Princess Luna awoke with a start. The chill of the night blanketed her. The moon was high up in the sky, perhaps too high. Was it supposed to be there? Luna wasn't sure.
Yesterday morning, Luna had been feeling lonely and dejected after a long night with only the whispering winds of the Everfree forest to keep her company. Was her night so terrible that nopony would share it with her? Luna didn't so. Sure, ponies slept at night, but they didn't have to. Luna didn't.
She'd been about ready to call it a day when she spotted the flier advertising the Prancing Sunrise Gala. It was early in the morning, so Luna had decided to stay up late and attend it. She never should have bothered.
zZz
Her dress was horrid. Luna yawned from staying up half the day. She'd been prancing about in a ridiculous white fru fru thing that had far more lace than was sensible. She'd spent half the time worrying over the delicate ornate loops in the fear that they would catch on something and cause the whole dress to unravel. The other half of her time she spent silently fuming over those pompous self-important nobles who only wanted to get to know her so that she could 'put in a word for them' to her sister. Assuming, of course, that they even bothered to talk to her at all.
Well, she had had enough. The gala was in the courtyard above the Hall of Hooves. One particular pony with a starched black suit and powdered continental wig had annoyed her more than the others and had made the mistake of wandering over a trapdoor. If she tapped three times on the third statue–
zZz
The clock rang three times. Luna awoke with a start. She'd been day-dreaming again. She looked up. The moon was definitely not supposed to up that high this time of night. She pulled it closer to the horizon. With a sigh, she crossed her forelegs on the railing to the balcony and rested her chin atop them. How long had she been asleep? Three hours? The moon had been in the wrong spot the whole time.
Celestia never messed up with the sun like that, did she? Of course not—she was perfect. One never heard of ponies complaining about the time of day being off. Even if she did mess something up those star-stuck, drooling fanponies would still find a way to praise her for it anyway!
zZz
It was noon, about a week ago. Luna yawned from lack of sleep. The opening of a bakery wasn't really worth the attention of both Royal Sisters, but Celestia had insisted that Luna come along. As it turned out, this wasn't just a dedication ceremony; it was also a contest. Mr. Pancake had come from the small town of Manehatten and wanted to get to know the local cuisine better. Whoever made the best item would get it added to the menu and could eat there for free for a month.
Luna felt like she had that in the bag. At last it was something that she could do better than her sister and get recognition for doing so. Luna often cooked for herself since the castle staff didn't appreciate being awakened in the middle of the night to make sandwiches. As a result, she'd gotten pretty good at it. Celestia was a terrible cook.
Luna took her time preparing her entry. It was a small cake with a light, flaky crust over a sweet, dense filling of lotus seed paste. On the top she took the time to carve an intricate pattern of her portrait overlayed against the moon. She baked it to a golden brown perfection and lightly glazed it with honey.
“We call this, mooncake,” she said as she presented it to Pancake.
He held it up and sniffed at it and took a bite. “Nice aroma, excellent presentation, light and tender pastry over a sweet and rich filling. It's very good.”
Luna beamed.
Celestia, on the other hoof, had spent most of her time staring at a blob of dough. Given the piles of dirty mixing bowls and spilled flour surrounding her, that was her best effort yet.
Luna giggled. “Do thee need help, sister?”
“No no. We can do this.” Celestia reached for the baking tray but her hoof slipped and hit the edge of it. This caused the tray to flip up and the dough went flying. She looked up in time to get the blob stuck on her her horn. Luna rolled over laughing.
Celestia crossed her eyes and looked up at the ring of dough on her head. “We, uh, meant to do that.”
With one royal sister rolling unprofessionally on the ground and the other the centerpiece of a brewing culinary disaster, the growing crowd of onlooking ponies took glances at each other and whispered amongst themselves. It was easy to tell which ponies had placed wagers on this contest because most of them had huge frowns. There were a few with wide grins too. If Luna had bothered to inspect the crowd she would have recognized them as her servants that she had awakened when she had need of them. They were the only ponies who knew her well enough to know of her cooking skills.
Celestia frowned as the dough started drooping. She prodded at the glob to loosen it and started pushing at it to remove it from her horn.
A loud crash in the kitchen caused Celestia to jerk her head—which sent the ring of dough flying. It sailed through the air in a wobbly arc and landed smack dab in the oven. The door was only open because the pony who'd fallen and dropped a pile of dirty bowls had grabbed the handle in an unsuccessful attempt to steady herself.
Without a cooking tray, the glob of dough landed on the hot grill over the burning coals. It sizzled and smoked for a bit then caught fire. Celestia had a look of panic in her eyes but she maintained an otherwise calm composure. She pulled the dough out of the oven with her magic and gently blew on it until the flames went out. She placed the sort-of-circular ring on a plate and stared at it. Pancake winced at the atrocity. Luna couldn't stop laughing.
Perhaps in an effort to hide her failure, Celestia grabbed one last ingredient and powdered the whole thing with sugar until the blackened burnt crust was no longer visible.
“There.” Celestia presented her abomination to Pancake, who made no move to sample it.
“Um, what is it?” he asked.
“It's... a dough 'O',” Celestia said after a somewhat awkward pause.
“Oh?” Pancake asked. “It's dough?”
“That hardly qualifies as anything edible,” Luna said. “Really, sister, what thee made is less like a 'dough' and more like a 'dough-not.' ”
Technically, Luna had won the contest but guess which menu item became inexplicably popular? It infuriated her that her culinary masterpiece went largely ignored just because the other option had been designed by her infuriatingly overshadowing sister. At least Pancake's version of that recipe was edible. Luna had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
zZz
“Ow.” Luna awoke with a start. Her heart beat with fury and she clenched her teeth. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. That was a dream but she'd been dreaming about an event that had actually happened. Waking up didn't cause the awful memory to fade. Instead, it was sharper than ever and twisted at her psyche like a hot, buttered knife lodged in her gut.
Luna felt another chill descend over her as eerie winds from the Everfree forest howled. That was never a good sign. Luna's hackles rose and she scanned the forest for signs of trouble. If something dangerous were to emerge, she stood ready to summon a pair of fog hounds whose baying would awaken the guards (and everypony else too). They might just be animated cloud constructs but they could be ferocious in the their own right. She'd seen the two of them chase off a pack of timberwolves all on their own. Luna shuddered from revulsion in remembrance of the stench of those things. They smelled like rot mixed with death and left to fester. The winds held no hint of that odor and gradually died down. Nothing horrible appeared, so Luna relaxed a bit and glanced at the clock.
It was only half-past three so she didn't feel the need to move the moon again just yet. If somepony wanted to be really persnickety about it, then she should keep the moon moving constantly in a slow arc the whole night. That was far more trouble than it was worth, and Luna usually just moved it once per hour, like Celestia did with the sun. Nopony would ever criticize Celestia for being lazy. Luna snorted.
Speaking of persnickety, a few weeks ago she'd had the misfortune to attend a meeting with the dignitaries from Canterlot. Ever since Evermoor Keep had been announced, a certain group of unicorns felt like it was their sacred mission to convince Celestia to move the nation's capitol there.
zZz
Luna yawned from lack of sleep. The sun was still low on the horizon but in all honesty it should be higher. In a rare show of annoyance, Celestia deliberately kept it low so that it could glare in these ponies' eyes. Watching the two of them squint was kind of amusing, not that it deterred them in any way.
“So as thine majesties can see here, Canterlot would be all but impervious to an assault from earth ponies.” The large white stallion spread a map and several diagrams on the table. It was clear that he'd put a lot of effort into this, but that effort had been wasted in this regard.
It was true for many reasons that Canterlot would be a better capitol than a keep centered in the middle of untameable wilds, but that reason was not one of them. Celestia glanced at Luna. Perhaps Luna could finally convince them to give up on this request. It might even be possible; Luna had a way with words that tended to get right to the point which made it hard to argue against her. Celestia could hope for alicorn pigs too.
Luna spoke up, “While thee put a lot of effort into this, We're afraid that thou has completely missed the point as to what a defensible position is supposed to accomplish. We'd much rather have a structure that serves well in the defense of all our little ponies rather than excluding a particular group of them.”
“Er, no. Thine majesty misunderstands. The earth ponies are the enemies in this hypothetical scenario.” The overly-dressed unicorn inched towards some shadows, but the sun followed him, for some reason.
“It seems silly to base important decisions on hypothetical scenarios that we'd try with all our passion to avoid,” Luna said. “And besides, we see no mention of the growing tunnel systems for the crystal mines mentioned in your diagrams. If earth ponies really wanted to take the town, they'd never expose themselves on the winding mountain trails. Instead, they'd dig up from below. Not that that would ever happen, mind thee, because they'd always be welcome in that town regardless of which direction they came from.”
There was a pause. “We could seal off the tunnels...”
“And put the miners out of work? And shut down the biggest export to the Crystal Empire? That sounds like a good way to drive all ponies from Canterlot and not just the ones thou don't like.” Luna's reasoning was sound and straight to the point.
These ponies were more used to dealing with the polite nothings that Celestia tended to give so they were having trouble coming up with retorts to Luna's arguments. While they were thinking, the sun moved and left them in shadow. Apparently, Celestia had felt that they had had enough.
The white unicorn gritted his teeth. His eyes widened and dilated involuntarily in response to the change in the light. The well-dressed tan unicorn mare next to him spoke up, “We wouldn't need any of that to attract residents with Celestia there.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “If thou are so interested in standing by her side then thou should move here.”
“What? Move to this dreadful forest? How can thine majesties even stand it here? Canterlot is so much nicer and the high cliffs on the side of the mountain have such amazing views. Why, I'd go so far as to say that one could see all of Equestria from up there.”
“So? Cloudsdale is higher up still,” Luna said.
The mare's eyes popped open in response. She'd forgotten about the cloud city entirely.
“–and it's far more defensible against earth ponies,” Luna added, “if that ever happens to come up, which it won't.”
The stallion cringed. The two of them had spent so much effort trying to show the superiority of Canterlot over Evermoor Keep that they never even considered that they might have to go up against other pony municipalities. “Perhaps we should rethink our arguments.” He put a hoof on the mare's shoulder, who raised a questioning eyebrow. “Come, dear, let us retreat for now. We'll find a way to get through to Celestia eventually.”
She sighed. “It's probably for the best.” She bowed. “We thank thee for thine time, Princess Celestia.”
He bowed as well. “As always, it's been a pleasure locking horns with thee, Princess Celestia. Thee may have the upper hoof for now, but just wait until our next argument.”
“Her? But she never even said anything!” Luna yelled.
“Luna–” Celestia started to speak, but a loud grinding noise filled the room and the two dignitaries mysteriously vanished, only to be replaced by stone gargoyles that normally watch over the outside of the keep. Speaking of which, two familiar and very startled voices came in through the window. For posh nobility, they had a rather colorful vocabulary. Celestia nodded to her pegasus guards who flew out the window to help them. She also turned and shooed the unicorn guards out of the room to give them a moment of privacy.
“Luna, I thank thee for helping me out with this. They'll have to think long and hard before they come back again, which is far more than I'd ever been able to accomplish, but I think that last part was a bit uncalled for. Is something troubling thee, sister?” Between the two of them, Celestia dropped the use of the royal 'we.'
What should Luna say? That she was jealous of her sister? That she was tired of doing all the hard work in the background while her sister got all the credit? That she was annoyed that her sister had the final say on matters regardless of what Luna thought?
Luna glanced out the window to make she that she wouldn't be overheard. “Despite how irritating those two are, Canterlot is a far better location than this place.”
Celestia sighed. “We can't move, though. Thou knows why.”
“Yes, yes. Without the Elements the Tree of Harmony is vulnerable and somepony has to stay behind to watch over it.”
“I just wish I knew why the tree refused to take the Elements back after we defeated Discord. It's like it wants us to do something with them, but I'm at a loss as to figure out what.” Celestia leveled her gaze to look at her sister. “But thee knows that already. Really Luna, what is troubling thee?”
“I'm just...” The word 'jealous' hit the tip of Luna's tongue and died there as her sentence trained off. “...tired, that's all. I've stayed up far too late. I need my sleep.”
Luna walked out. Behind her, she could grinding as the stone gargoyles shifted back into place. Resetting the trap wasn't as smooth as springing it had been. She heard the gears grind four times–
zZz
Luna awoke with a start. The clock rang four times. She didn't delay and moved the moon to its proper position. Two more hours and she could stop daydreaming and get some real sleep. The Everfree was quiet this time, so Luna looked up instead.
Stars, her stars, lined the night sky. They were nothing compared to the sun, but they belonged to her. Throughout the lonely nights Luna had taken the time to arrange them into subtle patterns and shapes. It warmed her heart to know that other ponies noticed. In fact, some went so far as to tell stories about the shapes they saw up there.
She remembered reading about them not too long ago.
•zZz•
Luna yawned from lack of sleep. She'd stayed up late in the morning helping to organize the latest shipment of books for the library. This particular shipment had been come from the coastal town of Manehatten and included, among other things, shipping records, ships' logs, sailing tips, maps and navigational directions.
Luna singled out one book in particular that talked about navigating by following the stars in the night sky. Since there were so many of them, the authors of this book used them in a sort-of connect-the-dot manner to draw pictures and made up stories about those pictures to help ponies remember the patterns.
Luna had stayed up so late reading it that the sun shone through the upper library windows to illuminate the page she was reading. That caught her attention and she paused in reading about the tamer Origin to look around the room. The other ponies using the library had avoided disturbing her and actively tip-hoofed around the area that she was in. That was fine and all, but Luna had the urge to talk to one.
She folded up her constellation reference guide and carried it with her down the towering isles of musty books towards a cream-colored pegasus colt who noticed a bit too late that she was approaching him.
“Pr-princess!” He splayed himself on the floor in a hasty bow.
“Please rise, subject,” she commanded.
He looked hesitant, but did as she requested.
“So thee know of the constellations?” Luna asked.
“Do I?” His eyes perked up and he raised his head to look up at her. “They're my favorite subject. I love reading about the night sky.”
Luna smiled. It was good to be appreciated. “And which constellation is thine favorite?”
“The Star. That's everypony's favorite.”
“The... Star?” Luna asked. The reference guide she was reading was in alphabetical order and she hadn't gotten that far yet, but, now that he mentioned it, the Star had been mentioned in almost every other story. “The night sky is full of stars. How can one be any more special than the others?”
The colt giggled like he was sharing a dirty secret. “It's because that's the constellation that represents the Sun. Nopony has to feel bad about being out at night because that constellation reminds them that day is coming.”
zZz
Luna awoke with a start. Beads of sweat dripped down her face. She still felt bad about how she'd reprimanded that poor child. He hadn't deserved that. She never did get the chance to say that she was sorry either because his whole family had moved away. The winds of the Everfree picked up again and she welcomed them this time. Perhaps they'd dry the tears from her eyes and blow the pain away.
The sky darkened. She looked up. Fresh from the forest, a cloud had drifted in front of the moon. Luna narrowed her wet eyes and flew up to give it a good kicking. The cloud sparked in protest but after that single thunderclap it caved in from her ferocious bucking and dissipated. The savagery of her attack surprised herself and she landed huffing from exertion.
She promised herself that she'd track down that child someday and make up for her actions. She looked up at the sky. She hadn't been able to stand looking at the 'Star' constellation ever since it had been pointed out to her so she'd moved the stars that were part of it. That was probably a poor decision on her part, but she'd been sleep deprived and emotional, much like tonight, actually.
Luna looked at the clock and watched as the hands slowly worked their way towards five. In a little more than an hour she could stop with these involuntarily catnap daydreams and get some proper rest. For once, she was actually looking forward to seeing the sun.
That reminded her of a time once long ago...
zZz
Luna yawned from lack of sleep. Ever since she'd discovered her special talent, she'd spent more and more time staying up through the night and wound up sleeping most of the day. Well, not today! Little Luna was determined to stay awake the whole time so that she could see her sister on her special day.
Celestia was coming back from Unicornicopia after her study session in advanced magic. That alone was reason to celebrate, but she'd finally earned her cutie mark! Luna couldn't wait to see it. After breaking the record for Equestria's oldest blank flank, it was so good to hear that her older sister had finally grown up. She was a big pony now.
As for Luna, she'd discovered her own special talent fairly early. She was a flight camp in Pegasopolis and had a tendency to stay up late when she wasn't supposed to. One time she was up really late and some ponies had come looking for her and they were really going to chew her out when they finally found her, so she hid the moon so she wouldn't get into trouble. They... let her stay up however late she wanted to after that.
Luna perked up when she heard the patter-clomping of the train coming. It took six large earth pony stallions to pull the train cars, not that she noticed them. Luna had her eyes on a large mare who'd been riding with her head sticking out a window and her tongue lolling out. Celestia might be old enough to be a grown mare, but she still acted like a little filly.
“Tia!” Luna hopped up and down.
“Lu Lu, guess what? I did it! I finally did it!” In a feat of unprecedented flexibility, Celestia contorted herself out of the train window and hopped down on the station platform. Some white feathers fluttered down after her. She spread her wings to fully expose her flanks. “Those stuffy old unicorn scholars finally let me help out with the sun and guess what? I could could move it all by myself!”
“Let me see. Let me see!” Luna hopped around to get a good look at Celestia's cutie mark. “Wow, it looks just like the sun.”
“Thee know what this means, don't thee?” Celestia asked. She had a huge, evil grin.
“We can finally have our cute-ceañeras together?” Luna asked.
“Sky pong!” Celestia shouted.
Luna squeed and took her position opposite Celestia. With her magic, she raised the moon and they both moved their orbs to opposite sides of the horizon. The sun and the day were on one side, while the moon and the night were on the other side. With eyes narrowed, they snorted, pawed at the ground, and sent the sun and the moon bouncing around the sky...
zZz
Luna gradually awoke with a smile on her lips. It was hard to believe that she still remembered that day. That was long before Discord, even. Well, perhaps it wasn't so hard to believe after all. That was the most fun she'd ever had in a single day in her entire life. Heh. That was also the largest number of panicked ponies she'd ever seen in her long life too. They were never going to do that again.
Luna nodded at the clock as it struck six and dropped the moon down below the horizon. Celestia raised the sun right on schedule. After nodding off half the night, Luna wasn't really all that tired, but knew that she should try to get to sleep anyway or her schedule would out of whack. She heard the loud echo of metal hoofplates clanking on the cold, stone floor. Well, it wouldn't hurt to stop and chat for a while with her sister. After dreaming about her most of the night she was feeling quite troubled and wanted to get that off her chest.
“Sister? Do thee have time for a few words?” Luna asked.
“Of course, sister. Did something happen in the night?” Celestia walked out on the balcony next to Luna. Her larger form overshadowed her sister in the low angle of the morning light.
While Luna had much to think about, now that her sister was here she had trouble expressing her feelings into words. “No, not exactly. Well, nothing I couldn't handle by myself. The wind picked up a few times but all that came was a stray storm cloud.”
“That sounds fairly calm, given the recent trend. Though nothing ever seems to come out during the day.”
Luna's eye twitched once. “It's not the forest that's bothering me. I...” Luna's voiced trailed off. What should she say? That she was seething with jealousy? That life was unfair? She was probably taking this far too personally. Celestia would never do anything to hurt Luna's feelings.
A smacking noise focused Luna back on reality. She finally noticed Celestia's breakfast: a box of dough-nots. They were the popular sun-glazed variety too. Luna felt like somepony had twisted a knife in her heart.
“Would thee like one?” Celestia asked. “They're fresh.”
Luna snorted and scowled with fury. She caught herself reaching for the moon with her magic, took a deep breath, and released it. Now was not the time for an impromptu game of sky pong.
“Luna, is something wrong?” Celestia asked with grave concern and set down the doom-bringing pastries.
Luna shook her head and stomped off. “Nevermind. I'm going to bed.”