Chapter Six - Lifting Her Spirits
I woke up the next morning with Moon still holding me close to her. Her chin was resting on top of my head while the side of my face was resting against her upper chest. It rose and fell as she peacefully inhaled and exhaled, and every now and then she’d let out a content sigh. While I had been awake for several minutes, I decided to wait until she woke up.
Thankfully, that didn’t take too long.
Moon let out a yawn as she slowly emerged from her slumber, and she loosened her hold on me so she could move her head down and nuzzle me.
“Good morning, Noah,” she crooned.
“Morning, Moon,” I replied as she released me. “Did you sleep well?”
The alicorn nodded her head. “Very well. Your bed is quite comfortable,” she told me, and then she muttered something under her breath, “and I suppose it didn’t hurt for me to have someone to share it with, for once.”
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she sighed, and she gave me a warm smile.
I shrugged my shoulders and got up onto my feet. “I’m headed to the kitchen. What do you want for breakfast?”
“Pancakes, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“I think I can manage that.”
I walked out of my room and into the kitchen, and I looked into the fridge to see if I had what I needed to make what Moon requested.
“I could always put some frozen pancakes in the toaster oven,” I thought, “but it’s a nice Sunday morning. I can make ‘em from scratch.”
As I prepared breakfast, I heard the shower running in the bathroom, and I started to think about Moon.
“That party last night must have been traumatizing for her. It makes me wonder what would’ve happened had I not been there to help her. I know it was really crushing for her to realize how far she was from her former strength, but I hope she doesn’t dwell on it too much. It wouldn’t be good for her, but then again, when I think about it, I can’t help but feel frustrated myself. True, I spotted the bastard with those roofies but still… I couldn’t stop him from harassing Moon… I’m gonna have to try harder if I want to keep something like that from happening again.”
About ten minutes later, Moon walked into the living room showered and dressed, and she sat on the couch.
“Perfect timing,” I told her. “I just finished making breakfast. You want your pancakes with butter and syrup, right?”
“M-hm,” she answered, and I could tell from the tone of her voice that her mind was elsewhere. Regardless, I fixed her food the way she asked me to and brought her plate to her, along with a glass of orange juice. I then brought my plate and drink into the living room as well and sat beside Moon as she ate.
The next few minutes were deathly silent. Moon didn’t even bother to turn on the TV. She just ate quietly, her eyes looking almost as blank as Maud’s.
“I didn’t overcook the pancakes, did I?” I asked.
She shook her head as she sipped some of her juice. “Not at all. They’re really good, Noah.”
“Okay then…”
“You know, I feel a little bad that you’re always making food for me. I should make some for myself for once.”
“I don’t mind. It’s not like I’m slaving over a hot stove for you. It’s no trouble.”
“Still, I feel like you keep going out of your way to make me comfortable. I’m supposed to be your roommate, not your burden.”
I let out a sigh. “Okay, Moon. What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, really,” she assured. “I’m fine. It’s just that… I’ve been thinking about last night, and how you had to save me back there. I wasn’t the least bit careful and you had to cover up for my foolishness. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you were my babysitter,” she then chuckled. “Now I know why you were on my case before we got to the party.”
“Look, Moon. You need to stop thinking about last night, okay. Like I said, we all slip up sometimes. I was looking out for you because that’s what friends do for each other. Don't forget that Maud and Klaus were the ones that saved you from that guy. I just stopped you from falling into his trap.”
“But you did save me! You took away my cup!”
“Nevertheless, that’s no excuse for my lack of strength. The guy… he pushed me aside like I was nothing. In the end, I didn’t do much.” My expression began to grow depressed.
“But it’s the thought that counts!” Moon reassured me.
“Yeah… I guess… But still, what happened was just a fuck-up, so don’t you worry!”
“But... what if I make the same mistake again?”
“I don’t think that’ll happen.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Bad things happen to us for a reason. Whenever you go through a bad experience or make a mistake, you’ll know what to do the next time that situation comes around, and even if you still aren’t sure, I’ll be around to help you, just like I promised.”
Moon’s uneasy look began to change into one of self-assurance. She looked at me with a smile and said “Thank you, Noah.”
“No problem,” I told her. “You know, it's pretty nice out today, too nice to spend cooped up indoors. Wanna go out into town today? I heard that there was a street fair that’s supposed to be starting in a few hours.”
The alicorn nodded her head. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
A few hours later, Moon and I were dressed and ready to go out. She wore a short-sleeved white shirt with black jeans, and she also wore that necklace again. Once we were both ready, Moon transformed into Nightshade and we left the apartment. By the time we were out of the house, it was half past twelve, and we caught a bus to the local shopping plaza. When we got there, we noticed the large amount of people and ponies there, and we knew that we had made it. When we got out of the bus, we found a sign at the end of the street, and when we took a closer look, we saw that it read:
WEST GAINESVILLE STREET FAIR
There were numerous tents set up along either side of the street. Under the tents were various attractions: vendors, face painters, carnival-style games, you name it, it was there.
I could tell that Nightshade was excited from the way her tail happily swished back and forth, and there was a considerably large grin on her face.
“Which tent do you want to hit first?” I asked generously.
The unicorn looked curiously at the different attractions. “Um… I don’t know… Oh! Let’s go over there!” She pulled me over to a nearby tent, where a pegasus mare was doing some face painting.
“Hi there!” she said happily.
“Hello,” said Nightshade. “How much does it cost to get my face painted?”
“Depends. What design are you going for?”
“Um… I was thinking that you could paint a dark purple blotch over my right eye and then paint a crescent moon in the center of the blotch.”
“Oh! For a simple design like that, I only charge five bucks.”
Nightshade turned to me and looked at me with puppy-dog eyes again, and I chuckled as I took out my wallet. “Here you go,” I said to the pegasus as I handed her the money.
“Thanks,” she smiled, and then she looked at Nightshade as she patted the stool in front of her. “Have a seat right here and I’ll get right to work.”
The unicorn happily took a seat in front of her, and the painter got to work decorating her face. It took her about five minutes for her to finish painting Nightshade’s face, and when she was done, Nightshade looked up at me with a smile.
“Well? How do I look?”
I chuckled. “It’s actually pretty cute.”
“Maybe you should get one!”
“Eh… Maybe not.”
“Oh, come on, Noah! It wouldn’t kill you!”
“I’ll do it free of charge,” said the pegasus mare.
“See? She’s all for it!” Nightshade insisted.
“Nah, I’m good.”
The unicorn let out a frustrated groan as she stood up. “You’re so boring, you know that?”
“Oh well,” I told her, and then I looked at the painter with a smile. “Thanks. She looks really nice.”
“You’re quite welcome,” she answered gratefully. “You two have a good day, now!”
“You too!” Nightshade and I answered as we left the tent, waving goodbye to her.
She stayed close to me as we walked down the street, looking at the different tents and wondering where we should go next.
“Noah, do you really think the design on my face looks cute?” she asked me.
“Yeah. While the blotch’s color doesn’t really stand out from your coat as Nightshade, I still think it suits you nicely.”
The mare smirked. “Well it should, because this is my cutie mark.”
“Oh… really?” The image of Nightmare Moon’s actual cutie mark in person started to fill my head as my face flushed red. Damn! I was imagining looking at it upon her bare ass! I shook my head vigorously as I tried to get that image out of my head.
“Having some dirty thoughts, are we?” Nightshade said as she gave me an evil grin.
“You asked for a painting of your cutie mark on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Aw, Noah! You know me so well,” she cheered as she hugged me.
I rolled my eyes with a sigh as she affectionately squeezed me, and when she let me go, she spotted another tent that she wanted to visit. Just like the last time, she dragged me by my arm over to said tent, where a middle-aged man was finishing up a drawing of a pair of foals sitting in front of him.
“Aaaaand… done!” he declared as he signed his name at the corner of the picture. “There you go, kids.”
“Thank you so much mister!” they said in unison as the man gave them the portrait and they happily ran over to their parents to show it to them. The man turned around to look at me and Nightshade and gave us a smile.
“Mornin’! How can I help you two?”
Nightshade grasped my arm and got close to me. “We were wondering if you could draw a portrait of the two of us.”
“The two of us?” I asked giving her a look.
“Sure!” the man said, not even hearing me. “It’s ten dollars for the portrait, and if you want it in color, it’s twenty dollars.”
Nightshade immediately gave me the puppy-dog eyes again, adding a pout for good measure. “Can we-”
“Yes, we’ll get it in color,” I answered before she could even finish. I took out my wallet and paid the man, and we took a seat in front of him.
This mare was starting to bleed me dry.
“We’d better get comfortable,” she told me. “We’re gonna be sitting here for a while.”
“I’ll try not to keep you guys waiting for too long,” the man laughed. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”
The unicorn shuffled in her seat to the left of me, and then she wrapped her arms around my left arm and pulled herself close to me, her body facing mine. She then looked at the artist with a smile and said “Ready!”
The man nodded and got to work drawing Nightshade and I. As we sat there, she held my arm tightly, sighing with content. Every now and then, I would look down at her out of the corner of my eye and see the big smile on her face. I could feel the mare’s heartbeat as she rested against me, and it was beating at a slow, steady pace. I suddenly felt her tail brush my lower back as we sat, and while I didn’t bother to look at her, I could tell she was smiling deviously. This mare was really getting to me, but as much as I hated to admit it, deep down I kinda liked it.
It took about fifteen minutes for the man to finish our portrait, and when he handed it to us, Nightshade gasped.
“I love it!” she cheered as she admired the drawing.
“It looks really nice,” I agreed.
The artist smiled and handed us a plastic sleeve to put the picture in and a plastic bag to carry it around in. “I’m glad you two like it! Pleasure doin’ business with ya!”
“Likewise,” Nightshade said with a nod and the two of us left his tent.
“So where to now?” I asked her.
“Well, I am feeling kinda hungry… I could go for a nice hayburger right now.”
“A hayburger? That’s a rather unrefined meal for a princess, don’t you think?"
"Ex-princess, and I’ll eat whatever I damn well please, thank you very much.”
The two of us found a tent that was selling food, and Nightshade got her beloved hayburger with hay fries while I got a regular burger with regular fries.
I’ve tried a hayburger before, and it just didn’t sit well with me.
Nightshade and I found an empty bench to sit at and we got to eating our food. As we ate, we looked around the fair and saw all sorts of festivities going on. There was even a bounce house for the kids, and I caught Nightshade staring at it intently.
“No,” I told her.
“Why not? It’ll be fun!”
“I’m not denying that, but I doubt that they’ll let two grown twenty-year-olds into a bounce house with a bunch of little kids. Besides… there’s a weight limit.”
"What're you trying to say?"
"You know full well that I didn't mean it like that. I meant our weight compared to that of a little kid."
“I suppose you’re right.”
As we continued eating, I looked up and noticed that Nightshade was just… looking at me. She just stared at me for no apparent reason, and her deep blue sapphire eyes bore into me as she gazed. I never noticed how different they were when she was in her Nightshade form. Unlike Moon's teal, cat-like eyes, Nightshade’s were as blue as the sea.
“Um… Do I have food on my face?” I asked her.
“Huh?” she asked back.
“You’ve been staring at me for, like, a minute and a half.”
“I have?” she blinked, fidgeting in her seat. “Sorry, I didn’t notice.”
“Hm…”
Did she really not notice that she had been staring me down? Not to mention that she seemed really embarrassed and timid all of a sudden, too. I think she might have been blushing, even.
I decided to shake it off and keep eating, dismissing it as another case of Nightshade being weird. After we finished our food, we continued to walk around the fair, stopping at whatever tent the unicorn found interesting. I even won a stuffed bat for her at a ring toss game.
All the while, Nightshade was really enjoying herself. She had gone back to being the same mare that I became friends with all those months ago, and she appeared to have put last night’s incident behind her. At around three-o-clock, she was ready to go home.
“When does the next bus come?” she asked.
“Three-fifteen,” I answered, “and in this crowd, it’ll take about five minutes to get to the bus stop from here.”
“In that case, let’s go now. I don’t mind waiting ten minutes for the bus.”
We traversed through the crowd of people and ponies on our way to the bus stop, and along the way, we saw a familiar face.
“Hey, is that Klaus?” the unicorn asked.
“I think so,” I said, and I looked to see if it was really him. He looked over at us and addressed us with a nod, and Nightshade and I walked over to him.
Although… something didn’t look right about him…
“What’s up, man?” I asked.
“Nothing much,” he answered, his voice a stark contrast from its usual happy tone.
“Why the long face?” Nightshade asked.
“Yeah, you don’t look too good,” I added.
Klaus looked at me and said in a low voice “I’ve been getting calls and messages from you-know-who again.”
“Again?” I asked. “When are they gonna quit?”
“I dunno, Noah. They just won’t quit bugging me. I came here to try and cheer myself up, but it just isn’t working. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?”
The griffon walked off, not saying another word, leaving me feeling sorry for him, and Nightshade utterly confused at what happened.
“What’s wrong with Klaus?” she asked.
I let out a long sigh. “Don’t worry about it,” I told her as we continued to walk to the bus stop. “It wouldn’t help him if anyone else knew.”
“What do you mean? I’m his friend, too, aren’t I? If something’s bothering him-”
“He wants to keep it private,” I interrupted. “I’m the only one he’s ever told, and he doesn’t really want anyone else to know. Hell, the only reason he chose to tell me was so that he could have someone to vent to. Maud doesn’t even know about it. Long story short, he made me promise not to tell anyone, and I’m keeping that promise,” I explained calmly, lamenting Klaus's misfortune.
Nightshade gave me a concerned look, but then she decided to drop the issue. “I get it. I won’t push it any further than I already have.”
True to her word, she didn’t bring it up since then.
The bus ride home was quiet; I sat by the window as Nightshade slept on my shoulder. “All her excitement must’ve finally taken its toll on her,” I thought. She breathed silently as she slept, and she looked really peaceful as she rested against my side. I almost felt bad that I had to wake her up when we reached our stop.
“Wha? We’re here already?” she asked groggily as we came to a stop.
“Yep,” I answered. “C’mon sleepyhead. You can take a nap when we get inside.”
The two of us made our way inside the apartment and Nightshade stretched a little as she transformed back into Nightmare Moon.
“That street fair was rather festive, Noah,” she yawned. “I had a great time. Thanks for taking me.”
“Well, I thought that you could use a good day out instead of staying in here sulking all day.”
“I really should pay you back one of these days.”
“Aw, don’t worry about it. It’s no biggie.”
Moon giggled and sat on the couch, looking at the portrait that we had done of the both of us. “You know, I’d really love to have a portrait done of us when I’m in my true form.”
“Well, if there’s a street fair during Halloween, you could go as your true self and say that it’s a costume.”
The alicorn laughed a little. “I suppose that could be a possibility.”
I sat next to Moon and turned on the TV, and then I looked at her for a second; her cutie mark was still painted over her eye.
“That mark stands out a lot more in your true form’s black coat,” I told her.
Moon blinked at me in surprise and brushed away a stray lock of her mane with a blush on her face. “Thanks,” she muttered with a smile.
“Why’re you acting so shy all of a sudden,” I laughed.
“Well, you’ve never given me a compliment like that before,” she explained. “Usually when I get a compliment from you, I have to ask for it. It feels different when you say something like that on your own without me having to ask.”
“Really?” I asked. “To be honest, I never noticed that.”
Moon and I continued to watch TV for the next several hours, and we both decided to turn in early since we had class in the morning. I got up from the couch to go get the mare’s air mattress, but she gently grabbed my hand before I moved.
“Noah…” she said.
“Yeah?”
The alicorn looked down and blushed again. “I was wondering… if we could sleep together again tonight.”
I was a little surprised at the request. I only had her sleep next to me last night because she needed someone to comfort her, and I didn’t want her to feel alone, but it seemed that she had already taken a shine to sharing a bed. Now that she had asked me again, I wondered what her reason was.
I then decided that her reason was irrelevant. I didn’t really have a reason to say no.
I smiled down at Moon as she looked up at me hopefully.
“Sure, we can sleep together again.”
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Yeh I hate it when guys in story's shrug off things like affection
I notice it but chose to ignore it....it gets old
I love it, great story.
poor klaus, hope they figure out a solution to his problem
This guy is really bad at taking hints. xD
Nonetheless, Moon is as adorable as an ex-princess of the night can get. I love this as well as the problem with Klaus. It wil make for a great side story in here. Maybe its the Mafia! Nah. Love this story though. Keep up the great work my friend.
All hail Sketchy
The work he puts out makes me smile every day. I can't even tell you how many times I have reread the stories he has written.
is the griffon army trying to enlist Klaus? anyway awesome story
Yo ich liebe anthro nun...
Hat etwas animelike. Ich mag animes
Müstesst mal selber ein echtes Buch schreiben.
Wird sofort ein Bestseller, da bin ich mir sicher.
PR_X is out.
4506521 could that be translated? into English perhaps?
これは漫画のようなものです。
私はそれを愛する!
4506900
Thanks! That's the kind of feeling I was going for!
4506923
What's with the people posting messages in other languages? Never actually seen those who don't speak English on FiMFiction.
(Not that I have anything against it, I'm about 1/4 German, 5/8 American, and 1/8 Portuguese...I just hate using Google Translate to read a message)
4507268
My work is so awesome it breaks language barriers.I honestly don't know, but I don't mind using Google Translate.
4507316 I did mine as a joke that and i'm taking Japaneses lessons!
Relevant video
Really good chapter i wonder what is moon thinking about noah
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of a correct answer.
4507268 I feel for ya I'm Japanese and German.
4509151 wait
There was another answer
The universe gets weirder and weirder
4520140 Yeah! There's also the answer of "N-no! This would be so em-embarassing!" which would be given if the human protagonist was a wimpy anime loser like these ones:
i137.photobucket.com/albums/q203/captainexcabier/funny/Anime/Sekirei.jpg
lh5.ggpht.com/Sampler.Platter/SCANLyApBwI/AAAAAAAAAnA/xyp5qK1-TZw/s800/To%20Love-ru%20-%2005%20%285%29.jpg
Aren't Anime Harem Protagonists awesome? (Sarcasm)
4520233
Eeyup. Hit the nail on the head there.
Awesome story. But every time I see the name Klaus I get a totally different mental image...
fc00.deviantart.net/fs39/i/2008/357/a/b/Klaus_in_dish_by_MaxHill.jpg
Really makes some of the scenes feel weird...
this story is really cute I like it
4514350 That's a cross made in hell!
Awesome! :P
4520233 With your profile pic, that first example just seems... Weird.
4523623
i always imagine encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTq7Y_Dxt2ErIlxpe0pTXt1e-BCdR65pu27I3FtWjJVw8QRp5QUNbmRkb1S
Gainesville!?!?
Let the twitch fit that lasts two hours proceed
"Lifting her s-"
"spirits" 
4505708 I know the feeling bro
4505708 well you're on the right path
HAHAHA...Sleep together again!!!!!
(Anthro) NMMxHuman... I could get behind this!