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// One odd day. 
// Story: Cycles 
// by A_guy_from_Earth 
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   Twilight flew to Canterlot as fast as she could. An hour ago she received a letter from Celestia and Luna with request to arrive as soon as possible on important business. Except the request itself, there was nothing concrete in the letter – princesses didn’t even mention for what important business they wanted her to come, but Twilight couldn’t ignore it. They needed her, so she will come. She strained and started to flitter even more intense.

Soon Canterlot emerged from behind the clouds. Huge but elegant and picturesque castle towered over the city. Its golden roofs shone in the morning sunlight. Around the walls and extreme wings beautiful castle gardens greened and bloomed. Guards, who were seen as dots from such distance, did their job, patrolled and watched. It looked so calm and peaceful that it seemed that no problem can occur now. But princesses Celestia and Luna had it, and it was serious.

Twilight swept over the roofs of Lower and Upper Cities and landed near the central gate of the palace. Guards opened the doors, and alicorn ran in. She met group of maids and asked them where princesses are. Most of them didn’t know, only one maid said that when she saw them for the last time, both princesses were in Celestia’s office. Twilight thanked them and galloped there. She rushed through the corridors and halls to the day princess’ tower. She almost didn’t look around, barely managing not to hit ponies that walked near. She ran and ran, and, finally, after a couple of minutes got to the place. She opened the doors of the office with her magic and jumped in.

“Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?” she said after some panting and looked at princesses who were sitting on sofa near the large window of the room.
“Oh, Twilight!” her teacher turned to her.
“I came as fast as I could.”
“We are so happy to see you here!” said both princesses, approached and… embraced her.

Twilight got surprised and confused. She was glad that Celestia and Luna gave her a warm welcome, but hugging? Princess Celestia hugged her only twice in her life, it happened long time ago, when she was a little filly, and she did it for comforting her. Such gesture from princess now was… unexpected.

“Ehm… So… what is the problem?” Twilight asked when Celestia and Luna let her go. “Something happened in other city of Equestria? A delegation arrives from another country? You need some help with organization of an event? You have a mission for me and my friends?”
“Oh, no, no, no, no!” Celestia shook her head. “None of this happened, luckily.”
“Then… what?”
“You see, Luna and I recently argued about one thing, very important for us personally, and couldn’t come up with solution that would satisfy both of us.”
“…i-it’s not a public affair, right?”
“Yes.” Luna nodded. “It’s our personal matter. We need somepony wise enough to judge and help us.”
“Ehm… It’s an honor!” Twilight forced a smile. “So… what should I do?”
“Follow us.” said Celestia, stood up and together with Luna left the office.

Twilight went after them. Celestia and Luna waved their hooves saying to follow them and… At that moment Twilight got surprised so greatly that dropped her jaw: Celestia and Luna started to skip and smile, just like her friend Pinkie Pie! Twilight felt that her picture of the universe crackled and slowly started to fall apart. She has never seen princesses acting like that. Why they did it? Why? She couldn’t understand. And she couldn’t say a word. So she just walked and silently watched how mighty wise three-thousand-years-old diarchs of Equestria hopped and giggled like little fillies.

Clank of their shoes filled the corridors. Skipping, they almost touched the chandeliers with their long horns. And they sincerely smiled and laughed. Twilight plodded behind them and tried to think what could be the probable reason of such behavior. Rulers of the country became absolutely childish and not serious. If they remain in such state, it will be a disaster. No, total political, social and economic crisis! Something has to be done…

Two maids walked past them. Twilight glanced at them and got taken aback: they didn’t show even a sign of surprise! Maids didn’t even look at princesses, like there was nothing special. Twilight just froze with opened mouth. Princesses turned into flighty fillies, and no pony cares about that? That was just wrong! Or… they knew something what she didn’t. Twilight was about to ask those maids, but when she finally decided, they were gone. Purple alicorn sighed and followed other princesses, hoping to meet some other ponies and ask them.

Twilight caught up with day and night alicorns, and right at this moment Celestia occasionally landed on her own tail. She slipped and fell down. Luna stopped, looked at her sister and laughed. Celestia growled, stood up and with angry face pushed Luna. Night princesses with all her appearance showed the resentment and pushed her sister. Celestia answered it the same, and in a couple of seconds Twilight watched how royal sisters fought with each other.

“Ehm…” she quietly said raising her hoof.
“Oh…” princesses stopped to fight and looked at her, then at each other. “Sorry.”

They apologetically smiled, moved apart and continued to walk. First seconds they did it as they usually do, but then they started to skip again.

Soon they got to the tower stairs and went down to the lowest floor. Walking behind diarchs, Twilight passed several corridors and appeared in the one which she recognized – the one what led to the castle kitchen. Twilight got totally lost: what important issue can be connected with kitchen? She couldn’t choose and possible variants, this just had no sense. While Twilight was thinking about it, they came to the place. Luna and Celestia opened the doors with their magic, and alicorns appeared in the kitchen. Now, when breakfast time only recently ended, there were only few cooks and other workers, and they were in remote parts of the room, near the pantries and freezers.

“Well, here we are!” gladly smiled Luna.
“P-pardon me, but…” Twilight quietly said, “I do not quite understand what you mean.”
“Oh, we just brought you to the place where we started arguing.”
“Yes.” Celestia nodded. “There is one difficulty with our traditional dessert for dinner. Today we decided to eat muffins, but couldn’t agree about the flavor. I wanted cherry muffins, but my little never-agreeing sister…” she gazed at Luna, “wanted strawberry! Everything wouldn’t be so hard, but now second royal confectioner is ill, so the only present one because of all other tasks simply has no time to cook two servings of muffins.”

Twilight was taken aback, but with all her strength and will tried not to show it.

“This… this is the important issue what you wanted me for?” she said.
“Well, yes.” answered Luna.
“Is anything wrong with it?” wondered Celestia.
“This is just usual household dispute!” exclaimed Twilight. “And you called me to help you solve it?”
“Ehm… yes.” Celestia faltered. “You… think that it is… insignificant?”

Twilight was at a loss. She didn’t know what to say now.

“You do think so!” exclaimed Celestia, covered her face with her hooves and cried.
“Celestia? Celestia?!” Luna got worried.

But her sister didn’t respond – she just sat and quietly sobbed.

“You…” growled Luna and turned to Twilight. “Look what you have done with my dearest sister! With you teacher! Ungrateful! You’ll answer for it…”

Twilight shuddered and exclaimed:

“Wait! This… is not what I meant! I wanted to say… that you could solve this dispute by yourselves!”

Celestia stopped to whimper and looked at her former student.

“You really think so?” she said.
“Yes!” Twilight intensively nodded. “You could just… mix both flavors!”

Royal sisters for a moment stood still.

“You know, I like this idea!” said Luna.
“Me too!” said Celestia and smiled. “It will be so interesting to taste such muffins!”
“Yes!”

They paused, looked at Twilight and exclaimed:

“Thank you!”

And they hugged her again – now they were so happy that they were only in one step from kissing her. Twilight got completely lost. She didn’t know what was the most surprising: the fact that princesses called her to solve a minor everyday dispute or the mood swing what she just watched.

Celestia and Luna released Twilight from their embrace.

“Thank you once again!” said Celestia. “And… one more thing. Since you are already here, can you spend this day with us?”
“Yes, please!” begged Luna. “We are bored alone!”
“Ehm… sure!” Twilight forced a smile. “I haven’t any plans for today…”
“Great!”

Princesses gave their order to the confectioner and then said Twilight to follow them.

And one of the most crazy and surreal days in whole Twilight’s life had started.

At first princesses decided to play some games. But not chess, as Twilight expected – she would agree to play chess, though she never won Celestia even when Shining Armor helped her – but tag. Celestia herself agreed to be the first chaser, and when two other princesses accepted this, they started. For the next two hours they ran, flew and teleport across and throughout whole castle. It was a miracle that they didn’t hit anything or somepony – knowing sizes of day and night alicorns it seemed to be inevitable, but somehow it didn’t happen. During first minutes Luna and Celestia tried to chase each other, but then they focused on Twilight. And since that moment Twilight became the chaser: her teacher and her sister despite their age and height were very agile. Eventually, Twilight got exhausted. And because chaser was tired, Celestia and Luna got bored. But not for long: after tag game they decided to bath a little. In the biggest fountain of the castle gardens. Twilight had no time to say anything when royal sisters grabbed her with their magic and brought to the place. They jumped into the water and started to swim, splash and play other games. Celestia preferred to dive or lazily swim on her back. Luna, who was the most excited one now, flew just above the water surface, imitating a flarecraft. Surprised Twilight stood in water and watched them, until princesses decided to play “ducks and ducklings”. They bent their legs and started to drift, from time to time – between giggling – honking and quacking. But that wasn’t all: Twilight, as she was the smallest one, had to become a duckling. So – at the requests of princesses themselves – she spent some time under wings of “Mama Ducks” Celestia and Luna like real nestling. She had never before felt so embarrassing. But, luckily for her, it ended soon. Kibitz came to the fountain and brought them towels and bathrobes. Luna and Celestia quickly wiped themselves, thanked Kibitz, hugged him and – as it seemed for Twilight – even kissed him. Kibitz gave a nod and walked away with contented smile. Twilight also wiped herself and put a bathrobe. Luna remembered that they’ll have dinner soon, but before it they had some time. So princesses went to the nearest lawn, lay down and just began to look at the sky and clouds. Soon they got dry, put off the bathrobes and went to the dining room. There already was the dinner, waiting for them. Diarchs smiled, licked their lips, sat and started to eat. At first everything was as it should be. Twilight even thought that princesses finally calmed down. But closer to the end of dinner something bit day and night alicorns, and they started a food fight. Luna shoved five carrots into her sister’s mouth, Celestia in response poured her tea on Luna. They attacked each other for some seconds, then they remembered that now they also have Twilight, so… In a moment Twilight was covered in filling of the strawberry-cherry muffins. Soon they stopped and cleaned up, but until the end of the day the only way how Celestia and Luna called Twilight was “sweetie”. After the dinner princesses decided to take a break and do something relatively calm: to talk. About boys… Twilight because of the topic and the way how her teacher and her sister talked about it – absolutely without any complexes – blushed so greatly that even her ears became red. Seeing princess of friendship like this, senior princesses decided to change the subject “before you start to glow like a night light” as Luna said. Now they began to speak about their plans for April Fools. When they shared their plans, they decided to return to active entertainments. Royal sister took their gramophone, took their collection of vinyl records and… The following time Twilight had to spend dancing and singing together with Celestia and Luna, listening music hits of her parents’ youth.

So the day had passed. Luna and Celestia sincerely thanked Twilight for spending the day together with them, gave her a goodbye hug and saw her off. Twilight said goodbye, took off and flew to Ponyville.

All the way home she was silent. She was surprised, flabbergasted and shocked. She barely could even think. She just flew, recollecting today’s events, even not trying to find an explanation of them.

Twilight recovered herself only when she was already flying above Ponyville. She looked around, noticed her castle and went in to land. Soon she touched the ground right near the doors. She opened them with her magic, went in, and at that moment finally let everything out:

“Why? Why is this happening? Why princesses behave like this? What is the reason? And why no pony cares about it? Princesses act like flighty fillies or teenagers, and no pony pays attention to it! Why do they act like this is normal thing?”
“Well, because it is normal.” she heard a voice.
“Huh?” she jumped and turned around. “Who’s there?” then, suddenly, she recognized the voice and shouted “Discord!”
“Here I am!” smiled spirit right after appearance from bright flash.
“You know what’s happening?” exclaimed surprised Twilight.
“Yes, and you don’t? Princess Celestia never told you?”
“Ehm… Told what?”
“Oh…” sighed spirit. “Of course she didn’t. I always have to fill their gaps!”
“What gaps? What are you talking about?”
“Has Celestia ever shared her secrets with you?” asked Discord.
“She has, but… It was long time ago and only a couple of times…”
“Well, she didn’t tell you probably the most significant her secret. You see, such behavior isn’t abnormal, it has clear natural causes.”
“Natural causes?”
“Yes, dear Twilight. The root of this phenomenon lies in the fact that everything in nature is cyclic: alternations of day and night, changes of seasons and so on and so on… There are a lot of different cycles – you’ve read great number of books, you should know.”

Twilight gave a weak nod.

“And these cycles have different length: from hours, like tides, until thousands of years.” continued Discord. “Now your scientists know that every fifty thousand years Equestria got covered with mighty ice shield for whole hundred thousand years. This cycle repeated itself several times before, and it will repeat again in future. But Earth is not the only place where the cycles occur – they take place on celestial bodies too!”
“What?”
“Don’t get so surprised! You know it too. Planets, for instance, has their own years too, and changes of the zodiac constellations during the year… It’s all cyclic. And the Sun and the Moon has their own cycles too.”
“Well, everypony knows about lunar cycle, and a lot of ones heard about solar cycles too…”
“Yes, but it’s not the things which are necessary now. I’m speaking about long-term cycles: cycle of solar activity and periods of longitude of ascending node and argument of perigee of the Moon. These cycles are so strong that they have influence on princesses themselves!”
“Really?”
“If you can have control over celestial bodies, celestial bodies can have control over you too. It’s one of the first rules of controlling the celestial bodies: their cycles will affect you, and sometimes – very significantly.”
“How often does this happen?”
“Well, average period of changes of solar activity is eleven years, and average period for both cycles of the Moon is… approximately eleven and a half.”
“Eleven years? Then why I do not remember anything like that? I became princess Celestia’s student sixteen years ago.”
“The cycles are not strictly periodic. The last “excess” with Celestia happened seventeen years ago. And Luna returned back only four years ago.”
“How long will it last?”
“Usually it takes three or four months, but now, knowing that Celestia’s last time was long ago, and it’s Luna’s first time after the return… probably about five or six months.”
“Oh dear…”
“Don’t worry, Twilight! Everything will be fine!”
“Fine?”
“Celestia and Luna may seem childish now, but they remain sane and serious when it comes to business.”
“How did you manage to know all this?”
“I had time to watch them. Especially when I was a statue.” spirit sighed. “Every eleven years or so they came to the garden and dressed me into ridiculous costumes trying to find what I’ll probably like. One and a half thousand years had passed, and they never guessed… And speaking about castle workers, they know about this… feature of princesses, so they don’t pay so much attention to it. They think about such days as a rest from everyday routine. And, by the way, get ready, my dear: you’ll probably have more days like this!”

Twilight just sat down.

“Well, something like that… And now excuse me, I have to go.” spirit looked at the watch which he just created with his magic. “Celestia and Luna are waiting for me. They become quite playful at this time…”

And he disappeared in a flash. Twilight remained silent, alone with her thoughts.