//------------------------------// // In the dark of the night princess // Story: Sirraf, Redmage of Equestria // by sirraf //------------------------------// Luna floated above an open plain. A lone figure covered in red clothes stood poised against the horizon. This creature was unfamiliar to the Princess of the Night. "So this is the being we felt enter the dream scape. Such a strangely dashing looking creature," she said as she watched him gaze into the star covered sky. "Odd... we don't recognize any of these constellations. We made the night sky ourselves, why would they be so different in this creatures mind?" "You know, it's kind of rude to intrude upon anothers private thoughts and memories," he suddenly said without so much as turning around to look at her. "Might I ask just what you are doing in here?" "WE ARE LUNA! THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT! IT IS OUR DUTY TO SAFEGUARD THE DREAMS OF OUR SUBJECTS!" Luna roared in her royal Canterlot voice. Suddenly the beasts hands rose covered in a orange glow. "Talk is cheap, silence is golden so shut up and get rich... Silence!" a wave of energy shot forth from the being and wrapped around the mouth of the princess. After fading away she found herself unable to speak. "I apologize for that, but if you are going to scream at me for no good reason I will have to take away your ability to do so. You are a guest in my mind, and as such you will follow my rules. Now then, if you promise to speak at a normal level I will allow you to have your power of voice back. Do we have an accord?" Luna was fuming. Never had she been faced by such insolence as what this thing was showing her now. Summoning her powers she fired several bolts of energy at the lone figure, certain that she would eliminate the beast here and now. Before the energy could connect she saw the creature slowly shake his head back and forth in disappointment, followed by an explosion that would have taken out a dragon from the force of the blast alone. The smoke cleared, only to reveal nothing. "Now that wasn't very nice." a voice stated from a few feet behind her. Wide eyed she spun around and fired another bolt, only to see nothing yet again. "Nope not there." She spun around only to meet with empty space once more. "I'll give you a hint. Where would you find your symbol, oh princess of the night?" Realization struck her as she sharply looked up to see the creature floating above her with a strange mask on his face. It was black and white with the colors separated by a red line in the middle. The left white half was pulled into the shape of a smiling face, while the black right half was in the shape of a tragic frown. Pulling it off to reveal his humored eyes he waved his hand and chuckled. "There we go, now then shall we speak of this like sane civil beings?" She was dumbfounded. This creature was treating her like some kind of joke. Her patience was at its limit as her mane began to flail wildly and her eyes glowed pure white. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as her magic burst forth in every direction. With wide eyed amazement Sirraf pulled away and weaved his hands as he began to speak once more. "Be careful of your power for it may destroy you... REFLECT!" at the last moment the energy connected with a green field of some kind and was redirected back at the princess of the night. The blast hit her full force and sent her spiraling down out of the sky onto the grass covered dream scape below. Her vision blurred as she picked up her head to see the creature walking slowly towards her position. He looked upon her in disappointment once more, like a parent that caught their child with their hand in the cookie jar. "I don't think it would be good to leave someone beaten by their own magic in my mind. Who knows what that could result in. His hands rose, glowing white as he poured his power into a blessed spell. "You must have a lot of power to do this kind of damage to yourself. If I was awake I don't think i could help you right now. Curaga!" He skipped the incantation this time. This moment was far to serious to be joking around. She closed her eyes as she prepared to be ejected from the creatures dream scape. Suddenly all of Luna's pain was gone. Waiting for a moment she opened her eyes and saw that the creature was now sitting beside her in the grass. " You know, I really didn't want to have to do that, but you kinda didn't leave me much of a choice in the matter." His hat and face mask was now off and next to him in the grass. "I think you might have a bit of an anger control problem princess." He said with a smile on his lips. She stared at him in disbelief. This being had in mere moments challenged, defeated, and healed her as though it was an every day thing. As though he had faced great dangers on a regular basis. "So..." he began to speak again. "About that agreement, you know, the not screaming in my head one." Slowly she realized what he had meant and finally nodded in agreement. "Great! Well then I guess the first part would be to give you your voice back!" rolling onto his back, he placed his hands on the ground over his shoulders and threw himself to his feet. "Purge the body, mind, and spirit, your taint shall be pushed away... Esuna!" White energy flowed across her body as she saw the restraints around her mouth flash, and then disappear. "There, that's better now isn't it? So as I was saying before, to what do I owe this visit into my mind?" he said as he picked up his hat and placed it on his head, though he left his mask on the ground as if to say that he had nothing he wanted to hide from the equestrian princess. "We are Luna, and we were checking a disturbance in our dream scape. As the princess of the night it is our duty to make sure that nothing harms the dreams of our precious subjects," she said in a much more acceptable volume, though the caution was still in her voice. "Well I can understand that, but to be honest you really chose the wrong time to attack me." he said with a sigh. "How so strange creature?" the princess asked narrowing her eyes. "Well if I wasn't having a lucid dream caused by my own sleep spell, I don't think I could have defended myself from you" he said with a chuckle. "To be honest I used a lot of spells I'm not suppose to have access to when we fought, but as I said before. This is my mind and therefor it's got my rules running it. It's actually one of the reasons I was at the top of my class in the mage academy. When everyone else was resting, I was usually practicing my magic and combat skills in my own dream scape." he was now full on laughing. "Up until the day that I ended up here, it still baffled my instructors to see how quickly I progressed through lessons. In fact its also why I always got a bit ticked when they went on and on about the rules and methods of magic being set in stone and never changing." he said as he suddenly became serious. "Its thinking like that which keeps us from ever improving, ever getting better.Its as if they were saying my fate was set in stone. I don't like the idea of something or someone else determining where I am going in life." After about two minutes his frown suddenly lifted, and he smiled to the princess of the night. "Ah but where are my manners. You gave me your name but here you are unknowing of mine. I am Sirraf, though from the descriptive names of your subjects you can refer to me as Red mage, or R.M. if you so wish!" he said as he took off his hat and made a deep bow. It had been a long time since anyone had treated Luna with such open feelings and trust. She giggled to herself at Sirrafs antics and returned the bow with a kind of pony curtsy. "As thou wishes Sir R.M." she paused for a moment, confused by his statements. "What, may we ask, is a red mage though?" "Do you know of a pony named Twilght Sparkle?" he responded as he lifted himself back to an upright state. "Of course! She is the student of our dear beloved sister!" Luna said with a smile. "Well, we met last night before I went to sleep. If you want any details about me or my world, she would be the one to talk to. Frankly I don't want to keep explaining it over and over again," he said with a hearty laugh. "Wait, you mentioned a sister?" "Yes, our sister is the princess of the sun and we rule Equestria together," she explained to him. "Though, being the princess of the night, we don't get to interact with our subjects much." "Hmm. I see what you mean. I cant imagine too many of these ponies being nocturnal," he said with a sigh. "Must get lonely pretty fast huh?" "Not as bad as it once was, eep!" Luna suddenly went quiet, realizing that she may have let to much about her slip. "What are... you know what? It's none of my business, but remember, if you want to open up to someone or just talk. I'll be happy to listen." he said realizing that whatever she was hiding was either private or a touchy subject. "We thank thou Sir R.M. We shall also inform our sister Celestia of thy presence and that you don't seem to be hostile to any of our kind. Though we must ask. Thou seemed very familiar of combat from our meeting earlier... thou even managed to disable me without any form of offensive action. What did thou do before coming here?" She said, once again attempting to sate her curiosity. "Let's just say that there are many dangers in my world, and I was learning to defend myself and those I cared about from those threats." he responded with an air of mystery. "Once again I'm sure Twilight would be happy to share her notes with you on the subject." he finished with a warm smile. "Now then, I think we should part our ways. It was already rather late when I went to sleep last night and I promised Twilight I would be up bright and early to answer more questions and possibly help her in whatever she needs." "Of course, and thank thou for taking thy situation and our invasion of privacy so well. Our meeting was... fun. We do hope we can do this again sometime." she said with hope in her voice. "My mind is always open to my friends. Just announce yourself next time okay?" after this they both broke out into laughter. "Well then, we suppose we should take our leave. Goodbye Sirraf the red mage," she began to fade from the dream scape. "Goodbye princess." he said as he picked up his mask and returned it to his face. "and sleep well."