A golden aura carefully placed a blanket over Luna's sleeping form and then disappeared as soon as its task was done. Nearby, Celestia sat beside the bed as she watched her sister slumber peacefully. A guard was also close by, the mare having just helped the princess haul Luna into her room.
Luna's room was befitting for the lunar princess. Various shades of blue covered the walls as night-themed ornaments decorated the place,. Her bed was shaped like a crescent moon while a dimly lit, overhung lantern burned a soft blue. It was obvious to anyone who gazed upon the room that it was designed with Luna's night sky in mind.
As her sister slept soundly, Celestia recalled the night's events. Fancy Pants had hosted another one of his parties by the palace courtyard that evening. Celestia and Luna were both invited, and although they initially refused and brought up their duties as an excuse, the two eventually relented when Fancy Pants insisted that the two should at least make an appearance.
The event was apparently special enough to warrant having wine offered to guests, and while alcohol was nothing new and exciting for most ponies, it was still quite uncommon to see the drink being served at events as pony biology did not exactly lend itself well to alcohol all that much. However, that did not deter Luna from having an excuse to finally indulge on the substance after having returned from her exile a few years ago, immediately pouring herself a glass when all the formalities were dealt with.
The party must have went on for hours as Celestia could feel the sun already starting to arrive over Equestria by the time she and a volunteering guard were carrying an inebriated Luna back into her quarters. Thankfully, she didn't manage to do anything bad in her groggy state.
The princess sighed as she lifted a hoof and planted it on Luna's mane, stroking it in a gentle rhythm. Drinking, despite popular imagination, was never really Luna's forte. She can still give the average stallion a run for his money - she was an alicorn, after all - but compared to her older sister, Luna stood no chance.
Naturally, Celestia banked on the opportunity to tease her little sister about it. "Lightweight Luna" Celestia called her. Luna hated it but knew that it was just some silly name that was to be expected from a sibling, especially one like Celestia.
Stars above, she missed it. Celestia missed being a sister. Even though it'd been years since she'd gotten her sister back, the feeling will never subside. A thousand years without each other was an ordeal that she never wanted for neither her nor Luna to experience ever again, and even though Celestia still held herself responsible for Luna's fall from grace, the sheer joy she got from the fact that she finally had her sister again drowned out all the guilt and regret that inevitably came up whenever the thought of her sister's banishment arose in her mind. Celestia smiled at this, taking in the atmosphere as she continued caressing her little sister.
Moments passsed by and silence filled the room until the guard that was still standing by absentmindedly shuffled in place, quietly awaiting further instructions from Celestia so as to not disturb the princesses. The small but sudden intrusion of noise alerted the princess to the presence of the still-waiting guard, yet she did not turn her head away from Luna to acknowledge it. Instead, she spoke:
"Me and my sister used to play a lot when we were very little. Instead of learning how to be princesses, we pretended to be farmers, warriors, and powerful wizards and witches. We'd take turns on who should be the kind and brave wizard and who should be the evil witch. More often than not, I ended up being the evil witch mostly because I kept letting Luna be the wizard. She loved it."
Seemingly unprompted, the sudden anecdote from Celestia caught the guard by surprise. Not knowing what to do, the mare just continued to silently stand in place, and so Celestia continued, intent on talking with the guardsmare and finally opening up to at least one pony other than Luna and Twilight about her thoughts.
"Whenever Starswirl was away doing whatever that old wizard did while he was gone and when no one else was around to take care of us, I took up the responsibility of looking after me and my sister. I fed her, I bathed her, I tucked her into bed-" Celestia briefly nuzzled Luna "-and put her to sleep. I took care of her problems, acted as her big sister, and protected her from whatever harm came her way. I loved her as a sister. If only..."
Glancing at the foot of her sister's bed, Celestia briefly hesitated if she should continue. Eventually, she looked back up and pressed on.
"If only she knew how much her sister and our little ponies truly cared about her and her night sky, then Equestria wouldn't have been deprived of one of its most beloved princesses, and I wouldn't have lost the only family I had that can love and comfort me through the thousand years that came right after."
Pausing for a moment, Celestia considered if she was severely drunk herself. She had been drinking a few glasses of wine along with Luna back at the party. No way had she just spilled some of her most personal thoughts and feelings to a random guard just doing her job who was likely very uncomfortable right then about her princess very suddenly intimately fraternizing with her. Nevertheless, Celestia continued. She was already too far gone to back out of it.
"How about you? Do you have a sister? If you don't mind me asking, of course."
Having suddenly been asked by the princess a question about her personal life, the mare silently stammered before giving a reply. "Ma'am? W-well, I do have a sister of my own, your highness."
"Oh? What's her name?"
Relaxing a little bit, the guard replied, "Her name is Tulips, your highness."
"Tulips." Slowly nodding at the name, Celestia asked, "And what is your name? Oh, and 'Princess Celestia' will do. I'd imagine 'your highness' is a bit of a mouthful."
At this, the guard relaxed herself a bit more and answered, "Marigold, your- Princess Celestia."
Celestia gave Marigold a warm smile. "Nice to meet you, Marigold."
The princess stopped for a moment to look at a nearby window, thinking to herself as the first light of dawn slipped through the curtains. Shortly after, she turned back to Marigold.
"Tell me, do you love your sister?"
Taken aback by the princess for a third time, Marigold processed the question for a bit. As she did so, a breeze flew in from an open window prompting her to close it with her magic. The mare then said, "I do. She's just started studying here in Canterlot to be a royal guard just like me. I can tell she looks up to me by the way she always regards me as some sort of hero that slays dragons or whatever." The guardsmare mentally chided herself for letting her casual side slip too far out in front of the princess but continued nonetheless. "I guess she remembers the times when we were little fillies. We were inseparable - not unlike you and your sister, your highness. We bonded non-stop playing knight and princess and slaying dragons together. In our imagination, we were partners in crime saving Equestria from doom."
Marigold blushed. This time, it was the guardsmare's turn to question her own sobriety. Had she really just rambled on about her childhood in front of the princess?
However, to Marigold's surprise, Celestia softly giggled like a filly.
"You two sounded adorable!"
The guardsmare blushed harder and flashed an embarassed smile. "Yeah... I guess we were."
Seconds passed and when the noise died down, Marigold felt it was only right to continue spilling her guts to the princess. After all, she was already too far gone to back out of it herself, and the princess turned out to be much kinder and more receptive than what the public already portrayed her as.
The mare opened her mouth. "Princess, if I may?" Celestia nodded.
Clearing her throat, Marigold said, "Despite studying to join the guard, Tulips is actually more interested at gardening and making medicine out of flowers and herbs than doing any soldiering. I'm afraid she's just joining the guard because she feels she has to follow in her sister's hooves rather than make her own path. I tried convincing her to at least join the medical corps as a start. Y'know, maybe join the staff at the infirmary or go help in our biannual health drives across Equestria - anything other than the regular guard. But she's adamant that what she's doing will make her happy."
The mare looked down then looked back up. "I feel like Tulips is just doing what she's doing just to make me proud when I don't need her to make me proud. I need her to be happy."
By this point, Marigold was having a heart-to-heart with Celestia. After months of being too busy to talk with her friends and family about her problems, fate had decided that Princess Celestia of Equestria herself would be the one to lend an ear to her worries.
Marigold sighed. "Yet she insists on joining the guard. And when she finally gets what she thinks she wants and then finds out that it isn't what it's all cracked up to be, I fear her view of me as a sister would be put in jeopardy and our relationship heavily affected."
When the mare finished, the princess had a sober look. Celestia turned to Luna, still deep in sleep beneath the sheets, and thought to herself for a while.
A while had passed and when Celestia didn't move, Marigold felt that she'd revealed too much to the princess.
Worried, the mare spoke up.
"Your highness?"
Silence.
"Celestia?"
A moment. And then finally, the princess turned her head towards the mare calling out to her.
Celestia sighed - the ghost of a smile on her face. "You're lucky, Marigold. Before I lost Luna, I barely even knew if I should have been worried or not. I was oblivious to the torment my sister was going through. And, well... the rest is history."
Celestia’s warm smile began to return.
"However, unlike me, you still have a chance to prevent a falling out between you and Tulips. It is good that you are worried. It means you care for your sister. You care for her, and knowing that she might be getting herself hurt is the first step towards getting you two back on the right path. The next step is to confront her about it. It might not be easy, but you'll just have to keep trying. Hopefully, with enough patience, she'll understand. And if what I've heard about you two being inseparable was true, then the odds might just be in your favor."
The mare stared at the princess and couldn't disagree.
"I- you're right. I'm her sister. I have to keep talking to her. Even if she doesn't see her growing problem for what it is, I'll just have to keep trying. She'll come around eventually." Marigold smiled. "Y'know, I haven't been able to talk to anyone about my problems for a while. Usually, I'm too busy doing my rounds to find time for my family. I guess that's another reason why my sister's been straying away from the path for a while. I haven't been able to be there for her to set her straight and help her when she needs it. Thankfully, I have at least one pair of ears to listen to me and set me straight."
When Marigold finished, Celestia hummed."You know what? I'll allow some leeway in your schedule and a few more vacation days for you. In fact, I'll see if I can change most of the guard's schedule to give you ponies a much needed break."
Marigold's mouth was agape. "Y-your highness? I-I can find time on my own. You don't have to do all that!"
Celestia raised a hoof to her mouth and chuckled then replied, "Nonsense. You need to be with your family. If not for you, then for your sister. Besides, it's not like I need that many guards with me to get a sandwich."
The mare ignored the obvious joke and stared at the princess for a second time, touched by Celestia’s words.
"I don't know what to say. Thank you. For this. For listening to me... For even talking to me at all! You could have just dismissed me and I would have been on my way. Except you didn't and decided to talk with me instead."
Celestia gave Marigold another warm smile."You have Lightweight Luna to thank for that." She turned to Luna. "She reminded me of simpler times that I just felt like I needed to share with someone." The princess then looked back at Marigold. "And that someone turned out to be you."
Marigold smiled back. "Y'know, Celestia? We're not so different, you and I. We both have sisters and the problems that come with those sisters. And hearing the kinds of problems those were, it's a miracle that we haven't gone utterly crazy yet."
"Except we both know we love them too much to do that," Celestia said. "Besides, who says we haven't gone utterly crazy already?"
The two laughed at the joke until the laughter eventually died down and Marigold said, "Well, I'm glad we had this conversation, Celestia."
"I'm glad we did too," Celestia said. "You may go now, Marigold. I'm sure your family needs you more than I do."
"Right." The mare bowed. "Have a good day, Princess Celestia." Marigold then took her leave.
After the guardsmare left, Celestia was left alone in the room with her sleeping sister who's managed to stay asleep throughout the entire thing. Which reminded her...
The princess cracked a devious smile.
Celestia looked forward to teasing Luna about her low alcohol tolerance first thing in the afternoon.
Author's Note
Celestia and Luna, my hands still hurt as I type this. I wrote nearly a third of this entire story on my phone during the final stretch of the writing and I kind of regret it a little bit. Also, no Narcotics tag since there was no detailed recounting of Luna drinking problematic amounts of wine for the story to warrant the tag. I think. I'm not so sure. Please bonk me on the head and tell me I'm wrong if otherwise.
Also, also! Fun fact: the idea for this story popped into my mind yesterday after waaaaay past midnight. I was still awake at that time even though I had school in literally four hours. Then suddenly, my mind just went: "Hey, hey. Have you perhaps considered: Lightweight Luna". And I just went nuts from there.
Anyway, this is my first time writing a (serious) slice of life fic (About the royal sisters, no less. Though I'd say that's a stretch since Luna was asleep for, like, the entire story.) so throw me a comment down below or a message in my PMs if there are any errors you'd like to point out. Or you know, if you just wanna say something. I'm cool with it. I'll be combing this story with a fine-toothed editing comb when I get my hands on my laptop first thing on the morning anyway, but I just know that I'll be missing a spot or two somewhere.
Well, see you in another hundred years when I write yet another one-shot.
