Nocturnality

by Kotushk Fier


Moonlight

I watched as Princess Luna walked into the room, and my eyes widened slightly. She had changed into a flowing gown of diaphanous silk, which hugged her body tightly. The silk was of a light silver, catching and reflecting the moonlight, sparkling incandescently. Starting at her throat, lines of gold flowed through until the end of the dress, studded at intervals with black onyx gemstones. The fabric around her chest and hips hugged to her body tightly, while it began to flow like water off of her hips. Her mane was held back by her tiara, flowing freely over the cloth on her back, while her tail was constantly molding the gown over it as it moved. Her wings were folded at her side, and I could see a strange accessory within her primary feathers. At evenly spaced areas were feathers of jet black, which upon closer inspection I could see were made of onyx, clipped to her wings to hold them in place. The entire effect set my heart racing, and I swallowed dryly as I attempted to speak.

"Ahem... Princess Lu-Luna... That is, oh how do I put this... It is rather distracting, and may interfere with my studying."

"And why should that be," she asked, looking at me. "This is my teaching gown, and I have never had problems with my students before."

Yeah, and I doubt any of them would voice their opinions out of fear. Royalty was highly respected, to the point of terror at the prospect of offending them. But since that night, that parade, I knew she was a kind princess, and wouldn't hold anything against her beloved little ponies. She valued her subjects, loving all in her shared domain equally. So with my assessment of her character, I opened my mouth to speak words that might ruin my life.

"Excuse me for being forward, Princess, but I believe that you would not likely hear any complaints from your students. Most of the ponies in this world revere you and your sister as goddesses, and with that they respect you greatly, yet also fear you."

She looked down at me in surprise. Apparently she had never given any thought to those implications.

"As such, they fear you may banish them, no matter how kind they think you to be. So most keep their mouths shut, but I want to learn your sky and all of its glorious wonders, without too much distraction."

Luna looked at me for a few moments, her expression unreadable. When she opened her mouth to speak, I winced inwardly. I hoped I didn't offend her too much.

"What if I decided to banish you for your words? Why would you speak these words, words which neither my sister nor I have ever heard directed towards us? Why aren't you afraid of punishment?"

"Because I respect both of you enough to let you know what I believe, even if you don't like it. I trust in your character enough to feel able to speak easily to you, with all respect accorded, but none of the unfair fears that hold other ponies back."

She closed her eyes for a few moments, and after a bit of silence, smiled as she opened her eyes once more.

"Very well, if this dress is distracting you, for whatever reasons, I will find something else. Pray tell, however, why it would distract you forcefully enough for you to mention it?"

I gulped. I didn't want to tell her I had a crush on her. I certainly didn't want to confess that I love her, really. So I opted for a different approach.

"Well, the material hugs your body very well. To be honest, I think anypony would find it difficult to concentrate around you when that gown is worn. You are a beautiful Princess, just like your sister, and I really feel that anything you might wear that further bolsters that natural beauty would end up distracting me."

She frowned slightly, as if disappointed in something I said, before shaking her head and heading back into her room. She emerged five minutes later, with only her tiara and her typical chest and leg adornments of wrought silver and onyx. Looking back to me, she reiterated her earlier statement.

"We will start with what you know of the moon."

Nodding, I launched into speaking my knowledge of her own celestial body. I spoke of the ebb and flow of the tidal currents, the reflective light of the sun on the other side of our world (she was surprised to learn that I knew our world was round, as most ponies disregarded that knowledge), and the fact that the moon was far closer to our world than the sun was. Although we had the technology of telescopes, looking at the sun through them was a bad idea, but I had invented a small spell to lower the sun's effects enough to glean that knowledge.

She was astonished to learn of my spell, asking me to recreate it for her so she could provide future students with that knowledge. I happily obliged to teaching her something new, knowing that spell would be more useful in her hooves than mine. Finally, she began to teach me more of how she controlled the moon. She told me of her ability to connect to the "soul" of the moon, manipulating it to keep it moving on its path. To a lesser extent, she could move stars, forming the many constellations within the sky, but it took great effort to do so, often leaving her unable to leave her room for long periods of time. She only did it when a heroic feat was accomplished, and only then if it literally saved the world.

After speaking of these wondrous abilities, we broke for a midnight lunch, courtesy of the night staffed kitchen workers. For the first few minutes, we munched lightly on daisy and sungrass sandwiches, and drank rogberry wine. The strange bluish purple wine was made from a berry found only where a timberwolf had died, and only if the wolf had died at the teeth of a manticore. This made me almost stop drinking it out of sheer rarity, but at my mentor's insistence, I at least finished my glass.

After our lunch, she led me out onto her balcony. Now I began receiving a more hands on lecture, as she guided my eyes through her telescope to study far away stars. Some of the stars were new to her, which shocked me, but she told me that there were always new stars. She further surprised me by telling me that most of the stars I was seeing now were dead stars. but that their light took almost four million years to reach Equestria. That bit of knowledge blew away every fantastical story of stars exploding or falling due to Princess Luna's wrath. I chuckled a bit, and when she asked me what was so funny, I told her about what people thought of dead stars. She laughed too, joking about not letting me leave (my heart skipped a beat) to tell the world. After our giggling subsided, she went on to tell me that nopony could breathe outside of a certain space above Equestria's surface, that eventually air stopped existing. I was puzzled at this, and was surprised to know that the air around me had weight, almost four tons of it floating above me, held to the planet by gravity. My head was starting to swim from this knowledge, and I swayed uneasily on my feet. Noticing my sudden lack of balance, Luna reached with a wing to steady me, which gave me a flashback to that day.

<The stage wobbled unsteadily as we hit a bump in the road, causing me to crash into Princess Luna's body. She reflexively wrapped her wings around me, keeping me safe until the float was steadied, then releasing me. My heart had been beating at a near pegasus speed, which she obviously felt through her body. She asked me if I was ok, telling me she was sorry for scaring me. I laughed shakily, telling her that she hadn't scared me, I had merely been surprised. I was cut off as a guard came onto the stage, bowing before the princess and apologizing profusely for any damage done to her or her guest. She told him we were fine, and to return to his post. Nopony was hurt, she said, so everything was ok. I could tell that he was a greenhorn, as when he returned to his peers they began teasing him. He hung his head shamefully until the Captain called for the resume of our journey, and Princess Luna turned towards me once more to make sure I was unharmed. I assured her I was quite alright, and in my heart I could feel strong adoration for the kindness and gentleness of the alicorn mare I stood by the side of. In that instant, I realized that I wanted to be by her side for the rest of my life, even if it was as foolish as it was stupid to wish for. Our stage began moving once more, albeit at a more sedate pace, which left more time for Luna and I to talk. She spoke of her sister, and how much she loved her, and asked me about my family. I talked at length of my father and mother, who were very good toymakers, and about my brother, who wished to sail the Great Western Ocean. After speaking of them, I looked at her quickly, nervous and afraid I had bored her, but she was listening to me with full attention, much to my shock. The feelings and emotions in my heart grew at her generosity to lend an ear to a commonplace pony such as myself.>

Shaking myself awake from the memories, I noticed I was on the couch in Luna's antechamber, while she stood over me with a wet cloth she had been using to wipe my forehead. Upon noticing me awake, she stood back to give me space to stand, which I did so awkwardly. Looking up at my mentor, I noticed a look of concern in her eyes, and suddenly I was afraid.

"Princess, is something wrong? I'm sorry for passing out during your lesson..."

"Novalis, when was the last time you had seen a doctor? You just woke up after two hours of having a 116 degree fever. I thought you were lost a couple of times there."

My eyes widened in shock. I had a fever of such high degree? I reached up to my forehead, and found that indeed my temperatures were skyrocketing. I looked to Princess Luna with fear in my eyes, and she rushed over to me as I fainted.