"Princess Luna? Is that you?" I asked. I heard a nervous laugh. It looked like Princess Luna, but all I could see was a silhouette.
"Uh, yes, it is us," she replied. She came into the light and hovered outside the balcony. What is she doing here?
"Well, why don't you join me?" I said as I patted the space beside me. Princess Luna smiled and sat down next to me. The Moon hovering in front of us.
"Why art thou awake? Most ponies are asleep," she said, looking down for a little while. I felt sorry for her, is her night still under appreciated? I needed to say something to make her feel better. Luckily, the truth will do just that.
"Well, if I'm going to have to leave tomorrow, I'd like to watch the stars before I go. They're beautiful." I said. Princess Luna looked to me and smiled.
"You think our sky is beautiful?" she asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"Do you think I'd lie? Of course it is!" I gestured to the stars. "Look, that one is my favourite. That star cluster to the right of the moon." I said. Princess Luna closed one eye and followed my point. She nodded.
"Why that one in particular?" she asked.
"Well, look at it. All those whites and reds and blues. Can you imagine how many stars are in the one spot?" I asked. Princess Luna looked up, thinking.
"If our memory serves us right, that's Messier 69 with... 19,869 stars," she answered, smiling. I looked at her with a surprised face. Holy crap! She knows the name and the amount of stars? She's a genius! "That's Mars, that's Betelgeuse, oh! there's the Orion Nebula. There's the Orion constellation, there's Taurus the constellation. That's Aldebaran, there's the constellation of Lepus, and Monoceros." She said as she pointed towards stars and tracing the line of the constellations.
"Wow, that's brilliant, you are extremely clever" I said. Princess Luna blushed a little bit.
"It's our job to know the night sky," she said modestly. I laughed.
"Huh... showoff..." I said teasingly. Princess Luna chuckled,
"Stop it... Does thou want to see a real showoff?" she asked cockily. I looked at her, confused.
"Uh, sure." I replied. Princess Luna stood up and turned her side towards me.
"Get on," she said enthusiastically. Now I was even more confused.
"You want me to climb on your back?" I asked.
"Yeah, just do it. Unless thou art scared," she said teasingly. I smiled at her and climbed on to her back. Once I settled in she took off over the balcony and did a swan dive. She pulled up and leveled out. I felt like screaming but all I could do was laugh. "Thou art enjoying this?" she asked.
"Heck yeah!" I said. I always wanted to fly, and now I am... on Princess Luna's back.
I looked down to the ground. We were even higher than the balcony now. And I was enjoying every bit of it. The streets were empty and the Moon's light was the only source of vision. We were flying towards the Moon, Princess Luna's head glowing in front of it. She looked over her shoulder and smiled.
"Thou should hang on," she said.I wondered what she meant when she tilted her body to the side and did several barrel rolls. This time I screamed and wrapped my arms around her neck. I heard Princess Luna laugh as she leveled out once more.
"This is fun, Princess Luna," I said. She laughed.
"Thou art welcome... we never got thou's name," she said. Surprisingly she was right. Neither Princess Celestia nor Princess Luna asked for my name.
"It's Samuel, you can call me Sam." I answered.
"Thou art welcome... Sam. Odd name. Thou may call me Luna. Saying 'princess' each time is a waste of breath," she said. I felt very happy that Princess Luna would allow me to call her Luna. I felt honoured beyond belief.
"Hey, Luna, how did you know I was awake?" I asked. Luna looked away hesitantly.
"We go through the dreams of all our subjects, and when we could not find thou's, we came to say hello," she replied.
"You wanted to get in my dreams? At least buy me dinner first, sheesh," I said jokingly. Luna laughed with me. But she seemed kind of nervous. Was she allowed to come see me? Is she breaking some sort of rule right now? Luna interrupted my thoughts by circling down to the ground. "Where are we?" I asked.
"We like to come here to think, sometimes. We are in the garden," Luna replied, taking seat on a nearby bench. And by seat I meant lying down on it, taking up three fourths of the bench. I stood there, thinking of how to sit. "Oh, we're sorry, you... humans sit differently then us." Princess Luna said as she stood up and sat back on her haunches, her wavy tail tucked in through the gap on the bottom of the backrest of the bench. I thanked her and took my seat beside her.
"Is this the Canterlot garden?" I asked.
"No, this is Tia and ours. Our own special garden." Luna said. She sighed deeply as she looked around her. I looked around, too. And was very surprised by the beauty of the garden. From above it looked huge, and from the ground it looked bigger. I took in a deep breath. All sorts of fragrances filled my nose. Each one more beautiful than the last. I took another deep breath.
"Honey," I said, smelling my favourite scent. Luna looked at me.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Oh, nothing. I just smelled honey." I answered. Luna closed her eyes.
"Yes, that is our favourite smell, honey. We picked it specifically," she added. I was surprised to find out Luna liked honey.
"Nice, it's my favourite, too." I said. Luna looked at me and smiled. I looked back to the garden. We were in an opening inside tall hedges, like a checkpoint in a maze. There was a large center piece of flowers behind us and on the other side there was another bench. There were two trees, one sprouting beautiful flowers. The closest tree had blue flowers with dashes of purple and white.
"We see thou art looking at our trees. They are so pretty and clever. The one with the sprouted flowers is our tree. It blooms at night. The other tree is Tia's. It blooms flowers that are red with dashes of orange and yellow during the day," Luna said, looking at the trees.
"That's amazing!" I exclaimed, "Your tree is beautiful." I said. Luna blushed and thanked me. On the ground below the trees there were rows of flowers protected by a small railing on the edges of the centerpiece. The flowers were in two rows making squares around the trees. Luna's tree had flowers that look exactly like the night sky. I tapped Luna on the shoulder. "Hey, Luna, how do those flowers work?" I asked.
"Oh, those art genius. They reflect the sky above them. And they do the same as the flowers on our tree, they sprout at night. And the same for Tia's," Luna said. Once again I exclaimed my wonder. Luna laughed. "Thou looks like a puppy that just discovered the world," Luna said. I laughed along with her.
"Maybe... I did." I said as I stared at Luna. So many things rushing through my head. I remember always questioning her character to other bronies. So many arguments about what's canon, what's true. And here she was, right beside me. But would she want to be questioned? What if I accidentally went to far? The last thing I want to do is hurt her feelings. She seems special, she makes me happy.
"Hey... Luna?" I said. She turned towards me, staring straight into my eyes. I could feel myself begin to blush. I quickly distracted myself.
"Yes, Sam?" she replied.
"If you don't feel comfortable, I understand, but, what was it like on the moon?" I asked. Luna became a little tense, but soon relaxed. She looked away, but then turned back to me.
"We will tell you, we have never told anypony this before. Only Tia and us know," she said.
"I feel honoured," I said.
"It isn't what everypony thinks. It wasn't literally the Moon," Luna said. She began to relax more, she leaned on the arm rest. "When Tia... sent us away, the reason Nightmare Moon's face appeared on the Moon was because it was an effect of sending us away. She really transported us to... we don't know how to describe it," she stated.
"Take your time," I said, now noticing she was beginning to lie down. I didn't tell her though, she seemed deep in thought.
"She was forced to send me to... another space," she said. I looked at her quizzically.
"Another space? Like another dimension?" I asked.
"Yes, that's a word for it. It's like a timeout chair, but separated from the rest of the room," Luna answered.
"Wow, I'm so sorry. You were there for 1000 years?" I said as a tear came out of Luna's eye. "Luna, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you," I said. I felt extremely embarrassed and guilty. I told myself that hurting Luna's feelings was the last thing that I wanted to do. I couldn't sit still, nor could I bring myself to look at Luna. She probably has tons of painful memories of her banishment.
I tried to imagine what it would be like to be away from ponies for one thousand years. I tried to imagine what it'd be like if I were in the same situation. "I'm sorry, I should go," I said, standing up.
"No!" Luna shouted. She threw herself at me and wrapped her arms around my waist. I blushed. Luna worked through the tears. "We want... to tell thou, Sam. It's been so long since we've talked about it. We don't understand why we want to talk to thou about it, but... please don't go!" she exclaimed. I nodded my head and sat down. Luna kept her arms wrapped around me. And to my surprise, she laid her head in my lap. My face turned red but I didn't object.
Luna obviously needed me. I was the ear she never had. Maybe she had talked to Celestia about it, but it wouldn't be the same. How can you open up to the pony who made you have to open up? I would have to stomach my embarrassment and be there for Luna. And plus, I couldn't stand to see her this way. It pained me to see her so sad.
"Okay, I'm here for you. I won't go," I said
"Sam... thank you..." Luna said as she hugged me tighter. I began to feel drops of her tears hit my leg. Luna took a deep breath. "Being sent away was the worst thing we've ever had to experience. We were stuck inside Nightmare Moon, seeing out through her eyes. It seemed like a good idea to attack Tia, but as soon as we did, we didn't want to. But Nightmare Moon already got her fill of hate. She wouldn't stop. When Tia sent us away, we thanked her. But when we got to the other dimension, we were still inside Nightmare Moon. We tried to fight her, but she was too strong. She slammed at the walls of the space, never stopping for ten years. And those thousand years went by so slow... one hour was like one day.
"Soon the loneliness began to get to us. We felt horrible. The only company we had tried over and over again to make me hate Tia, so she could become stronger. We refused to give in. But the loneliness began to get to us. We were almost driven mad. We couldn't speak, We couldn't move. We couldn't sleep. We couldn't breath. By the 900 year, we admit that we had been driven insane. The cold, unforgiving loneliness and a constant voice telling you to kill drove us off the edge. The more we resisted the more painful it became to go on. We cried out for Nightmare Moon to cease. But each time she only screamed at us to give in... she said such hurtful, horrible things!" Luna said, almost sounding scared. She had begun to cry again, tears running down my leg.
I hesitantly placed my hand on Luna's head. Her crying had died down a little bit. I began to smooth out her mane. I could see her blush but eventually she stopped crying. She tightened her grip a little bit. And something twitched inside of me. My stomach slightly quaked. I guess this is what they mean when they say 'butterflies in you stomach.' I looked down at Luna and the 'butterflies' became more aggressive. When I looked at her, I felt better, happier.
I slightly smiled to myself as I began to feel choked up. You've got to be kidding me. Luna had began to speak once more. "... The 999th year struck," she said, "and we couldn't take it anymore. I didn't know how long Tia planned on keeping me banished, but I couldn't last anymore. We would do anything to get out of there. We began to think of ways to get out without Nightmare Moon. But no solution could be found. We thought about what she wanted. She needed us to hate Celestia again so she could become stronger. We tried to convince ourselves that if we gave in and she escaped, Tia would find some sort of way to get Nightmare Moon away.
"We forced ourselves to think hateful of our dear sister for a whole year, fueling Nightmare Moon, making her stronger. I thought about... strangling Tia... every day. Each angry, evil thought we had made us feel more and more dirty. And we only did that because we thought it would work. We only got lucky that Twilight and her friends had been able to stop Nightmare Moon."
"Well, you can be happy about that, right? Nightmare Moon is defeated, gone," I said, trying to cheer Luna up. Instead she just began to cry again. I petted her more and before I could ask, she spoke.
"Nightmare Moon... isn't... gone," she said through the tears.
"What? How is that possible?" I asked.
"She... isn't able to... leave us... She was defeated, yes. But she still lives inside of us, but she's weak. We can control it. Sometimes, when she's strong enough... we can hear her snakelike voice, piercing our mind like a knife through our conciseness, telling us to hate, to... kill." Luna began to cry more. Her words became strained from the lack of air. "It's why... we say... 'we' and 'us' and 'our.' She's... imprinted in our mind. Like a brand. It's the reason she can't leave. We are suck with her. She is trapped with no intention of leaving, a willing prisoner," she said. I couldn't believe it. No matter how many times I watched Princess Luna on television, I had never thought about that. Why she spoke that way.
I can't imagine what her life is like. How many times does he have to deal with Nightmare Moon? What would it be like to have someone constantly telling you to kill? Being stuck with the thing that causes you and caused others so much pain, so much misery. I bent down and wrapped my arms around Luna's neck, hugging her.
At first she seemed surprised, then she lifted herself up and wrapped her arms around my neck.
I could smell honey in her mane. It smelled so good. I didn't want to let go. All I could think of was her.
"I'm so sorry, Luna. It's going to be okay, I swear. I can help you- I will help you," I said into her ear. I could hear her sobbing on my shoulder. I needed to do something. I wasn't going to let her cry.
I pulled myself away from Luna and had her sit on her haunches. Tears had stained her coat, and her mane was somewhat of a mess. She rubbed her eyes clear of any tears and tilted her head to the side.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the flower I had found yesterday. The one that smelled like honey. I held it in front of her face and she smelled it. She smiled, but was still confused. "Luna, I never thought I would ever say this to someone other than my parents, but they're gone. But I have never been more truthful when I say I love you. Okay? Listen to me. I. Love. You." I said. I didn't know what I was saying, it just poured out of my mouth, but I had no intentions of stopping.
Luna's eyes began to tear up again and she blushed. "This is for you," I said. "Whenever you hear Nightmare Moon's voice, I want to to smell this flower. This flower is my love for you, Luna.
"You are the most perfect mare I've ever seen. You're daring, you like to have fun, you're so clever and brilliant. You have issues, yes. But you are the strongest pony you can be. You have fought off evil for hundreds of years probably more. You saw me as intriguing when others didn't. Perhaps you have some issues, but that is what makes you so interesting! You are the mare of my dreams that you tried to get into," I said I took the flower and Luna watched as I placed it behind her ear. Luna felt it, then began to cry. She shouted in joy and jumped onto me, hugging me around the waist once again. I hugged her just as tightly.
For some reason, I heard Luna grunt and her grip tighten, pushing some of the air out of me. I was very confused as to what was going on.
"Sam... We... w-e, w-i... I love thou, too!" she managed to say. Her grip loosened and she cried tears of joy. A few tears had come out of my eyes, too. I don't even mind admitting it. She just beat Nightmare Moon's brand to tell me she loved me. Her alone. After a while her cries lessened and lessened. Her grip loosened a bit, but not much more. Her head lowered to my thigh and I blushed again. All that crying must have taken a lot out of her. She had fallen asleep on my lap.
I had no reason to wake her, though. I placed my hand on her head and caressed it. I, too, began to feel sleepy. I immediately fell asleep. The last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness was the Moon.