"Who knocks upon our door?"
"The Lieutenant Captain, brightest star in the night, knocks upon the door."
"You may enter."
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"Greetings, Your Highness. I trust you slept well?" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor asks as he enters into Princess Luna's bedroom suite.
"Yay, verily much so. I trust you are here to play more games from the magic grey box with me?" Luna asks curiously.
"The Pony Entertainment System, Your Highness. And yes, playing more games." Shining Armor gently explains.
"Good. Which game shall we play, then?" Luna asks again, a smile tweaking across her face in defiance of the typical seriousness.
"Well, Your Highness, there are certain customs associated with the playing of games such as these that I neglected to mention to you last night. I feel it is only appropriate to introduce them to you now."
"Customs are very important, yes. Pray tell what kind of customs are associated with these games?"
"Well, for starters, players who intend to play for extended periods of time generally stock up on food and drink before they begin. They also try to keep from being distracted as much as possible while playing."
"The second we can accomplish easily by order. For the first one we will need to have the servants bring us the food and drink, which will take some time."
"No need to summon the servants, I already have a plan." Shining Armor replies with a sly grin.
"Plan? What plan?" Luna asks, tilting her head in curiousity.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but your sister has been telling you about all the things that happen in Canterlot at night nowadays, correct?"
"Yes, told but have yet to see for ourselves. Requests for an escorted tour have gone unheeded, and attempting to leave the castle to look ourselves would certainly produce great upset with our sister." Luna says with a tinge of frustration behind her words.
"I'll give you the tour myself. I've got a chariot already waiting for us."
"... I don't want you to get in trouble on our account."
"Don't worry, nopony needs to know. If you won't tell, I won't." Shining Armor replies with a grin and a wink.
Princess Luna answers this with a wry, determined smile of her own. She privately thought the reason she had not been allowed to see Canterlot at night was because Celestia was being a "poopyhead" - a recently-learned variation of "nincompoop", one of Luna's favorite terms to use when her sister was acting particularly ridiculous - about the whole idea and simply refusing to act on it. What harm could it do to just look around, after all?
"We agree to your plan. Escort us to our transportation." Princess Luna affirms.
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The castle "garage" high up in Canterlot was full of interesting vehicles parked and blocked in place: Celestia's royal chariot, the "royal tour carriage" Cadance had arrived in Canterlot in, a number of utility carts used for deliveries and similar tasks, and in a far corner a vehicle with an intimidating design under construction specifically to serve as Luna's royal chariot. Princess Luna, escorted by Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, entered the garage and passed all these vehicles, stopping in front of a smaller chariot currently surrounded by busy unicorn Upper Class Guards.
The small chariot in general had a paint job based on Cadance's coat and mane colors, with her light blue crystal heart painted on the middle. A pair of unicorn guards was busy looking over the chariot for problems and prepping it for departure while a third was hooking Lieutenant Stratocumulus, whom Shining Armor had previously chosen to pull the chariot, into the single harness strap.
"Pray tell what is this vehicle?" Luna asks, pointing to the previously described small chariot.
"Celestia calls it 'the couple's chariot'." Shining Armor explains. "It was built shortly after Cadance and I started dating. Designed specifically so that only one pegasus was needed to pull it. Made going on dates easier."
"Ah. But will Cadance not object to the use of the chariot?" Luna asks again.
"Like I said before, nopony needs to know." Shining Armor replies with a smile.
"Everything is set for you and Her Majesty, sir." Lieutenant Stratocumulus pipes up from where he is strapped to pull the chariot.
"Understood, Lieutenant. Clear the area!" Shining Armor states as he climbs into the chariot, the other unicorns that had been working dispersing away. He then generates a forcefield "bubble" to serve as a step up into the chariot.
"It is lovely, but are you sure it is safe?" Luna naturally asks.
"Sure, do ya trust me?" Shining Armor replies.
"...What?" Luna asks again, looking up at Shining in confusion.
"Do you trust me?" the unicorn stallion repeats, this time with a sparkling grin. Again emerged the bright blue eyes and grin that had enchanted Luna on their first meeting - in a different context and framed with a different set of armor, but the same eyes and grin nonetheless.
"...Yes." Luna answers, as she steps onto the forcefield bubble - which holds her weight - and into the chariot. It was little wonder to her now how much regard Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance, not to mention Princess Celestia herself, held toward him.
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As soon as Luna was seated, the chariot was off and flying over Canterlot. If this were a TV show or movie, the sweeping visuals of an active Canterlot at night as the chariot flies over it might've been accompanied by dramatic orchestral music and a duet between the moon princess and the unicorn Lieutenant Captain. As the written word is but a poor substitute for those measures, the potential lyrics to such a music number will be given and the rest left to the reader's imaginations:
"I can show you the world! / Shining, shimmering, splendid... / Tell me, princess, now why won't you let your heart decide? / I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder... / Over, sideways and under, on a magic chariot ride. / A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view! / No one to tell us 'no', or where to go, or say 'We're only dreaming!'"
"A whole new world! A dazzling place I never knew. / But when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear, that now I'm in a whole new world with you!"
"Now I'm in a whole new world with you!"
"Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings! / Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky! / A whole new world..."
"Don't you dare close your eyes!"
"A thousand new things to see!"
"Hold your breath 'cause it gets better!"
"I'm like a falling star, come so far, won't go back to what I used to be..."
"A whole new world..."
"Every turn a surprise!"
"New horizons to pursue!"
"Every moment getting better!"
"I'll chase them anywhere! / There's time to spare. / Let me share this whole new world with you!"
"A whole new world."
"A whole new world!"
"That's where we'll be."
"That's where we'll be!"
"A thrilling chase."
"A wondrous place... / For you and me!"
(End musical number here.)
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"Welcome to Hay Burger Express, good food round the clock! May I take your order?"
"Two large hayburger combos, please."
"Would you like dessert with that order?"
"No thank you."
"12 Bits. Please proceed forward to the window."
"You heard him, Lieutenant."
"Yes, Sir!"
"I hope these 'hayburgers' are worth the price you're paying for them." Princess Luna comments as Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor telekinetically pulls out his bit bag "wallet" to pay the worker for the food.
"Oh trust me Your Highness, they are. My sister absolutely adores these things, I think she would have them every day if she felt she could get away with it." Shining Armor answers reassuringly.
"Well, anything good enough for Twilight Sparkle is good enough for us." Luna replies with a coy smile, getting all the reassurance she needed.
Lieutenant Stratocumulus stops the chariot in front of the pick up window and Shining Armor telekinetically dumps the required number of bits in front of the worker.
In turn, the worker uses his unicorn magic to levitate the bags containing the food out through the window, which Shining takes and places between him and Princess Luna in the chariot. The unicorn stallion levitates out one of the wrapped hayburgers and grins as he sniffs it.
"Pure goodness in a wrapper." Shining Armor explains as he pulls back the wrapper and takes a bite of the hayburger.
Luna is skeptical as she repeats what Shining does with the other hayburger, but her face immediately lights up with the first bite, and quickly she begins to agree with Shining's assessment. The Hay Burger gained a major new customer as a result...
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The chariot finally stops in front of a 24 hour convenience store, and immediately Luna is dazzled by both the store's contents and presentation. Before Shining can say or do anything, Luna is through the doors and looks up and down the shelves in awestruck, "kid-in-a-candy-store" fashion. Shining Armor nervously chuckles to the curious and uneasy store clerk as the moon princess works her way up and down the aisles.
Finally, Luna approaches the counter wearing an excited grin Pinkie Pie would be proud of. Forehooves up on the counter, she begins rattling a list of items she wants rapidfire. The clerk simply does nothing but stare back incomprehensibly as he tries to make sense of what the moon princess is asking of him.
"Excuse me, Your Highness, but that all won't fit in the chariot." Shining Armor states from beside Luna, a sweatdrop forming on his head.
Luna stops her rapidfire speech, looks around the store one more time, then the chariot still waiting outside. She pauses for a minute, her expression in deep thought.
"I must apologize for Her Majesty's behavior. She's a little overexcited right now." Shining Armor says to the clerk to reassure him during the pause.
Another minute passes, then Luna approaches the counter again. To the relief of the clerk, her new list is both shorter and expressed at an understandable speed.
"I'll get the items. Charge it to Celestia's account." Shining Armor tells the clerk as the latter begins ringing up the order...
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THE FOLLOWING MORNING...
"Something wrong, Captain?"
"Sorry, Your Highness, a little restless. Shining usually has his report in before you get here, but I haven't seen him come in this morning."
"He might still be in the office. You know how much time he's spending with my younger sister now, he might've gotten behind on the paperwork..."
"I just sent a Lieutenant out to answer that question. The coffee and donuts are waiting if Your Majesty wants them, we'll begin as soon as I get that report..."
A minute, then two, passes uneasily for Captain of the Guard Gibraltar as Princess Celestia helps herself to the coffee pot and Donut Joe donut box. The Lieutenant returns shaking his head.
"Not in there?" the Captain asks.
"No sir, the only thing I found was the notice on the door that he was in a meeting with Princess Luna." the Lieutenant replies.
"Meeting? I doubt it's a meeting, probably something else, Captain." Princess Celestia interrupts between bites of a donut.
"You think we should go investigate, Your Majesty?" the Captain asks.
"Oh yes. Absolutely." the sun princess replies, cheeks full of donut and the words muffled by the full mouth.
The Captain just sighs at Celestia's talking with her mouth full, then glares at the Lieutenant who is trying to suppress a snicker. He was going to have a long morning, it seemed...
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"Guard, do you know if Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor is in the suite?" Princess Celestia hears the Captain ask one of the door guards to Luna's bedroom suite.
"As far as my partner and I know, sir, he's in there with Princess Luna." the door guard replies.
"Princess Celestia and I want to see for ourselves. Open the door." the Captain orders.
"But I think Her Majesty is already asleep." the door guard points out.
"I understand that, Guard. Open the door, you won't be blamed if she gets angry."
The door guards open the doors, and the scene in the suite so revealed immediately provoke both Princess Celestia and Captain Gibraltar to amused chuckles. Both Princess Luna and Shining Armor are sprawled asleep on the floor, junk food packages and soda bottles scattered around them and the Pony Entertainment System hooked up to the TV in the suite on. The TV displays a video game's idle mode, and the only sounds to be heard besides those coming from the TV is the snoring coming from Shining Armor.
The sun princess and Captain of the Guard share a good chuckle for a few moments while the door guards look into the suite in puzzlement. The guards shrug their shoulders at each other and close the doors again.
"Looks like they had a fun night." the Captain comments when he can finally talk.
"Indeed. Let's leave them sleeping, you'll get your report when he wakes up." Princess Celestia replies with a grin.
"No censure, then?" the Captain asks.
"No censure, Captain. We'll let this one slide." Celestia replies.
Inwardly, the sun princess was all but squeeing at the sight she had just seen. The magic of friendship was indeed hard at work in helping Luna adjust and recover from her thousand-year exile...