Chapter 3
Luna was, predictably, nonplussed by her sister's concerns, and just stared at her while she whined on the ground like a small filly. "You're joking right? That little magician would do pretty much anything for you. From what I hear, she ignored my impending return and her own crippling social anxiety just because you offhandedly told her to, and by letter even!" Luna waited for a moment but got no response. "Fine, if you have no good excuse, we are going to take care of this right now, I'm getting sick of all this nonsense."
If Celestia had been looking at her instead of sulking, she would have noticed Luna suddenly adopting a villainous grin before lighting her horn with a deep flare of magic. Celestia finally looked up in curiosity as she heard a soft pop, just in time to see a sleeping unicorn appear next to her sister, the same purple unicorn she so very much did, and yet did not, want to see. She let out a scream of surprise, making things worse by rousing Twilight, but in moments instinct took over and she sat upright, adopting a casual but dignified posture, her face slipping into an expression of calm collection.
Twilight slowly sat up, rubbing her hazy eyes to properly take in the scene surrounding her. "Princess? ...Am I dreaming?" She asked innocently, though she already knew the answer as she yawned deeply, restoring most of her faculties as her drowsiness started falling away.
Luna had to clamp her muzzle shut with both hooves to stop from laughing at the scene she had created, her mind jumping between wondering if Celestia would actually say what was on her mind and being impressed by her ability to fake a calm demeanor.
While Twilight was indulging in her yawn, Celestia took the opportunity to give Luna a glare that would probably have killed her, if the receiving pony hadn't been immortal, before snapping back to Twilight with a gentle smile. "I'm so sorry we woke you my Faithful Student, Luna was attempting to demonstrate a spell to me, but accidentally cast it on the wrong target, please allow me to send you home," she said apologetically, casting the spell before Twilight could respond. Unfortunately, despite her outward demeanor, Celestia's mind was currently an enormous mess of fury, anxiety, and fear, which made casting something as complex as long range teleportation rather difficult.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike had been happily curled up in his basket, until the sound of several heavily bound books made a cascade of thumps downstairs in the Library proper. "Twilight? Is that you?" He called sleepily.
"Yesssss." Was the half groaned response, causing him to roll back over and quickly fall back asleep.
Twilight found herself somehow crammed into the top shelf of a tall book case, having displaced several very old encyclopedias onto the ground below. "Princesses are the worst," she grumbled to herself, letting her head fall tiredly onto the decidedly uncomfortable shelf. She was just about to teleport out of the cramped position when a neatly wrapped present appeared in front of her, shoving yet more books onto the ground. She gave the package an annoyed look, but pulled it to her anyways and tore open the wrapping paper.
"I guess Princesses aren't so bad." She admitted to herself with a smile, before clutching the ancient but very well maintained tome that had been in the box to her chest happily. She quickly lit and levitated a candle up onto the shelf before opening the new book and beginning to read, completely forgetting she was in a bookcase.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the two had finally finished scuffling around on the ground trying to punch each other, Celestia was still glaring at Luna, though most of animosity was gone. "It took me months to find that first edition, I was gonna give it to her on her birthday, and now I need to find something else!" she complained from her grumpy perch on the bed.
"Oh relax you nutjob, her birthday isn't for another 7 months." Luna leaned back in the nearby couch she had hoisted herself into. "Besides, you should have just asked her, that would have made for an even better present," she added with a chuckle. "Why didn't you anyways? You've never been timid about anything really, I don't see how fear of rejection has got you so shaken, especially when we both know she'll say yes."
Celestia only frowned. "That's exactly the problem, she would say yes."
Luna scrunched her brows in confusion. "But you had just said you're sure she'd say no, which one is it?"
Celestia closed her eyes sadly. "She would say yes to Princess Celestia, but she'd never say yes to me." A hint of tears pressed out from under her eyelids as she gave her fears voice. "She would say yes whether or not she even felt that way about me, just to make me happy, which is awful enough, but even if I was lucky enough to know she was actually interested, she doesn't even know who I am." She sniffled a bit before continuing. "All she's ever known is that stupid, perfect Goddess I parade around in front of everyone. I'm not half as smart as she thinks I am, I'm not clever, or funny, or pure. I'm not even all that friendly or kind when it comes down to it, it's all just an act. She's all of those things without even trying, and I'm just the dirty old nag behind the curtain." She took a deep, shaky breath. It was all she could do to stop from breaking down into sobs.
Luna was already up from the couch and climbing onto the bed before she finished, wrapping both forelegs around her and hugging tightly. "Oh stop it you big dummy." She whispered, stroking Celestia's mane comfortingly. "You might be crazy, inappropriate, and a huge pain in the ass, but there is nothing wrong with you...okay if you say it like that it doesn’t exactly sound that way but it is."" After a moment she let go and levitated a nearby handkerchief over to her sister. "Sure she's never seen the real you, but you just need to let her. I'm sure she'll love you just like I do...well not just like I do, at least I hope not, but you see what I mean."
Celestia's mood brightened ever so slightly at Luna's reassurances, despite not being wholly convinced, and she began drying her eyes. " Somehow I'm not quite so sure," she admitted, still sniffling a bit. "but even if you're right, how would I even do that? I can't just go around acting like myself all of a sudden, the nobility would lose their minds, the kingdom would lose all faith, and even if Twilight didn't run screaming from the real me, she'd know I've been essentially lying to her for years." A glum expression returned to her face as she said it, in spite of Luna's attempt at cheering her up.
“How is it lying?” Luna asked matter of factly. “So you act a little different, big deal.”
“Really Luna? It’s lying because ever since Twilight was a filly-”
“Cradle Robber” the younger sister coughed as she smiled innocently at her sister’s disgruntled stare.
“Ever since she was a filly," Celestia pressed on, "I’ve tried to be a shining example, master of sorcery, picture of elegance and grace, the perfect unicorn. That’s why its lying Luna! I am none of those things! She has no idea...”
Luna however was expecting such an answer, and had already concocted a solution. "Well I think you just need to give her a chance to get to know the real you...without it being you." As she said it, she could barely keep her excitement contained, the gears in her head already churning out a string of plans.
Celestia on the other hand, had no idea what Luna was getting at, her expression saying as much. "What does that even mean Lulu?" she asked, her sadness momentarily forgotten and replaced with bewilderment.
"I think," Luna started, "that it's about time for us to take a vacation among the common folk! Perhaps in a nice small town, Ponyville perhaps?" She gave Celestia a sly wink as she said it. "As you know however, it's almost impossible for us to properly relax while being treated as royalty the entire time. We'd of course have to take our trip incognito."
It was Celestia's turn to grin as she caught onto Luna's plan. "Well I suppose it has been awhile since we've indulged in that particular perk, and I've certainly accumulated enough vacation hours," she joked, before sighing nervously. "Do you really think that could help? I feel like it'd just be more lying."
Luna waved a hoof, as if to push aside the concern. "You'd be lying in order to tell the truth, and if nothing comes from it, you don't have to reveal yourself afterwards, we'd just leave at the end and return to normal life, like we always have. Besides, maybe just getting to spend some more time with her will help, regardless of the end results. It’s the perfect plan, you get to show your little student your true self, while I get to make fun of you the whole time, and we get a vacation out of it!"
Celestia took a moment to think on the idea before shrugging. "I guess there's really not much to lose, and our little undercover vacations are usually a lot of fun anyways. It's just so hard to come up with a good cover story."
Luna smiled triumphantly. "I'm sure it will come to you. You should go back to bed, and try to enjoy your dream instead of avoiding it, wouldn't want you to fail that class!" She teased, climbing down off the bed and heading towards the door. "I'm sure the details will be easier to figure out in the morning. I'll take care of the paperwork tonight to get us some time off. Meet me in my chambers tomorrow afternoon and we can coordinate our stories. She opened the doors with her magic, looking back over her shoulder briefly before departing to see Celestia trying to wriggle beneath her many blankets and pillows. "Sweet dreams Tia," she called, closing the doors behind her.
Once again Luna found herself headed to her room with renewed excitement, and to do paper work no less. As she entered her chambers, a lantern on her desk flickered to life and she levitated a quill and ink well from a drawer. She began to fill out the necessary forms and letters to necessary castle administrators, all the while distracted as her mind jumped through lists of names and color combinations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next afternoon Celestia found herself knocking on the door to Luna's room, a mix of anticipation and anxiety flitting around in her stomach. She had wanted to be there a bit earlier than she was, but planning had taken her awhile.
"Come in." Squeaked a somewhat unfamiliar voice, as an equally unfamiliar silver magic pulled the doors open from within. Celestia walked into the room to find a pale silver unicorn mare standing in front of a body length mirror, her mane color and style changing rapidly. The strange mare would stare intently into the mirror for a moment, then shake her head slightly before her mane and tail would change completely. She was slightly smaller than the average pony, but with a gangly, exaggerated extra length to her legs uncommon to most. Her cutie mark was a pale yellow crescent moon cradling three black stars, and stood out ever so slightly against her light colored coat.
After a few minutes, the mare's mane and tail became a long and silky black color, and she nodded to herself in the mirror. "There we go, that should just about do it," she announced in a high pitched but not unpleasant voice. She turned to face Celestia and smiled happily. "What do you think?"
Celestia smiled back. "Well Luna, It's not exactly subtle, but then again mine isn't any better. So what do you call her?"
"Pale Moon at your service, your Highness." Luna said with giggle that sounded like chimes. "Astronomer and researcher at the Royal University. I've already had the employment papers drawn up and filed away in the school's office." She eyed Celestia expectantly "Well? I'm ready to meet my new sister."
Celestia walked to the center of the room to give herself some more space and her horn began to glow, enveloping her in a thick wall of golden magic. As the light began to fade, a tall pegasus sat where Celestia had been just moments ago. She was orange-y beige in color and had a rough-cut, medium length mane and tail in a striking yellow color. Her cutie mark was still that of a sun, but it looked more like a cheery foal's drawing than the ornamental sun that had previously adorned her side. "Sunny Day, scheduling meteorologist for the Cloudsdale weather team...you have no idea how hard it is to find a fake office job for a pegasus," she said in a flat tone, her voice about an octave deeper than that of the Princess she used to be.
"Why not just be a unicorn then?" Pale Moon asked smugly, poking her new sister in the wing with her magic.
"I like flying too much to give it up for that long." Sunny Day said with a light shrug. "Anyways, I'm here to get my little sister out of dreary old Canterlot for a bit and enjoy some country air, and I believe there's a very non-royal looking carriage and some non-guards waiting for us downstairs if you're ready."
"Lead the way Sunny." Pale Moon couldn't help but laugh as she said it.
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Wrong one. Supposed to be 'know'.
5804364 Thanks for catching that
This'll be fun. Onward to trouble!
Hmm, I wonder if Luna will hit on Big Mac.
I almost wish she'd have asked to freak Twilight out, then they'd pull the fake 'dream' excuse to get out of it lol...
As of noticing your crosslink at the end of chapter 1 of Principal of Equestria, this story is now in my tracking library. Might put it in one or two of my custom libraries, but the point is I intend to read this at some point.
5805413 so how come this story is on hiatus?
6136464 It's on hold while I work on my other story, Principal of Equestria, and a few other side projects, but I do intend to pick it back up when I can
6138237 ok
This story has been hilarious and kind of sweet so far.
can't wait for it to be taken off hiatus
Seems promising, and was fun to read so far.
Will this ever be continued?
9098842
Probably, though not until I wrap up a few other stories
9099320
I see.
I enjoyed this - I hope you continue.