Author's Note
Something I wrote to get back into the writing swing. (Also someone requested something short with Luna and Celestia.)
Enjoy!
Silver
Soft. Luna had always puzzled over why her moonlight was always described in such a manner. Looking up at it now, this wondering once again entered her mind for no apparent reason than to occupy her otherwise idle thoughts. Perhaps it was the fresh tea, the leaves harvested just days prior, in combination with the vacant night sky, its clarity seemingly unnatural without a cloud to be seen. Perhaps it was because she was bored. Whatever the reason, the Princess of the Night sat on her balcony, tea in her magical grasp, staring up at the moon.
No, Luna corrected herself. It is my moon. As it has been since the day I was born until the day... She gave pause at this particular thought, hesitating with wary anxiety. Shaking this feeling--with the reminder that her thoughts were her own, she continued. ...until the day I was imprisoned within it. After a moment’s pause hanging in the cool of the night, Luna allowed herself a small chuckle. Even then, I suppose it remained mine, though Celestia had taken control of its cycle. Still...after a thousand years, she may have felt some variety of ownership for it.
A thousand years... Suddenly, Luna’s mood fell from its heightened state. With a small frown, she took a sip of the refreshing tea. In her mind, the Princess reached back into her memories, to ages unknown by any living pony, spare her sister. To her, it was a time of confusion, a dazed--intoxicated, almost--sensation of being submerged in a substance heavier than air, yet too light to be water. It did not feel like a millenium, she remarked to herself, as she had done to others. It was more alike to a very long sleep...in a dream both vivid and hazed.
So much had changed in Equestria from what she knew. Once a great military power in the world, the grand armies had diminished to a mere domestic guard. The eloquent flowing words of Equish had altered to form the rugged, modern language of now, even among the contemporary noble houses. As a result of her conflict with her sister, the once vibrant and serene Everfree Forest had succumbed to the violent magics of the War of Sun and Moon, and the castle Luna had once called home was lost to the encroaching dark. Even her Royal Voice, a dialect that was a mark of status and brought great respect to those who spoke it, was now looked upon as disruptive and frightening.
As she pondered over this, a smile returned to Luna’s face; the Princess was recalling her first Nightmare Night in Ponyville. How naive she had been, oblivious to how the citizens of the small town reacted to her presence and voluminous voice. It was my sister’s fault, really, for not warning me ahead of time.
“Oh my...I’m terribly sorry, sister,” Celestia said to her, a tint of red marking her white cheeks. “Your mannerisms are just so...natural to me, I suppose. It slipped my mind how outdated you are.”
“Slipped your mind, indeed, my dearest sister,” Luna mused with a small grin.
“What slipped my mind?”
“GYAH!” cried out Luna as she startled, leaping to her hooves and spinning around. In the threshold stood Celestia, sans regalia, holding a steaming mug (‘Here Comes the Sun’) of what Luna assumed was coffee in a golden yellow aura. “Sun and Stars, Celestia!” she berated angrily. “Do not scare me in such a manner! Would it be too much trouble to knock!?”
“I did knock, Luna,” Celestia replied, tapping her mug against the marble of the balcony threshold in demonstration. “You just kept sitting there.”
A blush of embarrassment spread across Luna’s face. “I...well...” she stuttered, staring ahead at the other alicorn. Finally, she sighed, shuffling her hooves back and forth. “I apologize, then,” she said, turning back around and settling back into a seated position. “My mind was elsewhere.”
There was a moment’s pause. Then Celestia, setting her coffee mug aside, moved to her sister’s side. She briefly extended her wing to brush the small of Luna’s back, then settled to her haunches on the balcony next to the Lunar Alicorn. “Where, if not here, was your mind? ...if you mind my asking, that is.”
“Not at all,” Luna replied assuredly. She sensed that Celestia was also, subtly, requesting permission to join her. In either the case of the given or suggested request, Luna granted each. “I was somewhere far away from here,” she told Celestia in answer to the original question. “Somewhere beyond even memory, and then somewhere more recent in the minds of mortals.”
Celestia gave Luna a look. “Why so cryptic tonight?”
Luna shrugged. “It feels like a pensive night, tonight,” she offered. Once again, she returned her gaze upward toward her moon. “Why do you think moonlight is called soft?”
This caused Celestia to laugh amusingly. “One deep thought at a time, Luna; you’ll make yourself dizzy.” She followed her sister’s gaze toward the silvery glow of the moon. “Can you tell me what you were thinking so deeply about?”
At this, Luna let out a breath as an almost mournful sigh. “In the most part? The amount of time I have lost here in the world.” Her teal eyes scanned the moon, as if looking for herself, still trapped on the pale surface. “An entire age, it seems, has come and gone before my banishment ended. Yet, it seemed to me like a dream of a dream, hardly any time at all.”
“You have already told me these worries, Luna,” reminded Celestia gently. “Is there anything else you haven’t said that makes this time different?”
Luna tilted her head at the question, yet held her gaze upward. “I do not know...” she admitted. “It is an ever-present concern of mine, I think, especially after my first visit to Ponyville those moons ago.”
Turning away from her sister’s moon, Celestia looked at Luna. The silver light of the moon and stars always looked so natural on her sister’s midnight-blue coat and swirling mass of ethereal cosmos that was her mane. It was akin to a lining of pale gleam on a piece of the night sky, fallen from high above the balcony. Then again, Celestia mused inwardly. Isn’t that what had happened not long ago?
Lost in her innermost ponderings again, Luna nearly jumped as Celestia draped a large, white wing over her shoulders. Almost reflexively, the smaller alicorn shuffled closer to her sister, leaning gently against the larger pony. Luna was reminded of when they were fillies, so many ages ago, when Celestia did this to comfort her on stormy nights. She was still not overly fond of lightning to this day.
“It’s a comparison,” Celestia suddenly said.
Luna looked up at her sister. “I’m sorry?”
“Moonlight is soft because it is not nearly as harsh as sunlight,” the alabaster alicorn continued. “Ponies can look up and appreciate its beautiful gaze, so unlike the blinding glare of the sun.”
Blinking, at her sister, Luna turned to look back up at her moon, shining gently in the sky. “Yes,” Luna agreed with a small chuckle. “I can see this, now.”
