It was still dark when she opened her eyes a bit. That only led to one of two conclusions: either she went to bed early, or the curtains were closed. Upon further inspection, she could see a very faint light from the window, moonlight to be exact. Alright then, to she went to bed early. Now her only thought was why. Trying to recollect her thoughts of the evening, she remembered being on a train, going to the castle, meeting a maid....talking to Luna.... and the princess lead her to her room. She looked around to make sure her dirty thoughts stayed just that, as thoughts, and not finding a dark blue alicorn anywhere confirmed it. She sighed in relief.
She kept trying to remember the conversation she had with the princess, but it kept escaping her. Perhaps her still partially asleep brain was to blame, but that didn't stop her from calling herself a few names for not being able to remember it. She knew she made a promise as well, but couldn't remember it either. After several more minutes of intense mental workout, she sighed in defeat. Perhaps it would come to her when she'd get out of bed and start her day.... But what time was it anyway?
The drowsy unicorn slowly sat up on her bed, trying to find a clock anywhere. But everything seemed so.... different. There was a large rug below, only one bookcase stood on the opposite wall, a table with a chair near the bed, a full pony sized mirror not far from the balcony- wait, what? Twilight blinked a few times. Since when did she have a mirror that large in her room? Or a balcony, for that matter?..... Was she in her own room? With those thoughts, the haze in her mind quickly started to disappear, letting the unicorn wake up quickly from her state.
It definitely wasn't her room, nor was it any room she particularly recognized. But the layout overall felt familiar to her, like she seen it often before. It didn't take her long to realize where she was and chuckled, any hint of nervousness lifting completely. She was in one of the guest rooms. After some thought, it all started to make sense in her mind. Princess Luna never knew about Twilight's room, so she just lead her to a guest room instead. Everything finally made logical sense, and all was right with the world. Well, almost.
Thinking of Luna made Twilight remember parts of the conversation in the library, as well as her promise. So, they found out there was some pony who was very good with magic.... at least, in the pyrokinetic field of it. And that this pony....for whatever reason...was still alive. Said by anyone else but either of the princess', she would brush it off as over exaggeration. But Luna herself told her, and ignoring what she said would be a pretty stupid idea, considering she mentioned Celestia herself showing her. Speaking of whom, why did she need to make that promise?
The lavender mare got out of her bed and used her magic to make it up before slowly trotting towards the window that leads to the balcony. She looked at the moon, and it was inching ever so close to the horizon. So it wasn't too early, giving Twilight only enough time to find Luna and ask at least about the promise she made. But where could the lunar princess be at this moment? She doubted she would find her in the library at this time, maybe in the right wing of the castle? She remembered Celestia saying that Luna had the right wing all to herself.
She walked out of the room, the hallways a lot better lit, while she tried to remember her way to the staircases to the upper floor. She passed by a few patrolling guards, nodding lightly to them out of respect with it being returned, most of the time. A lot of the guards simply knew the mare by heart, so seeing her walk around this late wasn't anything new to them. The unicorn trotted up one of the staircases after finding them and heard some wheels quietly rolling along the floor, turning her head with curiosity towards the source.
A certain pegasus maid was walking in her general direction, pushing with her chest the tray with a couple of lightly steaming cups of tea, a small smile on her muzzle since she had noticed the unusual night walker from the distance. The unicorn was surprised it seemed, though she soon started walking towards the green pegasus herself.
"Good morning, Ness." The mare started, but abruptly stopped. Her behavior wasn't new to the pegasus though, usually ponies did that when they eagerly wanted to ask something, but wanted to sound polite while doing it. So she took the initiative and turned the conversation to a more comfortable route for the lavender mare.
"Good morning, Twilight. Is there anything I could help you with?" She asked, stopping next to Twilight and making sure the momentum of her push didn't carry the tray far from her, only after which she looked at Twilight, the smile still on her face.
"Well... I was a bit surprised to see you up this early, shouldn't princess Celestia still be asleep?" She asked, not really using her brain for the following seconds as Ness chuckles a bit.
"Ah, yes. Her Majesty, princess Celestia is still asleep, although she should be waking up in a couple of minutes. But I have been up the entire night. We did meet when in was only beginning." The pegasus replied, letting Twilight put the pieces in place herself. Which did happen fairly soon as realization shined in her eyes.
"O-oh! So you're a personal servant of Luna herself!"
"W-well, not exactly personal, there are five more. But we are a lot closer to her Royal Highness because of our scarce numbers." Ness replied with a light blush at the tittle Twilight gave her. There was an awkward silence then that surrounded the two and Twilight took the time to check her companion with more detail. The green pegasus had a fluffed mane that partially covered her right eye, a soft aqua colour. Her tail was very short, though well kept and sharing the same colour as her mane. Surprisingly, her eyes were the same colour as well. She wore the same outfit she did before, the maid vest and four sandals.
She coughed to break the silence, earning Twilight's attention back to her face.
"Well, I best be going to her Royal Highness, she is waiting for her tea and I wouldn't want it to get cold." Ness said, lightly pushing the tray again before Twilight asked her.
"Can I join you? I'm actually looking for the princess myself." The maid smiled, turning her head to the unicorn, and simply nodded, looking forward again and moving her tray further as Twilight followed behind, looking where they were going before becoming hopelessly lost in her own thoughts, again, following Ness only on reflex when she turned. She decided it was time to actually think logically on one of the bizarre things she left alone before she had secured a route to Luna.
So this pony was alive. The princess didn't mention this mage's condition, but it was alive. Since this pony was a unicorn, it might of found a way to prolong it's own life through magic. But she had no idea if such a thing was even possible. She put that theory aside for the next one. Petrification. Normally, a spell of such caliber would kill any normal pony, even a unicorn. But with enough power to self sustain oneself, the pony could survive during it's petrified state. But then, if the pony was petrified, it meant it did something awful, wouldn't it? She doubted the princess would petrify just anypony for breaking her favorite cup. And it did mention in the book that the wizard lied to her... Hm, just anypony...
A strange idea came to Twilight's mind. What if this wasn't a pony? Could it have been some other species? The only species she knew that could live for so long would be alicorns and dragons. Could.... could it be an alicorn? It was a possibility. The unicorn still remembered her favorite and most loved foalsitter, Cadence. She wasn't in Equestria anymore, but she was an alicorn. After a while, the unicorn simply shook her head lightly. No, as much of a plausible idea it seemed at first, alicorns were extremely rare, but they would never hide or do anything bad. From what she read, this pony was a liar and manipulator.
She thought of herself racist for a few seconds, excluding the only pony possibility in order for the next one to look more convincing, but she just couldn't help it. The only other creature who could live for so long was a dragon. Could have there been dragon servants at the time? Could dragons use magic? She read a lot about dragons and knew that their scales were very resistant to magic after a certain point of their growth, but no mentions of them using magic. She still wasn't sure what to believe, well, besides believing she bumped right into Ness's rear.
"Oh, um, really sorry Ness, I was..... thinking...." She looked around, taking in her surroundings. Ness had turned around and stepped away a bit, blushing pretty brightly. Princess Luna sat near the tray, putting her tea back down without sipping it yet, looking quite amused by this situation. The air was pretty chilly, the view showing a beautiful landscape of the snow-covered mountains and, a bit further, fields and forests. The moon was almost completely over the horizon. It was the princess's private balcony, past her room, which Twilight did not get to see yet. She smiled sheepishly as she took a step back herself.
"Um, hi?"
"Good morning, Twilight Sparkle. What brings thou to our humble quarters?" Said the amused princess, seemed like if she did disapprove of Twilight coming in uninvited, she didn't mind it now. Though could never be sure, seeing how Twilight never got the chance to check.
"Morning, princess. I wished to... um, clarify some of our discussions from yesterday." The unicorn said, earning a slight change in Luna's mood, as she gone into thought, turning to the fields.
"Ah, we have been expecting this talk sooner or later... Yes, perhaps we do need to clarify. Ness." She turned her head to the maid, who bowed lightly to her princess, her eyes closed and the blush, though faint, still present.
"Thou art free for the day. Thy service hath been most satisfactory; we shall be waiting thine presence tomorrow." The maid stood up and smiled a bit.
"Of course, your Royal Highness. Have a nice rest." She then turned towards the window door, passing by Twilight, who whispered in a rush 'Really sorry', to which the pegasus simply nodded with a smile, and left the two in private with the tray of still untouched cups of tea. The alicorn and unicorn simply sat there for a while, one looking over the lands while the other kept looking either around or focusing on the princess. The silence was broken soon by Luna.
"What we have said was the honest truth." She said, her star-filled mane moving along with the breeze, although it would do so even without the wind picking it up. Twilight was a little surprised by her voice, but soon recollected herself and absorbed what the princess just said.
"I... already have come to term with that part. No, that's not why I wanted to speak with you." She noticed how Luna raised her head slightly, most probably surprised, but lowered it back down soon. For that brief second, Twilight could of sworn she saw the lunar princess's horn glow, but didn't dare ask what for, and simply continued, seeing how Luna didn't say anything in reply.
"I wanted to understand my promise. How come princess Celestia can't know about this?" She asked, sniffling a bit, deciding that a forward approach would be best.
"Hm.... How to put this...." The princess sat on her haunches at least a minute more before standing up and turning slowly to the unicorn. Her ear picked up a barely audiable sound of the window door but didn't give much attention to it, instead focusing on Luna.
"Our sister... She hath noticed thy interest on the subject..." For some reason, Twilight didn't like the sound of that. She gulped down her nervousness though and kept listening, the lunar princess sitting back down, looking at the unicorn. In order to try keep calm, the lavender mare looked up at Luna's horn. It wasn't glowing like she thought before.
"Celestia hath asked me to help in thine studies. But.... We have told thou a bit too much, too fast...." She said, sighing, looking down at the tiled floor. The unicorn was a bit confused by Luna's behavior, until she could hear a very familiar voice right behind her that sent chills down her spine.
"I see.... So that's why you wanted to talk in private...." Twilight made a one-eighty turn, looking up at her mentor's face. Her eyes were closed, her face showing neither a smile nor frown. It seemed like she was in deep thought, her mane following the breeze, just like her sister's. The feeling that she somehow failed her mentor was creeping up Twilight's mind as she tried to cover herself somehow.
"Prin...princess Celestia!... Um...I..I could, um.... could hold my s-studies on this subject! I-i'd never tell anypony about it! H-honest!" She kept stuttering, trying her best to keep her worry under control. The alicorn opened her eyes slightly, looking at her student. She sighed, deciding she would calm Twilight down later. Right now she needed the unicorn to listen, and though her current state wasn't good for her health, she would listen to her mentor best in it.
"My faithful student. You know that I would never doubt your words in any other circumstances. Yet, I have to say I do not believe your promise, and not because you would lie to me. I know that sooner or later, you will have to tell about it to somepony to ease your own weight, and I will neither stop nor punish you. But, before you do so, I would like for you to at least base your knowledge off facts rather then assumptions from the information you gathered to far." The unicorn's panic slowly faded, confusion replacing it completely. She couldn't see, but behind her princess Luna raised her head and was observing her sister with curiosity. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon behind her.
"W-wait... Base m-my.... but, but how?" She understood that everything until the last sentence was true to an extent and made perfect sense in her head, but what her teacher said in the end puzzled her confused mind, an echo of panic still in the back of it, keeping her from thinking straight and logical. To that, Celestia allowed a small smile.
"Quite simple, my faithful student. I will allow you to talk to him."
"Dear Sister, art thou sure this is the best course of action?" Said the voice behind Twilight, the forgotten princess reminding them of her presence. The sun princess looked up at her sister and simply shook her head.
"Come, Twilight." She looked back down at her prized pupil, who was still pretty shocked and confused by Celestia's decision.
"You can visit him at any time. For now, let us spend this time together to calm your nerves. You only have a couple of days before going back, and I would like to hear about the progress of your studies." She smiled warmly to her, and it seemed to have worked as Twilight was calming down a little.
"Of-of course, princess." Before going anywhere, she turned around to Luna, bowing a little.
"I hope you'll have a n-nice rest, princess Luna. S-sorry for bothering you." At this point, both of the princesses figured out that she was now stuttering not because of fear, but of the cold outside. She was out for quite a while now and, unlike them, she didn't have the warmth to resist such low temperatures. As if on cue, the unicorn tried to hold off a sneeze but had poor results, ending up sitting on her haunches and looking at Luna with a sheepish grin.
"Sorry.."
"Let us go, my faithful student. I wouldn't want you to catch a cold when spring is so close." To that, the lavender mare turned back to her mentor, nodding lightly. They both walked through the glassed window door back inside Luna's room, the unicorn taking in her surrounding with great interest which brought a light smile on the lunar princess's muzzle. Luna then took a look at the tray with the cups of tea, noting that it hadn't turned to ice yet. She decided not to waste at least one of them, picking it up with her magic and trying the tea.
"Mmm.... this is quite.... amazing... This tea tastes much better while cool.. We must ask Ness how she dost it..."