Rocinante, The Best Knight Ever

by Charliemane

Lonely Mornings

Princess Celestia sighed as she glanced toward her sister's empty seat at the breakfast table. If anypony had asked her, she would have said that it just wasn't fair. She had waited for her sister's return for one thousand years, but now, even though all of that time had passed, it felt as though Luna was still trapped inside the moon. She had wanted to return to a joint rule and to bring back the old days, but those days were gone, seemingly forever.

Simply the idea of how far gone the past was removed all appetite from the Princess and soon she rose from the table. The maids silently began clearing the plates away as Celestia wordlessly moved from her dining room towards the hall.

There was no pony in the hall outside of her dining room this early in the morning and even if there had been, no pony would have said anything as she heaved a heavy sigh and looked back into the dining room at the empty chair. If she had asked her sister to join her for breakfast, Princess Luna would complied, but that was the very heart of the problem. It would have been out of obedience, not desire, that the two sisters would enjoy something even as insignificant as a meal together. Ever since Luna had returned to Canterlot she had been completely subordinate and reclusive, like a hollow shell of a pony, afraid of standing out or being seen.

As she walked down the hallway of stained glass, Celestia looked up towards the window that depicted their final victory over King Sombra and the Crystal Empire, their last great victory together. Her heart began to break with a single tear, that gave way to a stream as Celestia struggled to keep her sobbing cries back. It hurt so much to watch her sister go through this. Her heart felt absolutely terrible as it filled with a deep sorrow that she had not felt in over a thousand years, as though she had banished Luna to the moon all over again.

“Your Highness? Is something the matter?”

Celestia's mind was brought back to reality in a startling jump. Immediately the regal Princess began wiping her tears away as she continued facing the window.

“No lieutenant.”

Though she tried, she couldn't bring herself to say anymore. Slowly Princess Celestia turned toward the throne room and began walking. The officer of the guard did not follow, but instead continued down a different hall. It was rather obvious that the Princess wanted to be left alone.

Celestia wouldn't pretend to fully understand what her sister was going through, despite how much she wanted to. It was simply an experience that couldn't be explained, but while she couldn't know fully what her sister was feeling, she knew that her sister found the world painful because she still blamed herself for all that had happened. Though Princess Luna may have been released from her lunar prison, she still had not been released from her internal prison.

While many things had changed over the course of the thousand years, Celestia knew that, of all of the changes, the worst of all was that everypony that Luna had known when she was banished was gone. No pony knew her now and she knew no pony, even in her own home. Only Celestia, the very one who had banished her, remained.

Stopping at the door to the audience chambers, Celestia heaved another sigh before bracing herself for the day's business. The Grand Galloping Gala was an affair that she wished she could have done away with centuries ago. It was once a political necessity to have all of the aristocracy from across the kingdom gather under the allure of pleasure so that she could keep an eye on the ambitious nobility, but these days the kingdom was stable enough that such monitoring was no longer necessary. Unfortunately for Celestia, now the Grand Galloping Gala was a tradition that could not be so easily removed.

As she reached for the door, Princess Celestia was stopped by an idea as it crept into her mind. One the one hoof, perhaps she could use the Gala for the first time in centuries. Luna needed somepony, she needed a friend. Celestia was her sister, but she was also the judge that sent her to the moon. Their relationship still needed more time to heal before Luna could reach her hooves out to her in friendship.

Carefully opening the door, Celestia maintained an absolute and neutral expression as she entered the throne room. Immediately the gala planners and ministers began competing for her attention, but she ignored them all as she sat down on the throne and pulled up the guest book for the Gala. With a frown, Celestia recalled the other hoof about the Gala. True, there would be many ponies whom Luna could meet with, but despite the size of the social gathering, the typical Gala pony was anything but social.

Twilight and her friends would be there and for a brief moment a glimmer of hope flickered in Celestia's heart. Her star pupil would no doubt befriend her sister. But the longer she thought about it, the less feasible the idea seemed. What kind of message would it send to Luna if she told her that she wanted her to stay close and socialize with the ponies who had defeated her in the Everfree Forest? It would make Twilight and her friends seem more like guards than friends, not to mention that she also had other hopes for them for the night.

No, Celestia would need somepony else for this task, somepony who was as far from the other Gala ponies as he or she could be. She needed somepony who wouldn't leverage the situation for their own profit, somepony who understood things were different centuries ago, somepony who could act in a manner that would make her sister, Luna, comfortable again.

Celestia snorted uncharacteristically as she slammed the guest book shut and immediately the hall of bickering ministers fell silent, but she didn't care. Closing her eyes, Celestia wracked her brain trying to think if such a noble pony even existed when suddenly a strange memory came to her.

A few weeks ago she had visited Twilight and her friends in Ponyville with Philomena. Of course, Philomena took the opportunity to have a little unscheduled fun with Twilight's friends and created a fair amount of havoc by convincing poor, sensitive Fluttershy to take her home, but that wasn't the specific memory that raised Celestia's eyebrow.

She had recalled that when the search for Philomena had begun a strange pony had promised, on his knightly honor, not to rest until Philomena had been recovered. His language was anachronistic and overly flowery and he wore an older style of breastplate not used by the Royal Guard in over a century. Everypony there, save for one pegasus pony, had considered him more than a bit odd, but the more Celestia thought about him, the more she wondered if maybe this was the one pony that she could count on to be himself around her sister.

A smile came across her face as Celestia reached for some parchment. It may be a gamble, but this year's Gala was at the very least going to be the most interesting gala in the entire history of the Grand Galloping Gala.

Author's Note:

And so begins another story. I'm trying a new format with this one, what with the actual chapters and all.

I hope you all enjoy it and please feel free to comment!