“This is ingenious! Why haven’t we thought of that yet?“
Luna let out a very soft sigh. She had just spent the last twenty minutes explaining the exact method of producing a rainbow at night, using only moonlight to the Canterlot weather pegasi, night division. The whole affair started with confused looks, several hoofs scratching their owners’ heads and one pony scribbling in a notebook. And now she had to deal with the praise.
“It may revolutionize the field of nocturnal weather work!”
“Seriously, Princess, why haven’t you shared this idea with us earlier?” one of the pegasi asked, yet again.
Luna had ignored this particular question time after time, but now, it had to come out.
“It was supposed to be our great present to our subjects.” She explained emotionless “And the only kind of rainbow that could be seen under our rule of eternal night.”
The temperature went down by several degrees.
“We wanted the night to last forever. We didn’t plan to destroy the rainbow industry or deny our subjects the beauty of rainbows.” Luna added, but the damage was done.
“Now, can you do this tonight?” she asked after the shock had sunken in.
“Of… of course, your majesty!” The lead Pegasus ensured and the princess was wise enough to dismiss the ponies quickly.
As Luna watched them leave, she cursed herself yet again. When she came up with this plan, she had no idea that it would be so painful. It was as if Nightmare Moon’s shadow was right behind her, wielding a big whip. Every step, she could feel another painful streak on her back.
But now was the time for the big one. The part that would make or break everything. She had to talk to Celestia.
Quietly, the princess looked out of the window. Celestia had just raised the sun, just as Luna had lowered the moon before the meeting began. It was common for her to keep her sister company during breakfast, so there was no reason for Celestia go get suspicious.
“You can do this, Luna…” the princess of the night told herself “Just talk to her casually, tell her that she has a black eye and offer her to spend the weekend off… easy as raising the moon, right?”
A sigh followed. It was NOT going to be that easy! She had to talk Celestia out of working. The moon, an object about the size of Equestria, was a greased marble compared to the adamant tower that was the sun-princess’ will.
Not that Luna held it against her sister. The years before Equestria’s founding, when the two alicorns were busy defeating monsters and locking them into Tartarus and battling against Discord had given them no choice but to develop indomitable minds.
*And still, it was you who took it too far, wasn’t it?* a voice inside Luna’s head whispered.
The princess shook her head and sighed. Standing around and lamenting her mistakes would not make this any easier. Quietly, she trotted away.
As she reached her goal she took a deep breath and headed for the royal dining hall.
“Good morning, my dear sister. How was your rest?” Luna chimed while entering. *A bit too happy* she thought to herself.
Celestia was sitting at the end of the table, currently helping herself to a huge bowl of delicious looking oat, hay and honey muesli and a cup of coffee. Luna had to suppress a snicker. Apparently, Celestia had combed even more hair over her eye than normal and fixated it with a hair clip, which completely messed up her long mane and its natural flow in the solar wind.
“Good morning, Luna.” Celestia answered, looking up.
“Do you expect a solar storm?” Luna asked innocently.
“No…” the sun princess answered slightly crestfallen “Please don’t ask… it’s embarrassing…”
“Now I am interested!” Luna said with a grin and darted towards her sister “Why the fashion statement? And where did YOU get a hair pin? Our manes don’t react very well to those.”
“Luna, please, I am not in the mood!”
“Now you are just being unfair, sis. When I didn’t take proper care of my hair and suddenly had a whole galaxy in my tail end and black everywhere else, we both had a good laugh.”
“Fine.” Celestia sighed and removed the pin. “It looks worse than it is…” she added.
Luna’s eyes went wide. And it was no acting. She had expected to give Celestia a slight bruise. Something that way slightly visible through the coat. She had not expected to see Celestia have something that looked like she had used crimson-paint eyedrops.
“Does it hurt?” Luna asked with honest concern. She felt the whip going down on her back again. This was not what she had in mind!
“No.” Celestia answered.
“What happened?”
“I got shampoo in my eyes and walked into the statue when getting a towel.” The sun princess answered and let out a sigh “It turned like this over night. I looked it up… eyes bruise that way. It won’t go away for a week or so.”
Something inside Luna’s head clicked. This was WONDERFUL!
“Well… I think you should use this.” She said with a grin on her face.
“What?”
“Look, Tia. You haven’t had a chance to take a break in quite a long while.” Luna mused “This little accident could prove to be your opportunity.”
“I’m not sure, I follow, Luna.” The sun princess answered calmly.
“Look: You can’t go around doing regular royal business with that eye. Ponies might not know what happened and the paparazzi would have a field day with our possessed princess.” Luna explained “If you put your hair over it like you just did, you look, and please excuse my rudeness, completely unfitting for a princess. The alternative would be showing up with an eye patch… and that would raise even more suspicions.”
“I’ll just let my hair cover it naturally!” Celestia insisted.
“Tia! One sunwind and we have a *Discord possesses the princess* or worse *Daymare Sun with the crimson eye* scandal.” Luna said with slightly exaggerated worry “We must not give all those Gabby Gums copies out there any dirt! Remember when the major of Manechester tried to bribe you with a cake?”
Celestia rolled her white and red eyes. “So, what do you suggest, dear sister?”
“Simple, Tia: You make an announcement from the balcony, explaining that you’ll take a week off all duties, except sun-raising. Then you put on a pair of sunglasses in front of everypony and have a week long vacation. Nopony will suspect anything if you are seen with a pair of sunglasses during your well earned vacation. I will take over the meetings, talking and signing and you have some time for yourself.”
“That may sound very tempting, Luna.” The sun princess admitted and Luna could feel that she meant it “But I can’t suddenly disappear for a week.”
“I never said disappear, sister! Quite the opposite!” Luna quickly answered “You’ll remain quite visible to our servants, guards and closest attendants. Don’t you see? This could be the perfect way to have a vacation without anybody expecting some evil plot by me!”
Celestia looked hurt. “Luna, that is not…” “YES, it is! We can stop pretending, sister! They do not trust me yet and it might be too late for this generation to start with it. But maybe they just need to see how heavy this crown is, how much their favorite princess is in dire need of a break and how well their other princess can handle things during that time… and give everything back when it ends!”
Slowly, the sun princess raised a hoof to her chin, deep in thoughts. A vacation was overdue, wasn’t it? And this could help Luna’s standing with her subjects… maybe…
As her mind raced, Celestia overlooked the impish grin on Luna’s face. “And you could invite your most faithful student to keep you company.” The moon princess added with a silken voice.
“HM?”
“I’m sure; Twilight Sparkle would enjoy a visit. You had so little time to talk during the gala and basically all other meetings in the past. Certainly, your most faithful student would enjoy spending some time with her mentor.”
“I am just not sure… My duty…” Celestia mumbled, but Luna knew that there was little heart in it.
“Come on, Tia. Take a break! Do it for me! For Yourself!” Luna stressed and added with a sing-song voice “For Twilight!”
The sun princess bit her lip for a second and finally nodded. “Oh, for Pete’s sake! I will do it! ‘This is a great idea Luna! I’ll write a letter to Twilight!”
“Who is Pete?”
“A figure of speech, Luna.”
“Anyhow! I will call the announcement, inform the ponies waiting for an audience and redirect all emergency lines.” Luna said happily and turned to leave “And make sure to watch tonight’s sky with Twilight! I have a very important project going on and I want you two to see it! It will be very romantic!”
“I keep telling you, Luna, you are reading things into my relationship with Twilight!” Celestia stressed, as Luna was about to leave the room.
“And I keep telling you: She wants you to give her your hoofkerchief!” Luna answered and left.
Celestia sighed as Luna had left. The picture was bare of innocence to her. In Luna’s time, this was the equivalent of “She wants your horn inside her!”.
Outside, Luna took a deep breath and allowed herself to grin. She would need some more helpers to make this work. Eagerly she walked down the hallway, knowing that seeing her sister happy would ease her guilty conscience.