Sleepless Eternity

I’ve noticed something interesting this past week or so.

It seems as if time is going at a slower speed. I’m noticing more of what goes on around me. What’s more surprising is that I actually find myself caring about what goes on around me.

After several lifetimes spent in a persistent state of wanderlust and solitude I’m not used to actually holding a prolonged conversation with another pony. Then again she isn’t used to it either.

My newfound friendship with the very princess of the night herself has definitely caused some immediate changes in my existence. We have been spending quite a bit of time together. The only times we aren’t enjoying each other’s presence are when her duties as Mistress of the Night and Princess of Equestria come up.

It was during one of these absences that Celestia decided to investigate my presence.

I was enjoying a relaxing walk through a maze in the palace gardens. I had finally reached the center of the maze and in the calm silence I decided to take some time and meditate.

Meditation is one of the few ways I can feel at rest. The calmness that floods through me as I slow my breath and close my eyes is extremely relaxing. Meditation allows me to contemplate and focus on honing my other senses. After a few hundred years of this quiet meditation my senses are quiet acute. I have very good hearing and if I concentrate I can feel the vibrations through ground and the displacement of air around me.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised when several of Princess Celestia’s guards dropped from the sky around me.

I heard one of the guards take a breath and in order to begin speaking, but I interrupted him before he could say anything.

“What need did you have to bring five guards for one pony?” I said while keeping my eyes closed and relaxed. “I wasn’t aware that I was viewed as such a threat.”

The lead guard didn't respond to my questions, but this didn't surprise me.He merely informed me that “Princess Celestia requests your presence in the throne room immediately”

I shrugged in response and simply spread my wings in preparation to meet the goddess of the sun before I noticed that the guards surrounding me had become tense.

“We are to escort you to the princess” the guard in charge informed me simply. It seemed Celestia did not want to give me the opportunity to evade this meeting.

So I went with the guards. They were very professional, and they seemed to be very serious about making sure my audience with the Princess happened. I was fine with the guard’s actions, but I wasn’t quite sure what Celestia intended to do with me.

I was marched quickly through the palace and into the throne room where I observed celestia sitting regally upon her throne.

The guards moved out of the way so that I could make my way up to her. As I walked forward I felt her eyes on me, attempting to examine me. I reached my destination directly in front of the throne and looked up at the Goddess of the Sun.

I gazed into her eyes and she gazed into mine. We continued to stare at one another for quite some time. She seemed mildly surprised to find one of her subject’s that wasn’t afraid to look at her without immediately prostrating themselves immediately. I suppose when you can’t die it’s easier to feel calm around those that are technically above you. Luna seemed to actually

enjoy having someone who didn’t mind that she was a princess. I wasn’t sure what Celestia thought of it yet.

“Hello my little pony” She said after several moments of silence.

“Hello princess. May I ask why you requested my presence here?” I replied quickly.

“My younger sister has told me much about you, and I was interested to see if what she had said was true.” responded the sun goddess.

As she spoke I noticed the temperature in the room begin to slowly rise. That made me smile internally. If the princess wanted to play games I would let her play her games. She could make it as hot as she wanted and it would do little to affect me. The power inside of my body combined with my special talent had long ago rendered me immune to the effects of heat and fire, and over the years I had learned how to channel some of my power into some very interesting fire related tricks. So as Celestia attempted to exert her control over this situation through the power of the sun all she really succeeded in accomplishing was making things more uncomfortable for her guards.

I smiled at the princess “Oh it’s quite true your majesty. I am not one of your normal little ponies.” I chuckled and continued “Is it me or is it getting slightly warmer in here your highness, or do you intend to test my word by slowly roasting your guards inside their armor?”

This startled her. She narrowed her eyes at me and I felt the heat increase drastically.

I laughed. Not a chuckle. A full laugh that was audible throughout the entire throne room. Then I decided to show the Goddess before me that she wasn’t the only immortal that could play with fire.

I concentrated and I felt for the power within my body. I don’t consider the power to be magic in the same way that unicorns use magic. It did not come naturally to me at all in fact it took many years for me to get any control over any aspect of it besides the passive affects it offered, but over time I found that I could use the power to bring make fire. It took some concentration but I had practiced at it for a long time and now it came as almost a second nature to turn part of the power within me into an inferno of black flames that spread across my wings and through my mane and tail.

I now looked at Celestia again her expression was one of open shock. “What? Did you think you were the only one that could play this game?” I increased the size and intensity of the flames. “Do not think to frighten me princess” I stated coldly. “I am not one of your short lived children that flow quickly through this world. I Am Not Somepony Who Enjoys Being Trifled With!” I said loudly and clearly before I extinguished the flames that had been fanning from my body.

I kept my gaze fixed upon Celestia’s face which had lost some of its earlier confidence. I kept smiling as I heard one of her guards rushing at me from behind. She noticed it as well but was too late to stop her guard's attack.

I felt the cool metal enter my body as the guards lance impaled me. I felt as it entered and exited my body in one graceful motion. I stood there staring at the ruler of the land and while I was being impaled I did not flinch, I did not shake, and I did not move. I smiled.

“That stings a little” I said with no inflection that would suggest I felt any pain. It did hurt Just not badly. I had definitely felt worse over the years.

I turned to the guard who had rushed to kill the threat to his princess and smiled “I would really appreciate if you would pull that back out now.”

He shook visibly. I was surprised, but I suppose seeing somepony stand in front of you with a lance impaled through their body and not expressing any pain, fear, or anger might cause some inner turmoil.

I rolled my eyes and turned towards the princess “Would you mind having one of your guards pull this out.” I asked reasonably “It makes moving quite uncomfortable and it would be easier than having to remove it myself.”

She blinked still in a minor state of shock after what had happened. She opened her mouth to say something then closed it. She looked at one of the several guards standing around the throne and motioned for him to assist me.

He didn't show the same nervous behavior that his comrade had shown towards me and quickly grabbed the weapon and was about to pull it free of my body when the doors to the throne room were thrown open. Luna walked quickly into the room and began to address her sister.

“Celestia why were you trying to keep me out of our thrown room I had to force the guards to let me through and they told me that I was to be kept out on your or----“ she noticed me. Well she probably noticed that there was a lance impaling me that was being held by one of her sisters’ guards, but either way she froze.

The temperature in the room dropped drastically and the lights dimmed to a very low level. Luna was no longer frozen. She was walking slowly and angrily towards her sister. The guards stood frozen unable to decide what they should do.

Luna’s eyes narrowed as she closed the distance between the throne and herself. There was a flash and a discharge of magic throughout the room. As I looked around to see what had happened I realized that Luna had teleported all of the guards out of the throne room to an undisclosed location.

This left one angry moon goddess, one frozen sun goddess, and myself alone in the throne room.

Celestia managed to pull herself together quickly and attempted to talk to her enraged sibling but Luna silenced her with a look of pure rage.

Darkness radiated off of Luna and I knew that somepony needed to calm her down. Realizing that I would probably have to be that pony didn’t particularly thrill me…

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS SISTER? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Luna raged at her sister.

“I can explain Luna. I called—“ celestia started before Luna cut her off.

“YOU CALLED MY ONE FRIEND INTO AN AUDIENCE THAT YOU HID FROM ME, AND UPON MY DISCOVERY OF THIS MEETING I FIND THAT HE HAS NOT ONLY BEEN ATTACKED, BUT THAT HE WAS ATTACKED BY ONE OF YOUR GUARDS!” Luna was showing no signs of calming herself.

I groaned quietly and wrapped my wing around the weapon and pulled it out of me. It was not a comfortable feeling. I felt as it moved roughly back through my body and winced a little. I hate having to do this kind of thing. It's annoying.

I looked back to Luna and Celestia and noticed that Luna was much closer to celestia than before. She was yelling something along the lines of ‘RAWR betrayal RAWR why RAWR how could you RAWR!!’ I wasn’t really paying that much attention to the words because the feeling of my body slowly knitting itself back together is very distracting. It somehow manages to go through phases of numbness and ultra- sensitivity rapidly. It itches and tickles at the same time. It’s a distressing feeling.

After a few seconds the sensations slowed to a point that I could focus again. I noticed that celestia was no longer frozen on her throne, but was standing and staring into Luna’s eyes. Both celestia’s and Luna’s eyes were bright white and it was quite an intense scene. I sighed and realized that I needed to hurry and try to stop this before either of them did anything more drastic.

I walked up to the two goddesses and tried to make my presence known but they either ignored me or where incapable of breaking from their staring contest. I decided that I should focus on Luna considering that she actually enjoyed my presence.

I moved so that I could speak into her ear and began talking quietly and calmly in hopes that I could diffuse this.

“Luna you need to calm down.” I whispered “Everything is fine, there’s nothing to get upset about”

When that didn’t work I realized that only something extremely drastic could possibly break the Luna’s concentration. I prayed to the two princesses I was standing next to and whispered into Luna’s ear again.

“Hey Luna, you’re really attractive when you get angry like this” I said with my eyes closed hoping that when I opened them I wouldn’t be alone on a cold ball of dirt in space. I hadn’t lied though. She was quite beautiful in general, but something about this show of power was quite attractive. Not that it mattered though I would have plenty of time to think of how attracted I was to this mare while I sat on her moon for a few thousand years.

The temperature’s return to normal broke me from my inner thoughts and I opened my eyes. Celestia stared at me confused while Luna looked at me very seriously.

I stayed where I was as Luna moved closer to me. We were inches apart from one another when she whispered “You think I’m attractive?”

My mind worked at speeds that it had never approached before. The truth was that yes I found her to be attractive, but I didn’t want to ruin the first friendship I had been a part of in several hundred years. I also did not want to lie to her, but I was afraid of what the truth might cause. I didn’t want her to resent me because I found her attractive. I mean who the hay wouldn't find her attractive she’s the goddess of the bucking night, the moon, and the stars. I can’t lie to her. I’m just glad it stopped her from doing something she would probably regret later.

My mind went through this in less than a second, but it was the longest second of my very long life.

I looked at Luna and whispered back to her “Yes.”

Luna blinked

I waited to be banished to my new life on the moon

Celestia stood there staring at me. It seemed like she was trying to stare into my soul. It was mildly unsettling.

I focused back on Luna.

She looked directly at me with in deep contemplation.

Then she kissed me.

It was at that moment that my mind decided to shut down for a second. I was frozen on the spot and Luna realized that I wasn’t returning the kiss. She pulled away and looked hurt.

That expression of sadness on her face broke me from my shock. I prepared myself for the thousandth time today and took the plunge.

I leaned forward and kissed her passionately. She returned it in the same way. My eyes were closed and I assumed hers were as well. This felt nice. It was nice in an unexpected way I didn’t realize Luna could ever feel this way towards me, and honestly I never thought I would be able to feel this way after so long by myself. I felt content.

The kiss continued and neither of us seemed intent on ending it.

“Ahem”

Celestia on the other may have other plans.