“You know, you should really cheer up for once,” Luna said as she sipped her tea. The two sisters were out in castle gardens, where the summer heat had been lessened to allow a cool wind to blow through grounds, and ample shade to relax under had been acquired. The tea table was set out with a bountiful variety of teas of all flavors and what used to be a tray filled with tea cakes and scones, all of which had been decimated due to Celestia’s appetite.

Celestia attempted to flex her wing, the flying appendages still sore and bandaged due to the Deadpool incident earlier in the week. “Hard to make an attempt at that when life seems so glum all of the sudden.”

“‘All of the sudden?’ With me gone for a thousand years, wasn’t it worse then?” Luna asked.

Celestia sipped her chamomile tea, sighing as the warmness traveled down her throat to sit comfortably in her stomach. “In a way, yes and no. All my despair was focused solely on the loss of you for over a thousand years. All my regret, angst and pain was because you were gone. But now that you’re back, those emotions have nothing to focus on. Nothing to hold substance to. I’ve lived with them for so long that not having them anymore makes me feel… empty.”

Luna set her teacup down, her eyes staring wide at her sister. “Tia… why didn’t you ever tell me this?”

Celestia shrugged. “I did not want to worry you that my troubles are because of you. In fact, they are mine to bear. I thought that eventually the happiness of having you back would fill that hole back.” Celestia blinked, her eyes averting themselves from Luna’s gaze. “I thought you’d feel guilty that it didn’t.”

“Well… I did notice you were oddly apathetic sometime after I arrived back home. But I thought at first that was just a normal change from what I used to be familiar with oh so long ago.” Coughing into her hoof, Luna said, “I thought that if you were to go out with someone, perhaps even form a relationship with a significant other, it would make you happy again. Like you used to be…”

Celestia smiled. Reaching over, she held Luna in a hug, squeezing her sister tight. “Thank you, Luna. I knew you had the best intentions in mind. I myself thought at first that perhaps dating would get my mind off of it. But now I realize that hole won’t be filled with just some cheap gimmick of dating or love found via the internet. Instead, I should focus on more important things, such as spending time with you and running my nation to the top of my abilities.”

“Oh sister, that sounds wonderful,” Luna said, clapping her hooves together.

“You know what’d sound even better?” a third party intruder to the tea party asked, “some milk, along with a sugarcube or two.”

Luna and Celestia turned around, only to be confronted by the ever present smirk on the face of Captain Jack Harkness himself. He was draped in his usual grey overcoat, along with a dark shirt and pants with those ever present suspenders of his clearly shown. Holding his teacup up and nodding to the princesses, he said, “Why hello there, ladies. Lovely afternoon for a cup of tea.”

The princesses regarded the quite handsome chap who had appeared out of nowhere for a cup of tea with suspicious looks. That is, until Luna said, “Huh, I was wondering when you’d come back.”

“You were expecting this?” Celestia asked.

Luna nodded in turn. “Well, duh, it was only right to assume after he skipped out on your last date to save his friend because of Deadpool. Plus, there’s still the future version of himself who went on the dating website in the first place to set up a date with you, meaning this must be him right now.”

“Wait a second… but that date was interrupted and never happened,” Celestia said. She tapped her temple and scowled, looking intently on the calm surface of her tea. “So is this the Jack Harkness who wanted to set up the date in the first place, or the one afterward who couldn’t meet for the date?”

“Time traveling is confusing, is it not?” Harkness said with a hearty laugh, dropping two lumps of sugar into his tea. “Also, is this chamomile tea? It’s my favorite.”

Celestia blinked. “Um… why yes, it is.”

“Beautiful and with good taste.” Harkness poured some milk into his tea, stirred it thoroughly, then sipped it for several seconds, breaking away with a satisfied sigh of content. “Great minds think alike, am I correct?”

Licking her lips, Celestia nodded. Stopping, she coughed and started to nod at a slow rate. “Why yes, I do believe I agree with you.”

“Oh no… seriously?” Luna asked, throwing her hooves up in the air in exasperation. “Just after the conversation we had, you’re doing this?”

“Shhh, don’t ruin this for me,” Celestia whispered out of the corner of her lips. Focusing her attention back on Harkness, she said, “So, Jack, is it, what brings you back to Equestria?”

“Well, initially it was to get back at Deadpool and arrest him.” Harkness sipped his tea, smacking his lips several times. “But then it turned out he was notoriously hard to capture. Also, he’s pretty much unkillable. He wasn’t really surprised to find out I was as well. Eventually after offing one another several dozen times, we went out to get beers and became good acquaintances.”

“You guys did coitus?” Luna asked. Celestia shot her a powerful glare. Luna blushed and ducked under Celestia’s stare. “I mean, you guys banged, right?”

“Unfortunately no. Deadpool wasn’t too into me.” Leaning over, Harkness whispered, “In fact, I don’t know what that guy is into, and I’m an expert on these sorts of things. One minute it was a toaster, the next it was the pretty mare behind the bar we were at, and then it was a bird he spotted in the sky.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Deadpool alright,” Luna said. She shuddered. “I still haven’t forgiven him for what he did to my houseplant.”

“But afterward, I decided why not treat the most prominent pony princess of the land to that good date I promised her… twice.” Harkness smiled, his smile so radiant it outshone the sun. “So, what do you say, my dear?”

Luna rose from her seat, downed the rest of her tea, then splayed out her wings in preparation for takeoff. “In the off chance this endeavor turns out to backlash any of the parties involved, I’m vamoosing the hell away from you guys.” And with that, Luna took off into the sky.

Scooting over to take over Luna’s abandoned seat, Harkness said, “Well, she does have a way at taking hold of the initiative.”

“I think it’s more along the fact that she’s become savvy of these turns of events by now,” Celestia replied. “That, or it’s survival instincts.”

“From all the dates you’ve gone through, I wouldn’t be surprised if you became savvy as well.” Harkness grinned, finishing off the rest of his tea. “In fact, I can probably bet money on what you expect me to say next.”

Celestia hummed under her breath and tapped her chin, and playful smile spreading on her lips. “Well, let’s see… next you’ll ask me out for coffee. Then you’ll probably tell me some of your remarkable adventures in your immortal lifetime, hoping to impress me. And then you’ll be hoping you’ll play your cards right so I would invite you to the castle so that…”

Harkness arched a brow. “So that… what? Come on now, don’t be a tease. Usually that’s my job, and I’m terrible at it!”

“Well, revealing all my intentions wouldn’t be very ladylike of me, would it?” Celestia asked, fluttering her lashes while she winked.

Harkness snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Oooh, now there’s that charm princesses are so famous for!”

“You’re familiar with this charm?” Celestia asked.

Now it was Harkness’ turn to wink slyly. “Well, revealing my stories before our date wouldn’t be very gentlemanlike of me, would it?”

“Oh, so that’s the Captain’s charm your variety are so famous for!” Celestia laughed.

“You’re familiar with Captains?”

Celestia snorted, rising from her seat and gesturing for him to get up. “Oh, more than you’d think. Have I got a story for you.”

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