Winter Moon Celebration

by flutterdash1

Prologue: Ponyville

Prologue: Ponyville
~*~*~

Moon Trot could hear the sound of trumpets playing as the carriage was guided groundward. They passed through the layer where clouds rested- several pegasai giving Luna salutes as they stood on the fluffy substance- and Ponyville became visible beneath them. Dozens of ponies had turned out for the arrival of Luna though Moon Trot suspected that word had not had as much time to spread, as she feared.

With only a few hours notice, the decorations about the main square were slap-dash and the crowd consisted mainly of the elder ponies who held a greater respect for the royal sisters and the younger ponies who were enthralled by Luna from her integration at Nightmare Night. Parents had been dragged out by the children, however, and they hid their discomfort rather well. Some might have even been genuinely excited to have a princess visiting.

The fanfare was loud and the atmosphere exciting. When the chariot came to a halt a pair of pegasai flew overhead and dropped dark blue and silver confetti over it and over its exit for Luna to come out in.

"BEHOLD THE ARRIVAL OF THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!" A terrific boom announced, reverberating around the square and sending birds squawking for respite. "THINE LITTLE PONIES MAY PROFFER THEMSELVES FOR OUR EYES TO INSPECT! WE ARE PLEASED TO VISIT THY TOWN ONCE MORE!"

Moon Trot winced a little at the volume of Luna's voice. Greeting the crowds, okay...I just hope she keeps it down for one on one conversations she thought, exiting the chariot after Luna had done so.

A little pony with a brown spot of fur around one eye ran up to Luna with an excitement that Moon Trot had never seen in the eyes of someone looking at Luna. The look he gave was more akin to the one people gave Celestia. "Princess Luna!" he said, giving her a quick bow when he was within a few paces of her, "Remember me? Pipsqueek the Pirate! But I'm not a pirate now but I was when you scared us on Nightmare Night!"

Luna smiled, looking quite delighted. "Pipsqueak, of course we remember thee! Our For it was thy small form that did remind us that fear can be fun!" she said.

As if to underline the point, Luna stamped her hoof resolutely - generating a crack of thunder from grey clouds that had been white, fluffy and carefree a moment before. "We are pleased, greatly, to once again visit this fair town and bestow upon all of thee a Royal Visit!"

Turning her head to the side, the Princess frowned. "Of Royal Visits, we are compelled to wonder; where is the Mayor? Surely such an occasion as our presence is worthy of recognition from her office?"

An unmistakable pout threatened to form on the Alicorn's features. "We expect our sister would not hath to put up with such rudeness ..." She grumbled. High above, the melancholy clouds threatened rain as they were subtly coerced into mimicking Luna's souring mood.

"I'm certain she's somewhere nearby," Moon Trot said, "I regret to say that I did not give Ponyville as much of a preparation period as I should have. I'll accept any blame that-" She was cut off by the exasperated comments of an older mare who was running through the crowd.

"My most humblest apologies your excellence," the Mayor said, kneeling before Luna, though keeping more distance between her than Pipsqueak had. The younger pony had jumped and almost ran when Luna startled him with the lightning, but instead just laughed and ran off to a group of his friends who were all as excited as him to have Luna in town again.

"I was busy preparing Town Hall for your visit and other things that need to be done... oh shoot no sense for excuses. Welcome to Ponyville your highness! If there is anything that I can do for your visit do not hesitate to say so."

Moon Trot hoped that Luna didn't notice how nervous the Mayor seemed. She might take it the wrong way, though Moon Trot knew that the ponies were just as nervous around Celestia when she visited, although they did show more adoration from a distance.

Luna narrowed her gaze, craning her neck downwards until she was only scant inches from the Mayor's face. Her expression was unreadable but whatever it represented, it stayed fixed for several agonising moment as if the Princess might choose to question the official further; dig a little deeper or else simply throw a temper tantrum. Eventually - blessedly - Luna nodded slowly.

"Very well, we understand the difficulties of logistics only too well. Now, we wish appraise ourselves of the progress Ponyville hath made in recent times. We will require a complete briefing on current projects, as well as issues of note or concern which should be brought to thine royal attention. We assume the majority of thine little ponies hath eschewed our arrival in favour of attending our reception ..."

Luna's eyes flicked towards Moon Trot. "We shall assume a reception was organised ..." It was not a question.

The black mare swallowed and glanced down from the princess, unable to hold her gaze. In her rush to organize something with Ponyville, and in her relief that she had gotten Luna out of the palace even if only for a day, she had not thought to request a reception be prepared. She swallowed nervously as she tried to think of a way to save the situation; perhaps while the mayor was reporting to Luna she could travel to one of the restaurants in town and organize something quickly. But Luna deserved better than a half-assed, slap-dash setup. Honesty would be better in the long run, though not necessarily the short run. Better that she be mad at me than think her people don't care for her Moon Trot thought.

Walking closer to Luna so she could keep her voice down, she said softly "My deepest apologies, your highness, but I neglected to arrange for one. I had thought you were intending for a less formal visit during the daylight hours." She lowered her voice a little more so that the Mayor wouldn't be able to hear, "Would you care for Celestia holding formal royal visits during the splendor of your nights?" This part was perhaps wrong of Moon Trot since it was more than a little manipulative, but her past career had required her to be manipulative on a daily basis and some habits were harder to break. There was a kernal of truth to it as well.

A frown began to etch across the Alicorn's features as she listened, the mounting displeasure obvious as Luna's lips downturned. She had been embarrassed in front of the Mayor; to speak of a reception that had never existed was to sound foolish at best, vain and presumptuous at worst! Why were these failings so regular? Why could she not be perceived as a Princess in the same breath as Celestia? Why must constant failure be her permanent companion? Why? Why. Why. Why.

With a supreme effort of will, the Goddess of the Night forced herself to stop; forced calm upon her anger. Moon Trot's words further acted as a soothing balm to her inflamed pride. In her haste to be appreciated, welcomed, as a Princess should, had she in fact acted to offend the order of things? She had no dominion over the Day, so why should she be recognised during it? Her beloved sister held total dominion while the sun traversed the sky. To presume to be received in the manner she had, Luna had clearly erred.

A second supreme effort of will ensured the wave of disappointment and melancholy that crashed upon her horn went ignored by all save, perhaps, her Minister of the Night, who had to struggle not to pat Luna on the shoulder again. Earlier, in the privacy of the chariot in the sky, it had been acceptable and it had worked wonders to cheer the Princess up. Unfortunately to do so now would be beyond improper, and so Luna had to suffer in her own anguish in physical solitude. Fortunately, she had managed to save Luna some face by allowing the Mayor to hear her apologize for forgetting to arrange everything.

"It is no matter," Luna replied eventually. "We will proceed to the Mayor's office and begin our briefing."

Moon Trot followed Luna and the Mayor into Town Hall and the Mayor led them to her office. She offered her seat to Luna as she grabbed a couple of things and had an assistant bring more in. Documents and books were stacked neatly in one corner of the desk and the mayor started to go through them one-by-one, telling of renovations being made to many of the public buildings to feature a greater emphasis on the stars and the moon, getting them to equal the clouds and sun that are used to portray Celestia. Almost everything in Ponyville had been built during Luna's banishment so everything was geared towards the solo-princess lore.

"There was a lucky unfortunate accident not long ago where one of our clumsier local pegasai did considerable damage to this building," The Mayor said after gesturing for Luna to join her outside the office in the main central room of the building where lots of patchwork construction was still visible. "We focused on getting the building back up to structural code before anything, but because of the other renovations going on in our little town this building has been rather neglected, but it has also provided an opportunity. Mory Artsy, Ponyville’s finest painter, is working on a mural that will span every wall and ceiling surface of the Town Hall that will not follow the normal binary separation of night-and-day, but instead mix the beauty of both of our beloved princesses into menagerie of Night and Day that will make one indistinguishable from the other, and yet both as separate as yourself and your sister!"

Moon Trot was curious as to how that would look when completed, and she was pleased that the Mayor was starting to overcome her earlier nervousness and was showing Luna quite a bit of eagerness and excitement at the projects going on around town.

"We have not begun one project yet," she added, "We were going to wait until after the next Summer Sun Celebration so that we can finish just before Nightmare Night and also so we have time to write up a formal proposal, but basically," she pulled out a leaf of paper and showed it to Luna. It was a picture of her Nightmare Moon statue from the edge of town. It looked as frightening as before, but there were some cosmetic changes to make it more regal and less monstery. "And during warmer weather," she said, flipping to another sheet of paper. The same statute but with water flowing out from the horn and spraying all around into a basin, making it a fountain. "We intend to let the water spray freeze over winter and make it the centerpiece for a celebration that our young Pipsqueak suggested last year and the town unanimously adored it."

"A new celebration?" Moon Trot asked, slightly surprised by this. Very rarely did a new celebration occur, and usually it took a drastic event to do so.

"Yes," The Mayor said, still swelling with pride. "The Summer Sun Celebration was started after yo...Nightmare Moon was exiled, but over a thousand years became more a celebration of the Sun itself rather than that event. So we decided to skip the next millenium and celebrate the return of Princess Luna, that is to say, you, and that you have done a complete turn-around in a short amount of time so, in the middle of winter, exactly half a year from the Summer Sun Celebration, we intend to hold the first Winter Moon celebration!" She beamed at her own remark, "We have several ponies already making plans for it but we haven't yet gotten all of the formalities ready. I'm sorry to surprise you with it now rather than the formal presentation I was preparing to show you in person later this spring."

Luna nodded as the mayor spoke, but her attention was entirely held by the picture of the Nightmare statue. She leaned forwards, occasionally nodding her head and doing a passable impression of taking in what the Mayor said. Without the comedic fangs and the angry, rageful scowl on the statue's features it seemed almost ... Regal. Luna suppressed the urge to shudder. She could remember it all. The raw, intoxicating power; the feeling of complete control, supreme confidence - backed up with a terrible fury bred from ten centuries of tormented exile. The Nightmare was mostly held as a spirit of evil; of everything dishonourable and cruel but the truth was more complex. In amongst the evil, there were strands of Luna.

Her knowledge, her hopes and dreams. They were as inseparable from the Nightmare as the cutie mark they both shared. Eventually, Luna looked away. The terrible headache that always seemed to plague her whenever the Nightmare was discussed - or even mentioned - was enough for her to seek something new to focus on.

"A Winter Moon Celebration?" The Princess repeated suddenly, a little too loudly. She blinked, as though considering the idea. "There hath not been a celebration of the Moon in over one thousand years ... We do not think the gentleponies of Canterlot will be particularly receptive to appreciating us. However, we hath no such obstacles here, in Ponyville. We ... We would be delighted, honored, privileged and humbled to give this event our royal patronage. It hath been so long since we can recall thine little ponies gathering together under our Night. We admit we had long believed they would never do so ..."

Never one to allow herself emotional vulnerability, Luna quickly changed tact. "We are most intrigued by thy planned murial. We hath lived for a great long time, and we hath seen many attempts to marry the Sun and Moon together. Some hath been more successful than others - we are intrigued to see how thee will approach the task."

The Mayor swelled with pride at Luna's acceptance of the proposed celebration. Moon Trot was glad that the mentioning of Nightmare Moon didn't outwardly upset Luna too much though she suspected the well practiced Royal Demeanor had something to do with keeping her appearance calm. The Mayor went on about not knowing the details of the mural design but that one of the art studios was currently working on it if she wished to get a preview of their work. "Provided their artistic egos will bend even to the wishes of a Princess" the Mayor added with a chuckle. She cleared her throat and added "I believe that covers everything you requested to see. May I be of further service?"

"We hath seen enough," The Princess surmised. "We thank thee for thy attention. A ... "Good Day", Mayor. Come, Moon Trot!”