Author's Note
This has continuity with several prompts I wrote for the Twiluna Collab, so if you've read those you should be familiar with everything going on here. You need not have read them, they just come before the start of this. Consider this the official 10th entry in that prompt continuity.
~~It is 7am and I haven't slept yet. So sue me if this is stupid.~~
Continuity, Baby! Yeah!
Bright Stars/Dark Clouds
by FuzzyFurvert
***
The Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud, ironically, is practically unobservable from the ground. It floats at the very edge of Equestrian airspace; the very edge of Equus itself, so high up that most other clouds except the tips of the tallest storm-heads and occasional contrail fail to visit it. The Observatory perched at the nearest boundary with the black beyond that a mortal pony could reach, it’s own upper limits extending into the turbulent stratosphere that circled the world.
If a pony were to topple off the the lowest platform of the facility, assuming they are not otherwise capable of flight, it would take almost five full minutes before they reached the ground.
The UHAGSOC, as it is referred to in the kingdoms’ official documents, is made from the same cloudcrete as much of Cloudsdale and other Pegasus communities are crafted from. The substance is a dozen times over more resilient and solid than naturally occurring cloud material and as such was considered the ultimate form of pegasus natural magic and one of the greatest creations of all Ponykind. The Observatory was built with special considerations for its placement and purpose; only the thickest, densest and heavy with the promise of rain cumulus was used to make the cloudcrete that it was constructed from with each ‘slab’ enchanted and blessed by the Princess herself.
Celestia had the Observatory built for her sister, Luna, six hundred and forty seven years after her banishment. The cost to build such a structure was immense and many in Canterlot spoke out against it. They argued that Luna would never return and that Celestia should not try to assuage her guilt by bankrupting the nation. Publicly, the Princess agreed with her detractors. In private, however, she pushed hard on her stable of unicorn enchanters and pegasus engineers to complete the project.
It took twelve years to complete construction and development of the spells that would keep the structure safe from the winds at such high altitudes. Once all was said and done, the project claimed a half million bits(accounting for inflation) and the lives of four construction workers. A telescope was originally part of the plans for the Observatory, but complications with international relations with the Minotaur nation at the time lead to the abandonment of that phase of the project.
And so the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud would sit empty and unused for the next three hundred and forty one years until the return of Princess Luna. Three years after her return, the Observatory is finally being used as it was envisioned by Princess Celestia, with the installation of the Archimedes Twelve Longview Telescope.
~A Brief Historical Overview of the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud
by T.S.
~~~~~~
Twilight drummed her hooves on the table in the main viewing chamber, her notes shifting slightly with the vibrations. The clock on the wall ticked quietly, counting time as day wore into night. Outside and thousands of leagues above her, Twilight knew, Equus’ moon was rising above the horizon, its guardian and namesake hoof-guiding its course.
Normally, Twilight would have her eyes glued to the viewfinder on the Archimedes, watching the rising unfold and tracing the lines of Luna’s magic as it hauled a practically uncountable amount of tonnage across the sky. Not tonight, however. Luna had made her promise not to while trying to look serious. Her marefriend was terrible at lying and keeping a secret. One one hoof, Twilight was curious what it was that Luna was planning, on the other hoof, she was growing increasingly bored.
She glanced at the clock again. The moon should have been up by now, with Luna on her way back. Part of the promise was to not use the telescope until her return to the Observatory. Part of Luna’s powers as the Princess of the Moon and Night was her ability to fly in zero-gee without an atmosphere. Her re-entry into Equus’ mesosphere looked like a meteorite’s plummet from space, leaving a long silvery trail behind herself before splitting the sky with a rainboom.
Twilight drummed her hooves faster until she heard the familiar crack and rumble of her love’s return to the realm of mortal ponies. The thunder of Luna’s re-entry barely faded before the hatch opened from the outside and the dark colored mare stepped through.
“I’m back!”
“Yes,” Twilight rolled her eyes, “I can see that. Now will you explain why you told me not to watch the moon rise? I rather like watching you work, you know.”
“I know. I am sorry about that Twilight, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” Luna smiled sheepishly as she grabbed her enchanted parka off the peg by the door. Now that she had returned and her goddess powers returned to a semi-dormant state, her body was starting to feel the cold again.
Twilight sighed and moved over to the counter where their much loved and abused coffee maker had a fresh pot on the warmer. She poured two cups and passed one to Luna. “Ok, out with it. What’s the surprise?”
Luna chuckled and grinned at Twilight as she took the cup from her magical grip as she trotted over to the telescope. Luna took a sip as she adjusted the angle of the view, checking the clock on the wall and the notches of degree measurements carved into the dome above them.
“Now you can look. I wanted to be here so I could see the look on your face when you saw.” Luna grinned again, her eyes becoming soft as she looked at Twilight.
The younger alicorn raised an eyebrow and stepped up to the telescope. She took a quick sip of her own coffee and bent to look into the viewfinder. Luna stood silently by Twilight’s side, watching her face as her expressions changed. First, Twilight’s brows knit in confusion, her mouth setting into a cute frown. Twilight’s cheeks twitched as her forehead smoothed. Luna could almost hear her thinking, doing the calculations in her mind as she used the scopes on-board scale and distance graphs. She loved the way Twilight bit her lip when presented with a tough puzzle.
After a minute of starring through the viewfinder, Twilight looked up and at Luna, her face painted with her interior struggle to accept what she had seen.
“W-what… is… what is that?”
Luna smiled gently and leaned in to plant a kiss on Twilight’s muzzle. “You know those old romance films we watched together a few months ago?”
Twilight nodded numbly, her mind still processing.
“Well, in one of them there was a couple, a pegasus stallion and an earth pony mare.” Luna moved around the telescope’s viewfinder and rested one of her wings over Twilight’s back. “They were both very much in love, but came from poor families, the stallion much more so than the mare. And when he was confronted about the destitute state of his personal wealth, he said, very tenderly to the mare something to the effect that he would give her anything she wanted, no matter what. That he would do whatever it took to make her happy. That if she wanted the moon itself, he would make it hers.”
Twilight blinked. “I remember that. What does that have to do with…” She gestured vaguely toward the distant lunar orbit.
“Well, as you might have guessed, I cannot give you the moon even though it is far more within my power than that stallion in that movie.” Luna raised her hoof and gently turned Twilight to face her. “So, I did the next best thing. I made another moon. And it’s yours, Twilight. I even named it after you.”
Twilight blinked again, rapidly. “You did what?! Are you insane?!”
“Um…”
“You’ve put an additional moon into orbit around Equus! Right behind the first one! Did you even stop to think about the tidal forces that this will affect? What about gravity? Or what ponies on the ground are going to think with it suddenly showing up like that?!” Twilight’s left eye twitched.
“Um...Twilight…”
“WHAT WILL PRINCESS CELESTIA THINK?! WHAT IF YOU DROP IT?! HOLDING ONE MOON HAS TO BE TAXING ENOUGH, WHAT HAPPENS IF IT EXHAUSTS YOU TRYING TO KEEP BOTH OF THEM ORBITING THE PLANET?!”
“Um, Twilight…” Luna’s smile quivered as she leaned away from Twilight. “Happy anniversary?”
DOUBLE MOON POWER!!
by FuzzyFurvert
***
“Heheh...Twilight?” Luna edged back from the younger princess slowly.
“TWO MOONS?! IS THIS SOME SORT OF JOKE?! BECAUSE IF IT IS I FAIL TO SEE THE COMEDY!”
Luna’s smile faltered further. Twilight was becoming increasingly flushed and her breathing sped up impressively. Luna ducked her head sheepishly. “Twilight...I thought that you would appreciate it.”
Twilight gulped in a lungful of the chill air and let it out slowly in a familiar act of stress relief. She was still shaking slightly when she spoke at a more normal volume. “Appreciate that you’ve endangered the entire population of Equestria? Possibly even the whole biosphere of the planet? You’ve hung a new moon sized object in orbit...all for an anniversary gift?”
“Um...yes?” Luna pulled her wing away from Twilight. “When you put it like that, it sounds terrible.”
“THAT’S BECAUSE…” Twilight swallowed and tapped her hoof against the floor. “...that’s because it is terrible! Doubly so since you got the date wrong. We didn’t have our first date until the 18th, which is still two weeks away!”
Luna frowned and glared back at Twilight. “It’s not for that anniversary.”
“What?” Twilight blinked and shook her head. She was certain that the 18th was two weeks ahead. She had her own gift for Luna stowed away in their chambers.
Twilight’s and Luna’s first date hadn’t been what one might call ‘magical.’ It wasn’t planned for - an embarrassing mistake that Twilight knew she would take to her grave - and had happened more or less by accident. It was little secret to ponies close to either mare that there was an attraction between them. Twilight arrived in Canterlot that day to pick up a shipment of rare books and star charts from the Royal Archives only to find the crates meant to hold them open and the charts scattered about the floor while a certain Princess attacked them with a marker to correct the ‘mistakes.’
“Tonight is the anniversary of our first kiss.”
Twilight turned her head, looking at the floor as her mind whirred. She felt certain that they hadn’t actually kissed until the second date. A memory flashed in her mind and Twilight looked back at Luna.
“Wait.” Twilight pointed at Luna. “I remember that I had a dream where I kissed you - among other things - but how would you know that?”
Luna raised her eyebrows and stared at Twilight in silence.
“Oh. Dreamhopping dark goddess of the Night.”
“Verily.” Luna sighed. “By Faust you are dim at times, my Evening Star. I wished to surprise you and show you just how much I care for you, Twilight! I didst not expect you to take temper with Us! We are not some village idiot! We are quite aware of the magnitude of Our actions. We took great pains to move yonder stone from the far recesses of the firmament and into the sky without your kin of its arrival or Our nightly vanishings to accomplish this feat!”
Luna turned and huffed, knocking her forgotten cup of coffee on the railing around the Archimedes Twelve, the contents sloshing onto the cloud floor before being slowly absorbed. “We traveled each night into the black between worlds. We searched the multitudes of asteroids and comets within Our reach until a suitable candidate was found! We guided its course across the uncounted leagues of space just so, to keep it from your sight, around Equus until it reached the very spot you see it in! We polished it until it was worthy of being named after you and you throw it all back in Our face! You even dare to question Our ability to hold it? After all of that? You are a cur, Twilight Sparkle.”
“I...I-I’m sorry, Luna.” Twilight stammered. “I didn’t even think about what it must have took for you to give me something like that.”
“Noli appologize contumeliam, post meum:” Luna replied, her tone curt.
Twilight sighed quietly, her previous anger and hysterics drained from her voice. “You’ve dropped modern pronouns and slipped into Old Equish. I really stepped in it this time, huh?”
Luna didn’t answer and kept her gaze on the far wall of the Observatory.
“Last time you did that was after I mislabeled Virgo on that 3rd century star chart.”
“‘Tis Our favorite constellation.”
“In my defense, stars shift visible location over time, and I had a cold.”
Luna huffed again, her feathers rustling as she shifted her weight. Twilight fell silent as she continued to stare at the wall. She wasn’t stupid. Luna chewed at her lip while she thought about telling Twilight that her new namesake was mostly hollow and only massed about a tenth of the moon’s bulk. Holding it in stable orbit was like keeping a soap bubble airborne. It took little thought and even less effort on her part. In a few nights she wouldn’t even need to pay it conscious thought to move it.
“Thank you.”
Luna turned on ear towards Twilight as she fought the urge to regard the mare.
“Thank you for the gift, Luna. I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything. And...I’m sorry I yelled and freaked out about the second moon and doubted you. You are the Goddess of the Night after all.” Twilight scuffed her hoof against the cloud floor, its magic holding it steady against her motion.
Luna groaned and looked back over her shoulder at Twilight with a frown. “Are you sorry for implying We are mentally infirm?”
Twilight nodded quickly. “Oh yes! I’m very sorry for that too! I was...being unreasonably harsh. I’m just concerned about possible ecological complications.”
“The tides will be fine. We...I calculated the orbital distance and positioning that would cause the least change. There might be a little shift on the size of waves and the pull of the tides, but it will be hardly noticeable.” Luna shrugged and turned back to look at Twilight and the huge telescope behind her. “The night will be brighter, somewhat. I looked for something rich in crystal, so that it would live up to the name: Sparkle.”
Twilight smiled bashfully and turned to look through the Archimedes Twelve’s viewfinder again. “Now that I look at it...it is pretty. Is that a slight purple hue I see in it’s halo?”
Luna smiled proudly. “Only the best for my Twilight!”
The two alicorns giggled together and fell into a comfortable silence, taking turns at viewing the night sky’s newest majesty. Luna refilled her coffee from the pot on the burner and then again. Twilight stopped at two cups. They spoke quietly with each other, Twilight’s ever-present notes on hoof when they felt like making official observations. The two moons crowned the sky at the peak of their arc when Luna felt a gentle tapping. Twilight smiled at her for a moment before leaning in to gently kiss her cheek.
“Ready to go to sleep, my Evening Star?”
Twilight shook her head. “Ready to go to bed, but not sleep. I haven’t given you my gift yet.”
Luna giggled and blushed. “My gift? Are you certain you aren’t just getting another present from me?”
Twilight smirked and reached out with her wings to run her primary feathers under Luna’s own wings and across her flanks. “Not if I take the lead…”
Luna gulped and her blush flared hot and strong on her cheeks. She could feel her horn tingle as the soft touch of wings caressed her barrel. Luna licked her lips and nodded her head. “That seems like sound logic; I am more than ok with this!”
“Good. Because there has already been a change in plans.” Twilight stepped forward with her wings pressing into Luna’s Cutie Marks, forcing the taller mare back.
“Oh?” Luna grinned as she gave ground, her dock bumping into the large table that held their scattered notes.
“Yeah. Screw the bed.” Twilight smiled in a way that twisted something pleasantly deep within Luna and reared up, putting her hooves on Luna’s chest and pushing the willing alicorn back onto the table. “I want to give it to you now.”
“Oh my!”
A BIOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE TIME LATER
Epilogue
by Fuzzyfurvert
***
The wind and snow buffeted against the tall towers of Canterlot castle, the gusts howling between its high walls and crenellations. It wasn’t the perfect weather for landing a hot air balloon on the castle’s launch pad, but Twilight Sparkle had something of a reputation for doing the impossible. Of course, she had help. As soon as the balloon had been sighted, Celestia issued a flight of Canterlot’s weather pegasi out into the storm to calm the winds enough to make a safe landing.
Celestia herself climbed the stairs to the roof, her magic warming the area and the ponies rushing about. By the time she reached the roof access door, Twilight, loaded down with saddle bags, was already halfway along the walkway and headed her way. Celestia could see her sister managing the balloon, barking orders and helping the other ponies keep the basket on the launchpad while the balloon itself was deflated and pulled in. The snow that blew into the small access door melted instantly in her proximity and Celestia took a seat to let the area warm.
Twilight reached the access door a moment later, her mane and tail whipping in the wind, her wings held tight against her sides. She let out a long breath when she stepped inside the small area at the top of the stairs and smiled at Celestia. “Princess, I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon.”
“I was not expecting you and Luna to return so soon either. Your next scheduled supply run isn’t for two more weeks.” Celestia smiled at her student and leaned forward to nuzzle her ear. “If this about our new moon, Luna has already communicated with me about it. Her letter said that you took it well?”
Celestia grinned as Twilight flushed. She chuckled and shook her head. “No need to worry. Her note said you were very apologetic after she explained everything to you.”
“How did everypony down here take it?”
“I issued a statement that it was a jointly planned event by my sister and myself to celebrate the rise of our newest princess.” Celestia lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in conspiratorially. “Cadence wrote me afterwards to express her views of what she coined as ‘royal BS’ and asked when she could expect a planetoid of her own.”
Twilight giggled. “Luna and I have discovered several. We would be glad to name one after her.”
“I’m certain that would please her.”
Twilight chuckled and turned to look back out to the launchpad where Luna had taken to the air to wrestle the last of the balloon’s envelope into the basket. “Well, we do have a reason other than the new moon to come see you.”
“It must be important to brave such weather.” Celestia tilted her head as she watched Twilight watch Luna. Her student’s face was coated in worry, chewing on her lower lip in a way that Celestia knew meant Twilight wanted to go back out there and… do something. She just couldn’t tell what. “Why didn’t you both just fly in? It would have been safer than dealing with the balloon.”
Twilight nodded, her body stiffening as a particularly strong gust of wind forced Luna to hold up her arm to shield her eyes. “It is important.”
Celestia remained silent. She watched along with Twilight as her sister fastened straps about the basket and started commanding the other ponies in out of the weather. It was a small thing, but in that moment, she looked and sounded more the proud and in command Princess she was than any other time since her return.
Twilight’s horn started to glow and Celestia heard the buttons on one of Twilight’s saddle bags give way.
“This is why it’s important.”
A tiny thing, cradled in Twilight’s magical field, rose up to Celestia’s eye level. Celestia narrowed her eyes as she focused on it. It took her a moment to even register what the device was and then a minute more to realize what the tiny blue plus symbol it displayed was telling her. She pulled it closer with her own magic, reading over the display again to confirm what she was seeing.
“Twilight… does this mean…?”
The young princess blushed and nodded, her eyes still on Luna. She opened her mouth to say something when she was suddenly yanked off her hooves and pulled into a powerful bear hug by the Sun Goddess of Equestria.
“Oh my goodness! Twilight! I’m so happy for you! For you and Luna, of course!” Celestia laughed, her eyes started to water as she turned Twilight around to face her and hugged her again. “This is wonderful news! I get to be an aunt again!”
Celestia giggled, visions of a tiny dark purple foal with bright teal eyes danced through her head until she heard a gasp from Twilight and realized she was squeezing the expectant mother tightly. Celestia released Twilight, catching her with her magic and set the smaller mare back on her feet. “Sorry! I was just a little overwhelmed.”
“It’s not mine.”
“What?” Celestia raised an eyebrow, suddenly confused.
“The test.” Twilight picked up the test from where it had fallen. “It’s not mine, Princess. I’m not the one that’s pregnant.”
“What?” Celestia continued to stare at Twilight for a moment more before looking out at her sister again. Luna was finished with stowing the balloon and was leaning into the wind as she walked across the raised walkway from the launchpad. She looked as she always had to Celestia, but suddenly there was a new sort of fragileness that had been missing before.
“Ah! Sister, we have glorious news!” Luna stepped into the access door, crowding the space even more. She bent slightly to kiss her Evening Star on the cheek when there was a loud crash.
Luna flicked her ears and looked back and forth between her lover and her sister’s prostrate form and dumbstruck face. “Oh. You already told her?”
Appendix: What Came Before
Author's Note
This is a collection of all the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud prompts, in posted chronological order, as they appeared in Dark Paradise: The Twiluna Group Collab. They are presented here in order to show completeness of the UHAGSOC sage so far. Not all of them feature the UHAGSOC, but as far as I'm concerned, these are all in the same continuity.
Fair warning: Some of these are a bit saucy, but nothing explicit.
Appendix: What Came Before
Happy
“Luna! Come quick! You’re not going to believe your eyes!” Twilight hopped in place, a huge grin stretching from ear to ear. Her wool-lined parka wobbled off her head as bounced in the middle of the hatchway that lead to the Princess’ personal chambers.
“What is it?” Luna raised her eyebrow and set her quill aside from where she had been writing. Twilight’s abrupt entrance a few seconds earlier had startled her and already a few blots of ink had splattered on the page she had been working on.
“You have got to see this for yourself! It’s unbelievable!” Twilight stomped her hooves and let out an excited whoop. She turned in the hatchway and wrenched open the outer hatch with a burst of magic before diving out into the night without so much as re-donning her hood. “C’mon! This is incredible!”
Luna groaned as she spared her work a final glance. It could wait. Twilight was likely to take a tumble out in the darkness in her youthful exuberance. She pulled on her own parka and closed both hatches to her temporary domicile as she made the short walk to the Observatory. She thanked her sister for the foresight to get enchanted parkas when she found Twilight inside the main viewing chamber shivering and trying to catch her breath. Twilight’s condition did not seem to calm her excitement any.
Twilight shuffled a dozen or so loose sheets of scroll parchment on the huge table. Each sheet was covered in her scratchy hoofwriting. Even the margins were filled in with equations on mass, density and particle distribution in vacuum. Twilight coughed, her lungs rattling with the effort and the air fogged considerably before it drifted to and merged with the cloud floor beneath them.
“What is it you wanted to show me, Twilight? Have you found another exo-planet to put under your claim?” Luna glanced up at the enormous telescope that loomed above them. Twilight has overseen every aspect of its construction, enchantment and placement here in the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud.
“This!” Twilight shoved two pieces of paper across the table.
Luna leaned down and examined the annotated math that drove Twilight to smile wider than Pinkie was even capable. She squinted, the numbers tumbling through her mind. It was impossible. Improbable. If any other pony had showed her such unbelieveable findings, Luna would have thrown them out on their plots. Not this mare however. Twilight Sparkle didn’t make errors this egregious.
“Are you sure?” Luna looked up, her eyes narrowed. “Really, really sure, Twlight? It’s not just some trick of light or angle of perspective?” Luna jabbed a hoof at the last number on the sheet in front of her. “This number cannot be, Twilight. It throws everything we know about the laws of our world out the window!”
“Oh I’m sure.” Twilight’s grin turned into a smirk as she gestured at the telescope. “Wanna look at it?”
“Buck yes I do!”
Satisfaction
Derpy pumped her wings harder as she climbed toward her delivery point. Thermal streams helped her ascend faster in the magically stilled air around the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud, but at this height there was serious risk of ice forming on her feathers or fur. Thankfully she only had a single envelope to haul along with a re-breather and an under-wing slung oxy tank.
Derpy released a grateful sigh when she finally set her hooves on the super dense cloud bank. She pulled her wings as close to her core as the tank and her mostly empty satchel would allow. The tip of the giant telescope glinted in the light of the setting sun from another three hundred meters above her, pointing into the black. She looked around, trying to spot a pony to give her envelope to.
Derpy shook her head and reached up to her chest to press the rubber bulb on the mail horn. A moment later two heavy parka covered ponies trotted out from thick mists, moving it aside with little flicks of their heads and the haze of unicorn magics.
“Hey Derpy! We weren’t expecting anyone until the next resupply run.” Princess Twilight Sparkle doffed her hood and smiled. “Did you bring news from Celestia?”
Derpy bowed as shallowly as manners allowed and shook her head. “Nope! I have something else for you Princess!” She did her best to return Twilight’s smile around the re-breather clutched in her teeth and opened her satchel. “It just came in this afternoon. Supposed to go out with tomorrow’s mail and wait back at home but… since you’re fellow Ponyville alum,” Dery shrugged, “I figured I’d bring it by.”
“Aw, thanks Derpy!” Twilight pulled the mailmare into a tight hug that threatened to drive the oxygen she had left out of her lungs.
Twilight let her go after a moment and tore the envelope open, pulling out what looked like a short form letter. Derpy silently crossed her feather tips, hoping that she hadn’t accidentally delivered bad news.
Princess Luna leaned in and looked over Twilight’s shoulder at the note. “Well?”
Twilight whooped and jumped a good three feet in the air. “They’re going to publish it! The magazine is going to publish my paper on that superluminal object we found! It’s my first professionally published work!”
Twilight spun in place and grabbed Luna by the shoulders, knocking the older princess’ hood back. Luna smiled happily and laughed until her eyes went wide when Twilight pinned her in a lip lock. Luna took a step back but Twilight just continued to lean into her. The kiss slowly became less one sided and both mares blushed furiously when they finally parted.
Derpy blushed and scuffed the tip of one hoof into the cloud floor. “Well, glad it was good news. Hehe.” She turned and looked back at the princesses who were still trying to find their voices. “I think I’ll go see what Carrot Top is up to.”
Cake
The private living chambers that Celestia and Luna shared at the castle were comforting in their simplicity and spartan furnishings. The dining room held a single unadorned table large enough for ponies of the Princesses proportions and a few cushioned seats.
Twilight adjusted her position on her chair, sitting up straight and did her best to project an aura of patient calmness. Across from her, Luna sipped from a cup of coffee as she read today’s copy of the Canterlot Times, her plate of cake half-finished. Celestia sat at the head of the table, her plate clear, her nose crinkling as she read over the latest report Twilight had turned into to her after returning with Luna from the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud.
Twilight shifted her weight, waiting for Celestia to finish the report and start grilling her with questions. That was quickly becoming her favorite part about her new Princesshood. Celestia always allowed her closer than most other ponies, but now she was privy to so much more ‘behind the scenes’ real life moments with her mentor. Celestia cleared her throat and Twilight went rigid at attention in her seat.
“Twilight,” Celestia clicked her tongue and looked back at the parchment she held, “I won’t pretend to understand these numbers as well as you and Luna do. However, if I am following this correctly, then you have discovered an object in a neighboring star cluster that appears to be moving considerably faster than light itself?”
Twilight grinned and nodded her head. “Yes! Though, it isn’t an object, per se. We actually discovered evidence of something massive moving in a predictable pattern faster than anything we’ve ever encountered before. It might not actually be anything, of course. We’ll need to observe it more to confirm that it isn’t just an optical illusion or false reading.”
“Interesting.” Celestia fell silent for a moment, a small smile playing across her lips. “Before you returned, I learned something myself that has yet to be confirmed. Something that a young mailmare mentioned in passing while making a delivery to the castle. I’m curious to know what you or Luna might make of what must surely be a fictitious rumor about scandalous behavior happening on royally owned cloud facilities. You two were there after all.”
Luna’s cup of coffee started to shake in her magical field, the hot liquid sloshing about as she found a very interesting article on page seven. Twilight blushed and swallowed hard, her wings rustling.
“Um…” Twilight’s eyes flicked about, unable to rest on anything or anypony. “I… we…w-we don’t know anything about that! Do we, Luna?”
Luna shrank in her seat, her Canterlot Times shaking violently as she buried her face as deeply into the fine print as it would get.
“No n-nope! W-we know nothing about any s-scandalous behavior! Tis but rumor, Tia! You know how ponies talk…”
Celestia smirked and helped herself to another slice of red velvet cake. “Yes Luna, I most certainly do.”
Unrequited
“Twilight.” The Princess smiled as she leaned down, speaking in a soft tone. “A word, if you please.”
It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t exactly an order either, but no pony denied the Princess, least of all Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight nodded and waved over to Luna where she was adjusting the ropes that secured their supplies and equipment to the hot air balloon. “Luna! I’ll be right back!”
She stepped off the launch pad and trotted across the walkway to castle’s roof access door where Princess Celestia stood calmly. As she got nearer, the Princess retreated into the access stairwell and made room for the smaller pony to join her. Celestia smiled as Twilight entered the small landing, the Princess’ magic closing the door behind her.
“Yes, Princess?”
“Twilight, speak nothing I am about to say to you, to my sister. Do you understand?” Celestia gazed down at Twilight, her smile gone, replaced by a firm line. She leaned down, her horn pointed at Twilight. Among high society unicorns such body language meant a deep seriousness and honesty. It was not done lightly.
Twilight swallowed, her wings rustled nervously. “I understand. You have my word.” She moved forward half a step and touched the tip of her horn to Celestia’s, returning the gesture of honest seriousness.
“Do not break my sister’s heart. She is still freshly returned to the world and myself and I do not wish to see her harmed.” Celestia’s eyes softened as she raised her head back to her full height. “Understand Twilight, I don’t think you would do so lightly, or even intentionally. I can see the true affection you share for each other. However,” she sighed, “don’t do it even by accident. Never let her love go without reciprocation. Don’t let your work or her duties get between you.”
“Of course I-I won-“ Celestia’s hoof pressed itself to Twilight’s snout, halting her mid-stammer.
“Promise me. Promise me you will fight harder than you have ever fought for anything--myself and all of Equestria included—to keep Luna’s love and friendship. I have done wrongs to her that I cannot repay, Twilight. But you can. You can make my sister happy and whole and at peace.” Celestia shook her head, her eyes closing for a moment. “Let me be selfish in this one thing. Let me task you with healing her heart so that she may find it within herself to truly forgive me one day. Do this for me, Twilight. Don’t let her know the heartache of neglect on top of betrayal and imprisonment.
Twilight gently pulled Celestia’s hoof from her face and smiled gently at her mentor. “I promise I will not let her love go without being returned in kind. She means everything to me now. I don’t think I could live without her.” Twilight paused and then tilted her head.
“Will you promise me something in return?”
Celestia nodded. “Anything.”
“Stop spying on us so much. I want it to be a surprise when one of us gives you a new niece or nephew, ok?”
Celestia blinked and fell back on to her plot, blushing slightly. “Um… yes, of course. I-I promise.”
Lilac(2)
“You shall have to do better than that!” Luna smirked as flapped her wings lazily, hovering just above the clouds, forelegs crossed over her chest. She watched as Twilight struggled with the balloon carrying their supplies and equipment.
Twilight had insisted on doing this task herself, citing a ‘need to practice’ with her wings. Luna giggled as Twilight cursed under her breath between pants, the balloon’s weighted basket catching for a moment on the cloud floor. Twilight pushed the balloon gingerly into the giant dome where it would be stored for the next couple of weeks while they were staying at the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud.
“Well, do my eyes decieve me? Twilight Sparkle, you ARE getting better at using your wings!” Twilight flew next to Luna as the balloon coasted into position and eased to a halt in the magically stilled air. She wobbled only slightly when she landed.
“See? I told you that I could do it by myself!” Twilight beamed at Luna.
The Night Princess shook her head and smiled. “I see that you indeed could. Now, if you are quite done showing off your physical prowess, then I shall secure our transport and we may begin unpacking. If we hurry, we can catch the sunset before setting up tonight’s viewing.”
The work went swiftly and silently as the two alicorns magically organized a few long tonnes of gear and foodstuffs to the awaiting shelves. By the time they were finished the sun had already started its final descent.
“I really love watching the sunset and moonrise from way up here. It’s very different from the view on the ground.” Twilight swayed as they walked, her side coming to rest against Luna’s. “Up here, the whole world is on display. The sheer, elegant…er, awesomeness - to quote Rainbow Dash - of it all is more intense than I ever imagined. And best of all? I get to spend it with you.”
Luna tried to fight off her blush as they sat on the edge of the clouds and gazed down at Equestria below them, sparkling like a jewel in the dying light of day. She stole a quick kiss as she draped a wool blanket over the two of them and looked out toward the curved horizon of the planet. Celestia must’ve been in a good mood when she saw them off earlier for the sky was painted a brilliant shade of gold which faded to a red umber that slowly gave way to a swath of lilac that was an exact match for the coat of the mare snuggling against her. As her eyes continued upward into the stratosphere, Luna gasped as the lilac merged with a dark navy that matched her own coat before giving way to the black and the stars.
“I think that’s your sister’s way of saying she approves.” Twilight gently tugged Luna’s jaw until the two mares were looking at each other. She leaned forward and all the kisses exchanged the rest of the evening were given instead of stolen.
Argument
“Luna, I must protest! These scrolls will simply not do for my important Friendship Reports to Princess Celestia, your sister and ruler over all of Equestria! She deserves the very best and I am her very best student. I will only send her reports on the very best scrolls, which these are not!”
“I do not see why you can not use these scrolls, Twilight Sparkle. The castle staff uses these very scrolls! If it is good enough for TPS reports then they are goods enough for Friendship Reports. Furthermore, these were the scrolls that arrived after I placed an order to the scroll factory!”
“These scrolls are made from cheap papyrus and are the wrong length. They smear easily and smell cheap! Also, the ink here is unworthy to be used on a report the Princess will see with her own eyes. I can only use ink that has been properly treated and refined. You are incompetent and a horrible kisser!”
“Gasp! I am not a horrible kisser!”
“Yes, you are! Now that I am the Princess of Magic or whatever, I will do all the shopping for ink and quills and scrolls. I am competent and a better Princess than you are!”
“How dare you! I will buy whatever I want and you will like it, Twilight Sparkle! Also, I will show you that I am not a horrible kisser! I challenge you to a make-out race!”
Twilight and Luna rushed toward each other, their frosting connecting first and mixing purple, pink and blue colored sugariness, crescent moon and star shaped sprinkles going everywhere as Pinkie Pie made kissie noises. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow as Pinkie continued her pantomiming pastry puppet show across the table they sat at in Sugarcube Corner. Applejack snickered quietly beside the pegasus, shaking her head slowly.
“Pinkie Pie, you are going to give us our food, right?”
“Shucks RD, let Pinkie have her fun. It’s been a good long while since we’ve seen either Twilight or Princess Luna. You know how she gets when one o’ us is away. You can wait a few more minutes.”
“But,” Rainbow Dash gestured at the growing mess of sprinkles and frosting, “those are OUR cupcakes that she is forcing to make out!”
Applejack laughed and elbowed Rainbow Dash in the ribs, nodding at the white frosted cake that Mr. Cake arrived with. Rainbow Dash licked her lips, her cupcake momentarily forgotten. As she reached for it, a swift pink hoof shot out and pulled it close to Pinkie.
In a freakishly good impersonation of the real pony, the cake proclaimed, “I am Princess Celestia! I have come to stop this senseless arguing between my two favorite Princesses - sorry Cadence - by teaching you both how a true alicorn kisses!”
The white cake then bumped into the two mashed together cupcakes while Pinkie Pie made even louder, more obnoxious kissie noises. Rainbow Dash dropped her head on the table with a muffled ‘thump’ and Applejack started to shake with mirth until her eyes began tearing up.
Plot
Luna dropped her quill in frustration. She resigned herself to the fact that they weren’t going to get any more decent observations of the M82-UO001 anomaly for another few nights until Equestria’s rotation brought the Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud into line of delineation again. Twilight had given up hours ago with a huff and turned to her newest pastime; writing original science fiction.
Luna closed her notebook and glanced at her partner across the room, sitting at her own writing desk, back hunched and horn aglow as Twilight’s quill scribbled furiously. Luna smiled as she recalled a conversation that Twilight’s latest work had sparked.
“Plot is an incredibly important aspect of a story, Luna. A good plot is all about organizing ideas in a way that is appealing to the readers. It is also, and more importantly, the guideline that helps the author make sure she doesn't get lost on all of the ideas and characters that start to come up whilst the book is written.” Twilight had smiled at her and levitated a scroll over to where the two were relaxing in their shared quarters.
“Look. I even made a list of what makes a good plot!”
Of course her Twilight had made a list. Luna stifled a chuckle as she remembered Twilight going over her seventeen steps to a good plotting in gory detail. She’d failed to hold in her giggles originally, whenever Twilight said the word ‘plot’. Her crash course in modern slang terminology never failed to make spoken Equestrian a great deal more humorous.
Luna stood and stretched as best their cramped room allowed before coming up behind Twilight and nibbling on one of her ears playfully. The younger alicorn squirmed a little and grunted contentedly, her focus remaining on the paper in front of her. Luna smirked and nibbled down the ear from tip to base before resting her chin on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Working on another alien invasion masterpiece?”
“No…” Twilight murmured quietly. She moved slightly so Luna could see what she was working on.
Luna looked down at the manuscript in front of Twilight and raised her eyebrow as she realized that it was a diagram and not a short story. Her other eyebrow shot up as she registered just what it was a diagram of. Her dark cheeks flushed as Luan read over the device’s specs.
“I was thinking of calling it the ‘Plot Destroyer’.” Twilight grinned wickedly. Luna gulped.
"We could craft a prototype out of cloud stuff."
"Um... I-I, um..." Luna blinked rapidly, her blush flaring up to co-mingle with her eyebrows.
"My favorite feature?" Twilight licked her lips and leaned into Luna, her voice lowering to a bare whisper. "It's a two-seater."
Ocean
Equus shimmered like a blue and green jewel below Luna. She watched the clouds swirl as a hurricane creeped across the eastern ocean. The sun was hitting it, warming the water and adding torque power to it’s lazy turns. The weather ponies were going to have their hooves full in a week or two from that one.
She turned her eyes west to the larger sea and focused on a tiny dot of green near the equator in the middle of all that turquoise-blue. Luna could just make out the hint of yellow gold that lined the island. One section of coast formed a gentle crescent around a shallow, reef protected bay. From her vantage point, Luna couldn’t see the small bungalow that she knew sat just off of that golden sand in the shade of the tall palms, or the young alicorn that slept inside of it.
Luna smirked as she reached her hooves around behind the planet and gripped her moon firmly. She was going to catch flack for this stunt back in Canterlot, she knew. She hoped it would be worth it. She began to move the moon with minor adjustments, bouncing it up and down and back and forth off center by a few hundred kilometers each way. The oceans responded as gravity and tidal forces followed the gigantic mass’ movements. Waves changed course and the seas sloshed drunkenly even as Luna tried to be as careful as could be.
She smiled as the water in the bay far, far below her started to lap the shore in a way they never had before. Luna shaped the sand and coast with the tides as she manipulated the moon. Any unicorn with the time and mind to do so could move the beach into the outline of a heart. But only she, of all ponies, could do it with the tides themselves. Twilight would appreciate that little touch.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Luna nudged the tiny cloud slightly to the left and then flew above it to check the positioning. She grinned as the cloud’s edge lined up with her reference point on the beach below her. The setting was perfect. She glanced over her dark sunglasses to check the sun’s position in the sky. By her reckoning, Luna had about an hour before Twilight would wake up in their bungalow.
Luna readjusted her glasses and blinked the spots out of her vision left by the glare as she landed lightly on the cloud. Luna rubbed her hooves together and started molding the resilient wisps into a table and a couple of reclining cushions. When she had that task complete, she teleported herself to the darkened interior of the bungalow.
She tip-hoofed through the main room into the kitchen and quickly scooped up a few plates and fluted glasses. Luna pulled out the ice bucket and loaded it up with ice and a bottle of wine that had aged for half of her banishment. The oven held the breakfast quiche she’d prepared earlier. A quick duck out the back door nabbed her a bouquet of fresh picked island flowers. She chuckled quietly as she teleported back to the cloud and set the table.
Once everything was set properly, the enormity of the situation started to make Luna’s heartbeat speed up. Her breathing started to come out in short gasps as she loosened her regalia and pulled out a tiny black box. It floated gingerly in her magical grip as if alive and made of lightning. Luna swallowed and lifted the flower bouquet, sliding the small box under it before she dropped the flowers back on the table. Twilight would find it when she picked the flowers up.
Luna shivered and rustled her feathers to calm herself. “Ok Luna, go wake up Twilight for breakfast. Play it cool… yeah… just a normal everyday meal with your wif - er, marefriend.”
Names
“I don’t understand it! How could this even happen?”
“I wish I knew, Twilight. It troubles me that my night sky has changed so much.” Luna sighed tiredly, marking with a quill on the star chart the newest position of one of what she’s always thought of as ‘her’ stars.
Several dozen of them had changed position in the last week. It happened at random, and no force in the universe that she could think of could explain the apparent movement of several quadrillion tons of plasmatic matter, per star, across entire sections of space measured in light years. Her sister was the only creature she’d ever known to be able to move such an object. The thought of other such powerful beings roaming the cosmos sent a chill down her spine.
“Maybe…” Twilight huffed and pulled her eye away from the telescope to look at Luna. “Maybe, it has something to do rogue black holes?”
Luna shook her head. “We’ve been over that. If it were black holes, there would need to be hundreds of them, all moving at impossible vectors and speeds to do this. Besides, we’d see other evidence of their passage through systems. For all the stars affected by this, they each stand as lone unconnected events.”
“Wormholes?” Twilight ventured weakly.
Luna shook her head again. They’d gone over that scenario too. Even hoofwaving aside the fact that wormholes were purely theoretical and relied on a dozen other theoretical physic principles, there would need be hundreds of huge, stable wormholes to achieve what they were seeing.
“Well… I’m tired, Luna. Let’s head back to the bunker and heat up some food and coffee.”
Luna smiled at that. Whenever Twilight lead her away from a problem, it meant that she wanted to refocus, look at it from a different angle. Personally, she tended to focus on things a bit too much. Something that blocked her from seeing the larger picture.
Twilight opened the hatch from the main Ultra High Altitude Geo-Stable Observatory Cloud observatory and threw on her enchanted parka to save her from the bitter chill of the thin air outside. Luna followed her a moment later, tying the parka around her throat as she closed the hatch. Their personal bunker was only a few meters away. Perhaps after some food, she could talk Twilight into a hot shower.
“Luna!” Twilight jolted Luna out of her thoughts and tapped her sharply on the shoulder.
“What? What is it, Twilight?”
“Look!” Twilight jabbed her hoof upwards.
Above them, Luna’s night sky was ablaze with stars. The vast majority of them were in the places where the laws of gravity and thermodynamics and the whims of Faust had placed them. Right in the middle of the sky however, hundreds of stars twinkled in constellation-sized letters.
They said, ‘DisCorD waz herE!’ and below that, in slightly smaller text, ‘Eat at Joe’s’.
Luna frowned and the night around her darkened. “DISCORD! I WILL BUCKING KILL YOU!”
Telescope
Luna rummaged through her toolbox until she found a suitably clean softcloth and plucked it out with her magic. She grunted as she wriggled on her back to get under the massive telescope optical tube where she could reach the access hatch. The hatch creaked loudly in the chill air of the Ultra High Altitude Geo Stable Observatory Cloud when she released the latch. Luna used the light from her horn to guide her to the secondary mirror and began to wipe it down gently.
“How’s it coming with the secondary mirror?” Twilight’s voice rang loudly through the giant metal tube Luna’s head was currently stuck inside.
“I’m wiping it down now, Twilight.” Luna shook her head and started to fish around with her hoof blindly, searching for the polish jar.
“Did you remember to give it a dry wipe before using the polish?” Luna grit her teeth at the enhanced volume of Twilight’s voice coming up the telescope’s frame from the floor some twenty hoofspans below.
“Twilight, I may be a princess who is usually attended to by numerous guards and servants and one overzealous librarian, but I am the world’s foremost experienced astronomer! I know how to care for a telescope, no matter how big it may be.” She huffed and smirked as her hoof found the jar of polish. Luna pulled it in and applied a small dab to the corner of her softcloth before she started over the surface of the mirror in tight circular motions.
“I know, I’m just anxious!” Twilight’s voice got a little softer. “It’s just that I went through a lot of crap to get Archimedes Twelve built and installed here. This is it’s first scheduled clean up. What if we find a flaw in the mirrors or lenses?”
Luna smirked at the Telescope’s name. Giving everything a name was a decidedly odd custom of the modern times she’d found herself in lately. “If there were any flaws, we would have caught them by now. Your precious telescope is as perfect as it’s designer.”
Twilight was silent for a long time. Luna was just finishing up her second coat of polish when she felt a tug on her leg and heard Twilight’s voice come from just outside the tube. “Hurry up Luna. I want it to be ready for tonight’s viewing and there is still something we need to do before that.”
Luna shimmied out from under the telescope, slapping the hatch closed as she moved. “What else do we nee-!”
Luna blinked as Twilight scooped her up in her magenta aura and pulled her into a quick kiss. Her love blushed as Luna temporarily lost power to her frontal cortex. “Um...there’s something else that needs your expert touch… in our bunk… yeah, that’s the ticket.”
