Dear Princess Luna

The First Letter

Major, *major** thanks to TheDarkAngel for reading through this and making it not bad!*

        Princess Luna looked to either side of the hallway, but to no avail. The scroll must have been a precipitate of the explosion, she decided, sarcastically congratulating herself of her brilliant deductive skills. But silent self-ridicule would have to wait, at the moment the mysterious scroll would have to take precedence.

        She enveloped the scroll in her magical aura and brought it a few inches from her face. She found it remarkable, it honestly looked as if somepony had taken a piece of her celestial creation and rolled it into a scroll, enchanted to bring life to the stars and novas that adorned the blackness.

        Unraveling the parchment revealed a cream-colored center, upon which a letter was written, long enough to cover every inch of the creamy nugget that contrasted her night sky.

Dear Princess Luna,

It is with great trepidation that I write this letter; please forgive the shortness of my letter or the inconsistent scribbles with which I write this letter with. I do so apologize, but the very idea sends chills down my spine. I mean, the mere thought of a simple peasant writing a letter to a member of royalty, and one of such grace and majesty as yourself! I’m rambling... I tend to do that when I’m nervous.

I just... I have to get my thoughts out before the fear of your rejection strikes again and I tear up this letter and start all over again. I know you must think me a fool to write to you, considering both my place in Equestria and yours. However, while courage still grips my heart tight enough to squeeze its thoughts onto paper, I feel I must tell you; you are the most beautiful pony my humble eyes have ever had the fortune of setting upon. Since your first arrival I saw through the frightful corruption that had sunken into that beautiful figure. You were misguided, and thankfully the Elements of Harmony were there to resurrect you back to your former glory. Ah, I’m rambling again. Please forgive me, Princess Luna. Please forgive me and my foolish heart which compels me to write to you. As if you would ever consider pursuing a pony such as myself. I... I’m sorry for wasting your time.

Forever Yours

        Princess Luna brought a silver-plated hoof to her mouth in amazement. Such beautiful words, the kind she feared she’d never get the chance to experience, at least not directed towards her! A soft squee of delightment erupted from her mouth, which she immediately shut and capped with her hoof. Her cheeks burned a vibrant magenta and she immediately retreated to her room to look over the letter again.

        Once tucked away in the privacy of her own room, she traveled its length to the chest resting directly below a full length mirror just to the right of her bed. Inside the chest sat an array of random items, some of them including parchment, ink, and a set of quills - originally cast away in the chest for underuse. She had, of course, no use to write to anypony, for no pony had ever found the use to write to her.

        Tonight, however, she would find a purpose for the chirographic tools that had served little purpose past dust-collectors for the past 2 years. A case of quills, two bottles of ink, and a stack of paper lifted from the chest and found its way to a desk located directly to the left of the bed, along with an ecstatic Princess Luna.

However, as soon as quill hit parchment, three soft taps resonated from the wooden barrier that shielded her from the outside world. Followed by a soft voice, “Uhm, Princess Luna?”

The quill lost its magical support and dropped onto the milky paper, leaving a small slash on the corner as it did so. “Yes?” responded Luna, wiping away the ink from the scroll, but only managing to color the corner an inconsistent dark gray.

“It is your turn to rule the kingdom, your majesty.”

“Very well...” She gave one last longing look toward the stained paper and the original letter before leaving her chamber and joining the pony to the atrium. “So tell me, Silver Platter. Who is waiting for me in the grand hall?”

“It’s a farmer,” she informed. “He’s here to talk about a rain shortage just outside of Trottingham.”

“And they feel it a big enough problem to meet with the Princesses?”

“Apparently so.”

        Princess Luna rolled her eyes and continued the remainder of the journey in silence. Rain differentials should be taken care of by the weather teams, or Cloudsdale directly, not with the rulers of the country who, in true honesty, are not involved with such menial tasks.

“Greetings your highness,” a bass voice greeted once the large oak doors had been opened enough to reveal both Luna and the pony she walked with. The source, a well-built dark yellow stallion sporting a stetson hat to hide his unruly brown mane, smiled eagerly at the approaching princess. His teeth were exposed and in Luna’s opinion, shouldn’t have been. The stench of wheat, or oats in general, seeped from his pores alongside his hair.

“Greetings loyal subject,” she responded with a slightly forced smile. She enjoyed being addressed as royalty, and recognized as an equal to her sister who had countless more generations under her rule, but with matters as trivial to the princess as this, she almost preferred to be left alone. “What seems to be troubling you?”

“It’s the rain level, your highness,” the pony bowed and removed his stetson hat. “We don’t get ‘nough water to water our crops.”

“Why not confer with your local weather team? They are the ones responsible for your average rainfall.”

“Ah tried. They said they’re doin’ their best with what they got. Said Cloudsdale’s not givin’ them enough clouds.”

“Not enough clouds? What happened?”

“Ah don’t rightly know, your highness,” he admitted, fumbling around with his hat.

“Then allow us to propose a solution.” The princess grabbed a piece of paper and a quill resting comfortably in the well of an ink bottle. “I shall write to Cloudsdale informing them of the water shortage just north of Trottingham: ‘Increase Trottingham’s cloud quota.’ If the problem consists, please do contact us again and I shall find a more permanent remedy.”

“Thank you, your highness!” The pony grabbed the note and walked off.

        Luna smiled and waved him off, then, as soon as she was sure she was alone, sank deeper into the throne and released a sigh. Almost every day since she’s been trusted to rule the kingdom on her own she’s been responsible for the most trivial disputes in the kingdom. It seemed as if any and all major problems occurred during the day, when she was asleep.

        She’s accepted the fact that most ponies followed her sister’s schedule and are thus asleep or unwinding when she ruled, it was admittedly the hardest aspect of her life to accept, but she had hoped to have more responsibilities, as with the first kingdom she and her sister ruled, where ponies would come night after night offering sacrifices in return for helping them defend or attack a neighboring tribe, often both sides trying to persuade her at the same time, so she got to pick what she got.

“Princess Luna, now that you’ve finished with the guest, perhaps you might like some breakfast?” She held out the last work to encompass the action of levitating a plate full of food in front of Luna’s face.

Luna thanked them graciously as she stood from the throne, “Unfortunately, I’ve something urgent to attend to-”

“No, no, your highness. As part of our daily duties, we are to get you to eat and maintain in proper princess etiquette,” Silver Platter defended, placing the plate as a wall between Luna and anything past the gold plated, velvet-lined throne sitting at the end of the of a long red carpet.

        Luna opened her mouth to protest, but, upon seeing the adamant expression of the insistent server, thought it better to let the air escape without so much as a word of rebuttal; the caretakers, despite their recessive and timid nature, had the spine to intimidate King Sombra if the case were to arise. Instead, she turned to the plate and wrapped the bottom in her own magic; the other pony smiled in victory and left to attend to other matters, leaving Luna alone to enjoy her meal and contemplate her letter.

        Despite the thought-demanding nature of the mysterious letter, or more importantly the mysterious writer, Luna found herself dazing off whilst eating due to the mind-numbing tasks she was responsible for during the night, and in her dazed state the state of the castle claimed her conscious mind. She never quite paid enough attention to notice it before, but the castle’s color changed as suddenly as the sky did between day and night.

        The sterling, bright stone used to both support and decorate the interior were too susceptible, in her opinion, to light changes that occurred outside, especially from the lack of internal lighting, leaving her sitting the the midst of a blue-dipped throne room with faded images etched into the floor from the weak light of her moon flowing through the gigantic glass artwork. To diverge herself from the scenery she brought a glass of apple cider to her lips and drank, viewing the room through a golden veil.

Gold... Just like Celestia... The comparison gave a sickly sweet tang untasted with the cider previously. She took the glass from her mouth, smacking her lips lightly to rid them of the new, unfamiliar taste, and set it back on the platter. The small clank reverberated across throughout the deathly silent halls.

        She hated, no loathed, times like these. Down time. Time which could be spent in a myriad of ways, devoted to sitting in a chair and just sitting. No pony coming to visit, no pony coming to greet her, or her they, just complete silence. Complete isolation. It was during these times she found her mind beginning to wander, and her body following suit not too far after.

        Breakfast was over, she decided in her monarchical attitude, and she set the tray of food on the chair while she left to explore. Explore may not be the right word, she’d done quite enough of that in her trips around the country, moreover to wander the halls like her mind through her thoughts. She, of course, couldn’t retreat to her room, there would be ponies waiting for her to explain how “unbecoming it was for a princess to leave her post” or how she “has had all day to sleep.” She blew upward in irritation. She didn’t understand, Celestia was free to travel the country, and often did so, while she was supposed to rule the country, so why couldn’t she?

        Celestia... A common comparison of Luna since her arrival, one that she had unwillingly and unwittingly adopted thanks to the constant drawl of servers in their attempt to explain how a princess should act. Might as well have pointed to Celestia and said ‘Be that’ for all the good they’ve done, the nighttime mare mused. Just because they were sisters didn’t give everypony the right to compare them as rulers, especially not with the bias, Luna had reasoned, towards her older sister. In fact, the only ponies that seemed to favor her over Celestia were her own guards, the Shadow Bolts, and the new addition, the Author.

        She paused at the mention of the Author, a name she had decided then and there to apply to him, since he did not offer any alternative, and a revitalized blush colored her cheeks, painting her face a dark purple not unlike Twilight’s mane and tail. She shook it away, though it did little to calm her nerves, and continued on, though despite her attempts she could not dissuade the thought of the letter, or its mysterious author, from dominating her thoughts.

        Unbeknownst to her, she began to pick up speed in her once casual stroll through the castle, and gain altitude in the vain attempt to part from her own vices. The further she ran, the more flushed her face became until, eventually, she was bulleting down the halls, sporting a face that, if seen for just short enough, could have been mistaken for a tomato. She fought furiously against her subconscious to stop subjecting her to such horrible fantasies that she found so condemning.

        This shouldn’t have bothered her as badly as it did; it was just a letter! A sweet, compassionate, loving letter addressed directly to her. She groaned in emotional agony and dropped to her hooves in contempt. Years spent away from any contact, years of frost-bitten isolation resurfaced and bit harder than ever at her mental well-being.

        Intimacy was typically a frightening thing for the princess, which was why she often preferred actions over words and limited contact with another pony, if at all. Social gatherings left her in a catatonic state of paranoia and nervousness, but she was able to hide that with her cool exterior, much like the top of a cloud could cover the storm that raged underneath. Most of the time, anyway. Every so often, a storm brooded just big enough to penetrate its calm covering and cause havoc for those both in its grasp and the humble observers alike. She hated such storms.

        But nevertheless it proved ineffectual to ignore such cataclysms, especially with one such as critical as this. She needed to vent, to release the building pressure that taxed her heart to no end, but her sister (again she thinks of her sister!) was still asleep, and waking her was no easy, or clever, ambition.

        Releasing a pent up breath, she made her way to one of the few windows of the castle that wasn’t a ‘piece of art’ as her sister would say, and stared absently at the moon slowly floating just out of reach from Equestria’s gravity, flying free as long as it pleased.

        How she yearned to join it, to fly side by side her magnificent flying gem, if only to escape the banality of her current life. A strong compulsion gave power to wings, however subtle, and lifted her from the carpet that ran the length of the hallway. She could do it, could run away, or rather, fly away. Semantics fell by the wayside. She could leave, escape, be free! No pony walked these halls at night, no pony flew this section at this hour, it was completely plausible to leave, to escape her sister, her crown, everything.

        Ever closer she crept to the edge of the window, and a tentative forehoof extended to push away one of the glass panes, giving way to a cool nighttime breeze that sent her mane cascading behind her. She breathed in its cool simplicity and readied her wings to escape. It was almost too easy.

“Princess!”

Almost...

“There you are.”

“Yes, Silver Platter, what it is?”

“You are needed elsewhere, your highness.”

“Of course,” she said, exasperated. “Where to?”

“Follow me.”

        And follow she did, that’s all she did. Her surroundings melted into one dark blue shade and her thoughts regressed to the point she spoke and acted at a subconscious level - at least she had one trait that can be attributed to the endless “lessons” - to every pony she met. Nothing spectacular happened, nothing new ever occurred. Same boring monotony.

The voice to finally snap her out of her trance would be her sister’s, the sickly, empathetically sweet voice urging her, “Come along, little sister. It is time to watch the moon set and the sun rise.”

The voice always urged her out of any rut she found herself sunken in, no matter the cause. “Coming sister,” she responded eagerly and trailed her sister to the balcony.

        By the time they made their way to the edge, the dimmer stars amongst the night sky were already fading. Much to Luna’s regret, this lesson was going to be a shorter one. Already she felt the heat extended by the sun warming the stone floor, or was that her sister’s unusually radiant attitude this morning? Certainly something must be said with the way she carried herself whilst walking down the halls; it was an exalted stride, normally the kind saved for witness by the common ponies that idolized her, not for her own sister who has been by her side since birth.

        It put Luna off, like she had been cast even lower on the royal chain than Blue Blood, the unfortunate stallion-colt that has been mooching off her sister’s place. It was more unfortunate than infuriating, she decided. In truth, she had done the same for a while; she was only accepted due to her sister’s insistence of her loving subjects.

“Luna,” Celestia finally, thankfully, spoke, her words were carried on a thin cheery voice that sang sweet notes to the receiver's ears. “Do you know what is special about today?”

“Many things,” she responded with a slight flutter of her heart. “But what do you mean?”

The grand doors opened to reveal the familiar balcony. Celestia floated ahead and presented it to her younger sister. “Every day since your arrival we’ve sat on this same balcony and I’ve taught you everything that has changed over the millenium,” she began, motioning for the night princess to join her in the brightening sky. A small smile broke her porcelain face, “And we’ve done it. You know more about the country’s past thousand years than any scribe, philosopher, or historian in it. Our lessons have finished.”

        The revelation hit her like a steel arrow through her heart, tipped with the warm words Celestia so proudly spewed. It was impossible, their time together would come to an end? Just like that!? Just when she needed her sister most?

“S-sister,” she shook as the thoughts welled within her. “Does this mean we are finished? We are no longer to spend such times of twilight together?”

“Dearest sister!” Celestia quelled the unsteady heart with a nuzzle to her neck. “Of course not. Never forget, we are family, and family never breaks apart.”

“Thank you, Tia. Please forgive me, but tonight has been a disaster...”

“Why? What happened?”

“Last night, right after you went to bed, I got a-” she froze as the thought came crashing back. “The letter!”

“Luna, where are you going?” Pondered Celestia, more to herself since her sister had rushed off with a powerful flap of her wings, propelling her into the inner hallways of the castle.

She returned moments letter bearing a quill, a bottle of ink, several pieces of parchment, and, obviously the most precious piece of the set, the letter she received at the start of the night. An excited smile dominated her face as she made her way to sit next to Celestia and present the letter. Celestia’s eyes followed the rhythmic motion of gliding over the words, and her expression matched, almost to the dot, Luna’s upon reading it for the first time.

She soon set the letter down. “Luna,” she began, her voice high from emotion. “This is beautiful.”

“I know. I have been planning to write them back!” Her face dropped slightly and her features grew more solemn as she continued. “Although, I am unsure as to the conventions when writing a letter such as this. You, dearest sister, write letters all the time, so I was hoping that this could occupy our time, since our bi-daily lessons have now been complete?” She grinned sheepishly to her older sister, finding it oddly difficult to maintain eye contact.

“Come here younger sister, and I shall help you in your endeavors.” Celestia used her magic to pull Luna closer to her so that both may look upon the letter and their potential response. She wrote Dear at the upper lefthand corner of the letter and paused. Pulling the original letter closer, she asked her sister, “Luna, who wrote this letter?”

Luna could offer little more than an inquiring shrug.

“We’ll finish that later,” Celestia mused, placing a comma several inches from the first word. “Now, what would you say if you had the chance to speak to this mysterious author?