Moonlight

by Flutterboom

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 5661

A story following Luna as she tries to make some new friends.

It's been an almost a whole year since Nightmare Moon was defeated, yet still Luna finds herself alone as she was a thousand years ago. With the Summersun Celebration on its way and the nights getting shorter, can Luna finally find the time to have a little fun while finding somepony to call a true friend?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2011-10-30 22:24:30 UTC

Stargazing

Chapter 1- Stargazing

Passed the arctic gales of the northern wastes and not far from reach of the uncharted and winding pathways of the Everfree forest, under the blanket of the moons sky, the village of Ponyville lay in darkness. Night had come to Equestria and the moon could once again claim its throne, high above the mountains. And with the sun disappearing behind the horizon, all manner of ponies could get some well deserved rest.

All of them, except for one however.

Not far from the quaint village of Ponyville, forming from the rocky mountain side, perched the great towers of Canterlot. The towers lorded high along side the mountains over the many great cities of Equestria, reflecting light down upon its subjects whilst proudly boasting a divine aura from out of the stony surface. Roosted up high in the one of the thick archways of the windows, a sapphire maned princess settled for a long night of star gazing.

Luna, princess of the night, whose responsibility was to raise the moon, lay back against the curved archway and stared sleepily up towards the moon.  The moon ever so slowly crossed the sky and without thought, Luna's gaze fixed upon the white giant providing an unlit path for it to walk. A smile crept across her face as she greeted this new night with not so sudden realisation.

"Almost an entire year." she whispered softly to herself between her open lips. "It's been almost an entire year has passed since I was imprisoned within you." her cheeks turned a soft red with embarrassment as she tried to contain a much broader smile.

As she drifted into thought, her slowly dying gaze up the moon was renewed as she turned onto her side and let the soft white light of the stone tower cradle her. For a short while she left her mind to absorb what she had said, and what it truly meant for her.  Nothing.  Her eyes slowly drifted down away from the moon as she struggled to continue with this train of thought, her smile fading.

"An entire year has passed without you and yet..." she let this realisation sit in her mind a little while longer as if to clarify her feelings.  "And yet, nothing has changed." Now, with forced smile, Luna lowered her head to let out a weak trembling sigh. Forcing her eyes shut, she faced her head towards the floor, hoping her tears would not be seen by her companion. Wiping away her tears, she pulled herself upright with her head held up towards the sky. Luna looked directly into the moon, focused her gaze and calmed herself before finally speaking up.

"Your still my only friend, you know that?" she chuckled slightly while wiping away the last of her tears. "You probably think I'm a fool." Smiling, she cast her gaze down towards Canterlot. Luna let herself alone with her thoughts for a while, going over in her head the finer details of her social standing. Then finally, with confidence, began opening herself up to the moon.

"I wish I had more friends, friends like you. Friends I could talk to and play with." Her smile spread wider across her face and remained there as she conversed with her friend. "How I wish I could play with you again." Luna closed her eyes and began swaying her head side to side to an inaudible rhythm. "Oh, I remember how we danced." Slowing her pace, she began giggle, her minds eye focus on past memories. Luna raised her head to the skies to reveal her blushing cheeks once more. "If only we could live through those moments with you once more."

Luna's gaze had fallen once again to the darkened town of Canterlot, then shortly after, to Ponyville. "Maybe it's too late for me to make new friends," she suggested "but it would be wonderful if we could have those feeling again."

The princess sat for a while talking about the fun she could have, had she some real earth pony friends.  Swaying her tail from side to side in amusement, she talked almost till morning when the moon had almost completed its journey across the sky. The sun had yet to rise, yet on the horizon a warm fuzzy glow could be seen creeping over the land. She had bragged to the moon of the great adventures she and her friends would go on, and as the moon slowly faded behind the morning mist, suddenly her face simply lit up.

"An entire year..." thinking aloud once more. "But that means..." Luna turned to face her room,  and before she had a chance to look for a safe spot to leap down to, she had crashed to the ground completely missing the stool she had put out to reach the windowsill. Quickly, and without acknowledging any pain she may have felt from the fall, she picked herself up and galloped towards the other side of her room where a calendar was hanging low from the wall.

Luna knocked the calendar from the wall and hastily flicked the pages over with her nose until she reached the correct month, and once again her face lit up with excitement.  Grabbing the calender with her teeth, she scrambled back to her feet, and made her way back up onto the windowsill. She walked forward towards the center of the arch and tossed the calendar, spinning it to face her companion.

"Nothing has changed," she admitted with a pout, "but perhaps they just might." Her face beaming with joy as her tail swayed from side to side, Luna quickly glanced back at the moon as if it had spoken, to which she gave a reply. "Sooner than you'd think."

Drifting Dawn

Chapter 2 - Drifting Dawn

With the moon slowly fading away, putting an end to the night, and with the sun still waiting to be risen, Luna had given herself a rare chance to walk the castle halls without disruption.  Poking her head through the thick wooden door while keeping it almost completely shut, Luna scouted the large Throne Hall from the eastern corridor for any sign of activity. Knowing that only few of the servant ponies would ever be awake so early, she pushed herself through the doorway without hesitation.  The coast was clear, Luna let out a heavy sigh of relief before silently making her way over to the western side of the hall.

Fearing that she might wake the rest of castle with the echoing sound of her hoof steps, Luna lowered her head and crept along the ground as she gazed around the room. At the southern end of the hall, Luna saw the two enormous gold plated doors that stood as the main entrance to the castle, underneath them, a thick river of red velvet burst through into the center of the room, leading down to the throne at the northern most point of the hall. Accompanying, a vast collection of stained glass windows shone what little light the day had yet to bring into the room. The windows closer to the entrance portrayed a wide array of heroic feats that had been accomplished the many ponies of Equestria, while those found closer to the throne illustrated the important events of history. As Luna came closer  to the western side of the hall, she drew her head back in front of herself and fixed her eyes onto the exit.

Nearing the exit, sounds from the corridor could be heard from the other side, which gradually grew louder as Luna began to push against the door. Slowly, with the door opening in front of her, the sounds of distant chattering seeped through the cracks, and on hearing these voices,  Luna quickly pulled her body from the door and leapt back. At that moment the door swung on its hinges, hitting the wall hard as several ponies swarmed out, galloping right passed the princess.  Luna turned to see the servants spreading out in all different directions, muttering to themselves the list of tasks that had been set for each of them.

"Ah, Just the pony I wish to speak with." announced somepony from the corridor. Luna, who had almost been knocked to her feet from the herd of busy servant ponies, regained her balance and glanced up.

"Oh, Celestia it's you, you wanted to speak to me?" queried the sapphire maned pony hesitantly as several more servant ponies flooded passed the tall, rainbow maned alicorn.

"It's about the Summer Sun Celebration, I was wondering if you had anything planned for the evening." Princess Celestia began walking through the hall, passing Luna and summoning her to follow suit.

"Oh yes!" whispered a delighted Luna, turning to follow her sister then, suddenly, began gently shaking her head. "I...I mean, no. No I have not."

"Really Luna, After all this time I thought that even you would made some friends by now." Princess Celestia had reached the center of the back of the hall where her throne sat, and slowly climbed the steps leading up to it.

The sapphire maned alicorn placed her hoof on the first step and leant forward in protest to her sister."No no, it didn't mean that!"

Celestia turned, looked down, and with raised brow she stared down at Luna. "Oh? Then you have made some friends?"

Luna hesitated, for a year she had prided herself on raising the moon like she had a thousand years ago, she thought that her sister would be happy knowing that she had managed to readjust after such a long time away, while continuing to do her royal duty. Yet still, Celestia was disappointed with her.

Luna looked up to her under her mane, and while forcing a grin over her face, she started slowly. "Of course I have." she found what little confidence she could muster, raised her head high, straightened out her face and continued. "What kind of princess would I be if I weren't involved in the lives of my subjects?" Luna silently praised herself on an excellent delivery of her 'Regal Princess' routine and rewarded herself with a more relaxed stance.

"Oh, really now?" asked Celestia surprised, almost in belief of what Luna had just said. She backed herself onto her throne and now with a more playful tone began to speak again. "Well, this is a surprise, here I thought that you had been doing nothing but spending all your time locked away in the towers, it's good to hear you've been generous with yourself, I'm sure you've made some wonderful friends."

Luna was in shock, normally she was an open book to Celestia, never able to get anything passed her without an accusing hoof pointed in her direction, however she managed to keep the look of disbelief from her face, and with a light hearted chuckle she went on. "Yes, yes. Quite wonderful indeed.  Now If you'll excuse me, I believe I must go meet with them, I hope to arrange plans for the coming celebrations." With that Luna turned on her hooves and made for the main castle doors.

For a few seconds, her face remained calm, but as she turned and faced the larger golden doors, her mane falling into place around her, Luna bit her bottom lip as feelings of panic invaded her mind.

On Guard

Chapter 3 - On Guard

Stepping outside, the newly rising sun flowed over the city walls, burning the princesses eyes as she stepped from the shadows of the stony archway. Luna gazed at the star, her pupils shrinking in size as she swept her mane into place to shield herself from the light, holding her head forward and securing her mane perfectly over her right eye, she lifted the rest of her body from out of the shadow and set out to wander the streets of Canterlot.

As Luna found her way through the City streets of the Canterlot market district, the many cogs and wheels of her mind turned in place, working away at the problem before her. Though the streets of the market district were usually quite busy, the silence of the night had remained unbroken, allowing the princess to roam freely, and her thought uninterrupted.

"Think, think think think!" Luna hounded herself for a solution, staring down at the cobbled path beneath her. "Oh, why do I allow myself say such things?  I don't have any friends, and I'll certainly not be able to make any in time for the celebration, these things take time," stopping herself for a second, Luna tried to recall the last time she had ever made a friend, and came back with nothing. "Or at least I think they do, it's been so long." Luna continued to walk down the path which, slowly leading her full circle, directed her towards the back of the castle near the guards barracks. "The Summer Sun Celebration is only 3 days away, I need to find somepony to make friends with, fast." Scanning her mind, the sapphire maned pony glanced back and forth, thinking of all the ponies she had met in the past year. "But I don't think I'd like to be friends with anypony I know, at least, not in anyone I can think of."

Luna had almost given up hope in searching, when at that moment, something caught her attention. Two guards stepped out of the barracks entrance and began walking across the grassy training area in her direction. Having not yet been noticed, and wanting it to remain that way, Luna hid herself away in the shadows, behind an old cart. The guards passed by, and as the princess was about to come out of hiding, the two guards stopped just a few hooves away and began to make small talk, they were on watch. Seeing no way of leaving without being spotted, while expecting that the two guards weren't leaving any time soon, Luna sighed and made herself comfortable in the shadows, having nothing better to do, listening quietly to their conversation.

"I'm telling you bro, she's the fastest flier in Equestria!" said one guard excitedly to the other, pushing his hooves through the air while second rolled his eyes.

"Pffft, not as fast as Soarin' I bet." said the second proudly, waving off the firsts childish nature.

"Soarin'? You gotta be kidding me, this girl could fly circles around him, trust me, the Wonderbolts have got nothing compared to her, besides, Spitfire is way faster than Soarin'." The first guard jumped up into the air and flew around in a little circle in front of the second, making swooshing noises to accompany his spins.

"Okay okay, calm down your embarrassing me. No one can beat Soarin' though. Man, that guy can fly!"

The conversation continued in the same way for a while with the two arguing over who is the fastest pony in the Wonderbolts;  the first, blindly in favour of Spitfire, would argue the feats of speed his favourite Wonderbolt had accomplished; while the second in favour of Soarin', knowing a little about racing than the other, argued back with statistics and logic.  Luna, now leaning against the cart in sheer boredom, continued to wait patiently for the guards to leave and combed over the problem in her mind thousands of times in her head.  She sat thinking for a good while but unfortunately, unless you count her idea of trying to trick Celestia with a ventriloquism act involving a variety of puppet friends, she had thought of no new ideas.

Trying to put her troubles behind her, Luna zoned back into the conversation as the guards finished their argument.  "Fine, you win." said the second guard reluctantly, unable to tolerate the firsts childishly stubborn attitude any longer. "So, who's this girl you were talking about, this fastest flier in Equestria girl, eh?

"I think her name was Rainbow-something," reported the first, breaking his victory dance and tapping his head in thought. " ah...Rainbow Crash? ...Rainbow Smash? One of the those."

"Oh yeah, I've heard of her," said the second, scratching the fur on his chin. "I think she's friends with that Twilight girl, Princess Celestia's apprentice, ah...Twilight Sprinkles?"  Luna's ears stood up, she had not thought of such a pony in a long time. She sat up straight and listened closely to the guards once more.

"Twilight Sparkle?" suggested the first. "Isn't she living in Ponyville now?"  Luna smiled, and gave off a silent cheer, she had known the answer to her problem the entire time. And, after some quick thinking, she had already thought of a plan.

"Oh yeah, Princess Celstia has got her" the second guard laughed as he continued in a sarcasticly patronising voice, heavily emphasizing his words. "learning about the MAGIC of FRIENDSHIP, haha, what a load of hay."  Chuckling to herself silently, Luna stood up on all fours, and with a large grin spreading further across her face, she jumped from out behind the cart, ran straight passed the guards and on towards the main castle entrance.

The second guard drew a puzzled look across his face. "Hey, wasn't that Princess Luna?"

The first, without a second glance cheerful replied "Haha, not likely!"

Marshmallow Dreams

Chapter 4 - Marshmallow Dreams

Dawn had come to Ponyville, and not so far a flight as Sweet Apple Acres, an unnaturally eager pony let out shrieks of joy, piercing through the thick bark from which her home was made.

"It's here, it's here!" squealed the purple maned pony, bouncing up and down on her bed. Twilight had woken earlier than the other ponies of Ponyville today, her excitement just too intense to keep locked away for so long. From down below a tired grouchy voice begged "Twilight, not today, please!" Twilight, with the excitement of now having someone to talk to, launched herself off from the bed, landing heavily next to a small wicker cat basket.

"How can you sleep Spike? Today is the day!" she lowered her head down to the basket, her face beaming with joy.

"I was dreaming of fluffy marshmallows falling from the sky, that's how." answered spike with lazy cynicism whilst rolling over away from Twilight to find a comfortable spot.

"But you don't even eat marshmallows," a confused look wiped the smile from Twilight's face for a few seconds before a grin once again flooded back through, "besides who needs dreams when today the best day ever!" Twilight began to bounce back and forth yet again before using magic to pick up a nearby calendar off from the wall and whiz it over to Spike's basket.  The sound of hooves striking oak had driven Spike to realise he wasn't going to get back to sleep today, and so with a yawn he picked himself up and fixed on to the calendar that was hovering before him.

"See, today IS the best day ever! Only 3 more days until the Summer-sun celebration." Spike stared blankly at the calendar as a pen floated in front of his face and marked a large 'X' through the previous day.

"Are you going to be doing this everyday?" Spike asked with a sarcastic raising of his claw "I only ask since you've been doing this a lot lately." he rubbed the back of his neck anxiously "Every day in fact." His claw fell from his neck, and as he dropped his posture he glared unforgivingly at the only pony in the room, finally letting out a long sigh he added grudgingly "For the last four days."

Twilight ignored Spikes disapproving looks and continued with her reply "How could I not, Spike?  The Summer-sun Celebration is one of the few days I can talk to princess Celestia, at least without any pony interrupting me." she ended with a snap. Her bouncing had now stopped and had been substituted by an attentive strafe around the bedrooms bookshelves as she repeatedly listed out the name of same book in her head.

"But Twilight you speak to princess Celestia all the time, besides you went to The Grand Galloping Gala, and we all know how that turned out."

"It's not the same Spike. I speak to her in my letters, but those are my reports about the magic of friendship, I only ever get to speak to her about actual magic when I see her face to face."

"And the Gala?" Spike added while lazily pointed towards her with an accusing claw.

"That's different," she uttered, excusing herself of his accusations. "she didn't have time to speak to me at the Gala, but at the celebration she'll be allowed to mingle." Twilight plotted while rubbing her hooves together, then quickly zoned back in as she noticed the book she had been searching for.

"Well okay, if you say so." Spike folded his arms and turned his back to Twilight,  then with his nose held high in the air he added "Just don't come crawling back to me again when things don't go all to plan, alright Twi?" He waited confidently for a response but instead was met only by silence. "Uhh...Twilight?"

Spike turned around to find an empty bedroom, an efficient, yet noisy Unicorn could be heard downstairs loudly running about in excitement whilst packing an assortment of items into a blue saddle bag. Spike walked up to the wooden stair rail and seized the two of the supports, pushing his face between them he spoke loudly "Why are you in such a hurry?" confused as to what any pony could do at this time in the morning. Twilight galloped back and forth between various sections of the library, bringing back a book with each visit till her bag was almost bursting at the seams. "And what's with all the books?" Spike added, hoping this time to get an answer this time.

Twilight raced back to her bag a final time and crammed the last book into her bag "That should do it!" she breathed. At that moment the bag floated into the air and hovered over towards with purple maned unicorn, almost being to much of a burden to lift with magic and as it was finally realised from it's magic binds above her, the bag, along with Twilight herself, crashed simultaneously to the ground.

Seizing the opportunity, Spike skipped down the stairs and lent down on his knee. " So tell me again, why do you need all these books?"

"I'll need to study extra hard if I want to impress the Princess with all my knowledge," Twilight struggled to her feet as one of the smaller books toppled out from out of the two piles "and lately I've been so wrapped up in friendship that I haven't been able to concentrate on real magic."

Spike looked down to see the book that had fallen out of her bag. "The Wonders of Fungi?"

"You never know," she racked her brain for an excuse "I might discover a really interesting...mushroom?" she followed with a dumb smile directed towards Spike, who with raised brow, glared at the purple unicorn. Twilight answered with an awkward chuckle "Hehe, maybe I don't need all of them."

A few moments later as well as a few books lighter, Twilight was ready to leave for a day of on-the-field magic practice. With glowing horn she hoisted the saddle bag back onto her back, the door in front of her swung open, and as she was about to step through it, she stopped. Twilight stood in shock for short time, eyeing the pony who stood before her, until finally she whispered "P-p-princess Luna?"

Phase 1 - Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 5 - Phase 1 - Twilight Sparkle

"Twilight!" Spike yelled while running towards Twilight, holding parchment, quill and ink in his claws.  "You almost forgot your-" Spike cut himself short upon seeing who was before him, he slowed his approach to Twilight and stood to her side bowing his head. Twilight stood dumbfounded, her jaw agape in sheer awe at the Alicorn stood before her.  She had not seen this pony since the defeat of Nightmare Moon one year ago, and in lieu of any form of progressive thought that might aid her in this situation, Twilight could only stare at the princess.

"Twilight, Twilight Sparkle?" asked Luna, unsure of what to make of the Unicorns gaze.  Twilight remained confused, in awe of the situation she did not know how to address.  She had not been visited by Luna before, yet, why would she be?  Should she have been expecting this visit?  Had it slipped her mind? Had something happened to Celestia? Were she and Luna... Friends?  A whirlwind of thoughts stormed through Twilights mind, forcing upon the many questions she could not answer, and through this silence a concerned Spike turned his head up at Twilight.

Luna, left unanswered, became too nervous and quickly thought of a way to leave.  "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have gone to the wrong place.  Please excuse me." She slowly backed herself out from the doorway,  and with Twilight still stood motionless, Spike decided to intervene.

"Wait...Princess Luna!" called Spike, raising his head and delivering a sharp jab of his elbow into the stomach of Twilight's still unconscious body.  The purple Unicorn suddenly awakened as her dragon ran through the door after Luna.  "Wait!" he called a second time, the princess could move faster than he had thought.  "Princess Luna, come back!" Finally hearing the call, Luna turned her head to see the small purple, green spiked dragon running after her, and to Spikes surprise, Luna stopped, allowing him to crash straight into her hind legs.  Spike bounced from her and landed on has back.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Luna quickly turned and lowered her head to see a dizzy Spike, clambering back to his feet, trying regain his balance.  "I didn't mean to, I-"

"Princess Luna, you did find the right house...ah, library." Spike interrupted, ignoring her attempts to help him.

"I, er-" hesitated Luna, but before she could reply, Spike had grabbed on to her hoof and began luring her back over to the library.

Twilight, onlooking from the doorway, quickly realised what she had done, she had just shunned her royal guest, a princess no less.  Shaking her head of any conflicting thought, she quickly ran over to the princess, greeting her in a most apologetic way possible.  "Princess Luna, I'm sorry, where are my manners?" she chuckled awkwardly.  Spike continued to pull Luna towards the library with Twilight now facing Luna and pacing backwards herself in with them;  while Luna, trying to get a word in, but finding no openings through the noise of Twilight's apologetic ramblings, could only whimper as she was steered back into the library.

"...anyway," said Twilight eventually calming herself, stopping her parade of apologies to politely address the princess as she would any friend.  "what brings you to Ponyville, Luna?" On deliverance of this frighteningly guilty yet warm reception, Luna decided to forget any first impressions from her arrival and hesitantly began her somewhat confused response to Twilight's question.

"Oh, you haven't received the letter from Celestia yet?" asked Luna in fear that her plan had failed.  Meanwhile, a busy Spike who had just finished putting the last book that Twilight had left out back on to the top shelf, was now grabbing his stomach in pain.  Balancing on the top step of the ladder, Spike tried to make his way down before unleashing a fiery belch, which in all it's force, propelled himself off and left him hitting the floor with a crash.  As several of the books toppled back down, Spike let out another burp, and all at once a large scroll materialised in front of him.

"Letter?" Twilight replied.  "But I haven't gotten any letters Princess Celestia today." Luna gulped, her plan had failed, but before she managed to sum up the confidence to explain herself, she was interrupted yet again.

Now buried under a pile of fallen literature, a weak and dazed dragons voice pierced through as Spike tried to climb his way out. "I think she means...this one." a scroll was launched out from the pile of books, landing next to Twilight.  Looking curiously at the scroll then back to the princess, Twilight's face was consumed with confusion while Luna only gave a worried smile, encouraging her to open it.  Twilight shook off this confusion, only to be met by it once again as she opened the unusually large scroll.

The scroll was at least four times larger in width than any other scroll she had received before and the writing looked as if it had been written not by quill, but by thick marker pens instead, while the handwriting was also...quite unnerving. Bewildered, Twilight couldn't help but to look over the letter to Luna and ask, "Is Princess Celestia...feeling okay?"

Luna had not expected this so could only reply, "Please, the letter will explain." Twilight lifted the scroll back into her face and buried her nose into it, every so often glancing back to a now reassured Princess Luna.

Now perhaps it was her social incapabilities which lead to Luna's overconfidence in this letter, or perhaps the hundreds of scrawled up pieces of paper she had used for practice attested to what she thought was now a flawless imitation of Celestia's handy work; either way, for Twilight to read this and believe that Princess Celestia could ever have written something so ghastly, would take a miracle.

Before you read on, it's important to note the Princess Luna had not written a single letter, let alone even picked up a quill for the last one thousand years, and that whatever merit of penmanship or knowledge of spelling she had attained, has since diminished to what can only be described as a pre-school level of writing.

The letter read something like this-

My deerist and most fatefull stewdent Twilite Sparcal,

as you no, the time for the Summer Sun Selebrayshon will soon be upon us.  I no you have been very bizzy with your studys on frendship as you continyoo to impres me with the lessens you have lerned with eech letter I receve.  With this in minde, I have disided to send a sertan sumpony to help with the preperayshons for the selebrayshon, the locayshon of witch has now been revised to take place in Ponyvill.  I hope this newz brings you peese of minde and alow you to enjoy yourself up to and threw the coming selebrayshons.

As she finished reading, the scroll rolled up before her.  Twilight didn't know what to think, was this supposed to be some kind of practical joke?  She looked puzzlingly over to Princess Luna who had had been wearing a long dumb smile across her face the entire time.  Trying to make the best of the letter, Twilight pieced together what little information she could.

"So...The Summer Sun Celebration is being held in Ponyville?" Luna with closed eyes kept her smile and began nodding her head.  "And Celestia sent you..." said Twilight carefully as Luna continued to nod as she spoke.  "...to help with the preparations?"

"Yes, she thought it would be best if I see over the preparations personally." said Luna with little emotion, almost as if she was reading from a script.  Pushing any doubt aside and deciding to take the word of a princess, Twilight put the letter out of her head and tried once more to pretend this was just another visit from one of her friends.

"That's great!" cheered Twilight, trying her best to feel something for this strange conversation as Luna closed her eyes and smiled again in triumph. "Well, there's a lot to do this time of year, especially with such short notice.  I'm sure you'll be very busy helping everypony with preparations."  Luna, still with closed eyes, who had forgotten she was in mid conversation with somepony, carried on smiling, now with her tail wagging through the air.  Twilight waited for her, but with no response, decided to carry on the conversation. "So...Where will you be staying, Luna?"  The sound of her name snapped the princess out of her trance, making her to recoil as if she had just been woken up.

"Ah-" Luna hesitated, she had not given this much thought to her plan and before searching her mind in hopes to find some answers, Twilight helpfully interrupted.

"You can stay here if you like, I have a spare bed you can sleep in if Princess Celestia forgot to find you a place." Twilight became excited for a moment in hopes of a slumber party which were quickly dashed, knowing a princess would never agree to such a thing.

"Oh yes, that would be nice." agreed Luna, who's tail once again began moving from side to side.

"Great! you make yourself comfortable, I'll go find the extra blankets." and though it wasn't anywhere near time for bed, she would have said anything to get out there and finally have a chance to clear her head.  So with that, Twilight trotted off upstairs.  Seeing a chance to talk himself up in front of royalty, Spike, who was busy on the top step of the ladder putting away the books that had fallen, started speaking loudly.

"So Princess Luna, I don't know if Twilight told you this, but if you ever want something done around here, you'll wanna talk to this guy.  see, I don't put Twilight down or anything, but when there's work to do, she's not always up to the task, and talk about Clum-sy!  Yeah, you need something doing, I'm is the dragon for the job." Spike finished and started making his way down the ladder, but without any reply, started up again.  "I mean sure, Twilight is great at studying and she can do the little things, but when it really comes down to it-"

"Spike," interrupted Twilight, sighing under her breath. "Luna already left."  Spike reached the bottom of the ladder and turned to face an empty room with Twilight standing halfway down the stairs.  Chuckling slightly, Spike looked up at Twilight while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah...You didn't happen to hear all that stuff I just said, did you?"