Several days later and Luna was wide awake even though it was well into the morning. The alicorn would be forgoing her sleep today in order to visit Fluttershy once again. Having napped at every spare opportunity during the night, the Princess felt fresh enough to stay awake the rest of the day and night. Hopefully this would detain any more mishaps like the incident in the bath tub that her dear sister had refused to let her live down. Until that is, Luna had brought up the two millenia old incident that involved her sister, lack of hair brushes, and a lightning bolt from a clumsy Pegasus pony. The only time that the Solar Princess’ hair hadn’t been perfect; Celestia had locked herself in her room for a week, trying everything she knew to get her then pastel pink hair tidy again.
Allowing an amused smile to sit on her face, Luna started to get herself ready for another trip to Ponyville. Stretching her wings and flexing the joints, the Moon Princess took off and made her down from her tower to the kitchens. Landing gracefully in the doorway, she walked into the kitchen, sparking an immediate reaction of bowing and respectful silence. As always Luna gave her wings a flick to dismiss them from the practise. The cooks immediately got back to work, while one, a small mint green unicorn with a wooden spoon cutie mark swiftly moved towards her.
“And, what would you like today, Princess?” he asked, his head bowed slightly
“I think I shall have a daisy and tulip salad,“ Luna replied politely.
“Yes miss, right away,” the unicorn nodded, dashing off as quickly as possible while still inexplicably retaining an air of composure.
Shaking her head at the mysteries of the kitchen staff, the ancient alicorn settled down on her haunches to wait on her breakfast. One minute exactly later she was presented with her meal, which she ate with gusto. Eager to be off, she finished the salad, thanked the cooks for the splendid effort, then quickly moved off down the hallway to the palace exit.
Feeling the fresh morning spring air on her face and drifting between her feathers, Luna flapped her wings, taking off into the morning sky. Angling herself downwards towards the small town of Ponyville, the midnight blue alicorn rose on an updraft, letting the warm current carry her all the way to the town. It was a lazy act, but considering she most likely would have a full day ahead of her, the extra energy she saved was welcome.
Alighting gently on the narrow dusty path which wound it’s way up to Fluttershy’s cottage, Luna folded her wings and walked up to the door. Raising her hoof she knocked gently on the red painted wood and waited. However, instead of a pale yellow Pegasus pony, the door was answered by a lavendar unicorn with a six point star cutie mark. Immediately said unicorn froze, her eyes wide with surprise. The awkwardness that hung over Luna at this discovery was broken thankfully by a yell from inside.
“Hey Twilight! Who is it?!” the voice of Rainbow Dash called.
“Uh… it’s… Princess Luna…” Twilight murmured back, which caused an uproar from inside. Four voices shrieked their surprise into air. This was followed by a stunned silence and finally
“Uhm… Yes… I… forgot that the Princess was coming here today… Sorry…”
Twilight quickly rounded on her timid Pegasus friend
“You knew! How did you know and I didn’t! I’m sure that if a Princess was going to come and visit Ponyville I’d be one of the first to know about it.”
“Uhm… well… I… sort of… didn’t know… if she wanted… anyone else to know… so… I’m sorry Twilight…”
Luna decided to step in before Twilight lost herself like she had done many times according to Celestia.
“Twilight Sparkle. The fault is mine. I had every intention of visiting you after I was done with my business with Fluttershy…”
Immediately the Princess regretted calling it a business, but she had no other words for it.
Before Twilight could reply, Rainbow Dash cut in rudely
“And just what is this business that you’re talking about.”
Ignoring the tone of the cyan Pegasus, attributing it to simply over protectiveness, Luna held Rainbow Dash’s gaze and said calmly,
“I require Fluttershy’s help in finding a suitable pet to keep me company while I am awake during the night.”
“Makes sense,” Applejack nodded “Must be pretty lonely being up in that there castle all yourself when everypony else is snoozing.”
Turning her head to the farm pony, her flowing mane billowing into the air, Luna nodded,
“It’s not quite as bad as all that. But it can get… lonely would be a good word. I enjoy my own free time, but too much becomes oppressive.”
Pinkie Pie started bouncing around “Well, you should totally come and visit us. We would have super duper parties! Actually! We need a super duper awesome party for Luna being here.”
Before anypony could stop her, the bubbly pink earth pony was out of the door. Shaking her head in exasperation, Applejack stood up,
“I’ll go stop her from getting the whole town into a ruckus…”
“FRACAS!” Pinkie Pie’s voice yelled in the distance.
“I’ll go head her off,” Rainbow Dash said immediately, already speeding out of the still swinging door.
With a tip of her hat, the orange farm pony grinned and bade them farewell before rushing off to catch up with the other two mares. This just left Twilight, Rarity, Luna and Fluttershy to blink at each other.
Having finally gotten over her shock, Twilight said
“So… have you made any… progress in finding a pet?”
“Not really. I fear that my needs are somewhat, difficult to fill.”
Rarity nodded,
“I imagine they would be. After all, a Princess needs nothing more than the absolute best. Am I right?”
“Actually Rarity…” Luna said softly, not as familiar with the fashionista as the others due to the fact that Rarity had spent all of Nightmare Night fussing over her costume. This meant she had missed the festivities that had introduced Luna to the group. Fluttershy had as well, but the cream coloured Pegasus’ quiet nature made her easier to approach.
“…The problem is more to the fact that I am immortal, as well as being nocturnal. This as you can imagine, would narrow the range considerably, whether I was a Princess or not.”
Slightly embarrassed by her somewhat negative view of the Princess, Rarity looked downwards at the ground,
“Er… well… yes… Um… why I really need to get back to the store. You and Fluttershy should really get started…”
With that the fashionista quickly exited Fluttershy’s little cottage. Twilight blinked then said
“Uh… I um… have a letter to write to Princess Celestia and a lot of studying to catch up on. So…have fun.”
A few moments later, Fluttershy and Luna were alone, as Twilight left just as quickly as Rarity.
“Uh… that was… odd…” Luna blinked, looking to Fluttershy who was looking anxious.
“Oh no… I hope they’re not mad at me for not telling them… That would be just awful… I don’t want to lose my friends.”
In an effort to sound reassuring, Princess Luna shook her head and said calmly,
“I sincerely doubt that they would ever be angry over something like this. Merely shocked and flustered at the unexpected turn of events. Later I think that we both should go and make sure they are alright…after giving them some time…”
Even as she said them, the words seemed wrong to Luna, almost too formal and bland… Thankfully they had a positive effect on Fluttershy, who nodded and cracked a small smile.
“Thank you Luna. We’ll do that. But first, we have something to do.”
The alicorn smiled “That we do. Lead the way Fluttershy.”
Before the pair could even restart their quest to find Luna a new pet, a plump fluffy white chicken dashed past them. Fluttershy lunged, but only succeeded in landing in a muddy puddle, left over from a morning shower. The Pegasus lifted her head from the dirt, a pale brown moustache soaked into her cream coloured fur. Hiding a giggle behind her decorative hoof, Luna asked,
“Do you need some help there?”
“I’d love some help… Please Luna… They can be awfully difficult. Even if they are just chickens.”
Luna nodded then tried to creep behind the chicken. For the most part she did well, until the wind switched and blew her scent right at the avian. With a loud squawk the creature dashed off to the side, avoiding the Night Princess’ desperate leap. Unlike Fluttershy, Luna didn’t land in a puddle, but the indignity was enough to iron her will to catch this pesky bird.
Finally, with the bird back in it’s coop and both ponies a mess. The only thing that had survived was Luna’s mane, though her tail wasn’t so lucky. Resigning herself to the fact she looked ridiculous she turned back to Fluttershy. The cream coloured pegasus suppressed a small giggle, knowing she probably didn’t look much better. Deciding that it would be better to just continue their actual objective the pair bounced ideas off of each other, from the sensible to the plain absurd.
“A cricket? Forgive me Fluttershy… but I hardly think that would be suitable… how would I find it again in such a big castle… not to mention the noise they make would keep most of the castle awake…”
Fluttershy nodded “That’s true… Guess I never thought of that…”
Three hours and innumerable dismissed candidates later, both ponies flopped down, breathing heavily. An exasperated sigh and huffed,
“This is hopeless… No creature around here can even hope to match my needs… Except maybe a dragon, but I doubt Celestia would allow one into the castle… well… a wild one that is… and dragon eggs don‘t grow on trees…”
Fluttershy looked up at the clouds and asked,
“Would a dragon even fit inside the castle… I mean… uh… I know it’s big… but this is a dragon… a big… scary… eep… dragon…”
Luna couldn’t help but chuckle at the pegasus’ fear at even the mention of dragons. However, she stopped quickly, realising how insensitive it was. The point was valid too… it would be hard to stop a dragon from growing from it’s greed in such a place… Not all dragons were like Spike… the natural hunger for material was nigh insatiable. Instead, Luna tried to change the subject.
“Don’t worry… A dragon wouldn’t work… And would be too much hassle than this is worth… Spike excepted, most dragons are. It’d scare away every politician or noble who approached the castle…”
Not that that would be a bad thing, she had to add to herself.
“Well… I can’t really think of anything that would help…” Fluttershy muttered, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Suddenly, a noise broke her out of her concentration. A shrill scream sounded from Ponyville, just barely able to reach the pegasus’ ears.
“Oh my goodness! What was that?” Fluttershy squeaked, immediately leaping behind Luna.
The aforementioned alicorn reared up on her hind legs and flared her wings
“It seems to have come from Ponyville,” Luna stated, rearing on her hind legs then taking off into the air, hurtling through the winds towards the small town. After several hesitations, Fluttershy finally followed.
Okay, sorry that took so long, but I think it's came out okay. Though I could be totally wrong. Tell me what you think.