The first thing the two girls decided to do is head out into Canterlot using magical disguises. They didn’t want to be hounded by the paparazzi and adoring subjects. The last time Celestia had some time off and went out without a disguise she had a picture taken of her wolfing down a cake. She never did find out who Gabby Gums was, but she swore that the moment she found her she would give her the sternest stare she could muster (What, you think she’d send someone to the moon just because they took an embarrassing picture of her? Give her some credit). They shrunk themselves down a bit, changed their hair colors from rainbow and starry to pink and white, and decided to put on some dresses that would cover their wings. While they could have poofed away their wings they really didn’t want to do that. After all, it was always pretty painful taking them off and putting them on again. Celestia, while owning no clothing of her own, borrowed from her sister. Luna had actually become interested in the new types of clothing since her return to the throne. Before she had been sent to the moon most clothing was mostly dull colors and felt itchy. When she had returned and seen the wide variety of clothing on her return she knew that she just had to have some. She ordered different clothes from a variety of pony fashionistas such as Photo Finish and Hoity Toity and in her free time would try on the clothing and would pretend to be a model walking down a runway. This was done in secret so nopony would ever see it and make fun of her. She was aware that was she was doing could be considered silly for a princess to do.

After Luna was changed she was wearing an extremely formal piece with a red body and gold trim around its edges. It covered her tail completely and gave her the feeling of being an exotic pony in a ballroom that could draw the eyes of any colt onto her. “Hoity Toity’s Midsummer Fashions of last year. A classic,” the cheerful mare said as she swooned around the room in her dress. “How are you doing Tia? Have you found anything you like yet?”

“I think I found something,” she yelled out, followed by the sounds of fabric ruffling as it fit over the body. Luna could hear her sister’s trot get louder before she appeared around the corner of her walk-in closet. “So, what do you think?”

Luna was surprised at the dress she saw her sister wearing. Not surprised by how it looked on her as much as surprised that she had it. She knew each and every single article of clothing she had purchased and never saw that dress until now. She tried to get back on task quickly or else she feared her silence at her sister’s sight might come across as an insult. “It looks lovely. Simple, but functional. Much less formal than what I’m wearing though.” The fashionable sister looked at the dress and tried to figure out who could have made it by analyzing how the dress was put together. It was yellow dress with white trim on the openings and came with a pink sash. She could not figure out for the life of her who designed that dress. If anything she deduced that it wasn’t even a finished product. Whatever is was, Celestia made it work.

They headed off into town, quickly enough before the royal guards could find and accompany the princesses. The last thing Luna and Celestia wanted was for stallions to silently follow them through the entire day and ruin the atmosphere. Luna started talking once they had gotten off castle grounds and entered the city.

“So Tia, where should we go first? I know that you wanted to let me choose, but I’m still not too familiar with the locations in this city,” the younger sister said, adressing the older sister by her nickname. As she finished her sentence, both sisters heard a loud grumbling come from each other and remembered that neither of them had eaten that morning.

“Well,” started Celestia with her knowledge of the city, “I know of this little café that serves brunch. They have it all outdoors so we could enjoy the weather that the pegasi set up specifically for today.” The princess had actually called the weather patrol and let them know that specifically for this week for there to be no clouds of any kind that could cause a storm or even a tiny rainfall. She really wanted this day to be special. “Let’s go there!” As they trotted off through the city Celestia pointed out various shops and streets of local importance and prestige. She pointed out the Carneighey Hall of Business, the local bakery owned by Donut Joe, Mane Street, and Equeponymy Hall, the famous comedy building named for its most famous act dealing with the names of all the places in Equestria being pony-related. All of this was new and fascinating to Luna, who had never had the luxury of exploring her own city. The older sister wanted to stay away from the historical district today. She didn’t want to make her sister melancholy with memories of the past and how much things had changed.

They finally came across the café, The Rosewood, and both marveled at the rose gardens that surrounded the outdoor balconies and grottos. It was always a marvelous sight for the Solar Princess to see, and her sibling’s reaction to it all made it even better. When they entered the entrance for the building they were met by a griffon waiter whose cutie mark was a silver tray. Before Celestia could ask for seating for two the noble creature opened his mouth and spewed out what seemed like nonsense.

“Bonjour Mesdames. Combien seront assis aujourd'hui? “ Celestia had no knowledge of what the griffon had just asked her and just stood there for a moment. She’d never seen this waiter before whenever she had visited and was caught unprepared. “Eh bien, allez-vous dire quelque chose ou juste se tenir autour?” Luna stepped in and stopped it before her sister’s face could turn brighter than the sun.

“Pardonnez-moi ma sœur. Elle ne parle pas la langue. Une table pour deux s'il vous plaît.” Luna spoke the fancy language in a way that made her sister wonder if they were just starting to make up noises just to pull her hoof.

“Ah, Je craignais que j'aurais à vous deux pour rejeter un moment. Ce restaurant ne permet que commander de la nourriture dans la Langue du Griffon. S'il vous plaît suivez-moi à vos sièges.” As the griffon walked away Luna followed him, leaving Celestia clueless and realizing that they were being seated. She hurried up to them and wondered how she had never noticed this before. Then she remembered that each time she had visited the restaurant was as a Princess and that none of the staff actually spoke to her (also surprising was their lack of knowing the Pony’s language) and that she only ever ate what they provided her with, never giving her the chance to try and order for herself. As they were seated the griffon decided to spout out more nonsense to the princesses. “Maintenant, puis-je prendre votre commande?” he said. Celestia had decided to leave the talking to Luna, who still surprised her with her knowledge of foreign language.

“Nous allons commencer avec deux verres d'eau. Donnez-nous un peu de temps à regarder par-dessus le menu,” the Lunar Princess said with a grin on her face. She simply loved doing something that not even her almighty sister could. “I let him know that we’ll be having two glasses of water and looking over the menu. What do you usually have here?” She slid the menu over to Celestia and grinned when she saw the look of despair that spread over her face at the prospect of wondering what this strange assortment of letters meant.

“Lun- I mean Lulu, how do you know this language?” Celestia was lucky to correct herself before saying her sister’s name and possibly giving away their cover. The waiter came by and dropped off their glasses of water. Luna took a sip and enjoyed the cool, refreshing water before responding.

“Don’t you remember Tia? We studied that language a long time ago. We even helped them come up with new words. I’m guessing you’ve completely forgotten how to speak it, haven’t you?” Celestia looked embarrassed at this information, recalling a long time ago when she knew how to speak the language fluently. Since then she’d forgotten it, never having any use for it due to the reclusive nature of griffons and loss of contact with their kingdom. “I don’t blame you for forgetting. It’s been a while since we spoke it. The only reason I remember it is because while I was on the moon I used to repeat what I knew of the language over and over again so I wouldn’t forget it. Did the same with pony-speak as well.” Luna noticed that as she said this her memories on the moon had returned. She remembered the thousands of times she repeated those words and rules of grammar in the attempt to keep the knowledge from slipping from her mind during her isolation. Her smile started to fade and Celestia looked nervous and awkard.

They were saved only by the timely arrival of the griffon waiter. Celestia decided to just have whatever her fancy speaking sister ordered for her and hoped that she hadn’t pranked her and gotten her something with alfalfa in it. My goodness she hated that vegetable. The waiter soon came back with a tray containing two elegantly designed daisy sandwiches, complete with toasted wheat bread, three different kinds of lettuce and daisy, and a cup of sweet onion juice to pour on the sandwich. They both looked at their meals with delight and started to chow down, only realizing how hungry they really were. Luna later ordered dessert for the two of them, a plate of flan for each of them. Celestia didn’t even know that they had this dessert until this very moment! She appreciated her sister and her knowledge of foreign language and was about to let her know that when they were suddenly interrupted by a certain griffon.

“Voici votre chèque. Je reviendrai sous peu,” he said and then sauntered off. Luna looked as if she had just remembered something, causing her sister to ask what was wrong.

“I didn’t bring any money, and he just gave us the check!” she whispered nervously. “Did you bring any?”

“Oh buck no! I’m a princess! I don’t even remember the last thing I paid for.”

They both looked around nervously, trying to figure out their options. The older one was the first to break the silence. “We could run. It’s our only chance of getting out.” The younger princess tilted her head in agreement and they were just about to run for it when they saw nearly an entire company of guards enter the restaurant. There was no way they could get out now.

“We could teleport out,” offered the terrified Princess of the Moon, “but that would create a racket and the guards would surely spot our faces. I wouldn’t want to be on the run from our own guards. Oh Tia, what are we going to do?”

“We could just let the owner know that we’re the princesses. I’m sure they wouldn’t arrest us then, but then our cover would be blown. I wouldn’t want to see that story. ‘Princesses Abuse Royal Power and Get Free Lunch’,” Celestia said, thinking how Gabby Gums would lead the crusade to destroy her reputation, NEIGH, the entire kingdom, with her slanderous story. She wondered what they could do until a terrible, terrible thought came to her mind. “Lean closer Lulu. I have a plan.”

"Hey! Look over there!" Luna said. With the guards distracted, they quickly walked out.

Author's Notes:

Well, that escalated pretty quickly. I'm fairly certain the rest of the day won't have anything else of interest or value to write down. Or maybe it will *dun dun DUN*. Tune in for the next chapter when things become emotionally packed in "The Way Things Were"!