“I wish to invite you to speak about this in a more private setting.” Princess Luna speaks to you again, her voice carrying no tone of sarcasm or trepidation. She means what she’s saying, and she has no trouble in saying it.
You blink your eyes as you relax your muscles, unsure of what she had just said. Your eyes focus on her, making sure that what you had heard was real. The kind smile from the monarch as she steps off her throne is indication enough. However, you still need to ask, because you’ve learned to never assume anything.
“Uh, where to your highness?” Your question may be seen as rude to the ponies that frequent the hall, but the dark alicorn simply continues to smile pleasantly upon you.
“To my… private chambers,” she speaks honestly as she rises from her throne, elegantly walking down the short staircase in front of it. You would be more captivated if her words weren’t throwing you for loops you didn’t anticipate.
“Your… huh?” You think for a moment you’re going to ask why. It makes sense to ask why, but you end up asking what instead. Not even you are sure if you’re asking what the princess said, or what she means by her words.
“My private chambers, because private matters should be held in a private room,” she speaks to you in a voice you know she would never be able to use to other royal ponies. “I understand that this is not a discussion you wish to have surrounded by others.”
You have to admit, talking to the princess about Twilight surrounded by a dozen lunar guards, staring, would make your fur stand on end.
“Y-Yeah,” You stutter out in agreement. The princess walks by you, her tall form dwarfing your own short stature. Her head nods towards the guards around you, giving a command you don’t understand.
You watch them, the lunar guard ponies, stand erect and move off to the sides. The movements are all so precise and accurate; you can’t help but compare them to fliers for a moment, practicing the same moves in constant repetition. But you shake your head with a smirk. They’re unicorns, not pegasi. They aren’t trained together like the Wonderbolts are.
You follow Princess Luna as she walks from her hall, the other members of the guards bowing to her as she passes, the maids, too. You can’t help but raise a brow at the actions. It isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, at least from the sidelines. But walking next to the princess as it’s being done, you have to admit, at least only to yourself, it’s hard not getting used to. It makes you feel like you’re the captain of the Wonderbolts. Then again, even that would be beneath the title of princess, like the one you’re currently following.
“We are here.”
The interjection of the princess’s voice shatters your daydreaming like a hammer against a mirror. For a moment, you ask yourself if maybe it should be called just dreaming, because it is night, but you let it go as fast as it comes.
You’re standing in front of another doorway, much smaller than the grand halls you had come from, but still, they’re larger than any set you’d find in Ponyville. Luna looks at you with a smile different than what you had seen in her court. It doesn’t look like anything she’d give a pony asking for a law to be passed, but like something you’d get from one of your friends. You can’t help but smile in return.
Her horn flares with a hum of energy, something you’ve seen Twilight do a countless amount of times now. But the princess has blue magic, not Twilight’s majestic purple. The doors open as they start to glow blue, swinging aside with barely a sound, revealing the lavishly decorated interior.
It doesn’t take you long to realize the privilege the princess is offering you. Like Twilight with Princess Celestia, this was a rare gift you were being given. That knowledge alone makes you nervous. Princess Luna, one of the most powerful and proud ponies in all of Equestria, was inviting you into her private chambers to speak to you about your problem. Not about how you could help her, not for lessons for flying, like you would need those, but to help you.
Just before you bite your lip, you feel a hoof nudge at your side. You look back up to see the princess still smiling at you. Then she walks into the room, ethereal mane billowing behind her as she walks forward. You follow closely behind her.
Despite anything you might have thought about Luna and other dark things, her room is surprisingly well lit. You don’t see anything hidden by shadows, no dark mysterious shapes lurking around the corners of the room, and definitely no monsters waiting for you to let your guard down. It looks like a normal, albeit much larger, pony’s room.
You don’t have any difficulty finding a pillow placed on the floor, littered with white stitches on a dark background. Even a filly could see it was meant to look like a night’s sky. Momentarily, you wonder if you should wait for the princess to tell you what to do, or if you should invite yourself to rest on the soft cotton. You are tired, from your legs to your wings, and even your mind.
But it’s a good thing you remain stock still, as the dark alicorn rests her body on the soft material of the pillow. Her legs tucked themselves beneath her carriage, resting easily upon the cotton as the weight of her body left her legs. You could later swear on any grave that you heard you sigh in pleasure as she nestled into the pillow.
That’s when she turns back to you, still standing, rather uncomfortably, in the middle of the room.
“Please, have a seat.” She invites you with a nod of your head. You see another pillow not far from her, about half the size of the one she’s on. It’s decorated much the same, dots with white along a black soft material, but by size alone, you can tell it is not meant for the princess to rest on.
Your mind briefly wonders if everything is made larger for the princesses. You have the wisdom to throw away that thought before you even think of asking it.
However, you take the princess’s invitation, walking over to the soft cotton. As your hoof touches the pillow, you feel a shudder of relief run up your leg. It’s no cloud, that’s for sure, but it feels like it’s been sitting in front of a fire for hours, warm to the touch and soothing to your muscles.
It doesn’t take much more than a passive thought for the rest of your body to rest on the pillow, enjoying the heat it surrounds your aching muscles with. You let your coat greedily sap up the warmth, letting it cling to you like sweat after a long workout. It’s no wonder to you now why the princess sighed the way she did. You’re about ready to pass out on the material.
“So, Rainbow Dash,” the Luna speaks to you, quickly jostling your thoughts and reawakening your mind. “What do you think I can do to help you?”
You smile as the idea you had hours before flows through your mind.
“Princess-” you begin, but a raised hoof silences you.
“Luna, just Luna please.” The monarch tells you with a smile not far in size from your own. “I am well aware that my sister prefers to be called by her name, not title, when among friends. It would be a favor to me if you offer to me the same privilege.” You keep your smile firmly in place as her hoof falls back to the pillow she’s lying on. If that’s the only favor she asks of you, it would be perfect.
“Sure thing… Luna.” You test her name carefully. Seeing the calm smile grow a little more over her dark coat is more than enough. She must not get called it often, you realize. But she must enjoy it, you also realize.
“I must admit,” she begins to speak, “It is an odd feeling be called by my birth name without my title.” You can feel her eyes smiling towards you as they regain their focus. “I pray it would not be rude of me to request you refer to me just as Luna. That is, within private chambers.” That last part was rushed; even a foal would realize that. Something must have reminded her to add it onto the request, like a faint memory or small rule.
In the end though, it doesn’t really matter. Not to you at least. You don’t mind calling the princess by her name and just her name. It really does make it feel like you’re just good friends.
“You got it Luna.” You say her name without hesitance this time, and you can visibly see her relax again. A passing idea wanders through your head if this is sort of how Celestia speaks with Twilight, using only first names and not caring for where they stood among the rest of the ponies of Equestria.
You know just from a few meetings that Celestia doesn’t have a stuck-up bone in her body. You couldn’t have said the same thing about Luna, right after you met her during Nightmare Night for the first time. The way she addressed the crowd, demanded attention, and enforced rules like they were law… which they once were. Seeing that same princess relax on a pillow that was doubtlessly made just for her, enjoying your company like you would any of your friends, it was nice.
But you did have a favor to ask.
“Listen, Luna,” You add her name to earn her attention. “I had an… idea on how to get Twilight to forgive me, or at least get her to listen to me.”
“Really?” The princess asks you, intrigued by your words. Her hooves cross one another in front of her, listening to you intently. It’s one of the most obvious signs that you have her attention.
“Yeah,” you start again. “You see, Twilight doesn’t want me around her right now, and I can’t really blame her. I wouldn’t want me around if I said those words to myself.”
“I find it difficult to imagine being able to separate yourself… from yourself.” You find yourself caught by her words, then teased by her grin. “My apologies, I have merely been attempting this… friendly bantering, as my dear sister calls it. She explains it is meant to ease tension between ponies in conversation.”
“Yeeeaahh.” You slowly speak in hesitant agreement. Princess or not, even a sugar-rushed Pinkie Pie would be able to tell that the princess is new to this. “Look, the point is, I know you can help me get a message to her, or at least help me make it clear to her just how bad I feel. If I can get her to listen to me for just two seconds, I’m sure we can work something out. But you are the only pony who can help me do that.”
An uncomfortable silence falls between the two of you, resting still in the room as the air in a windless sky. You don’t like it, but you don’t try and speak. You’ve made it clear just what you want, but you have to be patient.
It was because you spoke too much that you ruined so much, so it would be better to stay quiet for now. Wait for the princess to ask you questions, that’s what you need to do. Patience may not be a virtue to you, but loyalty and friends are.
“Rainbow,” Luna addresses you by just your first name, and she does it so smoothly you wonder why she hasn’t done it before. “May I inquire as to why you are being so much more… invested into earning Twilight’s forgiveness?”
The question catches you off guard, like a turbulent wind in the sky.
“Huh?” You stupidly ask, but the princess still feels compelled to explain her question to you.
“Please do not take offense to my words.” She begins to say. “I merely have… some reserved doubts that you would venture this far for your other friends. I have read only a few of the many reports from Twilight Sparkle and your company of friends, but from I have read, it appears that arguments and misunderstandings are rather commonplace. Yet, here you are, requesting the aid of me, a princess, with a task that others would, rather ironically, call a dream.” Her head twists to the side as she finishes her thought to you.
“Why is that?”
You have no idea why.
Your thoughts turn inwards as you begin to wonder that same thing.
Twilight is different than the rest of your friends. But… that doesn’t make her more important. Pinkie’s different, too. And Rarity. And Applejack. And Fluttershy. They’re all different from one another, so of course you’d treat them differently. But… would you go to this kind of extreme to make things up with any one of them?
Let’s say, just as a worst case scenario, you destroyed all of the trees in Applejack’s Orchard. Would you go the Celestia and ask her to bring them all back? Maybe, but that wouldn’t be until you spoke to Twilight about how you could fix it.
Fluttershy would definitely be different from the rest of your friends. Even in the best of cases, you couldn’t be brash with her. If you did something horrid, like, break an animal’s leg, she wouldn’t be able to look at you without crying. There’s no way you’d have the courage to go near her, but you still wouldn’t give up on trying to fix the mistake. Twilight would have made sure of that. She would have helped you.
Then if something happened with Rarity, if… if your Sonic Rainboom had ruined all of the dresses in her store, destroyed everything she had spent months working on, you know that you would have volunteered yourself to model every outfit she made for the rest of your life. If it meant keeping your friendship alive, there’s no way you wouldn’t do it. But if she still hated you… if she still… didn’t want to be your friend, then you’d turn to Twilight for help.
Twilight… Twilight’s the friend you always turn to for help. You always have… and you always will.
“It’s because…” You begin, earning the attention of the dark alicorn. “It’s because Twilight is the pony I-we… we always ask for help. She’s been there for me and all of my friends whenever anything goes wrong.” Luna continues to watch you intently, eyes fixed on you as you continue to speak.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a threat against the kingdom, or just a disagreement between ourselves, she’ll dedicate her entire day to making sure everything goes back to being fine. It doesn’t have to be the same, not to her, but she isn’t happy unless we’re happy, with each other.” Your hooves start to dance through the air, trying fruitlessly to illustrate what your words cannot convey.
“It’s like… each of us wants to make the others happy in some way. You know Fluttershy wants everypony to be relaxed and kind to one another, kind of like how Pinkie Pie wants us to smile, cause if you’re smiling, you aren’t exactly miserable.” You hear the monarch give a soft giggle of agreement, but you speak on regardless.
“Twilight’s different thought. The rest of us… we just think ‘How can I make it up to her?’ Just one at a time. Twilight thinks… bigger. She wants to know how all of us can be happy, how we can all get along together. It’s how she is able to solve so many problems.” You can’t stop the next thought that drifts through your head. Then again, you don’t exactly want it to stop.
“The rest of us, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and me, we all think of the small things. Twilight, she’s the mare who thinks about the big picture, and she knows how things can fit together.” You wet your lips with small suckle on them, drawing them between your teeth before swallowing on the ball of saliva you had collected.
“We were all friends before we met her, but with Twilight… it just feels… complete.”
Never before have you spoken something so corny, yet still feeling it was so true.
It’s hard to describe, impossible to describe, even to yourself. A part of you, a section of your very being knows just how childish it sounds. Calling something that was already working more complete, making something like friendship sound like a list of things. That’s not you, not at all.
But the other side, that side of you that is starting to become your better half, can’t deny the truth of your words.
Just like how you cannot deny Princess Luna giving you a look comparable to that of an amused parent.
“Rainbow Dash, have I not already made it clear I wish to aid you?” Her smile does nothing else but make you feel elated with joy. “It is by curiosity alone I asked the questions that I have. It does not alter nor change the very real fact that I will help you.”
You can’t stop yourself from doing what you do next.
“Really?!” You squeal like Pinkie Pie in the face of a brand new friend. “You’re the best! Thank you so much Luna!”
Your wings push you from the pillow and send you to the princess’s side.
Your hooves wrap around in a tight and thankful hug.
Your smile never falters even as you feel the alicorn beneath your hold tense.
It’s the tensing part that makes you realize you might have made a mistake.
“L-Luna?” You can’t help but stutter the name you speak. Your face is twisted against the coat of the alicorn, out of view and eyesight of the princess’s own features. You can’t tell if she is angry, shocked, joyed, or even apathetic to your grateful hug. There’s only one way to find out.
Slowly, hesitantly, you release your hug from her, backing up as you do so. You see the princess looking at you with her own set of wide eyes, matching yours in the level of shock.
You messed up. Big time. Again.
Your hooves push you away from her, putting a large distance between you two, limited only by the walls of the room you’re in. You know, or at least can sense, that she’s going to talk soon.
She’ll take away her promise to help you, degrade you for acting so impulsively, and pull the final string by saying something along the lines of you still not learning from your mistake with Twilight. It is the same mistake. Where with Twilight you spoke without thinking, now you act without thinking. And if actions do speak louder than words, then this is a whole other level of bad.
Way to go Rainbow Dash.
You watch the alicorn’s lips part slightly, ready for the damning words you are sure will follow.
“I-I apologize,” she says to you, stuttering.
The combination of the undue apology and nervous tone are almost too much for you to comprehend. But you pull through, just far enough to hear the rest of what she’s saying. ‘
“H-Huh?” You can’t help it.
“I am still… adapting to new customs. I was not prepared for… your embrace.” Her posture turns into that of a nervous foal, form twisted to the side and head bashfully turning away from your own. It’s difficult to tell in the darkness, but you could swear that she is blushing beneath that dark coat.
“Oh,” you respond sheepishly, rubbing a hoof over your shoulder, unsure of what to say or do next. “Did I… Should I have not…”
Her face turns from embarrassed to alarmed in a second flat.
“Oh, no!” Luna eagerly dismisses. “Please, do not think I have no appreciation for your openness. It is as I said before. Friends and company are things I have not enjoyed for a very long time, and even more so for dealing with another pony on common ground.” Even with her wide eyes, a genuine smile still is able to snake its way across her lips.
“I am thankful to you for having little hesitation in treating me no differently than your other friends.” A sigh of relief leaves you, taking with it what feels like ten tons of pressure and stress.
“It’s no problem Luna.” You speak easily as you had before. “You’re just another pony trying to do what you have to do. Wouldn’t really make a whole lot of sense treating you differently from other ponies if you are just another pony, am I right?”
You hear the princess laugh at your words, a soft gratifying sound that you can appreciate from almost any pony. Almost.
“That I am, Rainbow Dash, that I am.” She gives you a look that you know. You know that look very well because you’ve seen it on so many ponies before her. You’ve seen it on Fluttershy, on Rarity, on Applejack, but on yourself more than any other.
It’s the face of absolute peace.
She really does think of you as a friend. Princess Luna, Guardian of the Night, really does want to help you.
“So,” she begins again, earning more than your full attention. “What is your plan to speak with Twilight Sparkle?”
Your smile goes beyond confident and settles on assured. You don’t just trust yourself to succeed. You know it will succeed. The princess has promised to help you. You now know, more than ever before, why you need to do this.
It’s not that you can do it, it’s that you will do it.
Twisting your lips, you ask the all important question.
“Luna, can you take… another pony… into dreams?”