It's your birthday Mommy! (edited)
There was a knock on the door. It was a light knock, loud enough to awaken the Princess of the Night from her slumber, but soft enough that it didn't seem rude. A sweet voice came from the other side of the door. "Luna, it's time to wake up." the voice said. Luna grumbled at the interruption of her wonderous sleep. She hadn't had this much of a peaceful sleep for centuries.
"Five more minutes, Celestia." she protested, snuggling deeper into her bed. She heard a sigh coming from the other side of the door, followed by the sound of all her numerous magic sealing charms being broken. Luna was surprised at how fast her sister was disabling all her safety measures. She made a mental note to increase the complexity of them later.
The electric protection barrier was the last to go. The door swung open and the light of the afternoon sun spilled into Luna's room. The princess grumbled again as she felt her sister tear off the sheets from her bed and proceeded to turn on the lights. "Come on sleepy head. It's time to raise the moon." Celestia ordered as she pulled her sister's tail. Celestia dragged Luna off of her bed and the lunar princess promptly plopped down on the floor before feebly trying to stand up. Her legs seemed to still be asleep.
"Dear sister," Luna started, the feeling in her legs slowly began to return, " Do you have to be so forceful with waking me up?" Luna began to walk towards her balcony. Using her magic, she pulled her curtains away and basked in the sight of the sunset. Luna took pride in creating her night sky. She took extra care that each star was just perfect and that her moon shined brilliantly. It was labor that she had grown to love over the countless millennia. Though she couldn't help but give Celestia some credit when it came to the sunsets. Such warm colors were always a delight to see.
"Luna, we both know how we get when we fall into bed. If it wasn't for me, you would still be sleeping for the next few days." Celestia said jokingly. A smirk worked its way onto her face. Luna gazed at the solar princess for a brief moment. She turned her head towards the sky as she concentrated.
"Well if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be dreaming about those Drefolate Cakes every other Tuesday." Luna retorted. Luna searched through the sky until she found her target. She reached out and pulled to moon across the sky. Gone were the warm colors of the day and in came the dark cool of the night. With the stars and moon in motion, Luna released the breath she had been holding and turned around to meet her sister's face. It wasn't the face she had been expecting. A face plastered with shock or mild discomfort was what most ponies would expect, but Celestia displayed a face a pure rage.
"Sister, are you okay?" Luna asked.
"Why?!" Celestia asked, "Why did he have to die before writing down his recipe?! Do you know how much I would pay for just a bite of one of Drefo's chocolate cakes?!"
"Celestia...."
"Do you even what to know what I'd do to have that recipe?!?!"
"Celestia..!"
"I think I'd kill for it."
"Celestia!" Luna shouted. She finally got her sister's attention. "I too feel the pain of not being able to fully enjoy Sir Drefo's pastries. The man could have killed an entire village, but if he gave me the recipe to even one of he confectionaries, I would let him off with a warning. I shouldn't have teased about this matter."
"No, Luna. I shouldn't have gone so far. I guess I just spaced out." Celestia responded. Luna nodded. There was a moment of silence as the two gazed upon the night sky together. Celestia shuffled a bit before standing up and heading out. "Well, time to go get some dinner. I'm quite hungry," she said. Luna followed behind her.
"Well, technically, it's breakfast for me," she said.
"Oh hush you," Celestia responded.
The two soon reached the dining hall and took their seats. The two chatted for a while about other things in the world. It was mostly politics at first and the two soon found that they should quickly change the subject before things got boring. The two soon found themselves returning to the topic of cake. They quickly went through each other's list o favorite and least favorite cakes as their food was being brought out to them.
"So, you're saying you don't like strawberry cake all that much?" Celestia asked.
"I used to. It even used to be in the top five, but ever since I saw that one dream. I can't really eat strawberry anything before feeling... dirty." Luna responded.
"Well what about strawberry icing?" asked Celestia.
"I just said I can't really eat strawberry anything didn't I."
"I know you did, but what I'm trying to ask is: If someone gave you a cake with strawberry icing on it, would you eat it?"
"Of course I would. I just eat like... one slice every other day. Why do you ask such a specific question?"
"Oh, no reason really," Celestia answered as she took a bite of her pasta. Luna looked questionably at her sister before she took a bite of her toast. The two kept talking and as they did, Luna felt as if something was not right. It was like something or someone was missing from the table. To be more accurate, two someones were missing from the table.
"Sister, have you seen my daughters around?" she asked as she took a bite of her toast.
"Oh yes, I have. Surprisingly, they awoke earlier than their own mother. Didn't even have to entice them with the reward of a fresh cookie," Celestia answered as she levitated a napkin and wiped off the pasta sauce from her muzzle.
"Then why aren't they here? Young fillies shouldn't be skipping breakfast," Luna said. She took a sip of her coffee before continuing. "And please stop promising them sweets so early. Those two are already a hoof-full without the added sugar."
"Come on Luna, what's the harm in a little sugar with breakfast every now and then?" teased Celestia. Luna was about to protest her sister when she heard two young voices coming from one of the hallways leading to the dining hall.
"Come on Tanti! We're running late!" said the first voice.
"I'm trying big sis! But the icing is getting everywhere!" said the other voice. This one sounded a bit echoey. it was as if it was resonating from more than one source. Princess Luna took a quick glance towards her sister who was currently drinking her cup of tea. The doors to Luna's right opened as two fillies entered the room.
The first filly that entered the room had a dark coat. One could almost say it was as dark as the night sky. Her flowing blue mane resembled that of her mother, Princess Luna. A few stars sparkled within it. Her lovely blue snakelike eyes greated her mother with shock and nervousness. Her name was Nightmare Moon and she was the elder sibling of the two fillies.
The second filly was creature of pure magic. Her purple body was that of an alicorn filly, just like her older sister. She possessed no facial features yet other ponies still felt her gaze. Countless stars shined dimly within her body as she too faced the blue alicorn mare. The same mare that gifted her with a name. That name was Tantabus.
"Ah shoot, we're too late." Nightmare said.
"W-we can still give her her p-present right?" asked a nervous Tantabus. The filly levitated box with pink icing oozing out of the bottom.
"Of course we can still give it to her," said Nightmare. The two fillies trotted off to the lunar princess. The two hugged her and she returned the hug with a giggle.
"Okay, you two. What is the meaning of this?" Luna asked as she lifted the box from Tantabus's magical grip. It was a square box with dark blue wrapping paper. A light pink ribbon tied the whole thing together.
"W-well, we wanted to do something special for you since you've been looking so sad lately," answered a blushing Tantabus. She fiddled with her hooves as she spoke.
"And when Auntie Celestia told us what day it was today, we knew we had to do that special thing today!" said an excited Nightmare Moon. Her smile warmed the heart of the lunar princess.
"And pray tell, what is so special about today?" Luna asked. Just as the two fillies were about to answer, Celestia stopped them.
"Nah ah ah, " she said, "Let your mother open her gift first." The two fillies turned to each other and nodded. Celestia and Luna's own daughters had chosen to leave her in the dark until she opened the box. With a sigh, Luna began unwrapping the box. With the wrapping paper gone, the only step left was to lift off the top of the box. There was already a sweet smell coming from inside the box so Luna was already tipped off as to what the contents of the box were. With the lid off the box, Luna gazed upon the mess that was the cake inside the box.
The inside of the box was nearly coated with pink frosting. It was obvious that whoever made the cake didn't let the cake cool before putting the frosting on it. Gummy bear toppings that Luna had assumed once stood at the top of the cake now laid half buried beneath a sea of icing. Luna also gazed upon what she also assumed were letters written with white icing. She could vaguely make out the words the letters formed. "Ha...ppy....Birth....d-day....Mom." she read out loud. As she began to realize what the cake said, she looked towards her daughters. The smile on Nightmare Moon seemed to grow bigger while the blush on Tantabus grew brighter.
She looked towards her sister and scrambled for words to say. "Do you have anything to say to your daughters? They've been planning this for a few weeks now." Celestia said. She took another sip of her tea while Luna hugged her daughters again. A squeal of delight escaped her mouth as she held her daughters close to her.
"I told you it would work Tantabus!" Nightmare Moon said happily.
"I never said it wouldn't work Nighty." Tantabus joked. Luna enjoyed the embrace of her two daughters. It was the night of her birthday, how could she forget? She felt lucky to have a sister and two daughters to remind her, but soon she felt the tears in her eyes well up. She always teared up at this part.
"Mommy? Whats wrong? Why are you crying?" her daughters asked her. Princess Luna pulled away from hugging her daughters and took one more look at her beautiful fillies. She took one last look at their faces and made sure to remember each detail for she knew it would be a while before she could see them again.
"It's nothing, girls. Momma's just... just very happy." Luna answered as she embraced them one last time. She hugged them for all she was worth and loved every second of it as her dreamscape faded away.The room, the table, Celestia, and, soon enough, her daughters faded into nothing leaving Luna alone.
Luna awoke and sat up on her bed. She sat there for when felt like hours, missing the warmth of her daughters. Tears flowed freely from her eyes. She had brought the stinging pain upon herself for creating that dreamscape again. It was a bittersweet dream that she enjoyed to torture herself with. It was just like the chocolate for one the many cakes she had in her life. But that where the similarities ended. While Luna knew she loved cake, she knew that her enjoyment of it would end and she accepted that. But with that dream, Luna didn't want it to end nor did she want to accept that it was just that, a dream. She wanted it to go on forever, but she knew she was grasping for something that was far out of her reach.
Princess Luna heard a knock on her door. "Luna, it's time to raise the moon." her sister said. After wiping her tears from her eyes and took a moment to gather her composure, she stepped out of bed and did her best to hide her pain from her older sister. Celestia gave a concerned looked towards her younger sibling and was about to ask a question that Luna knew she was not ready to answer when Celestia decided to leave her sister be for the moment. Luna knew the two would have a talk eventually, but that was for another day. And maybe on another day, she would stop dreaming her dream. Just maybe.