“Sister. Please, you shall wear a groove into the floor with your pacing.” A calm voice requested, it’s owner being a beautiful blue mare.
“Would you rather I wear a trench into the dirt outside instead?” The other voice, it’s owner being a taller and equally beautiful mare, retorted.
The two were currently situated in a cozy room with wood panelling, furnished with comfortable and well decorated seating with similarly colored rugs. Weapons were hung on the walls next to mounted animal heads. All primitive animals, of course. There was a narrow staircase pressed against the curved wall.
There were some nice lamps that were mounted on the wall, illuminating the room nicely.
The two mares were tall, their horns almost grazing the ceiling at their height. They had soft, elegant looking wings which remained dormant at their sides. They were alicorns, the most powerful of ponykind.
They both wore regal horseshoes. The blue alicorn had set down the rest of her regalia, a crown and chest-piece that she had put into a trunk at the foot of her bed which was where the staircase led to. She was currently resting the smaller of the two couches.
The taller mare had a white colored coat and she was still donned in her royal regalia. She put them on every single day, prepared to take up the role of Equestria’s leader. However, that role had yet to be properly returned to her.
“I’d rather you rest. You must preserve your energy for when you are called to the front-lines.” The blue mare responded, her forelegs folded over each other in a formal looking post.
“Rest? How am I meant to rest when my subjects are on those front-lines, risking everything for the rights they had ripped from them while I sit here in comfort like a helpless foal!” The taller one snapped back, pausing in her pacing to snap at her sister who seemed unfazed by the reaction even as her sister’s eyes sparked with rage that conflicted with her colorful ethereal mane.
“This is not the first time our subjects have faced conflict on our behalves, Celestia.”
Celestia returned to her pacing, her sister’s eyes following her.
“I am aware of that, Luna. All the decades I have lived as diarch have not inhibited my memory. But this is much different.”
“War is war, Celestia. All that’s changed is who it is and what we use. Once it was spells and swords, now it is fire-arms and arcane-projectiles.” Luna answered, seemingly casually, while she remained settled on the couch.
“That there is a difference! We had the upper-hoof. We had the magic of unicorns, we had the bird’s-eye view and weather manipulating abilities of the pegasi, the strength of the earth ponies! Now our enemies can use powerful arcane blasts to level barricades without the need for a unicorn! Soon, even the minotaurs will be able to build themselves mechanical wings and soar like a pegasus!”
“What would you have me do then, Celestia? Politely request they stop storming our cities with fire-arms and revert to the crude spears of their ancestors?” The bridge of the Luna’s muzzle tensed up and her eyes narrowed in frustration and a spark of anger.
Celestia fumbled with her words for a moment, a rare thing for the regal mare, and instead continued pacing after crying out a response of frustration. “I-I don’t know, Luna!”
Luna’s expression softened after her sharp retort and she sat up on the couch. “You stress yourself too much.”
“I am… I was Equestria’s Princess, Luna. Running a nation for a thousand years alone didn’t do much for my health either.” She stopped pacing and stared down at the floor. For a moment, Luna wondered if she was blinking away tears.
“Celestia, you are still Princess of the Day. You will remain Equestria’s princess until the end of your days and I will be by your side as Princess of the Night. Nothing, not even a petty griffon war can change that.” Luna got up as she spoke and placed her hoof on her sister’s withers in a gesture of support.
“But it isn’t just a petty griffon war, Luna. They’ve turned some of our own subjects against us, they have taken our capital and don’t intend to cease until all of Equestria is theirs.”
“There are still the dragons and possibly Yak Yakistan if we’re really in need.” Celestia cracked a smile at her sister. “Plus, Twilight is guiding our defense. We both know that she can be a good leader.”
“Indeed. She can. But I.. I wish I could help like you do.”
“Oh, I hardly assist at all. I lead the occasional charge here and there purely to remind the dear feather-bags up at Canterlot that we’re still here and ready to take back the city that rightfully belongs to us, not them.”
“But.. How long until they convince the rest of our subjects to join them? To submit to their force?” Celestia’s large eyes looked full of worry. Luna felt compelled to continue, to reassure her dear sister that they would make it through.
“I wouldn’t know, dear sister. We cannot see the future. But I have confidence that our subjects will stay with us. We have been ruling a usually harmonic nation for over a couple thousand years, after all.”
“Yes… We have..“ Celestia looked out the single, small circular window. She could only see a small slice of the camp that surrounded their small, temporary residence. “How do you stay so level-headed, so without the worry that plagues me every sleeping and waking hour?”
“I look to the future. I look to how united our subjects will be once this is over. It will be a testament to our powerful nation and our perseverance. Because Equestria shall always prevail.”
Celestia smiled as her sister’s words recovered the hope she felt to have lost.
“Maybe you should have become the figurehead instead of me. Or maybe you should write my next speech.”
“Always one to shrug the work off on others, huh?” Luna answered back with a humorous look in her eyes.
“Always.” She leaned back and the two sisters relished each other’s company.