“Thank you again for the pillow Bonbon.” She could hear Fluttershy say.
“No problem, I needed a good nap after that party and Lyra got it for me.” The nap Bonbon had sounded pretty refreshing.
“Ugh, what happened and why do I feel like some pony performed acupuncture on me?” Twilight tried to move only for Fluttershy to put a firm hoof on her chest.
“Please continue resting for a bit, it’s only been ten minutes. Luna screamed loudly and um, you broke a table in half with the back of your head and a bowl of punch shattered all over your face after hitting your horn. A lot of silverware hit you to; luckily the knives weren’t in too deep.” Turning to the large hole in the wall Fluttershy could almost be seen as having giant sweat drop hanging off the side of her face. “Tress wasn’t happy about that. I just had to pull a few things out, clean the wounds, use some medication to avoid infection and I only just finished bandaging you.”
“Are you feeling okay mom?” Her daughter was at her side with a worried look, wondering if it was okay to hug her.
“I feel alright enough my little flame. Since all of you are staring at me, I take it you want to ask about Tress and the hole she obviously created in the wall?” It wasn’t hard for Twilight to figure out, Tress decided to tangle with Luna. After a moment Twilight face hoofed at even thinking the pun. The ponies started to crowd around her asking her about Tress’s cutie mark changing shape, including the changelings who knew she wasn’t one of them.
“Actually I don’t really care what’s up with Tress, she’s our friend and if she really wanted us to know she’d tell us what that was.” Many a pony looked at Lyra wondering if she was a changeling infiltrator, some even murmured as much, even the few still clearly visible changelings standing among the other ponies. “What? If it’s not right for another pony to go prying into any of your personal lives; then why should it be okay to do it to others? If Tress doesn’t want to talk about it then she probably has a good reason, it’s only okay if they are doing something completely suspicious. No offense to all the changelings in the room.”
“We go by the donkey’s statement of none taken; I feel a lot of shock in the room slowly easing into acceptance here. Luna tasted happy when we greeted her, acknowledging her in mass really helped her work out some of her issues.” The changeling that spoke was currently the best psychiatrist in Ponyville, never once did it have to ask how a pony felt. It was an interesting job for a changeling; it could get to the root of any problem if it was emotional in nature. “Now if only she could get over her jealousy of her sister and her hatred of herself for feeling the jealousy in the first place. Otherwise she does feel complete remorse for failing her subjects a thousand years prior and becoming what she is still partially now. Currently her emotional intent aside from anger is only sadness; all that fighting must really be putting some of her mind off all stress of suddenly being thrust back into society. I think Luna is easily redeemable without having to forcefully alter her mind with magic, which is a bad idea in the long run anyway. You might really need to talk with your friend Tress however; all that pent up frustration is never a good thing to hold on to. Maybe you could send her my way so that I can figure out a way to get her to talk about it if she won’t do so with you.”
“Thanks for the information Doctor Leech, I’ll try to talk to you later about getting Tress to come in and see you about that frustration.” Twilight had gone to the changeling a few times about how Chrysalis handled the situation in Saddle Arabia. The doctor was a good changeling who wanted to make ponies happy which in turn equaled happy changelings.
“Lyra, it’s a bit jarring that you are the mature one in the room at the moment. I’ve seen you acting weird all the time and especially with Bonbon, but now?” Octavia already liked Lyra well enough after they had become such good friends. It was a tad hard to keep up with Twilight and Tress always gallivanting about, who knows what kind of magical maladies those two ran into. At least every pony in Ponyville knew plenty about poison joke now.
A lot of the ponies shrugged figuring Lyra had a point and started moving out to go watch the battle from a safe distance, the top of a grassy hill would be perfect. Twilight aided by Fluttershy followed them and came upon the sight of Tress wrapping her hair around Luna’s neck and right leg. The two lengths of Tress’s mane lit up in a white glow causing Luna to convulse in pain as tons of electrical energy surged into her.
Twilight sat down with the other ponies and it was obvious all were worried for their princess and for Tress as well. Luna had suddenly forced her way through the pain to blast Tress with a solid beam of magic. This forced Tress to release Luna and crash solidly through a tree which toppled over on top of her. A lot of ponies were gasping until Tress lifted the tree off of herself with her hair and swung it around. Luna took the full brunt of a tree and all its branches to her entire body, she shot off into the sky and within a second she caught herself and flew back towards Tress before diving steeply at her.
“Feeling better yet or are you still on a hair trigger?!” Mane-iac shouted mockingly only to nearly get gored by Luna’s horn. She didn’t avoid the impact entirely and it sent her flying, she bounced a few times against the ground before she caught herself on her mane and tail. “Okay, ouch, now I’m starting to feel all the hairline fractures.”
“Thou art hoping this fight is not to the death, thou art an interesting individual and thine transformation doesn’t appear to be nearly as baleful as mine.” The darkness was just disappearing from Luna as they fought up to this point and she was actually enjoying the battle and the pain of exertion. “It is truly helping, I thank thee.”
“Oh, my aching follicles… I don’t know how much more of this I can take. An alicorn is definitely the toughest thing I’ve ever had to face and alone at that.” Mane-iac grunted as her body quickly worked to fix her injuries, she set herself down gently only her front right hoof didn’t hit the ground. Another hoof had wrapped around hers.
“Who says Luna or you have to face this alone, I’m tagging in! The princess could use all the friends she can get so stop hogging her already! I always wanted to show my stuff, you’ll why I’m the top trainer in Ponyville’s dojo.” Berry Punch quickly spun around and then threw Mane-iac directly at Twilight who hastily caught her in her magic. Pulling out a bottle of wine she poured some down her throat and then stumbled slightly as she stood up on her two hind hooves. “My names Berry Punch, let’s do this thing princess woo!”
“Oh Celestia, please strike me down now if you’re watching.” Colgate said sadly as she face hoofed.
“Mommy is mom going to hurt the princess badly?” Ruby Pinch asked innocently.
“No Ruby, she just wants to challenge herself… that and your mom is completely blind stinking drunk again dear.” Sighing Colgate couldn’t help but smile at her wife. “Probably won’t feel a single thing when she wakes up later. I love her so dearly; I just wish she wouldn’t jump into things without asking how I feel about it.”
Princess Luna hadn’t any idea what had hit her when she had been attacked by Tress, now she knew what hit her this time but she didn’t see it. Her chin flared in agony and then with a sudden yank on her tail, Luna was spun around twice before being slammed into the ground. It seems a thousand years hadn’t dulled the strength of earth ponies at all.
Charging her horn, Luna let off a barrage of energy blasts at Berry and she dodged each one of them magnificently in only a fashion that would make one mistake her for a drunken idiot. Each movement she made, standing on one hoof upside down, flopping like a fish on her belly, a cartwheel and then doing the monkey out of nowhere, it was all performed in an overtop ridiculous manner. It confused Luna to no end that she had missed Berry when she stopped to start waving her front two hooves up and down which shifting side to side; this was a most vexing opponent.
“Zecora, Trixie would like to ask if she can borrow those flash bombs you and the teacher made.” Fixing the hat on her head Trixie smiled at Pinkie asking a question silently, the pink mare nodded enthusiastically. Have audience, will flaunt.
“I see no problem as things are not all too rough; we will save some as what little left of Nightmare Moon is proving quite tough.” Sitting among friends watching them tire the princess out was quite amusing and here Zecora thought Nightmare Moon would have been more volatile and violent. Instead she was playing with her subjects and enjoying herself. It was going to be a long night and though darkness may not have entirely fled Luna’s heart yet, it certainly had a hard time finding purchase in the fun Luna was having this evening.
Twilight smiled slightly as an exhausted Tress rested next to her having felt no need to hold her transformation. Berry was forcefully tagged out by Colgate to be dragged off by her ear; it was Trixie and Pinkie’s turn to have fun now as they appeared in two blinding flashes. Trixie was wearing her usual uniform and Pinkie was wearing a top hat and a tuxedo, she had an unusually bright smile on her face as they faced down Luna. Berry was right, why face something alone when you could bring a friend?
“I call next!” Shouted Lyra as she practiced some notes on her harp, many other ponies started to pick up on what was going on here.
Twilight was proud to call all these ponies her friends; just having friends was solving the problem without any pony having to get seriously injured or hurt. Except for her and Tress of course, not like life would let them get away without injury. The next five minutes were a slapstick comedy routine in which neither Pinkie nor Trixie showed any aggression towards the princess, Luna moved over to join the rest of the ponies in the crowd hearing them laugh gaily.
“So having fun Princess Luna?” Twilight looked up at the princess as she giggled mercilessly at what Trixie and Pinkie were doing to each other; the laughter was infectious.
“Fun, pray tell us, what does thou word mean?” Luna didn’t know why she got such an awkward look from Twilight.
It boggled the mind that Luna didn’t know what fun was, especially given the diary of the two sisters did together. Only Celestia truly sought amusement, as in not seeing things as just a means to a specified end. In that respect it made perfect sense that Luna didn’t know what fun was.
“Really, I know the perfect song for you then! F is for friends who…” Pinkie got a pie to the face courtesy of Trixie causing an uproarious laughter as nobody had ever managed to stop her from starting a musical number before in quite such a fashion.
“No singing in the middle of the act Pinkie!” Trixie shouted angrily, only to have Pinkie hold a flower up to her asking for forgiveness and then they hugged. The crowd was positively gushing at the adorable antics of the pair. Soon they moved out of the way and let Lyra and Octavia out onto the field.
While a musical act went on, Twilight turned to Luna and thought of her friends currently risking their lives in the Ever Free Forest for one of the worst mares she has ever met in her life. They were doing it because she asked her friends to volunteer for such a mission. Tress snuggled Twilight feeling that her mood had taken a sharp downturn to match the frown.
“Is this fun a time where one seeks merriment?” It took a moment for Luna to notice Twilight’s downturned expression. Looking at herself Luna’s coat was now dark blue, her mane was less universal looking and her cutie mark was completely normal. At some point she had forgiven Celestia for she had greatly wronged herself and others that night years ago, only now did the reason she did all that for seem entirely petty. “Twilight what is the matter?”
“Luna, fun is doing stuff with friends that you and the friend involved can both enjoy. Sometimes you can do things with your friends that they don’t like, but they will still do them with you if it makes you happy.” It was odd to Fluttershy that the three of them have come so far, they may not have always been the best of friends at all times but they were practically glued together from the moment they met. They had even saved a princess from her own madness and anger by just giving her some love and kindness, something Fluttershy had in spades. “A friend is an important pony to you that you want to spend some time with when you’re feeling blue and need the comfort of familiarity. No pony is an island princess.”
“We know that now, Fluttershy, still what is it that makes Twilight feel the blueness?” Every pony paused in the simple enjoyment of the music and they all gather around Twilight herding together out of instinct.
“Some of her friends went to protect your sisters current student, with the dangers they face the fleeting feelings of joy here is prudent. Until they are truly safe in mind, Twilight will not feel right in kind.” At Zecora’s words a determined look passed over Luna’s face, her subjects were in danger and it was about time she got back into being the princess she was supposed to be.
The night was Luna’s realm and she had a newfound sense of responsibility.