Luna, who had enjoyed the birthday Celestia had planned her, wanted to return the favor. But she didn’t know what Celestia would like. Would she want rose pink decorations, or sky blue? Chocolate cake or vanilla? Simple questions she could have asked Celestia about, but didn’t. Instead she turned to a certain pink mare, and asked her if she knew what Celestia might like.
“Oh, that’s an easy one! She likes marble cake. And she prefers sunset orange,” Pinkie Pie said, giggling at Luna’s unawareness to what her sister likes.
“Are you sure it’s orange, not pink or blue?”
“Pretty sure it’s orange.”
“Oh. Alright. But, may I ask… What’s marble cake?” Luna replied sheepishly.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never had marble cake before!”
“I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“It’s a mixture of two kinds of cake, usually chocolate and vanilla, but some like different cakes so they mix different flavors,” Pinkie explained.
“That’s… A very interesting cake flavor. I’m not entirely surprised my sister prefers it,” Luna said. “Thank you, Miss Pie. May I ask your help on planning my sister’s party?”
“I’d be happy to help! Who do you plan to invite?”
“Just her family and friends. Maybe not Discord though…”
“Awww why not? I’m sure she’d enjoy Discord at her party. Besides, isn’t he one of her close friends?” Pinkie said, smiling, seemingly innocently.
Luna sighed. “Discord is one of her closer friends, yes, but he might… Disturb the other guests.”
Pinkie thought for a moment before replying. “Maybe, but he’s great at parties! Besides, Celestia might be upset if he doesn’t show up.”
Luna grumbled. “Maybe so. But what if someone there is… Uncomfortable with him there?”
“Aaaww, is little Luna uncomfortable being around Discord?”
Luna’s cheeks became a bit pink. “I-I am not! I’m j-just worried about… Uh… Twilight! Yes, Twilight. She might wonder why Discord was there!”
“You are uncomfortable with Discord being there. Don’t be afraid to admit it,” Pinkie said reassuringly.
Luna sighed. “Alright. I am a bit uncomfortable with him there.”
“So, you finally admit it.”
Luna and Pinkie turned to see Discord appear out of nowhere. Luna gasped. “H-how long have you been eavesdropping?”
“The entire conversation. Now, what about me makes you uncomfortable?”
“The fact that you and Celestia are getting extremely close,” Luna said, almost inaudibly.
“And what, pray tell, is wrong with me and Celly getting close?” Discord said.
“Because if she gets too close, I’ll be left behind.”
“You know that won’t happen. It’s something else,” Discord said, trying to pry it out of her.
“Well, I do not wish to share,” Luna said stubbornly.
“Then let me come to Celestia’s birthday party.”
“Fine.”
A few days later, Luna was helping Pinkie set up decorations. They were sunset orange, and Luna hoped that Pinkie Pie was right about her sister’s favorite color. Pinkie was going back and forth between the room they were decorating for the party and the kitchen to make the cake. At the moment, the cake was cooling-so it could be frosted properly-and the pink mare was hanging some decorations in a place normally unreachable for earth ponies.
Luna decided not to question it, having experienced the mare’s randomness before.
“So, Miss Pie, how come it’s taking you longer to set up my sister’s party then it supposedly took to set up mine?” Luna questioned, realizing they had been setting up for almost three hours.
“Oh that’s easy! Yours was prepared for days in advance. You didn’t ask for help until last minute,” Pinkie explained as she finished hanging one side of banner. She then jumped down from where she was. “I’m going to go see if the cake is cool enough. Can you h-”
“Hang the other side of the banner? Yes, I can. Go on ahead and check the cake, Miss Pie,” Luna said, lifting the other side of said banner in her magic.
“Okie dokie lokie!” came Pinkie’s reply as she bounced off to check the cake.
Luna hung the other side of the banner on the opposite side of the room. After it was hanging, she looked around for something else she could set up for the party that evening. Finding nothing, she decided to try to wait for Pinkie Pie to return.
She didn’t have to wait long.
“Hey, do you wanna help me frost the cake?” Pinkie asked upon returning.
“Huh? Oh, um… Yes, I would. Thank you for asking,” Luna answered.
“Then come on!”
Luna followed the mare to the kitchen. Upon arriving, Luna noticed that the frosting had already been made. And that someone else was in there with them.
“Discord? What are you doing?” Luna asked upon noticing the draconequus.
“He’s helping! Duh!” Pinkie answered for him. “Now come on! The cake isn’t gonna frost itself you know. But if it could, that would be funny, because cakes aren’t alive and so-”
Discord leaned close enough to whisper something to Luna. “And you think I’m crazy.”
At this, Luna snorted, trying not to laugh.
Suddenly, Pinkie stopped talking. She looked like she was listening for something. Then her eyes widened. “Hide the cake and the frosting. Now!” she said out of nowhere. Then she proceeded to stuff the cake into the fridge, and the frosting into the oven.
“Pinkie Pie, what is wrong?” Luna asked, confused.
“She’s coming! She’s coming! Hide it all!”
Luna looked to Discord. “Can you make any sense out of that?”
Discord nodded. “She means Celestia. Celestia is coming, so we have to hide the cake and frosting. But why she put the frosting in the oven and not the microwave, I’ll never know.”
Luna’s eyes widened. She then went to stall her sister.
“Tia!” Luna called once she saw her sister.
“Luna? What are you doing down here? I thought you were busy somewhere else…” Celestia said, confused.
“Uuuumm I was... helping! I was helping the cooks prepare your meal, because, you know, it’s your birthday!” Luna said quickly.
“Oh, Lulu, you didn’t have to. A simple gift would’ve been perfect,” Celestia said sweetly.
“Oh, um, about that…”
“You didn’t.”
“I may have…”
“Luna, you know you didn’t have to.”
“Too late,” Luna said sheepishly.
“Oh, Luna…” Celestia said, rolling her eyes.
“Well, we might as well enjoy it when it happens.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “I suppose so,” she said.
“W-would you like to see y-your cake?” Luna asked nervously.
“No, I think it’s best if they still think it’s a surprise,” Celestia said, a goofy grin(that really didn’t fit) on her face.
“Celestia, are you okay? You never smile like that,” Luna said, a bit worried.
“Oh, I’ve smiled like that before. But it’s just been so long since I have,” Celestia said, her smile disappearing. Now she just seemed crestfallen.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Luna called out.
“No, Luna, it’s fine…”
“Celestia…”
“I-I’ll see you tonight…”
“Celestia, no. I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t always come with.”
“Nothing’s stopping me this time,” Luna said, determined.
“Please, Luna, don’t follow me…”
“If you hurt yourself, there is one pony who will react worse than I would.”
“Luna, I’m not going to hurt myself.”
“Same goes for killing yourself.”
Celestia sighed. “Like I can kill myself…” she said softly.
“CELESTIA THOU SHALT NOT HARM THYSELF IN ANY WAY”
Celestia winced. “Okay” she said meekly
This calmed Luna to an extent. “I’m sorry I yelled, Celestia, but you wouldn’t have listened any other way.” She hugged her sister tightly. “I won’t go with you as long as you promise not to hurt yourself.”
“O-okay.”
“Pinkie Promise.”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Celestia said, giggling a bit as she said it.
“Alright. You may go,” Luna said, hugging her sister again before returning to the kitchen.
Which was a mess.
“What are you doing?” she asked, unamused by the mess
“Trying to hide it aaaaaall” Pinkie said.
“Oh, you don’t need to. Celestia left.”
“She did?!?!” Pinkie gasped.
“Yeeeeeess,” Luna said, now scared.
This got Pinkie to start unhiding everything she had hidden from Celestia. She pulled frosting out of the oven and microwave, as well as taking the cake out of the fridge.
Luna was leading Celestia down to the party that Celestia ‘didn’t’ know about. Celestia was pretending, like she had said she would, that she didn’t know what was going on. When she got to the room where the party had been set up, she feigned surprise at what she saw.
“Oh Luna, you didn’t…”
“It’s the least I could do.” Luna replied, smiling.
Celestia looked over at her sister, and smiled. She pulled Luna into a hug.
“Thank you.” Her thank you was for more than just the party.
“You’re welcome, Celestia. You’re my sister, and you deserve it. And someone who can keep you sane,” Luna said, nodding towards Discord.
“You… You don’t mind?”
“Think of it as your gift. And if he so much as looks at another mare, he’ll be severely punished.”
Celestia laughed. “Luna, I can handle myself. But if you really want, if he breaks my heart, you can punish him.”
“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinee,” Luna grumbled.
