Brand New Life, It's A Glorious Day

"Luna!" Called Celestia as she galloped down the corridors of the castle. She goes through the last few libraries and rooms in the upper levels, and looks for the stairwell to the middle levels of the castle.

'Luna, what in EQUESTRIA are you thinking?! This land is not meant to be ruled by only one! It just isn't! My sister, why would you wish for such a thing to be brought upon you!? I just can't let it happen! I can't!' Celestia fumbled mentally. She finds the flight of stairs, and floats down; knocking a few guards on the way with her massive wings in the process.

"Terribly sorry! I will explain later!" She shouted over her shoulder.

"Wait! What's the matter?!" Cried one of them as the other guard picks himself up and trots down behind the princess as quickly as possible. He stops, and looks up the stairs behind him, beckoning aggressively to the other guard to follow. The sound of wings flapping along with hooves shuffling down the polished stone staircase echo throughout the stairwell.

"Luna!" Celestia bellowed once again, anxiety seeping in her tone a little. The guards, although formally, follow in suite.

"Princess Luna!"

They all reach the bottom in lightspeed, the guards right behind Celestia.

"Where now your highness?" One of them spoke up. Celestia ignores them, galloping off to search for her sister. The guards hastily try to catch up, the leading officer gesturing more guards to follow as they run along.

"What's going on?!" One of the privates piped up.

"We're looking for princess Luna!" The leading guard grunted between breaths. The sun god was oblivious to the stampeding guards behind her. She wasn't losing her composure, but her concern for her sister grew as every month she remembered ruling alone played back in her mind like a slideshow. Celestia felt like crying just for thinking about it. To let such a punishment be given to her beloved younger sister. It was as if Luna was oblivious to the past thousand years she spent in isolation. That alone was her punishment.

"Luna!" A distant echo, followed by the sound of a dozen or more heavy hooves reverberated in the corridor outside the royal kitchen. Luna's ears immediately perked up, her eyes aimlessly looking around.

"...Strange, I thought I heard my name being called." She mumbles to herself. Her ears scanned for more sounds, but after a short moment, she shrugs, and levitates her spoon from one of the cabinets again. Another short moment passes as she begins to feel a subtle vibration shake the polished marble under her hooves. She pauses once more, and leaves her spoon on top of the counter in front of her. At the very same moment, it all ceased.

"Are my senses deceiving me?" She wondered outloud.

The smell of the bread warming up in the toaster fills her nostrils, bringing her attention back to the task at hoof.

"Mmm. I can taste that sandwich already." She licks her lips as she rubs her hooves together. The toaster gave it's cliché metallic popping noise, bouncing the toasted slices of bread up. She grins, and prepares her well practiced spell.

"First time after quite a while now that I think of it." She scratches her chin with her hoof. She dismisses the thought, and focuses on the spell once more. As her horn glows a dim hue of blue, she takes a few suspicious glances around the massive kitchen, then peeks out the kitchen doors to make sure nopony was around. With a final quick scan around the kitchen, she rubs her hooves together, and launches the spell.

All the ingredients began to levitate by themselves.

"PB and J! Be made, I say!"

The jars of peanut butter and jelly open, the spoon swiftly scooping the peanut butter, then the jelly onto the two slices of bread, spreading the contents evenly allover. The lid of the jars screw themselves shut as the jars themselves float effortlessly back into their rightful cabinets. The spoon then uses it's opposite end to pull the handle on the sink, washes the residue off itself, and floats back into it's rightful place aswell. Luna then pushes the sink handle back off, the handle giving a typical squeak as she does.

"Success!" She threw her hooves up in the air. Luna then giggles to herself, a thought reoccurring.

"Now I remember! I haven't done that spell ever since I created it back when I was a... filly." She looked mindlessly into the air, her jaw slacked a little.

"My my... how time flies."

She swore she could hear her laughs as a filly in the very same kitchen, as a second laugh came from a youthful Celestia. A grin crept onto the face of Luna.

"Well now... Time to reward myself for a spell well done!" She levitates the two slices of bread together, and prepares to take a bite.

"L-...Luna?" Celestia uttered in a tone of confusion.

"BAH!!" Luna turns around, her shout muffled by her mouthful of the sandwich. A few crumbs tumbled out of her mouth as she held an expression of terror and shock when her eyes laid upon her sister, along with the mob of guards behind her.

The guards behind the sun god simply sit still, feeling uneasy. One of the privates whispers to another. Shortly after, most guards begin whispering as silently as they can.

'I have a feeling we're not suppose to be here..'

'Should we go?'

'No, stay put.'

'I think this is a personal thing, sir.'

'Guys, hush!'

'What if this is important?'

'The kingdom could be in danger!'

"How, Luna." Celestia deadpanned. Absolute silence came from the guards the moment Celestia opened her mouth.

"What?" Luna questioned innocently.

"Luna, how can you be eating a sandwich while knowing that in about 24 hours you are about to receive the entire weight of the crown on your shoulders? The entire land of Equestria, all of the responsibilities, all the lives, on you? Not to mention that I can barely scratch the surface if I even bother explaining everything else for the rest of the day."

"Sister, you act as if i'm not aware." Luna tries to respond in her most understanding tone.

"The stress will eat you alive within weeks if your lucky."

"Sister.."

"-And right now, we're in the middle of a massive dispute with the Gryphon nation, Luna."

"Tia."

"-Las Pegasus is also expecting us to help them soon with their issue of the drought that is becoming progressively troublesome."

"Celestia, liste-"

"The citizens of Cloudsdale have also been complaining about the trade routes being thrown off track due to the lack of staff in the weather team."

"Sister, please listen."

"Luna, I just-I just can't. I won't let you inflict such a horrid punishment on yourself." Celestia began to go into a world of her own. "I can't. You-You will... you won't. You just won't. You'd regret it." Her voice began to fade out.

"...Tia."

"Do you have any idea how miserable you would be?!" Celestia snapped, her voice cracking.

Luna's eyes shot wide, and with a swift motion she grabbed Celestia's face, and pulled it toward her own. That, struck a nerve.

"CELESTIA!" Luna cried in an angered and demanding tone, many gasps were heard. Celestia, being caught off guard, looked into Luna's eyes, not many inches away. She stared not in fear, but in shock.

"Do you see it?.." Luna asked rhetorically. She could feel her heart pounding now. The sheer silence that was in the enormous kitchen filled the air with tension. The guards felt it. Everypony was holding their breath. A maid who was curiously peering through the door of the kitchen, enters slowly, not making a sound.

"I know what's going on with the kingdom, sister. Do not speak to me as if i'm a filly." Luna calmed her tone.

"We've talked for days now. It's no secret between us anymore."

A few maids were now listening, along with the guards. All completely mute.

"You forget too much. That you are simply a pony, like I, like these guards, and like our subjects." Luna lightened her grip on her sister's face a little, being more gentle.

A chef comes in as quiet as a mouse, holding his gold trimmed hat humble as always in one of his forelegs. Caramel Drop simply watches, along with the rest. In silence.

"You've told me your stories, Tia. I've heard your heart speak of it's desires out loud. Only to feel helpless by your side, as you shed tears on my shoulder. It felt like a dagger to my heart." Luna swallowed. The two royal alicorns hadn't broken eye contact at all yet, as the kitchen slowly filled with another guard, another maid, another chef, accountants, secretaries, scholars, one by one. The tension was gone, but the words being spoken out of Luna's mouth were personal. There was a deep level the conversation had struck now, and most were considering leaving the two to be.

But they all felt compelled to listen.

"But now, sister... Now, i'm giving you a chance." The dark alicorn releases her hooves from Celestia's face, but their eyes still locked into one another.

"Luna, no- I can't let you-"

"No." Luna silenced her.

"You don't understand do you." She spoke in a low tone. It wasn't one of intimidation though. It was more of the opposite.

It felt...

Heartbroken.

Luna felt a heavy weight inside her chest, as her emotions began to pry its way into her.

"Everything use to be perfect, sister. We depended on each other our entire lives because in the end, we only had each other." The princess of the night inhales through her nose, audibly quivering.

"No other pony can raise and set the sun and moon every single day of the year. No other pony can live long enough to be by our side as we run the kingdom so the gears of the land can continue to spin. No other pony can help protect the entire land from the evil and chaos that inevitably attacks us in the worst of times. No other pony can hold in generations, centuries of wisdom and knowledge."

Luna pauses, looking deep into Celestia's pale magenta eyes, as if she was speaking into her mind. Her throat begins to form a knot.

"But most importantly... No, other pony can replace you, or I."

The kitchen was full.

"Then. I took off, with the most selfish desires in my heart. Just like that, I left."

Half the staff of the castle must've been in the enormous room.

"I left you heartbroken, and with salt in your wound."

Shoulder to shoulder, they all listened.

"For a millennia." Luna spoke slowly.

Silence.

Celestia, for once, was beginning to feel the pain of Luna. She could feel the dagger making it's way into her heart.

"I love you, sister... But for once... feel my pain." She pleaded with a soft voice.

"I'd rather go through a millennia with the stress of the entire kingdom on my shoulders, than to go through another millennia watching you tremble under it in misery." Luna choked in the end of the sentence, her eyes building water. She wipes one of her eyes with her hoof, forcing in a sharp, small breath at the same time.

"It's never been the same anymore, Celestia... I c-can't watch you suffer. It hurts... so b-bad." The dark alicorn began to whimper, trying to hold herself together.

"So don't you t-try and ask me... about how miserable I'd be." Her voice died out in the end.

Within seconds, she fell into her sister, and broke down into tears. Among the sea of ponies, and immense silence, all that was heard was the sound of the princess of the night sobbing into the shoulder of her sister. Echoing.

Celestia slowly reached her hoof around Luna, mindlessly looking into the distance with a blurred vision. Spitfire watched from afar in silence. Her jaw visibly clenched as she felt a tear form in the corner of her eye. She brought a hoof halfway up to her face, but slowly placed it back down. The teardrop rolled down her cheek slowly, and eventually hung from her jaw, dropping onto the ground.

Everypony slowly shuffled their way out of the room, trying their best to do so in silence. Everypony except Caramel Drop, who sat all the way by the door, looking at the ground with his eyes closed.