Princess Celestia sat at the breakfast table enjoying the rays of the sun, as they passed through the impressive stained glass windows. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the fragrances from the breakfast table. The newly baked rolls and Hash browns, the fresh fruit, and the coffee... oh yes the coffee. Nopony should have to start their day without a cup of fresh hot coffee. She levitated the cup to her lips and softly blew on the hot divine liquid.
“GOOD MORNING OUR DEAREST SWEET SISTER, HAST THOU SLEPT WELL?!” The sheer volume of Luna’s royal Canterlot voice made Celestia lose concentration on the levitation spell that held the coffee cup, sending shards of shattered porcelain and hot coffee spilling over the floor.
“Good morning Lulu,” Celestia’s voice hid an undertone of sadness as she looked with a broken heart at the coffee that was now all over the floor and not in her belly. “So I take it that your trip to Ponyville was a success?”
"Thou hast right. The visit yielded great results for us.” Luna quickly trotted around the table and sat down on a chair overlooking her sister.
“So you changed Nightmare Night to a; what were your words again? A bright and glorious feast. That thunder crack you produced was absolutely magnificent. And most excellent timed if I am to believe my personal student.” Failing to hold back a smile from her sister’s change, she stepped slightly to the left to allowing the maid to clean up the spilt coffee.
“But Tia it already is,” Luna said joyfully as another maid placed a prepared plate in front of her. “A most joyous and magnificent feast indeed.”
“I thought you said, that it only enforced the image of you still being Nightmare Moon and that it needed to change,” Celestia looked quizzical at Luna as the maid now finished mopping up the coffee and placed a new cup in front of her.
Luna’s cheeks slightly reddened. “Well Tia… we discovered that we might have been a bit hastened in my judgment of the feast to be crude and an affront to our person,” Luna constantly twirled her hooves, an abashed look on her face as she spoke.
“Really? Tell me all.”
The two royals continued their humble breakfast as Luna started to tell about her experiences in ponyville during Nightmare Night. Their normally so short breakfast stretched far longer than usual, not only because of Luna’s story, but also because of Celestia’s hunger for details no matter their importance. She would occasionally stop her sister to make her repeat parts she found interesting, hilarious or just particularly enjoyed.
“Well that sounds like a wonderful evening,” Celestia looked at her sister with a smile as she led the last apple slice to her mouth. “I’m so happy that you made new friends and had a fun Nightmare Night,” The last apple slice quickly disappeared into the Alicorn’s mouth. Now she just needed one more cup of coffee to go with her breakfast cake and she would be ready for a long day of boring petitions and reading agricultural and economic reports , not to mention listening to the babbling of the upper class complaining about how the pavement stone didn’t match the color of their houses.
“Oh yes Tia thou hast right. It was an evening filled with the most thrilling experiences,” The princess of the night took one last sip of her orange juice before continuing. “Even the pink pony who screamed like a banshee was the most gentle and considerate pony once we got to know her.”
Hearing Luna mention Ponyville’s self-proclaimed party maker made Celestia chuckle slightly. “Yes Pinkie Pie can take some time to get used to, but she and the rest of Twilight’s friends are some of the kindest ponies in Equestria, they are the elements of harmony after all.” A warm smile erupted as she took a sip from the new cup of coffee her maid had brought her.
“We find it funny how things change with time. One day ponies ignore us, and now they have given us our own festival.” Luna rubbed the chin thoughtfully before she carried on. “And they now find it enjoyable to be frightened, of all things. Yet they also find our company pleasurable and offer us their friendship. It gives us hope that all things can change for the better. Speaking of which how is Raga doing? Has she reformed?”
The only answer Luna got right away was a spray of coffee as Celestia spat her coffee out in surprise before coughing violently. Luna now dripping wet from the involuntarily coffee bath she had just gotten, looked with horror and surprise at her sister.
“Thou forgot to give her parole?!” She said sternly, her voice just under a shout. “Thou were supposed to release her, what nine hundred fifty years ago?!”
Celestia looked modified at Luna finally finding her voice. “Oh dear, I knew I forgot something.”
“F-For-Forgot something? Both of us promised her, that we would release her after a short incarceration!” Luna now shouted just below the royal Canterlot voice “Tia how could thou? Ever since we were young, thou taught me that a princess’ word is her bound!”
“W-well Luna there came so many things all at once.” Her face was completely red in embarrassment, and a few tears were forming in her eyes, showing the shame and sadness she felt.
“WHAT COULD POSSIBLE COME BETWEEN THOU AND KEEPING THOU WORD?!” Luna retorted, her voice finally reaching royal voice levels. Two things happened as she shouted; the first one was a massive thunderclap outside the castle, and the second one was Luna suddenly levitating several feet above the table. The only sound in the room was the rumbling of the massive thundering raging outside the castle.
She expected Celestia to reason with her or shout back in the royal Canterlot voice, at least do something. What came made the anger she had disappear like a snowflake in the summer sun. Celestia just sat there looking ashamed, her head hanging down and her hair, that normally flowed like it was in a light breeze, lay completely flat as well.
Celestia raised her head slightly obviously having trouble putting words on what happened, far more too actually speak them. “It all started with the nightmare moon incident. Banishing you to the moon really changed me. Just to rise and lower the sun took a lot of effort and the royal duties were completely left to the court. It was what the doctors called a depression. I don’t remember much from the time but apparently it lasted over 600 years. When It finally passed, I had to get Equestria back in shape again and I… I…” Celestia was practically sobbing now “I-I forgot”. The dejected alicorn quickly turned her head away from her sister in embarrassment.
Luna landed on the floor taken aback. The horrible truth becoming clear, a large part of this travesty indirectly was her fault. She walked over to Celestia and nuzzled her cheek with her own.
“Tia, we are sorry, we lost our head,” feeling as bad as Celestia looked.
Celestia raised her head to eye level with Luna, her purple eyes having the shine of a flat sea on an overcast day. “Luna, can you ever forgive me?” There were no puppy eyes, no attempt to convince her, it was just a genuine plea for forgiveness.
Luna felt her heart melt, filling her with confusion. Celestia looked and acted like she had herself when the curse of Nightmare Moon was lifted. She had been scared and submissive, but her sister had extended her hoof with a promise of friendship. She had acted like she always had throughout both their lives, behaving more like a mother than a big sister, and like a mother Luna had seen her as infallible. Although a change in their normal roles scared her, she knew that what she had to do.
“Of course we forgive you dear sister.” She hugged Celestia and held her tight in a caring embrace. “It’s just sometimes we forget that even you are fallible. You have a busy schedule today; we and two of our guards will go to our old castle in the Everfree Forest and set her free. The magic seal is properly still working holding her imprisoned in the magic crystal, when we release her it will be as if she just wakened from a long night’s sleep” She turned and shouted out into the room. “Honey-Flower!”
The two maids peeked out from behind the statue they had sought cover behind until the royal wrath had calmed down. The maid earth pony with the honey colored coat and light hazel mane moved carefully, but quickly towards the princess of the night.
“Y-y-yes your majesty?” she said kneeling in front of the two royals with her forehead almost touching the floor.
“Enough trivialities bring this message to the captains of the guards. They are to find the two fastest flyers in the guards and immediately send them to the balcony of my tower. We are leaving for the Everfree Forest post-haste.
The maid bowed again and disappeared as fast as her hooves could carry her out of the dining hall.
“Yes Luna, you go to the Everfree Forest. I’ll take care of both our duties here in Canterlot until you return,” Celestia raised up holding her head high returning to her old majestic self again.
Luna turned towards her sister smiling as she saw Celestia being back to her old self again. Although she hated it when Celestia was overly protective and coddled her, she was terrified of what would happen if she didn’t have her sister for support.
“I’ll leave immediately,” Luna motioned to leave the dining hall for her tower before turning to her sister, “And Tia I’m so sorry that I lost my temper,” She looked back at her sister shamefully, like a small child that had just thrown a temper tantrum.
“Think nothing of it Lulu,” Celestia said as she looked at Luna with a motherly smile. “Neither of us are infallible. Now go. The Everfree Forest awaits.”
Celestia’s smile and the fact that she had used her pet name made Luna feel better, as she was starting to climb the stairs to her tower thinking about her sister. ‘Was there ever a pony blessed with such an understanding and kind sister as we.’
****
The trip to the ruin of the princesses’ old castle, in the Everfree Forest, only took an hour. It was mostly the speed of the pegasi that pulled Luna’s chariot to thank for that. As she stepped of the chariot and looked at her surroundings, a shiver went down her spine. She had not been back to the ruin since the night, that the elements of harmony had separated her, from the body of Nightmare Moon. She remembered the feeling of fear as she lay in front of them and her sister, helpless like a newborn foal. The shiver disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, she had expected to be sentenced to another thousand years in the moon, and that was if she was lucky. It had not come to that though, Celestia had forgiven her and welcomed her back with open hooves, and after the last Nightmare Night even the normal ponies had accepted her. Well at least the ones in Ponyville.
“Luna, are you okay?” Luna looked down and saw Midnight Blossom, one of the two guard ponies that had accompanied her, looking up at her with a quizzical look in her eyes.
“Yes loyal guardspony, your Princess is perfectly fine,” Luna said as she turned her gaze from Midnight Blossom to the ruins.
“For the last time my name is not ‘Loyal Guardspony’ it’s Midnight Blossom,” the night pegasus replied changing her voice at loyal guardspony to sound like a Canterlot noble.
Luna turned back to the guardspony her eyes glinting with surprise. Midnight Blossom was unlike any of the other guards in the service of the princesses. She spoke her mind freely and had, from the first night, called her nothing but Luna when they weren’t out in public. This had gotten her disciplined more than the rest of the guard combined. But she was also the only pony in the castle, other than Celestia, that hadn’t feared Luna in the time following her return. Luna smiled, after her night in Ponyville she preferred to be addressed as just Luna, and as long as Midnight Blossom didn’t call her Luna when ceremony demanded otherwise, she wouldn’t have any problem with it.
“Very well Midnight Blossom. Come, let us venture further into the ruin, we need to get to the dungeon bellow the throne room.”
“Right you are Luna,” Midnight Blossom winked at her, smiling like someone had just given her an early Hearts Warming Eve present. She then turned to the solar guard, who were just catching up to them after he’d finished securing the chariot. “Hey Lightning Twirl come on lights a wasting!”
Lightning Twirl hurried over to them and kneeled in front of Luna. “A thousand apologies your highness, I promise, I won’t be as tardy again!”
Luna looked at him, then over at Midnight Blossom who was fighting a losing fight not to fall over laughing. “It’s quite alright my loyal subject, and you may also dispense with the formalities and just call us Luna,” she said, as she gave Midnight Blossom a light tap with her wing to make her stop laughing.
“Never!” The horror in Lightning Twirl's voice, made it sound like Princess Luna had just ordered him to kill all the first born foals in Equestria, in cold blood. “A mere lowly guard cannot be allowed to call one of the princesses by her first name only, that’s unheard of.” He looked up at Luna with a pleading, yet determined look in his eyes.
“Very well then you may call us what you see fit. Now enough shenanigans, we must venture into the dungeons and finish our task.” The royal voice left a small echo in the forest as she turned and walk towards the ruins again, the two guards following a few yards behind at a rapid trot in an attempt to keep up with Luna’s pace.
“Oh princess! Spare your lowly servant the horror of not having a pole up his flank,” Midnight Blossom whispered into Lightning Twirl’s ear as they entered the ruins.
Lightning Twirl turned his head towards her with a look of indignation on his face. “I don’t have a pole up my flank. I swear if you weren’t a mare I would-.”
“You would want another pole up your flank, I know, it’s a curse to be as gorgeous as I am.” Midnight Blossom cut him off. She simulated, that she was holding a fan, that she was trying to hide, the mock embarrassment on her face with.
Lightning Twirl chose to ignore her and focus at the path ahead, leaving her behind as he sped up to get alongside the princess.
Midnight Blossom shot him a look and smiled. She never teased anypony she didn’t like, she chose to ignore them like they were air. She only teased ponies she liked and believed could take a broadside or two, and Lightning Twirl was one of her favorite solar guards to give a hard time.
There was a natural rivalry between the solar and night guard, and Lightning Twirl represented all the things she thought was wrong with the solar guard. He was always so proper and knightly. At least once, she knew he had caught her cheating in poker, when they and Gloria the griffon played cards, but not once had he called her out on it. When they came to a door he always opened it and expected to her to walk through. Finally on the few times they had had guard duty together, and she tried to pass the time with a coarse joke or two, he had just looked admonishing at her and then continued to look straight ahead.
What a killjoy, but he was okay. He was the only one in the solar guard, who would be caught dead drinking at the night guards favorite watering hole, and the only one from the solar guard, who played a half decent hoof of poker. He was her friend, no matter how much he tried to deny it.
The three ponies walked down many flights of stairs until they arrived in the dungeon. The walls were thick with cobwebs and the floor was draped in dust, the bars on the cells rusted away long ago. Luna went to the farthest wall from the staircase they had decedent and, for unknown reasons, let her magic linger alongside the wall.
She gave a relieved smile when the magic seal on the wall lit up. The seal on the wall had not been broken, then the seal on the crystal should still be whole, Raga could be released, no harm done. She used her magic to lift the seal and raise the section of the wall that separated her from Raga’s cell. As the wall was removed the light of her magic illuminated the cell behind it, just a little more and-.
Luna's heart skipped a beat spotting the crystal laying on the floor broken in two, the seal on it broken right down the middle. As she secured the section of the wall she was holding, to prevent it from falling shut again, she saw an inscription on the wall over the broken crystal.
And so my enemies neglect became my ally.
Its size and the depth of the letters, told Luna that it had taken at least one hundred years to carve into the solid stone.
“Princess look over there!” Lightning Twirl shouted in alarm, as he pointed at an opening to a tunnel on the ground, in the farthest corner in the room.
This was bad. Raga, on a good day, could be a handful, however if she saw Celestia and her as enemies she could be very vicious. Old memories from when raga was free raced through Luna’s head, as she remembered the old long forgotten nursery rhyme, which mothers used to tell their foals if they misbehaved:
Raga Raga stalks the night,
filling ponies full of fright.
Taking shape of friend and foe,
naughty ponies scream in woe.
Who is naughty who is nice?
Ask your neighbor ask her twice.
Willow wisp in field and wood,
her decision understood.
So bar your door go and hide,
nice or naughty she’ll decide.
****
“What a lovely present. Celestia looked curiously at her guard as he placed the present in front of her.
“We have no idea who it was from your highness, it was found at the castle’s gates. Maybe it’s from one of your subjects that want to remain anonymous.” Her scribe looked at her clipboard mumbling a few incomprehensible words about a time schedule before turning to the princess. “We just have a couple of minutes before the ponies are here with their partitions, so there should be enough time to open it if you wish to do so your highness.”
During the terror regime of Diamond Tiara. One of the few stories the Foal Free Press had gotten right in its Gappy Gums articles, was Celestia love of cake. They did however not delve into her other vice, her love of receiving gifts. It was two of the few vices she allowed herself to have, and as long as she didn’t demanded or gave favorable treatment too ponies, that gave her gifts or cake, there was nothing wrong in it. At least as she saw it. Leaning in over the box to get a better view of the gift inside she undid the bow with her magic.
****
under a tree, at the edge of a small grove ten miles outside Canterlot, a figure hidden by the shadows of the trees, looked intensely at the castle. Suddenly the castle seemed to give a jump into the air, as an explosion rocked the castle to its foundation. Even from this distance, the shards of the enormous stained glass windows could be seen falling to the ground, like snowflakes on a winter day.
“Happy birthday your majesty, hope you liked the present. It should make up for all the birthdays presents I didn’t get to give you.” A smile crept over the figure's face revealing it fangs and carnivore teeth, as she seemed to enjoy the view immensely.
Then the figure turned around and left, never showing it true form, as it kept to the shadows, it was on its way home, home to the Everfree Forest.
