The sound of thunder came rolling over the western hills as the heavy rain splashed and cascaded into and out of the deep puddles of dark, icy water. In contrast to the cold the sound of the large, crackling fire pits that were placed in the corners of the grand hall where the ruler of Equestria sat with her two daughters, conversing as they ate their dinner. The conversation mainly existed between the eldest daughter, Celestia, and her mother with a very rare sentence thrown in by the youngest, Luna. The blue alicorn, being a filly of only seven years of age, was too young to converse about the matters that her older sister, she being ten-and-seven years of age, and her mother who was pushing the ten-thousand-and-forty year mark, with any form of experience or first-hand knowledge. Her experience stemmed no further than being able to order a servant around with authority in her voice and her knowledge only contained here-say and spiteful rumours that had slipped from loose tongues with herself being in earshot. These reasons made her believe she lacked a voice and from this belief came a belief that she had no right to speak and as such she refrained from doing so. And because of her silence she found herself succumbing to the grasp of boredom. The droll sounding rain coupled with the emotionless echo of her family's voices made her mind go numb, made her desperate for any kind of distraction. So she began to move the food around on her plate with her silverware in a serpentine pattern. Her dull blue eyes focused intently on how the different fires cast light on her polished utensils, this event being the only bright light she had witnessed in well over a season due to the unrelenting storms that had descended and consumed the entire land in a blanket of storm clouds. Due to her concentration; Luna was unaware of the noise she was making by manoeuvring her food around on the porcelain plate but it soon caught the attention of her mother, causing the conversation between herself and her eldest to die down before she addressed her youngest.
"Luna dear?" she said in a soft voice. The filly looked up at her mother with a blank expression but continued to fiddle with her fork.
"Yes Mother?" she asked in a dry tone.
"Could you try and eat just a little bit more tonight?" she suggested with a caring smile "I am sure you do not want Coral thinking you do not admire her cooking, especially after I requested for her to make your favourite food?" Luna's eyes cast down to her food before quickly flicking back up to her mother and after a heavy nod she used her fork to impale a piece of the lettuce and raise it to her mouth.
"Thank you dear" her mother smiled before returning to talking to Celestia. As the red and pink maned mares chatted Luna allowed her mind to wander over as many subjects it could cling onto. Thoughts of her daytime teachings, her visits to the royal dressmaker's to have an outfit sorted out for a certain ball or a new pair of horseshoes to compensate for the type of weather that season. She had been informed a week prior that on the day she turned ten-and-three years of age she would be presented with a crown of her own with a chest-plate much like the one her sibling wore. She would of course be given jurisdiction over what materials were used to fashion the crown as well as the colour she desired it to be. The next topic her mind danced through was the most prevalent at the current time: her loneliness. Luna was, at almost every waking moment, alone no matter where she went. With her older sibling having assumed her royal duties she had been unable to find any time to spend with her sister as they had in their younger years. The same was true of her mother, doubly so due to the disasters caused by flooding in the kingdom. This issue caused her to work nearly through the whole day with barely time to eat and sleep much less entertain her daughters. The fact that she was eating with them was a miracle in itself and it was one that both sisters were extremely grateful for.
"Queen Soleanna?" a male voice called from across the hall. Upon hearing the voice Luna immediately knew what it meant. She screwed her eyes shut and exhaled through her nostrils in annoyance.
"Yes?" her mother replied, already in the action of sliding her chair back and getting onto her hooves.
"The council requests your input on the matter of the floods in the Dales" he answered, bowing his head low as the queen walked over to him.
"Can it wait?" she asked in a heavy voice.
"I'm afraid not Your Majesty" he responded. Soleanna turned her head to look at her daughters before sending them both an apologetic look.
"I am sorry girls but I have to go, I will try to visit the two of you before I retire to my chambers" she said with a remorseful look.
"Yes Mother" the sisters sighed, both of them hanging their heads. The great oak doors swung shut with a mighty creak and the two were left alone in the room. It was soon discovered that the lack of conversation in the room made it feel very unwelcoming but there was nothing that could be done to repair the scene. There was once a time when the two would talk the day into the night but since Celestia's coronation a large divide had opened up between the siblings as their different social standings and experience made a kindred conversation rarer than a snowy day in a searing summer season. The silence was only prevented from swallowing the entire hall by the sound of crashing thunder outside and a new sound; the sound of water pinging off the large glass windows lining the walls. This was brought on by the change of the wind direction outside and it only served to drown Luna's spirits out even further.
The dinner had quickly come to a close as Celestia herself was summoned away to assist their mother, leaving Luna to finish her meal in isolation once again. She had eaten the meal quickly and asked the kitchen staff to give a warm thank you to Coral for preparing it. With a twitch of her lips she dropped her hollow smile and retired to her bed chambers for the evening of loneliness and boredom. As she locked her oak door behind her she dragged her hooves over to her large bed and clambered onto it. She lay her head down on the swan feather pillow and closed her eyes. The haze of sleep surrounded Luna quickly and was almost ready to embrace her before there came a loud rattling of the balcony doors across her room. Luna became committed to ignore it for the first minute and halfway into the second before something that sounded similar to a muffled voice came from the glass doors. Luna slowly cracked her eyes open and raised her head off the warm pillow. She could see that the curtain had been blown away from the door by a gust of wind and the iron frame of the door was rattling loudly. A loud sigh escaped Luna's lips as she climbed off the bed and trotted over to the balcony doors. She used her magic to try and pull the curtain back over the doors before her reflection caught her eyes. Her eyes rolled onto the image standing out against the black outside the window. She was ready to draw the curtain before she noticed something peculiar about her reflection. Her mane was much shorter and slightly darker than it usually was as well as her jaw being wider and the bridge of her nose being thicker, looking much more masculine.
"Excuse me?" the reflection asked. Luna's eyes widened in fear as she realized that she was not looking at her reflection but instead another child. With a loud yelp she jumped backwards and began to glare at the colt outside.
"Who... who are you?" she asked.
"My name's Cloud!" he replied, having to shout to have his voice heard over the storm "Can you let me in please?"
