttershy’s mane and gave a stretch of her own insectile wings. “My poor moon last night. How long did you say it would take for the orb to recharge, my dear and totally imbecilic sister?”
“A year and a day,” said Celestia. “And all of your whining will not speed it up an hour, little sister. We are just going to be stuck in our natural Breezie forms until then.” The Former Princess of the Sun extended her glittering wings and fluttered them a few times for practice. “Now Fluttershy, if you would please escort my sister off to bed, we can go down to Morning Court and introduce all of the nobles to my new look. Certainly it will go better than Night Court.”
“They laughed at me, Tia,” grumbled Luna, flattening herself out on Fluttershy’s head next to her horn and rolling herself up in a length of pink mane.
“And they shall certainly laugh at me too, dearest sister.” Celestia fluttered across the distance between the balcony rail and Equestria’s newest princess, landing on Fluttershy’s head and rubbing her antenna up against her sister. “But we must be strong. It is only for a year, and then we may resume our rightful appearance.”
“Can’t catch me!” An orange blur zipped past the balcony, followed by a white and yellow blur in hot pursuit. “Slow down, Scootaloo! We aint’ supposed to be zoomin’ all over the castle ‘til Rainbow Dash gives us all flying lessons!”
Celestia looked out over the city where three very small alicorns were playing tag among the castle towers and gave an impressive sigh for her current small size.
“That is, provided there’s anything left of Equestria in a year.”