Sleep Walking

by Mercury Zero

The Easy Life

The magic that enveloped the black wrought iron door mechanism lingered for longer than usual, then faded away. The princess leaned in to give it a probing glare. It was unlocked.

Luna loved her routines. Every evening she wakes up, raises the moon, and roams the castle grounds while weaving her dream magic. There were times when she'd be adventurous, and try new things, but every time she did it, she was gripped with pangs of discomfort. For Luna, there was something relaxing, and safe, about routines. Even if all the ponies around her were so difficult to understand and predict, at least she had control over her own life.

It seemed, however, that even she can forget something as simple as locking the door, even if she's done it every morning for countless centuries, give or take a thousand years on the moon.

Luna looked away from her door thoughtfully. "Huh."

With another burst of magic, and a sound like the sprinkling of diamonds, Luna's mystical wave of blue wrapped itself around the handle loop, and drew the door open with a creak. Luna was greeted with the familiar and distinctive scent of the ancient castle hallways.

The time right after nightfall was always her favorite. Any ponies that lingered all the way to sunset would by now be sleepily making their way toward the exits. Even after all these years, Luna felt a welling of pride, knowing that all these ponies were about to step outside and taste the coolness of her night air, while the pale glow of her moon showered the whole of Equestria in its serenity.

Luna made her way toward the garden to listen to the crickets. She was filled with a sense of unease about her door lock. Somepony could have snuck in during the night. It was true that such things were unlikely in such a fortified castle, but Luna slept during the day when the castle was most busy. Servants and sometimes even guests could pass her chambers with little scrutiny. It could have been anypony.

Worse, still, it could be evidence that somepony actually did sneak into her room. She made a mental note to watch for any ponies that bore a cutie mark that looked like a lock and key, or, worse yet, a unicorn bearing a mark of magical stars. Bypassing a simple iron lock would be foal's play for a pony that specialized in magic.

Luna stopped her journey down the hallway. She raised one brow and squinted the other, pausing for a moment. Did she just see what she thought she saw? Walking backward several paces, she peeked down a rarely used corridor of the castle, toward the winding storage areas used by the castle servants, containing wine and a well stocked pantry.

She made her way curiously down the back way. It was long and dreary. There were no torch sconces here, which is to be expected for a servant's corridor. They were expected to bring their own lamp. Nearing a T-shaped crossroads, the air started to smell musty and wet. It was ill-maintained down here, and Luna drew up her lip in a sneer at her surroundings.

Finally arriving at the glint of light that drew her attention, her eyes widened at the sight of her gilded writing quill. It was lying on the floor next to a bag of flour, glistening as it caught the moonlight that streamed from the hallway behind her.

"What treason is this?" Luna snarled as she approached her cherished quill. She lifted it into the air with her magic and inspected it for damage with clenched teeth. The quill was unviolated, but Luna didn't feel the same way about herself. Somepony was in her bedchamber, this proves it!

Luna's rage quickly pivoted into fear. "My throat could have been slit!" she cried out to the darkness surrounding her. It was at that moment that the fate of her personal guard commander was sealed. He would hear of this, to say the least.

The rattle that came from further down the hallway was no cause for alarm, but in Luna's nervous state it shocked her into a tiny jump. She drew in a sharp breath and abruptly turned to glance in the direction of the sound. Another rattle of pots and pans came from the kitchen. If she had not been down the service corridors, she would not have to hear such an unsavory clatter, but she was none the less annoyed that such noises would impose themselves on her royal ears.

Still, it was rare for anypony but a tiny hoofful of guards to be in this wing of the palace after nightfall, and curiosity got the better of Luna. She approached the piercing light that was shining at the far end of the gloomy servant's access corridor, and slipped into the kitchen by the back entrance.

An earth pony chef was working on a large bubbling pot. His fur was pure white, but for his rust colored mane, and his chest was mottled by tiny red dots, where tiny droplets of tomato sauce had flicked themselves. Even his cutie marks, each portraying a carrot and a large cleaver, were spattered by tiny foreign droplets.

Luna marched herself up to the chef, and stood proud and tall before him. She even spread her wings, towering majestically over the comparatively diminutive alabaster stallion. She stared at him with a dignified visage.

The chef stared back for several seconds, and Luna maintained her steely expression, until the chef nonchalantly turned back to his sauce, giving it a taste test. He nodded at his pot, and moved over to his cutting table to attend to an unchopped onion.

Luna's jaw dropped. Perhaps Celestia had been benevolent enough to hire a blind chef? "Are you not going to bow?" Luna asked.

Chop. Chop. Chop. "Nope." Chop. Chop.

Luna's jaw could drop no further. She leapt off the floor with a blast of her wings. The room erupted into a cacaphony of clattering pots and pans from the sheer gust, and she hovered in place. She held her fore hooves into the air as if to draw up the storm clouds which, at this point, were forming just behind her, sending shuddering arcs of lightning across the room to lick at the metal pots that dangled from the cieling. "We art thine princess!"

The chef looked up with exasperation and an incredulous expression at the princess's overreaction. He set both the knife and the onion down on the cutting board, and heaved a long suffering sigh. "Yeah, I could tell." He turned only his head to look at Luna. His expression asked her when she was going to leave.

Luna's eyes widened, and she gradually floated back to the floor. Her storm clouds waned and her body stiffly impacted, hooves first, with the cold concrete kitchen floor. She blinked. Overcome with perplexed disbelief she asked. "Then why aren't you bowing?"

"No reason to. Now, is there anything you need, because the griffon delegation made a dinner order and I don't want to keep them waiting."

Luna blinked. "I see. You, too, despise my night."

The chef cracked a smile at that. "Of course not. The night time is beautiful. I truly mean that. That's why I'm on the night shift."

Luna's muzzle curled into a smile. There it was! Somepony finally complimented her night! She knew it! She knew that even though they would sleep through it, deep down, her subjects loved her night.

"It's you I don't like," the chef finished.

Luna's smile nearly crashed through the floor. She sputtered with shock, taking a step back. She was too flabbergasted to even draw up her olde Canterlot voice. She spoke softly. "What-- What insolence is this?!" Her voice started to rise. "I want you to love me, not despise me!"

The chef grew annoyed, and turned back to his block to chop at his onion loudly in the hope that his obvious preoccupation would make the princess go away. "You have a funny way of showing it."

"Your princess is not 'funny'." Luna spat her words. "Is this some 'funny' game?"

The chef tried not to pay any more attention to Luna than he had to, working intently on brewing up his pot of sauce. "You really don't know why ponies don't like you, do you?"

Luna's heart sank. 'Ponies' didn't like her? Ponies in general? How dare this puny servant hurt her so badly with his lies?

The chef looked up at Luna with an expression of pity.

"If you truly wanted me to love you, you would have asked me my name by now," the chef offered.

"I would know your name then, servant!" Luna snapped.

"It's Julienne, but that doesn't count. The point is that you don't care about me enough to ask me my name. This is the first time you've even been in the kitchen isn't it? Is this even the first time you've ever been in the servant's corridors at all?"

Luna was completely confused. What was this creature talking about? First he insults her, and now he spouts gibberish? "Very well then, if you are confused, subject, I will explain it to you. I care for all my little ponies, including you. Your princess is magnanimous in nature, and she forgives whatever games you are playing."

Julienne ignored her for some uncomfortable seconds, before repeating himself. "This is the first time you've been here, isn't it?"

Luna was baffled. Her voice was sharp and high pitched with befuddlement, "Of course it is, but what interest is that to you?"

Julienne tilted his cutting board over the top of the sauce, and used his knife to slide the onion into the pot. He set to work chopping another one. "You've lived in this palace for countless centuries, and you've never visited your servants. You're privileged, and there are a lot of jealous ponies out there. If you wouldn't dirty your hooves by coming back here, then it makes us feel as though we're less than you. Sometimes that makes us lash out."

Luna released a sigh. The chef was finally making sense. Of course, it's jealousy. Surely, even Luna herself would be jealous of her own magnificence if the tables were turned, and she were bound to the earth, gifted with no magics, and forced to endure obscurity. She was about to express her sympathies to the chef.

"But that's not why I don't like you."

Luna could not believe her ears anymore. Is this what the servant's corridors were like? Filled with madness and cruelty? "Why do you wound me, subject?!"

The chef finally gave in. He stopped chopping his onion and sighed. Walking to the other side of the room, Julienne grabbed two stools, and walked back with them. He took a seat across from the princess and offered her a stool of her own. He grabbed a small bowl of his sauce, dropped a spoon into it, and offered that as well.

Looking quite heartbroken, now, Luna reached out for the sauce, and sat on the stool. Hanging her head, she stared at the hearty red concoction, and stirred it slowly with her spoon.

"Your majesty, perhaps you believe you care about me, but you don't. Love isn't a one way street. You look down on your subjects. That's why I have a problem with you."

Luna's nerves were starting to calm down, and in their place she made a heady realization. One of her subjects was having a conversation with her, of his own accord. This had only happened once before since her return to Equestria, during the previous Nightmare Night Celebration. She met eyes with the chef. "I care deeply for all my subjects. Why don't you believe me?"

The chef forced himself to remain patient. He spoke slowly. "The first thing you did when you met me was demand that I bow to you."

The princess was genuinely confused. "I was hardly demanding. I was simply confused."

Julienne stared thoughtfully at the princess. "Really? You weren't angry?"

Luna blinked. "No? Was that not clear?"

Julienne cocked his neck back and blinked. After some pondering he broke a slow smile. "You know what, I'm actually starting to believe you now."

Luna smiled back. A rush of excitement flushed through her. Was she making a friend? Could it be? "You have pleased your princess! I shall deign to sample this red sauce." A blue field enveloped her spoon, and it lifted to her muzzle. Sip.

Julienne gave Luna a sideways look and a smile. "Maybe you're just a little awkward." His smile shrunk back down into a pensive expression. "Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and just ask you outright. Do you think you're better than me?"

Luna clapped her lips, and dropped her spoon back into her bowl, swirling it around for a moment. "Not at cooking."

Julienne growled softly, "Ah, I get it. I'm just a chef, and you're superior to me, is that it?"

Luna gave Julienne an annoyed look. "Subject, there are no superior ponies. It is no wonder you are so judgmental, if you would measure your worth as a pony against the station of others." She leaned forward and shoved her bowl against Julienne's chest to accent her point. "You are an amazing cook. And you are Julienne. Is that not enough for you?"

Julienne gently reached up to pick up the bowl as a hot blush crept across his muzzle.

Luna continued, "Perhaps it is you, who judges himself to be better than his princess, because he lives his life by the sweat of his brow?"

It was Julienne's turn, now, to stare at the sauce. "Your majesty... You can't deny that you live an easy life. You don't have to earn a living like we do. You cast one spell a day, and that makes you worthy of all this? Nopony should bow to you. You should bow to us, and thank us for what we do for you."

"You're too young to have ever seen war, are you not?" Luna asked.

Julienne was about to answer before Luna cut him off. "If you were not, you would never accuse me of having an easy life."

Julienne kept staring at his bowl. He remained silent.

Luna allowed her subject to ponder her words for a few moments, then curtly added, "Your sauce pleases your princess. Thank you for what you do for me."

If Julienne was told the day before that the respect of a princess would be something that would make him happy, he would have laughed. It was no more than he deserved, and it would never happen anyway. When, however, he was actually faced with the humility and admiration of someone so powerful, he couldn't help but be overcome by the experience.

Julienne looked up to gaze at his princess, and he drew in a deep lung full of air with shock at what he beheld. Luna was bowing deeply before him.

Julienne winced to keep the tears in. "Stand up." he demanded with a tremulous voice. "Stand up, damn it."

Luna stood up quickly, and smiled a brilliant pearly smile. She leaned in, getting insensitively close into Julienne's personal space. "You are friends with your princess now, are you not?!" she asked with a booming voice, filled with glee.

Julienne laughed, and nodded. "Friends."

Julienne made two extra helpings of his meal that night, and shared a table with Luna.

---

Luna looked out on the desolate lunar landscape with a content smile. She poured herself a cup of tea, and offered yet another to Julienne.

Julienne graciously accepted, and took a sip. "So how many of those wars were your own doing?"

Nightmare Moon looked down at herself, and was struck with a wave of shame. "I... didn't..."

"Don't worry. What's a few thousand corpses between friends, huh?"

Nightmare Moon heaved a sigh of relief. "Your words please me, subject. I thought not to inform you about the things I did before I got banished. I thought you would be angry at me." She gently reached down to play with the space dust under her tail. It seemed to ripple unnaturally, creating tiny circular waves as her hoof stroked through it.

Julienne said, "That's not very nice, but I suppose you had your reasons. Honestly, I don't care. If I cared, I wouldn't have gotten banished to the moon with you."

Nightmare Moon sighed. "Servant, your queen wishes to hear more about the perfect sauce..."

Julienne started to chatter about just how precise and difficult it is to make a perfect roux without burning it, but Nightmare Moon was soon distracted by a tiny white glint that spiraled around around a blue flower. She turned to him. "I will be a moment, subject."

Luna walked across the squishy, moist grass of the royal woods, and stopped to stare down at the curious white dot.

Twilight Sparkle leaned in too. "Huh. That certainly seems out of the ordinary. I think this deserves some further study."

Luna looked up at her sister's protege. "Twilight Sparkle, do you understand the meaning of this flower?"

Twilight Sparkle blinked, and shook a hoof. "Oh no no! No I was talking about your friendship. I'm Equestria's foremost expert on the magic of friendship, you know. That's why I'm a princess."

Luna squinted at Twilight as she bragged. "I'm well aware, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight beamed, and continued. "And that's why I'm so surprised that you're trying out friendship too! Don't you know you'll never understand it? If you understood friendship, you would have used the elements of harmony on Celestia, and this whole crazy business would be completely different! No. No I don't think this will work, and I'm Equestria's foremost expert on the magic of friendship, you know. That's why I'm a princess."

Luna was pained by Twilight's words. She looked up at the violet alicorn with displeasure, only to see her beaming back and tilting her head with sweet innocence. Luna laid down on her belly, soaking it with mud, and she furrowed her brow with pain.

"You're right. I guess you'll be taking Julienne away from me, won't you?" Luna asked.

Twilight nodded sweetly, and Luna looked away. She watched the glint of light dance around the blue flower.

Luna sighed and it finally occured to her what species it was. "Poison Joke," she said.

Twilight Sparkle asked, "Princess Luna, is there something I can help you with?"

Luna pondered Twilight Sparkle's question. "I suppose not."

Twilight Sparkle asked again, "Princess Luna, if I might be of any assistance--"

---

"--then I would be glad to aid you."

Luna looked around, and squinted her eyes at the firey orange glow of sunset. She darted her head to glance at her surroundings. She was in the palace garden.

Her bat-pony guard commander frowned at her, awaiting an answer.

Luna flushed, and swallowed hard, glancing around for a moment before releasing a hushed, and astonished reply. "No. No that will be all, commander. Leave me. I would be alone."

The guardsman saluted with a gentle clop of his hooves which squished in the mushy soil of the garden. With a worried expression, he made his way back to the palace.

Comments

[Mercury Zero]

Doing Luna is difficult, because she is both wise with age, and naive, because she's unable to sympathize or connect when it comes to other ponies.

[zero588]

I like this story!
Is Luna talking while sleepwalking?

[Mercury Zero]

3150580

Heh, no spoilers. The nature of Luna's sleepwalking will be revealed, if I continue.

The story isn't getting very many thumbs-up or even reads, so I guess the premise is boring to people, which is too bad, because I consider Luna's fragile psyche to be really fascinating.

To me, she's like a more interesting Fluttershy. They both have problems connecting to other ponies, but Luna is truly ignorant of the feelings of others, and she sometimes responds to her frustrations with hostility, and she seems so completely heartbroken. The poor thing just wants to be loved.

[zero588]

3150593

I really like the premise of this story, you actually seem to know where you are going to go with it.
It seems a lot of writers have a hard job of characterizing Luna which is understandable.

I just hope you don't give up because of the lack of thumbs up/ views, I really enjoy good Luna fics, but they are sometimes hard to find.

[RadBunny]

3150217
Brilliant story.....follow this I will....

[Ringcaat]

Chapter 2: Julienne is rather interesting. Not sure what to make of him. The scene of him and Luna on the moon is sad. I'm not sure where this story is going... Luna appears to have woken up in the garden unexpectedly, which suggests that she's got a physical problem. I guess that explains the unlocked door and the quill on the floor, huh?