Pets Underneath the Moon
The sound of hooves impacting a thick overly expensive rug echoed across the hallways of Canterlot castle.
The maker of these sounds was no other than the Goddess of the moon, night and dreams. The dark blue alicorn, Princess Luna.
Her gaze was downcast, as she was deep in thought. Even though she could only see the expensive rug underneath her, she knew exactly where she was walking. She knew the castle like the back of her hoof after all.
The reason for the distraction in her mind was the events that happened this morning.
She was about to get a light snack before heading to bed, when she overheard the conversation going on just around the corner from her bedroom.
"Did you hear that the new human thing has been visiting Princess Celestia at least three times this week?" A maid asked in a hushed whisper.
Luna's ears perked at this, she had heard that her sister had started acting a bit weird these past couple of weeks, but she didn't spot anything out of the ordinary on the few occasions they did meet. Though that could be due to her and her sister only meeting a few times a day, just before one of them headed to bed.
"What do you think they are doing in there?" A sudden shocked gasp sounded from one of the nosy maids. "Could they be.....?" She left the sentence unfinished, but her question was obvious.
"No way." An underlying tone of shock escaped from the other maid.
Princess Luna shook her head, she had better things to do than listen to the vapid gossip of a few maids. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her of why she left her chambers.
The trip towards the dining room didn't take long, just as she was nearing the huge double doors that lead to the room that would satiate her hunger, her ears swiveled in the direction of two other castle staff talking.
"Did you hear?" The sound of shuffling hooves came from around the corner. Luna didn't see the ponies who spoke, but her keen hearing could easily pick up what they were saying.
"Hear what?" A hushed voice responded. If Luna had to guess it was yet another pair of maids gossiping.
Luna was about to shrug them off and be on her way, but her ears picked up what the other maid said. And interesting it was indeed.
"Silver Guard said that Princess Celestia has been getting-" She lowered her voice, but this didn't stop the Princess of the night from hearing her. "Scritches and pats from the human." A deep gasp sounded from the other maid and her coworker shushed her.
Luna's brow furrowed a bit, what were these scritches and pats? And how does that correlate to the human?
She pushed those thoughts away for now and opened the door in front of her. Two guards stood inside the room, their backs to the door. They didn't move at all when the dark blue alicorn passed by them.
The room inside was huge, it could fit a hundred ponies inside with ease, but today only four occupied the space. Two of the royal guards, Princess Luna and her sister, Princess Celestia.
Celestia was happily eating what looked like a simple home made plate of pancakes. The small smile that she often wore seemed to be a bit wider today.
"Good morning Luna. Did you have a pleasant night?" She asked between forkfuls of pancakes.
Luna sat down opposite to Celestia on the long table. A plate of pancakes rested on her usual spot. A whipped cream smiley face that was topped with berries sat atop the pancake stack.
"Yes, I did. It was quite pleasant." To an outside observer one might have thought that the lunar goddess wasn't tired at all, but to the trained eye one might see the faintest of bags underneath her eyes. One attentive being seemed to notice said bags.
"And seemingly long?" Celestia's brow slightly raised in a questioning manner.
Luna looked at her sister from the corner of her eye. Not fully looking away from her plate of food. A slight sigh escaped her lips.
"Yes, there's been a lot of dreams that have needed my attention recently." A fork and knife were enveloped in a dark blue aura. Both of them got to work at cutting off a piece of the stack of pancakes, and then the fork floated the piece towards her mouth.
Celestia hummed in response and then let the room fall into a comfortable silence as both of them simply continued eating.
The silence didn't last long as Luna spoke up. "I've been wondering, what are scritches and pats?"
The fork in Celestia's magic seemed to falter before resuming its trajectory towards the pancakes.
"Where did you hear that?" A tone of amusement was evident in her voice.
"I heard somepony talking about it earlier." Luna avoided the question. From the corner of her eye she could see the two royal guards shift uncomfortably.
Celestia then took a quick glance at the two guards, both of them stood at attention. She motioned for both of them to leave the room.
Both of them quickly left the two alicorns to converse in peace.
"I assume you've heard that Anon is involved?" Celestia's tone was unnaturally serious.
"Yes, I heard he was giving them to you. What I'd like to know is what these scritches and pats are." Luna's eyebrow raised a bit. "And what's with all the secrecy? I hope it's not something nefarious."
Celestia shook her head. "It's nothing of the sort." She took a bite out of her pancakes as she tried to come up with what to say.
"Scritches and pats are something that only Anon has the ability to do well. Think of it as a massage but focused on one's head instead of their whole body." A small smile tugged at her lips as she spoke.
"And the secrecy for it?" Luna was quite intrigued, if this was just a 'massage of ones head' then how come it was supposed to be some kind of secret?
Celestia chuckled and offered Luna a sheepish smile. "Well, that is quite the question." She cleared her throat. "You could compare his scritches and pats to a valuable resource. His-" she cleared her throat again. "- services are just too good for the public to know about. But we have had somepony leaking crown secrets to the public."
Luna couldn't possibly raise her eyebrow up any further, it was practically in the air at this point.
"I highly doubt that his services are that good."
"Oh, then you must experience them for yourself." A confident smirk slowed spread on Celestias lips.
"I think I might."
Just before night fell Luna had decided to meet with Anon in the royal gardens. Her duties would only start in two hours since she had woken up a little earlier that what she's used to.
Exiting the castle she could already spot Anon, who stood slightly taller than her.
"Evening Princess." He adjusted the cuffs of his black formal suit. Luna could see a few strands of white hair that stuck out about his presentation.
"I see you haven't had the time to wash your clothes yet." Luna noted.
Anon quickly looked down at his suit and picked the white strand of hair off his clothes.
"Yes, well did you know that your sister sheds fur everywhere? I keep thinking that I get it all off in the wash but I always find a few strands here and there." He dusted his shoulder a bit, noticing a few strands of white hair floating off from his suit.
"Yes I did. The maids keep finding white hairs in the weirdest of places." She giggled. "Should we depart then?" A small smile remained on her face.
"Where to Princess? Did you have a place in mind where you wanted to relax?"
"Follow me." Luna turned around and started leading him deeper into the royal garden. They walked for a few minutes on the well traveled path until Luna turned and lead them to a more secluded part of the garden.
"Here." She simply stated as they walked past increasingly higher bushes.
To say that the sight was good would have been an understatement, he could see miles upon miles of the beautiful landscape of Equestria in the distance. They were quite literally standing on the very edge of Canterlot. The only thing separating Anon from a very long fall was the thick and tall golden railing that ensured that nobody would accidentally fall out of the garden.
"Wow, I can see the crystal mountains from here." True to his word, in the distance laid the multiple mountains that blocked the Crystal Empire from view, and the ever-blowing blizzard that surrounded the crystal city.
"This is one of my favourite spots to visit when I simply want some alone time." Luna sat down next to Anon.
"I can see why." Anon crouched next to her. He then rubbed his hands together.
"Are you ready?"
"I'll raise the moon and then we can begin." Her horn was surrounded in a blue aura and soon the sun came down and the moon rose high into the sky.
Anon whistled as he watched. "I'll never get used to that."
"Are you going to stare at the moon all night or are we going to begin?" Luna smirked.
As Anon tore his attention away from the amazing view, he could see that Luna seemed to radiate confidence, it also helped that the moonlight perfectly hit her features as if someone was taking a professional picture with excellent lighting.
Anon responded with softly patting the blue Princess' head and then he moved to soft scrithes behind her ear. Her ears folded from the sensation of having the base of them being scratched.
Luna hummed as a smile spread on her lips. "This is quite pleasant, but I'm afraid it's not as good as what Tia promised."
"I'm not done yet." His right arm slowly moved to her chin where he gave some soft scrithes to the underside of her jaw. This had a more intense reaction from the mare as she hummed again and leaned into the sensation.
He put some more effort in scratching the underside of her jaw. His left hand then fell from its position behind her ear and went to pat and scritch at the back of her neck.
"This is quite nice." She whispered. Anon could barely hear her but he smiled nonetheless.
He then brought both of his hands underneath her chin and lightly pushed at her cheeks with his thumbs. Anon couldn't help but smile at the slightly confused look she was giving him. Which melted back to the smile as he went to scritch at the base of her jaw. He then slowly moved to the sides of her neck. As he did Luna gasped and felt a shiver run down her spine.
Anon smirked as his hands began to give increased attention to her neck. "It seems I found your weak spot."
He then continued to pat, scritch and rub the sides of her neck. He could see her tail swing from side to side as he continued. This went on for a good ten or so minutes.
Eventually as time passed he had to stop, awaking the lunar goddess from her happy place.
"I think it's time to stop." Anon stifled a yawn behind his hand. "I'm exhausted."
Luna's eyes tracked his hands for a few seconds before she cleared her throat.
"Yes, I still have a job to do." She stood up and a sheepish smile appeared on her face. "But could we continue this at a later date? It seemed that Tia was right all along."
"At this rate I should just be hired to pamper the royalty." Anon joked.
"Then you're hired." Luna stated without missing a beat.
"Huh?" Was all he could formulate for a response.