Or "How Luna Ruined The Most Important Holiday In All of Equestria"

Twilight Sparkle hummed to herself as she trotted throughout her castle, broom in hoof as she swept her floors. There was nothing quite like a good bout of spring cleaning, and, even though Winter Wrap-Up wasn’t even started yet, Twilight liked being ahead of the curve. This was the first of many pre-spring-cleaning cleanings in Friendship Castle, which was why Starlight and Spike were currently off and out of Twilight’s way. This left Twilight alone with a rare spell of quiet, allowing her to go about her cleaning with only the sound of her (noticeably off-key) singing.

There was a loud flash of light, the mark of a teleportation. Before Twilight could understand what was happening, she felt hooves grab her around the middle and the warmth of a teleportation spell swallow up. There was another loud flash, and Twilight felt herself tossed against a wall, her body folded up against itself as well as the body of another. Wherever she had been teleported to, it was pitch black and exceedingly cramped. Twilight brought a hoof to her head drearily before setting her horn alight in order to see what exactly was happening.

She was in her broom closet, so that was one question answered. Due to Twilight being folded in half like a letter, she couldn’t see who was in the broom closet with her, due to her own hind legs obscuring her vision. She grunted as she squirmed, trying to simultaneously un-pretzel herself and make sense of the situation.

“Ugh… Starlight? Is that you?” grunted Twilight. She rolled her eyes as she considered the more likely explanation. “Or is Trixie’s aim really bad?”

“Twilight Sparkle, We require your assistance.”

Twilight squeaked as she jerked her body to the side, squeezing out of her folded position and landing on the ground directly on her head. She rubbed her skull, looking up at none other than Princess Luna herself. The princess of the night was just as cramped as Twilight, perhaps even more. She was clearly concerned, and, for whatever reason, thought that this broom closet was the best way to contact Twilight.

“Luna? What’s going on? Why did you teleport us into my closet?” Twilight blinked firmly, trying unsuccessfully to turn herself upright. “You know I still take letters, right?”

“We can’t risk anypony knowing of this. Not even your faithful assistant,” said Luna. “It is of the utmost importance that we keep this issue under wraps. I presume this closet is secure? It’s not bugged, is it?”

“Bugged? Luna, this isn’t a spy movie! Nopony has bugged my house. Well, except Discord,” said Twilight. “But he has a very different idea of what ‘bugging’ means. I was getting rid of centipedes for weeks… In any case, can we please get out of here? Spike and Starlight aren’t even here right now. The castle is empty.”

“It’s not a risk we should take, Twilight Sparkle. This is a matter of national importance.”

“Which is why I think we should be holding this meeting out in the Map Room, like a normal dignitary meeting!” Twilight vanished in a flash of light, causing Luna to fall forward and smack her face against the opposing wall. The door she had been leaning against opened out into the hall, letting the back half of the Princess of the Night spill out onto the floor.

“Luna, whatever it is, I’m sure we can handle it like normal, sensible princesses,” said Twilight, helping Luna to her hooves. “So why don’t we go into the Map Room, I can brew us some tea, and we can talk about whatever is bothering you and figure out how—”

“I’ve accidentally cancelled this year’s Hearth’s Warming,” said Luna flatly.

Twilight was surely going to continue speaking, but her brain shut down after hearing Luna’s plight and took several moments to reboot. Though Luna wasn’t exactly known for jokes, Twilight was fully expecting for her to reveal that this was some sort of prank. Luna’s flat, joyless expression dashed all hopes of this being just for laughs.

“I beg your pardon?” said Twilight with a raised eyebrow.

“I believe there was mention of tea?” said Luna. Twilight nodded. “And, some brandy, if you have it. I need something to take the edge off…”

“Sorry, I’m having a really hard time understanding how you let this happen,” said Twilight, refilling Luna’s teacup (with a nice green tea, not brandy. Luna was annoyed by this fact). “And I don’t mean that I’m struggling to accept your recklessness. I feel the need to specify that. You kinda proved you’re capable of frankly monumentally stupid acts with the Tantabus situation.” She filled her own cup and took a sip. “No, I I genuinely am not able to comprehend how such a thing is even possible.”

“First of all, thank you for reminding me of how royally I screwed up with the Tantabus,” said Luna scathingly. “Glad to know that the Princess of Friendship is capable of forgiveness.”

“Forgiving does not equal forgetting.”

“Right, well, second of all, it’s all very simple,” said Luna. “Hearth’s Warming was supposed to be three weeks ago, but you, nor anypony else in Equestria, are really aware of that fact. You know it happened, and you’re aware that it’s behind you, but you can’t really recall celebrating it, can you.”

“Sure I can. The girls were all busy with family out of town, so it was just me, Spike, and Starlight,” said Twilight. “It was a pretty average Hearth’s Warming. I told some of our favorite stories, Spike and Starlight cooked, we exchanged gifts. It was a pretty standard affair.”

“What did Spike and Starlight cook?” asked Luna.

“Uh… Food?”

“Specifics, Twilight.” Luna sipped her tea, watching as the gears in Twilight’s head began turning. “Can’t think of it, can you? Nor, I’m sure, specifically what stories you told? Or the gifts you got?”

“Uh… They got me… Books?” tried Twilight.

“You live in a glorified library, Twilight. Of course they got you books,” said Luna. “But what did you get them? You can’t remember, can you?”

“I… I can’t. Why not?” Twilight clutched her head and blinked firmly. “Why can’t I remember…?”

“Because, this year, it didn’t happen. The tidbits you’re recalling are memories I’ve implanted into your brain,” explained Luna. She buried her face in her hooves, thoroughly annoyed that things were panning out the way they have so far. “I modified the Tantabus to implant false Hearth’s Warming memories into the brains of every mare, stallion, and foal in Equestria. Since I couldn’t look into the minds of everypony, I had to use very generic scenarios for false memories.”

Twilight smiled at her fellow princess in a truly terrifying manner. It was a smile that had no joy, no levity. It was the smile of someone about to be tipped over the edge and was about to lose their grip on the world.

“T-Twilight?” Luna was, understandably, taken aback by Twilight’s creepy smile. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine, Luna. It’s just that I must’ve misheard you.” Twilight closed her eyes as she spoke, emanating this pure aura of cold, emotionless intimidation, but her voice was full of a false warmness. “It sounded like you said you used the Tantabus again, but that simply can’t be true.”

“Well, it was heavily modified, but—”

“There is no way that Princess Luna, one of the oldest and wisest ponies in recorded history, created a comically-unethical, dangerously uncontrollable magical creature that nearly destroyed all of Ponyville,” said Twilight, her smile and tone both replaced with cold, dead monotones. “Then, after defeating said monstrosity, created another one, this time applying it to all of Equestria.”

“Twilight, you’re being unfair,” said Luna. “This time, it’s—”

“No, that cannot be the case. That would be monumentally stupid. Nopony is that dumb,” said Twilight. She gripped her teacup tightly in her magic, chipping the ceramic with her arcane grasp. “Tell me I’m right, Luna. Tell me that nopony, especially not one of Equestria’s diarchs, is stupid enough to make this mistake twice.”

Silence reigned supreme for several moments, during which Luna refused to make eye contact with Twilight.

“So, are you going to help me or not?”

“No. Not until you explain how you managed to skip Hearth’s Warming.”

The silence returned, somehow stronger this time.

“I overslept and didn’t lower the moon,” murmured Luna. Twilight’s eye twitched in sheer disbelief at what was happening to her.

“How did you manage that? And where was Celestia?” asked Twilight.

Luna stared at her screen, her hooves moving almost mechanically as she maneuvered her mouse and tapped at her keyboard. She had been at this all day, her attention entirely focused on what she perceived was the most important task of her milenia-long life.

“Lulu! Lulu!” Celestia stepped into the room, peering around for her sister. The room was pitch black, save for the light from the screen in the corner where Luna was huddled. Celestia rolled her eyes. She really didn’t know what she expected.

“Lulu. Luna. Luna!” Celestia got no response. Further inspection revealed that Luna couldn’t even hear her on account of the large noise-cancelling headphones that the Night Princess wore. With a roll of her eyes, Celestia lit up her horn and used her magic to flick the light switch.

“Hsssss!” Luna spun in her computer chair, blocking her eyes with her wing. Several coffee cups and energy drink cans clattered to the floor, knocked over by Luna’s wing “What?!”

“Nice to see you, too,” remarked Celestia, removing Luna’s headphones with her magic. “How long have you been up?

“Well, that depends,” said Luna. “What day is it?”

“Friday.”

“Uh… Which Friday?”

“Lords and Ladies, Luna! This isn’t good for you. You need sleep.” Celestia shook her head firmly. She was getting off-track. “In any case, I thought you might want to know that I’m preparing to leave for Hearth’s Warming weekend, like we discussed last week.”

“Uh-huh.” Luna turned back to her computer, clicking furiously. “Damned noobs… Why the hell don’t we have a healer…?”

“Yes, well, you won’t be able to reach me, as I’ll be quite busy.”

“Quite busy shoving your tongue down Discord’s throat.”

“That’s none of your business, and also beside the point.” Celestia blushed faintly, but carried on nonetheless. “In any case, you’ll be on your own until I get back. If you need any help, you can visit Twilight. She never really has anything to do ever since that map started cherry-picking which of the girls get to go on adventures. Poor girl. Her friends get to go on a quest every other week, whereas she barely gets out of the house these days…”

“Yeah, yeah, Twilight’s a loner, whatever.” Luna grunted at the screen. “Really? That’s your pick? Guess who just got reported for throwing…”

“As I was saying… Your responsibilities are vast,” said Celestia. “You must raise the moon.”

“Duh. Kinda got that down.”

“And the sun.”

“If you can do it, it can’t be that hard.”

“Handle the Day and Night Courts,” Celestia continued.

“Yeah… Don’t you have people for that? A Crow or an Eagle?” asked Luna, still not gracing her sister with eye contact. “Maybe an albatross? Definitely a bird of some kind.”

“Her name is Raven, and she can only do so much. She’s an advisor, she needs somepony to advise.” Celestia tilted her head suspiciously. “I feel like you’re not taking this seriously…”

“Raise sun, raise moon, appease the nobles twice daily, got it,” said Luna dismissively. “You can go now. Don’t keep your icky boyfriend waiting.”

“You are over a thousand years old, Luna. You are no longer allowed to describe anything as ‘icky’.”

“Fine. Your yucky boyfriend.” Luna smirked and punched the sky. “Hell yeah! Get rekt, losers!”

“Alright… I trust you… But, I would be remiss if I did not stress this, you cannot deviate from the schedule,” said Celestia forebodingly. “Even a single minute more of night than there should be could cause ripple effects down the line that cause Nightmare Night to happen in July.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I mean it, Luna. I know how you get. You put it off and procrastinate until you’re right at the deadline, then you half-ass your way through whatever you’re supposed to be doing.” Celestia was starting to second-guess her vacation… But no, she couldn’t. Discord would be annoyed with her. Last time she flaked on their date, she woke up with her bedroom full of banana custard.

“I’ve got it, Celestia. Go have fun,” sighed Luna. “I promise you, nothing will go wrong.”

“Okay. I trust you. Just as long as you wake up early enough to deal with the sun.” Celestia turned for the door. “Bye, Lulu.”

“Bye, Tia. See you soon.”

“Promise me you’ll get some sleep?” begged Celestia. Luna turned in her chair, locking eyes with her sister for the first time, and smirked.

“I promise you I’ll get some sleep.”

“Well, long story short, I didn’t get any sleep,” said Luna. “I was playing video games until noon the next day, at which point my caffeine high wore off, I crashed hard and slept for three days straight. When I woke up, the entire week’s schedule was thrown off.”

“So, instead of solving your problem, you just wiped everypony’s memory?” asked Twilight.

“Technically, that is solving my problem. It just so happened to create a larger, more consequential problem.”

“Such as?”

“Do you recall why we celebrate this holiday?” asked Luna.

“It’s a festival to show unity among the races. To promote friendship,” said Twilight. “We exchange gifts to one another as a sign of Equestria’s undying harmony.”

“And why do we bother with that?”

“Because a couple hundred years or so ago, the three tribes were warring over food and territory and whatnot. This marked the end of that conflict.”

“Yes, but do you recall why the conflict suddenly came to an end?”

“Uh… The leaders of the tribes got caught in a blizzard with their advisers,” said Twilight, trying to recall. “They fought over basically nothing, went at each other’s throats, and froze over because…”

There was a sudden crash as one of Twilight’s windows shattered. A frigid breeze blew through, bringing with it the ethereal image of a horse, galloping through the air. It flew throughout the room, freezing everything it came in contact with and letting out a ghostly whinny as it went. Luna fired a bright beam of cerulean light from her horn, obliterating the ghost-horse into a puff of smoke and frost.

“Oh. Right,” said Twilight. “Windigos. No Hearth’s Warming means the windigos are back.” Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Why didn’t you come get me sooner?! They could’ve destroyed half of Equestria by now!”

“Yeah, where the hell do you think I’ve been?” asked Luna.

“Putzing around and playing video games!”

Luna opened her mouth to argue, but closed it when she realized Twilight actually had a good point.

“Okay, well, this time, I wasn’t. I was fighting them off. They fell back to regroup, and I fear I won’t be able to defeat them alone,” said Luna. “Which is why I sought aid from the strongest alicorn I know.”

Despite everything that occured, Twilight beamed at the praise. Anything that validated her princesshood was welcome, and Luna was the Princess of the Night, after all. A mare who had beaten Celestia in a bout of magic and made a legitimate claim for the Equestrian throne. If Luna said somepony was powerful, then they were not to be trifled with.

“Unfortunately,” Luna continued. “Celestia is still with Discord in Lord only knows what dimension, so I’m afraid you’ll have to do.”

Twilight’s smile somewhere on the floor next to the glass from her shattered window.

“Fine. I’ll help. What’s the plan?” asked Twilight.

“Those windigos want Hearth’s Warming.” Luna cracked her neck threateningly, charging her horn with magic. “I say, let’s give them a Hearth’s Warming they shan’t soon forget.”

“This was a terrible idea,” said Twilight, adjusting the fake nose pasted to her face. The nose was red, as if to match the constant embarrassed blush glowing off of her face as she flew through the sky. “If I had all day, I couldn’t list everything wrong with this plan.”

“I assure you, it’s working,” promised Luna. ‘You’re just going to have to trust me.” Luna snapped the reins that was attached to the bit in Twilight’s mouth. “Now shush. Reindeer don’t talk.”

Twilight growled but said nothing as she pulled the magical sleigh. She glanced back at her fellow princess. Luna was smirking as she looked down over Equestria, apparently quite amused by the way things had progressed. She was wearing a red coat with a big, black belt with a gold buckle and a huge white beard. Beside her on her sleigh was a large sack of presents, which she had been teleporting into the houses that Twilight had flown her over. The sack was formerly bulging with gifts, but the two had been flying across Equestria and delivering presents for a few hours now, and they were nearly finished.

Predictably, as Luna was playing the part of Santa Claus, Twilight was playing the part of the reindeer. She flew the enchanted sleigh as Luna had instructed her to, and she even wore the accompanying antlers and glowing red nose (Luna assured her it was necessary to guide them through the night, ignoring that fact that it was 2:30 PM), but she did none of these things happily. She just wanted it done with.

“Explain to me how this is supposed to deal with the windigo problem,” said Twilight. “Because, from where I’m standing, it looks like you set this up just to laugh at my expense.”

“Of course not! Laughing at your expense is a happy side-effect,” said Luna with a grin. “No, this is to spread joy and harmony throughout Equestria. This will force the windigos away and to the area with the highest concentration of negativity.”

“Last house coming up.” Luna teleported the last of the presents into the house, much to Twilight’s relief. “Okay. So, the area with the highest negativity concentration. Where is that?”

“Well, it could be anywhere. Despite how prosperous the nation is, there’s plenty of sufficiently sucky locations that the windigos could go to,” said Luna. She tugged on the reins, steering Twilight to the east. “But that’s okay, because we’re going to force them into a very specific location. Start landing in about three kilometers.”

Twilight wasn’t sure what Luna was intending to do, and she also didn’t especially care anymore. She just wanted to clean up this mess so she could go back to her pre-spring-cleaning cleaning. She flew in the direction that Luna had steered her, starting her descent after what appeared to be about three kilometers. It was a clearing, just outside a nearby forest, quite a bit away from the nearby city they had just departed. Twilight came down for a landing, a bit clumsily thanks to the added payload of Luna and her sleigh.

“Not bad. Flying was great, but I’m afraid I have to dock you points on your landing,” said Luna, stepping off of the sleigh. “Overall, I rate your performance as ‘satisfactory’.”

“Why are we here?” huffed Twilight. She pulled the bit out out of her mouth and tossed the reins to the ground. “And can we please hurry this up? I’m tired. I just want to go home and clean.”

“We’re here for this!” Luna lit up her horn and fired a beam of navy light at the ground. The air shimmered for a bit, before a box materialized from nothing. It was rectangular, with several knobs and dials on its sides. Its face was a hazard striped plate that appeared to be able to open like a trapdoor.

“It’s a box,” noted Twilight.

“It’s a trap!” said Luna with a mad grin. “And we’re gonna trap us some ghosts.”

“What?”

“Well, windigos aren’t technically ghosts, so I had to retrofit this one to work on them, but they should do the job.” Luna nudged the box with her hoof, using her magic to adjust the dials. “Yes, this should do nicely. So, now all we have to do is get the windigos here.”

“And how in the wide, wide world of Equestria are we going to do that?” asked Twilight.

“The same way you get most things done: with the help of somepony stronger than you.” Luna smirked at Twilight’s snarl. At this rate, it should be easy to get the windigos where she needed them.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, you’ve never actually done anything of note on your own. You’ve always had your friends to help you.”

“Um, I fixed Starswirl’s spell by myself?” Twilight pointed out. “And I’ve got the wings to prove it.”

“Yeah, you earned your wings by solving a problem that you created,” said Luna. “And you had the gall to call me irresponsible. If you’re any indication, we should give Starlight Glimmer some wings, herself. She started a time loop that would’ve doomed Equestria, but she fixed it. Or that travelling magician, who made everypony hate her before going on that forgiveness tour.”

“Do not compare me to Trixie.” Twilight was normally very calm and level-headed, but certain things had a knack for getting under her skin. The very mention of her “rival” was one of those things.

“You’re right, it’s rude of me,” said Luna. Her eyes lit up with a mischievous glint. “It’s a disservice to Miss Lulamoon.”

Twilight didn’t respond at first, her eye twitching in righteous fury. She was bubbling with anger, but managed to keep a lid on her wrath. Unfortunately for her, Luna didn’t see fit to stop poking the proverbial hornet’s nest just yet.

“At least Trixie Lulamoon was brave enough to actually fight off her enemies,” noted Luna. “Some ponies might describe the act of befriending all who oppose her as the method of a coward.”

“Or perhaps I’m just a pacifist that doesn’t believe in obliterating anything that disagrees with me!”

“But, even you must admit, this is hardly your only act of cowardice. You can’t claim yourself to be a brave defender of Equestria when you fear quesadillas.” Twilight’s face was glowing red by this paint, the steam from her ears almost visible. “Seriously, what’s the deal with that?”

“It was a traumatic childhood incident from Magic Kindergarten that I do not feel like divulging at this time,” said Twilight through her teeth. “Anything else you want to say, Luna?”

“Just that you’re short.”

And, with that, Twilight exploded.

“SHORT?! I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW, I’M THE TALLEST OUT OF ALL OF MY FRIENDS! I’M ALMOST AS TALL AS YOU! HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME LIKE A—”

“And, here comes the windigos,” said Luna, pointing to the sky. Just as she had said, dozens of ethereal, ghostly horses galloped towards them, bringing with them a wall of frigid frost. “Nab them with a containment beam. Don’t cross the streams. Total protonic reversal and all that jive.”

“Wait… What?”

“I was needling you to create enough negativity to attract the windigos.” Luna lit up her horn, preparing for battle. “It worked. You really ought to develop thicker skin than that, though. As a princess, ponies will say things far meaner than anything I could’ve mustered. If you can’t deal with being called short—”

“It’s a problem point for me going back to traumatic childhood experiences in Magic Kindergarten that, as I said before, I do not want to get into at the moment.” She lit up her horn just like Luna, firing it at a windigo. Luna grabbed another one and the two slowly dragged the spectral spirits closer while its kin swarmed. The princesses moved quickly, dragging the trapped windigos down to Luna’s trap. The doors opened, releasing a cone of swirling energy that snatched up the windigos and sucked them into the depths of the box, the trap closing behind it.

“Huzzah!” cheered Luna. “Two in the box!”

“I’m just ready to go,” sighed Twilight.

“We be fast, and…” Luna grinned eagerly, waiting for Twilight to respond.

“‘We be fast’ is not grammatically correct.”

Luna hung her head in defeat, then snatched another stampeding windigo with her magic.

“You couldn’t just let me be happy, could you?” sighed Luna. “You could’ve finished the line and let me have my little reference, but no. You’ve just got to be Ms. Perfect. I think that says a lot about you, that you crave validation from—”

“Luna. Are you listening to me?” said Twilight. “If you don’t shut up, I will send you someplace that makes your banishment to the moon seem like a shiatsu massage.”

Luna didn’t respond at first, mainly focused on trapping another windigo. Her demeanor shifted slightly, her shoulders slouching and her ears going flat against her head.

“Well you don’t have to be hurtful…”

“Look… I’m sorry,” said Twilight. “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just… What you said really got to me, and I feel like you’re not appreciating the fact that I’m doing you a favor.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Between you and me, I’m not very good at interacting with others. When I’m playing my games, everypony is so mean to each other. I suppose I forgot how to exist alongside actual ponies in the real world.” Luna fired a blast of magic, knocking away a windigo that was attempting to dive-bomb Twilight. “In fact… I’ve been meaning to ask you for help with that. I admit, I’ve been… Afraid, I suppose.”

“Oh, Luna, you know that you can talk to me.” Twilight took off into the air and let out a downward surge of magic, shoving three windigos into Luna’s range; The Princess of the Night grabbed them up and launched them into the trap. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll always be there for you. If you can’t trust the Princess of Friendship with a Friendship Problem, who can you trust?”

“Maybe a princess with a title that actually means something?” Twilight gave Luna a dirty look, which made the elder princess wince. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know things must still be hard for you. Especially with Celestia… Preoccupied.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me. If it wasn’t for her being obsessed with that idiot boyfriend of her’s, none of this would’ve happened! She never should’ve left me alone…”

Twilight stopped, looking at Luna uneasily. It took the Night Princess a moment, but she eventually noticed the unwanted attention.

“What?”

“Are… Are you acting out so Celestia will pay more attention to you?” asked Twilight.

“What?! Don’t be ridiculous!” Luna turned her back to Twilight, keeping busy with defending and attacking the incoming windigos. “Honestly, Twilight, I’m over a thousand years old! What you’re implying would be the tactics of—”

“Of a mare who doesn’t want to lose her big sister. Doesn’t sound ridiculous to me. It sounds sweet.” Twilight smiled at the blushing princess beside her. “It makes a lot of sense, too. I knew you wouldn’t normally be this reckless, but, if it’s to protect your sister…”

“Tia can protect herself.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t want to protect her, too.”

Luna and Twilight fired a beam above the trap, their beams of magic combining into a large orb of magic. The two alicorns locked gazes, and smirked before releasing their magic. The orb shuddered and shook before imploding, bringing the remaining windigos in range of the trap. The vortex consumed them, leaving the trap smoking on the ground.

“What happened to ‘total protonic reversal’?” asked Twilight with a smirk.

“It was just a theory. Luckily, that didn’t happen, or else every molecule in our bodies would’ve exploded at the speed of light.” Twilight’s smirk faltered.

“Uh… Really?”

“I honestly have no clue. When I get tired, I sort of just default to nerd speak,” yawned Luna. “Anyway, I think we’re good. Thanks for the help, Twilight.”

“Don’t mention it. You really should talk to your sister,” said Twilight. “I’m sure Celestia would want to know how you feel about her and Discord. She won’t know that she’s hurting you if you don’t say something to her.”

Luna gave a small smile to Twilight, a bit surprised by Twilight’s wisdom at such a young age. She realized that she probably should be kinder to her fellow princess moving forward.

“Well met, Twilight. I shall talk to her as soon as she returns. I thank you again, for your help.” Luna began to prepare for take-off, but Twilight couldn’t resist.

“Luna, I wanted to know. If something like this ever happens again…” Twilight smirked. “Who you gonna call?”

Luna smiled. She may have missed Hearth’s Warming with her sister, but now it was abundantly clear that she didn’t necessarily have to be alone.

“You, of course.”

“So, let me get this straight,” said Celestia, her eyes locked on the screen displaying the antics of her sister and student. She sat beside Discord in his home, snuggling while they checked in on Equestria. “You made Luna think that she skipped Hearth’s Warming, causing her to wipe the memories of the entire country and go into a mini panic attack… Why, exactly?”

“Cause it’s hilarious!” Discord slithered around Celestia, wrapping around her like a snake. “Come on, don’t tell me you didn’t find that funny!”

“Luna was one snide comment away from getting her head blown off.”

“Thank heavens she stopped when she did.”

“Well, that settles that,” said Celestia. “Luna feels ignored because of the amount of time I’ve been spending with you. So, as soon as we get back, you and I are going to arrange a typical, standard, boring dinner party for her, Cadance, and Twilight.”

“Oh, fine,” said Discord with a shrug. He kissed his mare on the cheek, still chuckling to himself at his brilliance.

“No magic.”

Discord’s grin shattered, literally, with his mouth cracking off his face and falling to the floor. Now, he wasn’t so sure if this whole thing was worth it.

“See, I would, but… I’m… Busy?”

Celestia kissed Discord, almost mockingly, and used her magic to escape his grasp.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming, dear,” said Celestia before lighting up her horn and returning home to see her dear baby sister.

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