Before I begin, I would like to inform you that my knowledge in Elizabethan English is exceptionally limited, and therefore, I have decided to NOT use it in fear of making an absolute arse of myself. If any of the readers here know how to use Elizabethan English, then please read this story, replacing the appropriate words as you read along. Thank you.
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Dear Princess Luna,
Again, I would like to thank you for casting that linking spell on me. It’s so nice to be able to send my letters to you personally. It has been wonderful to be able to speak with you without having to leave Ponyville. As much as I would love to board the next train to Canterlot, I’m afraid that my duties to Twilight remain a top priority. I do miss your company Princess. Therefore, I have a suggestion.
In a few days’ time, Ponyville will be celebrating the Nightmare Night Festival. You may not know this Princess, but there is a holiday surrounding the legend of Nightmare Moon. It’s kind of awkward now that I'm telling you about this, but I was wondering if you'd like to attend the celebration. Ponies get to dress up in costumes and go around asking for candy. There will also be some festival activities to enjoy.
I am sure that the ponies of Ponyville will welcome the Princess of the Night to partake in the festivities.
I look forward to hearing from you soon Princess. And I also hope to see you at the festival.
You’re Friend,
Spike.
Spike carefully rolled up the parchment containing his letter and blew a dark blue flame, incinerating the letter, sending it on its way to Princess Luna. Feeling rather pleased with himself, he went back to designing his costume.
Up in Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna was taking a stroll in the royal garden when a puff of blue and smoke flew towards her, which magically turned back into the form a letter. Coated in an aura of a mild cobalt blue, Princess Luna brought it closer to herself. “Oh my, a letter from dear Spike” Luna thought to herself as she read his letter. “Oh how wonderful. I must definitely make an appearance; however, I wonder if Big Sister would approve?”
Later that day, Spike was alone in the library, up the ladder, with several books in one claw when he felt the usual sensation in his belly. He began wondering from whom the letter was from when suddenly, he belched a small flame of dark blue. He released his hold on the ladder as he caught hold of the scroll with much enthusiasm… forgetting that he was currently about ten feet up the ladder. His enthusiasm turned to shock as he realized his view of the bookcase was replaced with that of the ceiling. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor. A copy of ‘A Tail of Two Ponies’ lay open on his face. From the floor, he held the letter close to his chest as he surveyed to room. No sign of anypony. He got up quickly, stacked the books neatly on the floor, mentally reminding himself to put the books away later, and ran to the bedroom. Again, nopony was there. He unrolled the letter and began to read it.
Good Day dear Spike,
I hope this letter finds you well. After much consideration, I have agreed to attend this celebration you speak of. I will arrive about an hour after I have raised the moon. However, given that our ‘relationship’ is not yet publicly known, it would be best that we were to keep our distance and that I am addressed in a more, formal manner.
Once we have obtained some privacy, we can converse as we did back during the Galloping Gala. I hope you understand Spike. And thank you once again for the invitation.
Princess Luna.
Spike read and re-read the letter several times. He understood that if they were to be seen speaking in such an informal manner, many of the ponies might get the wrong idea or worse, gossip about the relationship they might share. To protect her image, as well as keep the gossip to a minimum, he would abide by the Princesses’ wishes. He had a feeling that this night was going to be hard, but all in all, at least he’ll get to speak with her again.
He wrote another letter to her, all the while keeping track of how many parchments he had used. Twilight was already getting suspicious about the amount of parchments they were ordering. He wrote,
Dear Princess Luna,
I understand your caution and I will respectfully abide by it. You will find me acting as the other ponies do to avoid any suspicion. I hope you have a great time during the festival.
Your friend,
Spike.
And with another breath of blue flame, the letter was sent on its merry way. Humming happily he went back to work.
The day finally came and everypony was getting ready for the festivities. Costumes were getting a last look over, the town was checked and rechecked of their decorations and every home was preparing sweets and candy for the fillies and colts that were coming.
However, back at the Library, Spike was pacing impatiently for Twilight to get ready. He was thinking about Princess Luna and the fact that he did not want to miss out on her grand entrance. Finally, Twilight arrives in her costume. Spike, on the other hoof, had no idea who she’s trying to dress as.
“Did you even read that book I gave you about obscure Unicorn history?” Twilight asked, glaring at Spike.
Spike was beginning to worry, trying to come up with an excuse when there was a knock at the door. Thanking Celestia, he made a mad dash to the door. “That sounds important.” He said before running off.
As he opened the door, Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom jumped up and recited the Nightmare Night chant, “Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!"
Later that evening. As the ponies gathered around the statue of Nightmare Moon, spilling the contents of their candy bags, the sky suddenly darkens, and from those dark clouds, a figure appears. A dark chariot arrives pulled by two bat winged Pegasus. The Princess of the Night has arrived.
As Princess Luna arrives, in a flurry of dark clouds and her own royal carriage chauffeured by two of her Pegasus Guards, everypony runs for cover. The only two that don’t seem terribly terrified are Twilight and Spike. Although Spike runs to town, he is in fact happy to see that Princess Luna has arrived as she had said.
However, upon reaching the town square, he soon realizes that her arrival has brought fear into the ponyfolk. Not wanting to raise suspicion to himself, he stays at the far back bowed down on his claws and knees.
As the Princess of the moon leaves, her feelings hurt, Twilight motions towards her. Spike grabs her costume, telling her it’s Nightmare Moon, only for Twilight to remind him that she is no longer evil. As she leaves, Spike rubs his claws together, a worried, almost disappointed look on his face. In actual fact, he had wanted to talk to her himself. Now he had to wait for another opportunity.
Luna on the other hoof is wondering why she is here. Spike’s letter mentioned that her subjects would be happy to see her on Nightmare Night. But she was met with fear and screams. She desired love and admiration. She even wanted to rid the silly notion of the reason of the festival and turn it into a night of feasting. However, nopony was willing to give her even a hint of what she wanted. She walked away, eventually lying down, in front of her own statue, sadness threatening to overcome her.
Spike on the other hoof, was following Twilight, who finds the Princess at the statue in the clearing. He stays a little further back, trying to make out their conversation. It was rather difficult for Spike as he was too far away to properly hear what they were talking about. He did however, hear the following sentences though.
“IT WAS THOU WHO UNLEASHED THE POWERS OF HARMONY UPON US, THAT TOOK AWAY OUR DARK POWERS!”
And a moment later,
“THIS MUCH VOLUME WHEN ADDRESSING OUR SUBJECTS!”
Followed by,
“CHANGE OUR APPROCH?!”
It was rather confusing to poor Spike. But then again, he was admiring her beauty rather than trying to figure out what they were talking about.
The two ponies started to leave. Spike noticed that they were heading towards Fluttershy’s home, Spike left, going back to the town square. There he sat, thinking on how to handle this predicament he has gotten Luna into, ignoring the fillies that joyfully ran past him. “The ponies of Ponyville still think that she is Nightmare Moon. Think Spike, think.” He said to himself. "How can you fix this so the ponies no longer fear the Princess?" He pondered totally oblivious to his surroundings. So deep in thought that he had not even realized that Twilight and the Princess were already participating in the night’s games. Suddenly he heard the Princess shout out, “Haha! The fun has doubled.”
Peeping around the corner, he sees her announce excitedly, in her own, normal voice, “Hear me villagers, all of you, call me LUNA!”
Spike is both happy and relieved that the Princess has learned to speak without using her previous voice of authority. Probably now she can begin to enjoy the night’s festival… which in turn was ruined. In an attempt to save pipsqueak from falling into the apple bobbing basin, she had grabbed his costume and hauled him above the water. Suddenly, Pinkie screamed, that Princess Luna is attempting to gobble Pipsqueak up. This spooks the fillies, making everypony run in fear. Fear took over poor Spike. Not fear that the other ponies felt, but fear for the Princess, that once more, her heart was wounded. However, he could not stop giggling when Princess Luna screamed out loud, “Thy backside is whole and ungobbled!” This immediately changed when lightning flashed and the Princess suddenly used the previous voice of authority.
His heart ached when he heard that Luna had cancelled Nightmare Night… forever. “Oh Luna” he wept. Hurt that she had not found the happiness that he had hoped for her. The only thing he could do was to find her. And to apologize for bringing her this pain. He found her quietly walking towards the Nightmare Moon statue and raced ahead of her.
Luna, her head hung low, slowly walked up to the statue of herself. A grim reminder of how the other ponies still view her. She lays down, her heart wounded from the screams of terror. In her mind, she could still see the terror in their faces, the disfigured looks in their screams, their rejection. All she can do now is to fight back the weeping that threatened to overwhelm her. She crosses her forelegs and buries her face into them. Spike, who was watching her, now quietly emerges from the bushes.
“Princess,” he whispers, as he slowly approaches the Dark Sapphire Blue Alicorn. “I’m sorry the night has not turned out well for you.”
Princess Luna looks up from where she lay.
“Dear Spike, is that you?” she asks, looking at the dragon in a dragon costume. Her eyes twitch, and for a moment, it would seem that she would rain down upon Spike the full extent of her fury. When suddenly, she bowed her head low, and as if the pain had burst the dam, streams of tears flowed from her beautiful soft eyes. She places her head between her hooves trying in vain to hide her sorrow from Spike.
Spike slowly walks over to Luna, kneeling down beside her head. Slowly, he brings his claw up to her and gently strokes her mane. “I’m sorry Princess,” he apologizes once more. “I really thought that they would no longer be afraid of you.”
“But they are. They are Spike.” Luna cries, despair in her voice, her tears still flowing freely. “They will never accept me. I shall forever be Nightmare Moon to them.”
Risking it, Spike puts the other claw under her chin, mildly shocking the Princess with his bold and daring move. He tilts her head and looks deep into her tear soaked eyes. “I’m not afraid of you Princess. And I am, and always be, your friend.” He says tenderly.
A tinge of happiness begins to seep back into her heart. As well as another feeling that began to follow as well. A different, yet warm feeling draws her closer to Spike.
‘Ching ching’
Spike looks up quickly, in the distance, he sees a pony approach. And if it wasn’t for the tall wizard like hat and the chiming of bells, he would never have guessed that it was Twilight approaching. Quickly he looks back at Luna and leaned closer, whispering into her ear, “Twilight will make things better Princess. If you trust me, then trust her.” As he turns to leave, he is suddenly tugged back as Luna wrapped her hooves around his claw. An almost pleading look, asking him not to leave could be seen in her face. Spike smiled back and simply said, “Trust me Princess.” And he pulled away, diving back into the bushes. Soon, he sees Twilight take the princess away to look for a pink chicken, one Miss Pinkie Pie.
Trusting Twilight with whatever plan that she might have in order to help the Princess, Spikes makes his way back to town. He still needs to keep up his appearances, so he begins helping with the clean-up. After all, Nightmare Night was still officially cancelled. Busy moving fallen decorations around, he overhears the Mayor’s attempt to sound scary, and he mumbles to himself, “Ahh, the rainbow wig just kills it for me.” And wanders off, dragging away a dark ribbon with skulls on it.
For some time now, Spike is helping the rest of the ponies clean up the mess the town was in, and he soon begins to wonder for it has been a while now since he last saw or heard of the Princess or Twilight. But then he sees Pipsqueak and the other fillies and colts run past him screaming happily that Nightmare night is back. A smile appears on him face, and a burden is lifted from his shoulders.
He turns to look in the direction of the meadow, and he sees the Princess and Twilight as they walk back to the town, both of them smiling and giggling. Spike too smiles, his spirits lifted. And soon, Princess Luna begins to join in the fun and games. With a little advice from Twilight, she even manages to throw in a couple of playful scares every now and then.
As the festivities slowly come to a close, Twilight beckons for Spike to follow her. She leads him to the Nightmare Moon statue where she requests that Spike take a letter for Princess Celestia. As he finishes the letter, lightning flashes overhead, followed by a scream. And as they look up, they see a screaming Pegasus fly past, a smoking rainbow behind her.
Spike looks in awe as the beautiful Princess of the Night floats down, sitting on Rainbow Dash’s cloud. As the three of them giggle at the turn of events, all Spike could think of is how beautiful Luna’s giggles sounded.
Soon, Princess Luna's chariot arrives and her guard informs her that it is almost time to return to the castle. She smiles and nods at her chaperone. Turning towards her two friends, she once again thanks then both for a most splendid time. As she boards her chariot, Spike could not believe that he had not a chance to be with her. That there was no time spent alone with the Princess. However, as the guards began beating their wings, Princess Luna looks back at Spike and winked. Spike stood there, jaws wide open as the chariot took flight, leaving them both watching until the chariot was out of sight.
"Come on Spike, let's get home to bed." Twilight said. And the two of them walked back to the library. A little disappointed, Spike followed Twilight back home.
Later, as Spike curled up into his bed, he suddenly belched blue flame and smoke. “A letter!” he thought gleefully.
"Spike, was that a letter from the princess?" Twilight asked hearing the commotion.
Spike stuffed the letter under his blanket, "Nope... ugh... sorry Twilight, think I had, ugh... too much candy." he said, as he covered his face with his blanket.
"Told you, you ate too, hoooo, much." twilight half said, half yawned. "You'll be better in the morning. Goodnight Spike."
"Mmmmm.... goodnight Twilight." he said, as he waited for her to fall asleep so he could read the letter.
To be Continued.........