Judge Celestia: Upon the Throne of Justice
Part 12: A Sweet Respite
Celestia smiled gaily when somepony knocked on her door. Getting up quickly, she got to the door and opened it. “Noble! I’m glad you’re-! Oop, hullo sister,” she blushed at the wide smirk that was pulling its way across Luna’s muzzle.
“Perhaps it is not my company you are pining for, huhm?” she asked, looking at her sideways. Celestia blushed, but allowed her into the room none the less. “That stallion’s name hot on your lips at the mere sound of a hoof on your door, you must be quite smitten!”
“It’s strange,” Celestia said as they went about their usual ritual of brushing each other’s ethereal manes. “I’ve not had a…”
“Companion?” Luna ventured.
“Yes— in a long time,” Celestia smiled despite herself. “We’ve kissed, Luna. Kissed!”
Luna squee’d in delight. “My then! It is wonderful to see you so giddy for male attention!”
“Yes, yes I think so too,” she tilted her head as she spoke. “You know, for some time I thought perhaps the palace would explode with rumors and speculation. That I would see a long line of nobles insisting that I date their sons instead. Or perhaps Twilight Sparkle beating my door down demanding to know every little detail about the poor thing.”
Luna steepled her hooves, her bangs shadowing her eyes for a moment before she lit up and smiled, “Yes, sister! It’s almost as if everypony has half a brain and is giving you space to enjoy your happiness!”
“…you threatened them all, didn’t you?” Celestia asked flatly.
“No!”
“Liar.”
“I would never!”
“You’re lying to me.”
“Am not!”
“You are fibbing through your teeth.”
“Neigh!”
“Yay.”
“Neigh-h-h-h!”
“Yay.”
“I would never threaten my subjects to bolster the successes of my sister’s romantic conquests!” Luna insisted, sticking out her tongue. “It is untidy of me!” Celestia arched a single eyebrow and stared at her in silence. Conquest really wasn’t the word she…
“I appreciate your forethought, Luna,” Celestia leaned and kissed her sister’s forehead, before going back to brushing her mane. “It takes a lot off my mind to worry about. These past few cases have been rather… charged.”
“Bah!” Luna rose. “If you are to linger on such things, I will send treats and sweets to your rooms from the kitchens until you collapse from a happy sugar coma!”
“Luna, wait—!” But the Night Princess was already gone. Celestia sighed, leaning and then finally settling on her bad. She wasn’t a fan of naps, but if her sister was off to send food her way she might as well rest for a few moments. She closed her eyes.
=-=-=-=
Celestia heard a hoof knocking, and quickly sat up. “If you are from the kitchens, please send it all to the nearest guard barracks. They deserve treats, not me.” The alicorn called.
“It’s me,” Noble’s voice called through the door. Leaping to her hooves, Celestia rather smittenly rushed to the door. She stopped, checking herself quickly on a hanging mirror, then opened the door. She stared slack-jawed at what she saw.
Noble Cause stood in the hallway, weighed down with small sweets and other things. He had an odd necklace of hard candies, anklets of sugar cubes, a donut on a string tied to his tail, lines of taffy on his primary feathers, an array of chocolates attached to his back, and a cherry stuck to his nose with a bit of caramel. “I hope you can explain this, because I sure can’t.” the stallion said, waddling awkwardly into the room with her.
“Luna you brat…” Celestia hissed between her teeth. She checked out in the hallway to make sure nopony had seen, and then quickly shut the door. “I’m so sorry Noble, my sister, she’s just a bit… overzealous.” She plucked the cherry from his nose and tossed it to the counter of her mini-kitchen.
“This is gonna stick to my fur,” he lifted a hoof to get at the sugarcube anklets, his long pink tongue lapping around. It was a curious muscle, his tongue, for it looked soft and dexterious as a dog’s. The skin was pink and soft like crab-flesh. The tip finally wrangled one of the sugar cubes, curling expertly around it and pulling it free.
Celestia stared, mouth a little bit agape. Quickly catching herself with a sniffle-snorting sort of sound she started herding him along. “W-well at the very least it shouldn’t go to waste,” she said, leading him to the tile of her mini-kitchen so nothing would get on the carpet.
They spent some time ‘undressing’ him, and Celestia stood behind him to get at the donut that was tied to his tail. Lifting it up to untie the sweet, her eyes flicked downward. Oh my. He looked over his shoulder at her, a little wide-eyed, but saw her looking. Their eyes met. She smiled embarrassedly, scarlet in the face. “Well! If you wanted to look you could’ve just asked!” he said, mock-offended as he flicked her with his tail. The donut had not yet been untied and it slapped wetly against Celestia’s face with a chocolaty splat. He startled, then burst out laughing. She threw her head back and laughed too, holding her sides. “Well go on, grab it!” She gaped at his boldness. “The donut not me-heee-hee-he-ee-hahahaa!” he collapsed to one side, still half-covered with sweets. “Oh! Oh my sides!” he brayed, wings flapping about.
=-=-=-=-=
Celestia snapped awake, out of the fantasy she’d been dreaming about. Somepony was knocking on her door. “Princess, it’s me!” Noble Cause was at her door. Flushing hot and wondering if Luna had twisted her dream into such a… such a thing, she ran a brush through her mane to quickly fix it before getting to the door.
“Woof, these’re heavy!” Noble stumbled in with a couple of paper grocery sacks.
“What’re those for?” Celestia asked, cocking her head and closing the door behind him.
“I’m supposed to try and teach you to cook, remember?” Noble folded his wing like a hand, opening his saddlebags and dumping things out onto her kitchenette counter.
“Oh yes,” Celestia winced a little. “That’s right, we’d planned this earlier.” The poor Princess had been too lost in all her cases, ruling duties and such to remember her pseudo-date with her baliff.
“Let’s try eggs first, huhm? Something simple!” Noble turned on the burner, taking a pot out of her dish-drying rack and putting the water on to boil. "You said you struggled pretty hard before, but I'm sure we'll make something edible at some point!" He gestured for her to get her own pot and water. She smiled a little embarrassedly, but did as she was asked.
Half an Hour Later…
“I… I just don’t understand it!” Noble Cause stared, scrubbing his mane furiously. “My egg boiled just fine! How did yours not cook at all?!” He looked at her incredulously.
Celestia blushed, looking to one side. “Like I told you before,” she ventured, “Beings with enough magic can affect the world around them rather strangely. Mine is the inability to cook.”
“But… it’s no different than alchemy or anything like that. Hot water plus egg makes boiled egg,” Noble said, pushing the raw egg around on the counter with a hoof. Next to it sat his steaming, perfectly golden boiled egg. “How?”
“Magic is strange like that sometimes. Needless to say, I’ve hired enough chefs to make sure I don’t go hungry,” Celestia smiled a bit, patting his back with a massive wing. Noble smiled sympathetically. “Maybe you can teach me something else?” Raw implication hung between them both and they stared at each other. “Er, I meant…”
Noble grinned wryly, looking to one side and coughing. “Well why don’t we find something else to do for the afternoon, then we might have dinner together and call it a day?” he asked. She nodded. “Letting the kitchen staff cook, of course,” he added, getting a rag to wipe up the egg the Princess somehow did not cook with boiling water at hoof. Celestia nodded happily.
End of Part 12