//------------------------------//
// Nº 3 
// Story: The Luna Papers 
// by CoffeeBean 
//------------------------------//

	Cadance came to a junction in the hall, pausing as Frolicsome Meadowlark came into view as he met the junction. She had been hoping, now that it was later in the evening, that Luna would be awake by now, but seeing Frolicsome carrying a tray of what was clearly breakfast dispelled any doubts.

"Good evening, Meadowlark!" chimed Cadance as she trotted to his side.

"Good Lunar morning to you, as well, Princess." he returned with a little smile.

"Lunar morning?"

"The evening is nothing more than a Lunar morning."

Cadance hummed in thought. "I guess you're right. It is when Luna wakes up, after all."

"I think more ponies should get used to saying 'Lunar morning'. In time, I think they will."

Cadance held her tongue, processing that last part of his statement. She blinked, giving her head a tiny shake as if to dispel the thought that had cropped up.

"I like the way it sounds, and it's a little different. Different can be good, sometimes." 

"Change and difference. Two things that many fear or detest."

Internally, Cadance groaned. Even Auntie Luna's secretary was off. Finally, the two reached the hall in which Luna's study resigned, and as they approached Cadance finally understood where Luna's guards had been posted. High above the door to the study, on either side of it, hung the two guards by their tails, their legs folded to their bellies and their wings embracing their own figures, much how Luna's had done when she was in meditation.

"Hello..." Cadance called to them, their gazes drawing to her.

"Lunaz gritza."

Cadance stopped dead in her tracks, Frolicsome continuing on towards the door without paying her pause much heed. "W-What?"

"Lunaz gritza, Princess," spoke Frolicsome, drawing Cadance's attention to him. "It means 'Luna's graces' in their tongue."

"They... don't speak Equestrian?"

Frolicsome chuckled lightly as Cadance caught up, the two standing at the closed door of the study. "No. They speak some... ancient language native to the bat-ponies. Her Highness speaks it fluently, but I still can't understand a lick of it."

As Frolicsome opened the door, Cadance remained idle as she stared directly up at the two, their gazes no longer resting with her. She gave a little 'hm' before entering the study, waiting idly by the door as she noticed Luna sitting at the head of the table, her attention, just as it had been the last evening, totally fixed on her work. 

Her horn's aurora was the same eerie void it had been that last time, as well as when she had been meditating. The pattern of her blinking was the same, as was the constant adjusting of her ears and occasional shuffle of her front hooves. As she began towards the book-laden work space her now usual seat occupied, her mind wandered as to what exactly that spell did. There seemed to be a correlation between its use and the need to concentrate/relax.

"Thank you for breakfast, Frolicsome." spoke Luna as the tray was placed off to the side of the paper she focused on. 

"Of course, your Highness."

If it were not for the distinctive orange glow the evening brought, Cadance would have thought that it truly was morning. This area of the castle was always quiet in the late hours of the day, and with the slightly drowsy look on Luna's face and the tray holding a breakfast fit for 3 ponies... or a Princess, it was easy to mistake the time. 

Cadance took interest in the fact that Frolicsome, after delivering the tray, had not departed as he normally would; instead, he moved to the side of the table opposite to where Cadance sat and had taken a seat in what was basically a second workspace. His attention now too turned to work, the papers he wrote upon not being visible to Cadance thanks to a wide, somewhat short wooden organizer drawer, its many little drawers holding what she could only assume to be different pieces of equipment for writing.

"What are you working on, auntie?"

Her ear flicked. "Words serve nay justice, and eyes are not to be brought upon it."

Cadance's brow furrowed in confusion. "I can't see... whatever you're writing?" 

"Nay."

Cadance couldn't shake the feeling of how... off everything was. How seemingly clandestine and secretive Auntie Luna acted. Again, she blinked and gave her head a tiny shake, removing the same thought that she had earlier. The paper Luna's attention seemed to always be focused on floated up from the table, the sound of a drawer opening from below the desk drawing Cadance's attention below to see that quite a few short cabinets had been placed around where she sat. From one of the drawers came a simple wooden dowel, maybe a half-hoof's length in diameter, and the paper was carefully wrapped around the dowel to form a tube. 

From elsewhere on the table came a stamp as well as a stick of light blue wax, which had its tip held a distance above the rolled paper as Luna's magic forced the wax to melt with a spell. A healthy dollop of wax was applied, the stamp was brought forth, rolled along the wax to seal the rolled paper, and then the dowel was removed to leave a perfectly rolled document. 

In a fluid motion, everything was returned back to its place, Cadance watching intently as the fresh document was moved under the desk and placed inside of the leftmost free-standing cabinet. From a separate cabinet, there came a new piece of paper, and Luna returned to her work. There was a moment of quiet as Cadance looked away from Luna to her secretary, who sat in front of her and, as Luna did, paid her no attention. Much like Luna, his posture gave off a tired slouch, and his eyes didn't seem as bright and as open as before.

"Frolicsome Meadowlark... are you nocturnal, as well?"

"Indeed. My job would be hard if I weren't." He paused, looking up to Cadance. "You've been wanting to spend more time with Her Highness... why not sleep during the day as we do? It'd certainly help in the future."

"More ponies with our patterns of sleep would be preferable," commented Luna, drawing both Frolicsome's and Cadance's attention. "Things now are often lonely."

Cadance's mind couldn't help but keep hanging on certain parts of their sentences. The seemingly hinting parts of their sentences. Clandestine and secretive... that feeling of off-ness only became worse.

Frolicsome looked back to Cadance, smiling, "Besides; we have to even the odds against you day-dwellers somehow. Two Princesses of the night is a start!" he finished with a hearty laugh, Luna joining in with a jovial chuckle.

That off-ness was now all she could feel. "I-I would... but tomorrow is Wednesday, a-and that's when that big Parliament gathering is."

Her answer seemed to satisfy Frolicsome, his head bobbing in a nod for a moment before he returned to his work.

"Auntie... I'm going to, eh, get some food. It is around dinner for me."

Luna hummed, her wing doing that strange little ruffle again. With a little more haste than normal, Cadance got from her chair and made her way to the door, standing in the doorway for a moment as she looked at Luna and Frolicsome Meadowlark. 

"Love you... Auntie."

Luna smiled, her eyes closing. "I share that same love, dear niece."

"Have a good Lunar morning." chimed in Frolicsome afterward, smiling to Cadance.

She cleared her throat. "Good Lunar morning to you... as well."




Cadance had barely touched her meal. Her mind was still far too occupied placing puzzle pieces together and creating theories. Maybe it was wrong of her to feel how she did about Auntie Luna's actions. Maybe she was just a little odd and hard to understand. The Elements of Harmony had removed all of the evil that Nightmare Moon brought. It didn't make sense for her to be plotting some sort of revenge scheme. As she had done many times, Cadance shook her head, taking a deep breath as she stabbed her fork into her meal. 

While the optimist in her hoped that Auntie Luna and her secretary had been joking, or maybe hinting to something else, every other part of her saw trouble. She had always been a tad suspicious of her. Even after she had been saved by the Elements doubt rested in her mind that she was truly... 'good'. It was a horrible thing to think, and she the few times she had been around when Auntie Luna and Celestia were together they seemed happy enough.

"Hey, honey!" 

Cadance yelped, her fork nearly flying out of her magic as she flipped around to see Shining standing a little bit behind her.

"Oh... jeez, sorry; didn't mean to scare you."

Cadance sighed, her gaze quickly meeting with a few guests around her that had looked to her because of her yelp. "You're alright, Shiney."

"So, did you spend a little more time with her Highness today?" he inquired, his magic pulling out the unoccupied chair beside Cadance.

"Yeah... I did."

Shining's usual smile faded. "Did it not go well?"

"No! No... it went fine, I guess. It's just..." Cadance groaned. "Shiney, this will sound ridiculous, but I think... maybe there's something up with Auntie Luna."

"What do you mean?"

Cadance held her tongue for a moment, looking into Shining's eyes before peering back down to her food. "I'm overthinking this, never mind. It's wrong of me to think she'd ever try it again."

"You... think she's still evil or something?"

"I did for a moment, yes. She's just... the way she and her secretary kept saying that I should become nocturnal like them."

"That's a little odd..."

Cadance's head darted up. "See!? I'm not just being paranoid, am I?"

Shining groaned, tilting his head. "You probably are."

"Well... what about when her secretary said; 'we've got to even the odds against you day-dwellers somehow. Two Princesses of the night is a start!'?"

Shining's expression was now one of concern. "That's... a little odd, as well."

"'A start'. He called it 'a start'."

Shining was quiet a moment. "Look... just keep spending time with her. I have a really hard time believing that she's going to try and take over Equestria again, or something ridiculous." he finished, having his hooves in the air in exaggeration.

"I do, too... but I don't want to see my Auntie Celestia pinned to the floor by some evil, cackling monster again."

Shining leaned forward to get a better view of the somewhat traumatized look on Cadance's face. "Neither do I."