Celestia and Luna wait in their private dining room. It’s the second night after the attack of the Dark, and they are waiting for Cherry to come by with Mare... if Mare even wants to leave her tower after such an affair.
“Luna…” Celestia says, breaking the silence, “Could I have handled that better?”
“We’ve been over this…” says Luna.
“I mean, I feel like I could have been more delicate...” Celestia says.
“And I am sure that there is nothing you could have said that would have made that easier to take for her,” says Luna, “What is wrong, sister? It's not like you to dwell so long on a single conversation.”
Celestia glances out the window. “I’m afraid you might think less of me.”
“Nothing will make me think less of you sister, no matter what you do. I know your heart is in the right place,” says Luna.
Celestia takes a deep breath. “I feel… frustrated.”
Luna quirks her head. “Frustrated?”
“I feel like I was finally getting through to her. She was opening up to me. Even before she reaped herself, she was reserved… when she wasn’t in tears. But she smiled, laughed—Joked even! But now, I feel like I’m back where I started. Her defences have gone back up, and I’m afraid she might do something… drastic.”
“You think she might try reaping her memories again?” Luna says.
“That scythe of hers can reap more than memories. After all these years I’m still not sure what she means when she says it reaps nightmares.”
“It seems like nothing with that girl is straightforward,” says Luna.
“I suppose so,” sighs Celestia.
Luna gets up and gives her sister an embrace. “Just try your best. You’ll get through to her. If I have my way, give a year or two, she will forget the crawling dark exists.”
“How can someone simply forget something like that?” says Celestia.
“Surprisingly, you can,” Luna says. “Constella lived a full, normal life after she helped me develop those wards, as did the next two victims, as long as they stayed in after dark…”
And that is the problem, and both sisters knew it, the other victims need only stay in after the sun sets, the wards on their houses keeping the dark at bay, they could live out their days normally. But to Mare, the night is the only world she is allowed. Unlike the others, she will spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, if she can even be convinced to leave her tower.
A knock at the door brought them out of their sombre ruminations. “Come in.”
Cherry comes in, shutting the door behind her, and bows. “I’m sorry, Mare said she doesn’t want to come-”
“I’m here,” Mare says, appearing behind Cherry and causing her to nearly jump out her fur.
“Wha-! But-! You said-!” Cherry has one of her signature freakouts.
“I changed my mind,” Mare says, before walking over to her seat in between Celestia and Luna and sitting down. At both Princesses’ inquisitive stares, she simply grabbed her menu and hid her face behind it.
Celestia sighs. By the looks of it, she is indeed back at square one. But at least she can leave the tower. Maybe things aren’t as bad as she feared. All Celestia has to do is move forward, and maybe just help Mare to do so too.
Celestia looks down at Mare, who was still hiding behind her menu. “Do you still need help with that?”
She can see Mare’s cheeks colour.
“...Yes.”
Cherry opens the door leading back into the tower, this time very aware of Mare behind her. As soon as the door opens, Mare brushes past, theatrically sits down on her metal rock, and stares out a window.
Cherry stands by the door, not really sure what to do. Just when she thought she was getting used to her, Mare went and changed again. She didn’t say more than a single syllable to any of Cherry’s attempts at conversation, yet she was practically walking on her heels for the majority of the trip back. To say Cherry was getting mixed signals would be an understatement.
Still, Cherry can’t really say she would be doing any better after the events of the last two nights. In the end, all Cherry can do is do her job, and give Mare space if she needs it.
With that in mind, Cherry decides to fall back to her most reliable tactic. “Excuse me Mare, would you like a drink?” It hasn't failed her yet.
Cherry’s voice shook me from my thoughts. “Huh?”
“Would you like a drink, Mare?” Cherry asks again.
“Umm…” I say, thinking feverishly.
It will probably be alright, It will only be for a minute or so.
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” I say, staring out the window.
I think I hear a sigh, but it’s hard to tell, as Cherry’s sighs are a lot less theatrical than Celestia’s. “Won’t be a moment.”
I hear her leave the room, leaving me on my own.
All on my own, yup just me.
Or am I?
Yes, it's just me.
“Okay, it's just a few minutes, you can do this,” I mutter to myself.
Is that shadow deeper than the others?
I pull my legs up and bury my face in my knees. No of course it isn’t, I’m fine. It’s somewhere far away. It can’t get me in here.
But it can move pretty fast can’t it-stopitstopitstopit!
A sound makes me jump to my feet. I look around but don’t see anything. Something probably just hit the window.
I start to rock on my heels. Cherry will be back any minute now, I’ve just got to wait.
The silence is crushing.
Any minute…
Substantially less than a minute later…
“So this is your room?”
The voice almost makes Cherry jump out of her skin. She whirls around to see Mare standing behind her.
“Whu? Wha?! Huh!” Cherry exclaims before trying to get her breathing under control.
“I got bored,” Mare states flatly, not looking Cherry in the eye. She casts her eyes around the room. “So you live here?”
Cherry manages a response. “Oh… no. This is just my work space. This is where I am when I’m not… being your attendant, I suppose.”
She looks around, her eyes linger on some posters Cherry had hung up to brighten up the room, and the small collection of beanbags and a hammock that took up one corner of the room. And she brings her eyes back to Cherry.
Cherry looks sheepish. “The Princess said I could personalise the space… The Hammock and beanbags are not mine though, they were already here.”
Mare says nothing, and goes back to examining the room. Cherry turns back to the counter when the kettle whistles, signalling to finish preparing the cocoa.
Mare’s eyes are drawn to a small pile of books by one of the beanbags. She walks over and picks one up.
When Cherry turns around, she finds Mare lying back in the beanbag with her nose firmly lodged in it.
“Oh, do you like manga?” Cherry says conversationally, bringing the drink over.
“Equestria has manga?” Mare says, still reading.
“Well yeah, Neighponese manga became pretty popular back when I was in high school, They are kinda hard to get, but I know a specialty bookstore. Did you have manga back where you come from?” Cherry says, resting the drink next to her.
“I…” Mare lowered the book, and her eyes gained a rather distant quality, “I think… I used to read them a lot, but I never really owned or held one, I read them online.”
“Online?” Cherry asks, but Mare seems to have gone back to reading and doesn’t respond.
Like a ponderous feeler, Mare’s hand slowly snakes to her drink and picks it up.
Cherry, lacking anything else to do, sits down on one of the other beanbags and picks up another one of her other manga.
A companionable silence descends.
“Sorry, I mostly just have romance and slice of life.”
“I like slice of life, and romance,” Mare says simply.
“Oh, that's good…” says Cherry.
More silence.
“Cherry…”
“Yes, Mare?”
“Can… Can I borrow some of these?”
“Well I was going to keep these here anyway, so I suppose you can read them whenever you like. These are only the ones I’m reading right now, I can bring in some more from my collection if you like.”
“I think I’d like that.”
More silence.
“Cherry?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
Cherry smiles. “You’re welcome.”