Luna, Daughter of the Moon

Chapter 7: Luna, Daughter of the Moon

Gallopia Bastion,The First Kingdom of Equestria

Seventh Month (Summer)

Approximately 8,000 B.N.M.C. (8,000 years before Nightmare Moon Crisis)

There she was! At just two months old, Princess Luna was a healthy little alicorn foal.

As the newborn Princess Luna sat in her royal crib, she looked up at the figure that was her older sister, Princess Celestia.

Princess Luna smiled at her older sister from the inside of her crib.

But Princess Celestia did not smile back at Luna.

It was the ages old story: now that Princess Luna had been born into the royal family, Princess Celestia was no longer the youngest or most cared for member of the royal family.

In the older days of ponykind, an event known as a "foal shower" was celebrated one month after the birth of a foal. The high foal mortality rate caused by a lack of advanced medical technology prompted family and friends to celebrate one if a foal survived more than one month after birth.

However, since Princess Luna was no ordinary foal, what she at her foal shower got was the royal treatment.

Royal, famous, and even some common ponies of Equestria came from near and far to see the new royal foal. They gave Luna and Queen Aeterna expensive presents as well as goodwill from their respective races and providences.

And then there was the attention. All that attention on one little royal foal for just being born on this planet.

"I guess she deserves all that attention." Celestia hoarsed to herself.

But all this attention towards just Princess Luna and just her only over the past two months made the young Princess Celestia sick!

What could be said that hadn't been already said? Celestia hated that she wan't the foal of the royal family anymore!

Terra and Aeterna, Celestia's parents, had hardly spoke more than 4 sentences to her all day!

And Solaris had never even told Celestia that her mother was pregnant with Princess Luna in the first place!!

She couldn't take it, she shouldn't have been allowed to bear it in the first place, her parents should have-

The whole planet seemed to stop an instant for Celestia, she seemed to have diverted her attention from her thoughts becuase of...what was that a wobbling noise?

Then she heard it: a distinct shatter. It made both of her ears stand on end like the tail of a cat when it becomes excited.

Even though Princess Celestia knew full well what that sound meant, she turned slowly, until- she- made- a- 360 degree- turn- and...

Every foal, filly and colt's worst nightmare was now before her: a broken ceramatics set, beyond hope of repair. It looked More than a thousand years old, probably from her father's side. What was she thinking initiating her anger into her body?

Celestia's Royal alicorn blood ran colder when she heard the approach of local hoofbeats coming in her direction.

"Celestia? Princess Celestia? I heard a loud noise just a second ago...are you alright little filly?"

It was obviously the voice of Duchess Goethe that Princess Celestia heard around the other hallway. Was she going to see the mess and punish Celestia? Dispatch a servant to quietly clean up the mess and remove the jar and never tell Celestia's parents? Wilfully ignore it out of love for her? Yell at her personally?

"Why hello my little filly." Duchess Goethe stated, while glancing down at the princess "Are you-"

At the very instant that Duchess Goethe saw the wreckage of the shattered vase, the pupils of her eyes shrank up and tightened. Celestia, seeing her mentor's reaction, took a hoofstep back in fear of her teacher's coming reply.

"C-celestia! You should be more careful! Don't you know you could have been hurt trotting around broken pieces of pottery?" Goethe inquired sternly.

A warning and a question? That was it? Did she even know that Celestia was the pony that broke the vase in the first place?

"I...um..." Celestia started slowly with her alicorn wings dropping down "I was kinda the one...to break the case in the first place..." Celestia admitted shyly.

"What!?"

Celestia's eyes widened and her ears drooped. The Princess was semi-aware of the kind of punishment she could expect from her parents, but not from her Mentor.

Feelings started to well up inside of Celestia along with her recent sudden memories of change and oddity. The vase. Her new sister that took the attention away from her parents. Her two new mentors. Her parents' several months abstinence due to the whole unicorn dilemma. She just couldn't take just couldn't...

The entire time Celestia was going over her memories, she didn't listen to the voice of her governess ".....I'm sure that it wasn't an antique vase anyway, little royal filly. All the old pottery and artifacts are probably kept along with all the other priceless ancient alicorn relics in the royal vault in the deep dungeons of Gallopia. I'm also sure--"

Celestia bolted away from Goethe with tears as hot as new tea bursting down her face.

"Princess! What's wrong, honey? I already explained to you that it was not a new vase at all!"

Celestia bounded past the royal kitchens and up the main stairwell two floors upwards. She knew where she was going, she was going to the hall of the alicorn ancestors.

The hall of the alicorn ancestors still took her breath away.

The hall of the alicorn ancestors was a huge domed room (if it could be merely called a "room") that would have dwarfed the largest domed rooms in the future Manehatten. The floor, walls and ceiling were all made up of polished white marble that broke only with the door leading in and the skylight (which was currently darkened since it was nighttime) at the tippy-top of the dome and eclipsed on the floor by a long ruby red rug.

On the white sides of the room were the statues of many an ancient alicorn, getting larger and larger as a pony would step down the narrow red carpet to the end of the room.

And what of the end to that room? Celestia was never told exactly what it was, that is to say, she knew that is was a casket, a containment device to keep the bodies of dead ponies, but to whom lay in it and for what reason it was put at the end of the room was never told to her.

Celestia came between an autumn-themed alicorn and a water themed alicorn and pushed the bare exposed marble wall between them with her horn.

Pushing gently but quickly, Princess Celestia pushed the wall back enough to open a door in the marble wall to reveal a long dark passageway that ked out of the hall of the alicorn ancestors!

When Celestia was younger, barely out of her own foalhood, she discovered the dark passageway while hiding from her parents for not eating all of her vegetables at dinner. Back then, she was scared of the pitch-black corridor, but now, it was her secret place of refuge that was now much less scary ever since Starswirl the bearded taught Celestia a illumination spell.

Nevertheless, there was much of the corridors that were unknown to Celestia and some parts that still frightened her. She assumed that it was once either old closed off servant's quarters, or some sort of weird archaic tunnel system used by the alicorns of old to spy on one another.

The ultimate advantage of the corridors and rooms was the secretive ability to spy on ponies in other known rooms of the castle Gallopia. Sometimes if Celestia was curious about something she wasn't allowed to be aware of, she would slip into the corridors and eavesdrop on unsuspecting ponies. This is how she would find out what she was getting for her birthday for example.

But today of all days she had one room she had in mind of overhearing into, the nursery of her sister Princess Luna.

Celestia dimmed her magic alicorn-light as she approached a hallway with the pink label that she had made herself of "sister's room" on the floor.

The hallway had two holes drilled through it, one for hearing and one for seeing. Celestia had not formed these holes, which added to her personal theories that the corridors were once used by alicorns to spy on each other.

She was taken slightly aback in surprise to find out that her parents were present below her talking amongst themselves. She figured before that the voices she heard were just some nanny-ponies for Luna.

".....good for her, and tell her, of course, that we still love her and that it isn't really any big deal." It was the voice of Celestia's father, King Terra, apparently talking to Queen Aeterna about the broken vase.

"I think her sudden disappearance might also be a, perhaps, predictable reaction to the new addition of her foal-sister." Artemis said, glancing over to Princess Luna in her crib.

"Speaking of little Luna," King Artemis started, turning to his wife "everything worked out for you to be with her for a whole day and tonight. I've taken care of everything, royal duties, royal work, traditions and rituals, you'll have your first full day with Luna in a long time."

"Oh, excellent!" Queen Artemis said while snuggling Princess Luna between her cheek and her pacifier.

"And I hope to the ancestors that you can have many more days such as tomorrow." He straightened himself on his hooves. "Duty calls, see you in the morning at breakfast." He said just before kissing the Queen. "And we need to tell Celestia why we didn't tell her about her sister's birth."

"That we do." Aeterna sighed. "See you in the morning, dear."

King Terra walked out leaving only Aeterna and Luna in the Nursery together with Celestia secretly above.

For the next couple of minutes, Queen Artemis just stared at the sickeningly adorable foal Princess Luna. While it may have disgusted Princess Celestia, she had to admit, the scene was cute and touching.

Finally,  Aeternaspoke.

"How would you like it if mama sang you a lullaby?" Aeterna cooed to her foal.

Princess Luna did nothing except for sucking her moon-themed pacifier, but Queen Aeterna starting singing:

Oh sweet moon-foal of mine

sweet foal of Lunar kind,

rest your gentle starry eyes,

oh my precious foal of the night sky.

May your dreams be soft

in towering imaginations aloft

oh close your minute eyelids soon,

my dearest baby, Luna, daughter...of...the...moon...

After Luna had closed her heavy eyes, Queen Aeterna tucked a blanket over her, blew out all the candles in the room, and curled up besides Luna's crib.

The entire event came to Princess Celestia as infinitely sweet, and for the rest of that night, she forgot about her vase dilemma and her jealousy towards Luna.

After getting to the room that she always slept in the corridors, Princess Celestia curled up just like her mother, and went to sleep just like her sister.