A white, undressed head poked up into the dim, early twilight rays of light. She looked around, and grabbed a brush for her mane off the nearby dresser. She slipped out of bed onto four hooves.

Clutching the yellow spectrumed star from beyond the known, she lifted it up so it could start it's journey overhead to the west.

Stretching like a cat, she finished her morning routine and proceeded into the torch-lit hallway. At each arch stood two guards on either side, a precaution the young mare took after the latest... incident.

She met another, much darker alicorn in the dining hall, eating what almost looked like nightshade. 'Tis not nightshade, correct? the white one thought to herself, worried for the other.

Sitting down relatively close for a noble, she exchanged pleasantries with the younger sister.

The smaller one finished her meal, and went off to sleep, hopefully not forever.

Celestia sat in the silence of the hall, taking this opportunity to loudly and impolitely chew her food to spite the silly etiquette her sister had made her abide by. But she never did it when anypony was around. That'd be just rude.

She had no idea about what this day would entail. She never did, really. It was always so boring, if she was honest with herself. Being the co-ruler of a country had it's exciting moments, but it just wasn't as fun as she had dreamed it would be. Maybe, her life was just destined to be filled with long, boring hours of work or absolutely nothing whatsoever.

She swallowed her mouthful and looked down at her plate, contemplating it's content: a perfectly prepared omelet with sweet onions, peppers, mushrooms, four cheeses, basil, tomato; really just anything she wanted. She poked at it with a fork, ripping it open slightly. It looked delicious. But....

Why cannot we receive an item which we do not want? We would receive something unbefitting, or, we correct ourselves, very delectable, but we do not wish to eat it, so we send for another. And then the fine chefs bring out another item which they think we would find suitable, but again we reject it. We could repeat this process over and over again, until there are many dishes sitting around us. Finally, we could decide that we desired the first dish all along. The princess smiled at her uncouth and completely silly thought. Why would she even think that? Was it just a passing train of thought?

No, the princess knew it was not. She had thoughts and expectations like these for so long. It was filly-like, but she enjoyed her fantasies.

But even in her fantasies she did not feel sated. She felt a deep, almost primal yearning for something more....

But what? What was it she wanted so badly?

Freedom, she thought on a whim.

Was that it? Freedom? Was freedom her wish?

Freedom from what?

Freedom from... our life.

Yes. That was the answer. Freedom from this role she played. The world was so vast... inconceivably vast. Yet she was stuck here, doing this.

Her sister was content, was she not? Why did anypony need Celestiaq here? Her sister controlled bodies so much more distant than the star she touched, and yet she was barely given credit. The sun princess knew her own lies about how the common-ponies appreciated her sister, and was sure her sister knew them as well. So why should she herself receive all the credit, when her job was almost trivial compared to her sister's?

‘Tis silly. We are not required here. Our dear sister has been in the background for so long now. It is time for her to shine, and for us to leave. We do not require all this. Everything is so big, so why are we here? Why, truly? We don't know how to describe this, but it feel's so... pointless. Why must we squabble over pony problems... we are not the only ones in this realm!

We understand, her other voice told her.

We know thou dost. Thou art us.

She stopped agreeing with herself and made up her mind. She needed to get away from these trivial things.We are immortal, surely we of all beings are capable of understanding such things.

She stood up from her sitting position, and marched out of the hall to tell her sister about her magnificent ideas. She was certain her sister would agree.

She went forth into the long hallways and turned corners until she arrived at the night princess's chambers. Coming to the dark painted door, she reached up a hoof and knocked once. Having no reply, she reached up and knocked again. Still no reply. Is our sister sleeping? Maybe we should not bother her at this hour, and leave a note...

No, we cannot do this to our sister. To others, we will allow such to befall them, but not to our dear sister.

She was about to knock a third time when Celestia heard the knob turning. The door pushed inward to reveal a silhouette sitting upright on the bed. Luna kept her room dark to sleep during the daytime.

The younger one spoke, slightly annoyed at her sister's untimely intrusion. "Yes, may I help thee, dear sister?"

"Yes, sister. We... we must speak to thee about a matter rather...." She made an effort to find the fitting word.

"May I suggest 'serious'?"

"Yes, thank thee...."

"What may it be, then? We are sorry to be rude, but we were resting but a moment ago."

"Luna, dear sister, we wish to... leave. We wish to find ourselves. And we trust that thou can rule Equestria in our absence...."

"Whatever art thou saying? Thou cannot leave. Surely thou hast thought about the consequences of an action such as this?"

"Of course we have," Celestia said, lying.

"Then it should be obvious that this decision is far too rash and silly."

The older sister didn't respond, and instead lightly bit her bottom lip.

"Sister," Luna said, "Thou cannot do this. Thou canst not leave Equestria behind.... Ponies need thee here. Where didst thou receive these ideas from?"

"We... lately, we have been thinking about... things...."

"What kinds of things dost thou speakest of?"

"We have been... thinking about how pointless it is for us to be here. Luna, dost thou not want more praise for thine work?"

"We do, but this is not how we wish to achieve a higher status in the view of the common ponies. We do not wish thee gone, sister."

"What does it matter, though? We are both aware that thou art capable of running this land. There is no reason for us to not go...."

"Yes there is, sister!"

"What may it be?"

"Us! Thou would be abandoning us...."

"Tis not fair.... Thou dost not need us...."

"We do, even if the country does not. We need thee. Please, sister, do not go...."

"This... this was never about thee.... This was about us. We have come to realize that we need not squabble in pony problems. We are immortal. We are bigger than this."

"Sister, thou dost not understand.... In our dreams, we have seen a great many things. The world... everything... it is so big...."

"Yes, sister. It is unimaginably big: for mortals. We are immortal, sister. It is our destiny to understand everything."

"Thou art wrong. We do not know if we are immortal. And what if we are? Our psyche is surely no different than an average pony's. Do not let thine own power deceive thyself."

"We do not, but we just thought—"

"Thought what, that thine intelligence wert higher because of thine magic? Do not be silly.

"Sister, this is a bad idea. Dost thou not see why?"

"Yes, but... but... we still need to go forth with our plans! Thou shalt not hold us back!" Celestia ran out of the room and teleported away.

Luna ran after her, but was too late; he sister was gone, and Luna's eyes were wide. Did our sister just... leave? A princess... and she just... left....

Author's Note

Yep. I've had this done for a while now, so I thought I'd finally publish it. I want banners back....