The War for Summer

Escalation of force.

Three simple words, that when strung together in the Equestrian language could refer to a myriad of things.

For Princess Celestia, escalation of force referred to her plans to capture and reform her little sister. After a fruitless hour of chasing Luna through the castle and around Canterlot, her sister's prophetic warnings about one too many slices of cake were becoming dangerously close to fulfilled. It did not help as well, that her target knew as much about avoiding magic traps and detection as Celestia knew about casting magic traps and detection spells. (Even the snare-trap she had set with a moonpie as bait had failed to capture anything, save for a hungry Night Guard wandering while off duty.) For an alicorn that had just returned to her kingdom after a thousand years of absence, Luna seemed to know the ins and outs of the royal castle better than she had assumed.

There was only one trump card Celestia still held over her sister, but she loathed to use it. There was a limit to underhoofed and dirty tactics between immortal entities of the same family, mind you. And the last time that line had been crossed, somepony ended up taking an involuntary vacation on the moon for a thousand years.

But if push came to shove, she knew that she could use it to bend Luna into submission.

After she had calmed down (on her own and with aid from the castle's staff), in hindsight she wondered if her little sister even understood the significance of summer in Equestria. Not only for ponies across the land, but for living creatures of all different races who relied on the sun to survive. How many noble houses in the Griffon Kingdom had signed mutual-alliance treaties, and were just as loyal to the Equestrian throne as the Griffon throne? Or how many dragon clans in the east had even tried to worship her as a goddess, after learning of her power to control the sun? How many monsters and abominations had thought twice about preying on ponies, after learning of who ruled over them?

Equestria's history was tied to the sun.

The laws of nature. The roles of master and servant; the eternal struggle between the weak and the strong to trade places with each other. The plagues of social and racial conflicts other nations constantly faced did not exist in Equestria because of the unity brought by the sun.

And summer was the season that embodied that.

But if there was one other thing Equestria embodied, it was the importance of harmony.

Promoting harmony, living by harmony, and upholding harmony.

And that meant forgiving a younger sibling (no matter whose fault it was) for starting trouble.

"You're going to apologize first, I assume?"

On her throne, Celestia sat at a slant leaning on one hoof in thought. Just past midday, the sun shown through the stained-glass windows and her throne with a bright intensity. Waddling into the great hall that lead up to the throne room, she could hear the lumbering steps of her guest heading toward her as well as his wings flexing. Bureaucrats around the throne room parted like water, as he strode casually past them.

"Really Celly, when are you just going to admit that you and your sister were born antagonists?"

"It is our fights that make our bond as sisters stronger," Celestia remarked coolly. She righted herself, giving her guest the full attention a close friend deserved.

"You should know something about that, Periwinkle. You were hatched from a full nest, were you not?"

Balancing himself up on his tail, a blue wyvern with matching colors to his name let out a grunt of agreement. When standing up straight, Periwinkle stood at least twice as many bodies as Celestia. But for a wyvern in service to a greater dragon, size meant little since the position of ambassador to Equestria entailed more than being intimidating in size. For all of the stereotypes about Wyverns being inferior and stupid compared to dragons in a multitude of ways (something that she had never heard Periwinkle deny), Peri himself had shown considerable cunning in the past. But lacking the forelegs of his larger kin, it was always amusing to watch Peri's body language reflect the creatures he socialized with that did.

"If you are here to find out what is going on, I've already forgiven my sister."

"Indeed I am," Peri gave her a fang-filled smile. "It is good to know that there will be peace in my time. There are enough problems in the world, wouldn't you agree?"

"Mmm," Celestia gave a neutral groan, slowly sliding back into her lazy posture on her throne. Chasing Luna around the castle and the city had sapped most of her strength, and it was hard to keep appearances hiding that.

"Have you come to make small talk, Peri? It's my day off, you know."

"Oh! I know, I know." Still balancing on his tail, Peri waved off her concerns with his massive foot. "I'm just here to ask if you would like to go sunbathing with me, since you've scared your sister off. I am cold-blooded, after all. And while I have your attention, I could suck up to you on some really minor issues my juniors will not stop demanding I talk to you about."

"Demands?" Celestia almost laughed. The idea of several smaller wyverns crowding around Peri and voicing their inane concerns amused her greatly. To his credit, the Peri she knew was more likely to cannibalize his own kin than listen to their complaints. The things that some other races complained about Equestrians (everything from pony coat colors to the vibrancy of rainbows) was entertaining, to say the least.

"I didn't know you listened to them."

"Oh, well you know how that can be. I have to humor them sometimes, right?" With his foot still raised, Peri looked over his razor-sharp pedicured claws over with a sharper eye. "Sort of like what you do with your nephew, from time to ti--"

"Your Majesty?"

Interrupting them both, Celestia turned and saw Loto at her side. Unlike before, he was dressed in his standard golden armor but without his helmet covering his face. All the better to see his handsome features with. Suspended in the air with his magic was a napkin and a glass of her favorite red tonic that she had been drinking earlier.

He looked at her expectantly, but she stared back at him unsure.

"Loto," she lifted the drink off of the tray with her own magic, "I don't remember asking for this."

"Well, Your Majesty," Loto gave a bow to her, placing his serving tray on his back. "The kitchen heard about your...incident earlier, and assumed you would like one as soon as you returned to the throne. To relax, of course."

Celestia stared at the hypnotically appealing cocktail, and could smell the faint fragrance of tropical fruit blends and secret ingredients. The mixture was a secret to all except some of her most prized chefs, and it would be a shame to turn down something so prized just because her afternoon had been interrupted early. After all, it wasn't the drink's fault that a routine sisterly squabble had broken out into something...silly. Right?

"Thank you, Loto." She took a sip of the drink, savoring the flavors as they washed over her tongue and into her mouth. "Tell the kitchen staff I said 'thank you' as well."

Loto smiled, "Of course, Your Majesty." He then gave another bow, before leaving from to where he came.

Celestia looked at Periwinkle, who was staring at the contents of her drink while she drank. By the look on his face it was clear that he was thinking something, but wasn't going to voice it any time soon. After finishing some of her drink, she dabbed her mouth daintily and turned to him.

"Would you like one?"

Peri held up his other foot with a look on his face that was unclear. "No, thank you. I can't imagine what something like that would do to my insides."

"It's just fruit juice," Celestia said, noting how her cocktail was radiating its own light. "It won't kill you, I promise."

"Again, I must decline," Peri insisted, turning to look out the window and putting his foot down. He watched her finish the rest of her drink in silence, occasionally glancing out one of the windows back and forth between her and something outside. All around them, the bureaucrats of the day court went about their business and their chatter began to slowly fill the room. Business as usual was good for Celestia, but look on Peri's face had changed again.

"...Is something on your mind?"

"That guardsman." He pointed a claw on his foot in the direction Loto left. "Has he been close to you...for long?"

"I don't see how that is any of your business," Celestia felt a light blush touch her cheeks, when the first thing she recalled about Loto was how firm his curves were. And how soft his coat was. And how diligent, intelligent, and witty he could be. "Why do you ask?"

Peri blinked, before shaking his head. "Hmm. Forget I said anything. If you'll excuse me, Your Radiance."

With an abrupt turn that sent a gust of wind blowing about the throne room from his tail alone, Peri waddled off toward the exit. But before reaching it, he stopped after glancing outside one of the clear windows in the throne room. Celestia had picked up some papers left beside her throne awaiting her signature, but watching Peri freeze stopped her too. Whatever he was staring at outside of the castle had grabbed his full attention, and was starting to become a great amusement to him.

She placed her empty glass on a table behind her throne. "Peri, is there something else I should know about?"

"...Perhaps?" the wyvern answered with a poorly hidden grin. "But some things...are best seen for...yourself."

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked, stepping off her throne with dread. At this point the periwinkle wyvern could no longer control himself, and had broken down into a lewd snicker. He rocked back and forth in place, threatening to tumble himself over and crush some poor workers of the day court who were standing nearby. Despite her smaller size, she shoved him aside and looked out the window.

Peri laughed even harder, watching Celestia's jaw start to drop when she looked up into the sky.

For all of Equestria to see, the moon was eclipsing her sun. Not entirely, mind you. But occulting just enough so that every single resident of Equestria had probably looked in the last ten minutes to wonder why the sun's light had dulled. Squinting harder, on the lunar surface of the moon she could see a very crude drawing in the moon's sands resembling her sister's rump.

Cutie mark and all.

"N-now Celly," Peri tried to say, but broke down again into outright laughter. "Y-you're t-t-th-e eldest! Don't k-kill her! H-h-h-hAH, hah hah hah! Ahhh, HAH HAH HAH!"

Unable to control himself any longer, Peri fell over onto his sides laughing. The last thing he saw (through his blurred vision), was Celestia turning back around and marching up to her throne. Opening up a drawer in the table behind it, she whipped out a small grey box from inside and stormed out of the throne room without so much as a single word.

Finally managing to calm down, he looked at the shocked faces of the bureaucrat ponies around him with pity.

Equestria hadn't experienced a war for several centuries. But in one afternoon, a war over summer had been declared.