Princess Celestia awoke. Her limbs felt weak and almost unable to hold her as she stood up. Oh, how she wanted nothing more than to lie there for a few hours more. Still, there she had her responsibilities to the kingdom that need to be taken of.
Celestia felt like her body was made of lead as she trudged out of her bedroom. That was to be expected from getting less than five hours of sleep after escaping your own Gala with your student and her friends. Eating some sugary donuts that night didn't at all help with getting to sleep either.
Celestia stopped when she realized that there was no sunlight coming in through the windows, the dark halls, lit by sparcely spread torches.
"Huh. The castle's dark this morning..." thought Celestia.
Celestia suddenly realized it was becauss she forgot to raise the sun. She turned back around and started galloping back to her room. She stood on the balcony and saw that the moon was still in the air. "Luna must still be asleep." Celestia put her focus on the moon and tucked it beneath the horizon, nearly dropping it, to make room for the sun she raised shakily, slowly, but still sucessfully. Celestia caught her breath, hoping that no pony realized that she was nearly late raising the sun.
"That's the last time I'll ever have that much fun." thought the alicorn.
Celestia still had a long day ahead of her of her filled with responsibilities - not to mention she had to work out how what else needed to be done to get Luna reorineted back into Equestria. Luna still uses the Canterlot Voice too often, gets moody from time to time, and collects rocks and gives them names then talks to them - no doubt habits picked up during her imprisonment on the moon. Sometimes when Celestia would pass by Luna's bedroom, she can hear her latest friend, "Jim the Rock", talk about how allienating it is being in Equestria. It gave her the willies everytime.
Celestia yawned and strolled along, ever so slowly regaining her energy. She wanted to see the ballroom and how far the royal staff got in cleaning it before getting some breakfast.
When the princess poked in from the hall, her eyes were met with the sight of deserts and drinks splattered here and there on the floor being wiped up by maids, teams of the biggest royal guards were heaving the giant statues and pillars back into place, and a few maids were chasing around some of the animals that weren't yet returned to the royal garden.
"Get back here with my coin purse!" cried a maid giving chase to a monkey.
When she saw this, Celestia had to supress her laugh to a inaudible snicker.
One of the maids who was sweeping looked over where Celestia was, approached, and gave a short bow.
"My princess," began the maid. "Somepony brought a whole lot of deserts to the Gala last night." Celestia saw that there was cupcakes and a variety of apple-based treats all neatly piled together on one edge of the desert table off to the side. "I was wondering if you wanted me to do anything with them in particular."
"You know," Celestia began. "Every pony here is working so hard. Make sure afterwards, everyone gets a little bit."
The maid nodded. Before she could get back to cleaning, Celestia stopped her.
"Make sure you set aside a cupcake for me." Celestia whispered.
Celestia was about to head to the dining room for breakfast, but hesitated. She couldn't help but feel as if she had forgotten something and she couldn't just ignore it. It seemed like every other year, she would forget something and that would normally result in some ancient evil returning free to wreak havoc. Breakfast and royal duties could wait until she remember whatever it was she had forgotten.
"Let's see..." Celestia thought. "I was standing with Twilight here. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity got through getting cake all over Blueblood there." Celestia stopped to chuckle. "And Rainbow Dash was with the statue. Then Fluttershy chased her animals into here. We left and had Donuts."
And that was it. That was all that she could think of that happened the night before. Something still felt wrong. The princess felt as though something was missing from last night. She was sensing that it had something to do with the Gala - not Donut Joe's or the evening before.
The alicorn's stomach growled. She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe it would hit her at breakfast and she might figure it out sooner on a full stomach. With that in mind, she left the ballroom and was heading out towards the dining room.
Now that she was leaving the ballroom this time, Celestia noticed a little more how the mess stretched out into the hall. Apparently a few of the animals had been this way, because some left muddy tracks on the marble floor. There was a few scratches on the walls too from a runaway bird from here to the stain glass window of Nightmare Moon.
Celestia stopped.
She stood there for a moment staring blankly at the window, until it hit her.
"I didn't invite Luna..." Celestia gasped. Her heart started pounding. "This is bad! This is bad!" Celestia couldn't believe she was so careless as to forget to invite her sister. She had just been tramsformed from Nightmare Moon, which she became because of her jealousy and sadness in the first place. Not only that, on that same day, Celestia had promised to never neglect her again.
Needless to say, Celestia flew back into the ballroom. She bolted to a fallen pillar and, with a surge of fear and anguish, she lifted it back up. All of the royal servants stopped and stared at the princess's feat. (Even the monkey that was being chased was staring.)
"Stop staring!" Celestia yelled, a bit of the Royal Voice breaking through. "Shining Armor, find Luna and keep her distracted. Swiffer Clean, you take those deserts outside and out of sight. Luna, take a mop and clean the halls. You there get--"
Celestia stopped. Slowly she turned back around to where Luna was standing with a look of pure surprise. Celestia nearly buckled right there.
"Now, Luna..." Celestia muttered it was all she could say.
Luna's mane began to wave wildly, her nostrils flared.
"You held revelry here without me, sister?" Luna asked with rage building in her. Celestia meekly nodded. "And it appears as though this celebration was... favorable."
Luna's mane waved faster now, almost like a flame. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. With each long breath, the anger washed out of her and her mane gradually stopped waving. She calmly turned around and was walking out.
"A breakfast meal is already prepared for you, sister." Luna said. And without another word, she left.
Every bystanding pony was feeling simply relieved that a second Nightmare Moon incident didn't just take place. Shining Armor was the one to speak up.
"Princess Celestia, is everything going to be alright?"
"Yes. It seems so. I can read Luna well enough to know that she took it well. I'll talk to her. It'll be a normal day by tomorrow."
The sound of Luna's hooves echoed through the caverns of Tartarus. A dim glow, like dulled moonlight, guided the princess to the lone spot where a familiar adversary was chained. Tirek spotted Luna, and the sight of her enraged him.
"What do you want?" Tirek growled.
Luna approached and his mouth slowly opened as he readied himself to drain her of her magic. He hesitated though when he realized that she was not gloating, lecturing him, or punishing him further. Instead she was actually unlocking his shackels.
Tirek, so surprised by the ironic display, just stood there.
"What kind of trick is this?" Tirek roared. "Where is Cerberus?"
"Well?" asked Luna impatiently. "Art thou too weak too walk?"
Tirek still couldn't believe what he was seeing. The princess, who helped to put him in the prison they stood, was now realeasing him.
"What do you want?" he asked, only this time more as bargain.
"Leave! Return into Equestria and... let thy wrath loose!"
This couldn't be some kind of a trap. He was already in Tartarus after all. Imprisonment in Tartarus is the worst that any pony could do to him in the first place. It just wouldn't make sense that Luna would be releasing him just for a trap.
Though it felt strange, Tirek accepted this and hesistantly walked out, laughing as he did so.
"That'll teach Celestia always invite me to revelries." Luna said to herself, rubbing her hooves maniacly, her crazed laughter echoing through Tartarus. "Oh Jim will be pleased to hear about this."
