“Dear, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
The sound of adhesive peeling off a tightly-wound roll was harsh against Flutershy’s ears and harsher still on her fragile ego. In the still air of Fluttershy's cottage the sound sliced the tension like a guillotine. The glare from Luna wasn’t helping. “I know exactly what I’m doing. I’ve been fixing bookshelves for longer than you’ve been alive.”
Fluttershy circled the decimated piece of furniture and considered it critically. It was an old, raggedy oak deal they had picked up from a second hoof shop. They held onto it because it fit just so into a spot in the small library they had built to entertain themselves on quiet evenings.
“I don’t believe that for a second. Besides, I’m sure we can find a shelf of the same size that’s better than this one!” Fluttershy tried to rest a supportive hoof on the decaying wood frame but her good will found no suitable target. Much to her dismay, the shelf she touched dropped from its pegs entirely and clattered lifeless and useless to the floor.
Luna scoffed, blowing a spare strand of galaxy away from her crazed gaze. “I don’t want another shelf, I want this one.”
Fluttershy sighed, retreating to the kitchen to grab a pitcher of water and some glasses. This wasn’t about the shelf. She knew that much. She just had to figure out what it was about before Luna broke something other than a ratty old bookshelf. “Can you tell me why?”
Luna gripped the cup of water in her magic, downing it with ruthless efficiency as she wrapped layer after layer of duct tape around a growing crack in the aging oak. She set the cup down to her side and Fluttershy left it to languish for now. “Because I like this bookshelf. I liked it when we saw it in the store, I liked it when Applejack helped me repaint it, I liked the way it looked in our library…” Content with her repairs on this side, Luna set the tape down and produced some wood glue and a vice from the toolbox sitting gutted next to her. “I like this shelf and I want to continue liking this shelf.”
Fluttershy considered Luna’s answer. The princess didn’t like to lie but that didn’t absolve her from speaking in half truths. Fluttershy had gone her entire life speaking softly, setting words in between the spaces of other words in a desperate attempt to be understood. What Luna needed right now was understanding.
“Do you need me to hold that piece steady for you?” Fluttershy set her glass on a nearby table and moved to Luna’s left side, ready to help.
Luna spared her a glance and Fluttershy’s heart nearly crumbled into ash. “Yes, please. Hold it steady so that I may apply the glue. I shall no longer stand for this accursed fracture.”
Fluttershy gripped one end of the shelf with her left wing while bracing the other with her right hoof, an extended hug across the stained-white piece. Luna applied wood glue to the joint where a shelf bar met the shelf wall and held it in her own magic. Fluttershy released her grip while Luna’s stayed steady. They carried on like this for another couple hours, Luna dousing nearly every crevice the shelf possessed with glue and Fluttershy doing what she could to support Luna.
Sometimes this meant physically supporting the shelf but it was mostly keeping Luna hydrated or dabbing the sweat off her forehead. It was the middle of spring and the heat of the summer was fast on their tails, a heat ill-suited for a mare with a coat as dark as Luna. Fluttershy thought she looked beautiful when the spring sun caught the tendrils of far-away stars that soaked her mane but that was neither here nor there.
Here was lying in a fatigued heap, the wing of the moon goddess enveloping Fluttershy’s side as it rose and fell. The shelf was intact, despite fate's cruel attempts to ensure otherwise. The light from the fading sun sang through the window and fell soft and warm across their tangled bodies. The sweet smell of sweat mingled with the acrid aftertaste of far too much wood glue, hanging heavy in the lazy air of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“What was all that about, anyways?” Fluttershy could feel Luna stir against her, the question digging deep into the inky blues and blacks of Luna’s mind.
“I just like that shelf. Nothing more.” Luna’s foreleg pulled Fluttershy closer to her even as Fluttershy felt Luna drift a little further away.
“You and I both know that’s not it.” Fluttershy placed a gentle kiss on Luna’s forelock, urging her lover to consider the truth at hoof.
The air was silent and still for an eon before Luna finally spoke. “Time is a funny thing, my love. It gives us so much; the passing of the seasons, the growth of foals, the space we need to learn… but it takes too. It takes as much as it gives, sometimes more. I was gone for so long.”
Luna’s grip around Fluttershy tightened, pulling her as close as the world would allow. Fluttershy could feel Luna’s heart hammering in her chest, a frightened drummer pounding away on a fragile drum.
“I’ve lost so much, Fluttershy. I try not to concern myself with the material but I can only lose so much in one lifetime.” Luna's voice was deep and quiet, a contemplative rumbling that rattled her ribcage.
It was Fluttershy’s turn to let the world slow, to take her time in plucking the words from their flowerbed. Fluttershy had to choose carefully when talking to Luna. Not carefully like Rainbow Dash but carefully like the walking along a canyon with unsteady footing.
“I understand. I hadn’t really thought about that; sometimes I forget you’re anything other than a regular pony like me.”
Luna chuckled, her hold around Fluttershy’s barrel slackening and the thrum of her heart evening out. “You forget? Surely I must be a little more extraordinary than that.”
Fluttershy giggled in response, a quiet titter cut as much with the exhalation of anxiety as it was mirth. “Oh, of course Your Highness. I must’ve misspoke.” Fluttershy let out a contented sigh as the stress of the day washed out of her body and sank into the floorboards. “Next time this happens, can we get Applejack to fix it?”
Luna hummed, nuzzling into the feathered ruffle around Fluttershy’s neck. “Yes. We can."