Breaking Stone

by Takarashi282

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Celestia and Luna followed Chipo’s directions to head north. Simple incandescent lights hummed on as the night deepened, covering the streets in a warmer yellow hue than the clear light of the waking day. The streets were eerily calm, much different from Canterlot’s nights, but like every other change coming into this small village had yielded, it was welcome nonetheless.

It wasn’t long before they stumbled into a building with a wooden sign hanging from its exterior wall. On it was a burned engraving of a mattress on a bed frame, a halfmoon hovering ever so slightly above it. The sisters nodded to each other and walked through the light and hollow door. At an oak-top counter on the far left wall was a pony with a fine cloth in one hoof, scrubbing out a thick mug in the other. His eyes were deep in concentration, a steep frown tugging at his lips. The door hit a brass bell above the frame and the smooth circular motion of his hooves came to an abrupt stop. His eyebrows lifted in a pleasant expression as he uttered, “Welcome!” in a warm, deep voice.

Celestia’s heart skipped a beat. The innkeep wasn’t as tall as the rest of the Saddle Arabian ponies, only a few inches shy. His strong, square chin sported short but thick stubble, matching the bright red of his mane. A black apron stained with white spots wrapped around his girthy neck and was tied around his thin waist, his coat covered in a greying teal. His silvery blue eyes saccaded between the two princesses, and he stood stalwart, offering no bow, but his gaze held true and inquisitive as Celestia struggled for a response.

“Um.” The noise was brief, and was the only coherent noise that her lips could form for a good five seconds. She cleared her throat. “W-we need a room for two.” Heart racing and temperature rising, she glanced at Luna for support, but her jaw hung open, her stance slouched down.

“Yes,” she mumbled. Noticing her own composure, she straightened up clumsily, attempting to make her voice deeper and more authoritative as she said, “Yes. A room for two would suffice.”

A brief silence filled the room when the innkeep smirked slyly. “We do have a royal suite for your Highnesses,” he continued. “Or would a common room suffice?”

“Royal suite?” Luna echoed, biting her lip in apparent temptation. Her eyes drifted toward Celestia. “I do not know, sister. Shall we indulge ourselves?”

Celestia furrowed her eyebrows, shooting her sister a steely glare. “Are you kidding?” she hissed. “Do you know how much controversy that would cause?”

“I can say that I insisted,” the innkeep pitched in. He placed the mug in his hoof upside down on the bar, grabbing yet another one, the bottom bearing beaten in.

“Yes sister,” Luna articulated in a subtly catty tone. “He can say that he insisted.”

Not buying it, Celestia shot the innkeep an inquisitive eyebrow. “Do you insist?”

Buzzing his lips, he shrugged, putting down both cloth and mug, spreading his front hooves wide on the bar. “I would indeed insist… of course, if you had the proper coinage.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. The whole thing reeked of shadiness. “We’ll just take the humble suite, thank you.”

Despite Luna’s pout, the innkeep shrugged. “Wise decision. Remind me not to tempt a princess of Equestria.”

“Well, you can tempt me anytime,” Luna flirted, eyes half-lidded. It only elicited a small chuckle from the innkeep.

“Anyway,” he continued, ducking under the bar and procuring two brass keys on a ring. He tossed the ring to them with his teeth, Celestia warily catching them with a levitation spell before they hit the ground. “Those keys will unlock room five, just upstairs and to the right.” He gestured to a staircase across from the door. “I would invite you two to a drink, but I suppose that would also be unwise?”

“Quite,” Celestia bit, unimpressed. His lack of decorum reminded her too much of Discord; the type of manipulative, testy attitude would never cease to get on her nerves. “How much?”

“Twenty-five bits if you please,” the innkeep replied nonchalantly. Nodding, the princess of the sun procured a pouch from her saddlebag, the clamps on the white burlap snapping shut. She took out two large coins and one small, tossing them to the innkeep. Without even blinking, he took a mug in hoof, swiping it out in the air in front of him, catching the bits with a heavy clink. He bumped the mug up in front of him as if toasting. “I figure that I must bid you goodnight then, Highness,” he soothed. Celestia could’ve sworn that she saw a literal twinkle in his eye. Amusement.

“Yes,” she confirmed tartly. “Goodnight.” She climbed the stairs, Luna following, with a sour feeling in her stomach. The whole exchange just felt grimey. As she glanced back at Luna, though, she was smiling dumbly, a slight skip in her stride.

Celestia sighed as she unlocked the oaken door to room five, opening it in front of her. The warm colors of the room matched those in the hallway: the walls were colored a light apricot, the dense, low pile carpet a darker, redder brown that matched the sheets. Two mattresses lay near the left wall, far enough apart that three of her could fit between them. A window gave them a view of the dark night as the lights in the street slowly began to flicker out one by one.

Luna flopped on the mattress nearest to her, exhaling a wistful sigh. “That stallion was gorgeous!” she exclaimed, pushing her hooves into the sky in a wide, circular gesture.

“Sure,” Celestia said sourly. She sat on the foot of the bed, taking off her golden-clad shoes with her light-colored aura.

“What?” The princess of the night flipped onto her belly, kicking her hind legs into the air behind her. She held her face between her hooves. “You did not think that he was the most delicious male that you’ve set eyes on?”

“He was sexy, all right,” the princess of the sun admitted. “If he wasn’t so gross, then I’d agree with you.”

“Oh, come off it,” Luna giggled. “You are just angry because he is more clever than you.”

“No, I’m angry at him for being a nuisance,” Celestia spat. She took off her crown and set it at the side of her bed. She frowned at the lack of a nightstand, but for a room priced at twenty-five bits for the night, she couldn’t complain. She lay on her back, the mattress being leagues away from the quality of her own, but it was plush enough to melt in, if only a little.

“You know, when we retire…” Luna picked at her bare hooves. “I want to try finding a suitor. Just somecreature to spend the rest of my time with.”

Celestia chortled. “Right, you do know that you may outlive them… several times over?”

Luna shrugged, flipping onto her back in a spread-eagle position. “I am aware of that, thank you very much. But I am not too concerned with such things. Just having someone to share these feelings that I’m feeling now with… that would be sufficient for me.”

Anxiety sent acid to Celestia’s throat. She only offered an acknowledging grunt as she pulled the sheets over her, laying on her side, facing away from her sister.

“You seemed much happier today,” Luna ventured.

“Happier?” Celestia chortled, flipping back toward her. “Look, we’re here on official duty. Ponies have died. How could I be happy?”

Luna shrugged. “I just noticed that you were taking in the scenery, that you are more proactive than you normally are.” She waved her hoof in circles in front of her. “It’s just… not typical for you.”

Celestia bit her lip. She hadn’t really paid attention to her reactions to her surroundings. But even though the situation did put her on edge, she couldn’t deny in the slightest that she was at least more relaxed in the small village than at home. It was an odd paradox.

Luna leaned forward, her eyes fixed on her with a solemn look. “Are you sure that you don’t want to retire?”

Celestia opened her mouth to say no, but the word froze in her throat. A flurry of emotions swelled inside of her chest, confused of which ones she was actually feeling. “I… can’t say,” she mumbled, rolling her hoof on the plush mattress, her eyelids beginning to heavy. “Part of me really wants to, but I can’t.”

“Of course you can,” the princess of the night said sincerely. “You’ve been preparing Twilight for this exact thing. She’s ready. She may not realize it yet, but she is.”

Celestia’s heart hammered in her chest, her mind rushing. She took a deep breath before her body shut down. “I just don’t want to let the people down,” she said finally. She leveled her gaze with her sister’s, her own eyes filled with the same sympathy that she gave Quintus.

“I understand.” Luna sat up on the side of her bed, supporting herself with her hooves as her hindlegs dangled off the side of the mattress. “But you have been at this for hundreds of thousands of moons, alone. And even with me here, your strength dwindles. Your will atrophies.” She looked at her sister dead in the eye. “I’m concerned that you will fall into a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you do not step down now, you may let the people down regardless.”

The princess of the sun huffed a puff of air through her nostrils. What did she know? “I’m going to go to sleep,” she said wearily, rolling away from her sister once more. She hit a switch on the wall and an incandescent lamp above her clicked off. “Goodnight.”

She could feel her sister’s frown as she replied with a sigh, “Goodnight.” A few ruffles and a click later, the room was filled with darkness.

Try as she might, Celestia couldn’t stop her heart from hammering. She squeezed her eyelids shut, breathing deeply through the panic sweeping over her. She knew deep down that she had to retire… but it couldn’t be now. Not now.