Glaring.
Everybody was glaring at her. They stopped when she looked, but that doesn't mean she couldn't see it out of the corner of her eye, nor did it mean she couldn't feel their fear and hatred. She tried to ignore the looks they were giving her as she and Nightwing walked through the streets of Ponyville.
When Celestia had heard that she planned to visit Ponyville, she had insisted upon taking at least three guards with her. When Luna had refused, and Celestia finally conceded, Nightwing had insisted on "sharing the vacation with Luna". The princess had given up and decided that one guard wouldn't make socialization too awkward. The sword strapped to her guards belt would, however.
Getting to Ponyville had been easy; as one of the goddess princesses, she had access to whatever form of transportation she wanted. She could've ridden one of the flying carriages, or simply flown herself, but she chose to ride the train to Ponyville. She quietly refused a free ride from the conductor, insisting on paying full price, but not rejecting the first class car. After all, it was more private there, and there were less glaring people there.
Unlike here on the streets of Ponyville... She was almost to the magically constructed tree-library, all too willing to be indoors and away from these dirty looks. Luckily, that trip didn't take long as they arrived within a minute or two. She knocked on the door briskly, hoping Twilight would open quickly.
Twilight had received a letter from Celestia that Luna was on the way with one guard, so she was in fact ready, having prepared two beds in the guest bedroom and told Spike to wait by the door. Said door opened quickly after she knocked on it to an empty doorway. A purple, reptilian head poked down from the top of the door frame.
"Twilight'sss upssstairsss." It hissed in a somewhat craggy, yet youthful voice. The head pulled back out of view and Nightwing glanced at Luna, a question in her eyes.
"That's Spike." Luna answered. She entered the library quickly, followed shortly by the captain. The princess gestured for her to sit at a cushy looking couch, which she did gratefully, sitting and watching Spike crawl along the walls and floor as he returned books from the floor to their places on the shelves.
Luna ascended the stairs quietly, tapping at the door before entering. Twilight called for her to come in and she entered to find Twilight literally floating in the air, legs crossed, reading a book with one hand while holding the other hand in the air, seemingly drawing simple two-dimensional shape (or maybe a very complicated three or four-dimensional one). As she was doing this, there were two pieces of parchment floating in the air beside her, pens gliding across them, writing seemingly by themselves. Her eyes were glowing a purplish-white hue as she looked up, smiling politely.
"Hello, Luna. How are you?" She asked pleasantly.
"I'm quite fine, Twilight Sparkle. Although, I must admit that Ponyville's greeting has been... offsetting." Twilight frowned, flicking her wrist, which caused the scrolls and pens to put themselves away. She closed the book and floated gently to her feet.
"How do you mean?"
"Let's just say that Nightmare Night didn't win me as many supporters as we'd assumed..."
"Oh, I see... Uhm... well, Celestia wrote me saying that you'd brought along one guard. I can house you both, if you like."
"Thank you, Twilight. I believe that would be convenient." Luna smiled, seeing how tactlessly Twilight had changed the subject.
They walked back down the stairs, Nightwing joining them, to see to their accommodations in the guestroom. As befitted any Mage's guestroom, the room was enchanted to meet any needs a patron could have. Self-adjusting beds, mirrors, self-filling drawers, et cetera, et cetera. This guestroom is the reason why Celestia insisted they need not bring luggage on their trip.
"Make yourselves at home." Twilight said, smiling brightly.
About half an hour later, Luna was soaring threw the air, en route to Fluttershy's cottage. She had decided to leave while Nightwing was examining (or, as the other two put it, playing with) the enchanted furniture, and Luna decided she'd like to speak to Fluttershy.
She arrived within a few minutes, as it wasn't a long trip from Twilight's library to Fluttershy's cottage. She landed in front of the door and was about to knock, but she heard some laughter coming from behind the cottage. Curious, she walked around to find Fluttershy playing with some random critters.
The angel was being tackled and lovingly assaulted by random rodents and small birds, all of which seemed to be having a good time, tweeting and chirping and chattering contentedly. She was smiling and laughing, trying just to stand up under their assault, but to no avail as they were attacking her from all sides. She tried to spread her wings and flap them, but some birds landed on them and weighed them down. Fluttershy laughed again as she tumbled to the ground and allowed them to attack her with licks, hugs, and pecks on her cheeks and shoulders.
Luna stood by and watched this display, attempting to suppress her laughter and nearly failing until Fluttershy fell over. At that point, she did fail. Luna broke out laughing, grinning ear to ear, and accidentally startling Fluttershy and most of the critters. They scattered and Fluttershy sat up straight, staring at Luna in surprise.
"I-I didn't hear you." She said simply. Luna's smile had died away in embarrassment, and she held her hands up apologetically.
"You seemed quite distracted. I didn't mean to startle you. I just..." She started smiling again. "I just couldn't help it when they beat you. It was quite amusing." Fluttershy ducked her head behind her curtains of hair, her cheeks a bright red hue.
"O-oh...I-I guess it was." She agreed with half of a chuckle. Luna couldn't help but enjoy this adorable display of embarrassment, giggling quietly to herself before walking over and helping Fluttershy up. Thanking Luna, Fluttershy led the way into her cottage, where she offered tea, which Luna accepted gladly.
They sat down in Fluttershy's living room, Luna on the fainting couch and Fluttershy on her relaxing chair, and lounged their, sipping tea quietly for a minute. Luna examined her humble surroundings; she never spent much time outside of Camelot before the Nightmare Moon incident, and she found that this modest little cottage was far more attractive than the -in her opinion- gaudy decor of the castle.
Fluttershy, for her part, was trying to stay comfortable with the fact that a princess was sitting in her living room, let alone drinking her tea. Of course, she was aware that this princess was no fan of her own royalty. Even if she didn't say it aloud, she certainly acted like royalty wasn't pleasing to her. She seemed more like she wanted to be normal, the only part of her godliness that she enjoys being her night sky.
Once they'd finished their tea, the companionable silence began to slowly turn to more of an awkward one. Despite the growing awkward feeling, both Princess and caretaker stayed quiet, neither knowing quite what the other wanted to talk about, if anything at all. Luna, finally getting a little antsy, decided to just try something.
"*ahem* So... H-how have you been?" She asked quietly.
"Oh... I've been-... I've, uhm, I-... Fine..." Fluttershy answered weakly, looking away, hair falling in her face as she did so. Again, Luna found herself enjoying this adorable display. This time, however, she got the urge to do something for the Angel sitting across from her, such as compliment her, or comfort her, or move from her seat and tuck that hair behind her ear and then lean in and...
Oh crap.
The princess's eyes widened as the image ran through her mind appealingly, and a sudden realization dawned. Luckily, the momentary shock on her face was out of Fluttershy's sight. She took a deep breath to calm her suddenly increased heart rate. "I- *ahem* I think I hear a hint of a lie in there..." Oh, dear Sister, what is she doing?
"W-well..." Fluttershy looked out the window without turning her head so Luna could see her face, which was now what she almost desperately wanted to do. "Yes, you do..." She mumbled quietly.
Luna waited patiently (or tried to) for her to elaborate, but the poor thing seemed at a loss of words, so Luna decided to press on lightly. "And what would that be?" She felt herself come close to choking from nervousness and anxiety. This was sudden. Very sudden. She was trying to just focus on what Fluttershy was saying, but ever since that little... idea had popped into her head, she couldn't quite focus on what Fluttershy was saying so much as Fluttershy herself.
And she was focusing on that quite well. Everything about her. Her soft, thick, rosy hair, her elegant, slightly under-developed wings, her modest but still attractive body...
Luna's eye twitched as she strained to focus on Fluttershy's voice as she began to speak again. "Well..." Her face fell from the window as she looked at her palms resting on her lap. "Y-...you remember all that...stuff w-with Twilight, right?"
"Yes." Luna answered slowly.
"W-well... It got a little bit more... confusing..." She doesn't say? Nothing about this situation was ever complicated, right? At no point could Luna recall it being confusing, at least not until she ended up sucked into it by a sudden... development. She refused to acknowledge it directly by what it was, because it definitely isn't that.
Luna tried to calm down, still thanking whatever cosmic forces were above herself and her sister that Fluttershy's hair was blocking her view of the princess. She took a few slow, quiet, deep breaths to slow her heart rate, then continued the conversation. "How so?"
"I-...Uhm..." Fluttershy was silently for a moment. "I shouldn't say." She said quietly. So be it. Luna didn't exactly feel a compulsion to continue prodding her. She had enough on her mind without trying to solve this situation with Twilight... Especially since helping Fluttershy would now lead to a poor ending for Luna...
Hmmm...
"Oh, alright then..." Luna thought for a moment. What was the point of that, by the way? She mentioned that it had gotten confusing, then decided not to say how? Sure Luna had prodded her to tell her what was wrong, but Fluttershy had still led on like she was planning to tell her something important, then didn't. Perhaps she had intended to tell Luna something, but changed her mind at the last minute. Certainly possible, but how likely was it?
Luna glanced at Fluttershy. Considering everything about Fluttershy? It was actually pretty darn likely.
"D-do you want to..." Fluttershy hesitated mid-sentence. She turned her head slightly, causing a crack to form in her wall of hair, allowing her eye to become visible through it. That pretty eye...
"*cough* W-want to what?" Luna said, barely avoiding a 'choke on word' incident.
"J-just... hang out?" Dear Sister, yes! Luna kept composed against her impulse to squee. This is just odd. How do feelings fluctuate so quickly?
"Sure."
"So..." Nightwing trailed off awkwardly. As a night guard, it was awkward enough to be in such a dainty environment, but it was even more awkward to be sitting across a table from a simple student who, as a student, had done more work of note in the past few years than the guard captain had done in her entire life. Nightwing was an esteemed captain of the personal guard of a goddess, and Twilight was a student, granting that she was the personal pupil of the other goddess, but still just a student.
And Twilight was far more impressive. Ouch... Quite the blow to the 'esteemed captain's' ego right there.
So there she sat, trying not to feel overly awkward about the current situation. Of course, there was the small detail of the fact that she is the captain of Luna's personal guard, and yet is not currently guarding the princess, whom was currently visiting a village that didn't exactly support her.
Or like her...
"So." Twilight replied blandly. It was obvious that this conversation was going nowhere, and she was willing to accept that instead of keeping up the facade that it could.
"Yeah..." Nightwing went back to eating quietly, deciding that she agreed with that sentiment.
Ponyville is home to many wonderful sights for the passerby, tourist, or familial visitor to admire (the locals prefer the term 'gawk'). These include the oddly, but beautifully designed buildings such as the town hall, the library, the sweet shop known as Sugar Cube Corner, and the dress shop, Carousel Boutique. There is also the Apple Family Farm, one of the largest orchards in Terra, as well as the Everfree Forest, the creepy, problem-filled forest on the edge of town, as well as Whitetail Woods, the bright, happy forest also on the edge of town.
The town itself contained a park, market, and several areas for various businesses as any successful town would require. It also contained townspeople. These were usually the friendly kind, showing love to anyone who required it.
Not the case today, sadly. The glaring from the locals hadn't ceased, but merely let up slightly as a result of Luna's decision to leave her crown at the library. Luckily, however, they had chosen to go to a private piece of Whitetail Woods, away from the hostile stares of the locals.
"I-I'm so sorry..." Fluttershy said when they finally had some privacy.
"It's not your fault. I don't see why you feel the need to apologize." Luna replied. During the silence of the walk here she had successfully managed to regain her composure and was of somewhat sound mind again. The pretty Angel's influence was of course still messing with her mind, but she'd at least regained completely coherent thought again.
Luna noticed for the first time that Fluttershy was silent now, probably embarrassed of her habitual apologizing. She glanced over at Fluttershy, whom seemed to be avoiding eye contact. That, or the leaves were very interesting. Luna glanced up at the trees around them, thinking the former more likely.
"Anyways...This scenery is quite lovely." Luna said, hoping to revive the conversation.
"Y-yes. It is." Fluttershy said, sneaking a glance at the elegant princess while she was observing the colorful leaves. It was still Summer, but Whitetail was famous for it's white-barked trees with year-round red, gold, and orange leaves. Any visitor who came to the town while the leaves were there (meaning not Winter) often commented on it. Luna, however, was aware of these trees, although she hadn't been around when Ponyville was founded, she had been to the forest before, a long, long time ago. She wasn't completely impressed with them as a peculiarity, but more as an art form she'd seen multiple times, didn't prefer, but still respected.
For the second time that day Luna found herself wondering exactly what cosmic force was above herself and had placed the things that neither she nor her sister had any power over... Oh well; no need for such astounding philosophical thought when you yourself are the object of such thoughts.
They walked quietly for a while until they arrived at a clearing. There was still thirty minutes of sun left in the day and as such Luna saw no reason to examine Celestia's daytime sky; it was just blue and a little orange right now. Honestly, her sister was so uncreative.
A thought crossed Luna's mind that she was simply distracting herself from the matter at hand, namely her new-found...'interest' in this simple caretaker she was currently spending her day with. She decided the best course of action was the obvious one: come out with her 'interest' in Fluttershy to her. The only problem was that Fluttershy obviously didn't return this 'interest' and had similar... screw it they're feelings... Fluttershy has feelings for someone else and Luna, of course, has drawn the short stick of having similar feelings for Fluttershy.
Luna let out one heavy sigh, stealing a sideways glance of Fluttershy and having the embarrassing moment of Fluttershy having noticed the sigh and looked over. Luna's cheeks heated and she looked away quickly. Too quickly, in fact, to notice that Fluttershy had much the same reaction.
They sat down in the clearing, finding a comfortable spot against a large tree with a view of the western horizon. The Sun was getting ready to set, and the sky was slowly churning from its normal blue hues through an array or reds, oranges, and purples on its way to Luna's night sky. She closed her eyes, her face scrunching as she began to concentrate on her Moon, which was about to rise on the horizon behind them.
Together, they watched as the Sun lowered slowly, the circle of light beginning to disappear as its lower edge kissed the horizon gently. They watched in silence for a moment as the beautiful array of brilliant colors showered across the sky. Luna had to admit: this was pretty creative...
But her stars were still so much better.
The scene stirred emotions in Luna that had barely had time to settle. It was completely romantic and it gave her the urge to tell Fluttershy how she felt, whether rejection was eminent or not. So she took a deep breath, looked at Fluttershy...
And passed up her opportunity...