How's Life Been Treating You?

by nitelight

The Third

My dearest Twilight,

I've noticed Luna has been sending you letters, no doubt talking of our lives now. She never lets me read them. She's always been like that.

But I am also writing to you to give an update of what we have been getting up to. Since her return, Luna has been wanting to explore the new cities that sprung up across the kingdom. We very briefly visited some during our short vacation what you and your friends filled in for us during the royal swanifying, but longer visits were definitely needed.

We decided to go in a circle around the country, starting near Vanhoover, it being the closest and going clockwise around the country. We hope to return soon to when the Festival of the Two Sisters is meant to be celebrated in Canterlot.

At first, the big cities seemed to frighten her some. Back a millennium ago, the biggest city was still smaller than that of Ponyville. Even the royal city where Princess Platinum resided was not quite the same size. Mentioning her, I hope that Luna finds a friend like that again. While off to a rough start, the two of them where good friends. Luna's recklessness, her element of laughter, fit so well with Platinum's charms.

But she closed off so much in the later years. Even still, she's rough around the edges. As her elder sister, I feel it's my responsibility to right my wrongs in this area that I messed up. Thanks to you, she's opened up to more, has smiled more. That nightmare night she came back from her first year was one of the first times I truly saw her smile again. I am striving to make her smile more. Despite how rough she presents herself on the outside, on the inside, as I'm sure you know, she's quite passionate in what she loves. Those interests just so happen to be calmer than mine.

However, Luna is enjoying exploring the cities in more depth. We have even stopped in the Crystal Empire to explore around the innerworkings of their culture. Most times we visited, there were usually some events that confined us to the castle, again unable to see the city proper. Luna had showed her interests in doing so more during the Equestria Games and the Crystalling. Even when we banished the empire a millennium ago, we never had the chance to explore. Of course, again, there were more pressing matters at hand to deal with.

From there, we traveled to Trottingham and Manehattan. During our last adventures we were able to stop in the latter for a few hours. But with the size of the city, it was impossible to see much of what it had to offer. Of course, we are used to the royal capital, but the industrial city was a huge change of pace. You should have seen Luna's face when she saw her first skyscraper up close. She was questioning everything about it, even went out of our way to spend an hour on research on how such a thing was able to be built.

That isn't to say we did not have fun in the city. We tried to stay away from an theater, as our tastes are too different to find something we would both enjoy. Even with a map, we managed to get ourselves lost multiple times. There are so many twists, turns, and alleys that we couldn't navigate entirely. Luckily, Luna was smart enough to remember the way we came from when this happened, so we were able to get out fairly quickly. Though there was an incident in an alley where we saw some rather, shall we say, unfortunate things. It was best to ignore the subject and turn around. Things like that do not usually happen in broad daylight, but each to their own.

On a positive note, we have tried many new dishes from these differing cities. While I have prided myself on having a diverse diet, Luna has not followed in suit. She insisted that we order one of everything to try whenever we came across another vendor. Let's just say she didn't enjoy everything, and her stomach was not happy with her at the end of the day. Because of that, we decided to take the next day easy. Manehattan has one of the best rated spas in the kingdom, and the day we spent there definitely lived up to its reputation. As much as I enjoy an adrenaline inducing adventure, I don't know if I had ever been that satisfied from a massage. Luna fell asleep soon as we returned to the hotel we stayed at. I don't think I've ever seen her that relaxed either.

When exploring Fillydelphia and Baltimare, it was more or less the same of exploring. Each city has their own charms and is unique in their own way, but seeing them right after another can be draining. Being on the coast we got ourselves caught in a few rainstorms without any protection for ourselves. However we made the best of our situation, being soaked going around the city. With my solar magic we were fortunate to avoid getting sick as well.

Luna's immune system is still not the strongest from her return. She was always getting sick when she was a filly, and I fear that it may catch up to her again.

At the moment of writing this letter, we are on our way to Mount Aris to see the Hippogriff kingdom. I understand that you have travelled there before after its reconstruction. Perhaps you could give us some pointers and activities that you would recommend that we do during our stay. Luna is very excited to travel to a place with such a different culture than mainland Equestria. If we get permitted, perhaps we could the underwater portion of their city as well. Luna, however, even with her connection to the water with her moon, has never been one to enjoy swimming. Though with the magic of their pearl, perhaps her mind will be changed and we'll be able to explore. I am very excited myself.

We are used to travelling at dawn and dusk so our sleep schedules aren't too skewed and are able to spend the majority of our time together. Luna is currently taking a nap on my shoulder here on the train, though. I think I've exhausted her these past few days. She's wrapped in my wing and as long as she's comfortable, I don't mind.

Once we go further inland, we will spend more time in the Equestrian wilds and away from the cities. Travelling with your sister is always an adventure, no matter where you go. We will have these memories and stories for the rest of our lives.

As I mentioned earlier, we will be back by the first day of summer. Perhaps even spend a few days in the city proper of Canterlot and enjoy the extended festival.

I look forward to seeing you again, Twilight. I continue to wish you all the best and I hope you enjoy these letters of our adventures in this country you rule.

Yours,
Celestia

Comments

[Devastetor08]

I hope you'll continue this story it's really sweet