Shift with the Tides

*Week 5 following the eclipse*

“Thank you all for coming,” Luna said to the mane six as they arrived in the throne room.  Luna was seated in her golden throne, right alongside Celestia’s—except Celestia wasn’t there.  “I had hoped to get a hold of you six sooner, but I realize you must have had a busy week, what with the rumors that spread about me and all.

Luna was surprisingly calm considering her situation, which made Twilight smile.  “Of course, Princess!”  The unicorn’s smile waned as she glanced around the room, looking for some glimpse of her teacher.  “Is…Celestia still…?”

“Actually, that’s what I’ve summoned you six for,” Luna said with a sigh.  “She can’t seem to come to terms with the whole eclipse-conception thing.  She’s locked herself in her room like a little girl.”

“How unbecoming,” Rarity replied, worried about the alicorn’s wellbeing.

“Yes, I suppose you could put it that way.  Come.”  Luna got off of her regal seat and walked towards the group and continued forward, leading them out the room and to the hallway where Celestia’s room was at.

When they all were in the hallway, Luna continued, “She can’t help but feel responsible for what happened to me.  She’s convinced herself that she was the one who impregnated me.”

“Tha’s preposterous!” Applejack exclaimed.  “Why would Celestia think that?  We all know very well that ther’s no way a girl-pony can breed with another girl-pony!  …Right?”

“Of course,” Luna replied.  “Nonetheless, we cannot simply wave away the fact that the conception most likely occurred during the solar eclipse.  Both Celestia and I not only control the sun and moon, but we are representations of them.  The union of sun and moon is…an intriguing possibility, to say the least.”

“It’s sad to know Celestia is so broken up about this,” Twilight said, “though it’s also good to know that you’ve seemed to regain your confidence.”

“With my sister’s absence from her duties, I’ve had to take over everything this past week, even the raising of the sun.  Ironic, isn’t it?” Luna mused, “how only a month ago, my sister was the one who was picking up the slack.”

“How is Celestia right now, anyway?” Pinkie asked.

“I wouldn’t know.  I haven’t seen her since last week.  I’ve tried to open the door, but at the rate she’s trying to isolate herself, I suppose I just as well not intrude.”

“She has to eat though, doesn’t she?” Rarity asked.

“Now that I have so many duties stacked over my own, I have no choice but to get a full night’s sleep,” Luna said begrudgingly.  “I can only assume Tia’s sneaking off to the fridge late at night while I’m asleep.”

“And what about the whole pregnancy thing?” Rainbow asked, having wanted to know the answer since she arrived.  “Since you know sorta how this happened, do you have any actual answers yet?”

Twilight added, “The main problem we’ve faced with ponies concerning your pregnancy is ‘how’ it happened.  Granted, most of the rumors have blown over, but there are still quite a few lingering ideas, and there’s seems to be little we can do about it until we have some definite answers.”

“Well…” Luna said in a sigh, “With my sister’s depression, I’ve had to do all the research on my own, and considering how we’re looking into an eclipse as the cause, my knowledge on the moon is only half the story.  So, no, I still have no new information.”

They seven ponies reached the front of Celestia’s door; Luna tapped the end of her shoed hoof against it.  “Sister?  It’s me; Twilight Sparkle and the others are here to see you.”  She leaned one side of her head against the door, but she didn’t hear a single sound.

“Are you sure she’s even in there?  She could’ve flown out the window,” Rainbow suggested.

“If Celestia had tried to flee out her window because of something as trivial as this, I’d be deeply ashamed in her,” Luna said as her dark-blue magic aura enveloped the handle of the door, and attempted to turn it.  It only jiggled a bit, but didn’t budge.  “Celestia,” she called to the inside of the room through the door, “I’ve given you enough time.  Now, we’re coming in whether you like it or not.”

Luna’s horn glowed, and with a light tap of the tip of her horn to the handle, the lock could be heard inside turning out of its latch, allowing the door to be opened.  Luna opened slowly turned the handle with her hoof and pushed the door open.  She was greeted by a dark room—the lights were out and the curtains had been closed over the window, keeping out the warm afternoon sun.

“Sister…?”  Luna flicked on the lights.  The covers on Celestia’s bed were scrambled and tossed all over the place, half of them on the floor.  Luna continued to look around to room, only to see that her sister wasn’t around.  Beginning to panic, she ran to the door that led to Celestia’s bathroom.  Disregarding courtesy, Luna knocked the door wide open and flicked on the light switch.  The pale-white hard fluorescent light flickered on, showing a plain white bathroom, but no sign of the white alicorn.

“She LEFT!” Luna exclaimed from inside the bathroom, just as the other ponies came inside.

“WHAT?!” Twilight screamed, hurting the ears of all the ponies next to her.

“How could you do this, Sister?!” Luna practically sobbed, “To simply abandon me—to abandon Equestria!  Damn it, Celestia, you can go to—”

“Hey look, I think she left a note!” Pinkie called out happily, oblivious to angst.

“What?!  Let me see that!” Luna almost shoved Pinkie to the ground, she was so anxious to read Celestia’s letter lying on the table.  She picked it up with her magic and quickly scanned it over.

“Well?” Rarity said, “What does it say, Luna?”

“…Apparently, my sister has left to visit a distant temple to further investigate the cause of my pregnancy.  She writes that she should be back within two days…but I have no clue WHEN she wrote this!”  Luna flung the paper in the air and threw her hooves up in frustration.  “Celestia, would it have killed you to at least PUT THE NOTE ON YOUR FRONT OF YOUR DOOR?!”

“Now what th’ heck’re we suppos’ta do?” Applejack asked Luna, “Should we go find her?  Do y’even know ‘bout this temple Celestia’s speakin’ of?”

“There are several distant temples in Equestria,” Luna said softly.  “Each of them are pretty much the same—full of monks and each with their own formidable library of ancient knowledge.  I wouldn’t even have a guess as to which Tia’s gone off to.”

“Well, you said ‘several’?” Rainbow asked.  “Just how many is ‘several’?”

“…I believe there are a total of eight—no, wait, nine temples that the Equestrian kingdom acknowledges.  Each one is very, very far away, though; half of them are up in the coldest mountains.  While I don’t know their locations on-hand, I can quickly look it up in our library—though I do know the nearest one is a day’s flight from Canterlot.”

“Should we search for Celestia?” Twilight asked the princess.

“I don’t think we should, though I am quite worried about my sister.  She must be desperate for answers right now…considering what we discovered last week.”

“I still don’t get it, though,” Rainbow cut in, “What’s got Celestia so riled up?  Sure, this is really weird and everything, but I mean come on!”

“…Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said slowly in a belittling tone, “Consider this for a moment: say, perhaps, you perform a sonic rainboom low to the ground, and it ends up directly hitting me.  Now, I’m completely unhurt from the incident, but two weeks later I find out that I am pregnant.  Not only that, but I became unexplainably pregnant the day I was hit by your sonic rainboom.”

Rainbow’s cyan face turned a slight shade of red.  “Well, I suppose I…”

“Now, consider that…and then add on that I’m your SISTER; your pregnant sister with no other explanation of how it happened, save for the far-from-normal event of being hit by your sonic rainboom.”

“Waugh!” Rainbow yelled.  “I just realized—that’s, like, incest or something, isn’t it!?”

Luna placed a hoof over her face in disdain.  “Yes, I believe that’s what has affected my sister the most: the fact that she could have somehow impregnated her own sister.  I hope she’ll be alright, with going to whatever temple it is and all; she’s been far from her normal self lately…”

“Are you sure there aren’t any hints or clues as to which temple Celestia’s gone off to?” Twilight asked hopefully.

Luna looked glanced around her sister’s room a second time, in a futile attempt to find evidence of Celestia’s destination.  With a sigh, she said, “It certainly doesn’t appear that way, Twilight Spar—”

“Hey, there’s something here in the trash!” Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully, glancing down into a small wastebasket next to Celestia’s regal bed.  Pinkie reached her head down into the garbage and pulled out a slightly-crumpled piece of paper with her mouth.  “T-ddhhh!  Amober mope!” she said with her lips half-closed on the paper.

Luna didn’t hesitate to take the piece from Pinkie’s mouth, using her magic to bring the letter up close to her face.  Rarity looked disgusted at the pink pony; “Pinkie!  How unsanitary!”

“Aww, don’t worry!” Pinkie replied, “It was the only thing in there, anyway!  Except for all the other pieces of paper in there.  Y’know, for a little garbage bin, it smelled surprisingly—”

“This is a letter from a temple monk!” Luna interrupted.  “Pinkie Pie, bring that waste bin over here, there may be more of these letters in there!”

“Okie dokie lokie!”  Pinkie grabbed the lid of the bin with her mouth, bringing it over to an anticipated Luna as Rarity watched from behind, utter disgust on her face.

Luna grabbed out each wad of paper and levitated them around the front of her face.  One by one, she unraveled them and quickly glanced over their contents.  “Bingo,” she eventually said.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“It appears that a mail exchange has been going on between Tia and all nine temples during her first day of isolation.  Each temple has given her different advice on this whole eclipse business, but one of them appears to say that they have books that may hold the answers.  Unfortunately…it’s the temple closest to Canterlot, the one that’s a day’s flight.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at the princess.  “…And that’s a bad thing why?”

“Tia said in this letter for us that she’d be back in two days.”

“Well sure, she said two days,” Applejack began, “but that don’t necessarily mean she left here on day one of her mopin’, does it?”

“Not day one, but take a look here.”  Luna levitated a letter written on a think, yellow-white paper, stationary that all the temples apparently shared.  “Unlike my sister, the monks wrote the dates and times of writing the letters and delivering them.  This latest one here was written four days ago, only a day after my sister had locked herself inside this room.  According to her, she should have been back—”

“Two days ago…” Twilight finished.

Rainbow’s eyes widened.  “Well, what’re we waitin’ for?!  Something’s up—we gotta find Celestia, and fast!”

“Patience, Rainbow,” Rarity said calmly.  “Luna, before doing anything rash,” she shot a look at the cyan pegasus, “we should definitely contact this temple Celestia is going to.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Luna said, nodding her head as she spoke.

The alicorn walked over to Celestia’s nightstand and opened up a small drawer, revealing a stack of fresh paper and unopened ink wells.  Luna lifted up a quill along with some ink and a single piece of paper, and began to write while speaking aloud, “To the Temple of Knowledge: I have just received word of my sister’s departure, and have reason to believe that she has sent for your locale four days ago.  She has yet to return, however, and if you could respond to us about this strange disappearance, we would be much obliged.  Sincerely, Princess Luna.”

Luna rolled up the scroll and hovered it in front of her face.  In a small flash, the letter spontaneously combusted in green flame and flew off into the sky, squeezing through the thin line between the closed windows.  “We should receive word soon.  Let’s just sit tight and wait for one of the monks to respond.”

“I wonder what made Celestia want to suddenly go off on her own to a distant temple?” Twilight said.

“Like we already discussed, she most likely is feeling a flurry of different emotions,” Luna replied, “We can’t fully understand just how she must be feeling, and we should simply let come what may with her, and allow it all to blow over.”

“At least you’ve gotten over all of this, Princess,” Rainbow replied with a grin.

“Hmm, I’m far from ‘over’ my own pregnancy, but I need to put on a brave face for not only Equestria, but for my sister.”

The ponies nodded in agreement.  “You’re very brave, Luna,” Rarity commented.

Later, a purple smoke formed in front of the moon princess and materialized into a piece of yellowed parchment.  Luna hastily grabbed it and read its contents.  “…It says: ‘Luna, we received word from Celestia regarding your predicament five days ago.  A day later, after another discussion by mail, Celestia decided that she would travel here and investigate our expansion of books herself.  Unfortunately, I have to admit that she never arrived.’…”

“Wah?!” Applejack was the first to exclaim.  “What’ya mean she never arrived?!  She’s the gosh-darn princess of the sun!  What coulda happened to her that she’d not make it to th’ temple?!”

Luna rolled the piece of parchment up and tossed it aside.  “I don’t know, but this has just gotten serious.  Girls, we’re going on search party.”

“What?” Twilight said, astounded.  “But Luna, you can’t just up and leave your post!  With Celestia missing, you’re the only princess Equestria’s got!”

“What else am I to do, Twilight Sparkle?”  The mares could hear the pain in the alicorn’s voice; no matter how hard she may try to hide it, to stay strong, she couldn’t completely keep back the emotion she was feeling—her sister was missing, and has been for four days, after all.

“Let us go in your stead!” Twilight said, prepared to take any duty for her princess.  “We’ll find Celestia, don’t you worry!  Besides, you have a baby inside you—venturing out into the dangerous world isn’t the best of ideas.”

Rainbow seemed indifferent to Twilight’s words.  “Yeah, it’s not like she’s an all-powerful alicorn or anything.  If we face some kinda danger out there, wouldn’t it be good to have Luna on hand?  She could take on anything!”

“If that were the case,” the purple unicorn rebutted, “then Celestia wouldn’t be missing right now.  Whatever has caused her to go off-course must be a big problem!”

“Which is all the more reason for Luna to come along!” Rainbow argued.  “We’re gonna need all the firepower we can get!”

Luna was considering her options, though she couldn’t come to a concrete decision.  “This is…quite the conundrum.  Honestly, I don’t know what we should do—wait…”

The murmuring between the ponies halted when Luna held up a hoof for silence.  Slowly lowering her arm, she closed her eyes and thought about something.  “Hmm…I think, we should first consult any letters or calls we’ve received in the past week.”

The others watched Luna, confused, as she walked to a small corded phone on the top of Celestia’s dresser.  The princess levitated the phone to her head as she dialed a number and waited for the other line to pick up.  “…Yes, hello, Bubbles?  Luna here, I need you to look over the archives of the past week, anything and everything that came into Canterlot involving my sister.  …My business is my own, just look it up please.”

After on-hold music could be heard coming from the phone, Twilight walked closer to Luna to ask, “You’re looking up any notifications about Celestia from other ponies in Equestria?  Shouldn’t any word about her location have been brought to you immediately anyways?”

Luna lowered the phone to her chest and faced Twilight.  “We’ve received several ridiculous calls since my gossip-worthy announcement.  With Celestia locked away in her room, I mentioned I didn’t want any messages about her location to be brought to me.  I honestly thought Tia would never just abandon the castle…”

The poor-quality sound emitting from the phone’s speaker abruptly stopped, and Twilight could hear someone speaking on the other line.  Luna was staring at the floor intently as she listened.  “You did?  Well, what did you find?  …What?!  Repeat yourself, Bubbles, I think I heard you wrong…  No, no I guess I heard you correctly…  When was the last call they made?  This morning!?  Well, thank you Bubbles, you’ve been a huge help.”  Luna practically slammed the phone back onto the dresser, both in a hurry and quite angry.  “Looks like we don’t have to go on an epic journey after all, girls.  Follow me.”

The mane six had trouble keeping up with the alicorn; at the speed she was charging down the Castle hallway, she looked as if she was preparing to take off to the sky.

“Keep ‘am comin’, burtendur.”

“Please,” the large stallion pleaded with a surprisingly weak voice, “You’re really drunk, and your behavior isn’t the best for my business…”

Celestia looked up angrily from her empty mug.  “Annoder one, bro.  Hard cider—extra hard—extra dry!  I wanna be parched from th’ drynesh of it!”

The bartender pony whimpered softly and grabbed the princesses mug; he brought it to the dispenser and filled it to the brim with the frothy liquid goodness, and handed it back to Celestia.  “Here you go, Princess…”

“Ish aburt tiem,” Celestia mumbled angrily, clenching the handle and bringing it up to her mouth for a large swig.

A small bell next at the entrance to “The Hardwood Floor Inn and Pub” jingled madly as the door to the bar swung wide open, a second later having Luna pop in.  She looked furious as she glared at her sister’s back, which was staring Luna in the face, Celestia looking the opposite direction at the wall behind the counter.  The white alicorn saw the look of surprise and relief on the bartender’s face, but she didn’t bother to see what it was for herself, and downed the mug.

“CELESTIA,” Luna said in the Royal Canterlot Voice, getting the attention of all ponies who hadn't already turned to see the cause of the door slamming open, “TURN AND FACE ME.”

Celestia unwillingly swung around in her barstool and looked at her sister with half-open eyes.  She appeared jaded at her sister’s rage.  “Ey, Woona.  How’s it goin’, big sis?”

Luna was taken aback.  “Sister!  How COULD you?!  You’re DRUNK!”

“Wah else’s new?  Nudder wun, mah gewd mahn,” she said looking over her shoulder to the fearful bartender.

“You may very well have something to do with my getting pregnant, Celestia,” Luna said in front of everyone in the bar; she was paying no mind to anyone except her sister.  “But to think that you personally got my pregnant?  The very notion is asinine!  I had allowed you to grieve over yourself like some kind of pouting child, but THIS?!  You’re pathetic, Sister!”

The bartender had brought a fresh mug for Celestia and set it on the counter next to her, but the white alicorn didn’t pick it up.  Instead, she glared at Luna with a surprisingly serious face, considering just how drunk she was.  Celestia jumped off the barstool and spread out her wings, displaying her size at her little sister as she walked closer to Luna.  “Me, pathetic?  You wound meh, Woona,” she jumbled Luna’s name again, but this time it sounded more mocking than it did drunken.  “I’m been traying to figure out jus’ wha’ the heck is WRONG with you, n’ you call meh ‘pathetic’?”  She shoved her face in Luna’s, less than an inch between the two alicorns’ snouts.

“Help?!” Luna exclaimed.  “You’ve been sitting here for Equestria knows how long, trying to drink away your pain!  Meanwhile, in CANTERLOT, I’ve been taking care of YOUR duties!  And you know what?  I do a pretty DAMN good job!  I’ve realized I don’t need to dwell in your shadow anymore, and THIS little performance certainly cements it!”

Celestia rolled her bloodshot eyes in annoyance.  “Woona, you dun’t umderstand.  I’ve traid my hardest, but somethin’ just keeps holdin’ meh back!”

Luna scrunched up her brow as Celestia said this.  “What on earth are you going on about?”

The bartender got up from cowering behind the counter.  “If I may, Princess Luna?  Celestia’s been coming here every night for the past four days…she never seems like herself…I don’t know, but that may have to do with what she’s rambling about…”

Celestia’s expression hardened; she shot icy daggers from her eyes at the poor stallion.  “Rambling, you say?” she said coolly.  “Oh nonono—tha’ wasn’t rambling.  I’ll SHOW you rambling…”  The insides of the sun princess’s eyes flickered with orange flames.

“Celestia, if you continue this, I will have you swiftly removed of power,” Luna asserted.  “You’ve shown in a matter of days that you are no longer worthy of the crown.”

In silent rage, Celestia didn’t even answer.  Spinning around to Luna in the blink of an eye, a massive inferno emitted from the tips of her graceful white wings, right at her sister.  The attack sent the dark-blue alicorn flying out of the pub and spiraling onto the dirt road just outside of the remote, forest-surrounded inn.  Celestia stepped out through the newly-created hole burned through the pub’s front wall.  “You wanna strip meh of ma powur, do you?”  The alicorn still spoke with slurred words, but she couldn’t look any more menacingly sober.

Luna wiped a small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.  “…And that solidifies it right there, my sister.  I’m afraid I have no choice but to strip you of your right to be called ‘princess’.”

Celestia snarled and brought a pillar of bright light, emitted from the highest point in the sky, down straight onto Luna.  The grass surrounding the impact zone crisped and the light-brown soil melted into one aqueous mass.  Celestia watched the light continue to burn away at the ground, grinning madly.  Within a few moments, the extensive pillar’s end hit the ground, revealing a damaged earth in the small radius around its collision site.

But the drunken alicorn’s smile vanished off her flushed face when she saw that Luna was not only unharmed, but was encased in a shell of a transparent, dark-blue liquid.  Unlike Celestia, Luna didn’t look very angry—rather, she was wearing the face of a scolding mother.

“Stop this now, Tia,” Luna said from inside the water bubble, her speech sounding slightly distorted.  “You’re a danger to you and everypony around you.”

“I’ll sotp when my sis givsh me mah RIGHTSH back,” Celestia said, starting to breathe heavily.

“I still cannot believe you’ve gone this far over the edge just because of something that happened to me,” Luna scorned while removing her protective barrier from around her, the glistening water splashing down onto the liquid soil sticking to her glass slippers.

Just as the Luna’s shield vanished, Celestia grit her teeth and smiled crudely; her horn glowed a pale-yellow as she prepared to give another onslaught.

“NOW!” Luna screamed to the sky.

Before Celestia knew what was happening, six ponies appeared out of the dense forest surrounding the inn and the dirt road near it.  Each of the ponies was wearing a necklace, save for one that was wearing a tiara.  All six of them leapt to Luna’s side, but every one of them looked hesitant to attack.  Through the solar alicorn’s thick beer-goggles, she could see each one of the ponies around her sister begin to glow, and a giant rainbow suddenly shot into the sky before bringing itself down onto her.

Celestia passed out before she could see the ritual finish.