//------------------------------// // Reconciliation // Story: Lessons in the Moonlight // by Harmony Split //------------------------------// Chapter fifteen: Reconciliation I was in the familiar mess hall again, about two dozen familiar pegasi and bat ponies around me. We ate and drank in silence, nopony chatted, and there was no sound besides the clinking of plates and glasses. Everything was just too quiet. Before long, a black bat pony with a wavy, blue mane that was nearly as dark as the night stood from her seat and approached me, sitting down on a empty chair to my side. I remembered her name; Night Breeze. “Centurion, are you sure that this is a good idea? You should talk to Luna and end this, before it goes too far,” she whispered. I shot her a glare and knew that I was only watcher again, “I trust Luna with all my heart, and I’m sure that she knows what she is doing. Are you questioning her?” my voice snapped, full of loathing. “No, I’m just bringing up what nopony else dares to. If she is wrong, we will all suffer or die,” she sadly replied. “She won’t let us down,” I said with pure confidence in my voice, making it clear that the conversation was over. Night Breeze went back to her place, just on time before the doors opened and Luna stepped in. We all quickly stood up and saluted. She waved a hoof and everypony sat down once again. She slumped into the big chair to my left and sighed before facing me, “Nopony came to the night court. They are all simply asleep or ignoring Us while Celestia says that everything is normal. This isn’t fair,” she whispered. “No matter what, I will stand at your side,” I whispered back, which caused her to shoot me a rare smile before starting to eat. I watched her all the while from the corner of my eye. I wanted to calm her, hug her, simply be there for her. Sadly, I couldn’t do that too officially. As soon as Luna finished her meal, she stood up, “We know that it is not looking good for any of us at the moment, but We promise that everypony will respect and love our beautiful night soon enough again,” she spoke, trying her best to reassure the guards. Everypony clapped their hooves, but there was no real cheering or enthusiasm, just some bare smiles. As soon as the applause died down, she turned and went to the door. I noticed and quickly stood up to get to her side. We left the mess hall and walked through various small and dark hallways until we reached the giant, dark blue door to Luna’s chambers. Her horn powered up and opened the door and we stepped in. As soon as the door slammed shut behind us and locked, I sighed and unfolded my wings to pull Luna into a lovely hug. She didn’t need another invitation. “Remind me why we have to keep this a secret again,” I mumbled, enjoying her warmth deeply. “We don’t know if the others would approve, and if there is one thing we need right now, it is unison,” she answered softly before giving me a peck onto the lips. I sighed again, ”I know, but I will still stand at your side no matter what,” I said, turning to look up at her. “Good to know,” she giggled and looked into my eyes. Before I could say anything, I was enveloped in her magical aura that slowly removed my armor. Once done, she pulled me to her bed. We fell upon it and she crawled as close as she could, nuzzling my muzzle before drawing me into a deep kiss. I wondered how a dream could feel so real. As we broke, she smiled and whispered, “Please, never leave me,” before nuzzling into my chest, falling slowly into sweet slumber. “I will never leave you. Sleep well, my love,” I whispered softly before closing my eyes as well. *** As I opened my eyes again, I was still in bed chambers of some sorts, but not in the one I remembered from my dream. They were significantly different, yet, I could still see that they were Luna’s. “Interesting dreams you have, Night Glider,” Luna softly spoke as she walked out of the shadows. “Luna,” I stopped and looked around once more, “Is this how your chambers in the new castle look like?” I asked, putting two and two together. “Indeed,” she replied before sitting down on a couch in the corner, “Sit down, we should talk a bit,” she said, inviting me with a pat of her hoof. I hesitated, but sat down on the other side of the couch, “You saved me from the dream about the war last time,” It wasn’t a question, it was a simple fact. The question followed, “Why?” I asked, confusion lacing my voice. “Some things don’t change, Night Glider. You are still a very important part of my life,” she replied stoically. “But you attacked me, insulted me in front of-,” I started, but she stopped me. “I thought that you were going to be a threat to Twilight and use her. I also had no idea if you still wanted to draw Equestria into eternal night for Nightmare Moon. But what Tia told me today… It seems like you are the same mare from before my change,” she sighed, “I would be lying if I said that I’m not really happy about that,” she admitted, a small smile pulling at the corners of her muzzle. “I got my wing blades back from Celestia.” “I know,” she smiled, “Use them to protect Twilight like you protected me,” she said, a twinge of sadness and longing making their way onto her face. “There are still so many blank spots in my memory, and I just don’t get why,” I looked at her and instantly knew that she had an answer to that. She shivered a bit and hesitated before talking, “There was a legend about the mare in the moon, about me. It said that after a thousand years on the moon, I would escape with the help of the stars. That wasn’t a legend, and you, Night Breeze, and all the others were my stars,” her expression turned hurt, “You freed Nightmare Moon, but you paid a terrible price for that; you lost all of yourself, including your memories. Not everypony survived this,” I could see tears forming in her eyes. “Who is still alive?” I asked in awe. “Night Breeze, Winglong, and a few others. But from around fifty Lunar Guards, there are not even half left,” she said bitterly, “With you, there’s only sixteen,” she said, dropping the metaphorical bomb. Sixteen, that was far less than I expected. Her tears were falling freely now, and I couldn’t do anything else but hug her. I unfolded my wings and pulled her into a strong embrace. She resisted at first, but after a moment she leaned in, crying out against my fur. All that pain from the past, and it hurt me to see my princess, my former lover and the most important pony, at least after Twilight now, in my life break down. I also noticed that the feeling had changed. While in the other dream, having her at my coat was exciting, making me feel all warm and my heart pounding faster; now it was just good. Rubbing my coat against Twilight was much better by all accounts. After a while, she smiled and looked up, “Thank you. You don’t know how much I missed this,” she said, her voice trailing off into a whisper. We stayed silent after that, only some looks shared between us before I spoke up, “We stay friends forever, right? You’re still very important to me. It’d be nice to spend a bit of time with you and the others again,” I said hopefully, looking up at her. “Yes, definitely. And of course, whenever you want,” she smiled and wiped the last of her tears out of her eyes. “Good… Do you think I should tell Twilight about this?” I asked. “That depends on what Twilight means to you. If she is the same for you like we were all that time ago, yes,” Luna smiled upon my reaction, “Ah, I see that the young Twilight has truly stole your heart,” she said, her eyes lighting up a little. I blushed, “Is it wrong? I mean, I’ve already had some lovers… I don’t want to do something she sees as too fast. I even declined to sleep with her in one bed until she asked me tonight,” I said, trying to get some iota of guidance from the pony who had turned me into the mare I was. Luna laid a wing on my back, “Night Glider, if your love is strong and honest, everything will be fine,” she reassured me, giving a gentle smile. “I thought you were the princess of the night, not the princess of love,” I mocked playfully. “Oh… about that. We raised another alicorn before Twilight. Cadance. She is the princess of love, you will meet her soon enough.” “Is she related to Twilight?” “No. But her husband, Shining Armor, is Twilight’s brother,” Luna smirked. “Who is he?” “He used to be the Captain of the Royal Guard. Now he’s the Prince of the Crystal Empire,” Luna snickered. “Oh, great… That can only end well. And you find it funny, huh?” “Very, indeed,” Luna laughed. “Okay, then how do you like this?” I asked as I leapt at her, tickling her with the primaries of my wings. “Stop!” she gasped, “We surrender!” she exclaimed after a few moments of tickling and flailing. I giggled at that, “Interesting to see that you hold onto parts of the royal we,” I teased, a grin pulling at my muzzle. “Shush. There was a time you copied it from me!” Luna blushed before tilting her head, “The night will be over soon, but I have one piece of advice for you. If you are seeking everything from your past, visit the old castle in the Everfree Forest. I’m sure Twilight would love to accompany you there,” she suggested, sounding slightly more like her older sister for a moment. “Thank you. And Luna?” she turned and I smiled, “Please, visit me more often in my dreams,” I said, giving her the open invitation with a twinge of hope. She nodded her head with a slight smile before she disappeared with the room, only leaving black. *** I woke up for real, though it took a glance around the room to confirm where I was and reassure myself that it was morning. With the glittering rays of sunshine filtering in through the window from the sunrise, I could see Twilight’s room was pretty much exactly the same as it was the night before. The box that contained my wingblades was off to the side on one of Twilight’s desks with the rest of my armor, and I was still on Twilight’s bed, curled up in all the blankets and pillows. Next to me was the sleeping alicorn, cuddled up against my chest with her forelegs wrapped around me and her tail entwined with mine. I gave a little sigh of contentment as I pulled Twilight a little closer, nuzzling the top of her head and enjoying the warmth that came from her. I slept infinitely better with Twilight there than I did whenever I slept alone. I had a feeling that it’d be fairly common. I laid like that for a while, just holding Twilight and thinking about how lucky I was. I got a whole new chance at life, I had a wonderful mare and I got to spend my life protecting her. Even Luna wasn’t trying to murder me or imprison me anymore. I’d say that pretty much all was well in my life. It occurred to me that I’d still need to go back to Starlight Glimmer’s town to get the rest of my stuff. It hadn’t been on my mind, but I had some things that I’d rather bring with me. Not to mention the fact that I’d have to tell my other friends that I wouldn’t be going back to the town. I supposed it was for the best; I liked Ponyville better than there anyways. After a few minutes of laying there, Twilight began to stir with light sounds of irritation. She mumbled something and tilted her head up, kissing my chin tiredly with closed eyes. I couldn’t help but chuckle lightly in response. I turned my head down and kissed her properly on the lips with a, “Good morning,” to accompany it. “Mhh… morning,” she softly mumbled and blinked, “I don’t know about you, but I slept wonderfully last night,” she groaned out, stretching her back and arching her barrel against me. “I slept pretty well myself,” I cooed. “I could get used to this, if you’re okay with it,” she whispered. “I would love to fall asleep every night cuddled at your side and to wake up every morning with you as my first sight,” I said with every bit of love I could muster. It seemed to have the desired effect as Twilight leaned against me and buried her muzzle into the tuft of fur on my chest. We stayed cuddled in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the feeling of waking up with one another as the clock ticked away somewhere in the background. It was glorious, to just slowly wake up with the pony I loved. I almost hated to even think about getting up. Of course, my stomach decided it would be a great time to alert the entire castle to its desires. I sighed softly as my stomach broke the silence with an abnormally loud growling, one that I swear Spike could probably have heard all the way in his room, even if he had a pillow over his head. Twilight seemed to find it funny though, considering the tired little chuckle that escaped her muzzle in response. She sat up, escaping my grip, and stretched her wings with several loud pops. “As much as I’d love to stay here all day, I think we should probably get some food into that monster,” Twilight teased, a grin on her face as she leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips. We held it for a moment before she broke away and danced off of the bed. I laughed and shook my head, “Alas, it’s the one monster that can’t be slain,” I responded dramatically, throwing my front hooves into the air and waving them around a little in fake desperation. Twilight giggled from across the room as she magically ran a brush through her hair, getting the sleep knots out of it. Slipping off of the bed, I trotted over to where she was standing so I could look at myself in the mirror. I was a mess, considering I spent the entire day before wearing a helmet, and I hadn’t showered since that morning. I hummed in thought for a moment before hugging Twilight from behind, “I think I’m going to go take a shower and see what I can do about my mane. Looks like a bird made a nest out of it,” I said with a little grin. Planting one last kiss on Twilight’s cheek, I backed off from her and quickly trotted out to the bathroom. I heard Twilight call out behind me, “I’ll have breakfast ready for you when you’re done, dear!” she said, the use of the pet name bringing a little flutter to my chest and a blush to my cheeks. It wasn’t much, but it still made me feel special. *** The shower had been refreshing as always, and it did wonders for my mane. Now, instead of looking like a nest of white and silver, it was back to its proper fluffed up and windswept style. I didn’t need to run a comb through it or anything, I really just stepped out of the shower and banged my head a few times in the air until it was satisfactory. Once I was happy with my appearance and I didn’t smell so much like steel and sweat, I trotted down the stairs and made my way to the kitchen. As promised, Twilight was there in front of the stove, contently cooking away and humming a tune of some sorts. I could have sworn I heard her say something about “smiling”, but I wasn’t quite close enough to tell. I walked up behind her and planted a kiss on her cheek, one that brought a wide smile to her face as she leaned into me for a moment before turning back to her food. I set to making the coffee as she made the breakfast, then made my way to the counter stools and took a seat as I waited for everything to be ready. It was already a good morning, I could tell. It didn’t take long for breakfast to be ready and in front of us both, as well as fresh coffee. We sat at the counter as we ate, munching away at our respective breakfasts in relative silence. I didn’t mind the silence, it was alright, but I figured that we should probably have something to talk about. “Luna visited me in my dream last night,” I said, looking over at Twilight apprehensively. Twilight was silent for a moment, “What happened?” she asked, concern lacing her voice. “She wasn’t mad,” I said, fiddling with my coffee cup, “She believes that I changed, and that I’m the same pony I was before everything started going wrong,” I explained, taking a sip of my coffee after a second. A hum of thought came from beside me, “Hmm… So she’s not going to try to get rid of you?” she asked, a bit of hope shining through. “No, apparently we’re good now,” I said with a little chuckle, “She wants me to go visit her and the few Lunar Guards that survived this long,” I explained, still a little surprised about it myself. I was wrapped up in a sudden embrace, two warm wings pulling me close, “Then I think we made it,” Twilight whispered, leaning her head against my shoulder as she held me. Blushing lightly, I nodded and pressed my head against hers, “Yeah… We made it, Twilight,” I replied, sighing softly in contentment. Even after everything that had happened, I still had Twilight, and everything was turning out alright. “She said that you and I should go see the old castle,” I added after a moment of silent embrace. Twilight pulled back and looked up at me, a small and familiar smile pulling at her muzzle. “Well, I did promise you that I’d take you to the old castle, didn’t I?” she said, visibly perking up in anticipation. She turned to her breakfast and quickly scarfed down the rest, along with her coffee. It was a surprising show of her ability to just store away food like that, and it never ceased to amaze me. “Wait, does that mean we’re gonna go now?” I asked, going wide-eyed in surprise. The nod from Twilight was all the warning I needed to quickly dig into my breakfast and my coffee, trying to force it all back at once. It wasn’t quite as quick or smooth as Twilight, but I managed to get it all down without any of it coming back up in just about a minute. I had barely finished eating when the magical pop signaled Twilight teleporting somewhere. I figured she had gone off to her bedroom to get anything she might have needed for the journey, so I was left with doing the dishes. I did them as quickly as I could, but they were done nowhere near as fast as when Twilight did them. I was walking into the main hall when another magical pop found me covered in a sudden weight, and Twilight standing in front of me with a pair of saddlebags on her back. After a brief inspection, I was impressed to find that Twilight had successfully teleported my armor onto me, along with a pair of my own saddlebags, without teleporting anything inside of me and turning the main hall into a bloody mess. Looking down at my hooves, I noticed that she had also been kind enough to teleport the box containing my wingblades to me. Deciding to be prepared, I flipped open the box and began the slow and ceremonious application of the armored segments to my wings while Twilight watched. It didn’t take long, my muscles knew where everything went and I didn’t have to think too much about it. When it was done, my wings were almost completely covered in metal blades and plates, with only the underside of my wings left uncovered. Twilight let out a low whistle of appreciation, “Looking good, Captain. Are you ready to go?” she asked excitedly, a grin on her face as she started towards the door. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that she was more excited for the trip than I was. “Always, my princess,” I replied with a smirk, trotting over to catch up with her. It was going to be a long day.