Out in the sky, the sun shone a warm orange above the mountains, nearing sunset but not quite there yet, and long shadows filled the halls of the castle where the light passed in through the tall windows.

Celestia closed the doors to the throne room with a sigh, and nodded goodbye to the last few dignitaries who had just exited the hall alongside her as they walked away down the corridors. Nodding again to the guards outside the door, she began to walk away herself, her head held somewhat low and a tired aura to her stride. Still, as she rounded a corner and looked both ways to make sure no other ponies were near, a wide smile spread over her lips, and she had to stop herself from giggling out loud. She resumed her walk, a carefree bounciness to her steps, her mane vibrantly flowing behind her as she almost hummed a tune to herself.

Then, she took another turn. Drawing back, a little startled, and rushing to reconstructed her facade of a worn out and tired mare, she spoke, "Oh... Hello, Luna."

"Greetings, sister," the blue alicorn replied, seemingly just as startled by the other's presence as Celestia had been. "Are your duties over already?" she asked in attentive, moderately suspicious tones.

"Indeed they are," Celestia carefully replied. "It was quite the toll to finish everything in so little time, but I have been very tired as of late and I felt some extra sleep might be of help in that regard. I'm heading to bed now." She paused for a moment, assessing the reaction her words had caused, then asked, "What about you, Luna? Why up already?"

It was Luna's turn to draw back. "I..." she began, "I have chosen to rise a little earlier today, I felt well rested anyway. I was hoping the extra time might be useful to properly attend to my duties. It will certainly allow me to approach them in less of a rush than usual, nights are shorter this time of the year anyway."

"Are you trying to imply something?"

"Not at all, sister."

Silence reigned in the corridor for a brief few moments.

"Well, then I don't plan to keep you from your duties any longer," Celestia said, stepping to the side.

"And I from your sleep," Luna replied, walking past the white alicorn. "Goodnight, sister."

"Goodnight, Luna," Celestia said with a nod, watching as the smaller alicorn stepped past the corner and into the corridor she'd come from. Then, as the sound of her steps on the carpets dimmed, her previous smile and cheerful attitude returned to her face, and she happily walked all the way to her room with the same delighted mood radiating from her.

In the corridor, after rounding the corner, Luna kept walking forward, her ears alert to any sound coming from behind her. As she heard her sister's steps begin to move away, a smile coloured her face, and she began to merrily trot down the hallway, her mind wandering to her plans for the night.

Celestia admired her form in the mirror. A short, pink-maned pegasus stared back, her coat white-gray and her eyes deep blue. Twirling around, she made one last adjustment to the spell on her tail, where a bit of her translucent and multicoloured original still showed, and positioned her new cutie mark, an oil lamp, a little higher. Satisfied, she fastened the golden hoofband around her right leg, locking in her transformation for the night and sealing off her magic.

She moved on to donning her chosen outfit. Three more golden bands, one on each leg, to make sure the magical one didn't stand out. A golden wrap around her mane, holding it into a ponytail that curved over one of her shoulders, and a similar one around the base of her tail. A plain red dress, cut a little short behind, held by a golden belt in the middle of her body. Then came red lipstick, purple eyeshadow, a similarly toned dose of mascara, and a touch more make-up on the rest of her face. Blowing a kiss to the mirror, the alicorn turned pegasus giggled in her new, higher and lighter voice. She clipped a golden earring on to her right ear, then playfully pouted at herself.

Perfect, exactly the way she wanted to look. A young mare of average beauty, dolled up to look as pretty as she could, clearly wanting to catch as much attention as she could. Far more alluring than a beautiful mare that did nothing on top of what nature had given her, in her opinion. Not as much as one who nature had blessed yet still pushed herself, but then she didn't want ponies jumping on her left and right. She would certainly have taken herself in bed if she'd had a chance though, which was just what she hoped would happen at the party.

Now, officially, nothing of the sort happened at the traditional Midsummer Masked Ball, it was nothing more than a formal party between the members of Canterlot's elite. But everypony knew, more or less, that there was a reason nobles didn't bother their children with coming to that event. Even if most either used the rooms of the mansion or took their chosen partner home, there was always that one group of ponies left over in the main hall who chose to have fun together there, and one or two adventurous colts had sneaked into the gardens to spy from the windows at some point. So, officially, Princess Celestia couldn't be seen in a place like that.

No one would mind one Waving Light, distant nephew of the solar alicorn, showing up at the place though. Not when Celestia's other distant relative was also famously known to visit the place. Blueblood had already damaged her image, not too big a deal considering nopony in Canterlot blamed Celestia for how he'd turned out, a pegasus showing up out of nowhere wouldn't do any worse if it was believed she'd never even met the alicorn. With a smirk, she placed her golden mask on her face, securing it above her nose, and took to the sky from her room's window, after making sure no guard was staring in her direction.

Luna clicked her tongue, as the dark blue unicorn in the mirror stared back at her, no make-up on her features. A short but intricately combed mane of a deep, almost black purple colour was draped over one of her shoulders, while the top part was held together in a chignon by a silver stud with rubies on each end. Her eyes a shade of green, she stood taller than the average unicorn, though still not as tall as her normal self. She wore a plain but elegant black dress, covering only one of her shoulders, a somewhat long gown behind her. Beneath it, her cutie mark, a silver quill.

She had prepared a very detailed explanation for what that meant, and for any other aspect of her non-existent life she might have been asked about. A long list of falsified documents as well, tracing Stardust Clouds's lineage all throughout the history of Canterlot's nobility, detailing her occupation and residence, her studies, and anything anypony could ask for. Not that she expected to be asked about any of it, ponies there where much more interested in other topics, but she had fun building such a fictional character for her to play the role of. Like what fillies and colts did during Nightmare Night, only this time she didn't have to play the monster.

As she adjusted a pair of silver earrings on herself, she pondered why exactly she was doing all of that. Sure, pretending to be someone else was fun, but would she really have any interest in sex with any of the presents? Unlikely. Then again, not impossible. After all, she lost nothing by simply trying, and if things went poorly she could always leave. It did sting a little to think about how she was so selfishly ignoring her duties, but for one night alone it could be forgiven. The Levathian hadn't awakened from its slumber to tear down the walls separating the world of ponies from the void and invade Equestria through the dreams of her subjects yet, there was no reason why it might choose that particular night.

She chuckled, bringing a silver scarf to rest around her neck, then lifted her chosen mask for the occasion. Silver, like the rest of her accessories, a crescent moon as the right half of its shape. A choice that did give her second thoughts, admittedly, and that felt a little tacky as hers. Almost as if it could give her away. Exactly the reason why she had ultimately decided to pick that one, it only felt wrong to her because she knew, nopony would suspect a thing. And it was quite beautiful, in truth. Placing it over her eyes and locking it behind her head, she looked at herself in the mirror one last time, then teleported out of her room and into the castle's gardens, where she began to calmly walk towards the streets of Canterlot first, and then towards the mansion where the ball would be held.

Author's Note

Levathian is not a misspelling, it's an obscure TBoI reference.