//------------------------------//
// 21. Illusion 
// Story: The Name of Our Mistakes 
// by ObabScribbler 
//------------------------------//

Posy watched Luna move around the room. She couldn’t believe how quickly she had recovered. She cleared her throat so her voice didn’t crack when she spoke. One of the guards had jabbed her in the throat with his spear butt and it hurt to talk. 

“Luna?” she rasped. It still felt so strange to call the princess by her name and not her full title. Posy realised how ridiculous this was – she had lost her virginity to her, was very probably falling in love with her, and still couldn’t call her by her real name? “Luna, art thou … well?”

Luna stopped what she was doing and turned. Her face registered surprise, as if she had forgotten Posy was there. There was something different about her. Luna had never been hugely emotive but now she seemed aloof, as if her mind was occupied with other things far more important than the pony whose embrace she had collapsed into mere minutes ago. 

“Posy,” she said coolly. “I had thought thee gone.”

“Nay, Luna. I remain, for I worry after thee. Hast thou forgotten the events of but a moment past?”

“I remember them.” Luna narrowed her eyes as if replayed them in her mind. “I did suffer a fit of malady, but as thou may witness, ‘tis now passed.”

“Hast thou suffered so before?” 

“In this way? Nay, though I shall tell thee to worry not over my health. I am as hale and hearty as I need be. Be there some special purpose to thy visit hence this night?”

“I …” Posy dipped her head. “I wished to see you, is all.”

“Thou didst?” Luna said curiously. “And wherefore didst thou wish to see me?”

“I … missed thee. Thou hath not called upon me for several nights. The last I did see of thee, thou dispatched me from thy chambers with thy guard in secret. I … I did think that perhaps …” Posy tussled with herself and she tried to put her thoughts into words. Had she really thought bringing flowers to one of the rulers of all Equestria would win her over? Her mind must have been addled by the feelings she had nursed over the past days and nights.

“Thou didst think I had used thee and no longer wanted thee. Thou didst think that after I had tempted thee to my bed, I had grown tired of thee.” Luna had crossed the room far faster than Posy thought possible and was now standing in front of her, making her jump.

“I – nay! Nay, ‘twas not my thoughts –”

“Protest not, Posy,” said Luna. “I can see why thou may have thought this. I did neglect thee. My mind hath been ablaze with thoughts of Clover the Clever and the Elements of Harmony these past few days. My conduct was unbefitting and do apologise to thee.”

“Nay, thou shouldst not apologise to me. I am a mere commoner –”

“Thou art a mere nothing,” Luna corrected, bending her face low. In one swift motion she kissed Posy, and in that same motion wiped away all the words Posy was trying to say. Her tongue laved the inside of Posy’s mouth, more forceful than last time, leaving her breathless when they finally broke apart. “Thou art mine, Posy. My chosen. My lover. I do beseech thee to never forget that.”

“I … I …” Posy swallowed. “I will not forget again.”

“Good girl.” 

Another kiss, harder and more potent. Posy’s knees felt like water and she moaned into Luna’s mouth. Before she knew what was happening she had been backed towards the bed and her hindquarters bumped against it. There Luna broke the kiss again, turned and walked away.

“L-Luna?” Posy said breathlessly. 

“’Tis sunrise,” Luna explained. “I must lower the moon.”

“Oh!” Of course, how foolish of her not to realise. This was the princess of the night, after all. The princess of the night!

Luna braced her forehooves on the balcony and raised her head high. Posy watched as her horn glowed a brilliant white and the moon slowly dropped from its position in the sky, the darkness of night giving way to the light of the sun just peeping over the horizon. Somewhere else in the castle, Celestia’s horn was also glowing as she raised the sun. Though she had always preferred daylight, since it allowed her the time to work in the gardens, now Posy found that she must preferred to look at the night sky and see the moon there. 

Luna’s magic finally extinguished and she got down from the balcony. For a long time she stared at the sky, her face unreadable. Posy was about to speak when she whirled and all but cantered back into her chamber. Posy found herself surrounded by the same kind of magic she had just seen lower the moon, which tossed her onto the bed. It brushed away a lock of mane that fell across her eyes as Luna stood over her, all but pinning Posy’s tiny body with her hooves. 

Luna stared down, her face morphing from neutral concentration into a smile that made Posy shiver in anticipation. “My little Posy,” she murmured, and bent her head.