Chapters Princess Celestia stared out into the dark night. She couldn’t understand why her subjects loved it more than her beautiful day. Sure, there were the striking meteor showers, constellations, planets to spot, and the great games of hide-and-seek that could be played under the cover of night, but nopony could barely see anything on most nights. It was a struggle just to see their hoof in front of their faces. But Celestia had the sun! It made the food grow! Kept the ponies warm! Let them see the joys of the world! Why did some ponies sleep during the day, and do anything to stop the first rays of sunlight from reaching their eyes?
“Sister? What are you doing up so late? The sun has hours before it is scheduled to rise!”
Celestia turned to see her younger sister, Princess Luna. The Princess everyone seemed to adore. Compared to Celestia herself, she didn’t even look much. She was slightly smaller, with light sapphire hair with many curls, a navy coat, and her rather small crown. Celestia thought her crown was the only feature good about her, with its pearl moon symbol and sleek blue shine. It looked shamefully better than Celestia’s rather tacky-looking golden crown, even though hers had the bejewelled sun insignia embedded upon it.
“Oh… I was simply… erm...”
Celestia stumbled to find a reasonable excuse for being up this late. Normally she would go to bed and wake up early to raise the sun, not stay up to judge the night, and see what it had that her day did not. The sun princess looked quickly to the skies, picking out the first thing that came to her head.
“I was simply… admiring your constellations! They are ever so… pretty!” Celestia finished, forcing out a small smile. Luna was not so convinced by her excuse, though. Celestia normally refused to compliment Luna on what she did with her sky, contrary to the many compliments heaped upon the light-filled sky of the day.
“Really?” She said, a look of disbelief on her face. Although she was the slightly younger of the two, she had a more matured attitude, and took no nonsense.
Princess Celestia looked back at the stars, staring enviously at the bright specks of light. She had to admit, they looked very pretty. But not so pretty they should overshadow her sun and warmth.
“Sister, there must be something on your mind, or you would have never used such a silly excuse.”
“I-it doesn’t concern you. You shouldn’t bother…” Celestia faltered, knowing Luna would simply keep pressing her for details.
Celestia had to take a break to take several big breaths, and Luna tried to calm her sister down.
The only thing Celestia could do was stare regretfully at her younger sister, before slowly moving away. She didn’t want to continue this conversation, especially with all the star-gazers and guards dotted everywhere. Some were already concerned with the commotion, taking valuable seconds to stare at the high balcony. But they turned their attention away quickly, not wanting to miss the wonderful night and all it had for them to see.
“Goodnight, Celestia. Sleep well!” Luna called after, but Celestia was already moving through the doors that connected the inside of the palace to the balcony.
Luna turned her head to her night sky, and gazed at the sun, nearly completely out of sight on the far horizon. It would have been impossible to spot if Luna was on one of the lower balconies, as the faraway hills that surrounded Equestria towered above nearly all the buildings that were built. Just as it was swallowed by the darkness, Luna sighed. Was her night truly what ponies enjoyed more?
Princess Celestia grumbled, and slowly lifted her head. She didn’t need a mirror to see the tangled up fluff that was once her beautiful pink mane, because ever since she had started having nightmares, her hair always managed to get knotted. It was a pain to brush, even with her extraordinary magic.
But her hair could wait. Even though her subjects mostly ignored her sun, she needed to raise it anyway. Even if they didn’t, she enjoyed the light and warmth like it was her own child. And like any child, it needed attention and love, exactly what Celestia gave it.
Pushing the glass doors that lead to her balcony open, she slowly walked outside, into the slightly lighter night. She sighed, and closed her eyes, willing her magic to work. Like any child, the sun did have tantrums, and often refused to do what Celestia told it to do. But after many hundred years of experience, she managed to coax it to wake up from its slumber in a matter of seconds. Respectively, the moon sunk down into the horizon, guided carefully by Celestia. Even though she was skilful with her sun when raising it, the moon was slightly different. Not only with the moon being slightly smaller, Celestia had to carefully conceal the stars and adjust the heat slightly to meet the day’s needs. It was ever so complicated.
Seeing the sun taken care of, Celestia decided now was the time for untangling her messy mane. It would be a nightmare, but she must keep up her appearance. Not only was it an important part of the monarchy, but her parents were coming to visit in a few weeks for the Winter Moon Celebration. She knew that they would be updated with all the new gossip, so if the servants had seen her acting so unbothered towards her looks, her parents would immediately be on her case. That, and she was trying to make her mane look more impressive than her sister’s.
~
“Oh… good morning, Spring Melody.” Celestia replied to her trusty personal maid. Celestia considered the light orange Pegasus one of the few who understood her thoughts on the night and day.
“Thank you, Your Highness!” Spring Blossom replied, flicking through the notepad.
“Ahem… and it seems you have a letter from your parents concerning their visit…” Spring continued, picking out a small envelope and pushing it onto the table for Celestia to read later. She then scanned the rest of the page, and was slightly shocked to find no other appointments had been requested. Even with her low popularity, Celestia was normally involved a lot in important events, even ones which were not about or for her.
The light orange pony gently folded the notepad back into her saddlebag, signalling to Celestia that announcements were over, and it was time to eat. The pink-maned pony turned her expression of annoyance around to one that was slightly happy, since the palace always served the best meals that got her put of the worst of moods. And all it really took was a meal that involved bananas in some way.
“I do hope you remembered to order that shipment of Crystal Bananas last week like I asked…” Celestia reminded her maid, and all Spring said was:
Reassured that her favourite treat was safely stored in the kitchens, Celestia closed her eyes and leaned further back into her cushioned chair. It was often hard to decide what to eat, since diets were strictly enforced and it was rare that the princess’ could steal a snack to cure their hunger between meals.
“Hmm… I’ll have one bowl of banana bran flakes, toast with apricot jam and a cup of tea, please.” Celestia decided. It was hard cutting down on bananas, but her advisor Citrus Fruit had warned her eating too much of her favourite fruit would not end very well. Plus, apricot jam was an appetizing delicacy, and tea was equally scrumptious. Why not have them all?
Meanwhile, Celestia’s gaze followed the orange pegasi down the hallway, keeping her soft magenta eyes on her until she was no longer in her eyesight. She then sat back upright, and looked at all the glass windows adorning the grand hall, where she and Luna normally ate. The majority of them depicted all the successes of the royal sister, plus other important events in Equestrian history. There was the defeat of Discord, the discovery of the Crystal Empire, the discovery of the Elements of Harmony… many events. Celestia wondered how the ponies constructed such beautiful works of art.
While looking at the window depicting the discovery of the elements, Celestia noticed something. Was it her, or did Luna look like the most beautiful of the two? And why way SHE the one holding the tiara? CELESTIA was the one who found them and used the tiara! Luna herself only wielded two of the elements, while Celestia took control of the other four.'How come Luna get's all the credit for everything I've done for Equestria?...'
It didn’t take long to devour the breakfast Celestia had ordered. The princess thanked Spring Blossom for her work, and exited the room.
As Celestia walked down the richly decorated hallways, she began to let her mind drift back to the train of thought she had before her maid interrupted. Of how she could make her day more… enjoyable for her subjects.
‘Well, I could make the clouds into certain shapes…’ she thought, taking a left turn down the halls.‘Maybe I could do something to the sun’s light… and possibly try and make something big, that would stretch across the sky so everypony can see it…’
She followed the set of stairs that came up on her right, and started to slowly walk up the carpeted steps, as to not trip over or miss a step while she made her way upwards.
‘Yes, that would be nice… maybe; it could be a big multi-coloured ribbon that stretched across the sky. I would have to try and make it out of the weather, though.’
As Celestia stepped off the stairs, she continued along the richly decorated halls to her quarters, where she could start planning her colourful sky-ribbon.
‘Yes, that would probably win them all over! Luna can’t create anything with so many colours at once…’
Finally, the sun princess found herself in front of her bedroom door. She couldn’t help but admire it, with all the fine details that had been engraved onto it. With its beautiful sun insignia at the top, gemstones arranged in intricate patterns and shiny yellow glow, Celestia felt a tiny bit of happiness creep its way into her mind. It had cost a fortune to get the door made, and thankfully Celestia’s parents had paid for it all.
~
Luna stepped back slightly, before explaining herself.
As Celestia stepped back to close the door, Luna used her gilded hoof to block it quickly.
“Sorry, but you’ll either have to go without me or hold the meeting tomorrow. I’m tired, Luna. And I’m certain nopony will talk to me anyway.” Celestia replied quickly, shutting the door quickly before Luna could stop it. She had to finish planning her sky-ribbon, and she had only just managed to find out how to do it. Using a bit of rain and her sun rays, she could manage a huge ribbon of colours that would stretch all over the country. Now she had to think up a good name and make sure her plan would work.
Luna just stared at the door, dumbfounded. It took a few minutes before she realised Celestia was not coming out, so she continued back down the stairs and into the court, where all her advisors and politicians were waiting. Every one of them were so caught up with their talking, none of them noticed how nervous Luna was, or why the ‘other alicorn’ was missing.
"What could be more important to Tia than our own country...?"
Princess Luna took her seat in the court. She looked forlornly at the empty chair next to her, but knew she couldn’t do anything to change her sister’s mind.
“Since everyone concerned is here, we may begin the meeting!” Citrus Fruit called out. The bright red maned unicorn was one of Luna’s best advisors, and always came to any meeting without question. Citrus then took her seat, and everyone turned to face a dark vermillion stallion seated n, closely to Luna. The stallion, Rishi, was known to be able to predict the future. This made him very welcome at the royal palace, since he played an important role in keeping Equestria safe.
“As you all should know…” Rishi began.
The other ponies in the court started talking concernedly, until Luna gave them a long stare. Luna then motioned to Rishi to continue once the noise hushed.
“Ahem… and it seems to concern another alicorn.”
Rishi took a moment to recollect the prediction that he had experienced only a few hours before.
“Did you see my sister in this… prediction?” Luna asked uncertainly, hoping the answer to be she was helping Luna to stop this alicorn.
“I could see her getting burned with fire… being consumed with it… and then she just disappeared.”
Luna stepped up from her seat and immediately started running towards the double doors. She had to tell Celestia of this. She had to warn her.
~
Just as Celestia was about to exit her room and board her carriage to Cloudsdale (for she would need their help with creating all these spectacular sights), Luna burst into the room, startling the sun princess and causing her to drop the papers which held her plans.
“’Tia! I have something extremely important to tel…”
Luna looked at all the papers strewn across the floor, and realised she had interrupted some sort of important planning her sister was taking care of. It must have been very urgent work, for Celestia quickly used her magic to lift the papers, fold them neatly and pack them into her plush saddlebag.
“Oh sister! I did not realise you were working. But it is very imperative that I speak to you!” Luna apologised quickly. She knew Celestia was staying up late again, so she must be very tired. Celestia simply clasped the folds of her bag together, nodded and began to leave. Luna called out again; annoyed her sister didn’t seem to care about important work anymore.
“Sister! Where do you think you are going? Didn’t I say I needed to speak to you?”
Celestia simply turned her head and replied:
Luna was shocked. Celestia wasn’t normally this rude, and what she had to say could defiantly not wait! Why, the lives of the two sisters and the fate of their kingdom could be at risk of this fiery alicorn! Luna could just not comprehend her sister’s lack of interest in her kingdom, which she had a responsibility to take care of!
“Celestia! This conversation shall not be put off!” Luna shouted at her older sister, a rare sight for anyone.
Both the royal sisters were shocked at Luna’s outburst, and several other ponies nearby were starting to investigate the commotion that was happening nearby. Luna had an extremely loud voice, and she was known to have made several ponies deaf.
Celestia stared at Luna for a short amount of time, before starting to laugh. But not nicely, as she normally laughed. No, this was a laugh of spite, as if what Luna had just said was the simple plea of mercy from a bullying victim.
“And how have you discovered this ‘threat’ then, hmm? Did that old goat Rishi tell you? I wouldn’t trust anything he says. He just had a lot of delusions, and gets lucky every now and again.” Celestia snapped back.
With that last word, Celestia strided out of the room in a huff, and made her way quickly down to the stables where her carriage was being prepared. While she did not have any adoring fans like Luna, she was still a princess and she would have her way.
Luna started to run after her sister as she strided down the halls, but she quickly lost her in the maze of corridors. Although Luna had lived here for many years, it was still quite challenging to navigate the passageways that connected everything in the palace.
Luna gave up her search, and sat down on a conveniently placed chair near the library. She was still made at her sister for her lack of care for Equestria, but also scared. Celestia never acted the way she had tonight, even on a bad day in court when someone said she should step down and let Luna take full control of Equestria herself.
Letting her gaze drift to the open window on her left, she noticed the moon would need lowering soon. If Celestia was not back by then, she would raise the sun herself as well, although it took a lot of magic and coaxing to lure down her sister’s celestial object as well as her own.‘Does ‘Tia care at all for the safety of herself and her subjects…?’
Princess Celestia looked out onto the dark land below her. It wasn’t often she got to ride in her chariot during the night, but she had a specific date planned for her ‘redecoration’ of her sky. And it was extremely soon.
Celestia smiled as she remembered the flying school she had set up in Cloudsdale. The Solar Sky Training School, she had called it. She had intended it to be only for the most skilled or more upper-class flyers, but now several other types of Pegasi were being able to get a few years of training. This was because of a thing Luna had invented called ‘Scholarships’. Apparently, every year 29 instructors go to 29 different flying schools with one scholarship each. If they spot a good flyer, they offer the scholarship to them, and most of them accept it.
This act was one of the many things that made Luna more popular than Celestia. Most ponies (including Unicorns and Earth ponies), had complained about the pressure that was put on somepony to complete the trial test successfully. True, it was a highly difficult agility test, along with several workshops and a written essay plus a full on booklet test, but it was a school intended for the most skilled. Wonderbolt material, even. So of course it was going to have an expensive fee to attend. But nopony would take that as an excuse why poor Pegasi couldn’t get the training and job offers they ‘deserved’.
Celestia was jolted out of her mental rant about Pegasi when her carriage landed in the docking area of the Tornado Carriage-port. Turns out, many ponies took carriages to and from the cities in the sky, so they made airports for them. And named them absurd names. And only Luna got exclusive docking stations, Celestia had to use the ‘commoners’ docking stations. Not very proper of royalty, however ignored they may be.
Celestia gently stepped off her gilded carriage, and waited for her guards to unattach themselves from the front of her carriage and join her. Unpopular as she was, there have been several attempts to assassinate her, and she wasn’t taking any chances. Perhaps after the few alterations to the sky, her subjects would love her like they did when she defeated Discord.With Luna.
~~~
The time taken to get the Weather Office took a lot longer as it normally would, mainly because Celestia kept getting distracted by the beautiful sights in Cloudsdale. The city was adorned with flowers, and the clouds were crafted into intricate shapes. Stalls and shops popped up at every corner, the alluring smells of the food products hitting Celestia’s nostrils like a barbecue on a fine summer’s day. It was so hard not to stop and buy that corndog or the bright bouquet from the sweet old pony. But she had a job to do, and she must do it fast. Or else Luna would raise her sun again, and give her a huge rant on the responsibilities of being the co-ruler of Equestria.
Turning a corner, Celestia spotted the brown door of the Weather Office. She nodded her head towards the door, and her guards immediately went up and opened them to make way for Celestia. She smiled at them, and continued her way. The Pegasi she wanted to see worked on the seventh floor, so Celestia had to take the lift. It was highly awkward, standing in an enclosed space with two guards and a lot of random ponies. But Celestia just couldn’t go and jump out of the window and fly to the top, could she?
Slowly, the lift rumbled to life. Other ponies left and got in, but eventually it reached the seventh floor. Celestia exited the rickety lift, and made her way to the McCann office. Michael McCann was the owner, and he was in charge of all the custom weather tweaks. The business was thriving, but Michael was having trouble with prices. Only rich ponies could afford to twist the weather, and many thought the city of Cloudsdale was too ‘uncouth’ to make a visit. He was constantly lowering the prices, and setting out many advertisements to get more customers.
‘Hmm… maybe I should pay in full today…’ Celestia thought, as she tapped gently on the door with her golden shoes hooves.‘He is struggling… and all the freebies won’t last much longer if I keep abusing my position.’
Celestia made her way over to the comfiest chair she could find, and nodded at her guards to stay at the door. Even though she was very careful with protection, she wanted her new ‘redecorations’ to remain a secret. Michael shut the door carefully, and made his way to the dusty filing cabinets on his side of the large oak desk. He took a few seconds searching, and pulled out a big cerulean folder. He dusted it off and laid it on the desk, opening the pages and flicking through them.
“Let’s see… ah! Your last request was about 3 months ago.” Michael noted quickly, surprised at how fast Celestia had come again to request weather changes.
“Ah, thank you, Your Highness!” Michael exclaimed, happy he had actually gotten the full price for his work this time.
“What if my plans will be impossible to pull off?”
“So you see, the positions of the raindrops should effectively reflect the light, and if the axis of the rain is calculated correctly, they should shine out many colours!”
Celestia turned back to Michael, who was sitting dumbfounded at all the scientific words and nonsense the elder pony was spurting. It seemed difficult, but the pay was good and Celestia had managed to put together some instructions for him and his weather team.
“Well then Your Majesty, I shall see what me and my team can do!” Michael spoke up, gathering the papers and the money that Princess Celestia had placed upon his desk.
“Do you have a specific date for when you wish us to perform such a feat?”
Celestia nodded, staring absent-mindedly out of the window. It illuminated Cloudsdale’s weather office’s gardens perfectly, even in the inky night that had been set forth into the sky. The Princess couldn’t imagine how the tough Pegasi of Cloudsdale could take the time to tend to a garden.
“I would like you to do this tomorrow, at precisely half past one. Do you think you can do it?”
Michael broke a sweat. He knew it would take his team a lot of time to perfect this ‘Rainbow’ the Princess had made, and even though they had about eleven hours to practice, he was sure his team couldn’t correctly drop the water in the right axis in the dark! It was one of the things Michael hated about the night. Less time for he and his Pegasi team to practice extravagant tricks for his customers.
“Of course, Your Majesty!” Michael bowed, edging his way towards the door.
“We shall try our best in the little time we have!”
The orange Pegasus opened the door carefully, and beckoned for Celestia to leave. His business was finished, and he now had to rewrite the instructions to something more easily understandable for his weather team. For some reason, vocabulary wasn’t very well-taught in Cloudsdale, with the Pegasi only learning necessary words they needed to get through in life. Only lucky ponies, like Michael, could afford higher education for important jobs, such as running a business in the Weather Office.
Celestia gracefully exited, and made her way to the creaky, musty smelling elevator that served as her transport to the bottom of the building. She honestly didn’t want to step in the metallic box, and her guards shared the same feelings. But they had to, or Luna would hear about it and nag about it to Celestia. Again.
Michael shut the door, sighed, and began the long task of re-writing the Princess’ instructions. It was going to be a long night, and a very tedious morning.
~
A large crowd of ponies swarmed out of the court where the meeting had taken place. After discussing ways to stop the threat, doubling security around Celestia (Or how the advisors called her, Princess Luna’s elder sister ), and monitoring the upcoming Winter Moon celebration, the meeting was called off. Luna had requested the court meet again one day before the celebration to check up on all the plans they had arranged, and since there was really nothing left to do the advisors agreed.
Luna stayed perched on her black throne, flicking through state papers she had neglected for a while. While she had been planning this year’s Winter Moon celebration, Luna had neglected her royal duties, resulting in her grumbly sister taking some of the work for herself, and the rest piling up for Luna to see to. It was going to be a long night, but Luna couldn’t be bothered to heave the papers to her room to finish in privacy. No, it would take far too long for even an Alicorn of her ability to lift the pile of paper that was set before her into her room in the Lunar Tower. So she got to work.
Luna sifted through the papers specifically for her, such as invites to parties, replies from all the chefs she had employed for her celebration, order forms for the decorations she had requested, and a letter inquiring when Luna would visit Ausponyla for the trade meeting. Luna noticed that Celestia hadn’t been invited, but didn’t mind. She just wrote the reply confirming her appearance, and set the envelope aside for the mail-pony to see to.
The next batch of paperwork was logs from her treasury and other profits coming in from Equestria. Luna kept special track of those, since she always wanted money to be available to Equestria if they needed it. It took a while the scan the papers thoroughly, but Luna could see no problems with the income that was being collected from taxes. Those papers were signed and sealed, ready to be delivered to the vault for storing.
The last pile was mainly newsletters and newspapers from different towns across Equestria. Luna had asked for those to be ordered, for she liked to be informed of any small event in towns. Nothing much was happening, a few marriages and a mini-party for the Winter Moon celebration was all that was really happening. The letters were placed aside.
~
Luna looked at the large clock glowing in the corner of the court. It had only taken her two hours to do her paperwork, and it was now time to lower the moon for her ponies to rest.
Yawning loudly and stretching her elegant, cerulean wings, Luna stood up and walked towards the large balcony at the end of the room. If Celestia hadn’t already lowered the sun for her, then Luna would have to do it herself‘’Tia really needs to start taking responsibility for her royal duties…’ Luna thought, staring out into the sunny horizon.
‘This is the eighteenth time I’ve had to lower the sun in her place!’
Luna took one final look to see if Celestia was on another balcony, but she could not see the familiar pink mane of her elder sister. Sighing, Luna slowly started to release her magic.
The Sun lowered very slowly, for it wasn’t comfortable or familiar with Luna’s night magic. Luna struggled to convince the sun to descend, but in the end she won. The ball of orange light reluctantly sunk down into the sky, and a white oval of light soon took its place. It didn’t take long for Luna to firmly lock the moon in place, and soon Luna trotted off to her midnight court. There was often a large crowd of ponies queuing up to propose their requests to her, and Luna never tired of listening to her little ponies’ needs.
Gracefully opening the polished onyx door, Luna stepped into her dark sapphire court. As she predicted, there was an extremely large line of ponies waiting to speak with their princess of the night. But they all seemed frightened, and angry. Luna was confused as to why they would be like that, since normally all ponies wore smiles or at least friendly faces when they came to midnight court.
‘What could have possibly made them so upset?...’
Author's Note
I'm so sorry about the long delay! I'll try to now keep updates at least once a week!
Luna sat gracefully onto her polished onyx throne, and signalled to Citrus Fruit to start Midnight court. Citrus always attended both courts of the princesses, but secretly she preferred the Midnight court more than the Dawn court which Celestia held. This was because Luna got more requests than Celestia, and at the end of court there was a big refreshments table in the gardens for the ponies that were hungry after the long wait to propose their requests. Celestia only did the bare minimum nowadays, and she often declined requests from her subjects.
Citrus Fruit opened a small blue book, and levitated a pen towards the first blank page. This book was a log of the court, and Citrus would record the requests of the ponies, and the response Luna gave. This always reminded Luna of requests she had forgotten.
“The Midnight court is now in session!” Citrus announced loudly. The noise startled some of the ponies, but nearly instantly a dark green earth pony stepped out from the front of the queue and approached Luna. She bowed respectively, and raised her yellow eyes to meet the light blue ones of Luna.
“Good evening, Princess Luna,” the pony began.
“My name is Summer Vines, and I am a florist in the city of Fillydelphia”.
Citrus scribbled away the details of Summer Vines intently. It was a recent rule to tell the Princess of the court what job you had, as this can affect if you get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ for your request. For example, if you were a baker and asked for more money to buy a few more ovens and ingredients, you will probably get a ‘yes’, because you are using it for business purposes, not just personal reasons.
“My request is that… well perhaps you could…” Summer started, shifting her legs slightly. She seemed uncomfortable about what she was about to request, but she straightened up and looked at Luna once more with a determined expression.
“My request is that Princess Celestia is revoked of her title of ‘princess’.”
~
The Lunar guards looked at each other worriedly. Citrus Fruit looked up from her writings at Luna. Luna stared at Summer Vines with a shocked expression. She couldn’t believe what had just been asked of her. Before Luna could open her mouth to protest, Summer Vines began talking again.
~
Luna kept mentally raging until she reached her room in the Lunar tower. It was getting late, and she couldn’t stay awake all night. It took only a flash of Luna’s blue magic to untie the locking spell she had placed on her door, and in a few swift seconds the light blue mare was lying peacefully on her bed.
Luna stared at the sky and sighed. She had so many worries and concerns, yet no-one to vent them to. It was horrible.‘The Winter Moon celebration is tomorrow as well.’ Luna thought, letting her mind slowly slip into a dream-like state.
‘Sure, I and the council have made plans just in case of any foul play, but why do I still feel like we haven’t done enough?’
Luna pondered this question until her eyes dropped, and she fell into a deep sleep. It was a satisfying way to end a chaotic day, but still the question hung in the air, with no-one answering Luna’s worries.
‘What is going to happen tomorrow?...’
Author's Note
Alrighty! Off to a good start on the 'one-chapter-a-week' thing.
