Chapter 1
Princess Luna’s morning usually begins far after lunch, just before the ponies starting to cook dinner. But that time—
“Twas brilling—” the words went through her head, “and slicky— cows? tows?”
For some reason, Discord's amusing rhyme didn't occur to her. But when Luna lifted her head, blinking groggily, she immediately realized the reason for her forgetfulness: newly rising sun was shining outside the open balcony door, and the white figure of her sister could be seen behind it. Сurtains were swaying in the breeze and brushing over Luna’s muzzle, waking her up.
And she wasn't the only one awakened. A quiet grunt on the other side of the bed turned into a disgruntled growl, the blanket flew aside, and a sleepy dark gray muzzle appeared next to nocturnal alicorn's head.
“It's all right, honey," the former princess of the night turned and nuzzled her husband's disheveled mane. “Go back to sleep."
Red and green eyes looked at her in annoyance, but then, without a word, the unicorn nodded towards the crib in the corner. After a brief thought, Luna nodded, too. The stallion got up, carried the peacefully sniffling heap of hair on his back with telekinesis, and left the bedroom in search of a dark and quiet room.
With a sigh, Luna trotted quietly to the balcony. The older sister had enough bad habits, but waking her younger one up early wasn’t among them.
“Morning, Celes—”
“Ah!” the white alicorn flinched, and the piece of paper in front of her crumpled and flew away. But it stopped halfway, smoothed out, and returned back to Celestia when she recognized Luna. “What is it?!” the former princess of the day asked harshly, and then she immediately lowered her voice glancing towards the door.
“That's what I wanted to ask you," Luna said, more than ever convinced that there was something wrong with her older sister. “Mine's gone, don't worry."
“Sorry—”
“It’s OK," the alicorn of the night gestured her blue wings vaguely. “So what happened?”
At first Celestia said nothing, but certainly not to hide any fact. It looked more like she was thinking about how to break the news.
“You see—" she began, "even though I've left the throne, I still correspond with Twilight Sparkle. No, I trust her!” she warned the younger sister before she said anything. “Let's just consider this as a teacher's concern for her past student. This morning I asked her again how she was doing—”
“Okay", Luna nodded slowly. “So what?”
A sheet of paper flew right up to her, and Luna had to pull back to read the lines.
"My dearest princess, don’t worry, I'm doing great," she read aloud. “Anything wrong?” she repeated the question, shifting her gaze to a fidgeting Celestia.
“Twilight never called me dearest!” the white alicorn almost shouted back, stomping her forelegs. "She called me wise, esteemed, gracious! Beloved, after all!” Celestia blushed a little bit. “But not “dearest”! Something must have happened to her!”
“Well, then, ask her," Luna shielded her eyes from the bright sun with a hoof and yawned furtively. “You've trampled more than one opponent, but you're impossibly timid when it comes to your favorites."
“I already had," Celestia muttered, and then she blurted out. “And I'm not timid!”
"Follow my lead," Luna continued nonchalantly, chuckling mentally. “When Sombra and I started dating, I told him almost immediately that I liked it dog—”
Now the letter crumpled up and darted toward her in an obvious attempt to shut her up. Under Celestia's furious, embarrassed gaze, Luna bounced her head around, ducking and laughing.
They were interrupted by a golden flash, and a new scroll fell gently to the floor. Celestia picked the letter up and hastily unfolded it.
“My dearest princess, don’t worry, things are going really good,” she read somberly. "I'm just finishing paying severance payments to the disbanded servants—" Why did she fire the servants?!” Celestia exclaimed, twisting the paper back and forth in front of her eyes.
“You know her very well," Luna still didn't see the reason for her sister's concern. With a regretful look back at the bedroom, she walked leisurely across the balcony to the next door leading to the kitchen. “Twilight always dislikes being fussed over and having her work snatched from her hooves.”
“I know, but why didn't she discharge them right away?!”
“She didn't want word to get out," Luna said from the kitchen, taking a couple of coconuts out of the fridge and looking around for a knife.
“No, there's definitely something wrong here," Celestia flicked her tail anxiously. She retrieved her writing stuff from her dimensional bag and quickly scribbled a reply. When the letter disappeared in a flash and Luna found the cleaver, the conversation resumed. “She's not telling me something," the white alicorn repeated stubbornly, rearing up and resting her forelegs on the balcony railing. “Just like you didn't talk about your dates with Sombra."
“But it ended well," Luna chopped the coconut with the cleaver, taking the top right off. “Don’t worry, my dearest sister."
“Don't talk like that," Celestia shivered uncomfortably with a chill down her back.
“Really, don't worry," Luna insisted, slicing the tip off the second coconut. “That time I only got pregnant."
With a snort, Celestia glanced over her shoulder, but noticed only her younger sister's blue tail flickering through the kitchen door.
“You got pregnant by Sombra because you've been dating him in secret for a year!”
“If I’d told you, there'd be nothing left of him but a charming pile of ashes," Luna said confidently, using a spoon to knead the banana she'd found in the refrigerator. “You've always been prejudiced against him. That's why I waited a year and told you only after I got pregnant. Don’t worry, my dearest sister.”
Celestia's left ear twitched, which was a bad sign. Today everyone was telling her not to worry. Why didn't she feel that way herself?!
“Exactly!” she yelped in a huff, glad no one could see her like that. “He only wanted the foal for his evil plans, not you, what good will come of that?!”
“Sometimes I think you're jealous," Luna finished mixing the mashed banana and coconut juice and put a straw in each nut.
Celestia couldn't find anything to object, and then it flashed again. The new scroll nearly tore as she grabbed and unfolded it, reading the lines quickly.
"Don’t wor—" she choked on the word and dropped the piece of paper, which was immediately picked up by Luna, who had just entered the balcony.
"Don’t worry, my dearest princess", she read as if nothing had happened. "As you know, employees are considered employed only if they are actually working, per labour laws. Since the palace has been destroyed, the servants can no longer perform their direct duties, so I have seen fit to dismiss them and compensate them accordingly”.
“What does she mean by “destroyed”?” Celestia whispered, feeling like the pieces of the palace walls had just flown thousands of miles away and fallen on her head. “Huh? Sister, what else does Twilight write?”
“There's nothing else here," Luna looked at the sheet of paper in puzzlement. “Should I write her to explain?”
“Yes—”
It took Luna a minute to write and send the letter. Then she hoofed the coconut cocktail to her sister, who was still staring into nothing.
“So, I shouldn't worry?” Celestia finally turned her confused gaze to Luna, who responded with a confident nod:
“I did well with Sombra. And Twilight and her friends will be just fine."
The white alicorn grabbed the cocktail and began to sip noisily right over the edge, feeling the need to recover herself with the large amount of sweetness. And it worked: Celestia regained her composure with every new sip she drank. She even began to enjoy the view from her balcony. And the new letter that appeared in a flash was received with almost cold-blooded equanimity.
“Read," she said.
“My dearest princess, don’t worry", Luna cleared her throat and read out. “With each new day I learn more and more about governance and develop more and more respect for you. I try to imitate you in everything! For example, by now I've thought of a dozen possible ways to end the conflict with Zebranica that started over trade disputes. Especially because the situation needs to be resolved as soon as possible! After my attempts to force zebras to make friendship their saboteurs launched an attack by blowing up the Canterlot Castle. I took care of the victims and dismissed the rest of the servants with generous severance packages. So, don’t worry, my dearest princess!”
“Well," Luna concluded with satisfaction. “See, she writes for you not to worry.”
Celestia continued to enjoy the view from the balcony. Meanwhile, a pillow surrounded by golden glow floated from the bedroom to her. The former princess of the day turned around and smacked her muzzle right into it and let out a long howl. Luna slurped her cocktail in silence for a while. Then she approached and hugged her sister with her wing.
“So, nothing to worry about?” Celestia's muffled voice came through the pillow.
“Don’t worry, my dearest sister," Luna confirmed. “Don’t worry, be happy.”