//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two: Obligatory Chase Scene 
// Story: The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Date Twilight Sparkle 
// by Codex Ex Equus 
//------------------------------//

	Timing. It was all about timing.

Celestia had not only designed the castle, she had spent the last thousand years living in it, and knew it better than the back of her hoof. After all, she hardly looked at the back of her hoof, always cuffed as it was in gold, but every day she had to navigate the twists and turns of her palace. She knew all the secret passages, and the secret passages in the secret passages, and, most importantly, how to make her way around without being seen. Her sister, on the other hoof, had been here only a scant few years and was still learning the layout. Simply outmaneuvering her would be easy.

Luna's advantage was nearly insurmountable, however. Celestia's schedule was set nearly down to the minute, and her sister knew it as well as she did. Technically Luna should have been asleep at this point, or at least dining and relaxing after the night. The events of that night seemed to have given her an unexpected burst of energy, however, and it was becoming difficult to keep her at bay.

And so, timing. End a meeting a little early, show up to sign a law the teensiest bit late but with a distraction thrown towards Luna, flip around two appointments but then keep to the original schedule. Anything, as long as it kept her sister from cornering her alone.

Luna was brash and tactless, and cared surprisingly little for anyone's privacy, but Celestia knew how her mind worked. She'd want them alone for this confrontation, to let her focus her full attention on browbeating her older sister. She wouldn't want Celestia to be able to use another pony as an excuse to cut their conversation short, or to deflect questions, or to change the subject. Luna wanted her sister all to herself.

Sixty seconds until the end of the morning court session. Celestia hurried things along just a bit, finishing up the current case with thirty seconds to go, and announced that court was finished for the day. Moving swiftly–but not so much as to detract from her usual image of serenity–she moved to the throne room doors and waited just beyond the arc she knew the door would take as it opened.

On the dot of zero, the scheduled ending of court, the doors exploded open and Luna skidded in, the carpet leading to the throne bunching up under her hoofs as she came to a stop. By that time, Celestia had already slipped through the doors and vanished like a ghost. 





Another hour, another policy meeting about something or the other. After centuries spent in such meetings–literal centuries in the meetings, if you added all the hours up–Celestia could listen and offer valuable input while not really listening at all, instead going into a kind of meditative state.

This time, her deep thoughts were focused on one goal: evading her sister. Again, she realized. The small smile that always graced her face widened slightly as she recalled all the other times the much younger Princesses of the Night and Day had chased each other through a castle.

But the penalty for losing this race was too steep, and Celestia fully intended to win. Avoid her sister for this day, and she would be safe; having stayed awake so long would mean that Luna would need to sleep that much more for the next few days. By then, she would either have forgotten, or Celestia would be able to feign ignorance about any dream she might have had several days ago. They fade so fast, dear sister, why, I can hardly recall my most recent dream, light chuckle followed by firm change of subject.

The meeting broke up, ponies filing out the door as Celestia stayed behind. She knew Luna was waiting outside, and this was one of the interior conference rooms, with just the one entrance. So Celestia waited a pair of heartbeats, then cast a teleportation spell with a bright flash of golden light.

There was a similar flash from outside the room, though blue instead, as Luna traced the spell and piggybacked on it to its destination. When the flash had faded, Celestia cast the spell again, this time teleporting herself.

She didn't quite appear at her next appointment, however. Instead she popped into existence on the walkway outside the classroom, to take in the view of an enraged Princess Luna splashing her way out of one of the palace's decorative ponds, Celestia's soggy notebook perched on her head.





In retrospect, tricking her sister into teleporting into a pond had been a bit of a mistake. No doubt by this point Luna was so out of her mind with fury she had completely lost sight of why she was even pursuing her sister throughout the castle, now solely seeking revenge.

As Celestia taught to the class, occasionally lecturing, occasionally demonstrating this point or another about magic, she kept catching small hints that Luna was stalking her. A quick flash of midnight blue at a window, the sparkle of a mane under the classroom door, the sound of hooves clip-clopping and angry snorting from the room next door. There would be no easy escape from this one. She'd need... assistance.

The class filed out as their lesson ended, save one light green colt who Celestia knew could use some extra credit after a simple mistake with a levitation spell and a bucket of paint had cost him several points on the last exam. She told him what he needed to do and he agreed eagerly, bounding out into the hall.

“Um... Princess Luna?”

The Night Princess spared a glance down at the young unicorn before her, quickly returning her eyes to the door of the classroom. “Yes, young one? Do you require my assistance?”

“Well, um, yes. Can you tell me how to spell 'distraction'?”

“Ha! A simple enough feat.” Luna instinctively held her head high, eyes closing in a regal pose as she spelled. “D-I-S-T-R-A-C–”

Her eyes popped open in horror as she realized what she was doing, just in time to catch sight of a multi-hued mane disappearing around a corner down the far end of the hall. Nervously, the small unicorn backed away from Luna as lightning started crackling in the air. Far too late, he was recalling that this Princess had once been known as Nightmare Moon.

Celestia winced as the yelling and screaming began behind her. From the sound of things, the Royal Canterlot Voice was being employed to full effect.

She'd make sure that unicorn got a lot of extra credit.





Celestia cursed herself. She'd gotten sloppy, and Luna had nearly caught her after she'd made the monthly Royal Inspection of the Royal Library. Large potted plants hadn't been added to the halls merely as decor, however, and now she held her breath as she crouched behind one.

Just under the edge of the leaves, she watched silver-shod hooves trot past. Through a gap in the plant, she was able to watch them continue down the hall, then stop. Suddenly, they vanished.

It nearly took too long for Celestia to realize what that disappearance meant, but she still just barely had time to shove the plant out into the middle of the hall, intercepting Luna in mid-flight. The Moon Princess was hardly slowed as she crashed through the branches, but it gave Celestia enough time to scramble to her hooves and run down the hall in the opposite direction.

“CELESTIA, GET THY FLANK BACK HERE!” bellowed Luna, hooves kicking up sparks on the marble as she hit the floor and executed a perfect 180 to go charging after her sister.

Celestia ran, seemingly blindly, taking random turns and ducking through various secret passages. They were, however, all ones Luna knew about, so that when she finally cornered Celestia in a secret passage that dead-ended in a wall, she thought she had won. It was a small passage, but Celestia had designed the entire castle with her own size in mind, so it had just enough room for her to turn and face her sister.

“All right, Celestia,” panted Luna, “I've got you, and you're going to talk. But before you do, I'm going to make you pay for every–”

Celestia's back left hoof kicked out softly, striking a very specific part of the wall. The floor beneath her disappeared and she dropped into a long, dark chute, Luna's howls of rage echoing after her. It would take her time to find that hidden trigger, time enough for Celestia to disappear again and–

A flash of light lit the chute as the floor above exploded. Splinters and sawdust began to rain down around her, Luna's cries growing louder.

Or, Luna would destroy the trapdoor rather than searching for the trigger.

At the bottom of the drop the walls flared out, giving Celestia room to spread her wings and slow her fall to the point where she wouldn't damage the floor. Luna, she noticed a moment later, did not bother with such niceties.

Her familiarity with the surroundings let her get ahead of Luna, who had to react to Celestia's sudden direction changes and dives through hidden doors and panels. Finally having gained enough of a lead, she dove through the hidden door that had been her goal, leaving it open just enough for her sister to notice.

Notice it Luna did, skidding to a halt and racing back. Flinging the door open, she dashed inside, stopping barely in time to avoid smashing into the wall at the back of what had turned out to be a small alcove.

Suspiciously she peered around, kicking at the floor and banging on the walls, listening for hollows. Finally convinced her sister hadn't actually gone into this room and ducked out another hidden door, she resumed her chase down the main passage, trotting at a slower pace now that it was obvious Celestia had eluded her somehow.

After a moment, the panel in the ceiling of the room slid back and Celestia climbed down. Leaving the small hidden room, she went back the way she'd come a pace or two, opened another hidden door into a similar alcove, and kicked the wall there, dropping down another floor.

She was even on time for the meeting.





Which, as it unfortunately turned out, was a budget meeting.

It's not that she wanted to be impolite, but it was nearly impossible to pay attention to anything that went on in these meetings. Given the rather healthy economy of Equestria, there was little need for strict budgeting, but there was always somepony obsessed with saving every last bit. And, Celestia had to admit, there was no need for waste when it could be avoided.

She just wished the meetings weren't so boring.

She had been busy all day, plotting her way around her sister, and had just finished up a several-miles-long chase through her castle halls. She was, to put it bluntly, in no condition to listen to a pony drone on about market predictions for corn sales.

It started with long, slow blinks. Then there was a yawn, quickly stifled. But her head began nodding after that, and soon enough she had drifted into a light doze.

And found herself standing on a field of stars. She was looking around, confused, when a voice behind her cried, “There you are!”

She turned, to see Luna trotting towards her quickly, a vicious grin upon her face. “You're not getting away this time–”

Thousands of years of life will teach one certain skills, more out of a need to retain sanity than for survival. When that life includes things like Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Tirek, your own sister turning into a being of evil, and being forced to banish said sister for a thousand years, the ability to wake yourself up from a nightmare is vital.

“NOOOOO!” screamed Celestia, sitting bolt upright and slamming her hooves down onto the table. As she looked around the room, trying to clear her head, she found all the other ponies staring at her. “Oh. Um–”

“Yes, that was exactly my reaction when I first heard the long-term prospects on soybean futures,” said Black Ink, nodding and then gesturing at the chart he was standing in front of. “But, if you'll look at graph 2-A, you'll see how encouraging investment into high yield–”

Celestia slumped back into her chair. The stress was getting to her. She needed a break.





And here it was, the grandest moment of the day. Celestia was already licking her lips as she pushed the door open, revealing a table set with plates and a serving cart off to one side–

And there, at the head of the table, sat Luna, a triumphant grin on her face. 

A pitiful whining noise emerged from Celestia as she stood rooted in the doorway, looking back and forth between the empty spot at the table and the safety of the hallway behind her. The noises intensified as she pranced in place, unable to choose which doom she preferred.

Finally, with a defeated whinny, she hung her head and took her place at the table.

“It is good to see you, sister,” said Luna, smiling wickedly. “We have so much to talk about.”

Another whine tried to make its way out of Celestia's throat, but she stopped it as the serving pony began to wheel the cart over. She would be strong; this conversation was a sacrifice she had to make, for the greater good. Whatever consequences talking with Luna had, whatever horrors it wrought, they would not be as bad as missing her afternoon cake.