Princesses and Stepladders

"SHE DID WHAT!?"

Even though Princess Luna's anger did not seem to be directed at him, Duskwind cringed and cowered, even as he was pushed back bodily a few inches by the force of her Royal Canterlot voice.

"I'm sorry... please don't be mad..." Words came out of the frightened violet unicorn in a torrent, "I didn't mean for it to happen... she gave me this threatening look, and once I knew what was happening I didn't dare cause a scene, and I thought she might send me to the dungeons... but I thought you might also and I'm so sorry..."

He felt distinctly... soiled, and the taste of cloying port in his mouth and musty smoke in his coat did not help.

"WE..." Luna began, then let out a slow breath and continued more calmly, sitting down heavily on the floor of her chamber's sitting room, to which they had retired after the guests had left, "We are angry thee, but this is unfair. Thy situation was... unfortunate."

She raised a hoof towards him, and he touched it gently, daring to relax a bit. "So... no dungeon?"

For the first time since the topic had come up, the Princess smiled. She beckoned Duskwind closer and wrapped a wing around him affectionately. "Nay, we think not." She added ruefully, "Though we wish our dear sister could spend a night there... but even were that possible it would not make her stop. She has... done this before."

He rested his head against her shoulder, feeling a bit uncomfortable but unable not to ask, "Was that with... err... Flumple?" When she gave him a shocked look he explained hastily, looking at the floor. "I overheard you two arguing yesterday".

A wistful look crept into Luna's eyes momentarily, until she blinked it away. "Yes. A bit more than a hundred years before our exile, we took a lover. He was a court painter, and she never took any real notice of him, until he was in our bed. She protested that her sudden attentions thrust upon him were 'all in fun', but in truth she could not stomach knowing that there was one pony she could not have.

Duskwind silently admonished himself for the little rush of jealousy that washed over him. How could he feel jealous of a stallion who had lived eleven centuries ago? That was probably the wrong thought to have, because it left him feeling very young, and very small.

"Did you love him?" he asked, and immediately regretted asking what was obviously a loaded question.

She looked thoughtful, not meeting his eyes. "We... that is a vexing question. We cared greatly for him... greatly, but your lives are so short that we had very little time together."

A bitter thought came into his head, and he stiffened slightly under her wing. "So I... he was like a beloved pet dog?"

For a moment she seemed about to snap back a terse response, but she tightened her wing around his shoulders and nuzzled his mane, quietly saying, "No. We could never be equals, but he was more to us than that." After a hesitant pause, she added, "Our time together was important, if but a brief few decades. And when it was done, we built a small but beautiful tomb for him on the edge of Canterlot. It still stands to this day, though the land whereupon it lies is now in a park well inside the city walls. We have visited it every year on his birthday before and after our exile."

There was a long silence. The princess seemed lost in her memories, and Duskwind simply did not know what he could possibly say. After some time, she lifted his chin with her hoof, and looked him earnestly in in the eyes, whispering, "Thou'rt not a pet. Never think that." She kissed him softly, her mane flowing around their faces like a curtain made of the night sky.

After another long, but less awkward silence, she nuzzled the top of his head and said, "Dusky? We have heard of thy researches in the magic library. May we ask what thou searchest for?"

He looked up at her. Up, that was the key. He hesitated a moment before answering apprehensively, "I was looking for a spell to make me, well... bigger." He hastily added, "Not like that, I meant all of me. Like what Celestia did... though probably without the wings."

A look of concern crept over her face, and she was about to speak when he beat her to it. "Don't misunderstand. You're lovely, and majestic. It's just that sometimes... only sometimes... I feel kind of like a child next to you. With everything else, that sometimes makes me feel a bit, well, small, in the metaphorical sense as well as the literal."

She smiled affectionately and disentangled herself from him, standing up.

"We must apologize. We are so used to our stature that we never even thought of that," she said, walking slowly away from him. Her horn glowed softly, and in a way that made Duskwind's eyes water, she seemed to be receding from him two steps for every one that she took. After a few steps she turned around and walked back towards him, beaming proudly at him, her mane and tail streaming behind her. In the same surreal sense as a moment ago, she seemed to not be drawing as near to him as her steps should have taken her.

"Stand up," she bade him, and he did so. When she reached him, he blinked. It took him a moment to process what he was seeing. She was still herself, with the same elegant proportions, the same slim figure and unusually long, graceful horn. But as he stood and approached her, he realized with amazement that she was about half a hoof shorter than him.

"How... I didn't know you could do that..." he said in wonder.

She lowered her head and nuzzled under his chin with the back of her head, taking care not to jab him with her tiara or horn.

"And why didst though never ask? Compared to raising the moon and painting the night sky, a task such this is easy." In a sultry whisper she added, "Unless thou wouldst rather conquer a scaled down Nightmare Moon?" and flicked her ears playfully.

Duskwind was dumbstruck by the kindness of this gesture she had made, a broad smile slowly filling his face. Her lewd suggestion snapped him out of it, and he chuckled. "Not tonight... I'd much rather just enjoy you at the moment... but I find that idea strangely appealing. Maybe another night?"

"As thou wishest," the disorientatingly small princess said with a smile, "Perhaps a walk in the gardens, then?"

"Won't ponies stare, with you like this?"

"Let them."

"This is very sweet of you. I don't need this all of the time, just once in a while."

"We know."

"Well then, shall we, my Princess?"

"Yes."

She draped a wing over his back and they walked through the double doors that led from the Lunar Royal Suite into the moon-lit gardens, their sides touching as they went.

He knew this changed nothing, not really. He was still who he was, and she was who she was, whatever games they might play. But it was nice to pretend, even if only for a little while.