Meanwhile, in Celestia's chambers...
A Finer Vintage
By Sunchaser
One bottle was not going to be enough.
This was the thought that weighed heaviest upon Princess Celestia, as she poured herself a third glass of 948 Merlot. It had turned out to be a fantastic year, but then she may or may not have known anything about it...and she may or may not have toyed with Equestrian weather patterns and daylight cycles solely for the sake of stocking her cellar with twenty cases of her favorite red.
"But no one ever has to know." she whispered to herself in soft response to the brief wave of nostalgia, as she swirled the fine crimson vintage before her critical eye; once satisfied, she raised her glass in toast to the moon.
It really was a lovely moon, after all, this night in particular. Luna had outdone herself for the sake of Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding, which had been a beautiful, heartwarming event, and a resounding, wonderful success, and she was so glad that it had gone off entirely without a single hitch.
...No, Celestia had not had nearly enough wine to be able to believe that idea. Thus was she all the more resolved.
One bottle was not going to be enough.
And then her train of thought jumped the rails as she suddenly shuddered, once more feeling the slime, and the clinging, and the wrong of the changeling cocoon she’d awoken in...it was so fresh in her mind again. So very fresh, in fact, that she briefly considered pausing her chosen course - that of stuffing her frustration into bottles as fast as she could empty them - in favor of running herself a bath so loaded with the harshest soaps and cleansers that it would threaten to eat away at her pristine white fur.
But no, no, that wouldn't do any good in the end.
She'd already tried that, after all. In just the past hour.
Twice.
Which reminded her, of course! That was why she'd decided to break into the emergency Merlot in the first place, and one bottle was not going to be enough.
And so, chosen course in hoof, Her Serene Majesty Princess Celestia, Solar Regent of the Principality of Equestria, Eternal of the Sun, Herald of the Radiant Dawn, and the Shining Light of Ages, gathered her supreme power to her, unleashing the terrible, beautiful weave of delicate alicorn magic...
To teleport directly to her personal wine cellar.
That same alicorn magic then manifested in telekinesis, taking hold of the nearest two bottles of 948 Merlot she found, and oh yes, it was absolutely supreme in its hold over the fifty-four-year-old dusty glass.
Further memories of earlier in the day arose in her mind unbidden; the sudden revelation of Changeling Queen Chrysalis appearing out of previously-thought-Cadence's form on the wedding altar not five feet away, and confidently making her bold declaration of imminent victory...and then the contest of raw power between them.
The contest that Celestia had very quickly lost.
Her eyes just then decided to advise her that, conveniently, her teleportation had brought her recently filled wine glass with her, and it was summarily raised to her desperate lips and brought to bear its...soft, light-bodied fruit flavor, which disappointingly did not intensify all that much by the time she had drained the glass in a single tipping.
Celestia found herself wishing she'd split her 948 acquisition into some Cabernet Sauvignon.
But she hadn't, she begrudgingly reminded herself. She very rarely liked the harsher, bitter flavor of the Sauvignon, and so it had never occurred to her she might have wanted a bottle or six at hoof, if only as weapons more ideally suited to the obliteration of undesired thoughts.
But no, she only had her usual softer Merlot. Well, unless she wanted put on one of her disguises and find a Canterlot wine shop...that would be open during the Royal Wedding reception...
Well, okay, she could still raid the royal kitchen cooking stock--
No, no, she thought, shaking her head clear. Have I become so desperate?
And besides, she'd never get such pilfering past Head Chef Ram Sea, and the last thing she wanted was to risk his barring her from the kitchens - more importantly, from her late-night cake runs.
She was going to have to suffice on the lighter red, and that meant only one thing.
Celestia added a third bottle of 948 Merlot to her initial haul, gathered her magic about her, and utilized the majestic and world-shaping powers of the Eternal Sun...to get back to her bedroom without having to explain why she had three bottles of wine.
~~~~~
"Dear sister...why dost thee have about thyself three bottles of vintage?"
Horseapples.
Of course. Of course Luna would have come looking for her, just when she was sneaking off to her secret stash of premium booze, only to be waiting to catch her red-hoofed upon her return. It was just that sort of day, wasn't it?
Celestia suppressed a foalish whine, narrowly...and had to expend far more effort than she would have liked--
"Oh, We have been remiss. Thou dost have in thy presence three and a half bottles of vintage, and indeed it seems likely the missing half of the presumable first bottle has much to do with the arrival of its enlivening comrades?"
Celestia did not suppress a foalish whine, and in fact this time didn't even try. She just couldn't be bothered anymore.
"Lulu, please, please, stop with the disapproving-nanny middle equestrian? I'm not even tipsy, and it's already making my head hurt."
The Sun Princess set down her three new friends next to her longer-standing acquaintance, located her errant empty glass, and proceeded to fill it a fourth time. For her part, the Moon Princess merely looked over at her, puzzled.
Celestia hadn't whined like that in...well, it may have happened during her thousand-year absence, but somehow she doubted it.
"You leave the royal wedding reception early, with scarcely a word, and now I find you holed up in your bedroom with a hospital visit worth of fifty-year-old wine? What's bothering you, Tia?"
Celestia sighed, deeply, somehow failing even to summon the strength to inundate herself further in her truest friend this night, the always loyal Merlot. Instead, she set the refilled wine glass gently down nearby, if only to avoid the horror of dumping a fifth of a bottle of red wine onto the sixth century hoof-spun rug that occupied most of her open bedroom floor, and then unceremoniously slumped to said floor.
The carpet was so comfortable, she noticed. Why didn't she have naps on the rug more often? Maybe over near the fire place, where she always read Twilight's letters. That just sounded nice, didn't it?
And then Luna coughed quietly, in that unmistakable expression of court language that carried the clear meaning of I'm still here, waiting for you to answer me, and Celestia sighed again. She'd done that a lot tonight, alongside feeling sorry for herself, and acting childish and petulant. Granted, all of this had only commenced after she had gracefully exited the wedding reception.
"...Tia?"
Suddenly annoyed, Celestia brought her head up and glared at her sister. "Well what do you think is bothering me? Today went to Tartarus in a trolley car, Luna!"
The Moon Princess blinked, her expression confused...
"...And you don't know, because you weren't here."
Celestia slumped over and recommenced moping, while Luna arched an intrigued brow.
"No, I was in the Everfree laying out my welcome mat for the lovely Changeling Queen's meteoric arrival, and then we had a lovely, if one-sided chat, after which I introduced her to the wonders of Lunar Leisure Living, as we had agreed?"
Celestia forced herself to take a few deep, calming breaths. Luna was right, of course. She'd been off seeing to her part of the plan, while Celestia had stayed to play the ailing damsel, so that in the end the nation could see, just a little, that it could manage without the Eternal Princesses holding its hoof all the time.
The problem was that everything had not gone according to plan on Celestia's end. What was bothering her was--
"What's bothering me, Luna, is that things very nearly did not go as planned here in Canterlot. That neither of us realized that Chrysalis had managed to supplant Mi Amore Cadenza, of all ponies? And myself especially, spending the time with her recently that I did setting up the wedding? I only even began to suspect once Twilight was already convinced enough to charge in levelling accusations, and because of that, I had to callously scold my student - for being even smarter than I had previously thought her. She ended up bearing the weight of my inattentiveness."
Her strength was returning, the weight of the day lifting from her shoulders, a little, with the telling of her troubles, and so Celestia once more called ancient magics to her, and brought her nearby wine to her lips for a rejuvenative, emboldening sip.
...Or three.
"Oh, and wait, because it gets better! Not only do I so badly underestimate my adversary that she takes a place at my side without my knowing, and then crush the spirit of my devoted protégé for uncovering that? Best of all, when that same student of mine single-hoofedly rescues Cadence from the sealed caverns, and comes charging into the wedding horn blazing, and unveils the Changeling Queen's plot? Now, now listen, Luna, because this is the very best part."
Celestia sipped her wine again. Or she would have...except her glass was empty? When had that happened? Well, no matter, she was telling a story.
"Now after the noble student endures her supposedly wise teacher's harsh condemnation and saves the day anyway? When I'm supposed to see the truth unveiled, and step forward and peerlessly overcome the villain? I screw it up! I drop some big talk about how 'Oh no Chrissy, I'm gonna STOP you, you just watch me', and then I put on a scary face, and then, then Luna? Then I screw it up!"
She brings her wine glass up again, having for the moment forgotten that it was empty...which it isn't anymore? When had that happened? Well, no matter. This was the good part.
"Now where...oh, right. So I boldly declare, right, that I, Celestia, Princess of the Eternal Sun!...shall draw a line against the darkness...and then I fly up, you know, all majestic, and then I bring the sunlight down on clever Miss Cheesehooves, I tell you what.”
Celestia brought an unshod alabaster hoof down with a whump, bouncing her resting wine glass into a precarious tip over the antique carpet, only for her to magically pluck it from spilling at the last moment, draining the contents in a pointedly unladylike gulp.
“...And let me tell you she didn't see that coming! Or, well, you know, maybe she did, because she shot right back at me with her moldy cheese...beam thingy, and you know, I was winning? And she was all totally panicking, Luna, she was, and I thought to myself 'yes sirree Celestia, you've got this, you did good'. Except, Luna? Except she pushed back stronger! She pushed back too strong! And she beat me! Clever little Miss Cheesehooves and her moldy cheese magic and...and her cliché villainous laugh, beat me!"
There was a loud pop! as a bottle was uncorked, and Luna topped off her sister's flagging wine glass. Now that was just nice of her. Such a good sister, Luna, such a good listener. Celestia had never been as good a listener, always too busy, always attending some high court function or party with the nobility, until something got her attention like the moon not setting--but no, no, that was before, they had talked about that, right? That was better now. Well, mostly.
"You do remember that was the plan, Tia? That you would be defeated, if narrowly, so that our often frantic population would find that it could manage without us hovering nearby all the time?"
She was solidly teary-eyed, and had been sniffling for the past few minutes, but thankfully the Sun Princess seemed to be holding stable, if only a hair short of descent into being a bawling wreck.
"...I know, I know, Lulu. I know. But you don't understand. I was supposed to lose, Lulu, but she wasn't supposed to win!"
Suddenly, the Night Princess understood why her sister had four bottles of wine.
"You mean to tell me that Chrysalis...actually bested you? Really, truly, defeated you?"
Celestia's head fell, and her expression with it, though she suddenly seemed surprisingly lucid.
"I held back my full power, of course. You know we wouldn't be having this conversation in my bedroom if I had truly committed to battle with her."
'Because my bedroom wouldn't be here anymore, along with most of Canterlot', she left unsaid.
She raised her head again, and Luna was admittedly reassured to see the more commonly recognizable, well-composed version of her sister.
"It's not really about the power contest, of her managing to defeat me rather than me shrewdly letting her win and think she'd earned it; that's only a matter of pride, which I can put aside easily enough. No, Luna, the part that burns me is the other bit - that she managed to insert herself into my court so easily...and so close to me. I should have seen it, and I plainly didn't. Part of it is that I ended up having to hurt Twilight because of that, and further that Cadence was left to suffer so long as she was.”
Her eyes contemplative with a tinge of worry, Celestia turned her head and stared out beyond her balcony.
“The worst of it, though? In that way, Luna, Chrysalis did defeat me, and decisively. If not for Twilight's beyond exemplary persistence, and the true strength of Shining Armor and Cadence both...the plan we had thought so well considered could very easily have gone awry. And this evening in Canterlot...could have been very, very different. And so, so much darker."
Luna traced her sister's gaze out past her bedroom balcony, into the starry, full-mooned night sky beyond, and a mildly unwelcome insight made itself known in her mind.
Her sister had been here once before.
"...Tia? ...Celestia, look at me."
Shaken from her momentary reverie, the troubled elder sister quietly obeyed, matching her rose eyes to the aqua across from her, finding Luna's eyes so very different than she'd seen recently, so full of...was it concern? Why, her sister hadn't looked at her like that since before...
"Celestia, come tomorrow's morning hour, the moon will set, and the sun will rise, over a bright new dawn as it ever should."
The Sun Princess' eyes went wide, and she immediately made to launch into a response - about how she would never think such a thing, that was all so long ago, they were past this--
But she never got a word out, as Luna's waiting hoof was already softly placed over her lips.
"Now, you let me finish before you jump to panic, alright?"
She nodded, and Luna removed the shushing hoof with an amused smile. Who was the big sister here, again?
"I didn't quite understand, Celestia, until just now...when I realized that you've been here before. I, well, might know something about it? And as you were likely about to very loudly protest, we've moved past such things. But I understand. The last time...well, first time you were caught unaware like this was with me and my...minor dalliance with madness? It went badly in the end, I don't recommend you partake."
This casually making light of her fall to Nightmare...well, Luna hadn't really thought it would come as easily as it did. But it had drawn a laugh, though quiet, from her older sister, one that Celestia looked to have not expected, but one that left more of a smile than had preceded it.
"The point I want to make, Celestia, is this. That first time it happened, you were hurt. Not only physically, but worse, your heart was wounded. By me, and what I did, yes, but also by your own self-recriminations. Oh, don't give me that look, I had ten centuries to think about it. While you had to bear the sun and moon both, and shepherd and protect Equestria...alone. That put a great weight on your shoulders, Celestia, one that you've been committed to bearing for so long that you perhaps, at times, forget how much it can strain you."
With an impressed hmph, Celestia smiled at her sister in a small bit of wonder.
"Well, aren't you just full of insights tonight?"
Luna chuckled, shaking her head.
"Oh, don't worry, it won't last. I'm rapidly exhausting the stock I prepared over centuries of introspective thought. Now...right. You've been, well, shaken, Celestia, by your...let's call it misjudgement, of Chrysalis over the recent crisis. Suddenly that weight is bearing down on you, and you're worried about your beloved ponies, the good of the nation...you know, all those crown concerns you carry single-hoofed? That's right, you should look humbled. Because you seem to have somehow forgotten, Celestia, that you have a sister to help you carry these weights? And to rely on for support in those times where, solar heavens forfend, you should stumble for a single moment in over a thousand years. Because I had my fling with crazy, and I got over it, and I'm not going anywhere."
Celestia didn't really have anything to say to that, which was perfectly fine, because to her it seemed pretty well said already. And then Luna stood up before her, and leaned in to give her sister a comforting, lingering nuzzle.
"And that is why, Tia, I am not letting you polish off four bottles of Merlot alone in your bedroom." she finished, as she broke the soothing contact with her sister, and stepped over to the nearby cabinets.
...Oh, right. This beautiful, touching sisterly heart-to-heart had been sparked by her being caught red-hoofed in the process of getting wasted.
"...Luna, I appreciate your concern - truly, these past few minutes...well, you've been entirely right, to your great credit. But there are still times when a princess just wants to let her mane down and get right tossed."
And then Luna turned around, and her face was consumed by the largest devilish grin.
"Oh, I know. And that's why, Tia, we are going to polish off four bottles of Merlot together in your bedroom!"
She'd already acquired her own wine glass from the...from the supposedly secret and hidden liquor cabinet in Celestia's bedroom. So much for that idea. But, well...it was her sister. She'd just have shown her anyway, after all.
Another cork was popped! as Luna opened her own bottle, topping her glass and giving the sweet red an appreciative measured inhalation as she swirled it about...before draining near half of that glass in her first tip.
"...What? You're already a bottle ahead, remember. I rightly intend to catch up forthwith."
And she made good on that intent, too. Celestia watched, with alternating reactions of awe and terror, as her little sister polished off her entire first bottle of wine in...what, fifteen minutes? Heavens, she was going to regret that in a few hours, vision blurred, legs shaky, and the bathroom not where she expected.
And it had also given her the hiccups.
She was already tipsy, her cheeks glowing a touch, but mostly it was the slight lean to the left that gave it away. Or was that her listing to the right, Celestia absently wondered, until her sister hiccupped again, sparking a fit of giggles that soon spread to her, only making her adorable predicament all the worse. And then she would pout, and blush, and annoyedly demand that Celestia stop laughing at her suffering with all the force of an embarrassed schoolfilly, which would only, of course, make the whole thing twice as hilarious.
And it was absolutely wonderful. She couldn't exactly put hoof down on why - their heart to heart chat? Her already having been half a bottle in at the time? It just having been so long since she and her sister had snuck away for some private time to let their hair down, laugh, and gossip like everyday mares?
This was the thing that she had missed most in those long centuries. These simple, everyday moments that filled the time between crises and miracles, when she could take off the perfect royal mask and just knock back a bottle of wine and chat about trivial nonsense. She had wept for her sister's fall, and for her own mistakes that had inspired it, and for the loneliness and the heavy price paid...but most of all, she had wept because she always, always, at least once a day, had gotten to her hooves and started making for the north wing to talk about some little thing with her sister...
Only to remember that she wasn't there.
Celestia shook her head a few times, surprised to find that she was nearly crying again, and now Luna was giggling at her in between hiccups, and oh buck it all.
Luna's giggling quieted down, though the hiccups remained, after Celestia had thrown herself at the Night Princess, wrapping her hooves around her and bawling like a filly with a scraped knee, soaking her star-streaked mane with heavy tears and babbling something between a running apology and plea for her to never leave her in between choking sobs.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry Lulu, I didn't want to send you away, please don't ever go away again Lulu, I'm so sorry, please don't leave me..."
~~~~~
The sober part of her mind that Luna kept tucked away at times like these insightfully wondered how many centuries these tears had been waiting. The rest of her decided to just let Celestia cry, because well, ponyfeathers and stardust! When else, and with who else, could her sister shed this grief? So she quietly hushed her, and whispered her heartfelt it'll be alrights, and ran comforting hooves through her tussled rosy mane. She'd always liked her sister's natural color. The pastel dawn sky rainbow was beautiful unto itself, of course, but there was just something about it...with her rosy mane, and the golden royal vestments put aside, Celestia was - if it could be believed - so much more warm and welcoming.
It wasn't all that different with her, after all. The wavy vista of distant shining stars that comprised the mane of the Eternal of the Moon evoked quiet power, with a touch of aloofness, and lent her an aura of mystery...while her normal flat blue mane, just fallen loosely about her head was, well...more genuine, and unassuming, and allowed a rather warmer appearance than a hairstyle that some ponies were afraid they could literally fall into and be forever lost in.
Now there was an idea. The royal court would insist that she appear in full splendor as a matter of protocol, but outside of that? Maybe she'd just tie her hair back and leave the crown at home...
And now that Celestia's perhaps partially wine-enabled cry was tailing off, Luna changed from whispered reassurances to something a little more cerebral.
"Hush now, Tia," she began, as another bout of sobbing threatened to claim the moment. "We've put all that away, remember? We've both said our numerous apologies, and we've cried our tears. Well, alright, you've nabbed the ribbon on that count. We both did things we regretted, and that perhaps seemed like good ideas at the time but were actually very silly, and we've learned from that, haven't we? It's okay to let it go, sister. I've forgiven you, you know that, so perhaps...it's been long enough that you could yourself?"
Her older sister, who looked so very young and uncertain just then as she raised her eyes, slowly shook her head.
"Y-you...you've let it go, Luna. If I had any thoughts otherwise, they were swept away earlier. But I...I haven't quite, just yet. I just...I still feel like I, I don't know, owe you something? I feel like there's just something I have to do. Is there anything I can do, Lulu? Anything?"
It was silly, and a little foalish, and so very, very Celestia to still feel beholden to the one last repentance. She was wrong, of course; she'd already gone so far beyond anything Luna had dreamed of, let alone expected...and so the solution was entirely obvious.
'Is there anything I can do', Celestia had asked. Well, now; anything? That was just begging to be pranked, wasn't it? It would lighten the mood right up, and then they could finish that last half of the fourth bottle, and wake up tomorrow morning with splitting headaches and carpet impressions in their cheeks as was proper.
Now, Luna thought, this really isn't all that different from...what was it Miss Sparkle called it? A 'slumber party'. Now what was that game she'd said had gotten them in the most trouble...ah, yes, truth or dare! Luna chuckled to herself as her sister looked up at her with pleading, honest, obedient eyes. Why, if she really wanted to, she could probably get away with asking to keep the moon out an extra ten minutes...but no, no, she had a better idea. Because Twilight had told her that truth or dare - specifically the dare part, because this evening had already seen more than its quota of truth - had one dare that was common most of all...especially when Rainbow Dash was playing, interestingly enough.
This was sure to shock her dear sister more than asking to keep the moon up ever could.
"Anything, Celestia? Anything at all?"
She even threw on her clearest mischievous smile, freely giving her sister fair warning.
"...Anything," Celestia said, resolved, after a deep breath, and she rose to a sitting pose, perhaps preparing herself. "Anything at all, Luna."
What was she expecting, the younger sister wondered? Well, it certainly wasn't this!
"Well, then. I want you to kiss me."
It hung in the air for a long moment, and Luna arched a brow and grinned devilishly, giggling through her teeth as her sister sat wide-eyed, her jaw on the floor.
"You did say anything, Tia..."
"...I...I did, didn't I."
Luna nodded and raised her muzzle smugly, revelling in what was sure to be brought up for years as the prank to beat--
Oh dear.
Yes, she'd been revelling...with her eyes closed. And her muzzle had been 'smugly' raised...toward her taller sister.
Well, you know, the sober part of her mind noted, that does offer a bit of explanation as to why Celestia is kissing me right now. And huh, turns out it's nothing like I'd thought it would be? Well, first of all, I didn't think I'd like it this much.
Wait, what?
Luna's mind turned the sensory feed back on, and yes, there were indeed warm, soft, sweet lips so very lightly touched to her own, and they had been placed there so delicately, as though afraid they would break. And the Night Princess realized that her eyes were still closed, and wait, was she leaning into the kiss?
She mentally stepped to the side of herself for long enough to give herself a good kick, and then her eyes flew open again, and she...well, alright, she really didn't all that hastily pull away from kissing Celestia, but away she pulled nonetheless - and as that warm, soft sweetness faded, her ability to think started back up again.
The first thing Luna realized was that her blue mane was, rather to her appreciation, every bit as frazzled as she currently felt.
The second thing Luna realized was that she was only still upright because her sister was holding her so, and that annoyingly insightful sober part of her mind decided now was a great time to mention that the unexpected touch of Celestia's lips had melted her very quickly indeed, almost sending her tumbling to the floor.
And the third, and final thing that Luna realized, was that Celestia was now staring back at her...and smiling?
"I hadn't expected something like that, Lulu, but I did say anything. So...well, any thoughts?"
Luna blinked a few times.
This was entirely backwards. Celestia was supposed to be frazzled and shocked speechless, and she was supposed to be glumly dangling the prankster's crown just out of hoof's reach, and it was completely backwards!
"...Er. Um. That is, well. I have thoughts, really, they're just being difficult."
Celestia giggled, and it struck Luna that it was such a musical sound, one that she wasn't sure she'd even ever heard before.
"Yes, I've heard that kisses can do that to a pony."
Giving it another good kick, Luna finally brought order to her mind again, choosing to begin her recovery with a slow, deep breath.
"...Right, you may not have expected something like that, Tia? Well I didn't think you'd actually go and do it!"
Celestia tilted her head to the side, puzzled. "You didn't?"
"Not in the slightest! Here I was, thinking I'd claimed the iron-clad upper hoof in our prankster rivalry, and you go and turn my clever plan - and me, to boot - over onto our dazed heads. Silly of me, I suppose, to think the wine would actually dull your...insight...Tia?"
Luna was confused, again, as now her sister's ears were flopped over and she was tearing up...oh dear.
'Oh dear' is right, sugar, the sober part of Luna's mind decided to comment just so helpfully.
"Oh, my. Celestia...you were...rather...well you meant it, didn't you?"
The Sun Princess sniffled, laughing weakly, her voice quiet and flat.
"It's silly. You were right, though, I have been letting the wine get to me tonight. It's been...liberating? Is that the word I want? And you were spot on, Lulu. Regular me would never have actually done it. But two bottles of wine, a little more than half-in-the-bag Celestia? Well when she says anything, and her sister says kiss me, well she goes and does it."
She laughed again, darkly this time, tears again flowing from her rose eyes, falling ignored into her similarly rosy tail, which she'd now wrapped around herself defensively.
"And couldn't you just imagine her surprise, when that kiss makes her heart flutter? And suddenly she remembers all the ways a heart can do that; the giddy excitement, the terrified mixture of hope and worry, that soothing warmth from somewhere within, the things that she'd forgotten were even possible? And like an addled schoolfilly with her first crush, she grabs desperate hold of those feelings for dear life, now that she knows how long it's been."
Well, Twilight Sparkle's retelling of slumber party games had never mentioned a potentially helpful disclaimer? Something like 'warning: usage of common dares such as kisses with immortal alicorn princesses may lead to unexpected breaking of centuries-old emotional walls'. Well, it was a little late now.
"How...long has it been, Celestia?"
The elder sister looked up, her eyes reddened and face marred with streaks of gray over her white coat, her expression strained...and most of all, tired.
"Since I've been kissed? Oh...four hundred and thirty years or so. But since my heart fluttered, Luna? Well...longer than that."
Luna knew the face that she saw upon her sister's features just now. The face of pain, and of hurt, and for all the polite respect and public adulation...of too long without love. A face that showed the weight of the years coming to bear...the face Luna had seen in her own bedroom mirror, one evening a thousand years past.
"Oh, Celestia. Tell me, please, tell me that someone has stirred your heart in the time I was away?"
But she said nothing, as Luna had known she would not, but had so, so desperately hoped against.
"It's my own fault. Kissing you at all, well...part of me does know better. And just aside that...we're sisters, after all. A moment of weakness, perhaps, and I went and tempted myself with an impossimph--"
And Celestia was unexpectedly cut off there, because Luna was kissing her, and, well.
We'll just let them have the moment, shall we?
It was a long kiss.
Initially, it had been planned as such because, while Luna had indeed noted that she had by no means disliked the first time around, she was considering a far more serious question this second time, and so needed more...field data. Yes, field data, on...alicorn romance potential. Yes, that was the phrase, she supposed. The sober part of her mind considered the words the rest of it had come up with, and just shook its head. Field data on alicorn romance potential? If anything it sounded like the title of a bad romance novel.
But that scathing critique went unheeded, because Luna was occupied just now with the sensation of Celestia’s sweet lips against her own, with just the slightest salty hint of tears, and that lent her eventual decision all the more strength.
Some of which she borrowed just to manage to tear herself out of the embrace, to start with.
"...Oh, wow. You may have gone four hundred years, but I went a thousand, and Celestia? I had rather forgotten just how satisfying a good kiss is, let me tell you."
Luna opened her eyes again, and a different sister was looking back at her. Gone was the strain, the tiredness, the weight of years in pain, and the mild blush of two bottles of wine. Celestia had, not unexpectedly, dipped into her magic to push aside her tipsiness, and was now her full usual self again.
"Luna...well, first, I'm sorry, because I should have known better than to let this happen. And second, since it has, well...we can't, Luna. You know that. We're sisters, we're the regents of Equestria, we're--"
"Lonely, Celestia, and don't try to tell me otherwise. Because while you may have it settled neatly into place again now? I saw your face without that mask you so rely on."
The Sun Princess sighed, conceding the point.
"...I won't argue against the obvious, but that doesn't change the facts of the matter."
Luna nickered, and nudged her sister in the chest with a hoof.
"The facts of the matter, is it? Well, alright, my stock of insights isn't dry yet. Let's start with the obvious one. We're sisters, Celestia? Not by blood. You remember the day we met just as well as I do: two thousand, seven hundred and sixty two years, four months, three weeks, two days ago - when we were both called upon, and invested with our powers and divine responsibilities. And on that note, if we were sisters by blood? I would think that being nearly three-thousand-year-old half-deities would allow us to put something as comparatively petty as that aside, especially in exchange for alleviating centuries of suffering for a being who, let's not forget, might just do something silly like, oh...try to doom the planet to a sunless icy grave if the strain gets to them?"
Try as she might - and she was - Celestia couldn't argue so well against points like those.
"And, finally," Luna began, her confident declaration quieting down to barely above a whisper. "I saw that unmasked face of yours, Celestia. Would it surprise you to learn that I've seen that face before? Because I have: a few centuries ago, in the mirror."
~~~~~
Celestia had known, of course. The strain of caring for and protecting Equestria, managing sun, moon, and nation on her own for a millennium, facing the internal strife and external threats...she had kept a careful, critical eye on how much she wore down. And while her carefully crafted plan to reawaken the elements had been to get her sister back, to free her from both the Nightmare and the imprisonment of her older sister's mistakes...she had also wanted them ready just in case someone else had broken under the weight of eternity.
Indeed she may well have, had she not recently gotten Luna back. And that same dear, beloved sister was now arguing essentially that very case...but in a way that Celestia had never even really thought about. A way she had always dismissed as plainly impossible.
But was it?
"...Luna, I...I don't know."
"Well, I do. So it turns out that I, of all ponies, set your heart aflutter. Well, okay, that's unexpected? But once you put that aside, it's also one of the most flattering things I've ever heard: that the pony I treasure and admire and love most in all the world gets butterflies after one kiss with me. And while I may have needed a second opinion to be sure, well, Celestia?"
Luna leaned in, touching her nose to her sister's, making it so that each other's eyes were all they could see.
"As it turns out, I'm not entirely unfluttered myself. And since you asked if you could do anything...here's what you can do, Celestia. You can turn to me for support at times like these. You can also let me help carry all that weight on your shoulders, some of which I'm clearly responsible for. And finally, if it's what you want to do, you can be selfish - just this once - and let yourself fall in love. Because I'm not going anywhere."
The pair of them held there, noses pressed together, paused on the razor's edge between breaking and shattering...until Celestia started to quietly giggle, and then it was a louder chuckle, and then it burst into hearty, boisterous, heartfelt laughter, which quickly and easily spread to Luna, and would ideally not revive her long-forgotten hiccups.
And suddenly the two remembered that they were laying on the carpeted floor of Celestia's bedroom in Canterlot Castle, and they both looked to each other like this was such a strange thing, because hadn't they just been somewhere dark, and cold, and crumbling away just now...? But no, they shook their heads, and shared a warm smile. The overactive imaginations of two mares who had seen places like that over their lengthy lives, perhaps, but nothing more. They were in the heart of Equestria, the land of harmony, and better yet they were in its grand capitol, Canterlot - which was even still in the throes of a wild and lively celebration...
Of course. There had been an important, auspicious event. A princess had found love, and through it, triumphed over darkness and hardship...
Oh, right, and there had been a wedding earlier too.
The alicorn pair blinked a few times as they truly realized how ridiculous they would have looked, had anypony else been there to see them laying on Celestia's bedroom floor, entangled in each other's hooves, their noses pressed together and eyes locked on each other. And again it just seemed so strange...had they gone somewhere else in those long moments? It had felt assuredly different from the warm, welcoming openness that surrounded them now. It had been somewhere very far away; very harsh, and exposed, and...mystic?
But it didn't really matter in the end, the twin princesses decided in unspoken unity. Wherever they may have gone, they had passed through that crucible, and were back home now, safe with each other.
Celestia, brushing aside an errant lock of her rosy mane and then bringing the hoof to rest on Luna's chin in the softest of caresses, spoke first.
"Luna...we are sure we want to do this?"
Her sister answered with her lips, in that way that carried meaning so much more clearly than words did of late. And this time there was no hesitance, no anxiety or recriminations, no doubts...no worries of ancient pains borne too long. Just a soft, warm, lingering kiss, delicate and innocent and heartfelt, and a resounding answer to the asked question.
Their parting elicited a sigh from Celestia, finally one of the quiet, contented sort.
"We are sure we want to do this."
Luna smiled, and the two cuddled together, somehow finding being snuggled directly against one another to be more comfortable than they would otherwise be on this rather hot and humid early summer Canterlot evening.
"Lulu?" Celestia eventually whispered, her head laid down next to that of her sister. "For all my experience and so-called wisdom, I am a silly pony."
The younger sister laughed, a melodic tinkling sound like chimes in the evening breeze.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Tia. For I, comparatively, only used to be a silly pony."
Another of those beautiful, musical laughs like that one Luna had heard after that very first kiss...somehow it seemed so long ago. She hoped fervently that her sister would laugh like that far more often; she was quickly coming to like it.
"...And you know, that reminds me. Lulu, if you should ever have the chance to be encased in a changeling cocoon? I've sampled it, and I don't recommend you partake."
This prompted another of the tinkling wind chime laughs, the ones that Celestia was so quickly coming to like.
"Okay, Tia: I'll keep you out of crazy, and you can keep me out of cocoons. Sound like a plan?"
She just chuckled.
"Sounds like a plan."
~~~~~
The two regents of the Principality of Equestria, the twin Princesses Celestia and Luna, did not in fact wake up on the floor with carpet impressions in their cheeks.
But then they'd never finished the rest of the fourth bottle, either. Instead they'd climbed into bed and slept soundly while cuddled together, rather more drunk on vintage of a finer sort. A fifty-four-year-old wine knew to fold them, after all, when matched against a centuries-aged affection.
But it had still been well into the night by the time the two alicorns had slept...such that the moon was set, and Celestia had raised the sun before bed, for the first time in...
Had she ever done that before?
The royal wedding, and its carefully considered reception, had prompted a rolling back of the usual morning schedule for today, thankfully, but not so far as to allow the princesses to nap until mid-afternoon as they would have preferred. No, the day to day of running the nation wasn't going to wait that long, and so at ten in the morning, there was a sharp knock at the door to Celestia's chambers, and the Sun Princess' personal assistant Swift Timekeeper threw the doors open, and then quickly moved to draw the curtains and let the light in, the better to force the commonly obstinate Princess out of bed--
Swift Timekeeper paused, and checked against her notes...no, she hadn't thought so.
She had not been expected to wake two princesses this morning.
Not that she was going to have to, evidently, as the usual occupant of the room was already stirring; indeed, Celestia was sitting up with a yawn, much opposed to her usual grumbling about 'five more minutes, it doesn't count if the sun doesn't move'. And now the expected princess was nudging the unexpected princess, who seemed intent to fulfill every expectation that she was not a late morning pony.
But that wasn't Swift's problem, so she concerned herself with setting out Princess Celestia's...already out, but haphazardly cast aside, royal regalia. And the wine bottles in the corner, oh, that just wouldn't do. Wait - four?
Well, maybe that explained why the twin princesses had seemed to be cuddling when she'd walked in.
Swift took up the golden vestments in her magic, and levitated them onto their fittings on the rack next to Celestia's vanity table.
"...Come on, Lulu, wake up. What was all that last night about telling me to depend on you? To let you help me bear my burdens and all that?"
"I was far less sleep deprived then."
Celestia couldn't help but chuckle. She had a fair point, of course - now that the sun was on its way across the sky, she was able to tap into it to make up for her five hours of sleep - but it meant a far different thing to Luna. Namely, that she needed to sleep another ten.
"Princess Celestia, if I may offer a suggestion?"
Swift Timekeeper was having to focus very hard to keep from tapping an anxious hoof; the day was already half tossed based on the late start, and now even that was slipping behind schedule.
Celestia perked a brow, and smiled. "By all means, if you have one."
Swift weighed her words a moment, and then delivered them in her usual matter-of-fact tone.
"Well, I would advise Princess Luna to consider that if she spends the day napping in your bedroom, then every one of the many staff that come through here are going to wonder why. And then, well, they would start gossiping, and well, they might find out that the two princesses had been initially discovered snuggling..."
Luna waved the pillow she'd been using to cover her head for lack of a white flag.
"Fine! I'm up, I'm up. Though really we may as well just have done with it and get the word out."
Celestia went wide-eyed, and turned to her sister...and then back to Swift Timekeeper, who had not batted an eye.
"...Swift, you don't find this...well, strange? Or for that matter, I don't know, unexpected?"
The unicorn mare nickered, and her usual neutral expression was broken as her lips creased into a sly smile.
"Not even a little, Princess. In fact, I have to thank you both; I've just won three hundred bits."
Okay, now Celestia's jaw dropped.
"There was a betting pool."
And Luna grumbled in annoyance.
"And I wasn't told?"
Celestia whipped her head back around, her eyes again wide in shock.
"Luna!"
The Night Princess just laughed, shrugging in the face of her sister's at best half-hearted accusation.
"...What? Tia, I'm usually starting them, let alone in on them."
Celestia shook her head, rolling out of bed and angrily tearing the hairbrush from its rest on her vanity, pushing it through her mane roughly so that it would pull on the hair hard enough to push aside her building frustration.
And this morning started out so nicely! Nice dreams for a change, soft bed instead of carpeting, warm cuddling...apologetic nuzzling...
Celestia sighed, pausing her violent hairbrush for a moment as Luna softly rubbed their cheeks together, and only part of her was surprised that the annoyance that had seemed so significant a minute before was being melted away inside five seconds of affection from Luna. As she resumed brushing her mane, exchanging the previous violence and gritted teeth for measured strokes and a small smile, she couldn't help but think it was a wonder. How had she not lost her mind, having gone so long without this? In a single moment, Luna had whisked away what could well have soured her entire day. And she'd gone centuries without that contact, that supporting, nourishing affection - for so long, in fact, that she'd forgotten what it was like at all.
Setting her crown onto her head, atop the pastel rainbow mane that had painted over the previous night's smooth rose tones after the sunrise, Celestia supposed that she had held on by virtue of her other sorts of love, most especially her maternal kind, that which came most easily to her. It wasn't entirely different, what Luna now offered, but...it was just so powerful, so much more direct.
So as much as she couldn't help but shake her head at the fact that the castle staff had apparently been laying odds and taking bets on her and Luna stepping beyond mere sisterhood...
Well, in the end, she'd won too, hadn't she? Yes, Celestia decided, she had at that.
She'd won something worth a lot more than three hundred bits.
