Chapter Three
With a blink, Luna opened her heavy eyes to see a white blob above her, with two long white trunks leaning down to her.
“Oh thank goodness you’re awake Lulu,” Tia leaned down and nuzzled her head. “I was getting worried as you were in your private dream realm for the entire night, and I need to raise the sun soon and the moon hasn’t been put away yet and-”
“Solaris, you have raised and lowered my moon for over a thousand years now,” Artemis glared at his panicky big brother, who was practically yanking out his foolish beard. “Why now are you having trouble with moving it?”
His brother blinked at him, confusion plain on his face. Then he shook his head and laughed a bit, almost as nice as Luna’s… That train of thought caused his cheeks to blush which made him glad for his dark room to hide this from Solaris.
“Well brother,”
Celestia smiled gently, leaning down, almost certainly seeing her blush when she had thought of Artemis. “It is not mine to move anymore,” She leaned down to nuzzle her little sister. “Nor will I move it ever again unless you cannot for some drastic reason.”
“I- uh,” Luna stammered, surprised at the strength of her sister’s words and promise. “Thank you Tia,” she leaned into the nuzzle. She laughed, the good feelings from her encounter with Artemis were still with her. “I suppose I should go lower my moon.” She nuzzled her way out of her sister’s hug, and flew to her balcony.
Her inner clock told her it was about ten minutes past dawn, with her ponies certainly worried about why the moon hadn’t set yet and the sun was still down, but their worries didn’t matter to her right now as her sister understood the importance of not raising her moon without her approval.
“So Lu-“
“-mis,” Solaris watched his younger brother fly into the sky, lowering his moon elegantly. Not even on his most sober of days, and he had only recently started drinking again, could he do half a good job as Arty did with the night sky. “May I ask why you were that entranced into your dream realm?” he asked as softly as he could, using as little authority as he could. He was not asking as a ruler, buck him sideways, he was asking as a concerned brother. Not too concerned, though...
His brother landed beside the alicorn of the day, waiting for the taller alicorn to do the same with his celestial body. Throwing himself into the sky, he grabbed the giant ball of fire and put it on its daily track. Looking down, his heart fell as he saw his ponies let out sighs of relief that the day had begun, as if they didn’t trust Arty to keep to the day and night schedule! Biting his lip, he landed next to his brother, who was using a wing to block the glare from the morning sun. He had to resist an urge to laugh and pull him into a hug; the younger alicorn was acting so damn Arty-like right now. He was yawning, grumbling about being up so early, blushing like a colt that had had his first tumble with a mare, shuffling on his tired hoo-
Wait, what‽ Celestia snapped her head to her sister, blushing almost as badly as when she had caught Shining Armor and Cadance going at it for the first time. Not exactly that bad, but on a somewhat similar level!
Oh, the time not to be blessed with the ability to understand all types and feelings of love like her niece!
“Luna?” she asked gently, still remembering Ironhide’s words last night, about how much she needed to step back from Luna, and she was worried as Tartarus about further hurting her sister.
Luna just squeaked like a mare that was goosed as her response, blushing as she turned around. “Oh T-Tia, well you see last night, I-”
“Met somepony last night in my private dream realm,” Artemis spoke in an embarrassed tone, walking to the royal dining room. Solaris’s eyes went wide at this; Artemis’s private dream realm was the most secure mental fortresses in the entire universe. Artemis had taught him how to secure his sleeping mind and he was positive that the only thing keeping that squirming blue alicorn next to him out was common courtesy. After all, Solaris didn’t go snooping in his room.
That often, to be honest with himself…
“Oh?” Solaris asked gently, a bit amused that Artemis wasn’t put- “Artemis, your regalia.” He spoke gently, causing his little brother to jump back a bit, darting back into his room to dress properly and out of the socks he was so fond of. As much as he wanted his brother to get used to the lax manners of modern Equestria, he had to let it happen by his brother’s hooves, not his trickery.
“Thank you Sol-”
“-estia,” her sister smiled at her, too quick for it be a fake one, as she stepped out dressed in her regalia. It caused Celestia’s heart to swell, knowing that she was doing the right thing to fix this matter with her sister. “‘Twould be most embarrassing to walk without anything on besides those socks.” She laughed, which caused Celestia to laugh as well.
“I suppose it would be.” She chuckled, wiping away a tear with a wing. This was good, Luna was already acting as before, more than all the years since she had been saved from Nightmare Moon.
“Although it felt normal with Artemis…” Luna whispered softly, her steps sounding dainty as she walked onwards.
“Wh-who?” She had to keep her head straight, she couldn’t freak out-
“The stallion I me-”
“-et last night- are you alright brother?” The alicorn of the night turned to his brother, who had tripped over on the flat tile floor, face planting into the ground, tail high in the air, flowing around the non-existent breeze.
“Besides my dignity, I’m fine.” He almost brushed off his brother’s hoof, but thought better of it and let himself be helped up. “I- is this that the pony that was in your dream realm last night?”
“Yes brother,” Artemis started to blush again, yawning as he sat down at his seat. “Servant, thine thickest mug of coffee!” He nodded his head towards a waiter, already going to get the strong blend for the prince of the night. It was only to be brought out if the prince of the night was up and about during the day, as it was liable to burn out the throats of anypony besides alicorns and dragons if they drank it. It was also the only thing proven to keep Artemis from falling face first into his breakfast, snoring his tail off as he was not a morning pony. And Artemis was a clingy sleeper…
“Make it two please,” Solaris called out to h-
er servant. Biting her lip, she looked over her sister who was pushing her food around in a distracted manner, one that she saw on her niece when she was growing up here when she was thinking of Shining Armor. “Can you, if you don’t mind, tell me about this pony?” She was scared that Luna would clam up, tell her to butt out, that all the hard-
“Well, Artemis is a stallion, you see,” Luna blushed, lifting a fork of her salad into her mouth. “A bit taller than me, but not too much.”
“I see,” Celestia nodded her head, letting her go on while her mind was falling apart. Her sister, her little sister, was in love with somepony and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to take Luna to her bedroom to dish about it, find the stallion and make sure he never put a hoof on her, run around screaming in joy, panic, fear, or something, or do anything else right now besides sitting on her plot and eating a simple breakfast and drinking Magma Grade Coffee! “Go on.”
“Well, she has a lovely blue coat, really soft and dexterous wings,” Artemis said with a goofy grin on his face, taking a sip of his coffee without flinching somehow. “Strong, but gentle hooves. The most amazing teal eyes, and the most beautiful laugh ever.” He let out a deep contented sigh, which made Solaris’s heart do a flip of joy. It was taking every fibre of his being not to squeeze his brother, or break out in the Royal Pony Brothers victory dance. With a quick glance, he made sure that the sun was behaving normally and not reflecting his emotions again.
Artemis then let out a dorkish chuckle, with his lips curling upwards as Solaris turned his head back to see his brother had the most blessed look on his face. “And she has the cu-”
“-cest pair of flanks.” Luna said, her cheeks scarlet red.
Celestia let out a bit of amused chuckles; so surprised and delighted to hear her sister talking like that.
Luna’s ears flattened backwards, but she merely rolled her eyes at her big sister, showing that she didn’t mind the teasing.
“So Luna,” she smiled as she bit into her crepe, almost giddy with joy now. “Do you know how this pegasus managed to get into your dream realm?”
“Oh!” Luna coughed, a bit of her coffee falling onto the table. She was looking down again, not in embarrassment, but in guilt. “Um, Tia, we did not say Artemis was a pegasus.”
“That does make sense, I suppose,” she did her best to calm Luna down, trying to be non hostile. “A unicorn might be able to slip in somehow better than a pega-”
“Tia,” Luna coughed, looking really embarrassed and a tiny bit guilty now. “It would be more fair to say that Artemis is both a pegasus and unicorn,” she paused for second, blinking. “As well as an earth pony we suppose,” Luna turned and caught the confused face of the princess of the sun. “Artemis is an ali-”
“-corn of the night.” Artemis spoke, fidgeting as he took a deep swig of his coffee, coughing as it went down the wrong pipe.
“How is that possible?” Solaris frowned in confusion, trying to comprehend how it would be possible to have two alicorns of the night at the same time in his nation without knowing anything about it.
“Well, it is my belief that that Luna is from another realm where, at the very least, Eris, yours, and my own genders are changed, and somehow Luna and I were able to converse within the same realm last night.”
“Are you sure Arty?” Solaris leaned close, worried that his little brother was being taken advantage of somehow by some old, or new, enemy.
“Of course,” Artemis glared at the taller alicorn, clearly annoyed that he would doubt him. “We both had plans for this possibility for a close realm encounter and Luna passed that test.” He blinked, and chuckled, blushing a tiny bit. “And so did I, I guess.”
“What test?” Solaris was a bit hurt that his brother hadn’t told him about these plans but he was also curious about this ‘test’.
Artemis’s face flushed, and put on a mixture of his annoyed face with his smug face. “It was mentioning the time you had drunk sex with Eris with a tuba and a-”
Solaris groaned, holding his hooves up in defeat. “I said I was sorry about that, Arty, I didn’t think we’d wake you.”
“Riiiiight,” Artemis rolled his eyes, stabbing his egg and letting out an annoyed huff. “I still can’t look at a bana-”
“-neapple without feeling the need to wash myself.” Luna gave an overdramatic shudder which caused Celestia to laugh a bit.
“In any case, I am glad that you had some time with somepony like you last night.” Celestia smiled, finishing off her breakfast, enjoying this simple bonding moment with her sister. Soon she would have to act like a princess but she would take every moment that she could to be an older sister teasing her younger sister about the colt she liked!
“Thank you Tia,” Luna leaned over, hugging her gently. Celestia’s heart melted, certain that things were better. Everything was going to be perfect! “We are going to see each other tonight again!”
Then Luna had to say that.