It was a warm day in Canterlot. Having raised the sun, Princess Celestia had made sure of that. Gracefully stretching out the royal wings, she yawned. The musical tone of the ruler of Equestria's oxygen deprived emission caused the nearby servants to sigh. Princess Celestia was so melodious. Everypony knew that Her Majesty had the most beautiful speaking voice in all of Equestria, so it was no surprise that they also expected her to have the most beautiful singing voice in all of Equestria.
They believed this...but it had never been proven. To this day, nopony had ever heard her sing. Every opportunity had been provided, and gently declined. It had even become a sort of game amongst the Canterlot nobility. If one of them was able to get Princess Celestia to sing for them, the prestige and unchecked bragging rights that would accompany that beautiful serenade would leave the rest of Equestria in a state of intense envy. However, the princess seemed to be totally against the prospect.
Not even Twilight Sparkle's entreaties had caused the powerful Alicorn to change her stance on the issue. Which is not to say that she didn't try. Everything from happy birthdays to musical theater were used as excuses to coax Celestia's singing into the open, to no avail. The reason was never stated, but the princess' obvious enjoyment of other ponies' songs showed everypony her love of singing in general. Nopony could make heads or tails of the whole situation, but in the end love for the princess had everypony dismissing the issue as unimportant.
That was the state of affairs until roughly a week before the Clover Parade. That is when everything changed.
"Luna, you know I want you to be happy," Princess Celestia cajoled, "but hiding away in your room listening to music is not the way to get acquainted with modern times. You need to try and go out in public more often. At least that way you might make some friends."
"I don't want to, Tia. The nobles are either sucking up to me to get to you, or they run away when I show up. Sometimes both at once. You can't imagine how awkward it is to listen to somepony compliment your mane when running away at top speed." Princess Luna ~~whined~~ complained. "Besides, you do plenty of socializing and yet you never get to enjoy yourself. It's always the same. You show up for a small dinner, and they bring out the entire town's food supply. It's just too over the top, and I don't see how it is that you can deal with it all of the time."
"I know, but as princesses there are a lot of things that can be uncomfortable or difficult to bear. The trick is, to every so often, find something fun to do. In my case I like trying new things and getting new experiences from that. Take the parade we have coming up, for example. It's in honor of Clover the Clever, and a good excuse to have everypony cut loose and relax. Why not take an opportunity like that and do something fun, like a performance in public, so that everypony will see. It will help spread a better image of you."
"Well, alright. I guess I should, but will you do me a favor? Could you do it with me?" asked Luna.
"Of course. Anything for you, little sister," Princess Celestia's smile was like the beaming sun. "Now, what are we going to do? the parade is in about a week. We shouldn't pick anything too complicated, so we have enough time to prepare. I'll go and let the parade planners know and have them set some time aside for us."
"Alright, I'll decide what to do in the mean time."
As Princess Celestia left, the other alicorn cast her gaze around her luxurious room for ideas. Writing table, fireplace, bed, nightstand, abacus. None of the items seemed to give her any inspiration. Then she spotted the perfect thing: Her phonograph, record still playing.
An hour later, and Celestia had returned. She was quite excited, because the organizers of the event were more than happy to set up a time and place for the event. They had given her and Luna time at the very end of the parade, and a stage had begun construction for the show. Now all that remained was to find out what her sister had planned.
"Hello again Luna, have you decided what we are going to perform yet?"
" Yes. I have. I want to go with an old tradition. I think we can each take a turn singing a song. I must look through all of my albums for the perfect song."
The shining sunbeam of Celestia's smile flickered and went out, while her pristine, unblemished white coat somehow turned much more pale. "Luna, dearest," she called as her sister went back to perusing her collection.
"Yes?"
"I'm afraid I was daydreaming. Did you say that you want us to...sing?" Celestia asked, filled with hope that she may have misheard her sister.
"Oh, yes! Very much so. I haven't sung in public in over a thousand years, and I think it is high time to correct that. I did enjoy myself so much back then that I want to share that feeling with our citizens." The caretaker of the night sky looked at Celestia with sparkling stars in her eyes.
"That's what I thought you had said." Princess Celestia said morosely, knowing that she could not let her sister down. "It's just that I..."
"Yes, what is it?"
"I... I have... I have a terrible singing voice." said Celestia morosely.
"No, you couldn't have. I remember when... or that time.... but what about...." Luna went on trying to remember one time when she had heard her sister sing.
"It's true. I never sing in public, or when anypony is around to hear me. It's mortifying. I can't sing well. I just don't know how." Looking at the crestfallen Luna, Celestia made a decision. She would not ruin this chance for her sister. Nothing but resentment and disharmony could come of that. "Perhaps if I had a place where I could practice without anypony listening to me..."
Luna was the one with the beaming smile this time. She thanked Celestia and promised that she would find the perfect place to practice.
Six days had passed and it was the day of the parade. All the ponies of Canterlot were excited for the festivities. In fact, due to the finale that the princesses were putting on, every single hotel in Canterlot was booked by visitors from Ponyville, Cloudsdale and even a few from Baltimare that had taken the train in for the occasion. Meanwhile Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had spent the week training Celestia's voice. Luna had long been a noted singer, though perhaps a bit of time had passed since her last performance. Under her tutelage, Celestia had made wonderful progress. During the past week, every note had been honed to perfection, every breath taken was used for the sake of singing and Celestia's vocal abilities were now tuned pitch perfectly. All that preparation gave her confidence that she could truly sing in front of all the ponies who looked up to her.
Celestia had a few minutes till the parade ended, and was spending them speaking to Twilight Sparkle.
"My most faithful student, I hope you can learn something of the magic of friendship from my most recent activities. My sister has been helping me in an area I was not proficient at before. She took her time and dedicated it to helping me overcome my difficulties. I can say it has been fun to spend time with her. Look, Twilight, the parade is about to end. I want you to enjoy this. Luna is up first. Did you know that she used to sing for huge crowds, just like this one? Ponies for miles around would listen to her lovely singing voice whenever she felt like it. It was very popular."
Twilight asked one question of her mentor. "Princess, how did she sing for so many? Microphones weren't invented until recently."
The answer hit Celestia like a freight train pulled by a team of buffalos. The Royal Canterlot Voice. She stood up to stop her sister, but it was too late. The song had started and so had Luna. Everypony present was soon clutching their ears in agony, but legend has it that Vinyl Scratch only let out a single tear that day.
Once the song was over, Celestia stumbled to the stage. Her sister smiled and spoke, but not a sound could be heard. Absolute silence, save for the pounding in her head, greeted Celestia. So, she did what the ruler of all of Equestria should.
She sang her song.
Twilight still remembers the incident fondly. Not because she heard her teacher sing, which was impossible at the time, but because the level of literacy in ponies improved greatly due to having to write to each other while their hearing recovered.
