After a while of Michael scratching behind my ear I fell asleep. There’s no telling when I actually dozed off, but I’d say it didn’t take too long. When I woke up he was nowhere to be seen and my moon was high in the sky.
There was a moment of me looking around, thinking he was somewhere close by. He wasn’t here. Either he went further into the forest or he went out into the field. Deciding that this was my only chance to get out, I started walking out towards the meadow. If he was gone, there was more chance he’d be in the forest than the flat grass. I snuck past the tree line, hoping I’d chosen right.
“It’s not right.” I heard his voice, but it was a mere mumble. My head silently whipped around, facing the direction I thought he was.
When I did spot him he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking straight up. Two seconds later I realized he had been talking about my night sky. I looked up, seeing that it was the same as it was last night, when I painted the stars across the sky.
“That’s not where they go.” He muttered angrily to himself.
“Excuse me?” I yelled, angrier than him. My voice seemed to startle him, but only for a moment. Seeing that it was me, he visibly relaxed.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Luna, I was just commenting on the stars.” He told me with a smile. “If I somehow offended you, I apologize.”
“Of course I take offense to that! You’re slandering my most precious work!” Rage clear in my voice as I motioned to the sky.
“You mean you splatter the night with its stars?” He seemed dumbfounded by the notion.
“Who else would do it?” The sarcasm was thick in my voice.
“Well, in my experience, nobody would make it the way it is. It’s just natural.” He said this as if he knew what he was talking about.
“What? That makes no sense! I have to put the stars in the sky or there’s nothing there, just an empty void!” One of his eyebrows rose slowly.
“Well then I shall show you where to put them!” He walked into the clearing, far enough so he could see most, if not all, of the sky above him. I soon followed after.
“What do you mean ‘show me where to put them’?” I asked as I sat down next to him.
“I’m going to show you where to put the stars.” He lay on his back, patting the area next to him. I rolled onto my back, coming a little close before I readjusted to a more comfortable distance. He was not fazed by this at all, of course. He just looked towards the sky in wonder.
“There is one problem.” I told him once I was settled. “I can’t change the sky without my magic.”
“That’s a simple fix.” He pulled the limiter off of my horn without any hesitation. I was surprised from his obvious neglect of my possible escape. “The first constellations are the Big and Little Dippers, or Ursa Major and Minor. It seems you’ve got those in the right general area, but they’re a little close. Move Ursa Minor a little to the right and it should be perfect.” He said before I could react.
“Um… ok.” The stars were moved as he instructed and I looked back to him for approval.
“Perfect! Moving on to Orion.” He said quickly.
‘I don’t remember the last time someone was this interested in my sky.’ I thought to myself. I subtly scooted back against his side, snuggling up close to conserve warmth, thinking ‘this is going to be a long night.’
-----
AT STARSWIRL THE BEARDED’S HOUSE
The hardest part was getting Celestia into the dress. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to put another being into a froofy outfit without any cooperation from her at all, not to mention she was twice as big as me. Starswirl was much easier, considering he was smaller and his new clothes could unbutton, allowing the tuxedo to slide on much easier. I looked upon my work, the two of them dressed up as if they were the mare and stallion of a wedding. I decided this was enough, moving back into the position I was in when I paused time, charging my magic to cancel the effect of the spell.
There was a moment of relative silence as I stayed crouched before the two.
“Any time now, Minuette.” Said Starswirl, almost impatiently.
“I did, teacher. I'm finished.” I said as I stood once more “you may kiss the bride.” It took all of my willpower to hold back the howling laughter that was threatening to burst from my mouth.
This is when they realized their costume change. They looked at each other, blushing profusely, before they looked away, Starswirl at me, Celestia anywhere but.
“Minuette, what is the meaning of this?” He yelled at me.
“You asked me to demonstrate the new spell.” I said calmly. “I found the best way to do this was change something about you that wouldn’t otherwise be possible with magic.”
“Was it necessary to choose such… embarrassing outfits?” He asked quietly, obviously trying to spare Celestia any more embarrassment.
“They were what I had on hoof.” I said with a shrug.
“You just happen to have an alicorn sized dress ‘on hoof’?” Celestia’s eyebrow rose in disbelief.
“Well, a friend of mine was making one; he was planning on showing you the next time you visited. Oh, by the way Celestia, it would mean the world to me if you acted surprised when Mantua shows you this in the future.” I nearly pleaded to the princess.
“This is for me? I never thought of getting married!” She said in surprise, now looking at the dress in a nearby mirror more closely, admiring the handiwork put into the garment.
“Yeah, and like I said, he’ll be unveiling it to you next time you publicly visit.” I told her once again. She nodded in understanding. “I’ll return them now.” I said as I used the spell once again and put the dresses back where I got them.
“Thank you, Minuette. I’m sorry Celestia, that wasn’t supposed to be so awkward.” Starswirl said when he noticed the suit was gone.
“Nonsense. I rather enjoyed a sneak peak at my future wedding dress.” She said, wiping the little bit of makeup I’d missed off of her face.
-----
CELESTIA’S POINT OF VIEW
“Tsk, tsk, Celestia, I’m gone a mere day and you’re already willing to marry another stallion?” Said a voice that seemingly came from all around us. “You wound me, Celestia. I thought you wanted to rule by my side, but I guess that your love for me was merely imaginary.”
“Discord! What are you doing here?” I called, angry that the enemy had been listening to the conversation.
“Oh, I was just in the neighborhood when I heard that my favorite alicorn was at my favorite magician’s house!” Discord said as he dripped from the ceiling, collecting into his normal shape as he fell from above. “And as soon as I arrive, it’s to hear that you don’t love me.” He pulled his heart from his chest, splitting it in half as he began to cry.
“Discord, I could never love a villain such as you.” I took a fighting stance, lighting my horn in case he attacked. “You cause misery and don’t care. All that you want is to create chaos.” He shoved the two pieces back into his chest, not reacting to my obvious hostility.
“That is true. The part about making chaos, that is. But I don’t want to spread this so called ‘misery’ to my subjects, they just don’t understand fun like I do!” He explained like he simply played a prank that went south. “Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I actually came to tell you about a couple things, one item of interest being the details of our little fight. The other being that I found your little spy.” Discord cleaned his fingers as he said this, as if he held no interest in the matter.
“You captured Luna?” I was stunned, stunned enough to drop my defensive posture completely.
“Yes, but don’t worry, she’s being treated well. I’ve left her in the hands of my champion. I suspect they are having a friendly chat right now.” He said calmly.
I reached out to Luna, searching for her life signs and emotions at the least. What I found scared me to no end. Her heart was beating much faster than normal, she was sweating, and she was afraid for her life. That was all I could tell, meaning they had a magical Limiter on her.
“Discord! Release my sister now!” I retook my stance, aiming my charged horn at his chest, dead center.
“Oh, Celly, I wouldn’t worry too much about her, she’s perfectly fine… for now.” He had a predatory look in his eye. “When we fight it will be in the clearing just outside Whitetail Woods. I’ll have an arena set up and any and all that want to watch will have the ability. It will be an open show!” He yelled jovially, laughing as he threw his arms into the air in a “ta-da!” manner. His arms went flying, exploding into small fireworks.
“Agreed.” I growled at him, still watching my sister’s vitals and emotions as they slowly lowered.
“Good. I’ll summon you when it is time for the battle. Until then, ciao!” And he vaporized into the air.
I didn’t want to take the chance of Discord hearing me so I projected my voice into Starswirl and Minuette’s minds. ‘I need to go and find the Elements of Harmony, I’ll be back before too long. While I’m gone, Minuette, I need you to train yourself in this spell as much as possible. Starswirl, teach her some simple fighting skills. I will be back.’ I quickly teleported back to where I left off in my search, leaving them no chance to question my request.
-----
IN THE CLEARING OUTSIDE WHITETAIL WOODS
“Ok, we’re almost done.” Michael said as I rested my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “There’s only one more thing to do, then we’re finished.”
“What is it?” I looked up at his face; his eyes sparkled with curiosity and excitement as he helped create my night sky.
“Admire your work.” He said as he relaxed, his left arm supporting my head.
“My work? You designed this sky.” I told him.
“Nobody designed the sky, it just happened, much like every beautiful thing in the world, but you’ve done a wonderful job recreating it.” He recited.
“Then where did these constellations come from?” I asked, genuinely curious. “If nobody made it, that is.”
“This is the sky from my world, where I come from the sky that is shown during the night is beautiful and natural. They are the result of the creation of the universe, by whichever means you believe in.” He smiled as I looked to him in awe.
There was a moment of silence, which was broken by a long yawn escaping from his mouth. I realized that he’d had a long day and was probably exhausted.
“You are tired, go to sleep, I promise I won’t run away.” I told him. “Most creatures sleep through my night anyway.” My voice took a sad tone when I said this. It was true. My night was shunned because it was dark. Even when the moon was at its fullest, it was dwarfed by the light of the sun that would come in the morning.
“Why would I want to sleep when I could watch the stars with you?” He asked, making my heart skip a beat. A thousand questions rushed through my head, but I didn’t have time to focus on them when he spoke again. “And even though you promised not to run away, what would happen if some predator came by wanting a midnight snack? If we were both asleep we wouldn’t stand a chance.” His voice was quiet, soothing and caring; the flutter in my chest increased threefold.
His voice broke me out of my thoughts once more. “No, you go to sleep, I know how long you’ve been awake and what you’ve been through. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He placed his hand on my head and started stroking my mane. His strokes made me realize exactly how tired I was. My eyelids became heavy as I started dozing off.
“Ok… I’ll just… take a quick… nap.” I said as I slipped into the realm of sleep.
The last thing I heard before falling unconscious was his voice.
He said “goodnight, Lulu.”