Three whole days had gone by following the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and Luna still remained a filly. She of course provided an explanation from day one, but Celestia wasn't all that thrilled about the way Luna had described it.
As to why the Princess of the Moon still took the form of a filly, Celestia was a bit disbelieving in that it's supposed to just... take time. Waking up one morning, Celestia looked around her vacant room, and was surprised to see that Luna hadn't shown up yet. "Huh," she sounded, raising her sleepy self up half way. Usually, Luna was the very first sight Celestia would typically have the displeasure of seeing these last two days, this one being the third.
"It just takes time to reform herself back into a grown mare again? It just... takes time? It's been literally days now. That's just... Ugh," she groaned. "I swear, I almost wish that I could know for sure what being struck with that kind of blast really does to an alicorn, just to make sure that she's telling the truth."
Celestia got out of bed, stretched a bit, and then heard the distinct sound of the door opening without her permission. "Tia! It's time to get up!"
"Yes," Celestia said followed by a sigh. "I'm up, dear sister of mine. It doesn't sound as if you're grown yet, either."
She turned around to see the blue filly staring back at her innocently. Luna giggled, and said, "Nope! Not yet at least. I'm still just a powerless filly in desperate need of some juice."
Celestia rolled her eyes, and said, "Of course you are... Speaking of being powerless, I've been wanting to test that out."
With very little warning, Celestia grabbed hold of a pillow with her magic, and sent it whooshing through the air, and into Luna's unprepared face. Her horn failed to ignite at all, not for a second. Luna was caught completely off guard by this at first, but soon after it had happened, she could be heard chuckling with amusement as she lowered the pillow down with a hoof.
"See? I couldn't use my magic right now even if I tried."
"Which," Celestia began to say with a rather annoyed tone. She brushed her hair as she went on, "That leaves me with the responsibility of still raising both your moon and the sun, something I thought I'd be relieved of by now."
Luna hugged tightly onto Celestia's lower hind hoof, and said, "Thank you for taking care of that, and making me my meals. Also, thanks for being the greatest sister ever by... um... by for forgiving me for what I did all those years ago, and not letting any of those news ponies from yesterday find out about me. It would've been so embarrassing had they found out that I'm still like this!"
Celestia finally finished up, but now, she didn't have such a nasty looking scowl pressed across her lips. "Well, there's one up side to having you like this."
"What's that?" Luna asked as she was gently placed on Celestia's back by her magic.
"You're as cute as a button, my widdle Woona!" Poking her softly on the nose with a hoof, Celestia carried her sister away, and proceeded to leave the room. Headed down the hall, she asked, "So, juice today? What'll it be for breakfast?"
Luna thought really hard about this, and finally came up with, "How about... hey bacon?"
Celestia scoffed, and asked somewhat rhetorically, "Again? We've had that for breakfast every day since you got back, though."
Luna pressed her hooves up against her cheeks, and expressed through a blissful smile, "But it's really good! I haven't had something like that in literally ages! How can you be surprised by how much I wanna have hay bacon?"
Celestia commented after taking another right, followed by a left, "There are other things you could have, like an omelet, or..."
"Hay bacon!" Luna demanded. "I. Want. Hay bacon! The Adorable and Well Loved Filly Princess of Canterlot is demanding hay bacon, and won't accept any other meal!"
Celestia sighed, and sounded so defeated, too. "Alright, alright, your Highness... Just calm your jets. We're almost there, anyways."
Luna now sat in her usual spot atop a nice, fluffy pillow. In the first couple of days, Celestia always chose to join Luna for breakfast, and had decided a while back when Luna had first returned to Canterlot that they should spend the morning outside in the garden. It was so much nicer sometimes as compared to one of those common, dingy, and ill lit dining halls found within. Luna was busy using her hooves to play with her toast, making it dance up and down as if it were actually alive. She always did this just before turning it all into a breakfast sandwich, and eating every bit of it in practically one go.
"You should chew more of your food," Celestia voiced with fair amounts of concern. "You'll choke."
Sure enough, that's precisely what happened. "Ach!"
Celestia began petting her sister lightly on the back. "See? Told you..."
After a drink of her juice, and some wheezing, she said, "I'm okay! Really, I am. It's just so delicious, Tia!"
"That's Celestia."
"Nope! If you can call me Woona, then I get to call you Tia! It's only fair."
Celestia shook her head with a chuckle, and said, "If anypony outside of the castle were to find out about you, I don't know what I'd do."
Just before finishing up her sandwich, Luna pointed out, "You'll probably just stand there and let it happen with little choice. Do you think you might melt before the press as they ask you all those complicated questions? If it's anything like I remember from the old days-"
Celestia interrupted by stating quite clearly, "It's worse. Trust me when I say that."
Luna stopped talking shortly after Celestia had said this, and just stared at her sister, almost wanting to ask, "Really...? It is?" She looked down at the piece of cheese still sitting on her plate, and instead, she said, "Uhh, hate to change the subject, but I'm stuffed. That was good!"
Celestia looked down at her sister, and asked, "Why don't you eat your slice of cheese more often?"
Luna looked from the piece of cheese to her sister, and then to the cheese again. "Uhh..." And then at Celestia again. "Well, you see... The moon is made of cheese."
Celestia just blinked, and calmly breathed.
"That's all I've pretty much had to eat for an entire one thousand lonesome years." She rested the back of her hoof on her forehead dramatically, and said, "Oh, my sweet Tia! It's been just me and the cheese! You have no idea how wonderful other smells have been as of late."
Celestia tried to hold in her chortles, but with every word came an even greater buildup of laughter. "Luna... You think that... Pfft!"
"I don't think it, I know," Luna claimed boldly. It was almost enough to make Celestia believe her.
However, Celestia could no longer hold in her amusement. She laughed, and laughed at Luna. "Oh... Luna, please, stop."
"No," Luna commanded. "You stop!" She even pointed one of her little hooves at Celestia.
"Luna, come now... The moon being made of cheese? That's absurd... Funny, though. The truth is, you lived off of your alicorn energy all those years. Alicorns don't need to eat. Remember?"
Luna looked away, and pouted, "We've only ever heard of that."
Celestia had looked away, but hearing this, she looked back. "Huh?"
"You weren't on the moon, so how do you know?"
There was a certain degree of seriousness in those cute, glaring eyes of hers, almost as if Luna knew more to this than Celestia could ever even fathom. Celestia leaned forward, and asked, "What do you mean?"
Luna came closer, and could hear Celestia's heart pumping even from such a fair distance away. Still, Luna wanted to keep this going a bit longer. So, she turned around, and denied Celestia that information upfront. "Humph! You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."
Celestia's eyebrow's began to lower. "Oh? Well then... I suppose that I shouldn't make a big dead about it. Why, next you'll be telling me that you actually turned the moon into cheese. I'm the adult here, after all. Luna, I'll let you think whatever you want. It's your moon, after all."
Luna smirked, and just when she began to walk off, Celestia looked out the window to see the moon still going down in the sunny daytime sky.
Celestia sat there, and was all alone in her garden, thinking about that instance while watching the moon disappear behind a group of foggy mountains. Slowly, she raised a hoof to her lip as she thought about this to herself. Aloud, she asked, "The moon... made of cheese? Where ever did she get a thought like that from?"
She'd think, and think about this nearly all day long. Even as she headed off to bed, the thought would enter her mind one last time. Because of this, Celestia was plagued by nightmares that evening, and they were all centered around her being stranded on the moon, but what really made it unbearable was that awful stench of potent cheese constantly surrounding nostrils.
"Mmh, no... No," she spoke up while still submerged deep within her sleep. "Not the cheese... A-anything but a thousand years of cheese..."
Luna snickered silently while dangling some pretty powerful cheese over her poor sister's dizzy head. She did this through the use of a filly-sized fishing rod, and whispered, "That's right... take it all in, Tia. Hehe..."
Celestia awoke slowly, and heard the sounds coming from her bed as she moved around in it.
Lazily, she voiced aloud, "Stupid cheese..."
She was feeling fairly happy to hear a great deal of silence inside of her bedroom once again. Compared to her little sister screaming in her ear first thing in the morning, this was getting to be nostalgic. Then, she turned around.
Staring right at her was the young filly Luna. She smiled sweetly, but stayed quiet for some reason. This was still confusing, and frankly, quite a bit creepy for Celestia.
"Umm..."
"Hi," Luna said. "How're you feeling today?"
Celestia got out of bed, and stood before her sister with some of the blanket still falling off one of her hooves. "How... am I feeling?" Luna simply nodded, so Celestia replied, "Fine... I'm doing just fine... Thank you. Were you..." She giggled, a bit scared to ask her next question. "You weren't, umm... holding cheese up against my nose while I slept, were you?"
Luna shook her head, and lied, "Nope."
Celestia nodded herself. She could still smell the cheese, but seeing it was another matter. "Huh... Okay, then," Celestia said with suspicion. "Well, anyways, how are you feeling today?"
Luna replied, "I'm feeling... much more mature myself. I think it's almost time."
Celestia's eyes widened, and she asked Luna, "Really?" She smiled, and kept going. "That's just great! Do you think it'll be this afternoon, or later tonight?"
Luna began to laugh, and toppled on over with all four of her hooves in the air. As she laid on her back, she said to Celestia, "I got you!" She stood up again, and rubbed a tear from one of her eyes. "You fell pretty hard for it, too!"
It took Celestia a lot of her strength not to lash out at the talented prankster. "Hehe... You got me pretty good," Celestia managed to compliment through gritted teeth.
"But, look," Luna said joyfully. "Watch this!"
Using her magic, and not her hooves, Luna began lifting up one of Celestia's make-up jars that sat near the edge with great difficulty. It went all the way off the ground after about twenty seconds of Luna fidgeting with it, and that's when Celestia's wide smile had returned. Then, it fell to the carpet, spilling purple goo and glass all over.
"Oops! Sorry..."
Celestia's smile remained, although it wavered every couple of seconds. She knew that she'd still have to be the one to clean up the mess. Sighing, and walking passed the guilty filly who held a hoof up to her quivering lip, Celestia began shining her horn. "That's... quite alright, Luna. Regardless, excellent job with your magic. Just be careful next time."
Luna nodded, and said, "Yes, ma'am."
She began to leave the room, and said, "I'll just wait for you outside while you get that. I recommend using your magic before it stains."
Celestia voiced, "I'd recommend trying your magic out on something smaller, and not filled with liquid, but I'm afraid you'll somehow end up breaking that as well!"
The two sisters now sat together comfortably. Even so, one of them lacked a smile today. Luna eagerly enjoyed her meal, and drank some orange juice excitedly, but her sister just kept up a rather slow pace. "Tia...? I said I was sorry on the way here like, two hundred times."
Celestia just glanced at her groveling sister, and then returned her gaze straight forward while taking a bite of her toast. Before taking a bite, she voiced to Luna, "Mmhmm..."
Luna just scoffed, and gulped down the rest of her meal in a hurry. "There! I'm finished," she said before choking on her food.
Celestia just nodded, and her sister left hastily to go get more juice, choking frantically along the way. Celestia looked down at the plate, and gasped. The piece of cheese had been untouched exactly like yesterday. Normally, Celestia would ignore this, but now, it was getting outrageous. "She scarfed down all that food except the cheese? You've got to be kidding me."
However, just along the path towards where Luna had gone off to, she stopped herself. "No, no... Calm thyself, Celestia." She blinked, and stared at the door Luna had entered not too long ago. "She's a filly, so she comes up with all sorts of... these silly things all the time." She was just beginning to appear like her normal self once again, and then Luna came prancing back down the hall. She held the glass in her hooves, and came up to Celestia curiously.
"Big sis? I've got something to say..."
"What is it?" Celestia asked, still standing awkwardly in the middle of the halls.
"You keep too much cheese in the fridge. Like I said, I just can't stand the smell of it! If you expect me to make my own juice from now on, you'll have to remove all of that infernal cheese immediately."
Celestia was almost unrecognizable. The way she scowled was something the likes of which Luna herself had never seen before. "What are you talking about?!"
Luna blinked innocently. "Huh?"
"This cheese thing? Again?! Luna? Is there something you'd like to share with me?"
Luna gulped, and countered Celestia with a question of her own. "You weren't listening to what I was saying to you yesterday?"
Celestia breathed as best she could. "You mean to tell me..."
"I was being honest," Luna said with valor.
All Celestia could do was breathe, and pace back and forth. "You're talking... about your moon. Aren't you? Your moon is made of cheese?"
Luna nodded, and said gleefully, "Duh! I said that already. Gorgonzola to be precise."
This sparked a giggle out of Celestia. She didn't stop, either, because even after all of that, she still thought it must've all been made up. "How cute..."
Celestia began to turn around causing Luna to gasp. While Celestia headed back to the garden with Luna following close behind, the young filly questioned, "Cute?" Luna fussed, "How could you still not believe me?"
Celestia gave Luna a short look, and said, "It's simply adorable you still think that the moon is made of cheese, but for the last time, it's not."
Luna only became even angrier, and even growled while her face ignited with red blush. "Last time, huh?! Look here, I'm not making this up!"
Celestia stopped, and turned around just as they had gotten into the yellow, sparkling sunlight. "Oh, come off it, Luna! I was going to let it slide, like I said I would, but why do you insist on pushing this preposterous theory of yours on me? Do you want me to accompany you to the moon just to see if this whole thing is true or not? Is that it? Because if so, you'll have to come up with something far better than that. For all I know, this whole thing could be a trap!"
Luna gave Celestia this look of disbelief after hearing such an outlandish accusation. "It's not like that at all! Celestia, please believe me!" She looked from Celestia's concerned eyes to her sun in the sky, and said, "Look... If you'll let me, I'll explain why I think the moon is made of cheese."
Celestia held her tongue for a good while, but then, she finally made a decision. "Very well, Luna. Why do you think the moon is cheese?"
Luna finally confessed, "I turned it into cheese!"
Celestia rolled her eyes.
"No, don't! Stop... not believing me! Big sis, I'm telling you the truth!"
"Is that so?" Celestia teased with lowered eyelashes. "I'm sorry, Luna, but I'm just finding it all very hard to take in. You turned your own moon into cheese? Why would you do that? Don't say it's because you needed something to eat, please. Otherwise, you would've made it into all different kinds of food."
Luna looked off to the left, looking completely busted. "Well, you're not wrong. You see, I first turned my moon into cheese to make sure that I could even do it. Then, I might've..."
Celestia came closer. "Go on, Luna. What else did you do?"
Luna gulped, and said, "I might've turned your sun into custard as revenge for putting me on the moon."
Celestia blinked a few times with extreme animation. "My... sun???"
Luna could only nod with guilt. "Yes, Tia..."
"Custard..."
"I did it just before being struck by the elements of harmony for a second time! I didn't expect things to happen the way they did, though... With the way everything has been lately, I'm feel just terrible about it now. Sister, please forgive me!"
Celestia chucked, and asked Luna foolishly, "You think my sun is made of custard?"
Luna just stared blankly at Celestia, her mouth agape. "Wha- huh?"
"Oh, my widdle Woona... Just when I thought you couldn't get any more childish, you go saying things like that!"
Now, under normal circumstances, Luna would've easily been able to just allow Celestia to continue thinking this. After all, it wasn't as if Luna hadn't tried t all to make Celestia believe her, but to leave this alone would've been wrong in the long run. It didn't take this filly very much time to figure that much out. "Princess Celestia," she said with pride. "I really hate to break it to you, but it would be a million times worse if you found out about this whole thing later on. I really did turn your sun into custard, and my moon really is made of cheese right now."
Celestia hadn't heard Luna call her by title at all since she had gotten back, so this time around, she would have to take Luna just a pinch more seriously. "Excuse me?"
Luna looked upwards, and slowly made eye contact with her sister's astonished face. She finished up with, "I wish I could take it all back. I am just... so, so sorry! Also, if..." She sniffled. "If, that is, you end up making the decision to punish me all over agin by sending me back to the moon, I totally get it. Besides, at least now I know not to turn the moon into just cheese, and to turn it into all kinds of food next time, so I'll be way better off." A tear broke through. "You'll probably be away better off without me, too."
Celestia huffed. "Luna..."
"Hopefully, in the next one thousand years, I'll not be so quick to act without even thinking for a second."
"You..." Celestia felt her lips quivering with fear for the truth. "You're not making this up this time. Are you?"
Luna looked away, ashamed. "Just look up, and look closely. You'll see it."
Celestia did so, and upon seeing the tiny, circular blotch located directly in the middle of her star, she'd huff again. This time, she sounded way more shocked, however. "My star... Is that...?"
"It's the topping, and behind it is a even bigger, gigantic plate. If you pay close attention to it as it's going down, you can also see its white ring."
Celestia looked from the gigantic serving of custard that floated in the sky to Luna with a scowl. "That's how you were turned into a filly... wasn't it? That must also be why it's taking you so long to revert back to your actual, alicorn self. You drained all of your magical abilities right at the last second in order to pull this off!" Celestia looked away, disappointment in her eyes. "You're just lucky you're still alive. For all we know, you very likely could've withered away after losing so much power."
Luna groaned, "I was fine, though! Your sun, and my moon? Not so much."
Celestia grumbled at Luna, "Thank you for reminding me. I had almost forgotten that we'll definitely still be needing to change everything back to normal once you're fully capable and ready to do so. I don't think I can manage something like that all by myself."
Luna simply looked up at her sister, and asked, "And then, you're sending me back to the moon, huh?"
"After I've finally gotten you back? I know only a thousand years can seem short, but the wait seemed like an eternity. Besides, you told the truth. I think you deserve just one more break." She frowned. "You don't have any other surprises for me, do you?"
Luna shook her relieved head with a toothy smile, and was promptly placed upon Celestia's back. "I promise you... your sun being turned into custard was my very last, diabolical plan. It was called Plan C!"
Celestia laughed as she headed down the halls. "So there were three in total?"
"Yep! There was plan A, which stood for acquisition. Didn't work out so well. Then, I tried plan B! It meant besiege! Also didn't play out like anything I had imagined in my head. Finally, if all else failed, I decided that turning your sun into something absolutely ridiculous would be better than nothing. So, plan C meant custard!"
Celestia simply laughed, and continued laughing, choosing to let all of her anger go. It was so peaceful, too, walking along, and talking to Luna. Five minutes into it, however, and she hadn't even noticed Luna changing shape and size. "That's adorable, Woona..."
"Uhh... I don't think you can call me that anymore," Luna said from behind.
"Why's that?" Celestia asked while turning her head.
"Well," Luna said in a much more mature voice. "It was cute when I was a filly..."
Celestia just continued to stare at the fully grown alicorn mare who still rested comfortably upon her sister's back. "Ah, yes... I see what you mean."
Getting off, Luna looked at Celestia awkwardly, and asked, "I suppose we should go take care of things?"
Celestia nodded, and said, "Absolutely... Although, I simply must ask you. Why did it have to be custard? It's not like I hate custard or anything."
Luna scratched the back of her head, and admitted, "To be honest, I was just running out of evil ideas, and seeing as how I was losing the battle, I was in even more need of a good laugh at the time."
Celestia and Luna chuckled together as they went off to bring everything back to normal. Just before leaving to go outside accompanied by Luna, however, Celestia warned her sister, "Just don't ever do it again, or you'll have nothing to eat but gorgonzola cheese for a week."
Luna shivered while slowing down. "That's fair." She then quickened her pace again in order to catch up with Celestia, and asked, "Can I still call you Tia?"
