Tired of the Daily Routine

by Feedbacker

Also Frightened

Celestia was almost to Canterlot. Unlike the flight there, the flight back from the Griffon Nation had been uneventful. Nothing interesting had happened, the cold air being her only company on the long trip.

This was the worst possible thing that could have happened.

The silence allowed Celestia's mind to wander, and wander it did. She tried to think about the new trade arrangements for as long as possible, but there wasn't much to consider. Some ponies would praise Avery's thoughtfulness, others would be angry at the loss of revenue for Canterlot, and business would mostly continue as usual. She'd probably have to do a press conference, maybe appear on a few news shows, but not much else. Eventually, she got tired of running mental interviews in her head and found herself considering more... Personal matters.

It was that stupid dancer's fault. Celestia had never even considered a romantic relationship with anybody before she saw how carefree that pony had seemed, but now she was honestly thinking about-

No, she couldn't do that. It was a silly idea, anyway. It would be a public relations nightmare - The God-Princess of Equestria, dating somepony? And a mare at that? Everypony even tangentially related to the relationship would be swarmed by paparazzi. And the news would tear her apart, and she'd definitely get a call from the Dragon Lord, and she didn't know how Luna would react, and her enemies might try to get to her through her lover, and...

And none of these excuses even dented her feelings.

Celestia sighed. She didn't need this right now. Ruling was hard enough without having this issue nagging at the back of her mind all the time. But she couldn't tear her thoughts away, and for the whole trip home, almost nothing else entered her mind but the thought of them together.

Luna was already awake by the time she touched down at the castle. Alicorns didn't need to sleep very often, but Celestia was exhausted. All she wanted to do was get to bed -

"How did the negotiations go, sister?" Luna asked. "Anything important?"

Celestia closed her eyes in frustration. Of course her sister wanted to know about the negotiations. Luna was just as much of a monarch as she was. But Celestia was tired, and her stomach seemed to be churning over her recent emotions at least twice as much as her mind was. She couldn't talk to her sister now.

"I'll tell you about it later," Celestia snapped in frustration. "For now, all I want to do is get some rest."

Luna didn't respond, choosing instead to stare at her while she walked off.

Celestia didn't bother to do any of her usual pre-sleep rituals, and flopped down on the bed instead. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.

***

When Celestia awoke, Luna was in her room.

"Sleep well, sister?"

Celestia blinked a few times, the fog of sleep not fully cleared from her mind yet.

"Luna... Why are you...?"

The look on Luna's face cut Celestia off. She could read her sister well, better then anypony, but Luna's face showed such a wide spread of emotion that it was hard to classify. The intense focus of her eyes showed that she was deep in thought, but the light blush on her face showed hints of shame. The corners of her mouth twitched as if amused, but there was also a softness there- Sympathy?

"Your dreams, Sister."

Oh no. She- She had-

Celestia suddenly couldn't breathe. Images of last night's visions forced themselves to the forefront of her mind. She had-

"What dreams?" Celestia replied, trying to sound as innocent as possible. This effort, while impressive, was a complete failure.

"You know the one."

Oh, boy did she ever.

"Maybe... Maybe you were confusing me with somebody else?"

"Sister, you're the most powerful magical being alive today. Even if we- I wasn't the goddess of dreams, I would be able to tell when I was in one of yours."

"But..."

Maybe anger could make her drop the subject?

"Did I give you permission to enter my mind? Those are my private thoughts, sister! This is a betrayal of trust that I simply cannot toler-"

Luna cut her off.

"W- I only popped in to discuss the trade meeting. There were at least fifty reporters standing in our courtyard when you came back, hungering for information. When you went to bed without commenting, they assumed the worst. You have no idea what kind of headache we- I was having to try and clam them down. So, I simply thought that I could talk to you while you were asleep, to get information without disturbing your rest."

Celestia's heart was still pounding. Okay, so she had been in her dreams. But had she seen...?

"Of course, when I saw what you were dreaming about, I decided to let you be."

The twitching corners of her sister's mouth gave Celestia the answer. Oh, Starswirl, she had.

Fragments of the dream flooded Celestia's mind. A streak of purple running into the darkness, laughing, calling Celestia to follow. Crawling through large logs over streams, laughing, kissing, their voices growing wild until...

New noises joining the singing of birds, small amounts of brown dirt covering white and purple fur as they...

And Luna had seen all of it.

"I- I didn't- The dream was-"

Luna, curse her, actually had to put a hoof to her mouth to keep from laughing.

"...How much of it did you see?"

"Enough."

Celestia slumped back into her bed. Wonderful.

"So. I suppose you know now."

"Yes, I do. Not that I'm surprised. You always seemed a little too eager to read those letters."

Celestia remained silent for a while.

"So, now that you're taken the task of explaining what's going on off my shoulders. How do you think I should proceed?"

"Well, tell her, of course!"

"But- The media will-"

"Horsefeathers to them! You have to tell her. Remember the last time one of us didn't communicate?"

An image of the Elements of Harmony flashed into Celestia's head.

"Yes, I do."

"And how did that turn out?"

"Poorly."

"So don't do it again. Talk to her. While I don't know her as well as you do-"

Luna, evidently not content with how embarrassed her sister was already, winked before continuing, "I do know that she's a kindhearted mare. And, to be honest, I could see her returning the feelings."

Celestia's heart, curse it, fluttered at the words.

"Well... I suppose I could..."

Her voice trailed off. There was so many things that could go wrong...

"Hey." Luna's voice was gentler. "Thou art- You are a kind pony. So is she. At the very least, she will understand."

"Yes, but- The paparazzi will never leave her alone, and her friends, what will they think, and I've known her since she was just a filly, what will the media say about that, and what will they start saying about you, or the monarchy, and Equestria in general, and I know that the dragons might-"

Her sister was strangely calm for the situation.

"I just... Is it- Is it-"

She searched for the words.

"Am I over-reacting? Do I have anything to be scared about? Are you also frightened?"

Luna smiled.

"As they say in today's vernacular, totally. But I know you can get through. Now get up. We must discuss this further - After you explain yesterday's trade meeting."

Author's Note:

Slow updates. Sorry.

Also, I do hope somebody gets the reference by this point.

Comments

[BenRG]

Celestia seems determined to do the 'crucified by duty' thing here, doesn't she? Fortunately she has Luna who is the only one who I think can tell her when she's talking horseapples, get away with it and get Celestia to agree with her.

[Bringer of Despair]

>>BeRG I agree with you on that note. But to the reference, I really have no clue.

Till next time, good sir.

[Feedbacker]

Alicorn Twilight...

*Looks at his outline*

Well... You're not going to have a very good time in the next ten minutes...

[Toiski]

The story seems to be moving quicker than most, which I think is a good thing; I don't need more 270 thousand word monsters on my to-read list.

All that this chapter left me missing was a bit more elaboration on how the general twisty romantic feelings resolved on Twilight. Was she already on Celestia's mind? Did Twilight, specifically, just come up in the dream for the first time? If the latter, is she surprised? It obviously has meaning to her, since she doesn't debate that Twilight was just a representation of the idea of any romantic partner.

Also, nosy, active, I-know-you-best Luna is good Luna.

[Violet Lenoir]

I just have one problem with the story that has been bugging me, and its that you've been referring to the Equestrian throne as a Monarchy, but every since Luna returned and joined her sister in rule, it would technically be a Diarchy.

[Bakmah Genesis]

Celestia is starting to sound like Twilight. God, I love this.

[Midnight Watch]

Celestia had never even considered a romantic relationship with anybody before she saw how carefree that pony had seemed, but now she was honestly thinking about-

Nope. After *looking at the previous page* 2 thousands years? I understand what "suspension of disbelief" is but this is simply ridiculous.

[Purple-Smart Heart]

5777673

Authors always seem to go with one of two extremes when it comes to Celestia. But I think there is some middle ground to be had between the virginal Goddess and the Celestia that takes half of court to bed with her every night.