Luna quirked her eyebrow again and slowly walked over to Star Cluster. Behind her, Black Diamond and Night Audit pointedly looked in other directions. Star Cluster slowly lowered herself to the floor, the magical tether still looped around her body. Luna looked down at her. It wasn't a glare, but the effect was the same. When the Night Princess spoke, it was softly, but with a hard audible edge.
“You lost the moose.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Star Cluster gulped.
“How?”
“I...” Star Cluster paused, then sighed. “I'm not sure.”
Luna inhaled and exhaled slowly through her nostrils. “Night Audit? Captain?”
“Yes, Your Highness?” the two male ponies asked.
“Captain, gather your guards and search the courtyard and gardens. If you do not find the ambassador's pet, widen the search to Canterlot proper. Night Audit, you will find all members of the night staff and search the castle itself. If anyone finds the moose, they are to report to me immediately. Understood?”
Black Diamond saluted. “Yes, Your Highness.”
He was out the door in seconds. Night Audit, on the other hand, walked closer to the princess.
“I thought I made my instructions clear, Night Audit,” Luna said, her gaze still firmly on Star Cluster.
“Yes, Your Highness, I was just wondering if the Lance-Corporal shouldn't be part of the search as well.”
“Oh, she will be. As will I. However, I need to have a word with her before we join in. Be at ease, my friend. We will join you shortly.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Night Audit bowed and exited the throne room. After a moment of silence, Luna spoke once again to Star Cluster.
“Now, tell me exactly what happened,” she said quietly. Star Cluster, realizing that she had a reprieve, however brief, let out the breath she'd been holding and spoke.
“After it dragged me out of the throne room, I managed to get it to stop long enough to let me lead it out towards the gardens. But when we were almost there, it was gone.”
“Gone?” Luna repeated. “How did it break the tether?”
“That's just it, it's not broken! Um, Your Highness.” Star Cluster said, abruptly remembering protocol. She unwound the tether from her body and showed it to Luna. The tether was still the same length and glowing with the mystical energy it had been formed from. “One second it was there, and the next, poof! No moose.”
“Was there any magical residue left from this teleportation?”
“I don't think it was teleportation, Your Highness,” Star Cluster answered. “At least not magical. It's like the moose just stopped existing. No flash of light, no sparks, no magic of any kind that I could see. Or sense, for that matter.”
Luna's brow furrowed. She knew Star Cluster had to be telling the truth. The nature of the spell that created the tether would have prevented any sort of teleportation spell from working, as well as over a dozen other commonly used transport magics documented as abilities of some of the more magically gifted species in Equestria.
“Very well, Star Cluster,” Luna said. “Rejoin the Night Guard, and inform Captain Diamond that I wish a report every two hours until the moose is found.”
Star Cluster saluted. “Yes, Your Highness! Um... one question?”
“Yes?” Luna asked.
“What happens if we can't find the moose before the ambassador arrives?”
Luna sighed gravely. “Then, I expect we shall see if that combat training you've been doing has sunk in.”
Star Cluster gulped, saluted again, and rocketed out of the throne room. Luna let out a breath of her own and began to think.
Now, let us think this through logically. I am a pet feral moose, albeit with unusual abilities. I am in unfamiliar territory, away from my master. Where would I go?
After a moment, Luna's expression changed to a sardonic smile. “Truly,” she said aloud, “I am an idiot. There's only one place I would go.”
–--
Elsewhere in the castle, Princess Celestia carefully separated the white powder into five lines of equal length. Her eyes gleamed with anticipation. There was nothing finer than the sensations the power caused when she took it. Of course, it wouldn't do for her subjects to discover her little habit. It wouldn't look good, but there were some days she just couldn't function without it. Hence these little late night indulgences.
Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before lowering her head towards the powder. Yes, soon the euphoria would rush through her and--
“AH HA! I HAVE CAUGHT THEE!”
Celestia let out a loud shriek as Luna burst through the doors of the royal kitchen. She quickly swiped a wing across the counter and sent the powdered sugar she was about to lick up flying into the air.
There was an awkward pause at the two sisters stared at each other. Luna, standing in the doorway of the Royal Kitchen, one hoof pointed accusingly at Celestia. Celestia herself stood there, powdered sugar floating through the air, lightly dusting her wings. Celestia quickly plastered a smile on her face.
“Luna!” she said, a little too loudly. “What brings you down here at this hour?”
Luna lowered her hoof and walked into the kitchen. “I could ask you the same thing?”
“Oh, you know,” Celestia replied, doing her best to look nonchalant. “I woke up wanting a little midnight snack and you know how I hate to disturb the chef this late at night.”
“Um, yes,” Luna said, as Celestia came out from behind the counter, powdered sugar dust rising from her flank as she walked. “I suppose.”
“So,” Celestia said, the smile not moving one inch, “How about you?”
“Eh?”
“Why are you here in the kitchen? Is everything going all right at Night Court?”
Luna quickly summoned a smile identical to her sister's. “Fine! Absolutely fine! No trouble whatsoever!”
“Did Night Audit give you the message about the minotaur ambassador?” Celestia asked, swishing her tail across the counter so as to get rid of any further evidence of her addiction.
“The minotaur ambassador, yes!” Luna replied. “Yes, he did. I am sooooo grateful to you, Tia, for affording me this opportunity.”
“Well, I think it's important that the other countries of the world start recognizing you as the co-ruler of Equestria. This will be an important step forward.”
“Yes. Yes, indeed.” Luna nodded abruptly.
“So, everything is prepared?” Celestia asked. “You're ready to meet him at dawn?”
“Absolutely!” Luna felt her muscles cramping up from smiling so long. “Everything is perfectly fine and ready. The guest room is prepared, the Night Guard is ready, and there have been no problems whatsoever this evening. At all—eep!”
The “eep” was because at that moment, the door to the cold room had opened and the ambassador's moose wandered out idly munching on what looked like a bushel of carrots. Luna pupils shrunk to pinpricks as the moose began walking behind the counter, and worse, its antlers were dangerously close to hitting the pots and pans that hung on the rack over the stoves.
“Is there a problem, Luna?” Celestia asked. She began to turn her head, but Luna quickly threw her forelegs around her sister's neck and dragged her out of the kitchen into the hallway. She then turned the drag into a bear hug, while simultaneously using her magic to close the doors to the kitchen.
Celestia gasped as Luna's hug forced the air out of her lungs and her face began to turn red.
“Lulu!” she cried, her voice raspy with the lack of oxygen. “Too tight! Air!”
Luna blinked and quickly released her sister. Celestia gasped again as she sucked in a deep breath. Her face soon returned to its normal alabaster and she looked up at her sister.
“Well, that was... unexpected,” she said.
“I'm so sorry, sister,” Luna said, her mind racing to find an explanation for her behavior. “I was just suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to thank you for the trust you've placed in me since my return.”
Please buy this nonsense. Please buy this nonsense. Please buy this nonsense. Luna's thoughts repeated.
As for Celestia, she decided to cut her losses and retreat. There would be other late night excursions to the kitchen for her favorite sweetener. Although, she couldn't help but notice Luna seemed unusually tense for some reason.
“Well, thank you, Luna,” she said slowly. “And I should be off to bed. I'll see you at dawn?”
“Yes! Dawn! Certainly, Tia!” Dear Faust, why doesn't she just go already?!
Celestia quirked an eyebrow. “Well... good night then.”
“Good night!” Luna's grin remained in place until Celestia rounded the corner and out of sight. She sagged against the door and let out a sigh.
---
As she made her way to her bedroom, Celestia chuckled softly to her self as she pondered the absurdity of the situation. She then glanced down at her left wing, extended it, and then craned her head to look closely at it. There was a light layer of powder on it. She grinned and extended her tongue.
Ohhhhh, yessssssss...
---
Luna got back to her hooves and turned to face the kitchen doors. Behind them came a clattering of metal. Realizing the moose had finally hit the rack of pans, she threw open the doors and quickly entered.
The moose's antlers were tangled in the pan rack, inhibiting its movement, the last of the carrot stalks disappearing into its mouth. Luna smirked and strode towards it.
“Right, you have led us all on a merry chase, but your master will be arriving in a scant few hours, and I have no more time for your nonsense. Now, I shall free you from yon pan rack and you will come quietly to the gardens. Do we have an accord, my good moose?”
Suddenly the moose's eyes opened widely and it let out a snort that sounded almost quizzical. Then, before Luna knew what had happened, the moose vanished from the kitchen. The Night Princess blinked, then walked over to the space where the moose had just been. She cast a detection spell but the spell returned no results. The moose was, indeed, gone.
Luna let out an exasperated sigh. “Could this night become any more inconvenient?”
It was, of course, at that point that the pan rack fell from the ceiling and crashed down onto the alicorn.