Damn that mare to Tartarus! Luna still can’t get over what happened inside her mind. How dare she touch Anon! Luna grits her teeth in thought of why the elements did this to her. She’s spent countless nights wishing that the one thing to haunt her past would’ve been erased from existence. Yet that wasn’t the case. She knows not why the elements left that mare inside of her, but it’s something she has to live with. She hopes that Anon will not blame her for what happened. She knows that he’ll understand, but there’s that small part of her that’s afraid of losing his trust. He may say that he trusts her, but there will always be that voice in the back of his mind, warning him of what lies beneath the surface.
Luna has seen that side from her own sister. She’s never talked about it, but Luna knew what her sister was thinking whenever they made eye contact. That wariness. Since Anon has been spending time with her, Luna has seen that side of her lifted. She’s happy for that, but it would hurt her if the same thing were to happen with Anon. Her heart aches at that thought. She never wants to lose him. He understands her in more ways than any other pony, except her own sister of course, yet there are just some things that not even her own sister can understand.
Luna looks up from the floor in thought. She’s been walking to her captain’s room. She needs to speak with her about many things. Primarily what happened yesterday. She knows that getting the full story will help put everyone's mind at ease. Luna knocks on the door and waits. Her captain soon comes and answers. She’s quick to give a bow.
“What brings you to my room, Princess?”
“You were following us last night, correct?” Luna asks.
“Indeed, I was.”
“Then please enlighten me on what transpired.”
Blossom returns from her bow and waves the princess in.
“Please come in and take a seat.”
Luna doesn’t pause as she walks inside and takes a seat. This wouldn’t be the first time she’s been in her captain's room. Before her banishment, the two of them spent many nights conversing with one another about a great many things. Luna believed in being close to her knights, as familiarity breeds trust. Blossom closes the door and sits across from Luna.
“I should start by saying that I didn’t start following you until I was informed by one of my ponies that you, Anon and your sister were acting strange.” Blossom says as Luna nods. “By the time I got there you and Anon were running out of the castle.”
“Alright, so tell me what happened.”
“Understood.”
Blossom is flying overhead of the princess and Anon as they run down the streets of Canterlot. It seems that what she heard from her stallions was accurate. There’s definitely something wrong with those two. She would go down to investigate but there seems to be no danger as of yet. Blossom lands onto a nearby building as she notices Luna stopping in her tracks. She angles her ears so she can pick up what they’re saying.
“Anon, why are we in the streets again?”
Blossom can see that Anon is swaying slightly on Luna’s back. It almost seems as if he’s intoxicated? Is that what this is all about? Are the two of them drunk? It would make a degree of sense.
“I don’t remember. I think we were going to do something fun.” Anon responds.
“Fun?” Blossom whispers to herself.
Blossom notices Luna’s ears flicker towards her direction. Did Luna hear her just then? That doesn’t seem to be the case as Luna looks off into a different direction. A large smile on her face.
“Anon, what are your thoughts on nightclubs?”
“I don’t know? I’ve never been to one.”
“I haven’t either. Would you care to join me at such an event?”
“Sure thing, Lulu.”
That causes Blossom to raise a brow. This is the first time she’s ever heard another creature call Luna by a pet name. Is Luna blushing?
“Very well.” Luna says with a smile.
Before Blossom can question anymore of what she saw, Luna takes off towards a rather well-known nightclub in Canterlot. This is going to be tricky for Blossom to stay undercover, but hopefully, the large crowds will make it easier.
“Lulu?” Luna asks with her face growing red.
“Is that a name he calls you often?” Blossom asks with a noticeable grin.
She shakes her head. “I’ve not heard him utter that name before in all my time with him.”
Blossom hums to herself. It’s all so interesting how much she’s learning about those two.
“Shall I continue?”
Luna nods. “Please.”
Blossom lets Anon and Luna get into the club a few minutes before she decided to sneak her way in. It wasn’t very hard and now she blended with the crowd and watches from afar as Luna and Anon sit in a booth alone. It’s a bit hard for her to hear what they are saying, but her ears aren’t just for show.
“This place is pretty nice.” Anon says to Luna.
“I know! There are so many lively ponies here.”
“So what do ponies do here?”
“They drink, dance and have fun.”
“Well, I’m already smashed. Wanna dance, Lulu?”
Luna giggles. “I have not danced in many moons, Anon. I fear my skills may have rusted.”
Anon gets up from the table and offers Luna his hand.
“Come on. We were looking to have fun, right?”
Luna has a hard time containing her grin.
“Very well.”
Blossom watches as the two of them walk from their booth and towards the dance floor. Blossom isn’t sure what to think about all this. So she moves with the crowd so she can stay out of sight. The ponies give Anon and Luna a wide berth as they make it to the center of the dance floor.
“So what should we do?” Luna asks.
Anon has a large smile on his face.
“Remember when you went into my head?” She nods. “Do you think you can swing?”
Luna starts giggling like a school filly, something Blossom hasn’t seen in a long time. She looks back up at Anon with a huge grin.
“Let’s give these ponies a show.”
Blossom has no idea what to expect as she watches Anon and Luna get into position. Luna is up on her hind hooves as she rests her forehooves on Anon’s shoulders. It seems that everypony in the entire club is looking their way. They both give each other a smile as they nod in unison. Anon takes Luna’s hoof into his hand and starts to twirl her around. Everypony is silent now as they watch Anon spinning the princess. Soon he extends his arm out and Luna’s spin ends with her striking a pose. Anon pulls her back quickly to his side as he starts to move his feet in a pattern that even Blossom finds herself mesmerized by.
Anon brings Luna in front of him and picks her up, sweeps her under his legs as Luna lands behind him and pulls his arms up, which makes Anon do a front flip. Now all the ponies are cheering them on as Luna pulls Anon to her side. The both of their legs are moving in sync as they continue to display a motion that looks as if they’re gliding on air. Anon does a few more twirls with Luna before he picks her up again, but unlike the last time, this time, he wraps her around his body. The entire motion looks so fluid to Blossom as Luna snakes down Anon’s body and between his legs, ending with another pose.
Anon then quickly picks Luna up and as they return to each other, pressing their bodies firmly together as they face one another. They glide around the dance floor for a moment, just before the entire display ends with Anon dipping Luna low to the ground, their faces only inches from the other. No pony in the club can contain themselves as their cheers turn to hollers. Anon pulls up from his dip, the two of them still inches from one another. The crowd seems to be eating it up as they finally break eye contact. The both of them are red in the face as they look out to the crowd. All ponies are stomping their hooves in cheer.
“That was fun.” Anon says.
“Very, I would enjoy doing that again sometime.” Luna’s face gets redder. “Perhaps we could practice in private?”
“Sure, I could do this again. It was really fun.”
Just before Blossom could question what Luna meant by that, Celestia comes walking into the club. She scans the room until she rests her gaze on Anon and Luna. They don’t even realize she’s there until she used her magic to drag the both of them out of the club.
“That’s when I stopped following. It looked like Celestia had everything in her hooves from there.”
Blossom looks at Luna and can see how red her face is.
“I-I did not expect to hear this, Blossom.”
Blossom chuckles a bit. “Yeah, the two of you really put on a show. What was that “swing” dance anyways?”
“Something from Anon’s world. Did we really dance so well?”
Blossom nods. “It was like you two were a single pony. I've never seen such fluid dancing like that before. I’d say it was even better, seeing as you two were drunk.”
Luna takes a minute to compose herself.
“I think I should be going. Thank you for regaling me.”
“No need for thanks, I was plenty entertained with last night.”
Luna’s embarrassment is at its peak as she rises from her seat and quickly shows herself out of Blossom’s room. Blossom can only chuckle to herself. It seems that the princess has a bit of a crush, whether she knows it or not.
Celestia is already on her sixth cake, but she stops mid bite as somepony knock on her throne room door. Her brow raises as she rests her fork into the box and places the cake beside her. Who could be coming to see her? She stopped day court awhile ago.
“Princess?” The guard sitting beside her questions what he should do.
Celestia looks down at him and nods her head towards the door. The guard doesn’t hesitate as he trots over to the door and uses his magic to open it. Celestia notices that he bows before whoever is behind it. Her curiosity is peaked as the door slowly opens to reveal the pony behind it.
“Is that who I think it is?” Celestia asks with a smile on her face.
“Of course, aunty!” Cadance says, returning the smile.
Celestia rises from her throne and meets Cadance half way. They embrace one another in a hug.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.” Celestia says happy to see her niece.
“I know. Things were busy over in Griffus.”
“So, how much did you learn?”
“A lot. I don’t think I’ve ever met so many interesting creatures in my life.”
Celestia chuckles at that. It’s been two months since Cadance left to practice her diplomatic skills over in Griffus. It was just one of the many steps she needs to take before becoming a proper princess. At least, she’ll be one in time.
“Have you seen Shining Armor yet?”
Cadance shakes her head. “Not yet, I wanted to surprise him.”
“That’s good. So do you plan on inviting him for dinner tonight?”
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled just to be with you.”
Cadance blushes some. “Well, I’ll be thrilled to be with him too.” Cadance then remembers something. “Oh! Is your friend going to be there too? What is his name?”
Friend? Oh, does she mean Anon? Now that Celestia thinks about it, Cadance didn’t get a chance to meet Anon. Shining was spending time with Cadance when Anon’s birthday was happening and she set off the very next day. So she hasn’t met him yet.
“Anon, and I’m afraid that he won’t be joining us. If I remember correctly he’s going to be at his shop to help train some ponies.”
“That’s a shame. I really wanted to meet him.”
“How about you come to a party he’s throwing? I know he said it was just for friends, but I really want you to meet him.”
“Are you sure it’s alright? I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
Celestia waves it off.
“Don’t worry. Anon may be a bit tough to deal with in the beginning, but I can assure you he’s very sweet.”
Cadance chuckles a bit. “You always talk so highly of him, Aunty.”
“Well, he is very special to me and my sister. I guess I do praise him a bit more than I realize.”
Cadance hugs her aunt again. “It’s good to see you happy.” She pulls away and gives her a nod. “I’m going to go surprise Shiny.”
“Of course, just don’t surprise him too much, he’s still on the job.”
“I’ll try my best to contain myself.”
Celestia gives Cadance a wave as she trots out of her throne room. Once she’s gone does Celestia give a small sigh. She is a bit worried about how Anon will react to seeing Cadance there. After all, she’s never told Anon about her niece before. She shakes those thoughts away. She’s worrying over nothing. Anon doesn’t have any bad blood with Cadance, it should be fine. Celestia looks over to the mountain of cake still in her throne room. She’s barely made a dent in it.
“Guard.”
“Yes, Princess?”
“Please take these cakes to my room. If anypony should need me, I’ll be there.”
“As you wish.”
Celestia feels a smile on her face. If she’s going to enjoy herself, she might as well get comfortable.
Anon is making his way towards Blueblood’s bedroom. He needs to find out what happened last night and Blue may be the only pony that knows something. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try. Finding Blueblood’s room doesn’t take long, as it’s located a few doors from his own. Anon can think of a few memories of when Blue came to his bedroom after having a nightmare. Cuddling with the big lug would’ve been awkward if it wasn’t for the fact that Blueblood was genuinely scared. However, that thought is irrelevant. It’s time to see if Blue is still asleep in his room.
As Anon makes his approach, he notices something odd in the air. Is that the smell of cotton candy? Anon doesn’t know why, but he can feel a raging clue coming on. The smell of cotton candy seems to intensify the closer he gets to Blueblood’s room. There’s definitely something afoot. A mystery that needs solving. Anon is before Blue’s door and the smell is almost unbearable. Anon knocks on the door a few times and waits for an answer.
Times passes and no one answers. There’s something wrong here and Anon can’t help but worry. There’s a chance that Blue isn’t in his room, but something deep down is telling him that isn’t the case. He needs to make sure that everything is alright. Anon tests the handle to see if it’s unlocked. It turns freely. Well, he might as well check.
“Blue?” Anon opens the door slowly.
As soon as the door opens the scent of cotton candy is so strong that Anon covers his face. He can feel his lungs wanting to gasp for clean air, but he’s not going to stop just yet.
“Anon?” A muffled voice calls from deep within the room.
Anon removes his hand from his face and is stunned by what he sees. Before Anon is something that his mind cannot even register. Blueblood’s entire room is filled with cotton candy. A literal wall of cotton candy is keeping him from seeing what is within.
“Blue?” Anon calls out again.
“Anon! Can you hear me!”
That definitely sounds like Blueblood’s voice.
“What happened?!” Anon shouts into the wall of candy.
“Get me out of here! My coat and mane are absolutely filthy!”
Blueblood is talking in his royal voice, this is serious.
“Don’t worry, Blue! I’ll get you out of there!”
Anon runs up to the wall of candy. He tries to tear into it, but it’s too thick. Not only that, but he can’t eat it either, it’s just too much candy for one man to handle. A useless thought comes to his mind.
“If only Pinkie was he-”
“You called?”
Anon jumps in shock as he looks over to see Pinkie standing beside him.
“Jesus, Pinkie?! Where the hell did you come from?!”
Pinkie giggles at Anon’s reaction.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out, at dinner tonight! I want you to meet somepony. Are you free this evening?”
Anon takes a few seconds to calm his rapidly beating heart. He shakes his head at Pinkie’s antics, but it’s one of the things he’s come to accept about her.
“Yes, I’m free, but I’ll only go to dinner with you if you help me save Blueblood.”
Pinkie's smile grows disturbingly large.
“Great! Leave the rest to me, Nonny.”
Anon can’t help but notice that nickname. There’s no time for him to question that while Blueblood is stuck behind this wall of candy.
“Yeah... Can you hurry?”
She gives him a nod and jumps face first into the candy wall. Anon watches in shock as Pinkie takes huge chunks out of the wall. Each bite seemingly bigger than the last. It’s almost like Anon is watching a car crash in slow motion. It’s disturbing, but he can’t look away. It happens so fast that he can’t even register the pace that Pinkie is eating the wall. It seems that only seconds pass as the wall quickly disappears. Before he knows it. Anon is looking at an empty room, a very fat looking Pinkie and a slobber-covered Blueblood that is shaking in place.
Oh god... Poor Blueblood.
“Um... I saved you?” Anon says unsure if Blueblood will be scarred for the rest of his life.
“I-I think I want to take a bath now.”
Anon nods. “Yeah... We’ll talk later about yesterday.”
Blueblood shakily gets up and walks to his bathroom. Anon looks down at Pinkie. She’s still really fat looking and for some reason, it looks cute. Anon’s never seen a fat pony before. Well, he could probably count Mrs.Cake, but she’s more chubby than fat. Anon walks over to Pinkie and picks her up under her armpits.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Anon asks.
“Heh, sorry.”
Anon brings fat Pinkie into a hug. “It’s alright, but I think you should apologize to Blueblood.”
“I’ll do it later when he’s not busy.”
Anon sets Pinkie back down.
“So why are you here, Pinkie?”
“Well I just couldn’t wait after I got your message, so I decided to come early!”
“Alright, but what was that stuff about meeting someone?”
“It’s just as it sounds, Nonny. I want you to meet a very special pony and I know she’s excited to meet you too.”
“Do I know this pony?”
Pinkie shakes her head. “Nope! I’m also not going to tell you about her until later tonight. I have a reservation to make!”
“Reservation?”
“Of course, silly! I want us to go out for dinner.”
“Um... Alright? I don’t know why we can’t just have dinner here.”
“My friend is already excited. I’ll leave meeting the princesses for later.”
“Makes sense. So are you doing anything right now?”
“Don’t you listen, Nonny? I’m going to go make a reservation! I’ll see you later tonight.”
“Ok, Guess I’ll see you then?”
“Yup!”
Before Anon can say anything Pinkie tosses down a smoke bomb. When the smoke clears Anon is left alone in Blueblood’s room. Well, that just happened. Anon wants to find out what happened last night, but he thinks that giving Blueblood some time alone might be the best choice right now. Anon walks out of his room in search of what to do next. A sobering thought comes to him as he freezes in place. He still needs to talk to Luna, he was so wrapped up in this mystery that he almost forgot about what happened in their dreams. Anon doesn’t blame Luna for what happened, he’s just curious as to why Nightmare Moon is in her head.
Nightmare Moon... Anon can still faintly taste her. As his mind recollects on what happened, he finds that he’s less disgusted by the entire ordeal. Sure, it wasn’t what he expected by any means, considering the stories he’s heard. In fact, she was rather gentle, if a bit forceful. Something she said bothers him as well.
“You should know that stories change depending on who’s telling them.”
He knows for a fact that what she did to Luna was horrible, but is that really the whole story? Not only that, but there’s been something nagging at the back of his mind for awhile now. Nightmare’s dream... Anon remembers vividly what he felt when he placed his hand on her door. How lonely and sad she felt. That wasn’t Luna’s feelings. So is there more to this than meets the eye? Anon can feel his curiosity getting the better of him.
Would it be a bad idea to see her again? Anon can feel his heart rapidly racing at that thought. This may be his only chance to speak to Nightmare alone. Luna is awake, so Anon will probably go unnoticed in her head. Yet, that also means he’ll be on his own. If push comes to shove and shove turns to rape. He’s not too sure if he has the power to stop Nightmare Moon. After all, she’s a part of Luna, so she’s probably really good at controlling dreams.
Even after considering all of that. He still can’t shake this feeling inside of him. Maybe he was too quick to judge her? It’ll be a risk, but Anon can’t deny the excitement of a mystery on his hands. He just hopes it doesn’t cost him dearly.