//------------------------------// // I // Story: All Good Things // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 1 Princess Luna let out a sigh as the sky chariot flew west. Looking down she could see Ponyville off in the distance. Ponyville; she had not been looking forward to this in the slightest bit. Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of her past experiences here. It had been just over a year since her return, and she had avoided this place like the plague. She didn't know if she still had a place—she'd been gone so long that likely no one remembered any of the good things about her, only the bad. 'Argh!' Luna cried out as she clutched her head. She was having a migraine. One of the royal guards turned his head towards her, but the Princess of the Night waved him off. 'I am fine, I am fine. It is merely a headache, I will be fine when we land,' Luna added. The guard nodded his head in understanding, and the chariot began its’ descent towards Ponyville. Luna looked up at the sun; it had to be the bright light that was bothering her. She was Princess of the Night, after all; she preferred spending her waking hours at night. She had done this for the first five months since her return, but had since switched to a more 'normal' circadian cycle at the insistence of her sister to help her reintegrate into Equestrian society. She'd been having migraines ever since. Worst still, the early morning sun was at such an angle that it was always in your eyes. Quite frankly, she didn't know how the guards could stand it. Though, the more Luna thought about it, these were her sister's guards; they were used to being in the sun. Luna ducked her head down, lying against the interior wall of the chariot in every attempt to keep the sun off her. It seemed to be helping a little—her head was still throbbing, but she was pretty sure this would keep it from getting any worse. The chariot touched down on the ground hard, catching Luna by surprise. The Princess of the Night let out a quiet shriek before rising to her hooves to see what had happened: they were in Ponyville now. Luna let out a frown, and raised her hoof to shield her eyes as the sunlight streamed in. It was a perfectly clear day in the village; there would be no escaping the harsh light out of doors. It appeared that this was by design: weather ponies were working above her to clear the sky of all its' fluffy white blemishes. Luna let out a frown at this; she'd have preferred an overcast day, to be perfectly honest. Not that she blamed the town's weather ponies for anything, clear days were probably standard procedure for when a princess was to visit. After all, before the last year there was no distinction to be made. Luna turned towards the guards that had brought her here. She opened her mouth to thank them for taking her, but before the words could come out, she was interrupted by somepony else. 'Cirrus Cloudrunner! I swear you have got to be the WORST weather pony I have ever seen!' a mare's voice cried out in frustration. Princess Luna glanced up and discovered a rainbow maned pegasus mare was berating one of the weather ponies, a purple coated pegasus stallion that was in the process of moving a cloud out of the way. 'I'm sorry! I'm going as fast as I can here!' the pegasus stallion whom Luna presumed was Cirrus Cloudrunner said. 'Well go faster! Don't you know we've got a princess coming here!? The sky is supposed to be clear!' the rainbow maned pegasus mare said, poking the stallion with her hoof. 'Well maybe if you hadn't spent all morning sleeping...' Cirrus Cloudrunner began before Luna cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the two pegasi to her. 'If it is all the same, I actually prefer overcast days, not that I am asking you to undo all you've done, but if we could have a few days where it is not clear... that would be appreciated,' Luna said, immediately regretting getting the two's attention at all. All of the pegasi weather crew landed and bowed before her. Luna let out a sigh and shook her head. 'No! This is not necessary...' she said, her words falling on deaf ears. More ponies had taken notice of her, and it wasn't long before what seemed like the entire town had descended upon her. Luna frowned—this wasn't what she wanted. She knew that her subjects weren't bowing to her out of respect; they were bowing out of fear. With her return only having been thirteen months ago, the memories of Nightmare Moon was still fresh in the minds of the citizens of Ponyville. ‘I thank you all for your warm welcoming', Luna said through gritted teeth. 'And I ask you as your ruler to please carry on.' Everyone did as they were told; all the random town ponies rose and went back to what they were doing before she had arrived. Still, Luna could tell that they still were all looking at her out of the corners of their eyes. They were afraid, and that would not be changing any time soon. Luna knew this was a bad idea; she had tried to tell her sister what would happen, but she wouldn't listen. She glanced upwards at the blazing morning sun, its' oppressive light shining down on her as if it were a spotlight, putting all the attention in the world on to her when all she wanted to do was retreat to her bed and pull the covers over her head. She clutched her throbbing head, her migraine was getting worse. She needed out of the sun. 'Princess Luna!' a cheerful voice called out to her. Wonderful, another subject come to gawk at her. Luna turned her head to discover a lavender coated unicorn mare approaching her with a warm inviting smile on her face. Having been disoriented by her migraine, it took Luna a few moments to process who was approaching her as none other than Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle slowed her trot, but continued to smile brightly at her. 'Do you remember me? It's...' Twilight began. 'Twilight Sparkle, yes, I do not think I will be able to forget you any time in the near future', Luna added with a soft smile, before clutching her head once more as her migraine flared. 'Your Highness? Are you all right?' Twilight asked, looking at the Princess of the Night with concern. 'I... I just need to rest, that is all', Luna said. She wasn't quite sure if that would help or not, but she did know the harsh light from the mid morning sun was making her worse. Twilight nodded her head in understanding. 'I can imagine. Being Princess of the Night, you're probably not used to being up during this time of day,' Twilight said as she waved for Luna to follow. 'Yes... something like that,' Luna said simply. That technically wasn't a lie: she had been training herself to sleep during the night and stay awake during the day for the last few months. To be sure, however, she doubted that she would ever actually be able to become used to it. 'It's the sun... far too bright.' Twilight nodded her head. 'I'll talk to Rainbow Dash and the lord mayor to get approval to have some overcast days this week,' Twilight said. 'It would be appreciated,' Luna said, offering Twilight a small smile. Luna didn't really know much about Ponyville, as it was a small village. The population was approximately sixty, according to the last census that was taken. She wasn't quite sure when that had been. The big problem with their society as a whole was that they were a relatively small population spread across a large amount of land, because of that, gathering all the required information for a census was a rare event that took years to gather and compile into useful data. Luna had heard much quiet complaining from census workers employed by the Crown that the methods for gathering data were slow, inefficient, and had a high margin of error; one had even said that they were wasting their time and that the census was useless. Something which Luna was pretty sure that they wouldn't have said aloud had they known she was in earshot. Twilight lead the way to the Ponyville Public Library. Luna noted its uniqueness as a building by the fact that it was not really a building in any traditional sense. Twilight opened the door to the hollowed out oak tree and Luna followed her inside, listening to the floorboards squeak as she trotted over them. The actual library itself was a single room lined with bookshelves along each of the walls, and there were several pieces of furniture: mostly sofas and chairs for ponies to sit and read in. There was a staircase at the far end which she presumed went up to Twilight Sparkle’s bedroom, there were two other doors along the walls that went to other parts of the tree, each with a sign on them stating: ‘not for public use’. The Ponyville Public Library was a magnificent building filled to the brim with books, Twilight had to be very happy living here. However, there was something very important about the Ponyville Public Library, a detail that could not be ignored. Luna figured that this had to have been the most important detail that could be seen. The Library was completely empty apart from Luna and Twilight; it was devoid of any pony life. Luna glanced around at the many books on the shelves. There was so much knowledge that could be found here and it was going unused by the population of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was likely the only resident of Ponyville to fully appreciate what this town had. Luna frowned at the books; it was a sad sight to see. ‘Is everything alright, Your Highness?’ Twilight asked. Luna didn’t have the heart to tell her that everything was not alright with this. ‘Yes… just admiring the collection,’ Luna said simply. ‘Oh! Well thank you!’ Twilight said with a smile and raised her hoof to point at the stairs. ‘My bedroom is upstairs; you can sleep in my room for now. Spike and I have been getting one of the spare rooms ready for your arrival, but we’ve still got a little more to do.’ Luna smiled and thanked Twilight for her hospitality. ‘Where is the little dragon, anyway?’ Luna asked as she started to trot over to the stairs. ‘Oh Spike? He’s out running errands for me, he should be back soon though’, Twilight said as she trotted over to the sofa and sat down on it, opening up a book. ‘I’ll let you know when lunch is ready, and—’ ‘That is quite alright, I ate a large breakfast before leaving, I will not be hungry for a good while, I think,’ Luna said, offering Twilight Sparkle a polite nod for her hospitality. ‘Thank you though.’ ‘Oh no trouble! I’ll let you know when Spike starts on dinner later this evening then,’ Twilight added as Luna continued to trot up the stairs. Luna nodded and trotted up the stairs and went into Twilight Sparkle’s bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she looked around and discovered the curtains were already drawn. The room itself was rather dark. Good, just as she liked it. Luna trotted over to the bed and laid herself down on it, getting comfortable and thinking about what she had seen today. Luna… Luna’s head shot up. ‘Who—who is there?’ she asked. Luna… ‘Who goes there?’ Luna called out. There was no response. Luna shook her head, disappointed with herself. Being out in the sunlight must have disoriented her more than she thought. She laid herself back down and closed her eyes. Now it was time for rest.