Catching Up

“I’m so sorry! I’ve missed you so much, big sister!” Luna rushed over to Celestia, her teary eyed sister drawing her into a close embrace while the six Elements of Harmony watched their reunion. Luna ignored them, nuzzling into the familiar warmth and scent she’d missed the last thousand years.

Still, it wasn’t the same. Celestia towered over her now. Luna should have been nestled into the crook of Celestia’s neck, feeling her sister’s own muzzle pressed lovingly against her back. She should have been able to open her eyes and see the shapely curves of the elder alicorn’s haunches. She should not have to stand up in order to even reach the collar of Celestia’s peytral.

She looked down at herself, stepping back from Celestia as she took in the proportions of her own body. No long, graceful legs. Her neck, shorter and harder to stretch out to look back. Her cutie mark was intact, thank harmony! But her tail was so… solid.

“Sister?” Luna looked up at Celestia, starting to tremble as she realized just how thoroughly she had been reduced.

“Shh… we’ll find out what happened when we get home, Luna,” Celestia told her softly. “For now, I’m just glad to have you back. So very, very glad.”

The next several days were spent in a hurricane of activity. There were celebrations, visits to new cities, visits to old cities that had been mere settlements when Luna had been co-regent. Introductions to nobles, to descendants, to officials and courtiers, updates to court protocols, and visits to doctors.

And so, so many doctors!

By the time Luna finally had a night to spend in peace, she’d been poked, prodded, inspected, and probed in every way that she could have imagined, and several that she couldn’t before they’d been introduced to her.

She still wasn’t confident that that was how you were supposed to take a pony’s temperature, but the guards had reassured her that it was all part of the standard procedure while they pried her pint-sized body off of the doctor who had failed to properly prepare her for what was about to happen.

Luna scowled at her old regalia, kept in place behind glass until she was ready to try wearing it again.

It had better not take another twenty years! She grumbled to herself.

There was a hoof at her door, horseshoes ringing softly against the heavy wood.

“Thou may enter, sister!” Luna called out.

Celestia opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind her.

“How are you feeling, Luna?”

“Very small, sister. In many ways,” Luna admitted. She turned to look out the window at the setting sun.

“Do you think We could try tonight? She is Our responsibility, after all.”

“If you wish. Though it may be better for you to wait, until you’ve returned to -”

Luna’s horn had started to glow already, her indigo aura flickering as she stretched out to her charge. She could feel her bond with the moon, the magical pathways altered over her long absence. Her sister’s aura suffused them by now, warm and comforting even as it pressed in close, suffocating Luna’s own reduced magical flow.

Luna scowled, focusing harder, her horn flaring as she pushed herself harder. She was getting closer, could feel the cool surface of her moon in the distance. She closed her eyes to block out the sweat, grunting from the exertion. Her horn started to flicker, and then sputtered out.

Luna opened her eyes, panting heavily as she looked to see what progress she’d made.

The moon had barely even crested the horizon, let alone risen.

“It’s going to take some time, sister,” Celestia said gently, stroking her back with a hoof. “Until then, I am happy to let you recover your strength.”

The elder alicorn closed her eyes, her horn serenely glowing with amber light, and the moon rose to its appointed place effortlessly.

Luna heaved a sigh larger than she was, and crawled up onto her bed with a scowl.

“‘Tis Our punishment, is it not? No more able to earn the love and respect of our people than We are deserving of it.”

“You are very deserving, Luna,” Celestia sighed, climbing up next to the diminutive filly. “You always have been, and you have always had it. From me, as well as our people. And you’ll have your power back soon enough. I spoke with Doctor Stable earlier, and he’s confident that you should be back to normal within a few moons. He estimates that with each lunar cycle, your magic will recover as though you’d aged a full year as a pony. Your body should recover at a similar rate, as well.”

“Ah, wonderful! A full year of ponies thinking We are ‘playing hookie’ from your school.” Luna snorted, snuggling up against her sister. “At least it won’t be a decade or more.”

“I’ve had the Captain inform his subordinates of the situation.” Celestia turned to groom Luna’s mane gently. “You’ve only just returned, Luna. Take some time to reacquaint yourself with Equestria. Much has changed, while you were gone.”

“Indeed. A new Princess, for example,” Luna grumbled. “One whose domain impinges upon mine own.”

“Cadance is the Princess of Love, Luna. You still have the night, and you have the realm of dreams - her love is for the waking world.”

“And what of the rest of Our domain, Sister?” Luna asked her, turning her head to nuzzle against Celestia’s powerful neck.

“The rest of… Luna, you’re distracting me.”

“The rest of Our domain, sister.” The filly smirked up at her older sibling. “We have the night, yes, but what of those who enjoy it? So often, they would save their love-making for Our hours….” She returned to her nibbling, stroking a wing along her sister’s side.

“That isn’t Cadance’s… Luna, please, stop that!” Celestia opened her own wing, pushing Luna away from her.

Luna rolled over, not offering any resistance to being tumbled hooves over barrel until she hit her pillows. She rolled herself back onto all fours, eyes wide as she stared at Celestia as though the larger mare had struck her.

“Sister?”

“I’m sorry, Luna,” Celestia sighed, shaking her head. “It’s just that… you’re *so* young right now! I’m not comfortable being… intimate… with a filly.”

Luna’s ears folded back, and she looked down at the mattress.

“We are not a filly though, Sister! This is Our body, not Our mind! That is no younger than the day We….” Luna swallowed hard. “No younger than the day We left.”

Celestia climbed off of Luna’s bed, turning to face her little sister… now so very little.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I know that you mean no harm, but right now, I can’t help but look at you and feel… like a mother, more than a sister. And certainly more than I can feel what we had.”

“I… We are the ones who should be sorry, Sister.” Luna sighed, hanging her head. “We have missed thee so, and in so many ways, it is easy to forget all that has… changed.”

“And I have missed you, sister.” Celestia stepped close again, leaning in to place a chaste, motherly kiss at the base of Luna’s horn. “Things can be back to normal… soon. In all ways, I hope.”

“As do We, Sister.” Luna tried to smile until Celestia had left her room. Once the elder alicorn had done so, she let herself cry for all that she’d lost.