In an attempt to limit confusion while keeping the flow of the story as natural as possible, Alicorn Celestia will be referred to as the Princess or Princess Celestia, while Unicorn/Human Celestia will just be called Celestia. If it still ends up confusing please let me know and I'll try to come up with a better notation to differentiate them.
Princess Celestia and Sunset Shimmer found themselves just standing and watching the scene before them unfold. It had taken a few minutes for the Princess to finish venting years of worry for her former student, but the hug had finally come to an end, and the two had then caught sight of the other two ponies in the room.
"So this is weird." Princess Celestia said with a light chuckle.
"I imagine meeting a not-quite-right version of yourself would be pretty strange." Sunset agreed.
"Actually that's a bit more common than you would think, and not what I was talking about." Princess Celestia said with a wry grin. "I was talking about that." she added, gesturing with a hoof.
Before them, Luna had effectively pinned a shell-shocked looking High School Principal turned mythical creature to the ground and was vigorously rubbing her cheek against Celestia's. "Sister, look! She's so cute! Can I keep her? Please! I promise I'll take better care of her than that timberwolf!" Luna begged, while attempting to make her eyes look as large and as sad as possible.
Princess Celestia gave her sister an exasperated look. "No you absolutely cannot 'keep her', I'm fairly sure that would technically be slavery, even if she isn't really a pony, though that's just my assumption."
While somewhere along the way Celestia had realized this Luna likely wasn't her sister, the whole experience still left her a bit dazed. The comforting familiarity of her overly affectionate and goofy sister battled with the insanity of seeing her as a giant fluffy pony. Despite all that, Celestia still managed to snap out of it as she heard the Princess correctly point out that she wasn't a pony. "Wait, how did you know that?" She asked as she not-so-gently extracted herself from underneath Luna.
"This sort of thing may have happened before." Princess Celestia admitted with a sigh. "Speaking of which, what did you used to be?"
"Um, human?" Celestia half answered and half asked, hoping her other self would be less foreign to the term than Twilight had been.
"Ah of course, that would explain why Sunset is here." Princess Celestia said as several mental puzzle pieces clicked neatly into place. "Why don't we go and have a bit of a chat while Sunset and Luna get a chance to meet each other." Princess Celestia turned her attention back towards her sister and Sunset. "Despite having always wanted to, due to ah...circumstances, I've never had the opportunity to introduce the two of you."
Looks of sheepish guilt flashed across both the reformed villains' faces almost simultaneously, and Princess Celestia couldn't help but giggle to herself for a moment. "I think you both may find you have a lot in common." With that, she gave the two a quick wink and turned towards a door, gesturing for Celestia to follow.
Following the Princess' lead, Celestia found herself in a cozy tea room that seemed to have an unnatural number of windows and skylights that made the room feel as if it was filled with the midday sun from every angle. Princess Celestia gravitated immediately towards a large, well worn cushion, while directing her towards one of several smaller cushions. Celestia quickly plopped down onto one, grateful she didn't need to try furniture climbing yet again.
As she was getting comfortable, a pony in what looked like a stereotypical butler outfit converted to fit a pony quietly entered the room, deposited an enormous tea tray in front of them, and then just as discreetly exited. All in all it was much calmer and less shocking service than she had received in Twilight's castle.
Princess Celestia quickly swept two cups and the tea pot up in her golden magic and began expertly pouring two perfect portions of the steaming liquid. "If I know myself half as well as I think I do, I think you'll enjoy this," she said playfully as she daintily floated the cup into range of the unicorn's similarly hued magic.
Celestia smiled gratefully, trying to shake off the feeling that she was staring at a weird mixture of herself and her mother as she took a small sip of the fresh tea. Immediately her eyes widened in surprise and she found herself greedily gulping down the entire cup. "Holy hell that's good tea!" she exclaimed with a contented sigh, before cringing and looking up at her hostess. "I-I'm sorry, I'm sure that was very rude...I've never been in the presence of royalty before."
The Princess merely chuckled and began to refill the empty cup. "I'm fairly sure my own reaction was far more vulgar when I first tried it, I had a very foul mouth when I was younger." she admitted with a hint of nostalgia. "though I suppose you know that already. Speaking of which, how old are you?"
Celestia was somewhat taken aback by the sudden personal question, but figured there was no harm in answering when it was essentially herself she was telling. "Um...29," she answered casually after a moment's hesitation.
Princess Celestia gave her a strange grin in response. "Hmmm I see. You should get better at fibbing, you'll be doing it for awhile. Even after 3,817 years, I still like to lie about my age too." she explained with another mischievous wink.
Celestia's eye twitched at hearing the impossible approximate age of her counterpart as she attempted to fathom even a fraction of such a long lifetime. "You can't possibly be anywhere near that age!"
"Oh I assure you, it's entirely...mostly...true," Princess Celestia responded, giving her a truthful, if still somewhat deviant smile. "Though I very clearly remember being your age as well. I had such a temper back then...I miss it sometimes, it's hard to get riled up about things when you've seen them a million times," she admitted with a tired sigh. "Anyways, I'm sure you didn't come here so I could reminisce about my youth, what brings you to Equestria?"
Celestia took a moment to think about it, but realized there was no real elegant way to put it. "I just sort of...fell, and then ended up here," she said with a shrug. "Next thing I know, two of my students are explaining why everyone is a pony and why I can't go home. For the sake of my mental health I've given up on trying to understand any of it."
Again the Princess found herself chuckling in the face of behaviors and mannerisms she had long forgotten doing herself. "Well my little...me...that's probably for the best. Inter-dimensional portals can be finicky things and you likely won't be able to return anytime soon. I highly suggest you attempt to enjoy yourself in the mean time, and things will work themselves out when the time comes. Besides, what better place for a vacation than somewhere where you technically made all the rules."
The constant mischievous glint in the Princess' eye seemed to only strengthen as she spoke, and at the mention of the the dreaded word 'vacation', Celestia began to suspect that maybe she knew more about things than she was letting on. She considered trying to probe further, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel like being given cryptic advice from an all knowing immortal goddess was just something that is supposed to happen when you end up in a magic fantasy land.
"You've definitely been reading too many fantasy novels..." she muttered to herself, returning to sipping at the delightful tea.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the pair of Celestias walked out of the room, Luna and Sunset looked at each other with interest, both having noticed their identical reactions to Princess Celestia's words.
"So, what did you do?" Sunset asked carefully, hoping she was understanding the situation correctly.
Luna gave a strained frown at the question, never eager to discuss her time as Nightmare Moon, but figured there had to be some reason her sister had brought attention to it, so with a resigned sigh she answered. "I sort of...let myself get so jealous of my sister that I tried to murder her, take over Equestria, and plunge it into eternal darkness, only to get banished to the moon where I spent 1000 years plotting revenge..." she admitted, feeling the guilt wash over her yet again. "You?"
It was Sunset's turn to squirm somewhat, having only just stopped experiencing reoccurring nightmares starring herself as a murderous demon. "Well I...ran away to another dimension when the Princess wouldn't make me a princess, then I tried to rule over that place like a princess by stealing the element of magic, which then turned me into a demon with a zombie army..."
Both of them at this point were cemented in a cringe and had their eyes closed tight to avoid any judging looks from the other. As each of their stories sunk in however, both slowly relaxed and looked at the other curiously.
"Huh.." was all Luna could think to say, realizing for the first time she had found somepony else that understood what it was like to be feared and avoided for past misdeeds.
"Yeah..." Sunset was at a similar loss for words. Even though her friends and a few other students had forgiven her, quite a few still gave her cold looks and treated her like her old self. For once she felt like she was in the presence of someone she didn't have to prove her reformation to.
Both of them stood silently for a minute, just coming to terms with the slightly awkward but also slightly fantastic feeling of understanding. Finally, a rather foreign question popped into Luna's head.
"Soooo...friends?" she asked, trying and failing miserably to keep her desperate hope from showing in her voice.
"Yeah...I think I'd like that very much." Sunset said almost immediately, a small smile curling her lips.
Luna smiled as well, moving in closer to Sunset and wrapping a navy blue wing around her before moving in to whisper in her ear. "So...do you wanna go steal one sock from every pair my sister owns? I happen to know she has a rather large collection and likes to wear them whenever nobody is around."
Sunset's timid smile immediately spread into a rather predatory looking grin. "Yes, yes I do." Sunset may have been reformed, but she wasn't that reformed.
With what sounded like a miniature version of a supervillain's laugh, Luna grabbed Sunset's hoof and began leading her back towards the royal bedchambers, the two of them leaving just in time to miss hearing a shrill cry ring from the adjacent tea room, though had they heard it, it would have been impossible to tell which white pony was responsible.
"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? DO I LIKE SOCKS? WHO TOLD YOU!?"
Sunset and Luna conspiring...sound like a fun scenario for me.
I just had a thought: Luna and Sunset go on a pranking spree on Blueblood.
5967004 I second the motion!
P.S. At last the two Celestia's meet, now let's see where this goes from here.
5967004 YESSS
5967030 Narcissistic sexytimes?
Wait... Don't tell me the Princess arranged the Principal "vacation"? Is Celestia manipulating herself
A very cute chapter... I enjoyed the interactions between the Elder Princess and the more mortal Principal. One does have to wonder how the whole alternate universe thing works, although I suspect that being a Principal for thousands of years would be significantly worse than being the ruler of a magical land...
I also enjoyed the Luna and Sunset bonding (although part of me noted that Luna was there when Twilight first went through the mirror and so knew the story of Sunset Shimmer... Still, perhaps she was just being polite in feigning ignorance.) Not only do they both have villainous pasts, but they both know what It feels like to take a Twilight-aimed Rainbow of Friendship to the face. One wonders if they both might share a crush on the purple pony as a result...
You so kewt.
lol Just.... lol ^_^
I'd say you did quite a good job with keeping the Celestias distinct from one another. As for the conversation, it's quite interesting to learn that the princess was quite like the principal when she was younger. It makes sense in hindsight, and yet it rather comes as a shock.
They're really going to need to wait until the cosmic conjunction? Ouch. Hope Principal Celestia has plenty of days off. And I wonder what other instances of Sunbutt are out there in the multiverse...
As for Luna and Sunset... well, be careful what you wish for, Tia.
"Principal" is a job title. "Principle" is not.
calling it now and that was the big celestia screeming that
5967160 Huh, I'm usually better about not making that mistake, whoops. Thanks for pointing it out, all fixed now.
I imagine Principal Celestia to be in her Mid-30s to make more sense.
Preferably 34
5967150
Well according to the comics, there was Mirror!Celestia (in the Star Trek sense of the word), who came from a world where the moral axis was inverted. I.e. everyone who was good in the main world was evil in this world. The kind king Sombra had been fighting off Celestia for over a thousand years, but recently her sister Luna fell to the dark side... etc. That was a cool arc.
This thing is Romance tagged, but I'm still wondering what the ship(s) will be, especially considering how few groups this story is in. Sunlight? SunLuna? Celestia self-cest? Twilight left out in the cold all by her lonesome?
Still liking he screaming Celestia at the endings... Always funny.... XD
5967010
And the Princess and the Principal team up in response.
The Trollestia has been doubled.
I was expecting Sunset's answer to Luna's tale being something like "you were the Mare in the Moon?!" and then (if it's nighttime) goint to a window and realize that, yes, the moon doesn't have the equine silhouette anymore.
Great chapter!
After reading this I really want to see a comic where Celestia introduces Sunset and Luna to each other, then when she leaves the 2 have an argument that ends with Sunset calling Luna a nightmare while Luna calls sunset a Demon, just before they both burst into tears, launch into a hug and say that they feel each others pain. Anyone else thinks this would be an awesome idea for a comic?
So Princess Celestia uses her knowledge of herself to pick on... Herself.
Eh, what ever floats her boat. I'd imagine that good entertainment is hard to come by once you've seen pretty much everything.
That is something you need to put in your author notes.
This story makes no sense
1. Contains ponies
2. They can talk
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
The moment with Luna and Sunset was my favorite! FRIENDSHIP!!!
Wearing socks is normal for humans, so I guess the one with that reaction was the alicorn Celestia..
5967484
Nice nod to the comics there.
This shouldn't be capitalized. High school principal is not a proper noun. When "high school" is part of an actual school name, it's part of a proper noun, and when "principal" is used to directly address a principal (i.e. "Principal Skinner"), it's part of a proper noun, but here? It's not a proper noun.
5967506 It could be that Human!Celestia likes socks more or in a different way than most humans.
Not so much as batting an eye when you see your boss having teatime with herself? Now that professionalism right there!
Kinda surprised that Sunset's reaction to Luna's story wasn't "Oh, that was you!" But given their overall reactions to recounting their tales, I can see why not. Still.
If Sunset stays in Equestria... you so have to give her to Luna as a personal student.
5967546
Still no reason to be ashamed, unless she was caught doing something really weird by human standards while wearing socks.
Funniest.....chapter......ever!!!!!!
5967635 It's entirely possible, they are both big ole weirdos
5967635 And if your doppelganger named one of your innermost desires without prompting while you were stressed, you wouldn't be slightly upset?
"Would I rather be an immortal goddess/princess, or be allowed to wear socks in public whenever I want? I'll have to get back to you on that."
Celestia (not the Princess) meets Discord...
Do socks make ponies sexier?
fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/260/c/f/oh_celestia____by_skipsypony-d5eyzxk.jpg
...yes. Yes they do.
I just liked "The pair of Celestia's". Sounds like a poker hand.
Should be "nopony"?
That final shout!
Why can't we like things more than once!
Hmm. I feel like the Princess' voices are off. Luna certainly shouldn't be speaking in Ye Olde English, but she has a more formal and staid personality and tone than depicted. Princess Celestia doesn't feel quite as off, but still somewhat more informal than we know her to be. Every interaction between Sunset and a Princess, it felt like Sunset was speaking like the Princess should be, and the Princess like how sunset should be.
So wait, why wouldn't Sunset know about Luna already? Did I miss something painfully obvious?
Wow... Sunset and Luna relating to each other? I hadn't thought of that before. Nice one.
I'm still trying to figure out how socks became the lingerie of MLP.
5968238 Sunset ran away before Twilight was Celestia's student and the events of S1E01, and I doubt spending time meeting Celestia's long lost sister was high on her priorities when she was last in Equestria, seeing as she was stealing the Element of Magic and all.
Also, remember how surprised everypony was when Celestia told them Luna and NMM were one and the same. I'm sure if Twi didn't click, Sunset - who probably knew NMM as just a foal's tale- wouldn't put it together either.
5968238 Because nopony remembered her before her return, and Sunset has been in the human world for a long time.
At least that's how I see it.
5968319 No idea.