Twilight felt a cold pressure on her neck, like an ice cube slithering down her back. She opened her eyes, almost afraid to see what was lurking in the dark behind her. She lit her horn and rolled over, blinking so that she could see whatever was disturbing her so graciously at three in the afternoon in detail. She saw two eyes regarding her in the pale moonlight, eyes that she didn’t know she’d ever have the privilege of seeing again. They were a dark purple, with a little bit of pink around the edges of the iris. The pony that the eyes belonged to smiled and jumped into her bed, purposefully jostling the mattress so that she’d wake up.
“I haven’t seen you in two weeks, and you’re sleeping at three in the afternoon.” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. “And you guys call me the lazy one.”
“Dash, I sleep during the day now.” Twilight said, pulling the covers up over her head. “I have to keep in tune with Luna’s schedule so that she can watch me. It’s part of this deal we made with Celestia… just leave me be. I’ll see you at around seven.”
“No can do, chum.” The pegasus said, jumping up and down on her bed to infuriate her friend. “I flew all the way here after I got a letter from Celestia, and she wants me to stay here all day tomorrow. I just wanted to surprise you and arrive a day early.”
“Wait…” Twilight asked, suddenly becoming very conscious of her wings. “What did Celestia tell you in this letter? Did she explain why I’m here?”
“She just told me that you were here on some sort of study of alicorns. Why, is there something that I was supposed to know? In the letter it was pretty vague, and she used these gigantic words that I don’t even know how to pronounce. Who uses big words like that in a letter? It’s a waste of ink in my opinion. Do you ever write like that?”
Twilight was surprised by how chatty the normally stoic mare was being. It was probably because she hadn’t seen her since the beginning of the month, and she was just antsy from flying all the way from Ponyville. Twilight needed a distraction. She knew that Rainbow wasn’t the best with surprises, and she was sure that her wings would be more than enough to make her wonder just what had been going on. Sensing a moment of reprieve, she spoke before her friend could fit in another long, trailing question.
“I have to get dressed, Rainbow Dash.” She said, looking at the pegasus with what she thought was an accurate representation of what embarrassment would be. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a moment, just go and give me a moment to make myself look decent.”
“What’re you talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked. “When I wake up in the morning, I just jump outta bed and shake myself off, maybe get a shower. What’s all this talk about gettin’ dressed? And making yourself look decent?”
“Unlike some of us, Dash.” Twilight began, sleep-deprived and grumpy. “I actually like to wear things to bed. And my mane and tail aren’t as thick as sailor’s rope like yours, so I don’t get as much flank coverage. It takes a lot of care to keep me looking appropriate if I’m not wearing anything, so head downstairs and I’ll see you in a second. Unless you’d really like me to drag you out by your ear.”
Dash looked at her like she’d just spoke in some foreign language. “What’ya mean, my mane and tail are as thick as rope? And what the heck is flank coverage? I thought that letting it grow wild was all you had to do. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”
Twilight felt an unknown eye tic acting up in her right lid. “Your mane and tail cover the more private parts of your figure quite well, but mine do not. My tail barely covers me enough to let me walk out my door in the morning without being stared at. So I have to brush it just a certain way to keep it covering as much of my… mareish figure as possible. My hair doesn’t grow as thick as yours. Case closed, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. And I feel fine. Now do me a favor and scram while I get dressed.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and leapt down from the bed, rolling her eyes. Twilight was being awfully touchy in her opinion. As she made her way to the stairs she looked back and called. “Oh, I was thinking about going out tonight. Just into Canterlot. Once you’re dressed you wanna come?”
“I’ll think about it.” The alicorn said, making her way over to the edge of the bed. “Now shoo.”
Once Rainbow Dash was gone she heard what sounded like a rustling of blankets. Luna stood up from her bed, arching a questioning brow at her. She didn’t say a word, but Twilight already knew that she was thinking about how she would be able to pull that off. Luna would have to come with her, and that would garner a lot of attention. She could already feel the eyes of the crowd on her, staring in awe at the princess that hadn’t come out of her tower since she’d returned to earth. Then she’d have to drop the bomb later that evening about just what had happened, and how she was an alicorn. Plus, there was no telling if somepony might notice her invisible wings while she was out. A simple bump against a stranger would compromise her disguise. She would have to tell her no, sadly. Not only was it too risky, but Luna looked like she was already dreading being seen in public.
“It’s okay if you tell her no.” Luna said empathetically. “You’ve no idea how many ponies have asked me for a drink in a local tavern. I turned them all down. So compared to my record, your slate is still fairly clean. You can, though, offer her a drink at the pub here in the castle. It’s mostly for the guards, but a lot of other ponies go there. Servants, guards, visiting diplomats, curious enough partygoers who wander too far from the usual path through the castle, all of them have been there. I’ve been there myself. It’s a nice enough place, everyone’s quite courteous for it being a bar. The bartender knows that if I ever come in I always like a large bottle of aged whiskey. She’s quite nice like that. I’m sure your secret will be fine if you go in with me. Since it’s mostly those that work here in the castle or in the general area, they know to keep everything about me and anypony I have with me a secret.”
“Are you sure? I know that Rainbow isn’t the most… cautious mare. Her with a drink could be the punchline of a really bad joke. And to see her face when she notices my wings… I’ve got no idea how that’ll turn out.”
“I’m very sure.” The princess replied with a reassuring smile. “You have no reason to be nervous. I have the utmost confidence that she will keep your nature a good secret, and if she does tell it will only be to your other friends. She is the Element of Loyalty, after all.”
Twilight sighed and looked over at her mirror. She looked a hot mess, with her mane jutting out at all angles and nightgown running halfway up her leg on one side. With a groan she began to disrobe, pulling the edge of her nightgown up over her waist with magic, then stepping out of it before she pulled it over her head. Luna made a noise like a mouse being stepped on, turning around too late. She had caught a very full glimpse at her, and it was fresh in her mind, sharply detailed, with every minute point on the younger mare’s body fully memorized. Realizing what she’d done the younger alicorn turned a dark shade of red, angry that she could be so careless in front of the princess
“Sorry Luna.” Was all she could say, biting her bottom lip. “I didn’t think you were still watching. You usually change first so I just thought you already had your back turned…”
Luna didn’t say anything, just shook her head and crawled back into bed, her eyes still closed, but biting her bottom lip so hard it nearly bled. A new wave of guilt flooded Twilight. She knew that her roommate was having enough problems without her adding to them by practically exposing herself in front of her. She already knew that her hostess was distressed by her, especially when she was being suggestive, but this was a whole new level of apology that she had to give. She could just imagine how conflicted she was, with her being so careless, putting herself on display in plain sight without warning her.
Twilight decided that it would be better to let her have her time alone, she was probably still recuperating from the shock. The mare, ashamed of herself, put on her golden bracelet she’d enchanted the previous night. She knew that it worked, as she hadn’t been bothered once in the night. As long as she was within fifteen feet of it she was perfectly safe from her Id. With her mind still weighing the gravity of her actions, she grabbed a brush and straightened her mane and tail, brushing it just the way she liked it. With her morning ritual completed, she looked herself in the mirror one last time. She looked decent enough, but she still wanted to apologize to Luna for putting her in that situation. She began to say something, taking in the breath to do so, but then she let it out, feeling like nothing she could say would make Luna un-see what she’d quite plainly, and accidentally, made a masterpiece photograph out of in her mind.
“I’m really, really sorry, Luna.” She said one last time, turning to leave.
Twilight stopped at the stairs, looking down them like they were the same staircase that had led her down into the room with her Id. The motion of taking a step downwards terrified her now, and she pedaled down the stairs as fast as she could. She didn’t want to see another staircase as long as she lived. She looked over to see Rainbow Dash poking Spike, who was dead to the world. He snored loudly, as if nothing in the waking world was of any concern to him. What he wanted right now was sleep. So he was going to sleep until somepony told him otherwise.
“Hey Rainbow Dash.” She said, bracing for the inevitable. She began to count the seconds in her head. One… Two… Three…. Fo-
Rainbow Dash released the inkwell she was holding, jaw dropping in awe. She stood like that for another few seconds, staring at her, eyes flitting from her face to her wings, then to her horn and back again to repeat the cycle. Twilight got up to the count of thirty-two before her friend flew over to her at nearly supersonic speed, looking at her wings like they were the most fascinating pair of wings that had ever existed on the face of the Earth. She gazed at them so intently, so closely that it almost made the alicorn feel like she was being judged. She seemed to be counting, remarking on the spacing of the feathers, keeping track of every one that was out of place or needed to be molted. It was so thorough. It was perhaps the first time Twilight had ever seen her friend concentrating so hard.
“Your wings need preened. Tell somepony who knows how to get those unshed flight feathers looked at. And I’m also… kinda jealous of your plummels.”
“My what?” Twilight said, spreading her wings so that she could look closely.
“Plummels are the things that owls have that lets ‘em fly real quiet. You can, and let me tell you, I’d give anything to be able to fly silent. It’d be so useful, especially for night flying. Most of the time if I’m going anywhere by wing anypony below me know where I’m going just by listening to my noisy flaps. Part of the problems with being so fast, it wears out your feathers fast.”
“Gee… thanks, Dash.” The alicorn said, impressed at her friend’s knowledge of avian affairs, and equally flattered with her praise. It wasn’t often that she complimented anypony. “So, about going out tonight. I was thinking that maybe we could go to this place here in the palace.”
“Okay.” Rainbow Dash said, still looking her friend over. “I can do that.”
“Are you going to ask me about how I got these wings? And where I’ve been? Or maybe how I got to be here?” The studious mare asked, annoyed at her friend’s lack of compulsion for backstory.
“Nah. That’s all backstory, and I’m sure that I’ve already got a pretty clear picture of what’s going on just with this. So… yeah. Spare me the details. Where’s Luna, anyways? I heard her upstairs, but I thought that she was still asleep when I was up there?”
“Oh… I don’t know if Luna’s coming or not.” Twilight said, opening her wing so that she’d purposefully flick her feathers over Dash’s nose. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable with her being so close, even more so after last night’s events. “She said that she would join us down here after seven.”
Rainbow Dash groaned, flopping down on the couch. “That’s too long… I think I’ll go upstairs and see if I can get her outta bed. Okay?”
“Rainbow Dash she’s not really ready to wake up yet, and last night was really stressful for her. I don’t think that it’d be food for you or her if you just went up there unannounced.” She warned, biting her bottom lip. The princess was probably still upset about her earlier frivolity.
“It’ll be okay.” The pegasus shrugged laxly, rising from her seat and walking over to the stairs. “I think that once she knows it’s me she’ll change her mind. I’m only here for a day or two, so we could get some quality time in together since you’ll be living here from now on.”
Twilight sputtered, nearly choking on her own exhalation. “How did you know that?”
“I’m a little scatterbrained, Twi, but I’m not that thick.” The insulted mare countered, putting her hoof on the first step. “All alicorns live here. For a lot of good reasons.”
Rainbow Dash set up the steps, looking quite determined. On the way up Twilight tried to convince her that it wasn’t a good time to be disturbing Luna, and that it might get them both in trouble if she didn’t stop. The pegasus treaded on, heedless. She didn’t stop until she reached the top of the stairs, where she halted, standing as still as a statue. Twilight struggled to see past her, until she managed to push her friend aside, only to stop and gawk herself at the sight before her.
Luna was crouching in the middle of the floor, a large circle of papers around her, covered in runes that Twilight didn’t recognize. Suddenly she realized that they weren’t readable, but she did recognize the way the letters were structured. They were structured with a single line through the center of each letter, then another set of accompanying lines that declared each symbol’s meaning. She knew it immediately; it was language of the draconequi. The same letters could be found on the Pen of Id, and probably on a few other miscellaneous objects that Discord had scattered around Equestria. Alarm sparked in her mind before Luna cracked an eye open, then made a gesture with her hoof that indicated that she should leave. She didn’t know what was going to happen, but in another second the papers began to move.
Luna lit her horn, forcing all the papers to begin to converge on one very large piece of parchment directly in front of her. Twilight watched with fascination as the papers began to merge with the parchment, each one becoming a tiny, microscopic dot of ink on the surface of the blank page. Eventually they seemed to be a sort of picture, with breathtaking detail and color, the shadows all perfectly in place and colors so vivid it was like looking directly into another world. Then, like smoke, the image vanished. Rainbow Dash looked at Luna in confusion, wondering what the whole show had been about if it was just going to disappear. The princess offered no explanation, but instead strode over and put her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, nodding towards the stairs.
“We’ll join you in a moment.” Was all she said.
Dash went downstairs, while Twilight remained. She looked at her mentor, a million questions in her eyes. All of the sudden the image on the large parchment was back, and it was taking the form that she recognized all too well. It was herself, standing over by the window, looking back at the viewer with large half-closed eyes, smiling as she slipped out of her nightgown. Twilight was appalled. Something in her said that this hadn’t been any sort of accident. She had a lapse in attention, in diligence, and that had been all it had took. Luna looked at the painting with great pain in her eyes, rolling it up and throwing it over into a trunk that Twilight had never noticed in her room before. Except, this time, it hadn’t been Twilight’s fault.
“I’m afraid that I will no longer have any accurate recollection of that event.” Luna said, looking down at Twilight. “And I apologize for this, but I do believe that I, or at least, Nightmare, did. It wasn’t your fault, I was tired, and being awoken let her slip out for a half a second. She put the impulse to undress in your head, it wasn’t from you. She told me so right after I turned around. She then seized ahold of the memory and taunted me with it for somewhere between five to ten minutes. I couldn’t live with her waving that image in my face whenever I try to control myself around you, so I took it from her. And in the process, both of us. It’s locked in that trunk, sealed away. If you want to retrieve it and burn it, I would make no attempt to stop you.”
“Wasn’t that dangerous, though?” Twilight asked. “Using draconequis magic?”
“That is open for debate.” The princess commented, walking towards the stairs. “If you’re as proficient as me or you, then it is relatively safe so long as you apply yourself throughout the ritual. If you were just learning magic and thought you could tame the unbridled corruption that is draconequis sorcery, then you would be chained to the back of you consciousness and forced to watch as your darkest impulses controlled the rest of your life.”
Twilight sighed as they sat there in the living room. Rainbow Dash had been overly picky about her meal, and Spike was sitting on the couch beside her as she complained that the iceberg lettuce was too loosed for her, and that it should be a solid, stiff leaf. Twilight ate in silence, having decided to go with Rainbow Dash down to the castle pub. She didn’t know just when they would leave, but they all determined that it would be best if they ate first. One tended to spend unnecessary amounts on food when they are inebriated, which they had no illusions in their mind that they would be in roughly twelve hour’s time.
When they were done they had Spike take them to the kitchens and, while he was still occupied, slipped out of the tower. The three weren’t disguised or cloaked, for they had no reason to be. At this point the whole castle basically knew about Twilight staying there after the incident where Celestia had to take her back to her tower for bedrest. More than a dozen medical staff had checked her while she had been unconscious, and due to that the rumor had spread that Twilight was there, and that there was another alicorn besides Luna and Celestia. Cadence was hardly considered an alicorn, since she didn’t behave like one or even require the title assigned to royalty. She had always been in the mindset of a common pony, despite being raised in a palace.
Luna led the way, steering them through the extremely ill-traveled section of the castle with ease. She knew the castle like it was her own home, so it wasn’t a problem finding their way to the corridor between the Day Guards and the Night Guards. There was a clear demarcation, as either side of the castle from that point on was colored with either warm, bright colors, or a dark, cooler pallet. In between the two on the far side of the hall were two large glass doors that opened out into a massive balcony, the size of a playing field for sports at its maximum diameter. From almost fifty feet away they saw a griffon polishing glasses with her nimble talons, making sure to get the hardened rinds left at the bottom of a careless tequila-drinker’s glass.
Luna waved hello when they stepped out onto the balcony, which could hardly even be called that since she could practically hold a circus there if she wanted to. Dining chairs and polished oak tables were set all about the patio, as well as multiple glowing lampposts at random intervals. The griffon rolled her eyes and smiled, as if she and the princess were old friends greeting each other.
“She acts like you two met before.” Rainbow Dash asked, lowering the volume of her voice so the griffon wouldn’t hear.
“We have met before. As a matter of fact, you would have a hard time believing that I spent most of my nights here prior to my return. She’s talked me out of doing a lot of mindless things, and she actually has a degree from Canterlot University on clinical counseling and psychology. She chooses to work here because it allows her to be around the guards, which she used to be before she worked here, and it also lets her ply her craft in a more loose setting than a stuffy padded room. Her name is L’me, and she is to be treated with respect.”
Twilight smiled as they approached the bar, reaching out to shake her talons. They griffon didn’t hesitate to take her hoof and smile back at her, a steely glint in her eye. Luna greeted her by simply saying hello, and Rainbow Dash did the same, as if she didn’t know whether to be friendly in a formal sense like Twilight or in an informal sense, like Luna had.
“I’m guessing you’re just here for your usual.” L’me said, glancing at Luna. “I see you have the new subject of interest with you.” She commented, glancing at Twilight, who was still puzzling over the way the bartender had just referred to her. “I’ve heard all about her, even before she was an alicorn.”
“That’s good, but I’m just here for the usual. And perhaps something for these two.” Luna said, giving them a look that plainly expressed her desire to not be alone in the conversation.
“Oh, uh…” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ll just drink what Luna’s getting. If it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me.”
Twilight spoke up. “I’d like a bottle of aged, lightly spiced red wine.” She said, knowing her favorite from her dark period back before the final exam in her University days.
“Sure. Are you guys just going to leave now or are you staying?” She asked, flapping her wings so that she could reach up high enough on the wine rack for Twilight’s drink of choice. “Because the guys are coming in about an hour, and it’s Friday. It’s going to be quite the party.” She said, looking at Rainbow Dash.
Twilight gave her friend a stern look and mouthed ‘no’ under her breathe, all too aware that Rainbow Dash wasn’t the best in the world at keeping herself under control. She couldn’t imagine the trouble she’d get into with a large crowd of ponies, most of them being stallions. It would undoubtedly be a spectacle to go down in the history books, her doing a Sonic Rainboom right into a tree or a lamppost. Rainbow Dash shook her head politely, signaling she was going to pass. L’me shrugged and set the bottles on the counter, as if it didn’t make a difference in her overall day.
“No charge, by the way.” She said, gesturing to the two ponies beside Luna. “Any friend of hers is a friend of mine. So make sure that you thank her.”
Twilight didn’t remember much about the following evening. She remembered most in about the middle of it, with Luna making sure to lock them into the tower for safety and overall concern that things could get out of hand. Spike wasn’t there, as he had instead elected to sleep the night upstairs on Twilight’s half of the tower. Rainbow Dash had to literally be told by Luna to stop drinking the heavy Scotch, as she didn’t seem to be getting any more kick from it after the third or fourth shot. Despite the blur that the night became, Twilight remembered one strand of conversation among the massive, confusing cat’s cradle that was her memory of that night.
“So Twilight.” Luna asked, in her usual manner, though with a noticeable increase in the volume of her voice, as well as a light twinge of a lilt towards the end of her sentences. “I’ve been thinking and I’ve wanted to ask you… do you forgive me for the, erm, incident earlier today? I know it was my fault, so I simply wanted to ask.”
“Of course I forgive you.” Twilight said casually, setting her hoof on the older mare’s shoulder. “I don’t see how I couldn’t, since I’ve made more than a few mistakes with my dark side before. Just yesterday I made a deal with it. It was awful, but I know that I had to do it to get her to let me go. I don’t intend on doing it, but I knew it wasn’t right to bargain with her.”
“I do the same things sometimes.” Luna said, nodding soulfully. “I know that my sister does as well. Except… she’s in a little deeper with her Id than either of us. She’s really there with hers, sometimes I have a hard time telling them apart… and sometimes I wonder if the her that I know, and have known for so long, has been the Id the whole time. She’s been through these mad personality swings before, and I think that it was the two sides of her trying to find balance… the worst part is that I don’t know which part of her is worse. There was one time, back when I was only a thousand-two-hundred or so, when she began to hire servants purely based on their orientation towards the opposite gender! Then she would torture those who preferred males with her own body, and then subject those preferring mares to interact with males! I swear she not only did it on purpose, but she was purely striving for their discomfort.
Then there are these times where she… shuts down. Becomes this poor, meek, shy mare and holes herself up in her tower. She speaks in this small, shaky voice and tells me that she’s trapped, and can’t think and the echoes in her head make her want to cry. It makes me so scared when she gets like that… it’s like the her that I never got to see. She was so nice, too. She was such an artist as well. She wasn’t good at magic at all, but she could paint you a portrait like no other pony I’ve ever known. She could freely talk to me, without a single hint of contempt in her voice or rude comment towards her servants. She seemed almost… peaceful. She could be sociable and make jokes. She didn’t have a speck of political know-how, she could barely even stand in front of a crowd without becoming ill. Then, like a dying star, she would be the same awful, cruel, but analytical and well-versed Celestia. She went from being a great leader to a foal at heart, then faded back to this political monster that I never wanted to see again after that… that almost sweet Celestia had convinced me that she wasn’t so bad after all.”
For some reason Twilight remembered that specific conversation. She also remembered that shortly afterwards Luna had begun a tearful recollection of the sweeter, nicer Celestia that she had only encountered on a handful of occasions. Deciding that it wasn’t helping her to keep drinking, Luna helped Twilight up the stairs, heading for bed. The two didn’t talk much before they fell asleep. But she swore she felt like Luna was sobbing on the other side of the room.