"Princess Celestia!" Twilight cried as she rushed in, breathless. "I'm here, just like you asked."
"Thank you, Twilight," Celestia said kindly. "As I stated in my letter, you are very important for what I must request of you."
"But is Princess Luna okay?" Twilight asked anxiously.
"I believe so. I wanted to speak with you in pony rather than explain in a letter. I think it's easier."
Twilight settled herself onto a pillow as a seat, but Celestia could see right on her face she was ready to burst with anticipation. If Twilight accepted, it would be the biggest assignment Celestia had ever given her. As Twilight had always been dutiful as a student, albeit occasionally overzealous, Celestia had no doubt she could trust her with it.
Celestia took a deep breath. "Twilight, I am going to ask you, for one day, to fulfill my duties as Equestria's ruler."
Twilight's jaw dropped to the floor. It took her a few moments to collect herself.
"I am worried about mine and Luna's relationship," Celestia explained. "But with our schedules, we have little time together. I got her to admit she was hiding something, but what we really need is a day for us to only be concerned with each other. I don't like to make confessions, but it wouldn't be fair if I wasn't open with Luna in return."
"What exactly would I have to do?" Twilight asked, still internally debating if this was real or a dream.
Celestia pulled out a list from her beneath her wing and unrolled it. "It's a lot, I know, but I believe in you, Twilight. As much as I want to bring Luna and I closer, I can't leave my duties unfulfilled on a whim, so I need someone to temporarily stand in my place. Please, will you, Twilight?"
Though the request felt overwhelming, Twilight understood Celestia's reasons and she also wanted the sisters to be closer. As her mentor, Celestia had never been anything short of a positive figure in Twilight's life, so declining wasn't even an option in Twilight's mind. She stood strongly on her hooves and, as if making a declaration, answered, "Absolutely. You can count on me."
"Thank you so much!" Celestia gave Twilight the list to take under her own wing. "This will be for 24 hours."
"24 hours? But who will guard ponies from their nightmares?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know all of my sister's magic, but I don't doubt she'd have a solution up her wing for that," Celestia replied. "I'm only asking you tend to my duties. I know Luna's can only be tended to by her."
It made Twilight nervous, but she couldn't doubt Celestia's word. She still agreed, and with it settled, both ponies headed off for their homes.
"Sister, you're late," Luna said when she finally saw Celestia come in.
"Late? I wasn't aware I had a curfew," Celestia joked. "I had to speak with Twilight Sparkle."
"What's the problem?" Before Celestia answered the question, Luna noticed she was staring down at her hooves. "No, Sister, I haven't cut myself. They're healing. I have no new cuts."
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she explained. "I asked Twilight to take over my duties for tomorrow."
"Why? Where are you going?"
"It's where we are going," Celestia said. "Do you have any spells that can make Equestria dreamless for a night?"
"Well, yes, I do, but... where are we going? Why at the last minute?" Luna sounded suspicious.
"Because it came to me right before I started my duties," Celestia answered seriously. "I'm trying to arrange for us to have a day and night out. 24 hours of only ourselves to worry about for us to have fun."
"Wow..." Luna and Celestia hadn't done that since they were fillies. After they had to take Equestria's royal thrones, they had almost no time for each other, and after Luna recovered from being shattered as Nightmare Moon, that same schedule resumed. Even before Luna was able to take on her duties again, much of her time was spent resting to regain her power and energy for when she could.
"Tomorrow. Day and night. No duties," Celestia explained. "Just the two of us. Do you like it?"
Instead of yes or no, Luna answered with a question of her own. "Are you really doing this because of what you said before? Not trying harder to reason with me?"
"It's better than cutting yourself," Celestia replied, sounding a bit blunt. "But I want us to be close for once. Before, only times of crisis brought us together."
"You have awful timing, Sister," Luna teased. "Really awful timing."
"Better extremely late than never?" Celestia asked awkwardly, quoting her sister's words from the morning.
Luna laughed. "Of course, I'll go. I still have some time before I have to leave to begin patrolling the dream realm."
"Perfect. Let's go see what we can plan for our day and night out."
Luna followed Celestia, keeping her thoughts to herself. She wasn't so naïve. She knew Celestia really wanted to talk about, well, everything there was to talk about between them until there was nothing left to clear. Knowing that made Luna nervous, but she wasn't going to turn down a whole day and night with her sister. She'd waited too long for this. Plus, Luna secretly liked Celestia was trying so hard to bring them close and to keep her word about them being open from now on.
With the little time Luna had left, the sisters went about trying to list things they'd like doing together. As it turned out, the answers were few. Everything Celestia came up with was something Luna felt neutral about at best, and Celestia felt the same for any ideas Luna had. The only thing they could agree they both enjoyed was looking after their palace.
"Maybe there wasn't much difference between being in the moon and being here," Luna remarked half-jokingly. "We can agree on nothing."
"Never say that again," Celestia said strictly.
"You put me there. How are you more sour about it?" Luna asked a bit angrily.
"Don't act like I had a choice!"
"Don't act like I hadn't lost my mind!"
Before the next cold statement could transfer from her mind to her mouth, Celestia realized what they were doing. "Oh... this is why I'm trying to arrange this for us."
Luna simmered down too. "I meant to say we weren't close back then and almost never saw each other. Kind of disappointed all that's changed are rules in etiquette," Luna sighed. "I have to raise the moon now and head to the dream realm, so time's up."
"Go ahead. But really, never say that again," Celestia told her, less sternly, but just as serious. "I shouldn't talk like I was the one imprisoned. You're right. But I never want to imagine us apart like that ever again. If I have to choose, I'd rather a millennium of us distant under the same roof than across the sky."
"So would I. Let's stop talking about it. I'm going to go raise the moon."
Luna walked away while Celestia tried to finish the list herself. "That sure went well," she mumbled to herself.