• Published 25th Feb 2012
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Star Gazing - Konseiga

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Return of a Friend

“You know, this doesn’t have to be just a dream,” the black silky voice had returned, wrapping itself around Twilight as she stood on the balcony of her castle. Her wings were outstretched casually, as if she was prepared to take flight.

But it is just a dream, Twilight thought lazily. I’m nowhere near this powerful, really.

“Aren’t you, though? Wasn’t there a theory that dreams reflect reality?” the voice took on a teasing undertone, as if it was trying to goad Twilight into arguing with it.

Just because one theory was published by one pony doesn’t mean the tail feathers of a griffon, Twilight shrugged physically.

The voice just pleasantly laughed. “If you say so, Twilight…”

I do say so, Twilight asserted. And that shall be the end of it.

The voice was silent for a while. Twilight stood and gazed over the landscape. It was bathed in the soft glow of the moon, the stars offering a glimmering backdrop to its beauty. She smiled, fully appreciative of the natural artwork displayed before her.

“It IS quite the world you’ve created,” the voice agreed. “How nice it would be to actually live it…”

Twilight frowned. As much as she hated to admit it, the shadow was right. It would be kinda nice…

“But, of course, you don’t want my help to reach that end…” the shadow said with a tone of glumness. “Such a marvelous opportunity.”

Twilight felt a stirring sense of unease in her chest. It wasn’t unease at what the shadow was saying, and that is what bothered her the most. No, the unease sprouted from her realization that the voice was seriously tempting her. She yearned for the power that it promised, to “realize her full potential”, as the voice would put it.

“Admit it, Twilight…” the voice purred, “You’re at least interested.”

Slowly, almost painfully, Twilight nodded. I’ll keep it in mind…

~*~*~*~*~

When Twilight woke up, she was immediately aware of two things. The first is that she was tucked safely into her bed, instead of snuggled against a midnight blue alicorn. A wave of disappointment flowed through her, instantly followed by a wave of guilt.

She IS a princess, after all, Twilight thought. She was probably just being friendly. It was chilly for a summer night, after all.

The second thing Twilight realized is that it was raining. The soft pit-pat of raindrops striking the library’s roof was soothing to Twilight, and a low rumble of thunder, far off in the distance, caused Twilight to kick off the covers and just lay there contentedly.

I wonder what Luna is doing right now, Twilight thought idly, legs folded over her chest. Maybe she had some royal business to attend to, or maybe there was a crisis that somepony of her stature and power was required to solve the problem.

Twilight’s mind drifted off, concocting a scene where Princess Luna, in all her glory, was standing in the center of a plain, glaring at oncoming manticores. But these weren’t just any manticores. Their manes were a striking crimson, like the color of blood, and their fur was matted and torn up. Their eyes sparked with insanity as they let loose savage howls of bloodlust and rage. Twilight inadvertently shuddered. Fluttershy would go crazy.

Princess Luna, however, was unimpressed. She flared her wings up, horn glowing slightly, as her powerful voice projected across the plains,

“THOU SHALT NOT PASS!”

Cowering well behind Princess Luna were ponies of all size and color. Small colts and fillies cried softly, held protectively by their mothers. The stallions and mares not in charge of children formed a perimeter of sorts around the vulnerable parents. And almost everypony, without fail, was gazing in admiration and awe at the powerful Princess standing before them.

As the manticores neared, Luna’s outline began to shimmer. Her usually soft, radiant aura became pitch black, hardening to form an armor of sorts around her blue body. Luna narrowed her eyes, and sharp spikes began to extend from her armor.

The manticores were almost upon her. Sparing one look at the ponies huddled behind her, Luna’s expression hardened, declaring to everypony that failure was not an option. She gathered her weight on her haunches, wings folded against her side, and prepared to spring into battle…

Knock knock knock knock knock.

Twilight was snapped out of her reverie by a brisk knocking on her bedroom door. “Coming!” she called, extracting herself from her bed and wandering towards the door. Well, she thought with amusement, at least I didn’t fall out of bed this time.

Twilight opened the door to be met with a barrage of confetti. Loud party horns blared off from who-knows-where, and Twilight was suddenly wrapped in a hug from an ecstatic pink pony.

“Ohmigosh, Twilight! I’m so happy to be back and to see you again! It felt like FORRREEEEVERRRR since we’ve seen each other and I’m so excited I could just throw a party!”

“It’s great to see you too, Pinkie Pie!” Twilight said through a mouthful of pink mane. Weird. She tastes like cotton candy.

“I know! We should definitely throw a party! It’ll be a “Pinkie is finally back in town” party! But hey! What’s this?” Pinkie dashed over to Twilight’s desk and looked at a midnight blue scroll that Twilight had somehow failed to notice.

“It’s pretty! Is it a new kind of parchment?” Pinkie inquired, balancing the scroll on her nose.

“I honestly have no idea what that is…” Twilight said. Then she noticed the emblazoned seal on the scroll. It was in the shape of crescent moon. Luna’s cutie mark!

“Dear Twilight,” Pinkie read aloud before the scroll was snatched from her by Twilight’s magic. Twilight read with a controlled fanaticism:

Dear Twilight,

I request your presence at the bakery of Sugarcube Corner. Please hurry there at your convenience.

Yours,
Luna

Twilight’s eyebrows arched in surprise. The letter was short and sweet, but that wasn’t what made Twilight’s eyebrows shoot up; it was the distinct lack of any sort of formality in the letter at all.

“Oooh, we could go right now!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around Twilight’s room with one of her famous umbrella hats fastened to her head.

“Pinkie, where did you get…oh, you know what? Never mind…” Twilight was so unsurprised by Pinkie’s antics at this point that she was even ready for a second umbrella hat that Pinkie procured to be jammed onto her head (mercifully missing her horn).

“Spike!” Twilight yelled out her door.

“Yeah?” came the dragons muffled reply. Ever since Princess Luna had ‘moved’ into Twilight’s bedroom, Spike had respectfully removed his basket and stationed it on the floor below, in the main room of the library.

“We’re going to Sugarcube Corner. Do you want to come with us?”

“Nah, not really. I already had a couple of garnet pancakes, and I have some serious sleep to catch up on,” was Spike’s reply.

“Suit yourself,” Twilight muttered, but made a mental note to pick up one of his favorite sapphire cupcakes for him when they arrived at the Corner. “You ready Pinkie?”

“I was BORN ready!” she said happily, bouncing down the stairs. Twilight, rolling her eyes, followed.

“So I’ve heard you’ve been super-duper sick lately!” Pinkie said once they were out of the library. The umbrella hats were surprisingly effective at keeping the rain off of Twilight’s head, but her body wasn’t so lucky; after a few minutes, her coat was completely soaked.

“I haven’t been seriously ill,” Twilight said, “Just feeling a little under-the-weather.”

“Oh, do you know what I do when I’m feeling under-the-weather?” Pinkie said.

“Party?”

“Oh, Twilight, you’re so silly for such a smart filly sometimes. I take medicine to make me feel better. And then I party!”

“I should have known…” Twilight muttered. Despite her words, a smile had slowly been spreading across Twilight’s face. The pink pony’s energy and perpetual good mood was contagious.

As they neared Sugarcube Corner, Twilight noted the windows were dark, and said as much to her pink companion.

“Maybe the power went out!” Pinkie said cheerfully, bouncing up to the door. Twilight gave her a skeptical look as she walked through the light of a nearby lamppost.

Pinkie Pie opened the door for Twilight, gesturing her to go inside. Twilight nodded her thanks and shook out her hair before walking into the bakery.

“SURPRISE!”

Twilight jumped as even more confetti exploded all around her, the lights were all turned on at once, and more party horns blared from every direction. And there, surrounded by her five closest friends (Pinkie had somehow teleported from the door to the group) was Princess Luna herself, wearing a very amused expression.

“Guys! P-Luna!” Twilight’s eyes went wide.

“Isn’t it great? I ran into Luna on the way home, and she said she was making sure you got all better as fast as possible, and so I thought, IDEA! we should totally have a party! And if we had a party now, we could call it the “Pinkie Pie comes home and Twilight gets better and Princess Luna is living in Ponyville party!” Words of agreement and amusement came from her other four friends.

Still wearing the amused expression, Luna walked over to Twilight and whispered in her ear. “Do you like it?” Her voice made Twilight shiver, and all the unicorn could do was nod.

“Enough standing around!” Pinkie Pie yelled, cranking up the jukebox (where she got the jukebox was anypony’s guess). “LET’S DANCE!”

~*~*~*~*~

The party went on for hours. They played all of the most popular games, like Pin the Tail on the Pony, Twister (a new game Pinkie had found. It involved spinning a small needle around on a chart, multiple colored dots, and often embarrassing contortions), and Pinkie even brought out a Poñata that was filled with (what else?) candy. Applejack had brought down some of her “special” cider from Sweet Apple Acres, and pretty soon everything from apple cider to cherry cider was flowing freely. As Twilight became more and more inebriated, things began to run together…

…Fluttershy, who had said hardly a thing the entire afternoon (and well into the evening), grabbed the microphone off of the karaoke machine after her fourth mug of cherry cider and began belting out “Colts, Colts, Colts,”, by Mare Gaga, before a hysterical Rainbow Dash managed to wrest the microphone away…

…Applejack and Rainbow Dash got into an arm wrestling competition, which was quickly sabotaged by Luna and Twilight as they floated feathers from Luna’s wings and tickled the underside of the competitor’s arms. Luna was spared from the resulting round of headlocks because of her royal standing…

…and after that, Applejack and Rainbow Dash vanished for at least an hour. Pinkie Pie (who, strangely enough, was the only one not partaking in heavy amounts of cider) was the only one who noticed, but was quickly swept up in the four-pony round of “The Hokey-Pokey”…

…which Luna, despite being just as drunk as everypony else there, sang the words to, an entire musical key below, which made all the ponies there dissolve into bubbly fits of laughter…

…at some point, Rainbow Dash and Applejack returned, silly grins on both of their faces and still incredibly drunk, and began dancing again, flank by flank, and anypony could have guessed what they had been up to…

…and when Princess Luna herself briefly passed out, falling on top of Twilight, Pinkie Pie deemed that all the ponies had finally had enough of hard cider, and declared the party over. She handed out two cups to everypony, explaining that one cup was peppermint extract and was supposed to clear the mind of a drunken pony and prevent hangovers, and the other was water. She didn’t need to explain what the water was for, Twilight quickly found, as the peppermint burned like fire on it’s way down their throats, which caused the ponies to chug the water as fast as possible.

“Alright, everypony!” Pinkie Pie said sternly, but kindly. “It’s time to get out of Sugarcube Corner! You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here, got it?”

“Haha…Pinkie, what time is it?” Rainbow Dash slurred, leaning against Applejack.

“It’s almost midnight, party ponies. You’ve been here for over twelve hours!” the pink pony replied with a smile.

“OhmyCelestiawhataparty,” Fluttershy slurred together, attempting to flap her wings and get off the ground, and failing miserably. “Ohwell,IguessIcanjustwalkhome.”

“Ha, yeah…hey, AJ, do ya mind if I crash at your place? I don’ really feel good about flyin’ home like this.” Rainbow fluttered her eyes at the strong orange pony.

“Shore thing, RD. Y’all know yer welcome over anytime y’all darn well please,” she slurred.

“It’s been a FABULOUS time, Pinkie, you always know how to throw the GREATEST of parties, but I simply MUST get home, Sweetie Belle might be WORRIED ‘bout me…
–hic- …and I really must go…” Rarity’s eyes were half closed, and she was swaying like a leaf in a breeze.

“Oh, Rarity, you silly pony,” Pinkie Pie laughed and pushed Rarity up the stairs of the bakery. “You can sleep in my bed until you’re fit to walk!” Pinkie’s cheerful voice drowned out any feeble protest that Rarity might have made.

Twilight giggled daintily and pushed against Luna with her shoulder, making the alicorn wobble a few steps. “We should probably get home too, Luna.” Twilight said quietly, peppermint doing wonders on eliminating the slur from her voice.

“Verily,” the Princess agreed. “Are all the parties in Ponyville so…” Luna struggled to find the right word.

“Crazy?” Twilight offered. The alicorn nodded.

“No, they really aren’t. I guess Pinkie Pie pulled out all the stops for this one. And I don’t think anyone saw all that cider coming,” Twilight noticed the little blush that had been fixed on Luna’s face ever since she passed out. How cute…

Luna snorted. Twilight thought it was the most adorable sound in the world. It’s funny. She’s larger than I am, and I’m calling her adorable. “It certainly was fine cider. Give…”

“Applejack,” Twilight supplied.

“Give Applejack royal compliments,” Luna said with a smile on her face. Suddenly, she drew herself up, and tried to look very serious.

“Oh, Luna, how unbecoming of you!” the Princess of the Night said in a mocking tone of Celestia. Even inebriated, Twilight could tell that Luna was making fun of her sister. “Getting drunk at a party!”

Twilight giggled again. “You’re good at that!”

Luna dissolved into her own fit of giggles. “Nights like these make me glad I have personal time.”

Twilight nodded, gazing up at Luna. “I-I’m glad you have free time too,” the lavender unicorn said quietly, as she boldly pressed into the alicorn’s side. Oh, Celestia, Twilight! What are you doing?

Twilight cringed as she felt Luna stiffen in surprise, and went to move away, but found herself blocked by a large, dark blue wing. Luna had folded her wing over Twilight, keeping her close, not unlike the previous night on the balcony.

And so they walked home like that, not caring who saw them.

~*~*~*~*~

“Aaahh!” Twilight sighed and collapsed on the couch, exhausted yet happy. “What a night!”

As they had entered the library, they found the place spotless. Everything had been organized, dusted, and cleaned, and Spike was snoozing quietly in his basket. Twilight had smiled at the sight, still pressed against Luna, and had carefully levitated the sapphire cupcake, setting it next to Spike’s bed.

Luna nodded. “I can finally let my mane down, so to speak.”

Twilight turned a quizzical look on Princess Luna, only to be shocked at what she saw. Luna’s entire body began to glimmer, and her mane and tail began to ripple. Slowly, they started to change in appearance. Luna began to glow a deep blue. The glow was intense at first, and then started to recede, almost as if Princess Luna was absorbing the light.

After the light show ended, Luna stood there with her necklace in her hooves, not around her neck. Her mane and tail had ceased to flow with the night stars, and instead were a soft blue, slightly brighter than her coat. She sighed and set it on a table. Twilight noticed that she was now slightly smaller. But only slightly.

“L-luna?” Twilight stuttered. Her usual awe of the Princess was now replaced with a warm feeling that slowly started to spread across her chest, spreading to the tips of her hooves and putting butterflies in her stomach.

Princess Luna smiled, making Twilight’s heart melt. “’Tia never told you?”

“Told me what?”

“That she and I put enchantments upon our necklaces. We call it “Royal Glamor”. It allows us to reflect the power we hold inside us.” Luna laughed daintily, making bells chime in Twilight’s ears. “It works wonders for our public image.”

“Well, I think you look gorgeous either way,” Twilight said without thinking. She clapped a hoof over her mouth.

Once again, open mouth, insert hoof.

Her eyes went wide as Luna actually blushed. “I haven’t ever had anypony tell me that before,” she said quietly.

Emboldened by that (or the lingering effects of all the alcohol), Twilight rolled off the couch and stood next to Luna. “It’s absolutely true, you know,” she said quietly.

Luna pressed into Twilight’s side, muttering her thanks. Well, that’s a switch, some indignant part of Twilight’s brain piped up.

They stood there like that, pressed up against each other, for a few minutes. “You should get to bed, you know,” Luna said after a while. “You’re still recovering, despite how hard we partied tonight.”

“Oh, alright…” Twilight said reluctantly.

Luna smiled and entwined her tail with Twilight’s. “Come on, I’ll tuck you in.”

Giving a shy smile, Twilight let Luna lead her up to her room. As Luna swiftly arranged the sheets properly and readied them for sleeping, Twilight just pressed against her side, inhaling the scent of her idol; her idol, who had suddenly become so much more tangible, and who was now touchable.

Twilight climbed in the newly-made bed, murmuring words of gratitude. Her head hit the pillow and she instantly began drifting off, sinking into slumber. In her last moment of consciousness, she felt a soft kiss grace her cheek, and fell asleep smiling.

~*~*~*~*~

The shadow whirled around in annoyance. It had been watching its host’s antics for the past hours, and they had done nothing for its disposition.

“How sickening,” it muttered darkly. “Affection is for the feeble and the meek.”

Turning its attention back to the door, it began to trace little lines, leaving behind thin shadowy scars on the imposing structure. As it traced, it began to chant softly.

“Only five of the Elements of Six
Are physical and real
But the sixth one of them
Is real and true corporeal

For the five of them are weak
Without the initial spark
And if they have it not
Their shortcomings are stark

Break the bond between them
And watch them fall apart
So with this sketch and this verse
Let the tragedy START.”