Twilight Sparkle awoke in Princess Luna's bed.
For a moment, she was disoriented; this was definitely not her bed in the Castle of Harmony. Her bed didn’t have a gently-billowing black canopy, nor was it set in a room with so many shades of not-quite-black.
The bedding beside her showed the divot and mussed covers of a second body, but there was no sign of Luna. It was past noon, so no doubt she had long since gotten up and about her royal duties. She needed very little sleep, she'd once told Twilight. Twilight herself found she needed less than she once had. They'd gone to bed well after sunrise, so being up by noon was actually fairly early by her old standards, yet she felt completely rested. It probably had something to do with being an alicorn.
Trying to gather her meandering thoughts, Twilight rose and stretched. She felt amazing. Last night had been wonderful. She had a marefriend, and they were... intimate. Yes, put it that way. Twilight blushed at the thought. She'd always known about the, uh, basic mechanics in a very academic way, but getting a hooves (and horn, and wings)-on education from the mare who ruled over dreams and the night, and thus over erotic dreams and night-time lovers, had been more wonderful than she could have imagined. Her life was just about perfect.
She climbed out of the bed and wandered over to the full-length mirror that stood against one wall. It was set in a sweeping frame of ebony and silver—a gorgeous piece of art, as nearly everything in Luna's chambers was—and was more than large enough to show Twilight her whole body. Her fur was a bit matted and her mane was a startling display of wild hairs going in every direction. She laughed and looked around for a brush. Instead, she noticed Luna’s black enameled regalia lying on the table next to the mirror. Apparently she wasn't absent on some official duty after all, if her crown and peytral and sollerets were still here. The table's drawer proved to hold a brush, in any case, so Twilight set about putting her mane in order.
When that was done, she regarded her reflection in the mirror. She grinned at herself, feeling contented, delighted, and just generally pleased. Remembering the previous night, she struck a seductive pose... or she attempted to, anyway. She squinted at her reflection. Was this seductive, or just ridiculous? It was probably ridiculous. She tried again, imitating a pose that she'd seen Luna strike once, that had made her heart skip a beat. Up on her hind legs, one front hoof sliding down her cutie mark, the other held gracefully up. She frowned. It had looked amazing on Luna, but she just felt awkward. She shifted, trying to get her feet just right, then lost her balance. Instinctively she grabbed at the table beside her for support, but all that did was tip the table, sending Luna's regalia flying. She reached after them, stumbled, and fell, landing directly on several of the enameled metal pieces.
They were not soft, and Twilight let out a yelp of pain as she came crashing down. She was pretty sure one of the shoes had left a gash in her side. She picked herself up and examined her coat.
She was sore, she'd probably be bruised shortly, but there was no blood. Then she looked at the regalia and winced. She'd flattened the peytral, and the thing that had dug into her side had been Luna's delicate little crown, which was now bent almost double.
"Oh crud." Hesitantly Twilight picked up the crown and examined it. The metal had actually snapped apart in one place; it would have to be welded as well as straightened.
Twilight felt a rising panic wash over her. She'd broken Luna's crown. And peytral. And it looked like she'd at least slightly damaged several of the shoes as well. She gathered them all up in her magic. There had to be a way to repair them. Perhaps she could find some spell...
Then she heard the most horrible sound possible, the sound of hoofsteps outside the door. The latch swung down, and the door began to open. With her heart pounding, unable to think of anything else to do, Twilight teleported away, taking the broken regalia with her.
She appeared in her Canterlot suite, her home away from home.
"Hey Twi!"
"Yeep!" Twilight jumped, dropping the regalia from her magical field. The pieces landed with a series of loud clanging sounds, making Twilight jump a second time.
Spike, standing in the door to the kitchen, eyed her, a fork full of gem salad raised half way out of the bowl. "Is something wrong? How come you have Luna's necklace thing and horseshoes and all that?"
"It's called a peytral, not a necklace," said Twilight, gathering the pieces back up.
Spike only rolled his eyes a little bit at Twilight's pedantry. "So what are you doing with it, whatever it's called?"
"You can't tell Luna. I broke them, but I'll have them all fixed before she notices. Promise you won't tell her!"
Spike hesitated. He could spot the signs of Twilight working herself up into a state, and things sometimes went badly when that happened, but he also knew the importance of keeping a trusted secret. "Okay. I promise."
"Pinkie Pie promise?"
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
"Thanks, Spike! You're the best. Now I've got to get to work!" Twilight dashed towards the lab. It wasn't as complete as her lab back home in Ponyville, but it would do. Most of the work would be done by magic anyway, not with any of her equipment.
Inside the lab she shut the door and set the bent and broken pieces of Luna's regalia on a workbench. Best to begin with the shoes, she thought. They were only slightly bent, so they would be the easiest, although she knew she had her work cut out for her if she was to get them back as good as new.
She could cast a transforming spell on them and have all six pieces exactly as new instantly, but the effects would only last as long as she concentrated on the spell. She certainly couldn't concentrate on it forever, so that was out. Still, magic could often accomplish indirectly what it couldn't manage directly. Lighting her horn, Twilight applied her field to one horseshoe. She used the same basic spell that all unicorns used to levitate items, but instead of overall lift, she applied force with calculated precision to the bent top of the shoe. Slowly, creaking under the pressure, it straightened. Soon the bend was gone as if it had never been.
At least visually.
Twilight frowned faintly at the shoe. Bending metal back and forth tended to fatigue it. Yes the shoe looked fine, but under further stress it would be more likely to bend again at the same spot or even break entirely. It wouldn't actually be as good as new until she annealed it.
Annealing metal required a lot of heat, but exactly how much depended on the metal in question, and Twilight didn't actually know what the shoes were made of. Steel, probably, but what kind of steel? Steel could have any of a long list of additives, each of which would change its properties slightly. And what if the shoes had been hardened as well? Annealing would undo that. She might actually need to temper them instead.
This was going to be more difficult than she'd anticipated.
Right. Time to organize. Twilight pulled a piece of paper and a quill out and started to compose a list of things she needed to know, things she would need in order to figure those things out, and things she would need once she was ready to start the actual work.
When the list was finished, her horn lit and her magic began pulling things down off of shelves, muttering to herself as she did. "Let’s see... The Guide to Alchemical Processes, the Realized Table of Elements, my Sympathetic Spectrometer spell... Hmm. There’s the soldering set, and a half dozen or so fire bricks, and where did I leave that jar of chemical pickle the last time I used it? Somewhere around here I know I have a whole stack of polishing cloths and of course those are no good without polish, I hope I have some left..."
With objects flying around her and a grimly determined expression on her face, Twilight set about fixing things.
Several hours later all four shoes stood on the workbench, shining and possibly even better than new. She was immensely proud of how perfectly they’d come out. Now Twilight held the peytral in her magic, applying further magic to heat it, to both temper the metal and re-melt the enamel in hopes that it would smooth over the cracks that crazed it. The spellwork necessary was very complex, for there was no metal rim dividing the white moon from the black ground. That meant Twilight also had to use her magic to hold the two colors apart while the enamel melted, or they would run together.
It was the kind of thing she would have found a delightfully energizing challenge, if she didn't have the specter of upsetting Luna if she failed hanging over her head. As it was, it was nerve-wracking.
A tap on the door caused her to yelp and drop the already half-heated peytral.
"Twilight?"
Twilight's brain stopped working completely for an instant as panic flooded over her. That had been Luna's voice! She whisked crown and shoes off of the workbench and shoved it all underneath, kicking the peytral that had fallen on the floor after them. She bit back a yelp of pain as her hock touched the heated metal. It was a good thing the floor in here was stone or it would have lit the carpet on fire, probably.
"Twilight?" Luna's hoof tapped at the door again. "Spike said you were busy, but..."
Twilight flung the door open. "Hi! Yes! Very busy, sorry!"
Luna stared at her. "Uhm."
"Can't talk right now, really, so busy. Come back later?"
"Yes, of course. I just wanted to ask if you'd seen my regalia. I can't seem to find them."
"No, ha ha ha, of course I haven't seen them. Not a peek. Nope. Haven't seen them at all."
"O... kay. Well, it is of little matter. I made them well over a thousand years ago now. They are old. So I shall leave you to your work."
"..." Twilight tried to say something, but the horrified feeling that had filled her at hearing she'd broken something Luna herself had made so long ago made her throat tighten. Only a squeaking croak emerged.
"Twilight? Are you well?"
Twilight cleared her throat. "I... Of course, I'm fine, totally fine, nothing wrong here at all. Everything's fine and nothing is wrong in any way whatsoever. But I'm very busy, gotta go, sorry!" She slammed the door shut in Luna's face and turned back to her workbench... which was on fire.
Twilight once again lifted the peytral in her magic and prepared to heat it. Fortunately she knew several fire extinguishing spells, so the burning workbench had been easy to deal with. The flames had only licked up one leg, blackening it slightly. They hadn't even done any real damage. The room still smelled smoky, but it had already reeked of hot metal, so the added scent of charred wood didn't make much difference.
The peytral trembled slightly in her magic, and Twilight frowned, seeking finer control. This was vitally important. Luna herself had made this, more than a thousand years ago! It was irreplaceable; she couldn't mess up or she'd ruin it forever. And if she ruined it forever, Luna would be furious at her. And if Luna was furious at her, she wouldn't want to be her marefriend anymore. And then Twilight would be alone, forever, and would have to start adopting cats. Or maybe she would just have a lot of owls. Owlowiscious was really handy, actually; having more than one owl could be quite useful. But she'd be an old mare, buried in owl pellets, if she messed this up. So she couldn't mess this up. It had to be perfect.
The peytral was trembling again. Twilight licked her lips and took a deep breath, then steadied it. This would work. It had to work. There was no other option, so it would totally work. She started applying heat, while her magic not only held the peytral in the air, but carefully separated the white moon from the black field around it. Sweat beaded on Twilight’s brow as minutes passed with no visible change. Then the silver metal began to take on a faint reddish glow. The enamel softened, smoothing over the cracks. Twilight stopped applying heat and simply held it, keeping everything still and level as the glow gradually faded. Eventually the metal was merely hot and the enamel was no longer molten. Slowly, and with infinite care, Twilight set the peytral on the layer of fire bricks that covered part of the workbench.
Then she jumped up in the air and shouted "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
It had worked perfectly, without a single hitch. The enamel was smooth again, the metal was flawless, and all it needed was a little polish and it would be just as good as new.
Twilight stretched, shaking out the tension that had built while she'd done the complicated spellwork. She felt about two tons lighter. She still had to fix the crown, of course, but the peytral's careful enameling was much more complicated than the simple, solid black metal of the crown. It did need to be welded back together first, but should otherwise be an easy fix.
Just another half hour or so and she'd be all done. She glanced at the clock in the corner of the lab, then frowned. That couldn't be right. The clock said it was nearly eight, well after sunset. Surely she hadn't spent that much time? The clock must be wrong. It had to be. If the sun had already set, night court would be starting soon, and Luna needed her regalia to appear there! Twilight had wanted to get everything done by seven-thirty at the latest. There was no way it was already eight. No, of course the clock was wrong. She flicked aside the heavy curtain that covered the lab's single window, sure that she would see late afternoon sun behind it.
It was dark.
It couldn't be dark. That would mean she had failed and Luna would be angry at her and their relationship would be ruined forever!
So it couldn't be dark.
But it was dark. Which meant disaster. Utter failure. The end of everything good in her life!
No. No, no, no, no, no, she could still fix this. Night court didn't start right at sundown, there was time. Just not much of it.
Twilight swiftly picked up the crown in her magic. She'd already used the Sympathetic Spectrometer spell to tell that it was made from pure aluminum. It was anodized to achieve the black color. Re-anodizing it would be simplicity itself once it was repaired; anodizing was an electrical process and replicating electricity with magic was foal's play! And welding the crown back together would be easy as well; she already had the correct solder in her solder caddy and aluminum's low melting point would make the whole process far less intensive than magically welding steel would be. She could almost have clapped her hooves in delight. She could still do this!
Twilight carefully straightened the crown, aligning the broken edges in preparation. Then, with a length of solder held to one side and the crown to the other, Twilight used her magic to generate a simple point of heat. She brought crown, heat, and solder together. The solder began to flow into the crack, just as she'd expected.
And then the crown exploded in her face.
When the spots on her vision started to fade and the ringing in her head had cleared enough for Twilight to think again, she looked down at the crown. It had not literally exploded; it was still the same shape it had been when she'd begun welding. The spells that Twilight had forgotten to check for, however, were definitely completely gone. She'd been very lucky that they hadn't been powerful enough to kill her when her heat spell accidentally released all the magical energy they'd been storing.
"I am an idiot," said Twilight. Her voice sounded strange; the blast had deafened her a little bit. Sure, permanent enchantments on items were rare, but they'd been much more common a little over a thousand years ago when Luna would have been making the crown. She should have guessed. She should have checked. And now...
She sat down sharply. Now the crown was ruined. It didn't matter if she physically repaired it, she could never restore the spells. Even if she were an expert at that sort of item enchanting—which she wasn't—there was no way to tell what the spells had been. The only thing that remained was a trace of Luna's magical signature, and even that had been nearly entirely obscured by the blast.
She'd failed.
She'd failed Luna, who would be hurt and furious. Luna would break up with her, then banish her, then demand that Celestia strip her of all her titles and banish her again! She would never see Spike or her friends again! Everything would be horrible forever. She wouldn't even have her library or her books. She'd probably be banished to somewhere where they'd never even heard of books!
Twilight realized she was hyperventilating. She took a deep breath, held it for a slow count of three, then let it out while moving her hoof out from her chest in a calming gesture.
Celestia wouldn't banish her, and Luna wouldn't either. Luna probably wouldn't even break up with her. But Luna would be hurt and upset. Twilight had ruined something that was Luna's own irreplaceable creation. That was a terrible thing to do to anypony, let alone to a friend or lover.
Tap, tap, tap. "Twilight? Are you well? I heard an explosion."
Oh Sweet Summer Sun, it was Luna! Twilight bolted to her feet and had her hoof lifted to sweep everything under the table again when she suddenly stopped. Trying to hide what she had been doing was pointless. There was only one option open to her now.
Feeling as if her heart was somewhere down around her hooves, she went to the door and opened it. "Uh. Hi Luna."
Luna peered inside, looking concerned. "Is all well with you?"
"Ah. Well. I'm a little deaf. It's a good thing you're not Fluttershy or I wouldn't have heard a thing you said just now." Twilight tried to smile, but didn't manage much of one. "Other than that I'm fine, though."
"I am glad to hear it. What are you-" Luna stopped as her gaze came to rest on Twilight's workbench. "Is that my peytral?"
Twilight hung her head. "Yes. I'm sorry."
Luna gave Twilight a wry smile and arched one eyebrow expressively. "So when I asked if you had seen my regalia earlier and you said you had not..."
Twilight's head sunk a bit more. "I lied. I was trying to fix them before you needed them for night court. I broke them by accident. I did fix the rest, but the crown... I just broke that even more than it was already. I'm very sorry." She looked up at Luna. "I know the crown is an antique that you made yourself and that it's irreplaceable. I'm sure after a thousand years and more you love it so much, and I've ruined it forever. I messed up, and I'll do anything to make it up to you. I'm so, so, so sorry, Luna."
"Oh Twilight." Luna actually laughed. Twilight looked at her in bafflement, feeling a little bit hurt. Why was Luna laughing at her? Then she was enveloped in a warm embrace and the hurt faded away. "My dear, sweet, neurotic Twilight. Yes I made the crown myself and yes it is ancient, but that means it is all the more due for replacement. In truth if I had worn the thing all these many centuries I would be mightily sick of it. I was in the habit of making a new design every few decades when I was young. Had so many things not distracted me of late I should no doubt have already replaced it."
Twilight leaned slightly back from the embrace to look into Luna’s eyes. "Then... you're not upset?"
Luna leaned in and planted a kiss on the end of Twilight's nose. "Not remotely."
Relief swept over Twilight like a sea breeze. "Oh thank the stars!"
Luna chuckled. "Though as far as doing 'anything' to make it up to me, I do have two small requests?"
"Whatever they are, I'll do them."
"Sweet, neurotic, innocent Twilight. That tempts me to come up with something truly dreadful for you. But no, I would not take such advantage. Probably." Luna grinned. "I would like it if you'd help me with the new crown’s design. I know you are no artist, but I had a few useful spells on the crown. Perhaps you might have some suggestions for enchantments I could invest the new one with."
"Oh!" Twilight found herself suddenly grinning in delight. "That sounds like a lot of fun! You'll have to tell me what the spells it used to have were. I, uhm, kind of blew them up before I realized they were there."
"So I gathered," said Luna dryly.
"What's the second request?"
Luna leaned in very close and whispered, "When night court is over this evening, I expect to find you wearing something interesting and waiting in my bed."
"Oh my." This time the exclamation was of surprise more than delight, and Twilight felt herself blushing furiously. Yet as Luna kissed her and then walked away with a swish of her starry tail and a sultry wiggle of her hips, Twilight decided that however badly the rest of the day had gone, the night ahead of her was going to be more than worth it.