Sleepless Eternity

I regret nothing.

Okay, maybe adding pink hair dye to all of Celestia’s hair products wasn’t the best of ideas to actually choose to go through with, but it was the perfect prank.

I probably should have realized that it wouldn’t have been hard for celestia to realize who had committed such a crime against the royal image.

It also probably didn’t help that Luna and I had been waiting outside of the royal bath for a very pink royal princess to emerge.

Giggling like foals and taking a picture definitely did not help our situation either. Celestia certainly hadn’t seen much humor in her current appearance. I’m not sure if I imagined it or not, but I could swear that I heard her teeth grind inside her mouth.

Luna and I had quickly stopped giggling at each other as Celestia’s eyes began to glow with magic.

She just grinned a twisted grin and said “Run”

I looked at Luna and she looked back at me.

We ran.

==========================================================================================

Well actually I ran she teleported.

I was running through the halls of the castle being chased by a pink princess from the depths of hell.

“What the buck Luna!!!” I shouted as I made a hard turn avoiding several magic projectiles of unknown power or effect.

“The one time I would appreciate being teleported, and you left me behind!” I shouted empty hall in front of me.

I need to find an exit soon or I’m going to figure out firsthoof what kind of interesting spells celestia has been learning over the years.

As luck would have it I finally found a balcony to launch myself off of. Or I would have launched myself off of it if I hadn’t felt one of celestia’s spells find its mark.

Nothing appeared to happen to me though. That was nothing I noticed until I barreled onto the balcony and spread my wings.

I realized as I was in the air soaring over the railing of the balcony that being hit by a wing paralysis spell was going to make my flight a very abrupt one.

Wing paralysis spells are often used to keep pegasi prisoners from ‘flying the coup’, but in my case it would send me on  very short flight and a very long fall over the edge of  canterlot castle and down the mountain it rested on.

Its times like these that I’m glad I can’t die.

It makes the normally stressful and horrifying prospect of falling to your inevitable death a much more relaxing and boring process.

I just hope I don’t land on somepony. That would be a horribly unfortunate experience for both of us.

I looked up at the balcony that I had jumped from and noticed that celestia was looking at my falling form with shock. Or at least I think it was shock, it was hard to tell while I was falling swiftly through the air away from her.

I turned around and watched as the ground rapidly approached me, well I guess I’m the one approaching it in this case.

I was happy to see that there was nothing of value beneath me that would be destroyed by my impact. I wonder how large an indent I’m going to make. I shrugged mentally and closed my eyes letting nature take control of the rest of my fall.

I estimated that I had roughly ten more seconds until I would be on the ground…or in the ground. I counted down in my head.

Five seconds

Two seconds

Zero seconds

That’s interesting. I don’t appear to be falling anymore.

I opened my eyes and was quite happy to see a certain dark coated alicorn using her magic to keep me aloft just above the ground. She was looking at me closely for some reason.

“What?” I asked.

“Why did you jump?” she asked quietly.

“Well after you left abruptly I had to find some way to escape the wrath of a vengeful pink sun goddess.”

“So You Jumped of a MOUNTAIN?” Luna was no longer being quiet.

“Well how was I supposed to know that she would winglock me?” I said defensively “I wasn’t planning on falling. I was planning on flying.”

She just stared at me.

“Besides” I continued “I would have been fine. I was more worried about landing on somepony.”

“Well maybe I was worried about you!” she snapped quickly.

“Luna, it’s okay I’m fine now, and I would have been okay even if you hadn’t caught me.”

She mumbled something that I couldn’t quite hear.

“What was that?” I questioned

“I’m sorry for leaving you behind.” She muttered

“It is fine Luna there’s no harm done.” I told her quietly “well except to my wings and Celestia’s coloration, but we can fix those issues later.”

She swept me into a big hug that seemed to thank me for forgiving her so easily. Then she whispered into my ear “I think it’s time to get back up to the castle.”

“Well without my wings working it’s going to be a long walk back up there.”

“Who said anything about walking” she grinned mischievously and tightened her grip on me while she gathered magic with her horn.

Realizing that I couldn’t escape my cruel fate I just sighed

“Buck…”

We appeared back inside of Luna’s chambers.

“…me” I finished before noticing that I didn’t appear to be experiencing the usual side effects that usually followed teleportation. I am not upset about this interesting revalation.

“Hmmm maybe that can be arranged” Luna whispered seductively in my ear before falling over in a fit of laughter.

‘Thank the stars my wings are locked to my side.’ I thought quietly as I managed to hold back a blush.

“So is there any way you can release my wings?” I asked hoping to change the topic of our conversation.

“Well the easiest way would be to have my sister remove her spell, but I don’t think it would be wise to ask her to do that for a little while.” She said.

“Not while she’s still pink” I chuckled before continuing “but couldn’t you just unlock them”

“It’s not just as simple as unlocking them Spark” Luna said while rolling her eyes.

“Why not” I asked Luna. ‘Because nothing can ever be a simple fix with you Bright. Everything has to be as convoluted and confusing as possible’ I thought to myself cynically.

“Because they aren’t physically locked” she said as if it were obvious.

“And that means what exactly?”

“It means that the spell is affecting your mind’s control over your flight skills.” She explained slowly.

“Well then couldn’t you just fix that…?” I asked hopefully.

I was afraid of what would become of me if I had to ask celestia to remove it from me. I was also a little pissed off that she had bucked with my mind.

Luna sighed before replying quickly “I could, but it would be uncomfortable for you.”

“I can stand a little pain Luna, besides I trust you.” I said with a smile.

“I didn’t say that it would be painful. I said it would be uncomfortable for you.” She looked at me waiting for me to ask the obvious question.

I of course obliged her “Well then how would it be uncomfortable for me oh wise and graceful goddess of the moon?”

My sarcasm would have been more enjoyable if I hadn’t received a hoof to the head for it. Normally something like that wouldn’t have phased me, but normally the ponies that hit me weren’t all powerful goddesses who controlled celestial bodies and wear extremely hard hoof boot regalia. Normally I would just shrug it off, but in this case I was left with a ringing sensation traveling through my head and a disgruntled looking moon princess glaring at me.

“Was that really necessary” I shook my head to try to get rid of the annoying ringing between my ears.

“I don’t enjoy being mocked. Especially by somepony I’m trying to help.” Her anger dropping quickly as she spoke “especially by somepony I care about.”

She had mumbled the last bit under her breath and I don’t think she wanted me to hear her.

“Luna” I tried to look her in the eye, but she was avoiding my gaze. I moved over to her and spread my wing over her back. When she felt me touch her she flinched and tried to move away, but I held her close to me with my wing and nuzzled her until she nuzzled me back.

“I’m sorry” we both said at the same time.

“No Luna you didn’t do anything wrong.” I said quickly before she could go on.

“I hit you…”

“I deserved it”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Luna” I held her closer and tried to get her to look at me.

“Luna look at me” She finally moved her head so that she could look at me and I at her. “I’m not upset Luna I shouldn’t have poked fun of you, and I’m fine.”

“I still shouldn’t have reacted like that” she mumbled

“Luna that’s not the first time you’ve given me a hoof to the head.” I laughed “I’ve deserved it most of the time so what’s upsetting you right now”

“This time was different” she mumbled. She tried to pull away from me, but I just held her close to me let her relax again.

“How was this different” I questioned after she calmed down again.

“This time I was angry” she whispered dejectedly. “This time I didn’t even think about it.” Her volume was slowly increasing. “This time it wasn’t a playful hit or a quick shove”

She turned her head to me and looked me in the eye again. Her eyes were filled with her regret.

“If you had been a normal pony you would be dead.” Her eyes were watering now and she moved her head down to mine and moved her wings so that she was the one embracing me now.

“I don’t want to be a monster again Bright” she rasped “I don’t want to be that thing again.”

“You are not going to become her again Luna” I said confidently “You aren’t alone anymore Luna you have me, you have your sister, and you have a country that no longer simply fears the night”

She pulled me into a deeper embrace now as her wings cocooned us and her forehooves wrapped around my neck. I wrapped my forehooves around her and wished that my wingspan was large enough to do this to her.

“Thank you”

“Anytime princess anytime.”

“Please never call me princess again.” She groaned

“But you are still my princess Luna”

“No I am just Luna to you” she said seriously “I don’t want you to treat me like a princess I want you to treat me like normal Luna”

“I thought I had been doing that already” I said with a small laugh.

“And I appreciate it more than you could know” she sighed “but every time you call me princess it feels like the title gets in the way of everything”

“Okay Luna I won’t use your royal title if that makes things easier for you” I said with a smile.

“Thank you. It really does make me uncomfortable to rank myself higher than my special somepony” she said with a blush.

“It’s not going to change how others view you in relation to a common pony like me”

“I think we can safely presume that you are no regular pony” she said with her face a fraction away from mine.

“Hmmmm that’s true, but I’m still no goddess of darkness” I said with a smirk

She rolled her eyes groaned. Then she kissed me. It was a quick kiss, but it seemed to hold all of her previous frustration. When it ended we were both still holding each other staring into each other’s eyes. Neither of us moved for a while, but I finally broke the silence.

“So how can you fix my wings” I asked hoping that the solution would be relatively simple.

“We would have to break the barrier around your unconscious understanding of flight” she said evenly

“And that would involve…?” I seriously hoped she would say something along the lines of ‘a quick and mildly uncomfortable counter spell’.

“It would involve delving into your mind” she said “We would have to search your subconscious mind for the information that has been locked away and then remove it at the source”

“And how would we go about doing that” I skeptically asked as I gave up all hope for a simple solution.

“Well I would cast a spell that would allow us to examine your mind as if it were a physical place”

“You can do that” this wasn’t any form of magic I had ever heard of.

“Sometimes being the goddess of dreams can have its perks” her smile as she said this was seriously scaring me.

“And when you say we you mean that we will both be inside my mind? That doesn’t make any sense what would happen to our bodies if we were in my mind?”

“Nothing should happen to them at all. Everything that happens will be on the inside of your mind.” Her smile grew wider “besides once we’re inside your mind we can see what makes you tick”

“I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with the prospect of you invading my mind” I said nervously.

“Oh I wouldn’t think of it as an invasion” she said “in fact I would classify it as a peace keeping mission on my part.”

“How would that be keeping the peace?” I asked

“Easy I would be restoring your peace of mind” She started laughing hysterically. Meanwhile all I could do was groan sadly and curse myself for setting her up like that.

“Fine I suppose I can deal with you inside my mind” I paused to think for a moment “but you have to promise not to investigate things I don’t want you to see. You have to promise to let me decide what we do inside my mind”

“I promise”

“Then go ahead Luna let us see what it’s like inside my head”

Her horn began to glow with magic and she pointed it right at me. There was a bang and the room disappeared, and everything went black.