“Celestia, I'm not kidding.” Luna rubbed a hoof on her forehead. “It's like... three hours until dawn.”

“I know you're excited for today, but you can't just raise the sun to make it happen sooner. For one thing, just imagine how Twilight will react if she sees the sun has risen several hours before it should.”

“Ah. Good point.” Celestia's horn glowed briefly and the hall darkened again. She then shuffled her hooves nervously, glancing around. “So, um, while we wait, do you want to—”

“Sister.” Luna gave Celestia a flat stare. “While we appreciate your excitement, we have much to do ourselves. Such as, for example, spending time with our own love, whom we have not had years to get to know. My suggestion would be that you go and get some sleep to prepare for the big day.”

Luna shook her head as she watched her sister trot back down the hall, nearly prancing with nervous energy.

“Well, at least now when she's exhausted at lunchtime, she can't say I didn't tell her to get some rest.”

Celestia killed some time back in her bedroom, leafing through the Treatise. The first edition was a lot more raw than the later versions, and reading through it was almost like talking with Starswirl again. She smiled sadly as she read one of his theories on the Elements of Harmony, a theory that he had removed in later editions: that there was some power in friendship which fueled the Elements. It was a shame that Starswirl had never managed to learn that lesson, despite all his other discoveries.

Putting the book down, she frowned to herself and wandered over to her wardrobe. She should probably wear something special, but what? A dress didn't seem right; it would be too fancy, and she didn't want to be intimidating. Despite her feelings, she wanted to approach this day more casually.

Rummaging through her things, she finally picked out a bright yellow ribbon. That was, naturally, her favorite color. And with a bow tied firmly on its end, her mane would calm its waving down. Hopefully that would be less distracting.

Pacing about nervously once again, Celestia finally tried to settle down and clean her accoutrements. Removing one of her hoofcovers, she got the polish and a rag and gave it a good scrub. This was an important day, and she needed to look her best, so she made sure to polish it extra hard.

Holding up the bent and twisted piece of metal, she sighed, remembering why she typically had servants do this sort of thing. Throwing the former hoofcover into a corner, she picked a new one out of the box she kept in the closet. Maybe her regalia was fine the way it was.

Once more with nothing to do, she made her way to the balcony and tried to calm herself by staring out over Canterlot. But no matter how beautiful it was under Luna's moon—and it was beautiful, very much so—she still couldn't find that sense of serenity it usually inspired.

Still, she forced herself to stay there, as the current year passed into the next, then another, and another, until they became centuries, then millennia, and then eternities began flowing past, one after another, an eternity of eternities.

And then, finally, she realized it was time to raise the sun and begin the next day.

She did so, then stood there, blinking in confusion. She had been so excited for the day to begin that she hadn't even thought about the fact that there were still several hours to go before they all were to meet up with Twilight for the picnic.

"My most faithful student, I have another exciting project for you to work on. This time, instead of learning about the magic of friendship, you'll be doing some more... advanced studies."

Celestia studied the words she'd written for a moment, then shook her head and crossed them out. While it makes a cute pet name for her, I may want to downplay her role as my student, she mused. Especially during an invitation to enter into a deeper and more equal relationship with each other.

"Twilight Sparkle, as the sovereign ruler of Equestria, I hereby declare my intention to court you."

Another pause for consideration, and then another shake of the head. Too formal. I sound like Luna did the first year or two after she came back. I don't want to be too intimidating to Twilight, either.

"So Twilight, you doing anything Friday night? I thought maybe we could go catch a play, get some dinner..."

Ugh, too casual now! And it doesn't even sound like a date, we used to do that kind of thing all the time when she still lived in Canterlot.

"Twilight, though my sun does burn bright, my love for you burns ever fiercer. It would make my heart soar if you would do me the pleasure—"

She stopped writing in the middle of that sentence and crossed it out. That's the kind of speech Cadance would come up with.

The sheet of paper, covered with doodles and scratched-out sentences, was crumpled into a ball by her magic and tossed across the room. Her horn pulsed briefly, incinerating the paper before it made it halfway, and she pulled another sheet towards herself.

She'd almost fallen asleep! That would have been a disaster of tragic proportions; after all, there were only a few more hours until it was time for the picnic, and if she fell asleep now she might sleep until it was time to leave and her sister would have to wake her up, and then she'd have to run around in a rush trying to get ready, and then she'd show up late and Twilight would be disappointed and think less of her, and she wouldn't want anything to do with her, and—

Celestia did her best impression of Twilight having a panic attack, finally managing to calm herself down with a few deep breaths, mirroring the motion of her chest with one foreleg—the same calming technique she'd taught Cadance all those years ago. She hadn't had to use it herself since before Luna's banishment, but it worked as well as ever.

She looked down at the papers still spread out before her and froze. While dozing, she had apparently started doodling. Several sheets were now covered with hearts, many of them containing the letters 'T + C', others with crudely combined drawings of her and Twilight's cutie marks. Even worse, scrawled about the papers were the words 'Celestia Dawnbringer-Sparkle', Twilight Sparkle-Dawnbringer', and 'Mrs. and Mrs. Dawnbringer-Sparkle'.

Face flaming red with embarrassment, she ignited all the papers to destroy the evidence. When the rug caught on fire as well, she spent a few moments panicking, thinking she'd have to call in the guards, before finally just lifting the whole thing into the air with her magic and letting it burn itself out there. Then, just to make sure, she carried the remains to her balcony and scattered the ashes to the winds.

There. Much better. Celestia marched back into her bedroom contentedly. It had been an old rug anyway, a few centuries at least, and no one beside her even remembered the civilization it had come from. She didn't remember much about them either, but surely cremation had been one of their traditions. They probably would have been happy about this.

She paused in the center of the room, looking around. She needed a less... potentially dangerous way to pass the time. Pacing about, looking through what seemed to be the endless bookshelves lining her bedroom, she ended up finding a photo album and settled down happily on her cushion to page through it.

This album had pictures of Twilight in it, naturally, and a small smile settled on Celestia's face as she looked at each photograph in turn. Here was Celestia hugging Twilight after accepting her into the School for Gifted Unicorns, here she was hugging Twilight after she had passed her first major exam, here she was hugging Twilight after she graduated, here she was hugging Twilight for... what seemed to be no reason at all, here she was hugging Twilight—

She paused. There was a definite theme going on in these photographs. Did she always hug Twilight that much? Only when her student accomplished something amazing, she finally decided. It was just that Twilight had done so many amazing things. And they also hugged when they said hello, of course. And goodbye. And... okay, maybe it was a lot.

They weren't exactly friendly hugs, either. Well, they were, but they always went on longer than was comfortable. Except they never became uncomfortable; not once could she remember an awkward hug with Twilight. It was just their thing, and maybe that said something about how good of an idea it was to ask Twilight to be her special somepony.

She turned the page and her frown of thought melted back into a smile. There was another picture of her hugging Twilight, except this time Luna was also included in the embrace. This had been the first picture taken of the three of them together after Luna had been freed, and the joy and love of that moment still lifted her heart. She knew now that that had been the moment her feelings for Twilight had really begun to take shape, and that just made her happier.

There were less pictures of the two of them hugging now, too. Instead, the photographs focused more on Twilight. Twilight running off to the Crystal Empire, Twilight from behind as she looked out a window in the castle, Twilight reaching up to get a book on a high shelf, Twilight bending down to get a book on a low shelf, Twilight—

Celestia paused again. There was another theme in these photographs, and it seemed to be Twilight's rump. Every picture managed to be from behind Twilight somehow, and in each picture her rear grew larger and larger, taking up more of the image, until the last few were nothing but the alicorn's backside—

Celestia slammed the album shut. There were probably plenty of other things she could be doing right now that wouldn't put her in such a disconcerted and distracted state. She started to float the book back to the shelf where it belonged, then paused. Glancing around furtively, she lifted her mattress and slipped the book inside through a slit in the bottom, resting it next to a well-worn notebook and a recently purchased novel.

After another interminable length of time—nearly more than half an hour—Celestia decided to see if anypony else was awake yet. Luna, at the least, should be free now. Just after dawn was her typical dinnertime. The dining room was empty however, so she made her way to Luna's bedchamber.

“Sister, would you like to—” she started to call, pushing open the doors with her magic.

“MMMPH?!” cried Chrysalis, trying to look back at Celestia from a very intimate location.

“Well, I did say I was going to get to know her better,” said the Princess of the Night finally, with a sly grin. “And look, I found something she likes—”

She grimaced as she trotted quickly down the hall, sticking her tongue out, shaking her head in a desperate—and futile—attempt to forget what she had just seen. Slowing up as she came to the door to Cadance and Shining Armor's guest room, she let out a relieved sigh as she heard voices coming from within. Maybe those two would help her—

“MMF?! Aah! C-Celestia?!” sputtered Shining Armor, peering past Cadance's tail.

Eyes squeezed shut from the force of trying to block the last five minutes from her mind, Celestia ran through the palace halls. There were spells that could lock off parts of one's memory, but she ruled that idea out quickly. Those spells had to have something that would trigger them later, to bring the memories back. No matter what she chose as the trigger, over the course of her eternal life it was guaranteed something would set it off. But good old fashioned denial and repression... well, that lasts forever.

Pushing open the door to the kitchens, Celestia stumbled inside. The strain of the last few minutes had reminded her of how little sleep she had gotten the previous night. Opening the cupboard doors, she made grumbling noises upon finding it devoid of coffee. Making her way to the pantry, she pushed the door open.

“OH, COME ON!” Celestia slammed the pantry door and stomped out of the kitchen. “Am I the only pony in this castle not getting any?!”

All five ponies had gathered in the hall outside Celestia's room and, after an uncomfortable few minutes, had collectively decided they were all going to pretend the morning's events hadn't happened.

“We've got everything, right?” fretted Celestia. “I know the food is good to go, I made Twilight's favorite, but if we don't have the rest of the things for the picnic then—”

“Then we'll pop back here and get them,” finished Cadance soothingly. “It's not like forgetting the blanket would ruin everything.”

“You're right, you're right,” sighed Celestia. “I just want everything to be... perfect.”

“Trust me, I know exactly what you mean,” said Chrysalis. “But as long as there aren't any pesky ponies around to ruin things when they are going perfectly, everything will be fine. You just need to relax.”

This earned the changeling a frown from Shining Armor. “While I don't exactly agree with all of that sentiment, Chrysalis does have a point,” he said. “It's Twilight. If anyone is going to understand and accept you, it's her.”

“Thank you all, so much,” said Celestia, eyes starting to get teary. “For all your help...”

“It's what we're here for, sister,” said Luna, laying a gentle hoof on Celestia's shoulder, and they shared a quick nuzzle.

“Now, you didn't forget the book, did you?” she continued, in a teasing tone.

“Of course not! I have it right here—” Celestia stopped in mid-sentence, staring in horror at the book held in her magic's golden glow. “I-I forgot to wrap it! I've ruined everything!” She collapsed to the floor, tears starting to flow from her eyes.

“Ugh, she's making me sad now, too,” complained Chrysalis, ears drooping. “I can taste her sadness.”

“Celestia, just go wrap it,” said Cadance, nudging her with a hoof. “We'll go on ahead and tell Twilight you just got delayed a little bit. I mean, the picnic's not going to be canceled just because you spend fifteen minutes wrapping a gift, right? For one thing, it will give us time to explain the little... addition to our family.” She gave a head nod towards the depressed changeling being comforted by Luna.

“Oh! O-of course.” Celestia stood up, shaking her head. “I'm sorry, I'm just a little bit anxious, I guess.”

“No problem,” said Cadance, moving away to stand next to the others. “We'll meet you there.”

The moment they disappeared in the flash of multiple teleportation spells, she was gone, racing off into the castle. Finding the wrapping paper was easy, but finding the wrapping paper she wanted wasn't. Birthday, Hearth's Warming, even Nightmare Night papers were all present in abundance, but there was a distinct lack of 'I Want to Date You' paper.

Finally, she settled on plain brown paper wrapping tied with twine. It was efficient and practical, just the kind of thing Twilight would appreciate. Something was missing, though. Appreciate it she might, but you don't give something so plain to a pony who means so much to you.

Inspiration struck and Celestia pulled open the door to the ribbon closet. After digging herself out of the avalanche, she dove back in and swam through the pile until she found the perfect color: a shade of magenta that, to her eye, perfectly matched the brightest streak in Twilight's mane.

She twisted it around the string binding the book and held it up in front of herself. Perfect, she thought, then lit her horn and disappeared in a flash of magic.

Blinking away the residual effects of the teleportation spell, Celestia looked around and spotted the familiar figures gathered in front of Twilight's castle. Leaping forward, she opened her mouth to shout a cheerful greeting.

That greeting died in her throat, and she slowly cantered to a halt as she fully took in the scene before her.

Twilight and Chrysalis were snarling at each other, reared up onto their hind legs. Chrysalis looked merely indignant, but Twilight's face held a fury Celestia had rarely seen upon it before. Her mane and wings were larger than normal; Chrysalis's sudden appearance had, it would seem, prompted Twilight to break out the Rainbow Power.

Luna stood in front of Chrysalis, clearly begging for reason, while Cadance was doing the same before Twilight. Both seemed to be nearly pleading with their respective pony friends for calm.

But there was no yelling, no shouting and screaming, no pleas for peace. Only silence hung over the courtyard.

Celestia's jaw dropped as she stared, dumbfounded. After a moment, she trotted forward. So intently was she focused on the statues that she hardly saw the ponies gathered in a small group on one side of the courtyard, and the pony that stood in the shadows of Twilight's castle went completely unnoticed. She slowed as she neared the group of stone figures, finally stopping a few feet away.

"Luna..." she growled at the statue of her sister. "If this is some prank of yours, some kind of joke, it is not funny."

The statue remained remarkably unmoved by her glare, and she turned to Chrysalis.

"You're all changelings, aren't you? Luna put you up to this, made you all turn into copies of my friends that look like stone." She moved forward until she was muzzle-to-muzzle with the Queen. "Admit it! Come on, blink. Blinkblinkblink. Blink! I dare you!"

Once more there was no response, and Celestia moved back a few steps. She stood there, eyes moving between each statue in turn, and her lips began to tremble. Finally, they curled up, exposing her teeth in a terrifying snarl.

"Are you bucking kidding me?!" she shrieked. "After everything we went through to get this stupid book, I leave you alone for ten minutes and you all get turned to stone?! Do you know how much work this is going to take to fix?! You... I just..."

She struggled to keep herself in control, her hooves grinding into the ground, teeth clenched tightly together... then finally she threw her head back and screamed up into the sky. "Craaaaaap! Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!"

The wing holding the wrapped book stretched up into the air, ready to slam it to the ground. Struggling against herself, she managed to stagger forward a few steps and place the book semi-gently on the cobblestones at Twilight's hooves.

Gift thus safely removed from the line of fire, she moved back and had herself a tantrum.

For the next five minutes she stomped around, bucking her legs in the air and slamming them onto the cobblestones. She used her wings to lift herself off the ground and crash back down, hopping around in a circle, snorting as she went. Bolts of energy began to arc off her horn, blowing craters in the cobblestones around the much larger hole she was smashing into the ground with the force of her blows. And she raved the entire time, filling all five minutes with an unbroken string of obscenities that hadn't been heard by mortal ears in centuries.

Slowly, she cooled down, stomps turning to weak, unenthusiastic taps. Finally she halted, mane hanging down over her face as she panted. Her horn briefly lit up, returning the broken cobblestone to their original state.

Half turning, face still hidden by her mane, she raised her voice so the ponies on the other side of the courtyard could hear her. "In case you think you saw something just now, I can assure you that you did not."

Shaking the dust from her flanks and smoothing a few errant strands of ethereal mane back into place, Celestia straightened up, casting one last glance back towards the group of statues.

I'll do whatever it takes, my dear Twilight, she thought, gazing at a face that was beautiful even in its rage. If I have to cross this entire world to free you, if I have to journey to the moon and back, I will.

Turning, she marched across the courtyard and stopped in front of the group of Twilight's friends and Shining Armor, arching one eyebrow. "So. Would anypony here like to share what happened?"

"Queen Chrysalis attacked us!" cried Rainbow Dash, one hoof jabbing out towards the statues. "I was just napping—I mean, clearing some clouds over Ponyville, when suddenly Twilight activated the Rainbow Power."

"So, we all headed over to the castle as quickly as we could," continued Rarity, "and saw that monster, Chrysalis, fighting with Twilight."

"She was saying all this craaaazy stuff, too!" Pinkie Pie put in. "Like that she didn't want to fight and that she was marrying your sister!"

"We think she was controlling Princess Luna's mind, along with Cadance’s and Shining Armor's," said Fluttershy quietly. "They were saying the same things, and trying to stop Twilight and us from fighting Chrysalis."

"So, finally, we used the Rainbow Power on ol' Queen Bug," finished Applejack, with a guilty look towards the stone ponies. "But... they all got caught in the blast."

"Oh, no, no no," moaned Celestia, burying her face in her hooves. "Girls, I appreciate what you were trying to do, but Chrysalis was telling the truth. She wasn't attacking you at all."

All five ponies stared at her in shock, and Pinkie Pie suddenly let out a huge gasped, pointing one hoof at Celestia. "The Queen brainwashed her too! Quick, get her!"

Celestia recoiled in shock, one hoof raising up as though to shield herself from the unstoppable barrage of rainbows that was no doubt imminently inbound. But there was no attack, and after a long, tense moment of silence, the ponies let out the breaths they had been holding.

Rarity looked around at her friends, nodding in satisfaction. "I'm glad to see everypony remembered our long-standing 'don't do anything when Pinkie Pie yells open fire' rule."

"We still gotta figure out a way to free Celestia's mind, though," said Rainbow Dash. "We could try dropping a coconut on her head!"

"Nah, that only works for amnesia," Applejack said with a shake of her head, "but I bet one of Granny Smith's famous home remedies would fix the Princess up in no time!"

"Or we could go to Zecora!" Rarity added brightly. "She knows all kinds of potions, surely one of them can cure brainwashing."

"Or you could just ask me," Celestia said caustically, "and I could tell you that since you turned her to stone, any sort of control she might have had over me would have been broken. Not to mention that not even a Changeling Queen can control the mind of one alicorn, let alone three. Plus Shining Armor, but after everything he's been through his mind is so weak he hardly counts."

"Hey, that's not fair…" Shining Armor, off to one side, tried to object, but was ignored.

"Oh. So they were all tellin' the truth... and that means we..." Applejack trailed off, as she and her friends shared a look of combined realization and horror.

"That means you just turned your friend, my niece, my sister and my future sister-in-law to stone over a misunderstanding, yes," confirmed Celestia, nodding.

"That's all you have to say?!" demanded Rainbow Dash indignantly. "We just turned one of our best friends into a statue and 'oh darn' is the best you can come up with?!"

"Well, i-it's not like being turned to stone is permanent or anything," the yellow pegasus responded. "Besides, Discord says being a statue is very restful. It's like taking a long nap."

"I can promise you, it will not be a long nap," declared Celestia, holding her head high. "My sister and I found the Elements of Harmony once; I can find something similar again to save everypony. I doubt it will even be too much trouble. After all, turning somepony to stone is harder than changing them back."

The ponies' celebration trailed off as Celestia lowered her head and let out a sorrowful sigh. "I just wish... at least one of them had been spared. I have the utmost faith in you ponies, but I would feel so much better if I was once again questing with my sister at my side."

"Well, we might have some... 'good' news about all that," said Applejack carefully. "You see, apparently us usin' the Rainbow Power on Princess Luna had a little side effect..."

A midnight black wing draped itself over Celestia's back, and she whipped her head around to find herself staring into a pair of large teal eyes with dagger-slit pupils.

"I can't tell you how excited I am to help you with this little rescue mission," said Nightmare Moon, a wide grin putting her pointed teeth on full display. "Why, just think of all the fun we'll have. And with the two of us working together, nothing in Equestria can stop us from saving them all."

To be continued

In...

Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon Team Up to Save Everyone

The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Date Twilight Sparkle

by Codex Ex Equus

Chapter Eleven: A Dream Come True