I felt the familiar sense of being awake return to me. I slowly struggled to open my eyes, fighting back the pleasure of sleep. Connor taught me long ago that sleeping-in is all well and good, but you can't ignore your duties by crawling under the covers. Speaking of whom, I turned my head, still trying to regain vision, and spoke out loud. "Good evening Connor." I waited a little bit, expecting his static voice, not unlike the voice of a parched pony, to grace my ears. Unfortunately, it didn't come.
I forced my eyes open in a panic. If Connor didn't respond, then something was wrong. The blurriness slowly faded, as I saw the familiar figure collapsed on the bed above the sheets. His limbs were everywhere, and he was drooling softly on a pillow. His metal hand was constantly balling into a fist, and straightening itself back out. The electricity in his hair was long gone and it was sticking in all directions. I let loose a giggle at how the mighty Cosmic King looked right now.
With a small smile on my face, I gently get off of the bed, pushing my own messed up mane out of the way, and walked over to a glass door leading to a balcony. Opening it softly, I walk out, and lean over the blue railings, staring out at the view of Canterlot. The setting sun was giving a beautiful orange glow to the city, and many lights were slowly turning on within houses. I still can't believe I decided the world would look better in eternal night. Speaking of which...
I light up my horn, grasping it around the moon, and pulling it up to follow Tia's sun. I watched with a smile on my face as the horizon went from covered in oranges, yellows, and reds, to covered in blues, blacks, and whites. With the moon firmly planted in the sky, I turn around, and walk back into the room, closing the doors.
Connor was sitting up on the bed, watching me, a small smile on his face. He stand up and cracks his back as I walk up to him. As I reach him, he kneels down and surprisingly wraps both of his arms around my neck, pulling me in for a hug. I let out an 'eep' in surprise. He's not usually this forward. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I lean into the hug, wrapping my wings around his back.
"I love you Luna..." He whispered into my ear. My eyes shoot open, trying to recall the last time he said that. In my distraction, he pulls away, and holds something in front of my face. I blink, and see a heart-shaped blue box with white ribbons tying it up. "Happy Valentine's... I mean Happy Hearth's Warming... grr... I mean Merry..."
"Happy Hearts and Hooves Day." I corrected with a giggle, and Connor gave a slight nod. I took the box in my magic, and began to untie the ribbons.
"Sorry. I haven't been good with emotions in a while." He rubbed his hand through his loose hair, a nervous habit he hasn't shown in a while.
I gently pull the rest of the ribbons off, and open the box, revealing an assortment of chocolates shaped like moons. They even had moon dust on them. Or at least what we call moon dust due to how similar it is. I don't know how Connor makes it, but I always love it as it reminds me of the moon. I look up at Connor, smiling. "Moon chocolates. You know me so well."
"I spent all day yesterday making those. It took a while to find the best ingredients, and to make them perfect. I even made them out of dark chocolate, your favorite. I would have done hearts, but I sent a box of heart chocolates to Cadance. Didn't want it to lose it's special-ness." Connor said proudly, before rubbing my messed up mane. "Now, we should probably make ourselves presentable for breakfast. It may be a holiday, but that doesn't mean our work ends." Before I could protest, he stuffed one of the chocolates in my mouth, and closed the box, tossing it on our bed. Then, he picked me up around my barrel, and carried me into the bathroom, where he shut the door.
Giving me a slight kiss, and getting some of the chocolate on his face, he set me down, and grabbed my mane-brush. He gently brushed and tamed my mane back into it's usual waviness, while he wrapped his energy around his hair-balloon and jump-started the electricity in his hair. I swallowed the chocolate and spoke up. "What's with the special treatment today? You're not normally like this."
Connor sighed. "I realized a couple days ago how I've been treating you. I've always loved you, but with the stress of my job, and what happened in the past, I haven't been making time for you. You're my wife. Never gonna get used to saying that. And I need to show you more love. You've been through many traumatizing events just like me, and that means we should stick together." He set down the brush, having done it's job, and wiped an unknown tear from my eye. "I love you Princess Luna. I may be physically a teenager, and never got to properly grow up. I may have a huge burden placed on me with my powers. I may have a shattered psyche. I may be a hero who saves Equestria time and time again, or a may be a monster who causes the troubles Equestria faces, just to stop bigger ones. I've definitely manipulated hundreds of creatures to stop events from happening, but the one thing I've never manipulated was you... I didn't force you to love me. If you never returned my feelings, I would have just held them inside, bottling them like my other emotions. You are one of the only creatures I've met that I can release some of my emotions on. Because you understand. I'm sorry about Nightmare Moon. I'm gonna KILL my predecessor for killing Nebula. Wait... actually I'm not that sorry about Nightmare Moon. You looked really hot like that, I have to admit. And that definitely had to happen. I probably should have worked with you, instead of betraying you like that." He grunted, clenching his hands into his head. "What I'm trying to say is... ah, screw it... Actions speak louder than words after all." He suddenly grabbed me, and pulled me into the biggest kiss he's ever given me. My legs almost gave out from the feeling, but I kissed back.
All I could think of while he was kissing me was...
'We're going to be here a while.'
We eventually entered the royal dining room later than expected. Tia was already finishing up her dinner, when we arrived. I sat down in my usual ornate blue seat cushion across from my sister, and gave a smile. "Hello Tia. How was your day?"
Tia, ever the presentable princess, dabbed her face with a napkin, before speaking. "It was good." She gently set down the napkin and shot me a smirk. "I was expecting you to arrive earlier. Did a certain someone hold you up?"
I gave a big smile and glowed my horn, signalling for my breakfast to be brought to me. "He's been much more romantic today. We spent the entire last hour in the bathroom, and it wasn't spent getting ready." I felt some heat on my cheeks, and Tia giggled.
"Speaking of whom, where is he?" She asked. "I thought he said he didn't have to do anything today?"
"I'm right here, as a matter of fact." Connor said as he walked through a door, holding two silver trays on his arms. My sister and I leaned upwards in our cushions to try and see what was on the trays, but Connor was too tall. He moved to Tia first, putting a plate holding what looked to be a cake in the shape of the sun with a smile. "I made this for you Celestia for today. Happy Valen... Hearths and Hooves Day..."
"It's Hearts and Hooves Day." Tia corrected with a giggle before taking it the cake. "You made this yourself?"
Connor rolled his eyes at the correction. "Yep. Made it exactly the way you like it. I'm sure you have time to finish it before going to bed." He smiled, rubbing her head with free hand and quickly moving over to me. "And for you, my dear..." He put a plate holding a stack of pancakes shaped like various stages of the moon.
My eyes widened, and I subconsciously licked my lips. "You made this all rather quickly. You were only not with me for a minute and now this is all done."
Connor smirked. "Well, my powers help a lot with it." He sat down on a purple cushion next to me, and looked over the table at Tia. "So Celestia..." Tia was already half-way done with the cake, forgoing manners to eat the cake. She looked up with eyes like a surprised deer. "Did the courier find you this morning?" I raised an eyebrow, not sure what Connor was talking about, but decided to keep silently eating delicious pancakes.
Tia swallowed what was in her mouth, crumbs of cake and frosting nearly everywhere on her face. "Yes. I had it delivered to the place you requested." Connor nodded and Tia went back to gorging herself.
Not understanding what Connor and Tia were talking about, I decided to pay it no mind, as few things about Connor are truly understood. I did however take my sister's gorging as the perfect time to joke. "You know Tia, eating like that is the reason you have such a big flank." I smirked as both Tia and Connor spat out what was in their mouths. Tia spat out some cake, and Connor spat out some soda he was drinking, along with his remaining lung. He quickly shoved it back into his body though.
When Tia recovered, her cheeks reddened, and I burst out laughing. Tia didn't take my laughter for long before she responded. "Well, my flank isn't the only one getting big. I seem to recall your flank being more muscle a thousand years ago. Now look at it. It's more like jelly!" Tia laughed, as my cheeks reddened, and I looked at my flank, seeing indeed that my once proud warrior's physique was now softer and rounder. I gently touched it, and instead of pressing on muscle, I felt the tip of my hoof push inwards, revealing almost no muscle.
Tia's laughing made me growl, and I opened my mouth, about to reply, when Connor wrapped his arm around my neck, and leaned close. "Well, I think you still look lovely Luna." He said out loud. "I don't care how soft or squishy you are, I'll still love you." He rubbed his hand along my back to comfort me. I let out a small smile, still shocked at how different I look from back a thousand years ago. I looked less like a warrior and more like a... mother... Oh that makes sense now why Connor stopped doing those physical training things back then. I didn't need to fight anymore, and needed to focus more on Nebula...
I felt tears forming in my eyes at the memory of our daughter.
"So where are you taking me Connor?" I asked, a purple blindfold wrapped around my eyes. Normally I'd be wary of danger in a time like this, but with Connor nearby, I felt safe. All I know was that we were flying in the air, or at least Connor was, and he was carrying me, bridal style.
"You'll see. Since there was no Night Court today, I thought we could do something special." He replied simply. Eventually, after maybe an hour of flying, we landed on soft grass. Connor gently removed the blindfold, and I looked around where we were. All it looked like was a beautiful plains field full of grass and flowers.
"Where are we?" I asked, confused.
"It's a little something I created a thousand years ago, and today is the day it's finished." He stepped the the side, letting me see what was behind him.
Behind Connor was a small hill with a beautiful large tree. It had dark wood, reminding me of the night, and blue leaves, reminding me of the sky. The tree had a picture of the moon made into the wood, as if it grew like it. Then I realized something... all the flowers I saw in the fields, were ones that grow at night. My jaw dropped as my brain begin to piece things together. "It's..."
"I call it 'Nocturnal Valley.' I started growing the tree around the time you got sent to the moon. It took a long time to make this valley and field, and make it entirely nocturnal, but it's finally finished." Connor was beaming. "I felt like it would be a place where you could truly feel peaceful, surrounded by things similar in life-style. And that's not the best part. Look up." He pointed straight up. I craned my neck as much as it could, and saw the moon almost fully covering the sky above the valley, looking closer than it should, filling the valley with moonlight and sparkles. "It's designed in just the right way with the right kind of energies to give it a beautiful look at nighttime. I thought you'd might -MPH!"
I tackled Connor to the ground, giggling like a school filly as I stood above him, and kissed him long and hard. "I love it! Thank you!" I nuzzled my head into his neck, and wrapped my wings around his back, as he wrapped his arms around me. "It's an amazing present." I whispered into his ear.
Connor smiled, and whispered into mine. "I'm not done yet. Look behind you." I did and noticed a wrapped gift box with blue ribbons, and pulled it over with my magic, placing it on Connor's chest as I opened it. "I think you'll enjoy this one." He said, as I lifted the lid, and pulled out what was inside.
The content of the box was an elegant crown, much like what Tia and I usually wear, but this one was of a similar appearance as Connor's Cosmic Form, being a deep space-like purple, and showing stars. It was over twice as big as my usual black one, and looked like something for a queen than a princess. I was speechless as I stared at it.
Connor spoke to get rid of the silence created by the revealing of the crown. "It's for you. I made it out of my own energy." He gently reached up from underneath me and grabbed it. "It symbolizes that you are my wife." He gently placed it on my head where my usual crown would be if I wore one today. It fit perfectly, feeling more natural than my own crown. "It shows that you are my queen, and shows our bond. And it also is like a wedding ring in Cosmic society." He rubbed some of the hair out of my eye. "So Luna. Would you be my queen? It's more of a title than an actual position though. You'll still be princess of Equestria, and not have Cosmic Powers, but it makes our marriage more official. So... what do you say?"
I didn't even dignify it with a response, as I tackled Connor, despite still being on top of him, and kissed him. Neither of us spoke the rest of the night as we spent the night in each other's passionate embrace.