Chapter 4
"Coming Up with an Idea"
Twilight's friends arrived at the castle later in the day to help her come up with an idea to get Luna to open up to Celestia. Although they had all witnessed Luna confess her feelings of guilt that created the Tantabus, they all agreed that Luna needed to tell Celestia what she told them and all of Ponyville.
"I completely agree with you, Twilight," said Fluttershy as they all sat in the throne room. "Princess Luna needs to tell Celestia the whole truth about her feelings."
"Wow, Fluttershy," remarked Pinkie Pie, jumping into the air. "You are becoming more and more assertive by the day. Guess what I told you during the Pony tones really got to you, didn't it?"
The other ponies gave a hard stare at the pink party pony, who chuckled nervously and floated back down to her seat. Choosing to ignore the interruption, Twilight continued the meeting.
"What we need to do is to find a way to get Luna to open up," she continued. "If she could be open with us, why can't she be open with her own sister?"
"That's a good point, Twilight," suggested Rainbow Dash, who knew how bad it was to hide ill feelings firsthand. "Don't forget what happened to me after Tank hibernated."
"How could I forget?" huffed Rarity, folding her forelegs. "I still can't that repulsive behavior of yours out of my head. If there is one nightmare Luna has to protect me from, it's that."
Rainbow Dash merely rolled her eyes and refocused on the task at hand. In a sense, the element of loyalty had a good reason for going along with this. For she knew, that Luna was doing the same thing that she did which was hiding her feelings by self-harm.
"I actually have an idea," said Pinkie Pie, raising her hoof to talk. "Would you like to hear it?"
All the other ponies nodded in agreement and the pink party pony gave out her idea on what to do.
"Why don't we have Luna believe that we are inviting her for a sleepover?"
An awkward silence fell on the throne room upon hearing that suggestion. Everypony knew that Luna was the princess of the night and was nocturnal, so the idea of a sleepover was not a good one.
"Uh, maybe you're right," she chuckled nervously. "She does have duties or something."
"How about we invite both of them over for tea or something?" suggested Fluttershy. "Discord and I could provide the tea and cakes."
Rarity was not really keen on having the spirit of chaos help them out. After all, Discord was reformed, but he was still the chaos causing creature he always was.
"Having Discord help us out?" remarked Rarity. "If there was ever a time for no games, it is this one. This is the Princess of the Night we are taking about, you know."
"Come on, Rarity," said Applejack, groaning in frustration. "Discord is reformed now and he is not going to do anything to upset us. Besides, aren't he and Princess Celestia friends now?"
Rarity groaned and sat back down in her throne, wanting to leave out of frustration. However, she had a duty to fulfill and that was to deal with this friendship problem.
"Applejack does have a point," remarked Spike as Pinkie Pie was writing down possible ideas. "If Discord is friends with Princess Celestia, then maybe he and Luna have become friends too, perhaps?"
"I don't know," said Twilight. "Luna wasn't at the Grand Galloping Gala because she says that her duties get in the way. But, I think it has to do with her feelings."
At that moment, Twilight motioned for Spike to go into the kitchen to get the picture from her coronation that Luna was featured in. Once Spike had returned, Twilight placed the picture in the center of the map and rotated it around so that each of her friends could get a good look.
"I forgot about this picture," gasped Rarity, ignoring Luna's look and focusing on the other details about the photo. "I remember Photo Finish took this picture. She really admired your gown, Twilight."
"Don't focus on me, Rarity," said Twilight. "All of you take a good look at Luna. She wasn't smiling in the picture."
So, they all took a good look at the picture and carefully studied how Luna was feeling in the picture. They all took note of the fact that Celestia was standing next to Luna in the picture, seemingly unaware of what Luna was feeling at the time.
"Maybe she was having an off day," suggested Applejack, inspecting the picture and scratching her chin. "You know how demanding princess life is, Twilight."
"It wasn't that," replied Twilight. "When I was dancing with my dad at my coronation reception, I saw how Luna just couldn't look at anything and nopony seemed to notice."
It was then that Rainbow Dash suddenly had an idea. She knew of somepony that could try and get Luna to help her open up to Celestia.
"I've got an idea," said Rainbow Dash as they all looked at her. "Remember that therapist that helped me get over Tank's hibernation?"
"Who? Sweetheart?" replied Fluttershy. "I remembered how nice she was to you, Rainbow Dash. Sweetheart could help us out with the Princesses."
All the ponies nodded in agreement over this and began to make plans for Sweetheart to mediate over the impending conversation between Luna and Celestia. After writing a scroll to Celestia, Twilight had Spike send it to her with his fire breath, eagerly awaiting what Celestia would say about their plans for Rainbow Dash's therapist to help them in their situation.
Back in Canterlot, Celestia was in her quarters when the scroll appeared and she read it quietly to herself, so as to not let Luna spy on her. A small tear came in Celestia's eyes when she finished reading the scroll.
"Finally, at last," she thought to herself, smiling and putting the scroll down on her desk. "I can finally get Luna to talk to me about her feelings so I can help her."
It would only be a matter of time before this conversation would take place…