//------------------------------// // Too much of a good thing // Story: Short stories about ponies and whatnot // by shutaro //------------------------------// Luna had to take a step back as a huge slab of stone suddenly turned the corner and almost knocked her crown off. Her royal rump touched down on the floor without any ceremony or a herald announcing it. Lucky for the slab no guards were present to arrest it for this affront, Luna preferred to sneak her three AM midnight snacks without anypony knowing. If Celestia got wind of those … inofficial meals Luna would never be able to tease her sister about her swelling flanks again. And that was just too much fun. Now she only had to talk down whoever was floating masonry around the palace in the middle of the night. As it turned out it was a very guilty looking Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Good evening, Twilight. I hadn’t expected to meet you up and about at this time of the night.” She looked at the stone tablet more closely. “Oh, I remember this! How nostalgic ... and embarrassing!” she chuckled. “Why don’t you tell me why you are at the servant’s entrance to the palace’s pantry? And with my first tries at celestial calculations to boot?” Twilight Sparkle swallowed and stammered for a moment, but finally she found her voice. “Just looking for a past midnight, before breakfast snack. Please don’t tell Celestia!” Luna gave her friend her most winning smile. “What should I tell Celestia? I have no idea what you are talking about. I’m not here after all and under no circumstances would I share my ill-gotten booty with you.” A veritable mountain of sandwiches and two tubs of ice cream appeared behind Luna. Understanding dawned in Twilight’s eyes, and she nodded eagerly. “I have no idea either, maybe this is all just a dream?” “Hold that thought,” Luna grinned, “it might just save our tails.” Then she wrapped Twilight and her tablet, the food and herself in shadow. Just in time to avoid a group of bakers who were the first to open the kitchen and would probably notice the missing loaves of bread soon. “Let’s get out of here,” the shadow whispered and hushed away. When Twilight stepped out of the shadows she found herself in Luna’s chambers. Dark blues, violet and black dominated the decoration, everything was covered in either gems or lace. Or both. A giant four-poster bed, big enough for five ponies (or just enough for Luna and Celestia) took up most of the room. Luna ignored it. She found a small door in the back of the room and pushed it open. Beyond was a small but tidy room. A simple bed, a desk covered in paperwork and a collection of books on a small shelf betrayed little about the pony who spend her time here. The only thing out of the ordinary was a strange, wooden construction in a corner of the room. Twilight only realized it’s purpose when Luna’s hoofshoes, her crown and the ornamental yoke found their place on it. The plate of sandwiches and the ice cream floated over to the desk. Twilight looked around, her mouth agape. “I did not realize a princess could have a room so simple. Do you think I could have one like this too? That huge bed they got me is a nightmare to sleep in.” Luna smiled, “You are a princess now, you can have almost anything you want. But you have to look the part. Don’t tell anyone I told you, but Celestia prefers to sleep either on a bed of straw or on a cloud.” Twilight sucked in a breath. “No!” “On my honor as princess of the night,” Luna swore with her right fore hoof over her chest. “But that’s beside the point.” She looked at the slab of stone that still hovered in Twilight’s telekinetic grasp behind her. “I have no idea why Celestia still has those old things, for their sentimental value probably. But why do you read them? And how have you even found them in the first place?” Again Twilight could only swallow dry, but she knew that she would have to confess this time. “I read them because there is almost nothing else left. I found them when I rearranged the royal archives last month and I thought that maybe I could glean some insight into the early history of heaven mechanic theory from them.” “And could you?” “No, but I think the little cats and flowers with smiling faces add a very personal touch.” Luna could not hold her laughter anymore. “I remember, I made this one together with Celestia. She made all the calculations and I added the decor. She would always praise me for the kittens.” Luna’s laughter died down, and she sighed with a nostalgic touch to her voice. “And you say, you have already read everything else in the royal archive? Every declaration, all the minutes, even the annotations to those?” “Yes. Ever since I found that sleep is optional for me now, I have spend every second reading. But after these,” Twilight pointed her horn to the stone tablet, ”there are only a few hundred meters of cookbooks left. After that there is only romance fiction and -” she shuddered. “Don’t say it!” Luna interjected, but it was too late to stop Twilight.  “Fan-fiction.”