Chapters Trouble in the Canterlot Library
Stella strutted down the aisle in all her glory, flanked by two guards. Shining Armor and his best soldier, Silver Sword. Celestia and Luna decided to make their reunion a little more formal than a "bathroom party." Well, really it had been Luna. Celestia was all for the bathroom party. She even suggested that they call Pinkie Pie, but Luna had vetoed it.
Stella was gorgeous, there was no doubt about that. She had white fur like her idol, a trait she regretted after their rivalry became public. Her mane flowed just like theirs, every alicorn from the alicorn worlds' did. She didn't have any necklaces or shoes, as a matter of fact, she looked rather bedraggled (though one would, if they had been imprisoned in the stars for a thousand moons , Luna figured.). Stella resembled Celestia so much that Luna thought, for a second, she was standing next to Stella. The main differences between them were their height (Stella was much shorter) and their mane colors. While Celestia sported a calming green, blue, and pink, Stella's mane boasted a blaring blue, purple, pink, yellow, and lavender.
"The princess, my lady," Silver Sword said, bowing at Celestia and Luna's feet. Shining armor echoed him. A glance at Stella's face told Luna just what she thought of that.
"Princess? My flank! What in the hay could have happened in a thousand moons that would make you so ridiculously commited to those- those- those mules!" Everybody gasped. Even Luna and Celestia were taken aback, and they were used to insults. Especially Luna.
Stella looked smug with herself for coming up with such an insult. Luna was thinking about banishing her to the stars again, and she was fairly certain her sister was, too, but before they got a chance, Cadance and the Mane 6 burst through the doors. Then they halted.
"Uuuuuh, who's that?" It was just like Rainbow to ask that. Luna sighed and called a meeting, so the twelve of them all made their way up to the Canterlot Library. After explaining Stella's story, (she set off to find her sisters after being left behind on their way to Equestria, but ran into Discord who imprisoned her in the stars for years thinking that the Equestrin sisters would go back for her, causing enough chaos for him to take over, but they didn't go back and Discord was turned into stone shortly after. This took nearly an hour to explain with Stella's interjection and theatrical pantomimes.) Luna and Celestia took Twilight aside and explained their history. Finally, a plan to start to be hatched.
"Why did you guys come to Canterlot in the first place?" Inquired Luna. Twilight opened her mouth to begin what Luna was sure to be a very lengthy explanation when Rainbow Dash interrupted her. "The map," Rainbow said. Twilight, her mouth still open, looked at Rainbow incredulously, then closed it and agreed. "It hadn't called all of us for a long time, so we knew it had to be urgent. Each pony with wings carried another. Rainbow took Applejack, Fluttershy took Rarity, and I-"
"Yes, yes, well that's all great. Could we please move on to sleeping arrangements? I am exhausted from all that imprisonment."
Luna sighed. It would be a long night.
Stella's Bewitching Cutie Mark
Stella would take one of the many guest bedrooms. It wasn't very hard to decide. Afterwards, Luna invited everyone to dinner. It was only fitting to end the chaotic and unpleasant day with a great meal (that would, of course, be cooked by the royal cooks, not Luna herself.).
After the exotic feast of rotisserie phoenix (Celestia's bird was not happy) and mashed carrots, the Mane 6 left. Everyone prepared to tuck in for the night. Luna had been informed by Twilight sparkle about her mustache, which she vigorously scrubbed in the bathroom. Still, it only faded on her navy blue coat.
Cadance and Shining Armor had left before the dinner, as Flurry Heart had awoken from her nap and was heartily sobbing, according to Cadance's horn monitor. (Cadance had apparated there and back. Shining Armor had been in Canterlot for business, but Luna dismissed him early.)
Silver Sword went back to guarding, since he was on the night shift, and Celestia and Luna headed to ther bedrooms.
Luna stood on her balcony and raised the moon, then proceeded to practically faint with exhaustion on her bed.
Only one soul stirred that night. Stella couldn't sleep. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Even though she was tired, she was too afraid to close her eyes. Sometime around 1, she gave up and trotted to the library. There she stayed until she startled Luna, who came in in a bathrobe, humming and sipping triple-shot coffee.
Being a princess was exhausting.
Luna, though she knew Stella despised her, tried to make small talk with the refugee. "So, what's you plan? Like, how long are you staying?"
"Uh, forever. I assumed you would let me join the royal sisters, since I biologically am a royal sister. Unless you plan on kicking me out, so I can go back to being stuck in the stars by some dragon-bear-duck thing who you let run loose in this funhouse you call a country!" Stella replied indignantly. Luna backed off after that.
The two sat there in silence, the only sound being Luna sipping her coffee ffrom time to time. When the two saw the sun rise, they knew Celestia was up. Stella sighed.
"She never gave me a chance."
Luna head jerked towards the sudden sound, twisting her neck too far and nudging her coffee. She rubbed it and mopped up her spilled coffee with her horn (Not literally. She used magic from her horn.).
"What?"
"Celestia. I was born, not my fault, and she instantly despised me. When you were born, I was excited to move up a notch on the totem pole, but no. I was just generally disliked. Celestia raises the sun. You raise the moon. I... get left behind," Stella stammered. She sniffled. Luna wondered if she was crying.
"Look at my cutie mark! Yours and Celestia's are perfectly clear, but look at mine! What even is that?" Luna glanced at the crying pony's flank. It was three stars making a triangle. The one on the right bottom was a lighter pink and the left bottom was a royal blue, like the gorgeous color of a sunset, between light blue and dark blue. The top was the largest, though, and it was a sort of lavender, but a little pinker. These colors:
Luna looked for some sort of pattern between them. The colors seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't put on her hoof on just where. That was when the guards burst through the doors of the library.
"Madam Luna! ...Stella! We've been looking for you everywhere! Hurry!"
Luna stared at Stella. It wasn't that she didn't remember her. How could she forget? Stella had always been sour about being in the middle. She was passive agressive before she even knew the words passive agressive, according to Celestia.
Stella was almost the same age as Luna, and Celestia was much older than both of them. Stella had always worshipped Celestia like a goddess, but Celestia despised Stella to the point of trying to get rid of her multiple times. Stella had been crushed when she realized what Celestia was doing. Of course, it wasn't like Luna was just left out during all of this. Celestia didn't like it when Stella was born. Up until then, she had had all the attention and had accepted that she wasn't getting a sibling, to her relief. So when her parents told her, she kicked and screamed and wailed and whined and flailed and moaned and groaned. And so Celestia held a grudge against Stella from the beginning. Not big enough for anything monumental to happen, but it would blossom into a full-on rivalry. When Luna was born, a couple months later, it just made everything worse.
Celestia still didn't want yet another sister, but she had gone through it before and could handle it again. Whereas Stella could not. She kicked and screamed and wailed and whined and flailed and moaned and groaned, but nothing changed. Luna was born, and Stella hated her from that moment on. Stella was in fact so mean to Luna that Celestia want against her own ways and started feeling bad for Luna. Celestia lost it when Stella told Luna that nobody needed the moon, if they did they wouldn't sleep through it (this was when Luna got her cutie mark), which, if you think about, was a pretty hypocritical thing to say. Ponies slept through stars, too. Celestia decided she wasn't talking to Stella anymore. And she didn't. For a moon. Then they started talking again. But the point was that Celestia could perservere and do what she wanted.
When they had left for Equestria, they really hadn't meant to leave without Stella. She didn't tell anyone she was going to pee. But they were halfway there when Celestia remarked on how pleasantly the journey was going. Then they realized they had left Stella. They didn't want to go back for two reasons: Stella was a jerk and they were halfway there. The morning was foggy and the alicorn world was unplottable for non-alicorns. Though they did have wings and horns (they were flying to Equestria) , a damp morning like this would make it difficult, if not impossible, to relocate. They might end up flying crcles forever, and with all the dangerous villians walking around in those days, two young but juicy alicorns would be gobbled up like candy. They flew on.
"Sister! Where have you been? I was looking for you everywhere," Luna growled to Celestia. Her sister had been acting weird all day, having fits of giggles every time they went in public. Luna suspected she had done something, but upon checking herself over, she hadn't noticed anything odd.
"Yes, Luna?" Celestia replied from the hall, doubling over in laughter. Luna narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?" She demanded, but Celestia denied any accusations she made.
"I was going to ask you where you put the horn trimmer," she snapped, aggrevated at Celestia's mischeif. Why did they ever put her in charge of a nation? Luna wondered for about the millionth time. Then she remembered her past. We need a middle sister. A cross between Celestia and Luna. Yeah, that would be good. Just as Luna was getting into what the sister would be like (she had a secret passion for imagining things- that was where her dreams came from), the door to their "shared but royal" bathroom burst open. Luna exclaimed with surprise. It was Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard and Prince of Love (his marriage to the princess made him the honorary Prince, but this was a fantasy he mostly kept to himself. Once he had opened up to Cadance, and she had just laughed.).
"My apologies, madams, but an alicorn who claims to be your sister blasted apart our defenses. We aren't wuite sure what to do," he panted. He was clearly worn out. His mane was smoldering, his armor was dented, and sice the birth of his alicorn daughter, he had constant bags under his eyes and looked older every day. Celestia made sure to say so. She did a good job of protecting the world, but she was a jokester and brutally honest, a show she never put on for the camera.
"Er, Luna-" began Shining Armor, but Celestia made a neck-cutting motion to indicate one very obvious word- no. Luna opened her mouth to ask, but then Stella strode in.
