Flight
I spread my wings, gathered myself, and leapt over the railing of the balcony into the darkness of my night. I fell for a fraction of a second, then my wings caught the air and I swooped upward, pumping to gain altitude. Though I suppose I should think of it as “we swooped upward,” for I had a passenger.
“Wheeeeeee!” The high-pitched shout of pleasure came from directly behind my head. I folded my ears down tight to shut it out, but felt certain that they would be ringing for a while.
I tilted my head to look back along my body at the little pink pony clinging to my withers, her back legs tucked just in front of my wing joint. Her smile was a blinding white crescent in the dark as she stared at Canterlot town below, its streetlights shimmering like fireflies in her eyes.
I climbed up through the starlight until Canterlot was a flickering candle in a vast velvet darkness. The only sound was the night wind murmuring past my ears. I stiffened my wings to glide in a long orbit, and turned my head to address my passenger.
“Pinkie Pie, just how did you discover that today was the day of my birth?” She had arrived at my chambers just after moonrise, a single candle burning atop the angel food cake in her hooves. She presented me with the cake—my favorite—and informed me of the happy occasion. The question had been gnawing at me since that moment: how could she have known, when even I had forgotten the date I had come into existence? And she did know, of that much I was certain. The idea that today was my birthday felt deeply correct, in a way that the official state celebration of Celestia’s and my birthday never had.
She pulled her gaze away from the ocean of stars swimming in the darkness above us, and met my eyes with a startling directness. There was no fear, no timidity, no caution in her gaze. She smiled and looked at me as an equal, as though she thought that this thank-you flight made her such. One part of me wanted to tip her off my back into the abyss for such impertinence, and I nearly did it. I refrained because a secret voice deep inside relished the thought of not being special, of being able to be simply Luna, even if only for a little while. Despite my shame at such thoughts, I felt a smile grow unbidden as she looked at me.
She answered, “Oh, it was easy! See, I just worked backwards, factoring in gravitational precession and the slowing effect of the tides on rotational velocity, and I arrived at the date when everything started. And I figure you and Princess Celestia started when everything started, so today’s your birthday!”
My smile was gone, replaced by an open-mouthed stare. With an effort, I collected myself. “You . . . worked backwards?”
“Yup!”
“But . . . that’s millions of years! Thousands of variables! How could you— why would you?”
She shrugged, casually dismissing a feat of astrophysics that had stumped the finest minds in Equestria for ten thousand years. “Sometimes I get bored in the library and I read a book while I’m waiting. I’ve read some stuff about astronononomy, and it’s pretty simple. I sure did go through a lot of paper, though.”
“Pretty simple. . .” I shook my head sharply, deciding to set that line of questioning aside for now. I would have the Royal Astronomer interview her later. “But again, why? Why do this remarkable thing, this feat, just to ‘throw me a party’?”
Her arms clutched tighter around my neck, and her smile stepped down from blinding to warm. “Because everypony deserves a birthday party, and you haven’t had one in so long.” Her voice grew quiet. “And because I know how much it hurts to be lonely.”
My wings twitched, spilling air and plunging us into a sudden fall. We dropped three hundred feet while I stared at her in shock and she stared right back, as calm as an immortal. At last I blinked, came back to myself, and arrested our fall into a glide. I thundered at her. “I—we are not lonely! How dare you presume—!”
Though her mane blew back under the force of my anger, she remained unperturbed. That same still, secret voice spoke up in the back of my mind, arguing that maybe there was something to what the pony had said. I scowled and turned my head forward, shutting my passenger out while I pumped my wings to regain my lost altitude.
The thought that a princess of the realm could experience such a base emotion as loneliness was ludicrous and offensive, as though I were a mere pony. But her words stung me . . . was I lonely? A thousand years in exile was the blink of an eye, but prior to my banishment I had reveled in the company of my subjects and my sister. Always my sister, the one fixed point in the constantly-shifting mortal world around me. But since the day of my freedom, I had been an outsider, my subjects wary of me and my sister grown accustomed to ruling alone. Celestia was perpetually busy, and as a result I had hardly seen her apart from our brief, stuffy dinners together. I missed her.
The stars wavered and smeared together, and the wind swept away the tears I had not known I was shedding. My passenger must have noticed, because she lay down flat against me and squeezed my neck tight. I spoke to the air without turning my head. “I apologize for my outburst, Pinkie Pie. My pride serves me poorly. I think you are right; I am lonely.” I tilted my head back to look at the lambent curve of the moon. “I shall not ask how you read my heart when I had hidden it even from myself. Instead, I shall only be grateful.” I lowered my head to nuzzle her cheek, which she raised to meet me. “Thank you.”
Her voice was warm and soft in my ear. “It’s my pleasure, Princess. I like making ponies happy.”
The warmth in her voice spread to my chest, and I drew back from her to look directly into her eyes. “I want to repay you in some way. I am happy to give you this flight as thanks for the party, but I have much more to thank you for. Name your boon, and you shall have it.”
She shook her head in gentle refusal, and her smile was bright and caring. “All I want is to make you happy. I wanted to show you that somepony cares, so you wouldn’t be lonely. You needed this flight, so I asked for it, and here we are.”
Again I found myself frozen in surprise, my wide eyes meeting her gentle blue ones. I had never met a pony like her. She saw to the core of me, even though we had hardly spoken before this evening. “Thank you.” I only realized I had spoken after I heard my voice. My mind churned, and I turned my attention to flying.
We flew. We flew until the scales began to fall away from my heart, until I realized it was true: somepony cared. I was not alone in the darkness. Then, I flew with a lightness of spirit I had not felt in a millennium, and her delight was unconcealed as I wheeled and soared. She hugged my neck all the while, and I felt her warmth flowing into me.
* * *
The rays of the rising sun threw luminous spears around the silhouette of the castle as I glided to a landing at last. On the balcony outside my chambers, Pinkie Pie scrambled off my back and stretched. I opened my mouth to speak, to put into words how much her gift had meant to me, but it was impossible, I had not the words to express my feelings.
As though she heard my silence, she turned around to watch and wait. A long moment passed as I stared at her. There had to be some way I could show her my thanks. Then, in a flash of insight, I saw her clearly, and the corners of my mouth lifted in a smile. I knew just the words to say. “Pinkie Pie, will you please invite me to your parties from now on?”
She squealed and leapt at me, throwing her arms around my neck for a hug. I didn’t feel lonely anymore.
-------
Author’s Note: The original version of this story was an entry for Thirty Minute Ponies fourth prompt, “Starshine and Candy”. The prompt was “Princess Luna takes Pinkie Pie on an “outing” to thank her for something.” Thanks to Kyronea for the prompt which inspired this story, and to RWL and Bombastic Bookman for editing assistance.
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Wow, this is great! Wonderful job, would like another chapter/epilogue, if possible.
Awesome. I love it, completely and totally.
d'aaawwwwwwww
Good.
Take all of my feels, every last one of them
Nicely done.
"There was no fear, no timidity, no caution in her gaze. She smiled and looked at me as an equal, as though she thought that this thank-you flight made her such.
That's the really charming thing about Pinkie Pie. Once you endure her freakout phase (Zecora in "Bridle Gossip", Luna in "Luna Eclipsed") and emerge the other side as her friend, she'll never be frightened of you again. No deference, no trembling before your power or fame or influence.
That's Pinkie for you. Always there. No, it's not always what you might want, but she'll always be there. And that's rather comforting. I enjoyed this one; nicely done.
Bravo, very heartwarming... though in my opinion it does not deserve it's sad tag...
Fimfiction really needs a heartwarming tag
Aww... So cute.
733459 Ooh, thanks for reading, and I'm pleased you found the story worth commenting on.
734636 Heh, I pored over the tag guidelines looking for something that would fit better. The only other possibility was slice-of-life, and it's even less that than it is Sad, so I went with Sad. Sad but true, nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Darling I just want to tell you one thing. When I want a heartwarming story I come to this one. This story gets me better than I have read on this site. Thank you for a wonderful masterpiece
This is great - and I love the portrayal of Pinkie Pie so much. I mean, you just... I'm exhausted and all cried out right now, because of reasons, so my brain's not working quite as well as I usually like it to. But, still. This story was amazingly well done - and like I said, I adore Pinkie. She always seems too hyper, random, and it almost makes her seem shallow. That, or people go off the opposite end because apparently Dark/Crazy Pinkie is 'cool'. But there are so many things about her that are kinda... inexplicable. And I like the fact that she can be so stoic and deadpan about some of that weirder stuff about herself, like it's just so normal and to be expected.
I also like one very important thing about her here - Pinkie is supposed to make ponies happy. She makes them smile and feel good. Which is why Luna Eclipsed always made me so angry, that she could be so insensitive. This really redeemed her in my eyes and made me like her on a while new level.
1530448 Aw, thanks! Hearing that my take on Pinkie redeemed her for someone is a really good feeling. I'm glad you liked the story.
This does not seem like a sad story! This seems very happy.
_∏_
-_Ƣ ~ Stay Classy.
1933772 I quite agree, but there isn't a better way to tag it with the set of tags available on the site. So, sad was the least-bad fit. Whatchagonnado, right?
Using astrophysics to determine how old the sun and moon are does kind of imply that their motions are based on non-pony physical forces rather than the will of the Princesses or the ancient unicorn tribes, and thus a large part of their power is based on a scam.
What 1530448 said caused me to start over-thinking something.
I do like to think of Pinkie as being frighteningly insightful, empathic, and aware, but A Friend in Deed does indicate that this only really applies to people with whom she is familiar*, which pretty much covers all of Ponyville including its non-pony population. As much as I dislike how Pinkie was portrayed in Luna Eclipsed, her acting like a total jerk-face (technically term) to Luna was likely just because she didn't realize that the princess wasn't in on the game.
So... yeah. She wasn't being evil as such, but she made a hurtful mistake and should make amends to Luna. I suppose this works.
*places and things also, I suppose, given the whole "It was under E thing"
What do you mean by "everything" else?
Love the characters interactions
I read this once, long ago, and I still really like it.
Short and sweet little insight into what it's like to encounter someone so sweet they'll always be there for you, no matter what. Not much ambition beyond that, but sometimes it's not needed when you have a piece with as subtly effective and efficient characterisation as this. Nice job!
Rating: Pretty Good