//------------------------------//
// Unexpected Guests 
// Story: A Better Place, A Better Time 
// by Mental_Zero 
//------------------------------//

		It had been four days since the events at Club PON-3, I was working on a cheap laptop I got with the paycheck. It was around midday, things were pretty quiet, Twilight had lent out a few books, Rarity had stopped in for a chat with Twilight, not much else. Well, until half past noon, anyway. There was a brilliant flash in the living room, bright enough to see through my door in a room filled with light. When I opened the door, Princess Celestia was standing in the middle of the library, Twilight was kneeling at her hooves. Celestia let out that amused and calming little laugh that every mother seems to have master, you know the one,
"Rise, my student, this is merely a social visit." Twilight got back up,
"Well, it's a good time, I have some time in my schedule for now." I stepped out of the doorway, unable to not smile. I bowed to her,
"Your Highness, it is good to see you again."
She turned to face me, "Ah, Mister O'Connor, just the one I was hoping to see."
I cocked an eyebrow at her, "Oh? You came all this way to see me, Princess?"
She nodded, "Of course. As one of the rulers of this land, I consider it my duty to ensure that new citizens of Equestria are integrating well. Especially ones as distinguished as yourself."
I chuckled, "Making sure the freak show is staying under control?"
She returned the chuckle, "If that is what you wish to call it, then sure."
I nodded, "Well, I promise, I've been good, for the most part. I've got a job, get along well enough with most of the neighbors, and I like to think I haven't made myself too much of a burden for Miss Sparkle."
Twilight shook her head, "Far from it, Ryan's perfectly welcome to stay as long as he wants."
I smiled at her and looked at Celestia, "She's also been a gracious host. She may be the single biggest reason I'm employed at the moment."
Twilight blushed slightly, Celestia nodded, maintaining that same warm smile, "That is very good to hear, Ryan. I only have one question: You said you've been behaving for the most part. Would you care to elaborate?"
I stuck my hands in my pockets, "My first night on the job, a fight broke out in the club where I work, was too big of a brawl for security to handle it, so I stepped in. No one was seriously hurt, but one of them got a good shot in on me."
Her smile faded slightly, "I see. How severe was your injury?"
I shrugged, "Nothing too serious, unicorn put a knife in my temple, but it was closed back up in a couple of minutes."
Her eyes widened slightly, "You were stabbed in the side of your head?"
I put up a hand to stop her, "I know where you're going with that line of thought, Princess, and I want you to keep in mind that I have a non-centralized nervous system, all of my organs are completely superfluous, as well as having a very effective healing capability, thousands of times faster than the average human. In addition to that, I ensured that I, personally, was involved in the conflict as little as possible, leaving it to the local authorities. I only intervened to ensure that they didn't hurt each other or anyone else any more than they already had."
She nodded slightly, "I see. Well, I commend you for your actions, and thank you for showing self-restraint, despite more than hostile actions from others. That being said, I do request that you do not demonstrate your abilities for now unless necessary, we do not wish to unnerve the residents of Ponyville."
I nodded to her, "Of course, Princess, I wouldn't want to scare off my new neighbors just after I got on friendly terms with them."
Her smile returned, "I am glad to hear how well you are taking all this, despite how large of a change it was in your life."
I thought back to Earth, "Perhaps, Princess, but it was a far from unwelcome change. As I've said, I didn't exactly  leave Earth on very good terms with quite a few of its residents."
She looked at me sympathetically, "I understand, Mister O'Connor."
I nodded to her, "I appreciate it, Princess."
Her smile widened a hair, "On another note, my younger sister, Princess Luna, has requested to meet you. Will you be available tonight?"
I nodded thoughtfully. Finally meeting Equestria's other ruler, "Yes, I'll be open tonight. When was she thinking of coming?"
She paused for a moment in thought, "Would 10 o'clock suit you?"
I nodded, "Of course, anything for the Princess of the Night."
She nodded, "Excellent. And how have you been, Twilight? Has living with Ryan been suiting you?"
Twilight nodded vigorously, "It's been great, Princess. Ryan's been really helpful, and very informative about the human race. And he's very kind, and strong, and..." She stopped mid-sentence, a touch of red at her cheeks. She cleared her throat, "Uhm, I mean, yes, it's been nice having him here."
Celestia smiled at her warmly, "That is good to hear, my student. You have been keeping yourself busy?"
She nodded again, "Of course, Princess Celestia, I'm always busy."
Celestia let out another quiet laugh, "Then I look forward to your next report, Twilight."
The young mare smiled at her teacher, "I'll make sure Spike sends it over at the usual time on Friday."
Celestia nodded to her, "I will see you soon, Twilight. You as well, Ryan."
With that, she teleported back to Canterlot again, leaving Twilight and I looking at each other, "And what exactly did that mean?"
She shrugged, "Princess Celestia can be cryptic at times." I helped her pick up a couple of books that fell when Celestia left,
"Does she have any kind of precognitive abilities?"
Twilight returned to her chair, "Couldn't say. Princess Celestia has immense power, there aren't many abilities I wouldn't put past her, precognition included."
I nodded slightly, "Guess we'll find out when we find out, then."
She nodded in agreement, "It'll be nice seeing Princess Luna, again. I haven't gotten a chance to see her since last Nightmare Night."
A small smile touched her mouth. I nodded, "The meeting of two pariahs. Should certainly be interesting."
That got a small giggle from her, "I'm sure you two will get along."
I looked out the window, "Certainly seems like it'll be good weather for a first meeting, nice and clear. Well, I should get back to work." I could hear her open her book once again, "Have fun."

I decided to get some fresh air before the meeting with Princess Luna, and found myself standing on one of the higher branches jutting from the library, looking out over Ponyville. It was a clean, crisp evening, not too warm, not too cold, a crystal-clear view of the sky. It was strange, seeing the stars and constellations so clearly, never saw any of that where I had grown up. There was the usual cluster of ponies out by Club PON-3, the bass from whatever was playing barely audible from my perch. The usual nocturnal wildlife was out, an owl here, a couple of bats over there, it was all so picturesque,
"Beautiful, isn't it?" I nearly fell off of the branch, instead opting to whirl around at the source of the statement, and found myself looking straight at Equestria's other diarch. Midnight blue coat, turquoise eyes, black markings at the rear of her flank, crescent-moon cutie mark, light figure, but not weak, you could feel the strength in her presence. It was different from Celestia's, though, hers was like a mountain, solid, never moving, eternal. Luna's was like a river, constantly in motion, quick, could change at any time,
"Easy there, hunter, don't think consuming one of the two country's leaders would do much good for our reputation." Fail quipped. I cleared my throat, realizing I had been staring for a moment, looking back out over the town,
"Very much so."
She let out a small giggle, "We assume thou hast lived much of thine life inside of cities."
I looked back at her, "Oh? Why is that?"
She trotted over, "By the way thou art looking at our sky. Very few from the countryside ever appreciate our stars, as they are always with them."
I chuckled, "Okay, okay, you got me, I'm a city kid, through and through. But, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate nighttime, regardless, it can be beautiful from anywhere."
A small smile brushed across her face, "Thine own night goddess must feel quite loved, with praise such as that."
I nodded, not bothering to get into the topic of deities on Earth. I turned to her and bowed deeply, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Princess Luna."
She inclined her head respectfully, "And you, Ryan O'Connor."
She seemed a bit restless, like she was still out of practice with formal meetings. It seemed reasonable, she had been roughly a millennium out of practice. I looked at her, letting wings sprout from my back, "Think you can talk and fly at the same time?"
She returned the look, a competitive grin spreading up one side of her mouth, "We certainly can."
I felt the grin spread to me, "Edge of town and back?"
She nodded, "Threetwoonego." She took off like a rocket, I barely even saw her go. I pushed off, going as quickly as I could, trying to catch up to her,
"I like her already!" Fail yelled over the wind.
I stomped on the gas, managing to catch up to her, "In pretty good shape for royalty!" I called to her.
She looked over at me, a wry grin on her face, "The Night Court tends to stay rather quiet! Besides, we don't want to be getting a flank like our sister's!" She called back.

We flew in silence for a short while, shooting past the edge of town, going over the Everfree Forest, silent except for the wind in my ears. We finally came to rest in a clearing, the darkness outside of it absolute. We sat across from each other, I could hear Luna panting slightly. She looked at me, a pleased smile on her face,
"We are glad to find another who can keep pace with us." I retracted my wings and returned the smile,
"It helps to have been running for your life every day for the past 3 weeks." She nodded somberly, the smile fading,
"Yes, we sympathize with your situation, Mr. O'Connor. We are familiar with the feeling of being seen in an unfavorable light by many."
I got up and went over to her, "Look on the bright side, Princess, you did a much better job of getting back into the good graces of the people than I did."
She looked at me, curious, "How so?"
I knelt down, "Well, you had the Nightmare removed from you, you walked amongst the people last Nightmare Night, showed them you aren't what you were. I just died and ended up in a place much more tolerant of individuals like myself."
She nodded again, "But we feel we are still on a long road to fully being accepted in Equestria again."
I shrugged, "I'm on that same road, Luna. I'll walk it with you, if you want."
The smile barely returned to her face, "Thank you, Mr. O'Connor, we appreciate your kind words."
I cocked an eyebrow at her, "Come on, let's see a big smile on that face."
She chuckled slightly, "We assure you, Mr. O'Connor, we're quite fine."
I thought for a moment, a cheeky grin spreading across my face, "When the night, has come. And the land is dark." I couldn't do an impression of Ben King to save my life, but damned if I wasn't trying, "And the moon, is the only, light we'll see." I must have either sounded awful or great, because a grand smile broke out on Luna's face. It seemed even Equestria wasn't safe from Mr. King, "No I won't, be afraid. No I won't, be afraid." I swept her back up to her feet, and arm over her, leaning into the ridiculousness of my musical number, "Just so long, as you stand, stand by me!"
She suddenly joined in with me, "So darling, darling, stand, by me! Oh stand, by me! Ooh stand, stand by me, stand by me!" We went through the whole song, swaying back and forth like a couple of idiots, but damned if it didn't feel good to do. We collapsed into fits of laughter when we finished, Luna looked at me, nearly crying from laughter,
"How did you know we loved that song?" I looked at her once I got my laughter under control,
"Because everybody loves that song, no exceptions."
We stood there, smiling stupidly for another minute before we got under control again, "I should probably get back home, Twilight's probably freaking out that I just flew out into the night without saying anything."
She nodded, "We'll fly back with you."
We took off and flew back without another word, taking our time to look at all the sights. We landed a couple of blocks from the Library, opting to walk the rest of the way. It must have been past midnight when we got back, stopping at the door. I smiled down at her,
"That was nice." She smiled back,
"Indeed it was."
I couldn't help but chuckle, "God, it sounds like we just came back from our first date."
She laughed quietly, "We suppose it does. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mister O'Connor."
I shook my head slightly, "Please, to you it's just Ryan."
Her smile widened, "Then we suppose you may simply call us Luna."
I inclined my head to her, "If that's what you want, Luna." We exchanged a friendly smile, "I'll see you around."
She nodded, "Be seeing you, Ryan." With that she took off into her night, gone in an instant. I headed back inside to find Twilight waiting right by the door, looking more than a tad worried,
"Where were you?" I looked at her, still smiling,
"Meeting Princess Luna."
That gave her pause, "O-oh. Well, how was that?"
The smile persisted, "She's nice, we got along well."
She smiled at me slightly, "See? I told you you'd get along with her."
I nodded, "You did, indeed. I'm glad you were right, too, seemed like it had been a long time since the poor girl had a friend, save for Celestia."
She nodded somberly, "It's one of the shortcomings of being royalty, the Princesses hardly have any time to themselves."
I shrugged, "Things are how they are, can't do anything but deal with it."
We stood there in silence for a moment, "Well, I'm gonna go to bed."
She nodded slightly, "Okay, sleep tight."
I smiled at her, "You too."
I got in bed, looking out at the night sky, the moon was full that night, the stars twinkling brightly, crickets chirping quietly out in the distance,
"Hmm, maybe we should get with Luna inst-" "Shut up, Fail."