Celestia was awakened to a tap on her shoulder. She slowly opened her eyes.
“Your Highness, are you aware that today is Princess Luna’s birthday?” a guard asked after a moment.
“Yes, yes I am. I have something planned, but you can’t tell anypony what I’m about to tell you,” Celestia answered, leaning so as to whisper her plan to the guard.
Luna was walking the halls of the palace. Even though it was her birthday, everypony else didn’t acknowledge it. Oh, sure they bowed upon seeing her, but they’re supposed to do that anyway. She was starting to think that everypony, including her sister, had forgotten her birthday. It wouldn’t be the first time, but it probably wouldn’t be the last either.
She saw Celestia at a distance.
“Celestia! Sister, I must speak with you,” she said, slowly walking toward her.
“I’m sorry, Lulu, but I can’t. I’m busy with a project I’ve been working on. Can it wait?” Celestia replied, avoiding Luna’s eyes.
“No, it ca-” Luna started, but Celestia had already left. Luna was tempted to just yell out what she had wanted to say, but decided against it. Instead, she hung her head, and returned to her room.
Celestia regretted not hearing what Luna wanted to say, but she needed to finish her ‘project’-Luna’s birthday party. She had asked Pinkie ahead of time for help setting it up, and had asked her to not tell Luna. Pinkie, being Pinkie, had ‘Pinkie Promised’ not to tell Luna about the party. Whatever a Pinkie Promise was, Celestia was sure Pinkie wouldn’t break it. Pinkie had just arrived and Celestia was heading to greet her when Luna had asked to speak. Not wanting to be late to meet Pinkie, she had asked if Luna could wait, even though she knew she couldn’t.
Pinkie was waiting at the entry hall.
“Hey, Princess Celestia! I brought cupcakes-vanilla with navy frosting-, navy and black balloons, a banner that says ‘Happy Birthday Princess Luna’, and a candle shaped like a crescent moon-all the items you requested,” Pinkie said upon seeing her approach.
“Thank you, Pinkie Pie. I’m sure my sister will love her surprise party.” Celestia said, heading toward the ballroom. “Now all that’s needed is to set it up. Would you like t-” Before she could finish, the pink pony had started decorating the ballroom. Within an hour or two, the ballroom had become a room dedicated to a night theme. How she does it, I will never know, Celestia thought, even though she had seen Pinkie set it up.
“Well, now that it’s set up, all we need are some guests and the guest of honor!” Pinkie said. “You go get Princess Luna, I’ll go get some guests.”
Celestia almost objected, but the pink mare had already gone out of the room before she could even blink. She sighed. “I will never understand that mare. Ever.”
Luna heard a knock on her door. “Come in,” she said simply.
Celestia opened the door to her sister’s room slowly. “Lulu, I need your help with something,” she said quietly.
“Since when do you need my help with anything?” Luna said, aggravated. “You never let me have a say in anything. Hell, you didn’t even wait for me to answer whether or not what I needed to say could wait! What if it was something extremely important?! What then?”
“Luna, I know what you were going to say.”
“How could you possibly know?!”
Celestia remained silent.
“Oh, so you don’t know. I’m not surprised,” Luna said snarkily.
“It’s why I need your help. Just trust me.”
“Why?!”
“Because I never forgot it while you were gone.”
That gave Luna a pause. “W-what?”
“I never forgot your birthday while you were on the moon. I always made a single cupcake, the way you like them. And I always left them in the room that was prepared for your return, and they were always gone the next day. Where they went, I don’t know, but I always felt like you noticed it and saved it for something special,” Celestia said quietly, unnoticed tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I-I’m sorry… I just assumed- I thought you didn’t even remember it. But-” Luna was cut off by a hug from her sister.
“It’s okay, Lulu. I needed time to prepare something for today, so I pretended I didn’t know. Please come with me,” Celestia pleaded.
“After we get you cleaned up,” Luna said. “I refuse to let my sister look like this on my birthday.”
Celestia let out a weak laugh. “I thought it was the older sister’s job to comfort the little sister, not the other way around.”
“Well, today the roles are switched. You need it more than I do right now.”
After quickly drying her tears, Celestia walked with Luna to the ballroom. Upon entering the room, Luna’s eyes widened, taking in the entire room.
“Tell me you didn’t…” Luna said, staring at her sister.
“Didn’t what?” Celestia said with a smile.
“You did, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry, could you tell me what I did?”
Luna hugged her sister tightly. “Thank you. But, you didn’t have to. A small, family only party would’ve been fine.”
“But then there’d only be two guests.”
“Extended family included.”
“Seven guests.”
“Are you counting Twilight’s friends?”
“Twelve guests.”
“And that is more than enough for me,” Luna said, finally releasing her sister from the hug.
“This is the ‘official party’, for the press. Tomorrow, can be the family-only party, if you want,” Celestia said.
“Alright. But make sure the pink one plans it.”
“She planned this one, I’m sure she could plan another for tomorrow,” Celestia said. Both of them decided to join the party shortly after.
“How long did it take to set this up, Miss Pie?” Luna asked upon seeing Pinkie serving punch to a guest.
“Oh, two hours, give or take a few minutes.”
“Surely you’re kidding?”
“She’s not. I saw her set it up.”
Luna turned to see her sister. “It really only took a couple hours?”
“Yes. Don’t ask me how she did it though.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I know.”
