Lydia sighed as she entered the hotel she and her family were staying at. She had had a long and weary day being dragged about Canterlot by her step-mom. Her father was on some business conference so Delia figured she'd do some womanly bonding with her step-daughter.
Lydia had suffered through several clothing stores where her mom tried to get her to wear more pink and frilly outfits. They had even stopped by an art gallery that actually had one of Delia's sculptures on display for some weird reason. She had barely managed through it all without including anything garishly girly to her wardrobe.
She wished her friend Betelgeuse could've joined her. Hanging out with him, even in some of his disguises, always helped her deal with spending time with her excessively chipper step-mom. Sadly Canterlot has magical wards against spirits, while he could slip past them, it wouldn't be long before one of them got triggered and a bunch of mages would show up to banish him back to the Neitherworld. He planned on joining her tonight to provide moral support when she goes to Princess Luna's Night Court.
Lydia cleaned up a little bit before she rejoined her family and headed to dinner. They found a nice restaurant and her father talked about the conference and her mother discussed all the shops they visited. Lydia picked at her food having eaten her fill. The desert was a delicious slice of cake with bats on it, the restaurant was known for adding flourishes for customer, and Lydia managed to get a second slice to go.
A few hours later she sat next to the window in her small room, her parents having got a separate room next door, watching the sky as the sun finished setting and the moon rose to watch over the land as most things slept. Knowing that soon she would sneak out so she can attend Luna's Court she tended to her appearance keeping an eye on the night sky as she ran a coat brush across her back. Lydia paid more attention to where her coat shifted from the white of her head and back to the black of her legs so that no loose hairs crossed over and made it look messy.
Once she finished she put on her usual poncho and straightened it out. She pulled her mane back and put on her scrunchie to hold it in her preferred top-knot. Checking on the Moon she saw that enough time has passed that Night Court should be well under way. She pulled out the extra slice of cake and took a breath.
"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." She said quitely.
It took a long moment in which Lydia started to worry before a quick, but subdued flash and a little smoke announced her friend's sudden arrival.
"Sorry that took a bit Lyds, some of the wards were a bit trickier than the last time I tried this." He said, stretching out a bit.
Lydia pointed to the cake, "Brought a spare slice of cake from dessert for you. Once you're done with it I want to head out to meet Princess Luna." she stated.
"Okay. I figure I can turn into a barrette to hide." Beej said as he scarfed down the cake.
He shifted his form into a small hair clip and then floated over to Lydia's head and securing himself in her mane next to her ear.
Having navigated her way through Canterlot Lydia arrived at the castle gates. The guards noticed her and while neither of them moved to intercept her as the gates were open to allow ponies wanting to petition Princess Luna during her Night Court, one of them did tap his helmet and whispered something quickly.
As the young filly trotted across the castle grounds she took in how it all looked cloaked in shadows. She soon arrived at the castle proper and while the doors were open, one of the guards walked up to her.
"Sorry to bother you, but where might your parents be?" He asked in a gentle but brisk tone.
"Back at the hotel. Is there a problem?" Lydia asked, looking up at the much larger stallion.
"You need an adult with you for attending court. If you let me know which hotel we can send someone to fetch them." He replied.
Lydia felt her barrette wiggle lightly, knowing that B.J. was probably thinking about turning into a pony to pretend to be her guardian, but an idea exploded in her mind brought a better option.
"Well, Princess Luna is an adult so since she is here I should be fine." She stated before going to move around the guard.
He stared for a moment as that processed. He moved to block her path before saying, "I would still like to know what hotel your parents are at so we can bring them here while you talk to the Princess."
Lydia sighed and informed him of where her parents were at. He moved off away from the castle and she walked down the corridor to the throne room.
Luna sat on the throne. Luckily it was enchanted to change appearance depending on which of the royal flanks was gracing it so it far more suited her personal style than the gold of her sister. It was made of a rich dark mahogany with silver inlaying and trim. A cloud cushion supported her trim flank and the arms had bats, skulls, and scenes of her personal triumphs carved into them. They also had some other more crude carvings hidden from view from where most ponies would observe it due to it's current occupant getting bored.
Said occupant looked about, it had been almost a full hour before anypony had shared the room in order to attend her court. She looked over at the pony who was in charge of the petitioners.
"Art there any more querents for me to tend to this night?" She asked, keeping some of the guards in her peripheral as they exchanged a couple coins.
"Well, we just had a filly come through the gates. As she's alone one of the guards wants to retrieve her parents before letting her in." replied the somewhat booking pony with a cutie mark of a book with a pocket watch on it's cover.
One of the guards spoke up, "Actually she just pointed out that since Princess Luna is an adult there would be an adult accompanying her in the court. He's still gone off to her hotel, but she should be here shortly."
Luna smiled, pleased at how the filly got around that little rule.
Lydia stood before the ornate doors to the throne room. One was clad in gold, a sun surrounding a white alicorn in the middle while its companion was silver with a moon behind a dark blue alicorn.
She swallowed. A small voice near her ear encouraged her to proceed. She placed a hoof on the center of the doors before the guards on either side opened it for her causing her to jump slightly.
Lydia entered the throne room, and was awed at what she saw. Of course the room was made to impress the common pony, and it took a few seconds as her head swung around taking in the sight. As she did that her eyes crossed the throne and were glued to it.
There on a throne, one that looked exactly like she thought it would, and likely how she would decorate one herself, sat a tall pony. Her flowing ethereal mane was the first the drew Lydia's attention as it looked like this pony had taken a piece of the night sky to clad herself in. Her dark blue coat was beautifully maintained and adorned by obsidian royal ornamentation. Lydia took note of her wings and horn before her eyes locked with the teal eyes of Princess Luna.
Lydia bowed, after having spent several long seconds entranced by the sight of the Lunar Diarch.
Luna watched as the young filly tentatively entered. She smiled at the look of wonder as she took in the throne room only to become the center of her attention. She looked over Luna's body with an astonished look in her eye. Luna kept an eye on her until their eyes met. The filly seemed to freeze up fully as Luna gave her a moment to collect herself.
Once she bowed, Princess Luna took stock of her current petitioner. She seemed to have a white coat with a black mane. Her green eyes held obvious intellect. Most of her body was clad in a red poncho with a black spiderweb pattern, though her black legs were visible. However, a small barrette next to the filly's ear kept drawing Luna's attention.
"Greetings your highness. My name is Lydia Deetz" Lydia said in a slightly shaky voice.
"Well met young one. What didst thou wish to speak to me about?" Luna said, in a regal voice, careful not to use the Royal Canterlot Voice.
"Well, you're my favorite princess and I just really wanted to meet you." She replied standing up from her bow.
Lydia watched as Princess Luna seemed to be distracted. They had been chatting about their shared stylistic choices when Luna interrupted a conversation about the decorative aspects of cobwebs.
"Hold still." Luna stated with a firm tone that rooted Lydia to the spot.
Lydia figured out what was going on as Luna's horn glowed with magic and she felt the Barrette that Beej was pretending to be was carefully removed from her head.
She watched as a flare of magic from Luna caused Beetlejuice to return to his pony form.
"Phasm, what are you doing hiding on this filly's body?" Luna asked forcibly.
"Wait Princess, don't harm him!" Lydia cried out.
Luna shifted her glare slightly to take in Lydia as well, raising an eyebrow. A sublte spell told her that she wasn't under any influence by the spirit so she decided to listen to what the filly had to say.
"Beej is my friend. My talent is helping out spirits." Lydia said, turning slightly and shifting her poncho to show the tombstone with 'Rest in Peace' carved in it which made up her cutie mark. She dropped the poncho back in place as she continued, "He helps me out, even protecting me against some of the more dangerous spirits. He even fought off one of the Neitherworld's sandworms once."
Luna raised her other eyebrow at that last statement, before looking over the spirit once more. He smiled and bowed as well as he could while being held in her magic field before a small business card zoomed out of his pocket and tried to proceed towards her. She allowed it out of her field so she could examine it.
It stated that his name was Beetlejuice and to summon all you needed to do was say his name thrice. Just under that it stated that his profession was as a bio-exorcist. The edge of the card also had a long list of jobs he was capable of performing.
Lydia had a worried look on her face as she feared what was to happen to her friend. Luna lowered Beetlejuice down to the floor and let go of her magic seeing the filly sigh in relief.
"Thanks Princess Moonbutt. Worried you'd banish me to some dark dimension for sneaking onto the castle grounds." B.J. with as much respect as he could muster.
Seeing Luna glare at him again Lydia quickly clarified, "Honestly, that's about as much respect you can get. Anymore would be like squeezing lemonade out of a stone."
Of course that statement triggered Beej's magic, turning him into a stone before getting compressed by a giant pinstriped hand causing a liquid to be poured into a glass. Once he turned back to normal, he drained the glass. "Mmmm, tastes like bugjuice."
Luna heard one of the guards cough, causing a smirk to appear on her face.
"I would very much like to know exactly how you befriended such a phasm as this Beetlejuice, and just how your friendship seems to affect him." She said to Lydia.
"Well, we largely pull pranks together. It helps him keep out of trouble in the Neitherworld." Lydia stated.
Luna looked back at the card and saw that several things at the edge included prank in the title, such as Prankster Prince, Prank Planning, Prank Provisions, and many many more. She had to give it to him for the alliteration.
"Well Beetlejuice and Lydia, please join me for a brief snack while the guard finish fetching you parents." Luna said, motioning to a door on the side of the throne room.
"With pleasure Your Moonieness. Please do call me B.J. or Beej. Wouldn't want to be banished whilst enjoying a snack." B.J. said as he and Lydia fell in pace alongside her.