Fly Me to The Moon

"She's late!" Celestia hissed, having only just barely hidden her distress at her sister's unexplained absence during the dawn ceremony behind her trademark gentle smile.

After all, just because she was alarmed, that didn't necessarily mean the populace of Equestria had to be. Luna was still able to do her job, as was indicated by the Moon's departure from the sky at the required time. For a moment before her Sun took its place, Celestia had thought she'd seen tiny sparks of light in the darkened sky. At first, she had believed that she was only seeing things, but as time passed and her beloved baby sister failed to show, the worry gnawing at the back of her mind led her to wonder if perhaps they might have had something to do with it. She had half a mind to set the Sun again and take another look at those lights, in the hopes of perhaps gleaning some understanding of them. But no, that would definitely tell everypony that something was wrong.

Instead, Celestia did something she thought she'd never do in her time as Crown Regent of Equestria: she summoned her pegasus generals and her unicorn cadre, relics of the time before the ponies united under Equestria's banner. Given that nearly all of the unicorns lived in Canterlot, and the most privileged pegasi lived above it, it was no surprise that their representatives arrived by late morning. She wanted to break in the reason for her summons slowly, but judging by their greetings, Celestia was apparently failing to hide her growing distress.

"Your Majesty, if I may be so bold..." Cinereus Lupe, the Sheriff of Trottingham began hesitantly.

"You may. In fact, all of you are for the purposes of this forum permitted to speak to me with absolute candor." Celestia responded, receiving a collection of gasps for her efforts at facilitating communication through familiarity. She had the feeling she was never going to get used to all this pointless and counterproductive decorum.

"Very well then... What ails you, Your Grace?" Lupe finished, looking like he feared committing the verbal equivalent of stepping into a viper's nest.

"It is my younger sister, your Princess Luna. She has not greeted me this morning with the Sun's rise over the horizon." Celestia confessed, and for just one heartbeat she almost worried that her subjects would not take this matter as serious as she had, that they might believe her to be frivolous and needlessly worrisome. The next heartbeat, however, was greeted with reactions to the extreme contrary. At least from the pegasus generals, who were doing everything from trying to pass off fainting in a manly fashion to barking orders to begin a kingdom-wide search for the lost princess. The unicorn nobility, on the other hand, were visibly less upset about the matter. Well, either that, or less visibly upset. She couldn't tell.

"Everypony, stop! Please!" Celestia shouted, earning instant, stunned silence from her immediate subordinates. "I appreciate your concern, but if we are to get to the bottom of my sister's absence, it is a matter that must be handled with proper organization and planning."

"I am very sorry, Your Majesty," General Thunder Roll replied meekly, his voice still managing to do his name justice. "It is just that, from your reign until this point, Her Highness as greeted you with such regularity that we have researchers preparing a new time piece with your meetings as a standard. With that in mind, it concerns us greatly that she has deviated without explanation. Tardiness from a reliable pony means trouble! Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to find her and the reason for her absence posthaste!"

"Thank you very much, General. And that goes for all of you here. Thank you so much for your willingness to-" Celestia's expression of gratitude was cut short by a darkening of the throne room and a brief vibration through its occupants' hooves. This sight and sensation were accompanied by yet another collection of gasps and a loud rustling of feathered wings, in addition to the magic aura she had been hoping to detect at dawn ...arriving just in time for lunch. The Sun Princess whirled toward the sound and immediately found herself joining the chorus. "Luna!"

For her part, Luna was exhausted, terrified, sore, and finding herself recognizing for yet another occasion the value of armor. On one hoof, she did agree with her elder sister's desire to present a non-threatening monarchy. On the hoof holding her up at the moment, however, she was really starting to believe that self-preservation was far more important than not scaring the nobles and peasants. Her priorities had been set that way by the fact that her head hurt and so did breathing, her ears were ringing and she could barely see. And given that she couldn't be entirely certain of what position her wings were in at any given moment, she considered herself fortunate that she could transform into a cloud, or else she might not have made it home.

After some time, the ringing became buzzing, and slowly wound its way down to something that resembled voices. That, combined with her eyes' adjustment to the painfully bright light, served to reduce her headache to a dull throb, which in turn allowed her body to localize its pain to areas near actual injuries. Then, and only then, was Luna able to sort out Celestia's face and voice from the small mob surrounding her. Considering how readily identifiable her sister was on most occasions, Luna realized that she might be in even worse shape than she thought.

"Oh dear Harmony... Luna, you're awake! I was so worried about you! What happened?" Celestia rattled off, just barely managing to refrain from worsening her sister's injuries by jumping on her bed and giving her the biggest hug ever. She doubted that would go over well with Luna or her doctors, but that's what she wanted most right now.

"What... what time is it?" Luna asked, as if trying to both imply that she was still fit to serve and dodge Celestia's question.

"It's late afternoon, but-" Celestia tried, hoping that an answer would get her one.

"Late afternoon? Oh no! The Moon! I must prepare to raise it!" Luna struggled to get out of her bed, but Celestia pinned her with a single hoof successfully despite greater focus on not harming her further, another indication to the elder that she was in no condition to try to do anything, least of all something as taxing as magically moving a celestial body.

"Do not worry about the transition of Day into Night, dear Little Sister." Celestia said as quietly and reassuringly as she could manage. Little did she know that her subsequent words would reverberate across Equestria, and widen the as-yet-unseen gap between her and Luna just a little further: "I believe that I may be able to handle that on my own."

"But-" Luna protested, clearly having far more to say.

"Shh, rest now. Please, trust your big sister," Celestia said gently as she and the doctors left Luna's chambers. "I can handle it, and you need to rest and recover for now."

After the door was closed, Luna tossed and turned, both unspoken words and an body wracked with pain keeping her from knowing rest. She watched the Sun set and the Moon rise to reveal the product of her work from the previous night, and as soon as the last of the former's traces disappeared from the horizon, she sent out a summons of her own.

"Razor Wing," she half-whispered, her breath becoming a faint breeze that carried the name through the seams in her window and out into the night. It traveled into some dark caves in the hills near Canterlot that most of its residents were not even aware had existed and found its target: a sleeping areion who was stirred awake in an instant, and at the window moments later. Luna opened the window with her magic, allowing him in.

"You have summoned me, Princess Luna?" Razor asked tentatively, bowing to her and trying not to cringe at what had become of the young princess who had followed him into one of the last great bastions of Darkness. He could not say whether or not he succeeded, since unlike Celestia, Luna could not be bothered to speak on her own condition, even reassuringly.

"Gather anyone who will to spread this message to every city, town, and hamlet in Equestria, no matter how rural." Luna said as she used her magic to first write a letter, then duplicate it and finally place her royal seal on each. She then levitated her own personal saddlebags and dropped them onto Razor's back, after which she stuffed most of the letters inside, save for one which he stopped with a hoof so he could read it.

"This is... a call to arms?" he inquired, trepidation rising as he considered the ramifications of the princess's actions.

"Not as such, no." Luna replied, shifting again in her bed as she tried to get comfortable. Her regeneration was shifting the pressure points caused by her injuries, making the effort a constant work in progress. "We do not want to alarm the general public. I believe that what we are fighting on the Moon is fed by fear. Instead, I am seeking volunteers to go on an adventure. I think anypony properly prepared for one is also prepared for war."

"Is that what we are heading into then, Princess? A war?"

"Yes. Though it must not be released as public information until we have made enough headway, I am declaring war on the Forces of Nightmare. Now, go. I need to rest if I am to be ready to serve again by tomorrow evening." Luna said, turning away from the window as Razor Wing obeyed.

The areion took off toward his home caves, to enlist the aid of his family and friends in spreading the Night Princess's "call for volunteers" over the course of the night. After relaying his story, he found no shortage of help from them, and before long the bat-winged ponies were spreading out over the land, distributing the scrolls as appropriately as they could manage. Still, the virtue of Luna's that had sold them on the notion also worried them most: she clearly saw her position and authority as a public service. Given her apparent youth, they couldn't help but wonder if she might forget to value her own well-being along the way.

Meanwhile, on the grass outside the Palace and unaware of the actions of Luna and her servants, Celestia gazed up at the new night sky, having found herself lost in the magnificent display of painstakingly arranged little lights. Were it not for the harm her little sister had clearly suffered, Celestia might have believed that this was the reason for her absence and exhaustion.

"It's... it's so..." she tried, but for the life of her she could not find a word that did what she was witnessing justice. 'Beautiful' hardly cut it, and 'stunning' as well, although not as much so. 'Breathtaking' came to mind, and was nearer to proper to what came prior, but still not good enough from Celestia's perspective. Ultimately, she decided she would find a proper word sometime later. After all, it had been a long day of keeping up the hopes of her little ponies, all while stressing over Luna's condition. And having to handle both the Sun and the Moon took a lot out of her. As she headed back inside to go to sleep, Celestia really hoped she wouldn't have to do that too many times in the future.