Good Things Come

by Sweet Tale


18. Meet The Nightmare (Part 2)

The shrills of childish screams sounded from the distance. I glanced over in that direction to see said children running towards the centre of the town, where most of tonight's entertainment was taking place.

From what I had just witnessed, the first part of the plan was in effect - the arrival. We agreed on giving the town a bit of a scare first--

"RUN! IT'S NIGHTMARE MOON!" a pony, dressed as a pirate, screamed as he ran past me. Yep, that's a good scare straight off the bat.

Speaking of bats, lightning began to fill the sky with the thunderous booms following. Luna's chariot came into view just over the ridge of a hill and made it's way towards the centre of town. It was being pulled by two of her night guards, who I hadn't actually seen before, and they actually looked pretty damn awesome. Grey in colour with yellow slit eyes, dark purple bat-like wings and a lilac armour.

The chariot set itself down with Luna exiting in a hooded cloak - the same cloak she wore the night she came to see me at the club. She removed her hood to show her face with a bolt of lightning striking in accompaniment. Everyone looked hugely afraid of the royal princess that stood before them. Many bowed, many shook with fear and some just downright fainted. Seeing everyone elses reactions, I put on my best 'scared' face and blended in with the rest of the crowd.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight called out before being pulled to the ground by Spike in his...dragon costume...

I fought the urge not to facepalm. 'Damn it Twilight! You're supposed to be scared!'

From what I could see, Spike was giving a lecture to Twilight. Well that's new. Luna began to approach a lilac pony dressed as a witch, who screamed and cowered under her scrutinous gaze. It was then that Luna started her speech.

"Citizens of Ponyville! We have graced your tiny village with our presence, so that you might behold the real princess of the night! A creature of nightmare is no longer, but instead a pony who desires your love and admiration! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!"

Another bolt of lightning struck at the end of her sentence. She was pulling this off like a pro. The plan was for Luna to greet the town as she would have done a thousand years ago. She had told me that when her and Celestia had greeted towns in the past, they would speak in the 'Royal Canterlot Voice' which I assume THAT just was.

I slunk away to the alley of a nearby building and watched the scene unfold. Pinkie seemed like she was the ringleader for the group of children as they all seemed to follow her after her accusations that 'Nightmare Moon' was going to gobble them up. I noticed this made Luna a bit upset as this is not how she wanted the ponies to react but she pressed forwards to have a conversation with the Mayor. Seeing how Luna walked off into the woods made me think that it didn't go so well.

All of the ponies went back to their previously interrupted activites as Twilight made a beeline for the direction that Luna left in. I followed shortly behind her, but not giving my position away as I wanted to remain behind the scenes for this. Luna wanted to try and do this all by herself and I'm under instruction to help but only if she really needs it.

We eventually came across Luna who was standing under a statue of her evil self. Twilight approached Luna and tried to talk to her while I ducked behind a large group of bushes.

"Princess Luna?"

"Oh, Twilight. Good to see you again." Luna observed Twilight's costume. "Starswirl the Bearded. Thou even got the bells right..."

I made a mental note to read up on Starswirl. Sounds like it could be informative. One thing that Luna had trouble with was switching from her Royal Canterlot voice to her normal voice. Twilight took note of this and tried to teach Luna herself, albiet with no luck.

"Try and speak like you do when you around Owen. That's the kind of voice you need to use."

"But...he is my lover, that is different. I must address my subjects with the Royal Canterlot voice. It was how I was taught to speak by my parents!" Luna spoke in two tones, bellowing into Twilight's ear, knocking her jingly hat to one side which she corrected.

I could see that this was going to be a problem. I was about to step in to help out but Twilight beat me to it by suggesting that she get lessons to talk normally all the time from Fluttershy.

Oh yeah, great idea Twilight...

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I followed suit and soon enough, I was observing Twilight and Luna approaching Fluttershy's cottage. I hid just under the bridge, far enough to avoid detection but close enough to hear what was going on. Twilight raised her hoof and knocked on the wooden door.

"GO AWAY! NO CANDY HERE! VISITORS NOT WELCOME ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT!"

I couldn't believe my ears. That was Fluttershy? No fucking way. No way in hell she could ever shout that loud. Twilight approached the door again.

"Fluttershy. It's me, Twilight!" she called out. The door opened slightly to reveal Fluttershy looking out nervously. I couldn't hear what she said but as soon as she saw Luna, she slammed the door in both of their faces. Twilight entered her house and managed to push Fluttershy outside to greet the lunar princess.

"Charmed." Luna offered but Fluttershy was quick to run back inside, only to be caught by Twilight's levitation.

Watching Luna and Fluttershy converse was hilarious and I tried my best not to laugh. Judging by the pony shaped impact on her door, I guessed that Fluttershy had enough again and tried to bolt back indoors, only to be yet again stopped by Twilight.

"A little quieter, Princess." Twilight asked.

"How is this?" Luna tried.

'Yes! Come on Luna!"

"Better. Right Fluttershy?" Fluttershy managed to peel her face off the door and agree in a slur.

"How...about...now?" Luna tried again. Still loud but getting there.

'Come on Luna! Nearly there!'

"Now you're getting it!" Twilight happily approved.

"And...how about now?" Luna said in a normal, quiet voice.

'Brilliant!'

"Yes, well done." Twilight praised. Luna scooped Fluttershy into her hooves and hugger her tight, thanking her for helping her with her voice. That happy moment was cut short by a rambunctious, hyperactive pink pony who came to warn Fluttershy of Nightmare Moon.

"She stole Fluttershy's voice so she can't scream when she GOBBLES HER UP!" Pinkie and her horde on children ran off screaming, much to the dismay of the four of us.

"Damn it Pinkie!" I shouted, immediately covering my mouth knowing I've given up my location. I walked out from under the bridge into the view of Twilight and Luna. I walked over to Luna and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Hey you. You doing alright?"

Luna looked at me with teary eyes. "Not really. Those children and the pink one are still scared of me."

"I know, I know." I put my arm around her neck. "But they're kids. They get scared way more easily than adults do. Just...keep this up, OK? We've still got a whole evening to get through and I promise - Ponyville will love you at the end of it."

"You think so?" Luna asked - a smile creeping onto her face. I leant towards her and planted a kiss on her cheek.

"I know so." We started to make our way back towards the town but a thought occured to me. "By the way, sorry about giving myself away. I've been trying to remain hidden from you all night but Pinkie got me a bit annoyed. Do you want me to go around with you now or do you still want to try by yourself?"

"I can give a helping hoof." Twilight offered. Luna nodded at Twilight and then looked at me.

"I think it's best if our relationship status stays unknown for now. Think of how the ponies will react when they see 'Nightmare Moon' and the human together. They'll think the worst." Luna explained.

"Good point. I'll just blend in with the crowd."

Twilight looked towards Luna. "Luna, I'll get the ponies to show you their games. I know you probably know all about them but try to act like you don't so you can converse with everypony else."

*RUSTLE*

That caught all of our attention. A loud rustling to the left was heard and I went to go and have a look. Before I got close, a large shape jumped out of it and ran off into the woods.

"That's..." I looked back towards Luna and Twilight. "Wait here." I ran after the creature and managed to spot in the moonlight - it looked familiar. "It is! Hey, stop!" The creature stood firm and I stopped a good few meters away from it. It was the creature that I spotted a few weeks back that looked human. I studied it again and couldn't see anything new. But it still bugged me that it was the same height and build as me, minus the left arm.

"Owen? Where are you?" I heard Twilight call. I turned around to see both Twilight and Luna approaching.

"Look! Over there!" I turned back around to show them the...empty space. "NO!" I ran into the space where the creature once stood. Nothing, not a trace. "Damn it, not again!"

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.

"I saw a creature, it looked like a human! It was right here!" I stuttered out. Both of the girls looked a bit surprised.

"There's nothing here now..." Luna said.

I put my hand to my forehead and tried to think of a logical explanation. "But...it was right here. I swear!"

"Maybe it was a pony playing a prank." Twilight offered.

"It's not the first time I've seen this creature. I saw it a few weeks back. I thought I was going barmy but..." I looked around again. "I don't know now..."

Luna walked up to me and draped a wing over my shoulder. "I'll have some guards to search the area tomorrow." Luna pulled me away from the scene and we were back on the path, going towards Ponyville. I was still agitated and kept stopping to look around for the elusive creature.

"Owen. Look at me." Luna asked. I did so and a blinding light me. Just for a second. "Ready to carry on?" she asked.

"Absolutely. You go on ahead, I'll keep to the shadows." I walked off and made my way towards the town. Little did I know, Twilight and Luna were talking about something.

'What did you do to him?'

'Just a simple memory spell. He won't remember the last five minutes until tomorrow morning.'

'Probably for the best.'

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I had made my towards the town hall, which is where a wide variety of games was set up. I could see that AJ was keeping an eye on most of the ponies playing the games. One particular game got my attention. A large web was set up and a bucket of fake spiders about 5 meters away from it. Your basic aim and throw game and it was certainly gathering the attention of quite a few ponies.

It wasn't long until everything went quiet and most of the ponies were cowering or bowing at the approaching princess. I caught Luna's gaze for a second and gave her a wink which she returned with a smile. They both approached AJ who cowered at the sight of Luna. I could overhear their conversation.

"Fit in? Really?" A stern gaze from Twilight gave AJ all the answer she needed. Luna portayed herself as not knowing what fun was which gave AJ the opportunity to explain it to her. After a few encouraging words from Twilight and AJ, Luna had a go at the spider toss. She failed at first, the spider only going a few feet. Another concentrated throw and she was bang on target, elliciting cheers from surrounding ponies.

'They're getting used to her. Brilliant!'

The next task for Luna was a kind of catapult game. Put an object in the catapult, aim for the target and launch. Luna managed to hit it dead centre on her first try. Lucky girl. I really wanted to go and join in but I knew I'd bugger things up and reveal it was all a setup.

"The fun has been doubled!"

Hearing Luna's cheery voice and the cheers of the other ponies really made me proud of her. She really pushed the boat out and tried her very best to get on Ponyville's good side - and it worked.

The next item was the apple bobbing. Of course AJ would do this game - it only seems right. Luna was making her way over to the bucket before noticing that the pirate-costumed kid from earlier had fallen into the water. Luna grabbed the kid by his costume near his backside and held him in the air.

"Anypony seen Pip? We lost him the last time we had to run..." Pinkie stared in shock at Luna, who was still holding Pip with her mouth. "Nightmare Moon is gobbling Pipsqueak! Everypony run!

'Oh for god sake...' I thought as I facepalmed.

"Help! My backside has been gobbled." Pip screamed as Luna let him go. Pip ran off with Pinkie and left Luna standing there, flabbergasted at what just happened.

"Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled thou ungrateful whelp!" Lightning struck at the end of her sentence, illuminating her angry expression.

I tell ya, she looked downright pissed. The surrounding ponies began to retreat from Luna as she tried to entice them to play games again. Regardless of her actions, the ponies were back to being scared again and kept trying to run away fron Luna which irritated her further.

Twilight tried to calm her down which only resulted in the return of the ear-raping Royal Canterlot voice.

"Nightmare Night shall be cancelled! FOREVER!"

Everyone had run off at the volume of her voice, leaving me, Twilight and Luna alone. I walked up to Luna, who was still seething, and tried to console her.

"Luna, are you--" Luna turned her head to me to show her sad expression. I embraced her in a hug. "Don't worry about it. They'll come around." Luna broke the hug and began running off towards the edge of town once again, quiet sobs sounding from the shrinking princess. "Oh Luna..."

"We've got to help her." Twilight said.

"We are." I quickly replied. "We just need to get a certain pony to see straight then we'll fix it."



Twilight went off to go and find Luna, to try and encourage her to come back. Whereas I stayed behind to help the town clear up the mess caused by Luna's booming voice. A disgruntled AJ was picking up some of the fake spiders so I went over to her to give her a helping hand.

"That didn't go so well did it?" I murmured.

"Ya can say that again. We had everythin' goin' our way. Luna was happy, everpony in town was happy and now look at 'em." AJ replied sadly.

I looked around at the dejected looks of the costumed ponies and the crying kids. Seeing those kids really made me feel guilty. "It's my fault this happened. Me and my stupid big mouth..."

"How can it be your fault sugarcube?" AJ asked.

I froze at her question. She didn't know that me and Luna were a couple. I tried to think of a valid excuse to use but as she was the Element of Honesty, she could spot a lie a mile off.

"If I tell you something, keep it to yourself. I want it to remain secret...well kind of a secret until we're ready." AJ nods. "Me and Luna have been dating for about 5 weeks now."

"You what now?!" AJ exclaimed.

I quickly put my hand over her mouth to shush her. "Keep it down!" I whispered harshly taking my hand away. "Luna and I realised we had feelings for each other when I helped her in her time of need and it kind of went from there."

"Well look at you, loverboy. But ah still don't get how this can be your fault."

"Luna came to my home last night to talk about today. She was really scared about it and very nervous. We then made a plan of how this night would go and how she would act. It was all going smoothly until a certain friend of orus decided to scare everyone at a critical moment." I sighed heavily. "It's just...I really thought I was doing the right thing, planning this ahead so she could be accepted into the town. But look, all I've done is make it worse. I ruined Nightmare Night. I...I made children cry..."

I brought a hand to cover my eyes. Saying those last words caused me to choke up slightly. I felt a weight on my shoulder and looked to see AJ putting her hoof there.

"That's not your fault. One thing ah've always known is that if you plan somethin', it's bound to go wrong and there ain't nothin' you can do to stop it." AJ withdrew her hoof and brought it to her chin in thought. "Ah got an idea. We need to get Pinkie to be not scared of her anymore, right?" I nodded. "Then here's what we're gonna do..."

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We were in position. Twilight, Luna and me were waiting in the shadows in an alley, down the side of the Quills and Sofas shop. Why just quills and sofas? Not a clue. Seems pretty stupid to me.

A trail of wrapped sweets led out of the alley to entice the plan-wrecking pink party pony. Just like a kid in a sweetshop, she fell for the bait - individually pecking at each sweet, getting closer and closer to the alley.

'Ooh, piece of candy. Ooh piece of candy. Ooh, piece of--' James Woods was awesome.

Pinkie finally came into the alley, eating the last piece of candy and ended up being rugby-tackled by Twilight and held up against the wall with Twilight jabbing a hoof in her mouth.

"No. No shrieking. No screaming or squealing either. OK?" Twilight ordered. Pinkie muffled a reply. "There's something me and Owen want to show you and I promise it's safe but you really can't shriek? Do you promise?" Pinkie muffled another reply.

I stood back from the pair. "OK, come on out." I said. Luna emerged from the shadows into Pinkie's view, who immediately began to shake.

"Ah, the ringleader of the frightened children. Have you come to make piece?" Luna asked.

"Nightmare Mo--" Pinkie began to shout but held a hoof to her mouth. I moved back into the shadow to watch from afar. Luna outstretched a hoof, as did Pinkie. They got closer and closer together, almost cementing their friendship.

'Come on...come on...nearly there...just a little--'

*CRACK* *BOOM*

"NIGHTMARE MOON!"

A lightning bolt struck inches from us causing Luna to be illuminated in a somewhat scary pose. This caused Pinkie to scream and run off towards the exit of the alley. I turned around to hear an all too familiar laughter.

"Rainbow!" both me and Twilight shouted at her. In a flash, Twilight teleported in front of Pinkie and pinned her down, screaming the odds at her. I realised that Rainbow needed a word as well and as her thundercloud was low to the ground, I managed to jump up and grab her off her cloud and hold her in front of me, under her hooves.

"What the hell Rainbow! Pinkie and Luna were about to make friends until you scared her off!" I said rather loudly at her. She only giggled at my voice.

"Oh lighten up. I got all of you good." she stated, laughing once again.

"OK, fine you did but we really didn't need that." I put her down on the ground. "Just...don't prank us again tonight, OK?" I asked, giving a disappointed look. As I could only see Rainbow's mouth, it turned into a frown as she flew away. I think I may have hit a nerve.

*CRASH* "OW!"

I looked over to see Rainbow had crashed into a hanging sign. "Rainbow! You alright?" I asked. Rainbow was rubbing her head over and over.

"Yeah, I'm cool. That just keeps happening. Anyway, see ya!" she replied, flying off again in a straight line this time.

"Princess Luna! I've finally figured out why you're having so much trouble being liked!" I heard Twilight call out.

"Forgive me if I withhold my enthusiasm" Luna replied. Wow, she was really downtrodden.

"Luna, Owen, follow me. I'll explain on the way."

Did I miss something?



"That...sounds ridiculous Twilight. How will that work?" I asked.

"Believe me, it'll work." she replies. "Quick hide! Here they come! Now Luna, you know what to do?" Luna nodded and took to the skies, cloaking herself.

We watched from the bushes as Zecora, AJ and the Mayor were leading the kids to the statue of Nightmare Moon. Twilight explained that the last part of Nightmare Night is to offer candy to the statue. Cute.

The pirate-costumed pony, Pip, approached the statue and dumped a heap of candy next to it. He then hung his head and spoke. "Goodbye Nightmare Night...forever." Aw, damn it! I felt so sad at the state of this child. If this plan didn't work, I'd feel terrible.

It was then that a gust of wind began to swirl around the vicinity of the statue. A booming voice echoed around us. "Citizens of Ponyville. You were wise to bring these candies to me. I am pleased with your offering. So pleased that I may just eat it..."

This was it. I hope she can pull it off.

"Instead of YOU!" she bellowed as she revealed herself to the crowd in her evil form. Damn, she looked good. The crowd screamed at the appearance of the real Nightmare Moon and they all bolted from the scene. She laughed manically at the retreating ponies before shifting back into her normal self, taking out the fake fangs she had worn. Me and Twilight emerged from the bushes and stood next to Luna.

"I'm not sure that worked too well Twilight." Luna said.

"Just wait." Twilight replied with a smug grin.

"For what?" Luna answered but she soon found out what for as she felt her mane being tugged at. Little Pip was trying to get Luna's attention. Why the hell did he come back? I thought he was scared of her.

"Can you come back next year and scare us again?" he asked with a smile, shuffling his hooves.

"Are you saying you like me scaring you?" Luna asked, confused as much as I was. This was Twilight's plan?!

"It's really fun! Scary, but fun!" Pip replied.

Luna looked back towards me and Twilight for an answer. We both nodded with a smile. Luna turned back to Pip and noticed the group of kids in the distance. "Well then, we shall have to bring Nightmare Night back!" she replied with her booming voice.

Pip looked up at Luna before running over to her and hugging her leg. "You're my favourite princess ever."

Hnnggg...new heart please...serious overload of 'Awww'.

"I cannot believe that worked. Nice job Twilight." I put an arm around Luna's neck. "And to you as well. That display was amazing."

Luna chuckled under her breath and showed me one of the biggest smiles I had ever seen on her. "Thank you both. I can not have done this without you." She pulled Twilight and me into a bone-crushing hug, which we returned at half-force. Damn, this girl was strong.



We made our way back into Ponyville to see that everything had been set up again. Even better, the residents were welcoming Luna with open arms and conversing with her. Seeing as the plan was complete, I joined in with the fun, playing all of the games with Luna and many other ponies.

The kids had gathered another pile of sweets and presented it to Luna, which she accepted kindly. She then tried bobbing for apples...or swimming for apples. Yeah, she fell in but she took it with good stride, elliciting a few laughs from the other ponies.

After a while, I followed Twilight and Spike back to the statue of Nightmare Moon to overhear Twilight giving her report for Celestia. She really does know what she's talking about and the lesson really made a whole lot of sense to me as well. Once she finished, another lightning bolt and thunder boom was heard along with a scream. We looked up to see a rainbow trail zooming off into the distance.

Looking back, Luna descended on her own personal thundercloud and we all laughed at her payback. Rainbow deserved it, she got us all good earlier, even though it was a bit of an inconvinience.

We made our way back into Ponyville and saw that the night was drawing to a close. Not everything went according to plan but it ended up being amazing. I was about to branch off from the group to see if there any sweets left before a pony caught my attention.

"Excuse me, Owen. Have you got a minute?"

I turned to see that the Mayor wanted my attention. "Of course." I walked over to her so we could talk privately. "What can I do for you?"

The Mayor looked a bit nervous and was struggling to find her words. "Well um...you see...I wanted to ask a question. About what I saw this evening."

"What you saw?" I asked, confusedly.

"Oh, it's nothing bad. I can't thank you enough for helping the princess throughout the night." She saw me? "But I did noticed something. You were spending an awful lot of time around Luna and I think I saw her...saw her..."

I gulped as I wondered what she saw. "Saw what?"

"She kissed you."

Ah. I'm gonna need some help. "Hold on." I walked over to Luna and brought her over to the Mayor who bowed in her prescence. "Luna, the Mayor saw you giving me a kiss earlier and wanted to know why."

Luna's eyes bulged as she realised that their secret may have been exposed. I put my arm around her and looked her in the eyes. "Shall I tell them? It's gonna come out sooner or later." Luna brewed her thoughts for a moment.

'Are you sure you want to tell everypony?'

'I think so. It'll be good for them all to know now instead of them knowing later, thinking we were hiding a secret for so long.'

'Very well. Do what you will.'

Our mental conversation ceased and Luna looked at me with an honest smile. I turned back towards the Mayor. "Miss Mare, have you got a stand or a stage where I can make an announcement to everyone?"

The Mayor looked at me, then at Luna, then to me again before realisation hit her. I shushed her from making a scene and she led us to where a band was playing music. Even Vinyl was there with her mixing deck. They were all in costume as well and I thought that was a nice touch. The Mayor climbed up on stage and stood next to a stand where she asked the musicians to quieten down.

"Can I have your attention everpony?" the Mayor called out. Only a few ponies heard her, the rest heard nothing. She tried shouting again but to no avail, It was then when Vinyl came up and gave the Mayor a microphone which was plugged into her speakers.

"Attention everypony!" That got everyone's attention. All the ponies gathered around the stage and took notice of the Mayor. The microphone was turned down slightly for this bit. "Thank you. I want to thank you all for giving us one of the best Nightmare Nights yet. More importantly, I want to extend my greatest thanks to Princess Luna who joined us on this memorious occasion." This was met with the stomping of hooves as applause.

"Now, I'm sure you have all met Owen. He has been in our town for over a month now and has been accepted by all of you." Ponies turned to nod at me and smile which I returned with my own. "He has an announcement to make to you all so I will hand the floor over to Owen."

I gulped and made my way up onto the stage. Standing at the stand, I looked upon the myriad of colours I saw before me. Probably over 150 ponies were here, all looking at me. Now was not the time to get stage fright!

"Hi everyone." Feedback sounded causing us all to groan. "Whoops, sorry." I said with a chuckle. "Thank you all for gathering round. First off, I want to thank you all again for showing me what Nightmare Night was all about. It's been amazing. Secondly, I'd also like to thank you for accepting our dear Princess Luna into the society. I know at first it wasn't going smoothly but you really showed her how nice you all were."

This caused the crowd to cheer and applaud. I responded with my own applause. "Lastly, this is where I'm gonna tell you all a secret." I moved away from the stand and approached the front of the stage. "As you know, I'm not from around these parts. In fact, I'm from a place so far away you can't even believe to imagine. When I first came here, I arrived in...not good circumstances."

"I was thrown into this world and I was damaged. Thankfully, I was saved by many of the townsfolk and I thank you all so much for that." More applause. I was loving this, even though I was as nervous as hell. "Soon after, I was given a home to live in and a job. To get that in such short time, I was amazed at the friendliness of you all. It wasn't long until I was invited to be introduced to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

"This world has never seen one of my kind before so they really wanted to meet me. So, me and Twilight went to Canterlot and I met the Princesses. It was there that I found an amazing friendship, one I had never experienced before." I pointed my hand at Luna. "Princess Luna. Could you please join me on stage?"

Luna approached the stage and stood next to me, giving a huge smile. "That friendship was with this pony here. Princess Luna. The moment we met, we found out we had so much in common. We talked for ages and we both found out that we had similar upbringings and we could relate to each other, emotionally." I put my arm around Luna's shoulders and looked into her eyes. "It took me a while to realise that...we were more than just friends. More than close friends even..."

I looked upon the crowd and they were seeming to catch on but some seemed unsure. "What I want to announce to you all is that...me and Princess Luna..." Dramatic pause, dramatic pause. "...are in love with each other."

The crowd gasped at my statement and silence reigned. It was then that I thought that I had made a huge error so I tried to fix it. "I know this is shocking and I'm do not know how inter-species relationships are viewed here but answer me this. If a boy and a girl love each other, regardless of species, do they deserve to be with each other?"

A few hooves started stomping. Then some more. Soon, the crowd was applauding and cheering. I couldn't believe it - they accepted it! No pitchforks for me tonight! I then decided to prove it by doing something spontaneous.

"Want me to prove it?" I shouted out before dropping the microphone, turning to Luna, putting my hands on her shoulders and giving her a passionate kiss on the lips, much to the joy of the crowd who whistled and shouted in glee.

I broke the kiss and disembarked the stage along with Luna. We walked through the crowd who offered their congratulations and support. Soon enough, we found our way back to the library and myself, Luna, Twilight and Spike entered.

"Well that went better than I'd hoped. Much better in fact." I said.

"I'm amazed at the crowd's reaction. They really accepted us!" Luna chimed in.

Spike was the first to retire to bed. After all, he was younger than all of us and he needed his so called 'beauty sleep'. The three of us spent another hour talking and drinking tea.

Twilight soon went to shelf-sorting a few books before she went to bed. I thought of an idea for me and Luna.

"Do you want to stay here tonight Luna? If that's alright with you Twilight." I asked.

"Of course!" they both replied, laughing at their unison. Me and Luna began to walk upstairs before an unusual noise was heard.

*CRACKLE* *SPARKS*

"Huh?"

I saw Twilight was unable to lift the books again. "Twilight, you alright?" I asked.

Twilight tried to levitate the books again but they didn't budge. "Argh! Why won't these books move!" she angrily stated. I walked over to her and knelt down beside her.

"Come on Twilight, go and get some sleep. I'm sure it's just fatigue." I said.

Twilight mumbled a response before slowly making her way upstairs, with me and Luna following. We entered my room as Twilight did with hers. As soon as my door was shut, I turned to Luna.

"Luna, can you soundproof the room?"

"Why?"

"I need to talk about something private. Do you know a soundproofing spell?"

Luna's horn glowed and then stopped. "It is done. What is it?"

I sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "There's no such thing as fatigue for unicorn magic is there? I mean, for levitating books."

Luna sighed as well and sat on the bed with me. "That worried me also. It shouldn't have happened then. There's no way Twilight could have used that much magic in one day."

"That's what worried me." Luna turned to face me. "Things have been happening around here and I don't know why. Pegasi keep crashing and flying awkwardly. Like Rainbow Dash did earlier. Applejack and Big Mac are losing their strength and Twilight's magic keeps failing. Anything like that happen in Canterlot?"

"Only a few isolated cases. Mostly unicorn guards who had trouble lifting their armor off but I thought it would have been due to the weight of the new sets."

I shook my head and thought hard. "What do you think can cause this?"

"Nothing that I know of." Luna replied.

I lay back on the bed and sighed heavily. "What can we do about it?"

"Until we know what it is, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's just sleep on it and try to rationalise something tomorrow morning."

I put my hand on her back, stroking her wings. "You're right. Come here you." I lifted up the covers of my double bed and got under them, with Luna following suit. She placed her front hooves over my chest as I put the covers over us. I kissed her on the cheeks and stared at her longingly.

"I'm so proud of you. You did really well tonight and it all turned out for the best." I said.

Luna moved one of her wings and draped it over me, pulling me close to her. I put my arms around her as we embraced each other. "I'm proud of you as well. Talking to all of those ponies at once, that's real courage."

"Well I hope I never have to do it again. Seriously, I was bricking it up there!" Luna gave a confused look. "Human term, never mind. Means I was really scared."

Luna nuzzled me affectionately and closed her eyes. "You still did it and look what it did. Every...*YAWN*...everypony was so...happy." Luna sleepily said.

Before long, she fell asleep and started snoring lightly. I chuckled at her at closed my eyes, thinking of the day ahead.

But also fearing the worst.



*A/N* - Hey guys! This chapter just kind of follows Luna Eclipsed but with a few changes. Sorry for the lateness of this chapter but I have been, and still am, sick with the flu and I've been addicted to playing Castle Crashers over the past few days.

Little spoiler - next chapter is going to reveal what the hell is happening!