A Journal of Sun and Moon

Chapters

Dear Celestia and Luna
The First Entry
Wishing Things Were Different
Only Memories Now
From Now To Forever

Dear Celestia and Luna

Dear Celestia and Luna,

Happy birthday!!!

I hope the both of you enjoy this present, it will hopefully be good practice for your reading and writing!

I want you two to use this journal to write about how your day's have been, or just write down your thoughts, or just write for fun!

I would love to give you each a journal, although this is a special book given to me after the war, so I hope you are ok with sharing it. I might tell you the story of how I got it if I get the time, I am sorry I'm away for so long at work, and I'm very sorry I couldn't give this to you personally, I promise I won't miss your next birthday.

You two have fun writing! - Uncle Hopeful.

Hopeful finished his note, scribbling it upon the front matter of the book. The journal was a made of a gentle animal hide, very thoroughly polished and worked, that was tightly fitted around the abundance of blank pages inside. On the very front of the cover there was a grand, stylized sun, on the back, a moon of the same fruition and extravagance. ''The Dragon'', the ironically named pony who gave Hopeful this journal told him that it was excruciatingly important that he waited for this year to gift it to his daughters. And while the instruction was quite odd, Hopeful made sure to follow it, still unsure of why this year was important.

Although the thought quickly vanished from his mind as the carriage came to a stop, causing him to rock slightly forward. His hoof jolted up and pressed against the rim of the bar in front of him, causing him to turn his head up to the sunny, clear sky, realizing he has arrived at the train station.

He tucked the journal under his leg and hopped out of the carriage, finding himself hopping up the stairs to the platform as the carriage he arrived in speeded away.

“Hopeful!” A bright-eyed unicorn mare waved him over as he appeared into her view, wearing his full, official commander's uniform.

He quickly hobbled over, trying to keep the present intact beneath his hooves. “Thank you Dream, really, I wouldn't know what to do without you.”

“Please, it's just some babysitting, your the one going off to Zeberia.” Her soft composure helped to calm Hopeful as he rushed to leave.

“I just know how much of a hooffull the girls can be, I also have ugh, this here...” He unraveled himself with the rest of his bags to give over the journal.

“Oh, what is this?” She lifted it up with her magic, bringing it into inspection range.

“It's a present, their birthday is coming up in two days and I won't be able to make it, would you please give it to them?” Hopeful quickly flipped his saddlebag around his shoulders from the ground.

“Oh, why of course!” She slid it into her own bag of belongings, the rim tall enough to stick out of the top.

The train whistled, preparing to leave.

“I better go, good luck with Tia and Luna!” He scuttled over to the train, stopping with one hoof in the doorway to wave back to his caremaid.

“Good luck to you too! Don't start any wars!”

“I'll try!” He joked, stepping into the train's shutting doors.

The First Entry

deer luna.
missis dream wants me to practis my writing so I have to tell you about what I done this week
On monday I went to my first day at unicron school. my teacher was a nice pony with a REELY long beerd and i met some other unicorns fillys there and they where nice but i reely wish you where there too, i missed you when i was lonely at lunch time. and the school was very boring and mr starswerl told us about what unicorns are made to do by raysing the sun. i was very bored...

Celestia Auri Sunshine, the next in line to the unicorn throne after her grandmother, Princess Platinum Sunshine, along with her sister, Luna Midnight Eclipse, was currently five whole years old. (The same age as her sister, take a few minutes, making Tia the older twin.)

Celestia and Luna were brought up by their honorary uncle, Hopeful Twist, who currently was out on a diplomatic mission with the Zebras, meaning that they had their grandmother's residential mansion all to themselves, apart from Dreamscape, the family maid who kept Celestia and Luna in line when Hopeful was off at work.

Celestia was a Unicorn and her sister Luna, a Pegasus; they were regarded as the bridge between the pony tribes, social wise at the very least. Everypony now-a-days embarked on this massive cultural adjustment of working together, the fifth Hearth’s Warming Eve soon to be held in a few weeks.

Although, while growing up, despite their fame, the two of them were kept very well protected in their royal status, allowing them to have a somewhat normal upbringing. If you called having a sister of a completely different race which has never happened before in all of pony history normal, that is.

Ever since their youngest moments, Tia and Luna defined their personalities quite well. Celestia quickly became entranced with pulling pranks and playing; being loud and showing off were some of her most refined talents. While Luna was more interested in the subtler things in life. She liked looking at pretty things and petting animals; her sleep pattern as a filly was so concrete she managed to snooze right through every one of Celestia's midnight tantrums demanding her bottle or toy or whatever it was, which happened every single night up to around the age of three or four.

As they grew, Celestia forced Luna to play ball games with her in the yard all day, sprinkled in between nights where Luna would read bedtime stories with her hyperactive sister. And despite the fact neither of them actually wanted to do what the other wanted, they always found themselves enjoying spending time with each other. Whether it was Luna failing to kick a ball or Celestia falling asleep half way through the storybook, they managed to make it fun. As long as they were with each other, everything seemed fun. That's why they promised each other they would be together forever; they would never leave each others’ sides. As children neither had fully grasped the concept of "forever" though, so they could not anticipate that their dream would come true in the upcoming future, but that's a point for later, as for right now, the purely unicorn filly sighed her seven thousand millionth sigh, somehow louder than all its predecessors as she audibly expressed the boredom Starswirl the Bearded’s class forced into her heart.

“MISS CELESTIA! What is your issue that you must interrupt our lesson?” Starswirl lowered his book from the tip of his muzzle down to press against his lower beard as his old eyes crossed down at Tia, who failed to sit straight in her small stool, prompting to instead use her filly-sized desk as a makeshift pillow.

“Nothing, mister.” She lazily poured out of her lips, sighing once again immediately after.

“Is this perhaps boring you, miss Celestia?” Starswirl trotted up to her desk, looking down from his four towers for legs, the entire class's attention drawn to Celestia.

“Yeah.” She confirmed, somewhat bewildering Starswirl, he didn't exactly expect her to just own up to her actions without even an excuse, normally his students begged for forgiveness but as far as he could tell, she didn't care.

“Well... If you do not wish to listen to the lesson, then you may leave. I am not holding you here, but just think of how disappointed your guardian would be if he hea-” is how far he had gotten before Celestia stood up and began trotting towards the door of this small stone-walled room at the top of some stupid magic tower.

Although, as her quite weak filly magic projected out to wrap around the door's nob, Starswirl's powerful aura slammed the door shut and held it there.

“CELESTIA! Take your seat at once!” The ruffled old stallion spat out at her.

“But... You said...” She protested gently, somewhat frightened by his tone.

“I know what I said, miss Celestia, please do not make this any more difficult; I do not wish to let us get off on the wrong hoof.”

She sighed, again. Trotting to her desk with a heavy grievance against the teacher, she hated school. Every unicorn in the class had their eyes trained on her, they were all amazed by her defiance, all being royals themselves they had never even conceived the idea of misbehaving so garishly, she was so... Cool. At least in five year old standards.

Starswirl, having seen Celestia back at her desk, returned to his lesson. “As I was saying, the sun and moon are what give us unicorns the magic we use every day, and while most of our magic is drawn partially from both sources, depending on our emotion we can diverge from one to the other...”

“Hey...” A voice unknown to Celestia came in the form of a whisper into her right ear. “Hey.”

Tia turned her head over to its other side, she saw that the pony sitting beside her was trying to get her attention. “Hi?” She responded with an ounce of curiosity.

“You're so cool. Can we be friends?” The unicorn filly requested, she was about the same age as Tia, she had a pale, chilly-blue coat and light purple mane wrapped in a tight ponytail.

“Sure, what's your name?” Celestia casually accepted.

“Vernacularous Tarcialambare Gloryraise.” She pronounced exquisitely.

“I'll call you Verna, I'm Tia.” She stretched over the gap between their simple wooden tables to shake her hoof, something that struck Verna really weirdly, shaking hooves is an Earth Pony traditional greeting, which made her reluctant to accept it but with enough peer pressure coming from Tia's expecting eyes she had done it.

“It's nice to meet you, Tia...” She whispered.

“You too.” Celestia didn't.

“CELESTIA!” Starswirl belted out her name once more, “If you are not willing to take part in the lesson may you please have the common courtesy to remain silent during it?”

“Okay...” She pouted and rolled her eyes, doing as he said, remaining silent for the rest of the class.

After Starswirl's one thousand year long talk about basic laws of magic functionality, it's occurrence in the anatomy of a unicorn, and several other big words Celestia failed to understand or care about, they were finally released for lunch.

Celestia, being the first out of the door, found herself in a haste as she galloped down the sharply cut stone blocks which formed a circular staircase down the tower.

She was stopped around halfway when she heard a voice calling her name from above, and it wasn't Starswirl's. If it was, she would have sped up, no, it was actually the voice of the first friend Celestia had ever made, bar her sister of course.

“Tia!” Verna squeaked from atop the staircase, her voice clinking off of the echo-chamber which was this stone-sealed tower down to Celestia. “Tia where are you going?” She asked, confused by her rush.

Celestia found the question dumb. Where else would she be going? “Outside!” She replied, continuing on after a short thought. “Do you want to come?”

In the time of this conversation, Verna had finally climbed down far enough to reach Celestia and speak face to face, she looked exhausted. “Yes... I... Would... But, can I ask you... Something?” Her high-pitched pants came to an end, although if half a flight of stairs wore her out that much then she had obviously been skipping leg day.

“Shoot.” Celestia leaned against the wall of the staircase, it's rough, cold stone brushing against the bristles of her fur like a brush.

Although, Celestia's cool-girl attitude did not translate well to Verna, as she jumped at the word ''shoot''. “W-what?”

Celestia gave her an odd stare before she realised the problem. “Sorry, Earth Ponies say that. It means yes.” Earth Pony seemed to be a foreign language here.

“Oh... okay... Well, why do you want to go outside? There's a library here, we could read togeth-”

“Pffh!” Celestia interrupted her with a short gust of breath whistling through her lips, “Liberry? That's boring. Let's go play catch!”

“C-catch? What do you mean?” She was concerned.

Celestia thought that was hilarious. “Come on! I'll show you! I promise you'll love it!”

“O-okay, friend.”

Celestia and Verna trotted down the rest of the stairway, finding themselves on the ground floor. Celestia ignored the caretaker trying to ask Tia what she was doing down here and sprinted past a few shelves of magical whatevers and burst through the door, her hoof leading Verna out with her. Both of them were now smiling and Verna giggled in fearful excitement as she was brought on the first proper adventure of her little filly life.

They whisked out onto the grass outside of the tower, now surrounded by the majestic landscape.

This was Canterlot. At least, the beginnings of Canterlot. Celestia currently stood at a large open field close to the base of the mountain, many dirt and cobble paths wove intricately down to the hoof of the mountain like veins in a pony. There were many small stone structures already built, a few towers, a small keep around the size of a town square where royalty lived as their castles were being built, and a lot of small stone hobbles which housed all of the royals’ servants. All of these scattered around with lots of room for plain grass, bushes and flowers to sprout from.

While they were currently on a very low level of the colossal mountain, there were still many cliffs at trotting distance, and more importantly there were more roads leading up the face of the mountain; all finding their end at the largest platform in the center of the mountain where construction on a great castle had begun several years ago, and its size made it the most ambitious project any unicorn tribe had ever begun. When it would be finished, the castle would be visible from nearly any point in Equestria as a shining beacon of power.

“Tia! Where are we going?!” Verna begged to know in between a girlish giggle, her heart was racing with excitement like never before.

“I dunno, here's fine.” She slowed her pace to a halt, landing approximately a dozen yards away from the tower, the bright summer sun gently warming their furs.

“So can you explain what ''catch'' is?” Verna asked with bright eyes, eagerly waiting for an answer.

Celestia stretched her legs out like a cat waking up from a cozy night's sleep. “It's a game. I have to catch you and you have to run away. And if I catch you, then you have to catch me!”

“Oh...” Verna began thinking, “Do you mean, like this?” She questioned as her horn lit up and Celestia felt a small tug on her long, pink, fluff-ball of a tail. She turned her head and saw that Verna was using her magic to pull on it.

“No!” Celestia said in mild frustration, “You gotta use your hooves!”

Verna stopped her spell and tilted her head in confusion.

Celestia sighed, gained a devilish grin and jumped up at Verna and pressed a hoof against the startled filly's shoulder, before swiftly turning heel–“YOU'RE IT”– and running away.

Verna's brow perked up and a jolt of energy ran through her as she realized it was now her turn to catch Celestia. “Hey! Come back!” She ran after the pale filly, her completely inexperienced legs left her sprint slow and unbalanced.

For a few giddy moments Celestia absolutely demolished any hope Verna had of catching her due to Celestia being, if measured in filly units, a zillion times faster. She laughed in her sprint away from her friend until she turned around and saw Verna trailing behind, her small and gleeful attitude being worn away by the worthlessness of her legs as they failed to catch Celestia.

Celestia didn't want her brand new friend to feel bad, so she swallowed her winner’s pride and began running at a pace closer resembling a jaunty stroll than anything.

Verna giggled as the tides turned so dramatically, she saw Celestia's tail fall closer towards her. The two then collided a fair ways away from the tower in the direction away from the mountain’s face. Verna jumped and bit onto Celestia's tail and yanked it back, managing to stop her with a grass-launching skid.

Celestia twisted her head around and smiled. “You did it! You caught me! Now it's my turn again!”

Verna giggled meticulously and turned to gallop off, running away from the tower and closer to the cliff, Celestia immediately noticed this and sprinted after her yelling, “Stop! Wait! Don't go that way!”

“Hehehe! You can't catch me! You can't catch me!” Verna had her eyes almost shut, completely oblivious.

Tia growled to herself in a determined rage to catch up, galloping with an adrenaline rush so quick that in just a few seconds she was in range of biting her friend’s tail to hold her back from the ever approaching cliff edge.

“MISS CELESTIA!!!” The gruff old voice of Starswirl called out to Tia from the tower, completely catching her off guard and stunning her in surprise for a split second, causing her to lose her hoofing and stumble into the dirt, rolling over a few times and groaning in pain as she stopped.

Verna heard her friend’s tumble from behind her, and she turned her head around to see Tia layed out completely ruined on the grass, and she tried to stop but it was already too late. The cliff was beneath her as she wobbled backwards, falling onto her ass and sliding down the cliff face. She looked down, the drop more than enough to kill her, and she was plummeting to the bottom.

Starswirl flashed over in a teleport to Celestia's side, clearly his old eyes not managing to see Verna drop below the edge. “What is the meaning of this? Sprinting around on your own out here?!”

Celestia didn't give him an ounce of attention, all of her focus was dead set on her friend, along with her magic as her horn lit up like a spotlight on her forehead, her face wincing as she slowly powered through.

“Celestia! Answer me! What is the... The...” Starswirl turned to watch as Verna appeared from the cliff edge, being floated up within Celestia's golden telekinetic field. Star swirl immediately teleported Verna over to his side, then looked at Celestia in wonder. No filly her age had ever been able to lift much more than a pen or open a door, but Celestia held up an entire filly's weight by herself. This level of magical strength at such an incredibly young age left Starswirl speechless.

“V-Verna! You're okay!” Tia ran over and hugged her friend tight as to not let her escape again.

“Tia! I am so incredibly sorry! I was not paying attention! H-how... Did you do that..?” Verna was shaking in her friend’s hooves.

“Do what..?”

“Save me... How did you lift me up?” They looked into each other's eyes both quite confused.

“Oh... I just used my magic. I've lifted up my sister in the air a bunch before... Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I am... Thank you, Tia.” They hugged again.

Starswirl cleared his throat. “Vernacularous, please return to class... Celestia. I wish to speak with you alone.”

Tia and Verna frowned and hugged a third time goodbye, Verna leaving the two of them to return to the tower.

“Am... I in trouble..?” Celestia pouted and looked up to her teacher.

“Perhaps... Though that is not why I asked to speak with you alone... You have an incredible magical ability. I would like to have your magic tested today after class.” Starswirl began to walk Tia back to the tower.

“I dunno... What's in it for me?” Tia slyly grinned.

“I may provide you with a lollipop, perhaps?” He said with worry, somewhat sure that's what children enjoyed.

“Deal! See you!” Celestia accepted and bolted away to chat with her friend once more.

Dear Tia.

Thank you for telling me about your day.

I think your story was very interesting and im excited to meet Verna.

Today I went to flight school and that was very interesting.

The first thing I did was wake up in the morning and eat breakfast with you.

After breakfast misses dream brought me to the flying school close to the mountains and forest it was in the clouds...

Luna Eclipse, the soft hearted, sweet, little, dark blue filly pegasus, had just arrived at her first day in flight school. She clenched her cutesy little notebook covered in suns and moons to her heart; it beating in sweet anticipation as she bridged past the main cloudy gate and towards a cloudy field.

A dozen little fillies were being brought in by their mums and dads, Luna would have loved for their maid Dreamscape to bring her in, but she was a unicorn so they had their goodbyes at the ground before Luna flew right up, all by herself, all the way to the clouds.

Now she was alone, for the first time in her little life.

A little nervous, the little filly wandered over to a Pegasus wearing a smart looking ocean blue suit and cap, militaristic in their shape and medals along their heart.

“H-hello... Miss... Um... Luet-ent-ant?” Luna touched the ponies shin softly.

The pastel-purple furred Pegasus Lieutenant with a soft gray flowing mane looked down with a smile filled with delight. “Hello there, my little filly! How did you know my rank?”

Luna blushed, “E-eh... M-my daddy is a... Com-and-er... And he taught me all those lines and their names.” Luna motioned at the mare's stripes.

“That is splendid! Very impressive knowledge from one of your age... I am Lieutenant Fritz Blastwave, and yourself?” The Lieutenant took her hat off and placed it at her heart, letting herself be more approachable.

“L-Luna Midnight Eclipse!” Luna squeaked.

Fritz took the moment to think, “Luna..? Oh! That's it! I have heard of you. Commander Hopeful's daughter, isn't it?”

“Y-yes! That's me!”

Fritz giggled and her smirk shone, “Your dad is a hero, you know that?” She ruffled Luna's mane.

“Yeah... Hehe.” Luna blushed once more, feeling quite ecstatic now.

“Well, it is an honour to be your flight tutor.” She put up her cap again.

“T-thank you, Luet-tent Fritz!” Luna was gently pulled to the soldier’s flank and brought into the center of the cloud-field. Fritz called out for the fillies and colts to be brought into a line. Once all the parents said their goodbyes, then their second and third goodbyes, the kids were pulled away from their parents by the flight assistants and brought in front of the Lieutenant.

“Go on, line up with your friends.” Fritz patted Luna's back.

Luna ducked her head and shyly walked over and slotted into the very side of the line of skipping, lively, giddy little children ready as ever to learn to fly.

“Greetings, students! I am Lieutenant Fritz Blastwave, I was awarded for excellence in flight technique and maneuvering after saving the lives of six falling Pegasi in under thirty seconds. And I will be your flight tutor for the following year.” Fritz walked up and down the line sizing all the fillies and colts up, utter joy in her heart as the kids’ excitement ran through the air.

“Now, you won’t be flying for a while, it might take you the full year to completely learn, but I promise I will teach you until you are as proficient as your parents!” She stood proudly and the little kiddies cheered.

Luna even let out a soft 'yay', gentle as the feathers on her midnight-painted flanks.

“Now let's get everyone's names. You there, little sport, what's your name?” She started at the top of the line, the other end to which Luna was on.

And Luna waited patiently, despite a light-lime filly to her side. “Psst... Hey... Blue filly. You look cool... Wanna be friends?”

“S-Shh... We can't talk...” Luna whispered back as silently as she could to warn the filly, but not get caught herself.

“Eh. Fine.” The filly grumped.

Luna turned her head back to the front and listened to every other filly and colt's name as the Lieutenant asked for them over the faint minute, reaching Luna at the end with another wholesome nod. “And finally, little Luna. All right, that's great, everypony. Let's get those wings flapping!”

Everyone was separated into three smaller groups, two of which supervised by the tutor's assistants while she demonstrated for everypony the proper form to lift off. The supervisors mirroring the teacher's movements precisely.

“Front hooves forward! Apart by two hooves distance, in line with one another. Knees bent softly and lean down onto them a few inches. Hind legs far apart and straight as a tower! Wings straight out, and keep your backs straight! And now let me see.” After demonstrating, Fritz turned and looked over the three groups, fixing the posture of most of the Pegasi children by at least a little, but not Luna's, Fritz just smiled in approval at her. It made her feel wonderful, she adored doing something well and being rewarded for her hard work. In this case, all her personal home training was really paying off and she loved it.

“All right! There you go! As good as soldiers, I tell you all! Hehe... Now, this group...” She moved to the right group. “Flap your wings as hard as you can and let's see how far you can hop!”

The kiddy battalion did just that, flapping their wings like loose, panicked chickens in the air, barely gaining any height from it at all. They each dashed through the sky at least a few inches before they tumbled down and fell into the soft cloudy mattress, some ponies even managing to get a meter and a bit, which the Lieutenant was greatly impressed by.

“Great work! All of you! Wonderful hop!” Fritz turned to her other lil' troops. “Group B, try hop!”

The leftmost group then hopped as well, their helpless flaps waving in the air desperately as they all stumbled back into the cloud. “Awesome! Good job! And now you, group A. Hop!” Fritz pretended to hop, getting giddy herself.

That meant it was Luna's turn! And Luna was incredibly excited, she sprung her legs back and lowered her head, throwing up her wings in preparation and sh-

“Ah!” The colt beside her slipped over and knocked into Luna, sending them both tumbling to the side while the others hopped for better or worse.

“Oh!” Luna looked up at the grey-toned colt.

“A-ah sorry! I slipped!” The cold stood up from Luna and helped her up.

“Oh... It's okay... Ah...” Luna turned her eyes away and blushed massively, being covered head to toe in cloud fluff now.

“Sorry...” He turned away and did his hop a bit more properly, leaving Luna in her little embarrassment. And without a thought she flew a few heads up into the air and used her hooves to brush and kick off all the cloud fluff.

This turned heads. All of them. And in utter awe.

Fritz spoke out first as Luna landed gently, not yet having noticed that she had managed to captivate everyone's attention. “L-Luna! Y-You’re already flying?!”

Luna gasped at everyone's looks and curled into her shoulders in great timidness. “Y-Yes... Sorry... I know I should do the hop first... I-I can do it now...” Luna did a quick hop, gracefully flapping her tiny baby wings a few times to get her a meter ahead, sheepish and in fear of having broken some form of rule.

Fritz put her hoof to her heart as it melted, “Luna! Don't mind about the hop! What you did was amazing! I've never seen a filly your age fly so well! That is wonderful!”

Luna was confused, she wasn't told to fly yet, why was she being praised for it? “It... It is..?”

“Yes! Most definitely!” Fritz sat down on the cloud and clapped her hooves softly for Luna, and then so did the assistants, and soon every pony in the class clapped her along.

Luna's little heart pounded like a jackhammer, she began feeling dizzy from the attention, she couldn't handle it. “S... Uh... S-Stop... I can't... Just... Ahhh!” Luna hopped into the air and flew off to the flight school building and quickly dashed around its side to hide there.

Fritz watched the little moon hide herself away, “Um... The assistants will help you all perfect your stance, I'll be right back!” Fritz, in a single tenth of a second, flat, flew over to the side of the building Luna cowered behind, finding the little filly hyperventilating intensely. “Hey! It's okay! No need to panic!”

“T-They were all looking at me! And clapping! Everyone!” Luna blurted out.

Fritz lowered herself down to Luna's level, laying down on the cloud beside her and taking off her cap. “Yes they were... They were all just very impressed! Like I am! That's a good thing... Right?”

“I... I guess so... I just... I didn't know what to do... Or what they were all thinking...” Luna calmed down a smidge.

“It's all right. You don't have to worry about them, I think you are the best student I've ever had.” Fritz put on a smile to warm the filly's very soul.

“R-really...?”

“Really.” Fritz gave Luna a pat, and Luna showed a little joy. “And if it's okay to ask... I think I'd like to spend some time after class with you, and see how well you can fly proper.”

“R-Really?! Special time with a teacher?!” Luna beamed at the concept.

“Mmm Hmm. I'd love to see... How did you learn to fly so well anyway?” Fritz asked to quench her own curiosity.

“Oh... I... I learned just playing with my sister... She likes playing all sorts of outside games and she likes helping me fly... I also practiced a lot by myself before I went to flight school.” Luna rubbed her shin shyly.

“That's great... Okay, if you’re too shy, you can sit out this lesson, or else you can come back with me and you can just do everything everyone else is doing for now.” Fritz stood up kindly, encouragement in her eyes.

“O-okay... I... I can go back with you... Thank you Lu-tent-ant.” Luna very gradually stood up herself.

“Just Fritz, thank you.”

“Oh... Okay... Thanks... Fritz.” She couldn't help but giggle at the end.

Fritz led Luna back down to the lesson, where she rejoined her gleeful classmates.

The colt that knocked her over quickly ran over, “S-Sorry for knocking into you, you're super cool!”

“Yeah!” The filly she stood beside in line ran over too. “I knew you were cool!”

“T-Thank you... So much...”

“Wanna be friends?” Both of them asked simultaneously.

Luna blushed and smiled wide, “O-Oh... Okay!”

Luna's two new friends hopped in place happily, Luna was also very giddy on the inside, letting out a simple and subtle...

“Yay!”

Wishing Things Were Different

beer deer luna
today was very very super ver y fun!! !!!
verna came over to our house and she and me got to sleep together but we dident actually do a lot sleeping insted we playd all night and did games and chattid all the time and it was amzig amay zing!!!! im so xcited to tell you about it !

so the furst thing that happend today was...

The two twins, Celestia and Luna, wrapped up in one another like dots on dice, snuggled softly between candle scented blankets on the linen sofa of the common room.

The older twin, Celestia, was wagging her tail as would a canine, softly rubbing her hind legs side to side thinking of carefree times. She was quite eager as today her second greatest friend, second to only her sister, Vernacularous Tarcialambare Gloryraise was going to attend a sleepover with her tonight.

Luna on the other hoof was lost in a deep dream of luscious childhood delights, she dreamt of flying through clouds propelled by the moonlight illuminating her feathers. She was excited to make Lieutenant Fritz Blastwave, her flight instructor, proud. And when Hopeful came back from his mission she was going to astound him with her ability.

Celestia nudged the dark furred friend laying on her belly, “Luna, wake up! Wakey wakey!”

“H-Huh..? What is it, Celestia?” Luna grogged and squinted in awakening.

“I wanna get up! Verna is gonna get here any second!” Tia aggravatingly bucked her tiny legs in the air.

“Okay, Celestia.” Luna hugged Celestia's thinly-furred belly one last time and leaned back to unearth her sister from under her. “But won't she come in a few hours?”

“Um, maybe I don't know... Dream said when the clock is going down with both legs.” Celestia pointed to the grandfather clock resting elegantly in the room, big leg up, small leg to the right.

“Celestia that means... Um... One... Two... Three hours... Three hours until six-o-clock when your friend comes.”

“Yeah! I gotta clean our room before she comes!” Celestia hopped off the sofa with an intense motivation trapped in her eyes.

Luna's jaw turned upwards to a smile. “You will clean our room?! Gienie-mack! You never clean our room!”

Celestia giggled, “I know! But Verna doesn't like dirty rooms like me, so I gotta clean it! Seeya, sis!”

“Okay! See you!” Luna watched her sister run up the room and over to the large staircase lined with marble and scutter up it to the halls, down which she ran to her room and kicked the door open with great haste.

The twin's room was quite the elaborate conjugation of Celestia's rugged mess of blankets and action figures splashed around the large decorated room mixed around Luna's systematic stacks of picture-books and folded sheets. No matter how many times their babysitter Dreamscape told her to clean up, Celestia feigned much interest in doing what she was told, but now that Verna's happiness was on the line, she was ready to clean like never before.

Tia sprung into action, twirling her little stub of a horn around like a mighty wand. The filly unleashed a wave of telekinesis to straighten up toys and put them in place while doing her bed covers, dusting the shelves, sweeping up old candy wrappers and cushioning the pillows all in the same moment.

Celestia smiled as in mere seconds she had a perfect and tidy room, cleaned up to even Luna's silly standards.

When she was done, Celestia ran out into the hall and looked to the clock in excitement. Once she saw the face and took a moment to read the legs she realised it has only been two minutes.

Celestia stomped down the stairs. “Uhhh! Luna!!! Time is too slow!” She exclaimed to her sister.

“Hehe, you just have to wait, unless you can make the sun go down by yourself.” She giggled.

Celestia looked up at the sky through one of the ceiling high windows. “Hmm... I dunno... Sir Swirlbutt said if a unicorn tried to move the sun by herself they would die...”

“Celestia, what are you talking about in here?” The joyous voice of their minder Dreamscape came from the kitchen as she walked into the living room.

“Nothing, Missus Dream! I'm just sooooo bored...” Celestia slumped over to Dream and pressed her head into the light blue unicorn's chest.

“Well... I was just about to bake some cookies so that they’re ready when Verna arrives. Would you like to help me?” Dream patted Celestia's bright pink mane.

“Yes, yes, yes!!!” Celestia hopped up and down. “I love cookies!”

“Hehe, I am very aware, Madam Celestia... And what about you, Luna? Would you like to come help?” Dreamscape smiled up to the sofa.

“I'm all right, thank you!” The dark coated filly had gotten herself stuck into a book.

“If you say so... Celestia? Would you like to follow me to the kitchen?” She hugged Celestia with her warm foreleg.

“I'm ready! Let's go!” Celestia bucked the air like an Earth Pony farm-filly at an apple festival. “Woo!”

Dreamscape rolled her eyes subtly and walked the exuberant little filly into the large marble-tiled kitchen.

The two lovely ladies spent the following hours baking and decorating cookies as well as a cake for Uncle Hopeful's return this weekend.

The time flew right over Celestia's cutesy and messy pink mane and in no time there was a ringing doorbell calling for her hyper-active attention.

“She's here, she's here!!!” Little Tia sprawled towards the door and bit the handle open like an Earth Pony would. The door swung to reveal the well dressed, young and happy Vernacularous. She had a long white dress with soft, puffy, volumed shoulderpads and dress-tail.

Next to her stood proudly an earth pony, large and dark furred, wearing a fine gentlecolt’s suit. A deadly, enchanted rifle also sat strapped to his back, a cross between a standard Earth Pony rifle and a unicorn staff. He addressed Celestia for Verna.

“My solemn greetings, Lady Celestia, Lady Vernacularous is ready for her sleepover.” He affirmed while Celestia rabidly hugged her friend.

“H-Hey, Tia!” Verna barely managed to squeal out as she was squeezed by her friend.

“Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi!!!” Celestia laughed and smiled. “I'm so excited you're here!”

“S-So am I!” Verna was released and took a big breath to refill her lungs. “Thank you, Gambit, that will be all for now.” She said to her bodyguard.

“I will see you in the morning, My Lady.” Gambit took a bow and left Verna to enter Celestia's home.

“Come on, Verna! Let's go to my room!!!” Celestia telekinetically pulled Verna up the stairs, the fillies giggling together the whole way up.

“Hehe! Your house is almost as big as mine!” Verna exclaimed in giggles.

“Hehe, thanks!” Celestia scuttered down the red carpet of the golden-accented hall down to her room, pressing open the large oak door.

When the two fillies hopped into the tidy twin-bedroom, Verna swiftly became impressed by its well preserved cleanliness. “Wowie, your room is much cleaner than I would have thought, no offense. Hehe.”

“No offense at all! I only cleaned it for you tonight.” Celestia hopped on top of her bed and giggled.

“Oh, right, hehe. So...” Verna gracefully climbed up and sat beside her friend. “What does one do at a sleep over?”

“Um...” A realisation hit Celestia. “I... Never thought about that... Huh... Oh!” She hopped off the bed, “Wanna go have some cookies me and Dream made?”

Verna smiled, “Yes, please! Also... Um, it's 'Dream and I'.”

“Uh, what?”

“Nevermind.” Verna giggled which made Celestia giggle too, then the two fillies trotted out of the room and went down to where the freshly baked cookies were.

They were warm off the platter, steaming chocolate chip cookies stacked several high into a glorious pile of delectability.

Celestia and Verna took cookies one by one in their magic and ate them, Celestia with a little less grace than her friend.

“Mmm! These are brilliant!” Verna delightfully exclaimed.

“Mwm... Twanks!” Celestia lifted the plate in her telekinesis. “Let's bring these up to my room!”

“Uh, uh, uh!” Dream's voice wandered into the room with swift control, “No cookies upstairs, you'll ruin the carpets with crumbs. Eat here.”

“Y-Yes, Madam, and it's lovely to meet you.” Verna pulled the cookies out of Celestia's grip, to the white filly's discontent, and went over to bow in front of Dream.

Dream smiled at her superb manners. “Wonderful to meet you too, Lady Vernacularous. I hope you and Lady Celestia have a good time tonight.”

“Thank you very much! I'm very excited! It is my first ever sleep over.” The filly giggled and wiggled with youthful energy.

“And I'm sure it won't be the last, now I have to clean the house and I could do without the distraction. So, if you and Celestia could stay upstairs unless you need something, that would be lovely.” She nodded gently to the filly.

“Of course! See you!” Verna returned to Celestia, who was still eyeing the cookies. “Wanna go upstairs?”

“U-Uh... Sure! Why don't you go first!” She smiled and opened a hoof towards the staircase.

“O-Okay? Hehe.” The filly set down the cookies and stepped up the noble stretch of stairs leading upstairs, cookie-munching sounds echoing behind her before Celestia caught up.

"Whlets gwo!" Celestia blurted out with a chocolate-chip mouthful as she sprinted by her friend and to her room.

When the two fluffy fillies breached the entrance to Celestia's dormitory, they stumbled up to Celestia's bed while she finished stuffing her cheeks full of cookie pulp.

They chatted for the immediate moment, before they quickly decided to tour around the room and discuss Celestia's many toys and knick-knacks; most of which were Earth Pony-esque wooden figures and cotton dolls Hopeful had given her over the years, with a few jeweled items gifted to her by Dream.

They laughed and played together for the hours leading up to bedtime, which they only learned it was when they heard a soft knock on the door. "C-Celestia? It's bedtime... Can I come in?" Luna politely asked.

“Yeah! Come in, sis! We're playing Princess!” The filly of suns squeaked on to her sister, who discovered Celestia and Verna on the floor sprawled out alongside dozens of toys, Celestia sitting on a wooden stool wearing her pretend tiara. (Her real tiara was held in a safe far, far away from the clumsy hooves of the filly to prevent damage.) Verna sat at her friend’s hooves wearing the blanket of Tia's bed as a royal robe.

“H-Hello!” Verna greeted the newly arrived sister, who waved back happily.

Celestia beamed, “Hey, Luna! Do you want to join in?! I tried to find your tiara but I don't know where it is.”

“I... I hid it cause I don't want you to break it again... A-And actually... We're supposed to go to bed now... You and your friend too. Dream said she'll come up and make you if you don't go to bed yourself.” The navy filly blushed a gentle red, like the beginnings of a sunrise in the dark dawn sky.

“Ah. Fine! Verna come into bed!” Celestia leapt to her cushions and yoinked the royal robe from Verna's shoulders, wrapping herself in it like a cocoon.

Verna looked upon the snug pony taking up more space upon the royal bed than she thought was frankly possible by a young filly of her size, but she managed to take up all of the blanket and both pillows all by herself, leaving the unpalatable sheet-less bed wasteland for Verna.

“Perhaps it would be better if I slept separately? I don't think we'd be comfortable together... Hehe...” Verna asked kindly.

Celestia giggled and yawned, “Uhh sure, whateva floats your boat.”

Luna's ears perked up, “Um... D-Do you want my bed for tonight..? U-Uh... V-Verna?”

“O-Oh... Um no, I can ask your maid for an additional bed... It is no worry.” Verna attempted to reassure her, but the dusk-filly wouldn't have it.

“I insist! U-Uh... I-I'm not really tired... You can sleep in my bed tonight... I'll leave you two alone. Hehe.” She smiled.

“O-Okay. If you insist.” Verna gracefully climbed up onto the bed mirroring Celestia's and wrapped herself in.

Celestia turned over to face Luna at the door. “Hehe... Thank you, sis! Where you going?”

“U-Uh... I just... I want to go see the garden at night...” She said. Convincingly.

“Hehe okay! See you later, sis!” Celestia waved.

“S-See you.” Luna turned off the light in the room and exited humbly.

“Hehehe... She is really nice. I love her.” Celestia whispered to Verna who has just become comfortable in the navy, princess-sized bed.

“She does seem nice... Hehe. Goodnight, Celestia.” Verna said, smiled and shut her eyes.

“Hahaha! Don't be silly! We're not sleeping for a long time!” Celestia inched towards the edge of her bed, “Let's keep chatting!”

Verna's eye peered open. “O-Okay... What about?”

“Wanna know what Starswirl said to me after class?!”

“S-Sure!”

The fillies giggled together as Celestia began recalling her story.

Within a few hours they would tire themselves out and collapse asleep, wishing things would never change.

Dear Celestia.

I am writing right now and you are asleep with Verna and I did not want to wake you up so I am sorry if I did.

Today I heard something really bad from a pony at the door.

I am sorry that the words are smudged I am trying not to cry.

When I went downstairs after I gave my bed to Verna I went to the balcony...

“Hehe okay! See you later, sis!” Celestia waved.

“S-See you.” Luna turned off the light in the room and exited humbly.

Luna smiled as she strolled down the hallway, tonight was going to be something special. Luna had always loved the night time, but tonight she was finally ready to experience the places beyond her home's garden.

She flapped her wings to guide her along the halls, reaching one of the dozen balconies around the upper floors and she slipped out into it. She looked up to the midnight moon pulsing with heavenly harmony; it filled her with glee as the moonlight escaped from behind wisps of clouds, shining their tranquil rays against her skin.

The garden sprawled out before her eyes, luscious greens hidden under a blanket of moon blue. Luna had gotten herself lost in between those bushes and marble paths almost every night for the past few months; something she treasured during her nights.

It was also quite surprisingly rejuvenating, despite Dream's insistence that she needed a full eight hour sleep every night; she found that bathing in moonlight shed her weariness far better than sleep ever did. Though she still loved to sleep, after her midnight strolls, she tended to drift into a world of dreams for a few hours before morning, exploring their mystical ways. Sometimes she even suspected that she could see her sister's dreams, but that was more than likely another strange illusion of her dreamland.

Tonight that didn't matter though, tonight she was going to go further than she ever had before. To the forests and plains at the base of Canterlot's mountain where all the nightly beauty she has ever dreamed of lives.

At least that's what she hoped would be there as the petite filly scaled the railing of the balcony and let herself glide down into the gardens majestically.

A humble chirping hum of crickets and night dwelling bugs orchestrated her surroundings, the wind bringing a chilling chorus of excitement down Luna's spine. The filly took each step down the cobbled garden path with a soft caution, looking back over her shoulder at the looming home; the lights leaking from the balcony flowing over her as she sneaked away into the glorious night.

After the many crops of rosebush and oak tree, Luna met with the vine-coated steel fencing of the estates border, and it took her a few moments to conquer. Not to get past it, as doing so only required a quick flight, but for a moment she battled with her own will, sitting there with a pounding chest caused by the concoction of fear and suspense.

She took a breath, and only then did her wings calm enough to fly her straight over the fence and down to the other end, the rolling hills of Canterlot's base stretching out before her. The moon itself greeted her with a sparkle of light that peaked through the clouds; coincidentally beautiful, of course, Luna did not truly believe that the moon was reacting to her actions.

That'd be silly.

Luna's legs grew restless as she awed at her view, so she began trotting down the grassy plain, her speed developing into a sprint with outstretched wings.

She flew and flew down the landscape, taking a far turn from the roads and buildings and down to the forests where she glided over each leaf with giddy joy overwhelming her. The chilly wind blew against her face and hooves, her hair swaying behind her gently.

The light from the moon only joined her in celebration, blue-moon sparks flying in her trail for many minutes before the little filly perched herself on a tree branch of an especially tall tree to rest.

She sighed, easing her shoulders and folding her tail between her legs. Luna gazed around the serene moonlit forest and up to the mansions of lower Canterlot, and even further up to the sky-breaching peaks of the Canterlot mountain, all overseen by the moon's glow.

Suddenly the creeping chill of the wind brushed by her, sending a tiny realisation through her.

“I... S-Should go home...” She mumbled to her lonesome self, raising her wings with moderate hesitation before letting herself fall down and glide her way home with an ounce of haste in her thoughts, the worry of being caught catching up to her.

She had made a return to the plateau which her home sat upon, her ears perking to the sound of two ponies discussing something as they trotted down the road. Luna found them in her sight over at the path leading to her home, so she hid behind the nearest lone tree and watched them go straight to her front gate.

They were both in full military uniform, a Unicorn and an Earth Pony as far as Luna could tell, though she didn't recognize them as Uncle Hopeful's friends that visit frequently, in fact they seemed like complete strangers to her.

She wondered what in Equestria were they doing going into her house, but she was grateful that she remained hidden from them.

Once they had entered through the main gate, Luna took a long route around to the back of the garden and flew back through the balcony she first had left from. Luna took care with her hoofsteps to avoid creaking the floorboards as she trotted down the hallway and found her bedroom door.

She intended to return inside and attempt to find something to slumber upon, but her curiosity held her hoof as she reached for the doorknob. Those ponies... What are they doing here at night..? Little Luna pondered before the doorbell rang loud and echoed throughout the dead-stillness of the nightly air.

Luna could hear Dream's surprise and scramble towards the door to answer it. Luna knew she should just go to bed, but her curiosity wouldn't let her... A desire she picked up from being with Celestia for so long, but an irresistible urge none-the-less.

Her hooves now guided her down the hall further until she was perched along the top of the stair's railing, hidden by the darkness.

She now had a full view of Dream as she opened the door and met the two strangers.

“H-Hello, officers... W-What is the occasion? I wasn’t aware of a visit... Especially quite this late...” She mumbled out in her perplexed state.

The two looked at eachother solemnly. “We... Have news for you, Miss Dream... You might want to sit down for this.” One of the two, the Unicorn, said to her.

Dream obliged and let them inside, sitting down by the nearest sofa. “W-What happened?” She had fear in her voice now.

“We... Regret to inform you...” The other, the Earth Pony, now took out a small yellow slip sealed with the royal Equestrian military's insignia and hoofed it to her gently. It seemed whatever it was, even they didn't want to accept it as true.

Dream opened the note with her magic and her eyes went wider than two full moons, raining down sorrow.

“Commander Hopeful has been killed in action. A terrorist Zebra group attacked his train leaving Zeberian territory.” The unicorn picked up for their friend.

Luna took a desperate moment to take in what the soldier just said, her eyes swelling immediately.

As Dream began to weep, she heard Luna try to dash away from the evil things she just heard and Dream stood up to call out. "L-Luna! W-Wait!" Dream pushed past the soldiers and dropped the yellow paper to the floor, sprinting up the stairs.

Luna ran into her room, waking the unknowing Celestia and Verna up immediately as she grabbed their journal and ran right back out, seeing Dream down the corridor trying to plea with her, totally distraught. “Luna! W-Wait!”

She didn't want to. Luna wanted to go away and never come back.

So the dark blue filly flew down the corridor to the balcony at the end, Dream failing to catch up with her. Luna leapt out of the door and over the railing with wings spread far, hugging her journal, wishing it was her Uncle.

Dream found herself stranded on the balcony, watching Luna fly far away over the gardens, into the oaken forests down the hill.

“D-Dream? What happened? Where’s Luna..?” A groggy from sleep Celestia asked from behind, prompting Dream to burst into tears and turn to the white coated, innocent little filly.

"M-Missus Dre-" Celestia tried to speak once more, but was pulled into a sobbing hug by her caretaker. She didn't know what was wrong, but she held Dream close anyways, trying to show some comfort.

“Y-You... Should go back to bed... I'll explain in the morning... I-I promise...” Dream sniffled and wiped at her wet face, holding some composure, just enough to lead Celestia back to her room and put the two to bed.

Dream went back downstairs to the soldiers, the three sharing grievances.

Luna had soon flown back to the forest and sat upon her sole tree from prior, now truly feeling alone in the world. She wept for hours, hugging her journal tightly.

Over time the sky cleared up, the moon coming out in full view of her, its glow reaching her tears to wipe them away.

Luna looked up to the night sky and took a shaky breath, feeling the moon's warmth, then she let her eyes fall down to the journal which she opened gently, taking out the magic quill squished between the pages into her wing, trying not to cry onto the precious pages.

The memory of Hopeful sat heavy in her heart, wishing beyond everything that she'd get to see him again, wishing things were different, despite knowing, just like her parents, he was gone for good.

Luna began to write.

Only Memories Now

deer luna

today we went to uncel hopfol

tody we

today was a bad day

i dont want to rite about it

Celestia and Luna sat next to each other in the pew.

Hopeful's body was not brought back to Canterlot. The fillies weren't told why; Dream didn't want them to have to imagine it.

They were used to not having parents, though they've never experienced losing a parental figure before.

It felt empty.

On that day, the sunrise was delayed by a whole hour to honour the death of Hopeful Twist, the same honour given to fallen princes and princesses.

During this time the funeral was held.

Celestia was hugged by her sister. “I-I'm sorry, Tia...”

“It's not your fault.” Celestia grumbled, her eyes fixed on the soulless coffin in front of them.

Dream also sat beside the two girls, on Luna's side. “Your sister is right, Luna... This isn't your fault.”

“T-Then... Who's is it..?” She was in tears.

“Nobody's, darling... Nobody could have prevented this.” Dream held the filly close.

“No, Dream... It was some, Zebra... That's what the stallion said. It was a Zebra's fault.” Tia grit her teeth and sniffed, wiping across her face with a hoof.

“Assigning blame isn't going to help anyone feel better, Celestia.” Dream reached her hoof to pet Celestia warmly.

“No!” Celestia snapped her head away from Dream's touch. “It was their fault! And I'm glad that Zebra is dead!” Celestia yelled out into the funeral hall, war veterans along the pews looked up and whispered groups of shocked hushes to one another in reaction.

“Celestia, please, keep your voice down...” Dream begged with water in her eyes, her hoof beginning to shake.

“NO!” Celestia jumped out of her seat and finally faced Dream, revealing her quivering face full of enraged tears. “I mean what I said! I'm glad that the Zebra is dead! That's what really matters! T-That they got what they deserved! A-All of this! This is stupid! I don't want to just sit here and be sad for an hour! It’s dumb! You're dumb! Everyone is dumb for doing this!!!” She roared and thrashed around the front of the funeral hall and leapt up to where an empty coffin laid on its side. “HE ISN'T EVEN HERE! THIS DUMB BOX IS EMPTY! GAHH!” Celestia was balling, her entire face soaking and dripping with tears.

Ponies began to stand up from their seats and prepared themselves to stop the raging inferno of a filly's tantrum, but Celestia's horn lit up first, and gasps echoed through the hall at the sight of her intense and burning magic.

Her little horn blew up in flames, a cascade of anarchistic magic exploded around her in a large and blinding aura which she used to set fire to the coffin.

Everypony screamed and the unicorns in the crowd immediately turned on their horns to attempt to snuff out the fire, and Celestia used this time to shoot a beam at a nearby glass-tinted window and shatter it into millions of sparkling segments, before running and jumping out of it.

She ran and ran away, down the streets of Canterlot, her tears overpowering her rage.

Ponies rushed to the front and the magic of dozens of unicorns sealed around the burning coffin, but the flames did not yield, the wood of the soulless box was being burnt up.

Dream ran to the shattered window and looked out to try and find Celestia, but the filly was gone. She looked back to Luna with dread.

Though Luna had actually gotten calmer, she had dried and wiped away her tears and was sitting with a blank stare at Celestia's unending flames that the panicked ponies failed to extinguish.

“Luna... A-Are you all right..?” Dream asked while trotting over very carefully to her to place a hoof on the filly's shoulder.

“Yeah... I'm okay. And Celestia is right... This is dumb.” While Celestia ignited her emotions and let them take over, Luna's emotions became frozen deep inside of her, she did not let the energy that came with the feelings of pain and fear take over. She saw that her sister was correct, and that what mattered right now was supporting one another, not going through some pesky ritual.

She stood up and ever so calmly made her way up to the coffin, not being noticed by the panicking crowd which desperately called for aid from the outside. She slipped in between them all and placed her hoof on the coffin to hold her weight, the flames repelled away from her touch.

Her wings pulled back and she focused that feeling of energy that came from being scared and wanting to be with her sister into them. With one focused flap, a torrent of air blew around the coffin, the fire vanishing as quickly as it had erupted. Everypony else was blown over onto their sides and gazed up to Luna in awe, while she just looked back to Dream.

“I'm going to go find Celestia now.”

Dream didn't have words. “O-Oh... O-Okay...”

Luna didn't say another word as she flew out through the smashed window, swiftly gliding down the path her sister had taken.

The two sisters fled down the same road, one only moments behind the other, down exactly to the same place.

In only a few minutes of galloping, Celestia arrived at her sister’s and her favorite spot in all of Canterlot.

It was a place dug deep into the forest protruding from Canterlot's base, just under the cliff closest to their home. There was a quarter-acre clearing among the trees tucked under the cliff-face. It was populated with rocks, single scattered oaks and an overhang from the cliff that protected it from rain.

During the spring the field would be filled with flowers and countless butterflies, while the winter bore mounds of snow to play with for months.

Celestia went down to hide under the mountain and sob, the expanse of grass and trees having been scorched and set ablaze along the path she took leading from the street.

Luna arrived soon after, putting out the fires left in Celestia's wake with touches of her hoof or bursts of wind from her wings before a forest fire could begin. Once she reached the clearing, she finally saw her sister hiding her face, crying and covered in patches of fire.

“Tia!” Luna blasted forward into flight and landed on top of her sister.

“D-Don't! I-I'll hurt you!” Celestia pulled up her hooves, her face pouring with a river of tears that burnt up and evaporated before they could drip off of her.

Luna didn't stop, she hugged her sister, wrapping her wings and hooves around her. “No... It's okay... You won't ever hurt me...” She spoke with distant melancholy, her own tears beginning to flow as she held her sister, her emotions melting out of her as she lost part of her control.

The flames surrounding the filly's horn and fur hissed and extinguished at her sister's cooling touch; Celestia could feel her emotions return under partial control. “T-Th... Thank you...”

“You're welcome...” Luna sniffed.

They hugged for a good bit.

Celestia's anger was gone by the time she broke the silence. “H... H-How... Do you do it... L-Luna?... How do you stay s-such... C-Calm... E-Even now?...”

“I don't feel calm...” Luna gulped and wiped at her watery eyes with a gentle feather, “I feel scared... So scared it's so hard to cry... Y-You make me feel safe... S-Safe to show how I feel...”

“R-Really..?” Celestia choked on her word.

“Mnn hmm...” Luna nodded.

“W-Well... I'm really scared t-too...” Celestia whimpered in her confession, “I-It makes me really mad... I-I'm sorry I lost control...”

“I-I forgive you.” Luna tried to force a smile.

“Thanks...” Celestia's cheeks heated up a little and her eyes darted away, “C-Can I tell you what makes me the most scared..?”

Luna nodded eagerly, her eyes never losing their cooling calm.

“I...” Celestia shut her eyes and scrunched up her face, more tears emerging.

Her lips failed her. She couldn't speak.

“You can tell me, it's okay.” Luna added, tipping her sister over the edge.

“P-Promise me you won’t never ever die! Not in a thousand years! I-I don't want you to be gone like uncle Hopeful!” Celestia cried out, her eyes transfixed on her sister, begging for an answer.

“I promise.” Luna smiled, her youthful mind not yet knowing what dying really meant. “I promise I'll be with you forever, and we won't ever die.”

“Y-You... Y-You promise?” Celestia's vocal cords wavered from despair to hope, just like her sister, her young mind had not yet learned of the true nature of death.

They were simply too young to know.

“Promise.” Luna spoke with a confidence far beyond simply her own.

“Thank you.” Celestia magically grabbed Luna's wings and pulled her back in, refusing to let go. “I was so scared that one day you would die too...”

“I was scared of you dying.” Luna embraced her sister with immense loving strength.

“W-Well I'll make sure never to die, I promise you too.”

“Thank you, but you're so strong that I don't think anyone can make you die.”

The two fillies giggled.

“Yeah, and then I'll promise something else. Since you're not as strong, I promise I'll always protect you! Forever and ever!” The sun-filly smiled.

“T-Thank you.” The moon-filly whimpered, “I trust you.”

“You're welcome.” Celestia's smile died back down as quickly as it had burst up, “I'm sad uncle Hopeful is gone. I miss him so much.”

“Me too.” Luna agreed and nuzzled her sister, she felt warmth and comfort from her heated fur.

“D-Do you think... It will stop hurting ever?”

“I don't know. I think I'll always miss him.”

“I think I will too...” She laid herself back against the stone cliff. “I wish I could punch that zebra that hurt Hopeful...”

“I'm happy the zebra is gone too, that means they can't hurt anyone else anymore.”

“Y-Yeah... I'm just... Mad...” Celestia yawned. “And tired... I... Used a lot of magic... Swirlbutt says that using lots of magic will make me tired.”

“I-I'm tired too...” Luna set her head down against her sister's fluffy chest. “I'm going to close my eyes for a bit...”

“Me too...”

Celestia and Luna washed away from the world and drifted into their dreams.

Another several hours would pass before Dreamscape would stumble into the site and find the fillies asleep on top of one another.

“G-Girls? Are you all right?” They were both nudged

“M-Mn?” Celestia grogged, “D-Dream?”

“Yes, it's me, I'm here to bring you home. I've made some strawberries and cream for you two when we get there, wouldn't you enjoy that?”

“Strawberries..? Thank you, missus Dream.” Luna yawned and opened her eyes.

“It's all right, you're very welcome. Let's just get home, okay?”

“Okay...” Both fillies replied.

They were brought back to their home.

It felt empty now.

The two of them were allowed to bring their strawberries and cream to their rooms today, it was the only time Dream had ever allowed them to bring food up to their room.

They ate together, but not much was said. The pain was still fresh and talking about it just made it hurt more.

The sunset was a thousand years away, and once they finished eating they just sat together until then, saying little things every once in a while.

The last thing that was brought up that night before bed was the Diary.

“Celestia... A-Are you going to write about today?” Luna took the tome from her bedside table and lifted it to her unenthused and frustrated sister.

“I dunno...” Celestia huffed, “I can try...”

“All right. It's okay if you don't feel like writing much stuff.” Luna placed down the book, along with a quill, by her sister.

“Thanks.” She magically opened up the large sun-covered face and flipped to the last open page.

She gave up on writing and went to sleep a few minutes later.

Dear Celestia, my lovely sister.

I found it! And I cannot wait to begin writing this diary again with you! I am also really excited to see your reaction when I show it to you, it's been so long!

Anyways, I'll celebrate with you later. Since this is a journal, what I should write you about is today's events. (Despite the fact you already know what happened today, I do think it's nice to get another perspective on events even if you were there for them yourself.)

So here we go!

Today started out fairly regular, though the snow was absolutely lovely from the balcony. I took a peak last night at the Pegasi setting all of the clouds up and I thought it was marvelous.

Then when the morning came, you and I awoke to Miss Dream's voice...

“Celestia! Luna! Breakfast is ready!” The voice came up the stairway, the now eight year old duo quickly attending to her call.

“Yeah, Dream, we're coming!” Celestia called out and knocked through their door and ran into the hallway, Luna taking a hop to the doorway and following right after.

“Celestia, wait for me!” Luna cried out giggling and took flight after her sister, the two slipping down the halls and to the staircase, where Celestia jumped onto the railing and wrapped her lower half in her magic, using it to slide down the railing while she floated herself along. Luna skipped the railing completely and just glided down to the bottom floor gracefully.

“Calm down, you two, it's on the table.” Dream approached them and stepped aside and watched the kids run into the dining room and hop up onto side-by-side seats.

The two of them went down on their plates of cream and strawberry coated waffles, Celestia made a bit of a mess but finished quickly, and another minute or so after Luna had finished carefully eating hers.

“I hope you girls enjoy your day off, you both really deserve it. Remember not to go out too far.” Dream wiped down the table and took away their plates.

“We know, Dream, we'll be responsible!” Celestia hopped out of her chair.

“Hehe, yes, I'll make sure we are.” Luna slid off of her seat too.

“All right, well you're excused. Have fun out there.” Dream opened the door magically from across the room, letting the two little fillies gallop out together and giggle.

Once they broke through the doorway they gasped at the fields of snow before them.

The front yard of their home was coated with several inches of the purest white fluff, their fences were now snow-mounds and the bushes now castles of soft ice.

“Awesome!!!” Celestia jumped out and crushed her hoofprints into the frost piles. “It's so much!”

“Yeah! Fritz and the other Lieutenants do such a good job organising all the weather teams! I was watching them last night!” Luna skipped into the snow and played with it, kicking it around softly.

“Did you sneak out with your flying friends again?” Celestia nudged Luna over and made her stumble back.

“No, I just went out by myself!” Luna jumped over to Celestia and pushed her back.

“Are you starting a snow fight?” Celestia lowered her gaze and growled like a predator.

“Maybe.” Luna spread her wings out to try and overshadow her sister. “Do you wanna?”

“Always!” Celestia's horn lit up bright like a beacon and Luna knew it was on.

Celestia sent herself up into the air by floating her hooves and landed a few meters back, balling up nearly a dozen hooffuls of snow from the ground around her.

Luna took her wing and scooped up a massive snowy pile while she jumped behind a bush, using the cover to ball up her own ammo.

“Come on out!” Celestia barked out, “You can't hide, Luna!” She bolted through the snow and leapt on top of the bush her sister was hiding behind and readied an attack.

Celestia launched three snowballs, one after another, directly down at Luna who was covering the top of her head with a wing. The snow exploded and fell apart against her feathers as she threw a counter attack up to her sister, throwing the entire set of snowballs she had in her other wing. They splatted over Celestia's chest and she was knocked over back into the snow.

“Hey! How did you know I was going to come up there!?” Celestia's horn was quickly back at work, digging up snow for a rebound assault.

“You weren't exactly very quiet!” Luna replied and hopped on top of the bush with another snow pile loaded in her feathers' hold, which she promptly threw down at her sister.

Celestia's horn rose up in flames and she waved her head at the snowballs coming her way, melting them instantaneously in the air and then evaporating the water as it touched her skin. “Ha!” She then threw her own attack back at Luna and splatted the blue filly into submission, having to protect herself with her entire wingspan.

“H-Hey! That's cheating!” She flew up into the air out of her sister's reach and started whisking her hooves together and a small cloud forming out of the air began growing, “If you can use your fire magic, I'll use my weather making power!”

“Hehehe, I wanna see you try your hardest!” Celestia started hurling snowball after snowball up at Luna, but she soon realised they were just being sucked into her cloud. So, instead she engulfed her forehead in fire defensively.

The pegasus in the air was soon covered in a tiny snowstorm made of a single cloud, and snow poured out of it and down to Celestia where it was melted while falling. Luna wasn't phased though, as she hopped up on top of her cloud and gathered a thick snowball in her wing and then kicked the cloud down at her sister, giving it a big boost in speed with a big flap of her wings.

Celestia threw out her flames and swallowed the cloud up whole, laughing loud and hard. “It wasn't big enough! Hehehe!” She blurted out without concern, though she was quickly hit by the realisation that Luna was no longer where she last was, while at the same time she was actually hit in the back of the head by a snowball thrown by her. “Oww! That was sneaky!”

Celestia turned around, “Yeah! It was a distraction!” Luna said and gleefully fluttered her wings with a prideful smile, standing out in the open.

“Yeah, but now you're mine!” Celestia sprinted at the widely open Luna, lifting snow on the way and then hurling it at her. She then jumped up on top of her sister and knocked her right over, leaving the pale-furred Unicorn on top of the deep navy Pegasus.

“Hey! G-Get off!” The pinned filly laughed and yelled up as she thrashed her hooves against Celestia, pushing her off into the snow for only a moment.

“It won't be that easy!” She jumped right back on top of Luna, this time her legs pressed down her sister's to stop her from struggling while her horn lit up to seize some snow slowly. “You can't get out now without your hooves! Hehehe! Say your last words!” She giggled perfidiously as she gathered up a massive wad of snow and raised it telekinetically above Luna's head.

“Who said I needed hooves?!” Celestia's eyes widened and she felt the wind under her shift as Luna's wing scooped up a layer of snow and slammed it into Celestia's eye, knocking her over, this time for good.

Celestia covered and wiped her face, “Ah! I always forget you have wings... Ow... T-This stings...” She kept her face low and hid her eye from her sister.

Luna's playfulness vanished and she knelt down beside her sister. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry! P-Please fo-”

She was then hit in the back of the head by a massive pile of snow, as well as realising that Celestia's horn never stopped glowing. Luna fell over limply into the snow.

“I'm fine! How about you?” Celestia dropped the act along with the hoof from her face, her right eye was perfectly unharmed.

“Yeah... I'm fine too... A bit tired now though.” Luna shook her head clean from the melty snow bits, thankfully this was all just a game and she was perfectly unharmed too.

“Me too.” Celestia and Luna hugged and shivered together, the cold starting to get to them, but soon their hug had warmed both of their cores. “Hey, why don't we see if Dream's made us any cookies or something?”

While Celestia stood to trot to the home's door, something caught Luna's eye. “You can go check, I think my friends are here.” She looked up into the sky, behind a plump cloud, where she saw the faint tails of her flight-school friends peer over the edge.

“Hehehe, don't take too long with them now. I still want another few snowball fights!” Celestia skipped into their house and Luna bolted into the air, and with a gust and a clapping of wings she had risen a few dozen meters into the air and floated above the cloud.

A light-lime filly with a pale white, fiery-tipped mane sat with a grey-toned colt with a deep dark mane on the cloud.

“Hey, Zip and Quiver! What are you guys doing here so early in the day? Sorry I couldn't come last night, Celestia got grounded and I didn't want her to be alone.” She gently set herself down on the fluffy cloud.

Zip, the green filly sat up with a smile. “Hey, Lu! Don't worry, we thought something like that happened. No worries!”

Quiver, the grey colt chuckled softly, “Y-Yeah, It's no problem. W-We actually came here about something else that happened last night...”

The two looked at each other and giggled.

“W-What? What happened? Did your parents catch you sneaking out?” She spoke with cautious concern.

“Nah! Never dummy, my mum couldn't catch me if she tried!” Zip laughed.

Quiver went to explain. “Y-Yeah, we actually found something you might really like to see.”

“Oh? What is it, guys?” Her ears peaked.

Zip stuffed her wing into the cloud just under where she was sitting, digging out a hidden little relic. “Remember... This?!” Suddenly a large leather-bound tome with a sun on one side and a moon on the other appeared in her wing.

“OUR JOURNAL!” She squeaked and wiggled her hooves together, her eyes sparkled and widened into two big full moons. “We looked for it for so long! Where did you find it?!” Her wings took the book from her friend and she inspected it closely with mouth agape.

Quiver laughed a little and ruffled his mane, “W-We were just hanging out in the forest... And I messed up while flying and I had a small tumble... I'm okay, so don't worry, but I landed in some mud and I felt something weird where I landed...”

“Yeah! We spent like thirty minutes digging it up! And we were covered head to hoof in mud, my mum really didn't like that when I got home.” Zip giggled to herself.

“I-I told you we should have cleaned ourselves in the river...”

“It was cold! In the middle of the night! I much rather just be a mess and take a hot bath at home.”

While they babbled on the book was opened and closely caressed with dark blue, gentle, young hooves. The cover and pages were still in pristine condition. “T-There isn't any mud on it at all... It looks just as good as I remember it.”

Zip and Quiver snapped out of it, Zip giving her attention with the first words. “Oh! Yeah, after we dug it up, it just cleaned itself up! Like totally.”

“Y-Yeah... It was glowing... I think it's magical.” Quiver added on.

“R-Really? That's so cool...” Her hooftip traveled along the maze of pages to the last entry, a short unfinished scribble by Celestia, though it still made Luna smile. “I can't wait to show this to my sister! She'll be so happy to see we got it back!”

“Y-Yeah... Wasn't Celestia the one that lost it..?” Quiver questioned.

“Yeah...” Luna's navy cheeks hue'd purple with a blush. “She got really sad and angry because it reminded her of uncle H... Of our old uncle... And she used her magic to just throw it as far away as she could, she was really, really sorry afterwards... We looked in our forest for months, but we gave up after that. I'm so glad you guys found it! I'm never gonna let it out of my sight! Thank you so, so much!”

“Heh, you're welcome, airhead... Though you still gotta make up missing our hang out last night.” Zip laid back against the cloud, her hooves pillowing the back of her head.

“Tonight, for sure! I'll make sure of it! You two are so awesome! I'm so glad you're my best friends.”

“U-Us too. Heh...” Quiver smiled with his own blush.

Celestia had returned from their manor, “LUNA!!! THERE'S COOKIES!!!”

“Oh, I have to go! Thank you so much, guys, I'll be back later today and then we'll also hang out tonight, okay?” She stood up with the tome nuzzled under her hooves as her wings spread.

“You're welcome, moonbutt!” Zip waved her off with a wing and she smiled but furrowed her eyebrows at the same time.

“I told you not to call me that!” She giggled.

“Yeah... You did.” Zip giggled.

Celestia called out again, more shouty this time. “LUNA!!!!!!! SHE WON'T LET ME HAVE ANY UNTIL YOU COME DOWN!!!”

“I'm coming!” Luna replied down and her eyes wandered down to the journal in her hooves, “I should keep this a secret for now... I want to write a passage before I give this to her. Can you guys keep it safe and give it to me later tonight?”

“S-Sure, happily!” Quiver took the book from her.

“Thanks again!” She then glided down to the snowy lawn of her home.

Celestia and Luna then ate a lot of cookies together.

Today was a good day.

From Now To Forever

Dear Luna

Tobay Today was the best best best day of my life I dont know what how to write about it

At the start i thout today was going to be THE WORST because stupid profeser swirlbutt got us to come to school before the sunrise becaus he wanted to dimon demanst show us how unicorns rase the sun and i was sooooo tired but anyways it was just before the sun comes up and me and Verna are waiting for swirlbutt to start the class...

“Celestia!” Vernacularous stampeded over to her front gate with all the energy a filly could hold, “Are you ready for today, Celestia?! Celestia?”

“Verna...” The white-furred little sun-filly marched out with her pink fluffy mane dragging against the cobble, awake long before the actual sun is set to rise. “It's like... Five... I need more sleeeeep...”

“You'll do fine, Tia, and I packed you cupcakes.” A bag floated alongside Dreamscape's as she walked Celestia out to the gate. The bag exchanged telekinetic grips as Celestia passed the boundary of their home. “Just do as Starswirl says, all right?”

“Fine, Dream... I'll do what Swirlbutt says... Thanks for the cupcakes...” She yawned and nearly collapsed against Verna.

“Thank you, Miss Dream! Come on, Celestia, wakey wakey, we get to watch the sunrise today!” Verna dragged Celestia on down the road towards Starswirl's tower, Verna's guardian Gambit escorting them a few dozen steps behind to give the girls privacy.

“You're welcome! Be safe you two!” Dream waved the two fillies off as they disappeared into the skyline.

“Vernaaaah... The sun rises every day, why would I want to watch it..?” She whined during their journey up the hills and down the snaking paths.

“Cause we're going to get to practice raising it! Weren't you listening yesterday? Aren't you excited?!”

“That sounds so boring! Who cares about pulling some bright ball up into the sky..? I want to SLEEP.”

Verna burst out in giggles, “You're always so funny, Celestia!”

The two friends trotted along the path up Canterlot mountain, a path they knew so well from years of travel that the deep darkness of the sunless morning didn't hinder their trot. Within the hour they were trotting up on Starswirl's tower, much different in this pre-sunrise setting as the plains and roads were coated in shadow. Though Starswirl made up for the darkness by enchanting the stone surfaces of the tower, creating a faintly fire-fly reminiscent glamour of lights glowing all round, including lighting up a small stage on wheels cutting off the path to the front door.

Tia and Verna joined into a gathering of their fellow classmates already arranging before the stage, all of them looking up to Starswirl trotting across the stage, pulling out boxes in his magical grasp and placing them down by the front of the crowd. Verna's guardian nodded to the girls and waved as he trotted off, leaving them in their professor's capable hooves.

“This is gonna be dumb...” Celestia grumbled, her voice drowned out in the midst of her peers chatting amongst one another.

“You need to be more open minded, Celestia, who knows, this could be very interesting!” Verna argued back with a smile.

Celestia yawned and rubbed her eyes with a leg. “Nahhhh... Doubt it.”

With a few last students being dropped off and Starswirl approaching the top of the stage, his horn lit up his face, “All right, class, by my count you are all here so we may begin. Now I know waking up so early, before the sun even starts to rise, is not very enjoyable, but as we discussed in class yesterday, the vital role many unicorns have of lifting the sun is one of the most esteemed jobs in unicorn culture. Believe it or not, I woke up at this time for twenty whole years in a row lifting the sun before I retired and became a professor.” He gave an old charming smile and a hearty chuckle to his crowd of groggy students.

Tia turned her head over to her friend, raising both eyebrows and huffing out of her nose.

“Just listen, Celestia, it'll be fine!” Verna whispered over.

“Now, as promised we will be meeting with the current sun conclave and watch how they raise the sun ourselves, but while we wait for them to arrive, I have prepared a quick exercise for you all to try together, as I hope one day each of you get to experience working as a sun raiser. This should help give you an idea of what that might be like...” The elderly stallion's magic wrapped itself inside of a box he had laid out, and out floating came a large wooden carving of a cartoonish sun, roughly the height of one of the fillies and colts he was teaching. It was worn out and aged, painted ornately with bright yellows and oranges that were chipping away, and had a hefty bag of weights nailed to the backside.

“Booooriiiiing.” Celestia groaned out, getting a stern look from the professor.

Meanwhile a round of aweing ensued as all the other foals' interests were peaked. “I have this model sun here, and using the telekinetic deadlift measurements I got from each of you last week, I have made this just heavy enough so that if you all work together and try as hard as you can, you should be able to raise it together! And speaking of which, I'm very happy to announce that this class has had the highest average lifting weight I have ever seen from a set of foals! It's a remarkable achievement, and all of your parents will assuredly be incredibly proud when you tell them you are the telekinetically strongest class I've ever held.”

A round of cheering came from the tightly knit class, though Celestia remained unimpressed, even after Verna turned to her and pronounced her glee. "My goodness! I thought I didn't do well at all, but the best class ever? That's astounding!"

“How much did you lift?” Celestia turned with a drowsy frown on her face.

“U-uh... Um... F-fifteen pounds. How much did you do?” Verna's smile fell away as she bit her lip.

“Three hundred... Aghh... Or was it four..?” She yawned out.

“What?”

“So class! Are you ready to try and lift this little sun here?” Starswirl chuckled as a wave of bright magic whizzed around the wooden face, causing it to begin glowing intensely, causing the fillies and colts to shield their eyes as they adjusted to the floodlight blasting in their direction. “I'll place it back down inside the box now, and then I'll count to three, and on three everypony grabs hold and lifts as hard as they can...” The toy sun floated back down into the container, “And for those still struggling with broken line of sight telekinesis, focus on this handle right here.” He pulled out a thick rope and slipped it through the hook at the top of the sun inside the crate, letting the rope slump down the front of the box.

The horn on every single pupil, apart from one especially despondent Celestia, lit up at once. The messy rainbow of lights in the crowd came pouring into the box like a river, each student latching onto a different portion of the toy sun, and with a wide range of straining groans they pulled and pulled with all of their power.

With a small rumble coming from the box, Starswirl smiled and stood back to watch his little artifact rise.

Though as he waited and waited, the fillies and colts couldn't do much more than shuffle the thing around, despite their great effort. Starswirl turned to the crowd and saw them all wincing and pushing themselves to their young limits, pondering why they were having such a hard time.

Then he saw Celestia and her sleepy set of eyes sitting back and watching her fellow ponies work their flanks off while she lazed about. “Miss Celestia!” He roared out overtop the constant sizzle of magic in the air right down to her, causing her to jump awake.

“H-Huh?! W-What?” She called back, slightly startled.

“You know what, Miss Celestia!” He belted out, pointing a hoof at the crate.

“Come on, Tia... P-please... For me... Ahh!” Verna begged to her, still trying and failing to lift it herself.

“Fine...” She grumbled and rubbed the sand out of her eyes once again, “But this is stupid...”

The light-furred little filly stood up with her back straight, her eyes sharply focused on the crate, and her horn erupting in a fiery and erratic glow, out-shining those beside her, her light bleeding out of the homogeny of the crowd. Once her target was visualised, she shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath. Celestia always found it easier to manipulate objects she couldn't see with her eyes closed as it provided less distractions. She grounded herself in the path, pressing the rough cobble down into itself and shooting out her telekinetic reach.

And... A latch. She felt the weight of the sun through her psychic tether. “Oh wow... This thing is damn heavy... N-No wonder ya'll need me.” She cracked a smile with that comment to Verna, who was far too occupied to have heard it let alone reacted.

Though now it was time to prove herself... She gave the sun a magical tug, putting a few dozen pounds of force into it to test the waters.

It didn't even budge. “Oh... Mnf...” She strained her face and took a big breath, “That's how you wanna play huh... How about... THIS!” She threw her horn into the air, doubling, tripling in brightness as she pulled with all of the energy and focus she could harness to pull on the sun.

Once more, it didn't even budge. Celestia felt the entire weight of it sitting on her like she was holding up the entire world on her shoulders. “AHGAAA! COME ON!!!” She screamed out loud enough to break the concentration of the entire class, who now turned to watch the beacon of magic leaving the filly as she thrashed and kicked against the cobble path beneath.

Starswirl cleared his throat aloud, “It's all right, Miss Celestia, we can stop now, I clearly had miscalculated the weights and made it too heavy, there's no need to strain yourselves anymore.”

“N-NO!!! I CAN DO THIS!!!” She screamed back, tears now running down her face as she pushed past an intense throbbing pain she got in her forehead as she overloaded her horn's output, causing actual heat the students could feel to radiate from it along with the ever-growing flood of light leaving them all blind to her face.

But she did it, she managed to make it budge, it felt like only an inch that she raised it, but each second she pushed she grew more passionate, more desperate to do this, even if she had to do it by herself. And she knew she could do it.

“No, Miss Celestia, please! It was my fault it was too heavy, plea-” He said and lifted up the lid of the box and hovered it above the hefty toy sun, being struck by a massive surprise as he peeked into the container and saw no magical aura around the sun anymore, despite Celestia still burning brightly. “U-Uh... Miss Celestia... What are... What are you lifting..?”

“AAGGGHHHH!! YES!!! YES!!!” Her smile was ear to ear, her face streaming with tears and her eyes aflame with pain. Though her hooves were still kicking and sprawling, she felt a strange lightness, suddenly she was bucking in the air in celebration.

Her horn was so burning hot at this point, it began cooking the water particles in the air and turned them to steam, but she went on. She poured her soul into her horn and out, just to push harder, just to move it inch by inch into the sky.

She could hear Starswirl begin yelling about something, and foal screams as her classmates backed off and turned away as Celestia's little body became completely blinding from every angle. But her efforts seemed to yield much promise as she saw the light through her sealed eyelids grow, leading her to laugh loud enough for the whole world to hear. “Hahahahah! Yes! Just! A little! M-More!!!”

She felt it rise, inches turned to yards, yards to miles, miles that lead to the sky.

Celestia couldn't even feel the ground anymore, all she felt was the cosmos open up around her horn, the wind thrashing at her mane from the magical hurricane she was creating and the greatest sense of accomplishment that had ever felt washed over her.

“YOU ARE WORTHY.”

The voice had come out of noplace yet everyplace, it was inside her and out, from the stars and close enough to touch her soul.

It spooked her.

“HUH?!?!” Celestia's horn shut off, her eyes opened wide and pupils dilated as she whisked her head side to side looking for who said that, only finding out that for some bizarre reason, she was floating in the middle of the air, roughly a meter up, kicking her little legs back and forth.

Upon this realisation she fell immediately, scratching her chin and legs on the cobble as she planted downward into the ground, her migraine kicking her as she's down. “Owwwwww....” She whined and tilted her head upwards, looking around at all the ponies circling her. They were all gawking at her, completely speechless, the entire crowd so deadly silent she could hear the crickets chirping in the distance. “What...? What are you all looking at..?” She asked and stumbled upon a realisation as everything was brighter... A lot brighter.

Looking up into the sky, she could see a clear, cloudless midday sky, with a beautifully bright sun smack dab in the center. “H-Huh? Why is the sun up already? Did I miss the wizzers or whatever?”

“Mmm.. M-Mah... Mih...” Starswirl's jaw shivered, his eyes fixated on Celestia with the fear of the moon in him. “C-Ce-Cel... C-Celes-stia...” He mumbled out, his entire body seized up tightly.

She dropped her head a little at the sight, gasping gently and pulling herself up to a stand, she had never seen Starswirl like this before. “W-What..? I-Is something wrong, Sir..?”

Before her teacher could even grasp at the scraps of answers and questions his mind held, Celestia's flank was pressed on by Verna's hoof, gently being pet in mesmerised softness. “W-Wow...” Escaped Verna's lips.

“Huh?! Ver-” Celestia turned her head to her side to look at what in Equestria her friend was doing to her butt, though her eyes caught onto something far, far more immaculate.

“I HAVE WINGS?!?!?!?!” She yelled at the top of her lungs and spanned out a massive set of pitch-white, fluffy, feathery, luscious wings fixed to her back. “I HAVE WINGS!!! VERNA I HAVE WINGS!!!”

Celestia skipped in a circle, waving and flapping her new gorgeous sets of feathers, jumping up and down with a smile brighter than every star in the sky, repeating over and over in her amazement, 'I have wings' at the top of her lungs.

“T-Tia! T-Th... Th-Thats not all!” Verna wrapped a magical leash around her friend’s leg and held her still, Celestia turning to her bobbing up and down with insatiable eagerness.

“What do you mean?! Do I have more wings?! Another tail or something?!” Celestia began giggling immediately, overwhelmed by pleasure and expressing it in whatever way her body could.

Verna gave her best friend a nervous smile. “You have... A-A cutie mark.”

“What?”

Tia's head twisted back like a lightning bolt, her eyes locking onto the side of her bum.

Without a doubt... Right there, right on her flank, a big, ornate yellow and orange sun was plastered across her fur.

That was when she fainted.

Dear Celestia.

I am so incredibly happy for you! Your new wings are so beautiful, so big and amazing. They're even better than mine.

I don't even know what to say. I think I'm just going to go to bed for now.

Celestia was waiting at the door for Luna to come home that day.

She thought it was a dream at first, not a soul believed that a unicorn filly had raised the sun all by herself, let alone that she had been magically gifted a set of wings. But for it to be her very sister made it so much more unimaginable.

Celestia had never been happier about anything, she had a face sore from smiling, and Luna quickly joined her in celebration.

They played for hours in the garden with the two practicing some, without much luck, leaving her with quite a few bruises. Strangely she found they didn't hurt as much as she would have thought, and they were all healed by the time they were shuffled off to bed by their nanny.

As they went back up to their rooms, Celestia made an off-hoof comment, with a tired yet overexcited smile and giggle she told Luna; “I just wish you had a horn...”

The idea made her head recoil back softly as they slipped into their bedroom, Celestia jumping up with a big flap to land in her bed and nearly immediately pass out.

Luna went over it in her mind, her sister brought up a good point, they both had wings, but only her sister had a horn, and a cutie mark for that matter. How could she not feel overshadowed?

She hoisted herself into bed and pulled out their journal, thinking that maybe some writing would get her mind off of how much more amazing Celestia is than her.

Luna couldn't find the inspiration to write much, so she just finished it up as quick as she could and wrapped herself up under her blanket and shut her eyes.

She couldn't sleep, no matter how hard she tossed and turned, her pillow was too hot, every way she tried laying it was digging at her uncomfortably and her mind wouldn't cease with thoughts of future inferiority. What if Celestia became a better flyer than her? What if she became better at reading and everything else Luna was good at. What if she was no longer Fritz's best student? What if her friends no longer wanted to hang out with her..?

What if I'm not special?

She sat up and looked at their hanging clock silently ticking the day away, then to Celestia. She was snuggled up with her new majestic wings, snoring to herself fast asleep.

She sighed.

This was going nowhere, she decided to go clear her head someplace better... It had been a while since she'd last been anyway.

She carefully pulled her covers aside and cautiously stepped down onto the floorboards with utter silence. She took light steps forward and used her feathers to ease open the door, letting her step out into the hallway and make the trot down to the balcony at its extremity.

Without a second of hesitation her hooves glided over the balcony and effortlessly pounced off the railing.

Her wings erupted out and caught the winds in their feathers, grasping and plunging it backward she launched herself into the sky, gliding out of their home's premises and out over the Canterlot cliff, flying over those enchanted woods.

Her mind was cooled immediately, completely clear as she flew by the luscious rays of moonlight glistening atop the tree line. She felt weightlessly calm, adrift upon an icy breeze. It felt effortless, the glide angled upward and she floated past her favourite perching tree. Slowing as she ascended to a peak in mid-air.

She almost didn't realise that she had stopped flapping her wings completely, being so enchanted by the ray of moonlight enveloping her, she tilted her eyes up and gazed upon the majesty of the full moon.

Her body was frozen in the air with wings dead still, being held up by a foreign magic.

But she was already past the point of asking questions, her mind a still pool of water, now only a reflection of the sight before her.

Whatever beckoned her, it did so without quelling the peace she had. And the call was heard as her wings went to fly her forward again, picking up a wind at her back as she flew up and up.

She had never flown past the clouds so quick, but her sights were set on the moon, and with the gust guiding her flight she built up immense speed.

The sky became darker and the stars became brighter with every passing second, then her wings crashed down with a boom. Her body left a dark trail from that moment as a deep blue magic streamed from her and left behind a massive dark pulse in the sky. It didn't feel like she was even going that fast when she broke the sound barrier.

Her stretched wings flapped in a rhythmic blur like a hummingbird as her speed doubled every second. She had pierced through what was left of the atmosphere under her hooves, the gorgeous marble of a world shrank behind her as she kept flying, her right forehoof stretched out toward the moon.

All she could do was watch as the moon grew and wrapped around her vision, the distant being now as big as all of Equestria, stretching out into and past every horizon.

Her wings stopped flapping, and she went from faster than a bullet to easing into stillness in seconds, levitating down to the surface that faced her vertically, as if the moon was a standing mirror she saw herself inside.

She placed a single hoof against it and disturbed the dust on it, the magical pulse of the entire moon felt in imaginary tremors that encased the dark-furred filly, like touching a heart made out of dreams; life at its most subtle.

It whispered to her.

“You are worthy.”

She didn't smile, jump or react in any bodily way. Only with two words as silent as the night, “Thank you.”

Her second hoof accompanied her second, and her wings flapped forward. She moved against the moon, pushed it an inch. Then another flap, another inch, pushing it dearly across the sky. Just like before she gradually built up the speed, a rhythmic throwing of her wings pushed back against the emptiness of space, lacking the air to create sound or feeling, casting out the magic of the moon itself to force it forward.

After enough speed she felt herself slow down, leaving the moon to leave her hooves and keep flying away from her.

She watched it shrink again, turning back into the distant icy stone globe in the sky. She only realised she was falling once she hit the atmosphere, the air slashing at her back, her body shooting back through the clouds and then, the very instant before she would hit the ground.

Luna woke up.

“Gah!” She shot up, panting hard as the adrenaline finally rushed through her veins. “Ohhh... Oh my... It was just a dream. Just a dream.” She slumped back into her pillow and felt the relief of reality.

Celestia groaned from her side of the room, “Luuuunaa.... Go back to sleeeep...”

She rubbed her eyes clear, their entire room was lit up brightly, even though she felt much underslept. “Come on, Tia... It's morning... We have to get up.” Her eyes drifted up to their clock, which still said it was just past midnight. “H-huh..?”

A galloping set of hooves came from the stairway and down the hall, “Celestia! Did you do it again?!” Dream's voice rang out with the door soon erupting open, “Did you raise the sun again?!” She panted, distressed and still in her nightgown.

“H-huh... What are you talking about? I was asleep...” She shook her head and yawned hard, looking around at the bright sunlight streaming from the windows high up by the roof. “Why is the sun up..?” She grogged.

Dream turned to the other sister, “Luna, did you s-”

Celestia looked over as well, seeing that Luna wasn't even paying attention to the two of them, instead her eyes were darting between her forehooves, mumbling incoherently. “Was it... N... N-Not a dream...”

“Darling. P-Pull your hair to the side... P-please...” Their caretaker asked with missing breath.

“What..? What's wrong?” She asked with worry in her eyes, before her hoof reached up and brushed at her hair, having it stop once it hit a stump in the center of her forehead.

“WHAT?!?!”

Both hooves now shot up and pulled her hair back, revealing a long dark blue horn fixed directly in the center of her forehead, just like her sister’s. “I-I HAVE A HORN?! W-What?! HOW?!”

“YOU HAVE A HORN!!!!!” Celestia came barreling over, jumping onto Luna's bed with her sister and squeezing her tight in a massive wing hug, both fillies crying and laughing with immeasurable smiles as they embraced each other.

“W-Wait!” Celestia butted in with a gasp, “Does that mean?!”

“D-Does that mean what?” Luna let out nervous and twitchily.

Without words Celestia pulled back the covers and threw them away, pushing Luna onto her side and turning to her flank. A pitch black sky holding a perfectly sharp, glistening crescent moon sat on her fur, her sister's cutie mark before Celestia.

Luna watched as her sister fainted.