Moon-Crossed
Silver magic dimmed the light of the wall sconces as Night Writer made her way to bed. She hadn’t been feeling very inspired that evening – barely a thousand words of any given idea that drifted in her head – but inspiration struck when it liked.
Night Writer’s name fit her as soon as she was able to write, her parents would often find her up at late hours, writing this or that or simply doodling. Her cutie mark – a quill surrounded by a few silver stars and a crescent moon – had followed soon after.
Nowadays, she hardly slept at night. Some idea or other would keep her pacing before her cluttered desk, or insist that she consult a book from her ample library for inspiration or research. Often times, she would go out on her balcony and gaze at the stars – even her mind quieted before the moon.
Tonight, Night Writer vowed to sleep like a normal pony. She just hoped her skewed sleep cycle would allow it. Slipping under the covers, Night Writer shut off her bedside lamp and nestled into the pillows.
Some unknown amount of time later, her midnight blue eyes opened. The usual grogginess of waking up didn’t come with it, which she frowned at. Then she heard a rustling sound – not like clutter being rifled with, but rather like a flag in the wind, the flap of fabric.
Sitting up abruptly, her breath hitched in her throat. The sound came from her curtains that closed off the closed glass door leading to her balcony – which was now open, with the curtains catching a cool night breeze. But that wasn’t what made her freeze.
Standing before the curtains was an alicorn, a surprising enough sight in any circumstance. Her dark blue coat matched the billowing curtains, which Night Writer vaguely remembered were sold as part of a royal line or something. Her sapphire blue mane and tail billowed in the wind as well, speckled like a night sky. Her cyan eyes were fixated on Night Writer, and she was smiling.
Night Writer let out the caught breath and got up. “Oh, Princess Luna,” she said. “It’s you.” As the alicorn shut the glass door behind her, the unicorn looked around the room and frowned. “Weird, I thought my dreams were, well, weirder than this.”
“I find them rather enjoyable,” Luna replied, walking over to stand before Night Writer. Even if she was the shorter of the two sisters, she stood a good foot over the fully grown unicorn. “But we are not in your dreams.”
Night Writer’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks and the beginning gasps of a panic attack heaved from her chest. “This… you’re… you’re actually in my house right now. Actually. This is real?” she spluttered.
“And please: no more titles. Just Luna is fine.”
“Oh, right. The coronation.” Night Writer shook her head roughly, getting a grip on herself. “I’m sorry, I just… I didn’t expect this.”
“As much time as we’ve spent together?” Luna turned to a series of wall shelves lined with thick books. Encasing a few in pale blue magic, she drifted them over to her, scanning the front covers.
“Well, that was just in my dreams. And you go to a lot of ponies’ dreams.” Night Writer walked over and leaned over to look at the books. “I… didn’t think that was anything special.”
Luna cocked an eyebrow at her, then looked back at the books. Each possessed a black cover and the same silver script spelled out the title and author. The main difference was each had a different object on the front cover: a seashell, a dagger, a chest, a masquerade mask, a pocket watch.
“You’ve told me a lot about yourself, Night Writer,” Luna finally said, replacing the books in the same order. “Your hopes, your dreams, your ideas.”
Under her charcoal grey coat, Night Writer’s cheeks burned red. She averted her gaze. “I did blab a lot, didn’t I?”
Luna giggled softly. “You said you were inspired by me when you wrote these stories, didn’t you? I am flattered.”
“What? Cobalt Glide? I mean, yes, but… he’s just a fictional character.”
“A fictional character whose desires turned him into a monster – a batpony, wasn’t it? – and drove away his friends and family. Whose stories are about redeeming himself and finding his special somepony and rekindling the relationship with his family? He sounds very realistic to me – and many readers, from what I hear.”
Night Writer gulped. “I… uh… I suppose so?”
“Do I intimidate you, now that I am before you in reality?”
Night Writer’s eyes shot up to meet Luna’s. They looked down at her seriously, but deep in them there was a small amount of pain. The unicorn tried not to look deeper, and her gaze faltered.
“No. Well, not by you. You are – were – an amazing princess. Not saying you aren’t now! Just, that you aren’t a princess. It’s just… you’re something, and I’m…” Night Writer’s head slouched.
Luna’s eyebrows shot up. She gently lifted Night Writer’s chin with one hoof, and smiled kindly down at the unicorn. “You’re… what?” she asked softly.
“I’m nothing!” She jerked away and walked over to her desk. Luna followed. “You’re an inspiration to ponies everywhere! You can be something, no matter what you did in the past. You can have friends, you can have a family that’s not disappointed in you. All I did was just write about it with some stupid character.”
“I see.” Luna halted and looked out the glass door she had come from. “You think of yourself as nothing when the world tells you otherwise. You punish yourself for faults others have forgiven, refuse to let old wounds heal.”
“W-What?” Night Writer wiped at her eyes – good grief, how long had she been crying in front of former royalty? – and turned to the alicorn.
“For a long time, I too refused happiness, Night Writer. I created the Tantabus to punish myself in my dreams every time I slept – and almost made a worse nightmare than anything I could’ve conceived. All because I wouldn’t let go of a past everyone else had already shut the book on. I didn’t want to forgive myself.” She looked to the unicorn with a serious frown. “What wrong have you committed, that you still hold onto, that rivals Nightmare Moon?”
“I…” Night Writer sniffled pathetically, looking at the floor. “My career, I suppose… I feel like I’ve disappointed my family, becoming a writer like this. I can’t even imagine what would happen if they read what I’ve published.”
Luna walked over and set a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. Her cyan gaze bore into Night Writer’s midnight blue eyes. “You think yourself as nothing when it is ponies like you who have inspired me since my return.”
“What do you mean?” Night Writer blushed as Luna swept away one last errant tear from her cheek.
“I thought Equestria might loathe me upon my return, that I would be shunned by everypony. It took so long for me to even attend Nightmare Night, a celebration in my, I suppose, honor. I was a recluse, but then I learned about your stories. They were one of many, but it was the first I read – I read a lot in my spare time.
“You were able to take my story, and not shy away from it in fear as if it were some serpent, but forge it in paper and ink in such a way that others might learn from it, in a way I could never word, no matter how hard I tried. That Nightmare Night I attended showed me that ponies were willing to forgive me, but your stories, and others like them, were what made me come out of my shell.”
Night Writer smiled softly, in spite of herself. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say. I’m… honored.”
Luna smiled. “But there is another reason I am here. Our time together in your dreams has captivated me.”
“What?” Night Writer wrinkled her nose. “The first time we met, you saved me from being crushed by a boulder-sized apple. How is that captivating?”
The alicorn giggled and walked over to her shelves, looking over the books. “It’s not the most absurd thing I’ve seen on my patrols of the dreamscape, but it’s what happened after that I was intrigued by. Do you remember?”
“I… told you I was working on a novel.” Night Writer joined Luna by her side. “I said it was another Cobalt Glide story and you…” She chuckled sheepishly. “I remember you got all giddy and asked me if I had written the first one.”
“We’ve had many conversations over your works. But I asked you why you weren’t working on it then? It was, after all, the middle of the day, and I wasn’t expecting to confront a nightmare in the daytime.”
“I said because I always wrote at night.” She chuckled. “I guess I’m about as nocturnal as Cobalt Glide after he got turned into a batpony. I sleep most of the day.”
“Never before have I met somepony who appreciates my night. I know Twilight might raise and lower the moon now, but the night shall forever be my domain.”
Night Writer nodded, and looked out the glass door. “I don’t know why, but I always feel comforted, when I look up at the night sky. With my active imagination, it’s the one time I feel at peace.”
Night Glider looked over to Luna, who plucked out one book – the first book in the Cobalt Glide section – and carried it over to the bed. “You have trouble sleeping at night? You know, a good story always helped me to get to sleep when I was younger.”
“You… you want to read my story?” Night Glider gulped, especially when the alicorn hopped onto the bed, which groaned under her weight, and tucked her legs under her. The unicorn nervously followed.
“No.” Luna drifted the book over, and Night Writer caught it in her silver magic. “I want you to read it to me. I want to hear this story I’ve enjoyed from the lips of the one who wrote it. The one who always told me, excitedly, about every plot point and idea she had around Cobalt Glide.”
“Oh… wow.” The book fell to the bed and opened as Night Writer tried to settle herself comfortably on the bed – which was increasingly difficult with her proximity to Luna. She could almost feel the alicorn’s breath, and her black mane stood on end as goosebumps came over her.
“Something the matter?” Luna whispered.
“N-No… just… you’re really close…”
A soft giggle. “Does that bother you?”
“No! No, I just…”
“Just what?”
“I don’t think I can do this!” The book slammed shut along with Night Glider’s eyes. A shiver rolled down her back as she felt one feathery wing drape across her back. She opened her eyes slowly to find the book missing – now in front of Luna and once again open.
“I can wait for my reading,” the alicorn said simply. She cast a sideways smile at Night Writer. “There’s always next time.”
“Next time?” Night Writer gulped.
“Well, I intend to visit often, now that I have a lot more free time. Besides, I want to hear more about your ideas – from the real you.” Luna turned to the book. “Would you care for me to read to you then?”
“I-If you want to.” Night Writer laid her head down on the bed, cheeks burning with embarrassment and some other emotion that made her stomach flutter.
As Luna began to read the first paragraph, her wing gently stroked against Night Writer’s back. At first, the unicorn shuddered from the touch, but the motions had a calming effect. Her mind, previously abuzz with conflicting emotions, eased itself into silence, as if the night sky were in bed with her.
Night Writer didn’t know where in the reading she finally drifted off, but for once, her inspiration allowed her to sleep under the gaze of the moon – and its princess.