Twilight Sparkle and her friends were visiting the royal sisters in Canterlot. They were there for Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s wedding with the captain of the royal guard and Twilight’s older brother, Sir Shining Armor. Their task was to help Princess Luna and Princess Celestia get ready for the big event while they were on watch for anything unusual, what with the eminent threat of a Changeling Invasion.
A dark blue alicorn with a moderate sapphire blue mane and tail with a grayish persian blue aura surrounding, Princess Luna, was on watch duty while everyone else slept through the night. Something like this would have made her rather angry a thousand years ago, but had matured since then. Besides, she had a more pressing matter at hoof. The princess had to watch for anything suspicious. Anything that might suggested that whatever threatened Canterlot - no, all of Equestria - was about to make its move.
Princess Luna was standing on the balcony when she heard it. A high pitched, incessant - maybe even slightly infectious - tittering. Luna swiftly turned on her axis to stare into the darkness of her moon lit room. “Who goes there?!” she spoke in her ‘Royal Canterlot Voice.’ “We demand that thou showest thyself, foul demon!”
The giggling got more ridiculous at that remark. “Foul Demon?” a light hearted voice echoed. “Me? Hahaha.” A pale, light grayish raspberry mare with a brilliant raspberry mane and tail stepped out of the shadows. On her flank, three balloons were present; one a pale, light grayish gold, the other two light cerulean.
“Oh, you’re one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends, correct?” Luna said, a wave of relief washing over her. Twilight Sparkle was correct about her abilities… We did not even hear her coming… ‘Twas as if she appeared out of thin air…
“Yeah!” The overly excited filly chirped. “I’m Pinkie Pie! I saw you from my window and thought you looked lonely, which made me feel sad, so I came up here to make you feel not lonely anymore!”
Luna was taken aback by Pinkie’s words. “We thank you, Pinkie Pie,” she said hesitantly. “However, we do not require your company. You need your rest, yes? The wedding is tomorrow, you know.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me,” the pink pony said cheerfully, walking over to Luna in a bouncy sort of way. “I can go days and days and days without sleeping! How do you think I plan so many parties so quickly?”
“Oh…” Luna chuckled nervously. “That’s wonderful…”
Pinkie Pie walked to the edge of the balcony. “Oo!” she cooed, looking up at the sky. “You do this, right? I can see why you’d be upset about somepony sleeping through it, not taking the time to appreciate your hard work. It’d be like if somepony missed one of my parties to take a nap, or something!”
Luna blinked. “Nopony has said something like that in over a thousand years… Not since-”
“Princess Luna!” the raspberry pony interrupted, pointing at a group of stars. “What’s that consta-thingy called?”
The alicorn blinked, looking toward where the hyperactive filly was pointing. “‘twould be just a random cluster of stars, Pinkie Pie. Not a constellation.”
“Then maybe we can name it?”
“‘Name it?’” the princess echoed. “Dost thou mean… together?”
“Of course!” she chirped, bouncing up and down. “It’ll be fun, right?”
“We… We suppose so…” The dark blue alicorn looked up at the stars. “What wouldst thou like to call it?”
“Well… It kind of looks like a ribbon of some kind… Oo! How about ‘The Ribbon of Friendship?’”
“‘twould be a little cheesy… Dust thou not agree?”
“But I like it!” Pinkie Pie chirped gleefully. “It’ll be a reminder of the night we became friends!”
The dark blue princess blinked, taken aback. “Friends? We are… friends?”
“Of course!” the raspberry colored pony chirped. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“But… Thou knows little about us. And thou feared us on Nightmare Night”
“You and I both know it was just for fun,” Pinkie Pie giggled happily. “What’s your favorite color?”
Luna blinked. “Uh… Black?”
The raspberry colored pony smiled widely at her. “Can you guess what mine is?”
The Alicorn was amused by this question. She chuckled slightly before answering, “Pink?”
The Earth pony gasped loudly. “How did you guess?! Are you psychic?!”
“No, Pinkie,” Luna replied, her laughter growing at Pinkie Pie’s responses. “Not psychic. ‘twas just a lucky guess.”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “What do you do for fun?”
“We don’t do much,” Luna replied after a brief pause. “There are too many royal duties to be done before we have any sort free time.”
The pink Earth pony gasped. “We have to get you some free time! Right now! Everypony deserves time to play from time to time! I mean, if I didn’t have my playtime, I would go crazy!”
“We do not mind, Pinkie Pie,” Luna responded before the pink mare went off on another tangent. “Our sister had to do our duties as well as her own for a thousand years. We don’t think we would be able to handle the pressure if e were put in the same situation.”
An awkward silence fell between them as neither knew what to say.
“Perhaps you should go to bed, Pinkie Pie,” Luna finally suggested. “You’ll have to get up early so you can do your part during the wedding.”
“What about you, Princess Luna?” Pinkie Pie retorted. “Won’t you miss the wedding if you stay up any longer?”
“Do not worry, Pinkie Pie. We will not be missed. Celestia and Mi Amore Cadenza understand that I must do my duty to protect the citizens of Canterlot.”
The pink pony stared at Luna for a moment before saying, “I’ll miss you,” and bouncing off.
Luna turned to watch her go, but she seemed to have disappeared into the darkness of the room as suddenly as she had appeared. The blue alicorn sighed before returning her attention to the city, every so often glancing at the cluster of stars that she would forever call “The Ribbon of Friendship.”