Luna flinched as she heard another crash echo down the hallway, quickening her pace as she made her way to her sister’s room, meeting up with the guards outside who looked ready to bolt.

“Guards, pray tell what is transpiring inside our sisters chambers, for we are quite worried.”

“We don’t know your highness,” said one of the guards, “she has been tearing apart her room the entire morning, repeating the same thing over and over, and it’s really been freaking us out.”

Luna nodded, hearing another crash and sighing as she looked to both the guards. “Thou are dismissed good sirs, we shall see if we can figure out what is causing our sister such distress.”

The two guards nodded, Luna walking into the room as they left and nearly getting hit by a flying book, catching it in her magical grip before gasping at the sight before her.

It looked to Luna like Celestia had done her best to tear her room apart; her couch was flipped over, the tables and chairs that were in the living quarters were on their sides. From what she could see, the kitchen was also torn apart, and what crashing noises she could hear were coming from her sister’s bed chambers.

Luna was not too surprised when she saw inside, for like the living quarters the bedroom was in shambles. The bed was upside-down, and various books were strewed across the floor, Celestia herself tearing through one of her many books shelves, apparently looking for something.

“Where is it, where is it!”

“Sister, whatever is the matter with thee, thou art scaring the guards.”

“I need to find it,” yelled Celestia, strands of her mane actually billowing in separate directions, which was a very bad sign.

“Ok sister,” said Luna calmly, “just calm down, go sit over by thine desk and we promise…”

“NO!” yelled Celestia, grabbing her sister and throwing her bodily out of the room, locking the door as another series of crashes sounded within.

“TIA!” roared Luna, but before she could start hammering on the door, a letter appeared out of the fire, dropping to the ground, which Luna quickly picked up and opened, beginning to read.

Dear Princess Celestia

It’s me Spike, I know I don’t usually send you letters, but I am really freaking out right now and need your help. Twilight is freaking out because she doesn’t have a friendship report to send you this, even though I’m pretty sure you said nothing about needing them weekly. But anyways she’s been running around town trying to find a problem to fix with friendship, but she didn’t find any so she kinda…made her own, which is why I am writing to you now. Whatever she did, its causing the townspeople to riot and it tearing the town apart, so please come as soon as you can, I don’t think we have can fix this one without your help.

Sincerely, Twilight’s very scared and freaked out assistant.

“Great,” growled Luna, not even bothering to restrain herself as she used her earth pony magic to buck the door down, stomping into the room as Celestia turned to look at her.

“Luna what are you…”

“Look at this,” said Luna with anger, showing the letter in Celestia’s face so that she could read.

Celestia took once glance, then her mane went limp, before she shook it back into its ethereal majesticness and then taking a breath. “Ok, ok Celestia get you head in the game, it looks like you have a little problem you need to take care of.”

This was reassuring to Luna, for Celestia talking in the third person always meant she was pulling herself together. What she said next however, had her lest sure.

“Alright Luna, I am going to need you to take over for me, meanwhile, I need to form a plan of how I am going to be arriving in Ponyville.”

“What…form a plan, what doth thou mean form a plan, thou needs to make haste to Ponyville at once.”

“No I can’t Luna,” said Celestia, “I know it must seem that way but try to understand. If I go there now I will be going as a mare trying to quell her stallion, not as one of the ruler of Equestria. I need to be calm, and I need to appear cold to her, if I am not the ponies, and especially her friends will begin to suspect.”

“Wait, are you telling me Twilight hasn’t even told her closest friends?”

“Of course she hasn’t Luna, but I can’t explain why right now, as you said, I have to be in Ponyville.

“TIA!” roared Luna, but it was already too late, for the elder sister had already vanished in a blinding flash of dazzling light.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

Twilight dropped to the ground as the voice of her ruler thundered above her, watching as Celestia used her magic to undo all she had done, and then watching as the regal mare landed before her, giving her a stern look.

“Meet me in the Library,” said Celestia sternly, then without another word she turned and flew away, leaving Twilight with a sense of utter dread.

“I’ve never seen her that angry before,” thought Twilight as she began making her way toward her home. “There…there wasn’t even any warmth hidden behind her eyes, does that…does that mean she wants to…to sever ties with me.”

This particular thought plagued her the entire way to the library, for the thought of her Celestia, her cherished mate, wanting to sever ties with her…it was just too terrifying to imagine.

When she finally reached the library, she hesitated a long time outside the door, for she knew that the moment she entered, it would probably mean the end of both her life in Ponyville, and her life with Princess Celestia.

However she knew all good things had to come to an end someday, so she finally opened the door, walking into the room and siting down in front of the princess.

“I am very disappointed in you Twilight,” said Celestia.

“Princess if you would just let me…”

“I thought I taught you better, Twilight you are not supposed to use your magic this way, it goes against everything we stand for as members of the magical community.”

“Bu…but I’m supposed to send you a report on friendship every week,” said Twilight, “I’m a bad student, I’m…tardy!”

“You are a wonderful student Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, “I don’t have to get a letter every week to know that.

“Really,” asked Twilight, looking shocked.

Celestia was about to say more, but the door suddenly burst open, Twilight’s friends walking in looking concerned.

“Wait,” cried Rainbow.

“You can’t punish her,” said Pinkie.

“It wasn’t her fault,” said Applejack.

“I’m listening,” said Celestia, who was extremely thankful for their timely intervention, for she couldn’t stand being cold to Twilight anymore.

“Please your highness,” said Fluttershy, “we all saw that Twilight was upset.”

“But we thought the thing she was worrying about wasn’t worth worrying about,” said Rainbow as Pinkie nuzzled close to Twilight.

“So when she ran off all worked up,” said Applejack, “not a single one of us tried to stop her.”

“As Twilight’s good friends we should have taken her feelings seriously and been there for her,” said Rarity.

“Please don’t take her away from us just because we were too insensitive to help her.”

Celestia looked at them for a long moment, hiding the fact that their words touched her, till finally she spoke with a smile. “Looks like you all learned a pretty valuable lesson today,” she said, to which all of them agreed. “Very well, I’ll forget Twilight’s punishment on one condition.”

She leaped to the other side of the room, waiting patiently as the all cheered, and then spoke. “From this day forth, I would like you all to report to me your findings on the magic of friendship.” She then leaned down, smiling at Twilight and pouring in all the love she could before speaking again, “When and only when you happen to discover them.”

She then headed for the balcony as the others cheered, Twilight watching her go with a goofy grin till she noticed the princess intended to leave, and charged off after her. “Princess Celestia wait, how did you know I was in trouble?”

“Your friend Spike informed me that you were letting your fears get the best of you, but I commend you for taking your feelings seriously, now if you will all excuse me, I must be getting back to Canterlot, I’m expecting some mail.”

And with that she left, disappearing in a flash of light as Twilight smiled, before turning back and heading back into her home.

It had been an hour since the princess had left, and after the girls had all helped composed a letter about friendship, Twilight had received a new letter from the princess, a personal one. This had of course intrigued the girls, especially Rarity, who wanted to know what such a specially marked letter could entail, but Twilight told them it was only asking that she come visit Celestia at the palace, nothing too serious.

That of course had been a lie, and now she found herself outside the princess’s private mansion, which was where Celestia had actually asked her to show up. She pushed open the large doors, walking inside and heading straight for the princess’s bedroom, walking inside and immediately getting tackled by a crying Celestia.

“Oh my Twilight, can you ever forgive me?”

“Wha…” started Twilight, staring down into the teary eyes of her beautiful mare, “Tia what would I ever have to forgive you for?”

“For being so cold to you,” wept Celestia, “for having to pretend that we were only teacher and student, not lovers who would move heaven and earth for each other. I didn’t want to act the way I did Twilight, you must know that, but I had to.”

She hugged her all the tighter, weeping into her chest as she continued to speak. “I know it must have hurt you, seeing me act so cold to you, especially considering the day it was, and how special it was supposed to be.”

This comment confused Twilight a bit, “Special day, princess what are you talking about?”

Celestia stopped crying and looked at her, shock evident on her face as she spoke, “What do you mean what am I talking about, Twilight today is our anniversary.”

Twilight looked even more confused for a moment, and then she gasped, looking horrified as she began to panic, “Oh no, I completely forgo…”

She was silenced with a kiss, Celestia having sensed her stallions growing panic and moving to stall it, holding the kiss for a long while before letting go of Twilight lips, smiling reassuringly as she spoke. “You don’t need to worry Twilight; it has been a busy year for us, it natural that you might…”

A loud bang sounded from the door, interrupting Celestia and causing both her and Twilight to jump, both of them turning toward the door as it burst open to allow Luna inside.

“Luna…”

“Be quite Twilight,” said Luna, before turning her glare upon her sister and speaking. “Thou owes us an explanation Tia, thou left us hanging with little information to go on, so we would like it if thou would explain it to us.”

“Luna,” said Twilight, “Don’t you think this can wait till later, both of us haven’t exactly had the best of days.”

“Stay out of this Twilight,” growled Luna, “thou may be our sister’s life mate but this is a family affair, so we ask that you leave.”

“No.”

The utter simplicity of the statement was such that it momentarily caused Luna pause, till finally her brain registered the fact that Twilight, a common pony, had defied her word.

“Thou dares…”

“Yes I dare,” said Twilight, standing to her full height and moving in front of Celestia, leveling a glare of her own before speaking again. “I am not only Celestia’s life mate; I am also her wife, which makes me royalty through marriage. But what this also makes me is your sister in law, which makes us family by extension, so for you to speak of this as a family matter and then try and force me out of it is spitting upon that family bond, and I will not have it.”

Twilight took a moment to breathe; calming herself down Luna simply stared at her in shock, her mind not knowing how to deal with this situation, then Twilight continued. “If what you have to talk with my Tia concerns me, then I would appreciate it if I could be involved in the conversation, and not treated as though I am nothing more than your sister’s plaything.”

That one hurt, and Twilight could see that it had, for Luna looked shocked at the mere thought of calling Twilight such. “We would never call thee such…”

“Then stop treating me as such,” said Twilight forcefully, before sitting down with Celestia and waiting patiently for Luna to speak.

It took a while, for Luna still felt that Twilight shouldn’t be involved in this, but she eventually relented. “Very well, seeing as how this question concerns thee, we shall direct it to thee. We wish to know why our sister and thee art keeping thine marriage a secret, for we would think that such a union should not be hidden.”

Twilight didn’t even flinch at the question, “I thought that would be obvious Luna, we need to keep this relationship a secret to protect Celestia’s political standing with the court.”

“And why would thine relationship be damaging to Celestia’s political standing, you two are doing nothing wrong.”

“Maybe not to you Luna, but a lot of things have changed over the years, especially in regards to…well to the kind of relationship Celestia and I have.”

“In what way,” asked Luna, thought she honestly didn’t believe her.

“Around fifty years ago some ponies decided that relationships of a romantic nature between a student and their teacher should be deemed as unhealthy, due to some studies done by the noted scientist Unhealthy Fixation. She stated that because of the power a teacher holds over their student, as well as the position a teacher has over their student, building such a relationship from that bases would prove unhealthy because the teacher would forever be the one who held power in said relationship, instead of it being shared. However, Celestia and I have since proven that such a relationship can work, for we do trade our power between each other instead of one of having it all but that is beside the point. Because of Unhealthy’s findings, relationships such as ours are frowned upon, and can even end up with certain ponies going to jail if things go really bad.”

“What,” said Luna, looking confused as she spoke. “That doth not make sense, relations of a romantic nature between a teacher and their pupil were always celebrated in our day, and there was certainly nothing unhealthy about any of those relations.”

“I understand Luna,” said Twilight honestly, “but because of how ponies would view our relationship, it would damage your sister’s position as princess, and that is not even taking into account if they found out the many…other activities we partake in.”

“That should not matter,” said Luna venomously, “it is no concern of theirs who our sister’s lover is or how thou two choose to spend thine private moments.”

“Sadly Luna,” said Celestia, “in this day and age what I choose to do during my private moments is of concern to both the nobles and the general public. But besides that, during the time you were gone the ponies began to…well…began to look upon me as a goddess, and not just of the sun…but of virginity as well.”

Luna was not pleased, “thou can’t be fucking serious! WE ARE NOT GODS!!!”

The last utterance had been done with the Royal Canterlot voice, except Twilight had never heard Luna’s version before. She had heard Celestia’s before, and while it was loud, it held a calming, gentle tone that always managed to calm ponies down. Luna’s however was like a thunderclap, loud, ferocious, and in this case, capable of shaking the entire mansion.

Luna what have I told you about using your Royal Voice,” said Celestia as she clutched Twilight protectively, “you know you are the most gifted among us when it comes to the voice.”

“We are sorry sister,” said Luna, “but we still get angry whenever we are referred to as such, it’s simply not true. Even sister Anastasia…”

“Luna,” cautioned Celestia, but it was already too late.

“Anastasia,” asked Twilight curiously as she looked up at Celestia, “is she one of those friends you said left long ago.”

Luna looked about ready to yell again, so Celestia quickly cut her off, looking down at Twilight as she spoke. “Yes Twilight, Anastasia was one of the alicorns who left long ago, a very old friend who was like a sister to us.”

She looked up and saw that Luna still looked even angrier, and realized it was time to speak with her sister alone, so she looked back down at Twilight and spoke. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I’m afraid I am going to need to finish this conversation with Luna alone, I hope you will understand.”

Twilight looked confused for a moment, but then nodded, knowing that when Celestia was ready, she would talk to her about it. Celestia and Luna watched as Twilight left the room, Luna waiting till she was sure Twilight was far enough away before turning back and letting Celestia have it. “We cannot believe thee!”

“Luna I can explain…”

“Thou told her of our other sisters, yet thou didn’t tell her that they were really our sisters, why would thou do such a thing!”

“Luna I had to tell her something, mostly because she became curious about how to…how to get me pregnant during one of my heat cycles…”

Luna’s jaw dropped, but Celestia kept going to keep her from interrupting. “Yes I know this must be strange, but that is not the point. After my heat was done, I gave her the book Marmora wrote during her pregnancy, which mentioned the fact that there were other alicorns. When she asked me about them I knew I had to tell her something, but I thought it would be too dangerous to give her the full truth, especially considering the amount of history I have spent covering up.”

Luna snorted angrily, her eyes actually flashing in anger as she glared at her sister. “Thou art telling me you are lying to her because thou our pasts are too dangerous to know of, Tia she is in more danger now because of what she does not know, what if Nyx comes back, or worse, what if Discordia returns?”

“That won’t happen Luna, Discordia is dea…”

“She is not dead,” yelled Luna, “we both know that is not true! If not for the fact of our nephew’s corruption by her claw, then the corruption spreading through the other kingdoms should be proof enough that she is still alive.”

“That is not proof at all sister,” said Celestia venomously, actually getting up as her anger and denial began to well up inside her. “We both know the corruption in the kingdoms is caused by the elements of Discord, as they are no longer being contained by their opposites, and as for our nephew Discord…you know his corruption was caused by his attempt to destroy the Element of Dark magic and nothing more.”

Luna couldn’t believe her ears, “So that’s what thou think is it, art thou seriously telling us thou art willing to make up those excuses and deny that our aunt Discordia has…”

“SHE CANT BE BACK LUNA!”

The emotion behind the yell caused Luna to pause, for behind the anger Celestia was obviously feeling was a fear so deep, so palpable, it could be seen in every fiber of the older alicorns being.

“She can’t be back Luna,” whispered Celestia, “she just can’t be…”

Luna hesitated for a moment, then walked up and pulled her sister into a hug, rubbing her hoof through the back of Celestia’s mane as she let her sob into her fur. “We are sorry sister, but we need you to see this as truth…however we shall drop it for now. We will talk more on this later, but for now we shall leave thee with thine wife, we expect her comfort will be of greater benefit then our own.”

She then left, and moments later Twilight walked back into the room, a look of concern on her face as she nuzzled in to Celestia before speaking. “I heard yelling earlier, is everything alright between you two?”

Celestia nodded, “yes my stallion, everything is fine, Luna just has a nasty habit of bringing up old pains from our past, pains I would rather be left forgotten.”

Twilight nodded as well, and then nuzzled Celestia again, kissing her on the neck and drawing a light chuckle. “So seeing as how we missed out on our anniversary, how do you want to spend what remaining time we have?

Celestia grinned, then with a surprising burst of strength, grabbed Twilight by the back of the neck and threw her onto the bed, leaping upon her with a seductive grin on her face. “Oh I think I can come up with something for us to do,” said the regal mare, but before she could do anything more there was a bright burst of light, and her pet phoenix Philomena appeared in the room.

“Philomena,” said Celestia, “why whatever are you doing here?”

The bird landed next to Twilight’s head on the pillow, squawking as it dropped a necklace down upon the bed, one which made Celestia gasp as she picked it up.

“Philomena where did you get this, I have been looking everywhere for this necklace?”

Philomena actually turned away from Celestia, covering its head with its wing as it shook with what Twilight could tell was self-contained giggles, which Twilight made note of.

“You stole this necklace,” asked Twilight, “didn’t you Philomena?”

Philomena at first didn’t react, for she had never really liked Twilight, for her opinion she felt Twilight had stolen her master from her, even though Philomena knew the young unicorn was her master’s mate. But eventually she nodded, causing her master to glare at her.

“Philomena how dare you, you knew this was a present for Twilight, a gift of utter devotion to her. I know you are jealous of how much time I spend with her but I cannot allow this behavior, into the cage with you missy!”

Philomena squawked in protest, but before she could make her escape a cage appeared around her, one with many runes and enchantments to keep the phoenix from escaping it till her punishment was over.

“There,” said Celestia with a satisfied grin, “and I want you to think about what you have done till I let you back out.”

She then sent the cadge back to her study, sighing deeply before turning back to Twilight, who was looking toward the necklace held within Celestia’s hoof.

“Sorry about that Twilight, it seems my dear companion is still quite jealous of you, she never got over the fact I never shared her feelings for me.”

Twilight nodded again, knowing of Philomena’s feelings for the princess, “yeah…I still find it weird though, I mean she is a bird. But let’s not dwell on that, I am assuming that is my anniversary present.”

Celestia nodded, and then draped the necklace over Twilight’s neck, smiling as it began to glow. “Yes it is, for I forged it myself, from the very fires of the sun.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and then she looked down at the necklace, wonderment etched on her face as she felt the warm glow of the fire inside, “It’s beautiful…”

“Not as beautiful as you,” said Celestia, before leaning down and capturing Twilight’s lips with her own, rolling her onto her back as they lost themselves within the passion they both held for each other.

Author's Note

I know what your all going to say, "what, no clop?" Well sorry folks, but this chapter was a major heavy hitter in in terms of both emotion and plot, and there is also the fact that this is a really long chapter.

Anyways I promise the next chapter will be heavy on the clop, after all, we shall be crossing into the fun little episode "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" where our beloved princess will be getting a visit from a certain stranger, wink wink. Till then, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and if you guys have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop them on by, you all know I love hearing from you guys.