//------------------------------// // Face to Face // Story: The Moon and the Star // by Ashura //------------------------------// Chapter 3 : Face to Face The next night, Luna was up on her tower again when she noticed that the filly was heading towards the Royal Gardens once more. Luna jumped of the tower and glided quietly towards the gardens, she hovered high above the filly. She summoned her night wolf once again and sent it to go meet the little pony. Double Star was lying in front of the statue of Luna and Celestia when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the wolf she had seen the night before come towards her. Double Star got up and turned to face the wolf. “Hi, how did you get in this time? Or do you live here? And I'm talking to a wolf now... Well, it's still better then talking to myself.” Double Star turned away from the wolf and trotted towards the trees that were kept in the north section of the Royal Gardens. Luna watched Double Star as she headed towards the trees, wondering what she was planning to do. She watched as the filly stopped in front of a tree and looked up at it. It was a huge tree with several low branches that went all the way to the top. She must be planing to climb that tree thought Luna. Luna dropped to the ground as Double Star reached for the first branch. Luna hid behind a bush and watched the filly climb the tree. She did pretty well and Luna relaxed a little, the wolf was sitting beneath the tree staring up at Double Star. Double Star was climbing up the tree, she loved climbing this tree. Whenever she was really upset, she would come here and climb this tree. She was reaching for the next branch when she heard a crack from beneath her hooves. Before she could wrap her hoof around the next branch, the branch bellow her gave in to her weight. Luna was watching her climb, she was halfway up the tree when a branch suddenly snapped. Luna reacted in an instant, she powered up her horn and caught Double Star a few meters before she hit the ground. Luna emitted a sigh of relief. She deposited the filly gently on the ground and hid behind the bush as Double Star looked around, wondering why she wasn't hurt. She started falling to the ground, hoping that the ground wasn't too hard. But she never reached the ground, shouldn't I have hit it by now? she wondered. Double Star looked down, she was being held up by magic. What's going on? Could the wolf actually do magic? Double Star looked at the wolf, it was chasing a fly and trying to eat it. Nah... So who's casting the spell? Double Star was lowered to the ground, she had never been so happy to reach the ground. Double Star looked around, trying to see if there was anypony around who could have casted the levitation spell. Double Star gave up trying to see anything or anypony and returned to her room. Luna watched as the filly left the Royal Gardens and returned from wherever she had come from. She returned to her tower hoping that the filly would be OK. Luna went to wake Celestia so that she could raise the sun. “Tia? It's time to raise the sun.” “Very well, anything happened during the night?” “...No. Nothing at all.” A few weeks later Luna had the decided that she should show herself to Double Star, as she now knew the filly was called, and start getting to know her. That night she waited for Double Star to show herself, as she had done for the past few weeks. Luna saw Double Star exit the building, right on time she thought. Luna waited until Double Star reached the gardens before leaping of the tower to go meet the young pony for the first time. She was standing in front of the fountain again, Luna crept up behind her and opened her mouth, ready to let her presence be know. Double Star was staring up at the statue of Celestia when she heard a voice come from behind her. “Good evening.” it said There was something about the voice that made Double Star think that this was no regular pony. She turned around, expecting to see a normal pony or at the most, a Unicorn. But she certainly wasn't expecting to see an alicorn princess. But there she was, smiling away and looking down at her. “Princess Luna!” Luna watched smiling as realization dawned upon Double Star's face. She was surprised when Double Star fell to the ground and bowed to her. “Please, don't bow to me. I just wish to speak to you.” “Me? Why do you want to speak to me?” “Well, I have been watching you go out each night for a while now and I've decided that I want to finally meet you.” “Really? But why?” “As you can see, there aren't that many ponies around right now. Which is why, I believe, you enjoy coming out at night. Correct?” Star shrugged and then asked: “So you're lonely?” “Simply put, yes. I wanted to meet somepony who isn't my sister who is not afraid of the night. You are one such pony, so I was curious.” Double Star looked at Luna as if she could hardly believe what was happening. She saw Luna's horn and a thought struck her. “You can perform spells right? With your horn?” she asked “Yes. When the occasion calls for it.” replied the princess “Right. I just wanted to ask you, a few weeks ago I fell from a tree but somepony caught me with magic before I could hit the ground. Was that you?” continued Star Luna smiled. “Yes, that was me.” “Wow, thanks. I actually went looking for the unicorns that live here but none of them seemed like staying up at night type... So, you said you were curious. What about?” “I was mostly just wondering why you ventured out into my night.” Double Star stared at Luna for a moment, she may be one of the princesses but she wasn't ready to share that information with anypony yet. So she settled for a half-truth. “I have nightmares sometimes. The silence and fresh air helps me clear my head. I also prefer being alone, I don't have many friends and there's this one pegasus in particular that teases me about my lack of a cutie mark.” stated Star “I don't think I could make this pegasus you speak of leave you alone without upsetting my sister which, while entertaining, would have some consequences. The nightmare however, maybe I could help you with that. This isn't general knowledge but I'll tell you because I believe I can trust you.” started Luna “Really?” asked the young pony “Absolutely...I don't just raise and lower the Moon. I can also travel into my dreams and influence how they unfold, perhaps I could help you in your dreams.” proposed the alicorn “You can!? That's incredible! And you can really make my nightmares go away?” asked Star excitedly “I believe so, I have never attempted it on anypony but myself before. But I am certainly willing to try.” declared Luna “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you...” said Star “I haven't actually done anything yet...” replied Luna “Thank you, thank you, thank you...” Double Star dropped to the ground and started kissing Luna's hooves. Luna looked around, glad for once that nopony was awake. “Um... You may stop kissing my hooves now.” Double Star looked up at Luna, turned a bright shade of red, got up and backed away a little. “It is too late to attempt such a thing tonight, but I shall definitely try tomorrow night. And there is no need to thank me...again” Double Star already had her mouth open, she snapped it shut and smiled at Luna. Luna smiled back. “Now Double Star...” “Just Star is fine.” “Very well, Star. Why don't you go try and get some sleep for the remaining hours of the night?” “OK, good night Princess Luna.” “...Good Night, Star.” Luna watched as Star trotted off happily. Nopony had ever wished her a good night before, except Celestia, but they weren't strangers to each other. Luna returned to her tower and sat on it's roof, watching the sun rise and glad that she had decided to follow Star that night all those weeks ago.