Looking up from her notes, Twilight Sparkle realized she
wasn't hearing the music from Pinkie Pie's "Hooray for Friday"
party down the street anymore. Had it gotten that late?
She yawned, stretched, stood, and shook herself. She'd
stopped by the party earlier, of course, had said hello to
everypony and had some punch and cake, but this underwater
breathing spell she was working on just kept nagging at her;
she'd said her 'good nights' pretty early and had come back to
the library to get another few hours of research in before
hitting the hay. But now, walking into the foyer where the big
grandfather clock stood quietly ticking away, she realized she'd
completely lost track of the time.
Three soft clangs from the clock, and she had to give a
little laugh. Good thing she didn't have anywhere she had to be
on Saturday, or--
A knock sounded at the library door, gentle but definitely
the tap-tap-tap of somepony's hoof. Twilight blinked at the
door, looked back at the clock, thought briefly about waking
Spike, but no. This was Ponyville. Even at three o'clock in
the morning, it wasn't like there was anything here she really
had to worry about...
Another few taps. Twilight moved forward, set her horn to
glowing, used the power to nudge the handle down and push the
door open.
Darkness outside, the stars glinting through the cold of
late autumn over the town square--and something darker,
something like a piece of blackest night come to life, a mane
and tail flowing, wings outstretched, a horn jabbing upwards and
making Twilight gasp, "Nightmare Moon!"
"Ummm," came a slight voice, and a figure stepped into the
light thrown over the doorstep from the library's main room, a
winged unicorn only slightly taller than Twilight herself, her
deep purple mane falling over one eye. "I don't use that name
anymore, actually."
Her cheeks heating with embarrassment, Twilight bowed to
the ground. "Princess Luna! I'm so sorry!" She glanced up at
the pony princess, so much like a shadow cast by her older
sister, Twilight's teacher, Princess Celestia. "I...I've been
buried in my books the past however many hours, so my mind's a
thousand miles away!"
Princess Luna shrugged and didn't meet Twilight's gaze.
"It's a natural enough mistake," she murmured.
Some silence, then Twilight shook herself again. "Please,
Princess, won't you come in?"
"I--" She looked back at the dark and silent town, looked
up at the stars, bit her lower lip, pawed a hoof at the ground;
Twilight couldn't imagine what was making the co-ruler of all
Equestria so nervous, but the scent wafting from the princess
definitely had more than a little fear in it. "Yes," she
finally said, bowing her head with an air of defeat that
confused Twilight even more. "Thank you."
Twilight stepped back, and Princess Luna glided into the
foyer as gracefully as a cloud across the face of the moon, the
darkness of her flanks taking on a silky sheen in the warm glow
of the library's lights. All too aware of the state she'd left
the main room in--whenever she began researching a spell, it
seemed like every book in the place held a little bit of what
she needed--Twilight stammered out her standard apology: "I'm
sorry about the mess, your Highness. Like I said, I was--"
"Yes." The princess gave a little smile over her shoulder.
"So it's I who should apologize to you for interrupting."
"Oh, no, Highness! Never!" Twilight moved to the
princess's side and gestured with a hoof into the library. "I
hope you know that you're always welcome here!"
The taller pony blinked her big dark eyes down at her.
"You sound so sincere, I could almost think you mean it." She
looked away and trotted in.
Her confusion growing, Twilight stood for a moment, then
rushed after the princess, activated her horn, and swept the
books from part of a table. "Can I get you anything? Tea? A
sandwich? I might have some cake from--"
"Nothing, thank you." The princess settled at the table,
and her head drooped again. "I don't want to be any more
trouble than I already have been, than I already am." She
sighed and added, "Than I already am going to be..."
"Trouble?" Twilight suddenly felt wide awake. "I...I
don't understand, your Highness."
Nothing for a long moment, Princess Luna not raising her
head, a chill spreading down Twilight's spine. "If anyone in
this world knows me, it's you," the princess said at last, her
voice as quiet as a winter midnight. "Sister Celestia tells me
you alone among all our subjects learned of my prophesied
return, that you alone had the understanding to stop me when
I...when I..."
Her voice trailed off, then she looked up, a sudden
determination in her face. "Celestia and I have vowed that what
happened between us a thousand years ago will not happen again,
and therefore we...she...I-- Oh, blast it all!" The princess
leapt to her hoofs, her wings spreading like dusk after a long
day and raising her into the air, a dark glow springing up
around her horn. "This is crazy! And stupid! I shouldn't've
come here! There's nothing you or anypony can do to help me!"
"To help you?" Twilight repeated. "Princess, if you're in
trouble, just tell me, and I'll try to--"
"Stop." The coldness in the word made Twilight's ears fold
back. "Don't offer what you can't deliver."
"Excuse me?" Whether it was the lateness of the hour or
the little frustrations of her spell research, something inside
Twilight snapped, and she glared up at the younger of
Equestria's two immortal rulers. "Maybe if you'd just tell me
what you're talking about, I'd have a better idea what's going
on around here!" Princess Luna's dark eyes narrowed, and
Twilight wanted to sink into the floor. "If you wouldn't mind,
I mean, your Highness."
The slow strokes of the princess's wings made the only
sound in the library for a moment, then she sighed and settled
to the floor once more. "Celestia's decided," she began, her
gaze focused several feet off to Twilight's left, "that is, she
and I have talked about how I...what I did and how I changed and
why and...and-- Blast it all!"
Twilight could only stare as the princess shook her mane away
from her face, those dark, dark eyes more intense than ever.
"Celestia is going to give me all her authority for one week so
that I can rule over both night and day the way she had to for
the past thousand years." The ghost of a smile pulled her
snout. "She says she's earned a vacation." The smile vanished.
"But it's really her way of trying to stop me from going insane
again, her way of showing me that we're truly equals when it
comes to Equestria, her way of saying that she trusts me and
loves me and wants to help me."
Twilight felt her jaw drop, but Princess Luna was going on:
"I just don't know that she should trust me. I mean--" Her
breathing was getting shakier and shakier. "When I was the Mare
in the Moon, exiled up there by myself for all those centuries,
I used to rant and scream and swear up and down that I would
bring eternal night upon Equestria once I returned! And now??
Now my sister is turning over the reins of power to me!" She
stomped a hoof with a crack like a thunder clap. "Like I never
lost my mind! Like I never tried to destroy everything we'd
built together! Like I was never Nightmare Moon at all!"
In the silence, all Twilight could think to say was: "I
thought you didn't use that name anymore."
Princess Luna coughed something that could have been a
laugh. "You're exactly right." She took a stance on the
library carpet, dark power surging through her mane. "Since I
can't seem to talk Celestia out of doing this, I've decided I
need you there in Canterlot with me, you and your five friends
who stopped me before." Those eyes fixed on Twilight, and she
felt them sift straight down to her soul. "So, Twilight
Sparkle, I ask you: summon the Elements of Harmony, attend me
next week in Canterlot, and be prepared to strike me down should
I once again become Nightmare Moon."Chapter 2
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