//------------------------------// // Entry 9 - Another Day // Story: Journal of the Princess of the Night // by Basmati //------------------------------// So today has been a rollercoaster. When I woke up today, I noticed that there were a few letters on my bed. I immediately opened the one closest to me, and this morning's newspaper fell out. I was intrigued , so I decided to read the paper first. I unfolded it, and dropped it in surprise. On the front page was none other than Gem and I...kissing. Of course, that was understandable - the press gets a picture of me kissing somepony, they find out the full story from witnesses, they publish the story the next day. It's not exactly hard. There were a fair few witnesses, and finding them wouldn't have been too hard - they were all opera fans, which means they were of the very upper class, and there aren't many of them. I wasn't panicking too much - when you are royalty, you do not get surprised about yourself being in the newspaper. The number of times I've been in the paper - this is the worst thing they have released about me (usually, I'm not bad. It's Tia who does the wild partying, not me). But I was worrying about Gem. He is not used to fame and having people know who he is. He was probably locked in his room, sitting on his bed with his curtains closed, and whenever a member of his family came to the door to try to talk to him, he would scream at them, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Trust me, I've seen this with my own eyes when it first came out that we were friends. It wasn't pretty. I guessed that the letters were from Gem, and I was right. And, yet again, I was right about him panicking in his room. As I sat reading them, another letter appeared. This letter was from his mother, who said: Dear Luna, I am extremely glad that you and my son are together. You are a wonderful and kind person, and I think you are good for him. He loves you dearly, and I know he always will do. Unfortunately, it was the lead story in The Canterlot Times and Monoceros seems to have taken this new found 'fame' in the wrong way, once again. As you know a few years ago, when you two first began your friendship, it was also published in the Times and Monoceros locked himself in his room and refused to come out for anyone. It seems that he had decided that that was a good idea, and has again locked himself in his room, and refused to come out. Orion and Taurus have stood at his door for about 2 hours now, trying in vain to persuade him to come out. His father has even taken the day off work to try and talk to him. I know you have a busy schedule, being the co-ruler of our land, but if you have any time to spare, it would be wonderful if you could come over and talk to some sense into him. We are all extremely worried about him. I hope to see you soon, Mrs Stardust Nocte After reading that, I did a few facehooves, on behalf of Gem. He's lovely - I should know that, I kissed him after all - but when he panics...boy, does he panic! I realised that this was an emergency of sorts, and immediately left to arrange a carriage to take me there as soon as possible. I quickly grabbed some breakfast and ran down to the front gates, where the guards were waiting with the carriage. I immediately jumped in and we flew off. The journey didn't take too long, and I was at the gates of the Nocte household in no time. As I walked through the gates, I saw Mrs Nocte galloping towards me. "Oh, Luna, thank the stars you're here!" She immediately ushered me, and took me upstairs. I knew the way to Gem's room pretty well, but she still insisted on taking me there herself. Even if I didn't know which one it was, I think I could guess that it was the one with his two brothers, his sister and his father standing outside, pleading to him to open the door. They turned around and saw me, and immediately started thanking me for coming. Andromeda ran up to me, an gave me a hug, telling me how happy she was to see me again, even if it was only because Gem was having a breakdown again. Orion and Taurus started joking about how I could do better than their brother, but stopped after a cold look from their father. "But we are happy that you guys are together, though," Orion said, in reply to his father's look. "Yeah," Taurus carried on, leaning on his twin brother. "He's crazy about you." Andromeda immediately knocked on the door, and said, "Gemini, Luna's here, and she wants to talk to you..." Everypony was silent, and I heard some shuffling behind the door. Suddenly, it opened revealing what could only be Gem, wrapped up in his quilt. He moved the quilt off his head with his magic and looked at me. I had never seen him so upset. His eyes were no longer that...wonderful shade of dark blue...but now red, and his mane was in a state. It always hurts me to see him like this. Particularly when it's because of me. I just hate the idea of hurting him. He's been my best friend for so long, and he honestly means the absolute world to me. Every time I see him upset, it's like his sadness washes onto me. It hurts. Goodness, I can't believe I just wrote that. It's so embarrassing. But true - can't deny that. God, I hope Celestia never finds this journal. She'll have way too much to hold over me. He gestured for me to come, and I did so. As soon as I was out of the doorway, the door slammed shut once again. I heard the click of it locking, and turned around to find Gem walking back towards his bed. He climbed on to it and covered all of himself with the quilt. Gem has always been there for me, when I'm down in the dumps. Whenever I have an argument with Tia, or I just upset, he would always do the very best he could to cheer me up. In fact, he would always succeed. Therefore, it was only fair if I helped cheer him up at his worst hour. "Oh, Gemini," I said. I walked up to the bed, and sat beside it. "The last time I saw you like this - it was about a month after we met. The Canterlot Times had just found out about you, and were publishing all sorts of things about you." I've never really been good at cheering people up - that's why having Gem around is so great, he does it for me - but I was really trying at this moment, but still seemed to be failing miserably. "You know," Gem said, his head popped out from under the quilt. "You are doing a terrible job." "Hey, I'm working on it! Anyway, that time is no different from this time-" "And that's why I'm doing the exact same thing as last time," Gem said, hiding under the quilt once again. "And how did last time end? 5 days, you spent locked in this very room, and on the 6th day, you were walking around just fine. Are you going to do the same this time?" I thought I was starting to get the hang of it when... "Yes." "Gem, please!" I took the quilt off him. He looked up at me. "Come on! Don't do this to me. Every time you do this...it hurts me as well. I think you don't want to be my friend...or you don't want to be with me." He was speechless. I could tell that what I said hurt him, so I looked away. "Those papers have written everything about everypony. But you don't see the entirety of Canterlot hiding in their rooms. Remember when they wrote about Celestia eating that cake? And they had to photo of her completely covered in icing? Did she hide in her room, never to show her face again? No, she held a party for all the school fillies in the city down in Everfree, and gave them all the cake they could want. She took that article, hung it up in the castle, and showed them that she didn't care about what they had to say." Still nothing. "Look at all the things they written about me! But I don't let it effect me, because I have better things to do. And I'm not going to sit around and say that it doesn't hurt sometimes. Some of the things they have said about me and the people I love..of course it hurts. But what is better is showing them that no matter what they say, I'm stronger. And I always thought you were stronger too." We were both silent for a moment, then I got up and started walking towards the door. "Luna, wait." I turned around, and found him standing by his bed, his quilt lying on his bed. "Don't go." "Gem, you-" "I'm sorry." He walked right up to me. "You're right. You are strong. And I am not as strong as you are. But I don't want you to think that I don't want to be with you. Ever. I don't know what I would do without you." I felt myself blush a bit, not because I didn't want him to say this, but because I'm not used to ponies saying things like this to me. I mean, Tia hardly tells me she loves me, and that's only when she's drunk. And I'm mean really drunk - the kind of drunk when she starts telling me stories...stories that I really don't want to hear. They are the kind of things that I don't want to repeat, and can't repeat. So, don't ask for them. "Thank you," I said, and...we kissed again. We knew that both his parents and the rest of his family were just outside the door, but the door was locked from the inside, so we didn't worry about it. Well, I did a bit, but only because it would have been extremely awkward if they all walked in. A few minutes after that, he unlocked the door and we walked out of the room together. His mother immediately threw herself on him, muttering 'Don't do that ever again! We were so worried!' while sobbing. She always been known for being a bit over-dramatic. His father just rolled his eyes, and thanked me. I left soon after that, considering that I had done my job, and Taurus and Orion kept giving Gem and I weird looks, and it was getting a bit uncomfortable. Gem walked with me to the carriage, and stayed there until probably after I had lost sight of him. I've been home for a bit now. Tia's just been talking about how we were in his room for a while by ourselves and keeps asking whether we did anything. I think that because she can't go on about Gem and I potentially being together, she now has to talk about us having sex. Sometimes...Tia can be very...annoying.