//------------------------------// // Celestia gets an idea... // Story: Camping can be Evil // by WolfoftheWaves Pony //------------------------------// Celestia woke up with a start, her heart pounding at the loud sound of the Royal Jester's trumpet. Wiping a strand of drool from the side of her face with her hoof, she adjusted herself on her regal throne of gold and sighed, waiting for the jester's next joke, which shall surely put her to sleep again. The Jester leaped into the air and came crashing down on his face, surely on purpose, but this did nothing to lighten Celestia's mood. Celestia's main royal guard, Blue Shield, noticed the princess's uninterested look upon her face. He had to admit that Squirting Flower's performance was rather dull, but some (as in very few) of the jokes he told were rather funny, so much so that Blue Shield chuckled under his breath, hoping that nopony would notice. But he was just boring Celestia to sleep. And probably making her rather unhappy, and if the controller of the sun is not happy, somepony gets fired. No, literally, FIRED. As in she will burn him for satisfaction. And The Jester himself seemed to notice Celestia's mood as well, as he was no longer putting as much energy into his acts of comedy. Blue Shield cleared his throat, making the jester stop in the middle of doing a split. "Uh, Squirting Flower, that is enough for today. I think the princess has had enough." Relief flashed across Squirting's face as he packed up all of his things in a tiny bag and exited the royal throne room. Celestia let out a breath that she was holding. Blue Shield glanced up at his employer. "Is there anything else you need, Princess?" He asked her. Celestia shook her head, her regal mane not even disturbed by the action. "No, I am fine, Blue Shield. But I must thank you for getting rid of that Stallion. What was his name?" She said, putting a hoof to her chin. "Uh, Squirting Flower, your highness." "Oh, well," She sat up a bit taller in her throne. "I hereby decree that Squirting Flower, Royal Jester, be fired from his job for being rather boring and unfunny." Nearby, the royal scribe scribbled down what Celestia had said on a piece of paper suspended by her unicorn magic. The scribe nodded to the regal princess, and then left the room in the same direction that Squirting Flower had gone in. "And use actual fire!" She called after the scribe. "Good, now that that little problem has been taken care of," Celestia said, daintily stepping down from her throne. "I think that I shall go to my quarters." "Whatever you wish, your highness. I shall escort you." "NO!" Celestia said a bit too harshly. "Uh, no thank you, Blue Shield," She corrected herself. "I want to go alone." "Whatever you wish, your highness," Blue Shield said, his voice shaking. Celestia clopped through the marble canterlot castle hallways, her golden shoes making audible her every location, which incessantly bugged her. It usually isn't like the princess to be so irritable, but today was no ordinary day. Today was single hoofedly the most boring, dull, and uninteresting day in Celestia's whole thousands of years existence. She thought today would be a happy day. She had a good breakfast, there where no storms scheduled for today, the sun was shining, it had given Celestia a warm and happy feeling throughout the morning. She was even happy when they first started court, which is her least favorite thing to see over. All the arguing usually made her head hurt. But there was nothing that could damper Celestia's mood, right? Wrong. Because there were no arguments. No pony came into court today. So that left Celestia just sitting there, looking high and mighty on the uncomfortable silver court chair, for hours, just staring at an empty room. Then came the time when she sat on her throne, hoping to catch up a little on her reading. But when she tried to levitate "How To Reconnect with your Sister after She Has Been Gone For a Really Long Time" up to her, it was knocked out of her hooves and instead replaced by a comically large pile of documents, all of which she had to read and sign. It was not the kind of reading Celestia had hoped for. Then came Squirting Flower's, performance. Celestia had had enough. She almost wished there in fact was a storm scheduled for that day. It would reflect her mood and at least be a little exciting. And so, she left the throne room to go to her quarters. But, she took a little detour through the hall of windows, showcasing all of the recent events in Equestria's history. As she was walking through the marble hall, being reminded of Equestria's history, she started to notice something. She noticed that she was spending a long time staring at the windows of all the ponies and other...beings...that had recently plagued Equestria. First there was Nightmare Moon, her sister. Then Discord. Then came Chrysalis, Sombra, and then... Tirek. All the beings which had single hoofedly, and some with hands, brought utter panic and chaos to Equestria. She had always wanted to get revenge, even on Nightmare Moon. And the thought of it put a small smile on Celestia's face, the first since this morning. But then that smile turned into a grin, which turned into a chuckle, which turned into a maniac laugh. Celestia had an idea on how not to be bored for a long time to come. Luna shifted in her sleep, adjusting the thin blankets around her... thin? Luna never slept with thin blankets. She had always wanted as many blankets as possible on her, even when she was just a mere filly. And the mattress she was sleeping on was not quite as soft and luxurious as her usual one. Her eyes flew open, and was greeted by a bright light. No, not a bright light, it was just morning. She could tell as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. But this is another strange thing for her. She had never woken up during the day before. Her time is the night, when the moon comes out, spilling a soft glow across the land, and not in the harsh brightness of her sister's sun. She tried to blink away the light, but it was still directly in her face. She put a hoof up to block the luminous glow, but then her blood froze. On her hoof she was wearing a light blue armored horse shoe, the kind she wore as Nightmare Moon. And her hoof was black. Really, she should not be surprised. She sometimes changes into Nightmare Moon in her sleep when she dreams about her thousand year existence on the moon. But Luna did not dream about the moon last night, she knows that for sure. And as her eyes adjusted, she noticed that she was in a small enclosure made of some kind of flimsy fabric. And in the enclosure with her was a rather large back pack, bulging with items inside. And she was sleeping... on the floor!?!? In some kind of raggedy bag-thing? The very idea disgusted Luna. But curiosity won her over, and she did not rip the thing into shreds. Where was she? What had happened to her while she was asleep? She slowly dragged herself out of the bag-bed, pulling her hooves out one by one. She noticed that she could barley stand up in the enclosure. She poked the strange fabricated walls with her hoof, and it flexed, then came back into its original position. Luna had never seen anything like it before. Her eyes darted around, taking in everything about her new surroundings. Then, she locked eyes with what appeared to be a small zipper in front of her. She leaned down and looked at it. Yes, it was defiantly a zipper. Possibly a way out of this thing? Her horn lit up with a magical aura as she pulled on the piece of metal with her unicorn magic. When she had pulled it all the way up, she noticed that she could smell fresh air coming in from a tiny opening. She poked it with her hoof, and noticed that the opening became wider. Then, she poked her head through, and gasped. Trees rose from every direction except for a small patch of circular bare land in front of her with a wooden bench positioned at the very edge of the treeless area. And five logs sat around a pile of rocks with a stack of wood in the center, with a metal grate on the top. But that wasn't what surprised her. Because at the very edges of the bare patch where structures very much like her own, in different colors and with different symbols. One was brown with a tornado symbol. The other was a dark green with a lighter green heart with holes. And yet another was red with three black crystals, and another was black with chains as its symbol. She wiggled out of the enclosure a bit more and stared at it. Her symbol was her cutie mark. Her blood froze once more, because she knew what those symbols represented.