Star Tiger, Moon Girl

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 6

Chapter 1

Princess Luna surveyed her kingdom. Properly speaking it was a principality, given that she used the title of Princess and not queen, but people had been calling it the Lunar Kingdom for centuries now, so even Luna tended to think of it that way. She stood on a small viewing platform atop the highest spire of her castle, which itself stood at the exact center of Imbrium City. From that lofty point she could, if she wished, reach up and touch the peak of the crystal dome that covered the city proper. Below the palace spire, the city stretched out along the lunar plain, its lights glittering in the long lunar night.

Imbrium City hummed with life. Shuttles and aircars zipped along in orderly lanes. Ground effect vehicles whooshed down narrow streets. People thronged the avenues, working and playing, buying and selling, living and dying. The majority were humans, but other, stranger beings moved among them. Luna watched her subjects with a small, benign smile. Her eyes fell on a speck of light brighter than most, that had just now flickered to life outside the dome. The spaceport lay there, clinging to the base of the giant crystal bubble. A shuttle, its engines glowing blue-white, arced up from the moon's surface towards the void above.

The tiny glow passed near a blue and white marble that hung above the lunar scene—a distant, beautiful, shining orb—but Luna's gaze avoided the cloud-swirled world. There was nothing there for her anymore.

Instead she followed the track of the shuttle until it met with a brighter light, an interstellar spaceship, which drifted gently across the sky as it orbited the moon. Such ships never made landfall within a gravity well, they were built for the endless reaches between the stars, not the tiny specks of inhabited worlds.

Luna had never boarded such a ship. Her duty lay here, and now it was time to see to the part of it she loved best. The tasks of ruling she found onerous, and had long since passed most of them off to others. A parliament saw to the everyday governing of the moon itself. But the humans and others that ruled in her stead in all but name could not take this beloved duty from her, even if she had wished it so. For only she had the ability to walk among dreams and soothe the nightmares of the lunar denizens.

On other worlds, nightmares were unpleasant but largely harmless things. On Luna's moon, however, nightmares had a greater and more fearful power. Luna regarded fighting that power as her duty. She could not guard all dreams, but she would do what she could to diminish and undo nightmares whenever she found one.

She descended to her bedroom, which lay below the high observation deck at the peak of the castle's highest turret, and changed into her night-dress. The covers were cool as she slipped between them. Her magic woke as her eyes closed, the faintest of glows blossoming on her forehead, at the spot sometimes called the third eye.

Then she was in among the dreams, floating in an indescribable space peopled with a thousand thousand bubbles, each a dream of someone, human or otherwise, somewhere on her moon. Location here had nothing to do with location in the waking world. She might find a dreamer from Imbrium City beside one from Darkside Station, and a wet dream from within her castle floating near a nightmare from the spaceport. There were no dreams from those in orbit, though, and none from the distant planet, either. Those were beyond her reach.

She entered the dream realm at high alert, scanning for any sign of danger. But tonight, it seemed, she would not be immediately attacked. With a soft sigh she relaxed, and set about her work.

Luna soared on wings of light through the dreamscape, considering the bubbles as she passed them, seeking nightmares.

It wasn't long before she found one. She cupped the nightmare in her palms for a long moment, bracing herself. This was not just a nightmare, it carried the shuddering energies of a nightmare born from real life trauma. Such dreams were powerful and unpredictable, to the point of being dangerous to enter. Yet she could not abandon the dreamer to their fate, so she closed her eyes again, and opened them within the dream.

Amid a verdant wood, a feline creature crouched, roaring, long fangs bared. For an instant, Luna thought it a part of the nightmare, but then she saw the shadows around it. They stretched up into tall, humanoid shapes with glowing, bug-like eyes, that circled around the enraged and yet terrified cat. The creature was the dreamer, caught in the center of a nightmare. The tall shapes around it flung nets at it, and their glowing eyes shot beams out towards it, that made the feline's roar break with pain.

The tall beings pulled on the nets, that tangled the feline, and pulled it to them. The dream twisted, the background changing without the dreamer having moved, and now it was within a cage, while the tall things poked and prodded at it from without. One removed its bug-eyed face, and with a shock, Luna suddenly recognized it as human, the insect features a respirator mask. Its face was distorted by dream and memory, but it was nonetheless unmistakably human.

Within its cage the feline was flattened to the ground, defeated and terrified by the alien beings surrounding it. Luna knew she must intervene, especially now knowing that her own species was responsible for its suffering. "Stop!" she cried, exerting her power, and the dream froze.

"Begone!" The tall, shadowy humans melted away, as did the cage, leaving only Luna and the feline floating in an indistinct space. The creature was very large, it probably would come nearly to Luna's waist if it were standing and not half-flattened to the ground with fear. It was a tawny orange, with tiger-like stripes in white. Indeed the creature was not unlike a tiger, with a broad, feline face and long, striped tail behind it. The head was shaped a little differently, but the overall effect was quite tiger-like.

The tiger-creature lashed its tail, staring up at Luna with amber-brown eyes, and then leaped. Luna yelped and went down with the feline on top of her. It pinned her beneath its large paws and growled low in its throat.

"Hey! I'm not your enemy, I'm trying to help you here." Luna tried to use her power to project a sense of calm and friendliness. She was within the tiger's mind, so there was a connection between them, and sometimes that could be used to communicate, though in a fairly crude and indirect way.

The tiger's growling stopped and it shifted slightly, sniffing at her curiously. As it snuffled at her, she could feel its whiskers against the sensitive skin of her face and throat. She held very still. One bite could kill her effortlessly. It was only a dream, but she still felt a shiver go through her at the thought.

Then it licked her shoulder, prompting a squeak of surprise from Luna. "Eep!"

Another snuffle, and the dream changed again, rippling. The pair were suddenly no longer in formless space, but in a lush, moonlit forest, very like the scene she had first glimpsed. Something else had changed as well, for Luna found that she was no longer herself. She had changed into a tiger-like feline as well. That might be a good sign, if the alien being was thinking of her as a person like itself, and not a dangerous nightmare like those that had presumably attacked and captured it.

The tiger lapped her shoulder again, then nipped the side of her neck lightly, its sharp canines pricking through her new, dense fur. She shivered again, and realized that the mood of the dream had also changed. There was no sense of terror now. She had succeeded in heading off the nightmare. But anger still lingered, and with it came another, stronger emotion.

"Oh dear." The alien was still atop her, but it—no he, definitely he—no longer feared her. He pressed his body along hers and she could feel the absolute confirmation that the creature was male. She licked her lips, not sure what to do. She had certainly been caught up in wet dreams before, but never quite like this. Never with such anger mingled with the passion.

The tiger expressed his anger, and his passion as well. Luna, utterly caught up in sensation and emotion, made no move to leave or alter the dream. She accepted the alien being's primal passion and returned his affections, both of them joining together in a dance as old as the stars themselves.

When their dance was done, the dream began abruptly to dissolve around them. Luna felt herself pulled away from the tiger, her human form returning as the nebulous forest around them blurred and ran like watercolor paint in the rain. "I'll find you," she called out, though she knew the tiger probably wouldn't understand. "I'll find you and help you in the waking world, I promise."

Then the dream was gone, and Luna floated alone in the dreamscape.

Luna woke hours later, having tended other dreams through the night, but thoughts of the tiger-like alien lingered with her more than any other nightmare she'd soothed. She had to admit it was in part because of the heated, primal sex. It had been wonderfully intense. But it was also because from what she could tell, the alien was being held prisoner somewhere, quite possibly mistaken for an animal. That could not be permitted.

"Selene," she said as she sat up in bed, "Find me a list of all the zoos here on the moon."

"Yes, your highness," said a disembodied voice from somewhere up near the ceiling.

"Do we have complete information on what animals are exhibited in them?"

"No, your highness. There are publicly available records, but they are unlikely to be complete, they seem to be infrequently updated."

"What I'm looking for would be pretty recent. Search what you can find and see if any zoo has acquired a large, orange and white striped feline creature. I can't give an exact origin or time frame, but it comes from outside the system and it's probably not further back than a month or so at most."

There was a pause, during which a faint, musical humming could be heard. Then Selene responded. "No such creature appears in any record I can access legally, your highness."

Luna chuckled at the faint hint. "Well, I'm not sure trying to hack zoos will get us anywhere, it probably is simply too recent an acquisition to actually be recorded yet. I suppose if they keep digital feeding records, or any kind of purchase records there's probably something..." She shook her head. "But I wouldn't be sure what to look for. No, this should be fairly straightforward and quite legal. Just call around and ask about such a creature. Let me know once you've found it. Him. The alien."

"Yes, your highness." There was a soft click, which was the AI's polite way of letting her mistress know that Selene wasn't paying active attention and she could have some minimal amount of privacy. They both knew it was largely a fiction, Selene saw everything that went on within Luna's palace and much of what happened in Imbrium City too, but such little fictions made life easier.

Luna rose and stretched. She shed her night-dress and stood before a floor-length mirror, regarding herself. She was naked, save for her long blue hair, touched with a starry nimbus that came from the unique magic she wielded. Her extremely pale skin contrasted with her dark hair, and made her tall, lean form all the more striking. She frowned faintly as she considered what to wear. She would probably be out and about, once the tiger was found, so she needed something suitable for public appearances. But the occasion would be informal, and stars knew where she might have to go to see the tiger freed, so something relatively comfortable and practical seemed in order.

She eventually chose a stylish suit, with trousers and jacket of midnight blue over a lighter blue shirt with a ruffled front. A small black and silver tiara emphasized her authority, and practical low boots in black leather completed the outfit. With a nod at herself in the mirror, she set about her day.

"Day" was technically incorrect, of course. The lunar day lasted for two weeks, so the day/night cycle had little to do with the regular activities of the lunar inhabitants. There was, however, an agreed on twenty-four hour cycle which most of her subjects kept to, and by that clock it was morning.

Her "days" were, to be honest, rather boring. She'd let herself settle into a routine, something all too easy to do as time slipped by. Breakfast alone in a small dining room with a view of the domed city. A morning meeting with her cabinet, followed by a brief appearance at parliament, during which she simply smiled and nodded at whatever was going on. Selene would tell her if they attempted to pass any laws she need take note of, so it was largely a formality, so that she would be seen to care.

Lunch could be a diplomatic occasion at need, but just now there were no special ambassadors or unusual visitors, so she had it alone again, and then spent the afternoon in her studio. She was on a sculpture kick currently, so there were stone chips and dust everywhere. She was making a heroic marble, just for fun. The female figure was currently faceless, she hadn't quite decided who it should be. The horse was fully detailed, including elaborate armor with a chamfron that made it look like a unicorn. Luna had always had a fondness for unicorns, though as far as she knew they'd always been mythical, and if any had ever existed they were on the distant blue planet, not on her moon.

She pushed that thought aside and scowled at the statue's face. For a moment she saw familiar features there, a gentle, knowing smile, soft lavender eyes that looked down on a little sister, who was always shorter no matter how much she grew...

Luna cursed faintly and turned away from the statue. Perhaps it was time to pick up oil painting again. She could attempt to paint the tiger alien, perhaps. A visual representation to show might make locating the creature easier.

Speaking of which... "Selene? Have you called all the zoos yet?"

"Almost. Several of them are frustratingly lax about picking up their phones, and about departmental transfers. I've not been able to reach the appropriate parties in one case. So far none of them have anything like your description, though two have ordinary Terran tigers."

Luna sighed. "Damn. I thought this was going to be easy. Keep calling the last zoo until you get results. What kind of import records do we have for exotic animals?"

"There's no register of individuals. Shipments must be approved and quarantined, and there will be a manifest, but..." There was a pause. "Yes, as I suspected, it simply has numbers of animals and broad categories. 'Non-Terran' is as detailed as most get. There's a blacklist of animals that can't be imported, but no whitelist of ones that are allowed."

"Of course. Well, I suppose that's my own fault for keeping a loose hand on the governmental reins. Though I probably wouldn't have been in favor of the bureaucracy necessary to track all that in detail. Still, it would be useful to just be able to check recent ship manifests. I wonder... It could be some private individual, out building a menagerie, but that's awfully expensive to do on an interstellar scale. If it's a business, they'll be making sales, which means a storefront. Hmm."

"There are thirty-two distinct listings under 'exotic pet shop' when I search the lunar net."

"Aha! Do any of them have our tiger listed for sale on line, then?"

"Unfortunately no. I can begin calling them, if you like."

"Yes, please do so. And don't forget to keep calling that last zoo. I'd feel like quite the idiot if he was there."

"Yes, your highness."

Left to herself once more, Luna set about starting her painting. But by the time she'd located the oil paints amid the vast clutter of art supplies she owned, and then found the canvas, easel, brushes, and solvents it was time for dinner.

She had her dinners with a rotating cast of interesting and important people, and so the meal passed in pleasant conversation with an ambassador from one of the far planets, a slightly insect-like biped called a changeling with a face that was nearly human. Luna happened to know, due to seeing a few very revealing dreams from other members of the embassy, that the ambassador was the first probe in an attempt at a hostile takeover, and she was rather relishing the slow unfolding of the ambassador's plan. The alien thought her victory was inevitable, but Luna was staying several steps ahead. She was quite curious how the changelings would handle their defeat.

Political maneuvering occupied her thoughts as she climbed the stairs to the highest tower after dinner. She enjoyed the view as she let the day's cares run through her mind. Everything was well in hand with the changelings, so eventually her mind drifted back to the tiger. She didn't want to speak to Selene just now, she was enjoying her solitude, but the AI's silence suggested that she hadn't found anything yet.

Indeed, when Luna descended to her bedchamber and checked in as she once again dressed for the night, Selene reported no success. Several of the shops were closed for the 'night', and several more kept highly irregular hours. Those that could be contacted had reported no sign of the tiger.

Luna sighed. "And here I thought this would be easy. Well, keep looking. Don't wake me, though, I'll hear your findings in the morning, if there are any."

"Yes, your highness."

Luna climbed into bed and lay back on her pillow. Since Selene had not located the tiger, she would search the dream realm for him. It took only moments for her to slip into slumber, and then she once more floated amid the gossamer bubbles of the lunar dreamscape. Once again she scanned the dream realm for enemy action, but there was nothing. A little knot of awful tension dissolved within her. She was very glad she would not have to deal with that one tonight.

With a thought, she focused her magic, seeking, but there was no response. If the tiger slept, he did not dream. She sighed and soared out amid the other dreams, pausing to soothe a minor nightmare here and there. She kept calling, avoiding any dreams that would take more than a few moments of her attention. At last a dream came floating to her in response to her summons. This dream was not a nightmare, but Luna stepped into it all the same.

A forest formed around her. It was a little more detailed than it had been in the previous dreams. The plants were all unfamiliar to Luna, but the rich, moist, crowded greenness of it brought back memories of long ago, of traveling through the forest called Everfree with her sister...

She cut off that train of thought ruthlessly and turned her attention back to the dream. She saw trees in abundance, and things like ferns and bushes and vines, but there was no sign of the dreamer who must be somewhere within the imagined wood. A faint rustle made Luna spin around, but she saw nothing, only a tiny movement of a branch, as if something had brushed against it moments ago. Though she knew this was just a dream, still she felt her heart pound. Something was out there in the forest. Had the dream turned nightmare after all?

Slowly, cautiously, she began to make her way through the wood, trying to make no sound, searching for some sign of the dreamer. The forest was dark, the sky mostly obscured by reaching branches, and showing only a scattering of stars when it could be glimpsed. The gloom beneath was thick, and Luna found herself stumbling frequently. There was another rustle, behind her, but again when she spun she saw nothing but a waving bit of greenery.

She stooped, peering into the darkness, looking for whatever had made the sound, but saw nothing. She straightened, still tense, thoughts of all the nightmare monsters she'd ever encountered floating through her mind. Then something dropped out of the canopy above her, pinning her to the ground. She heard a low, rumbling growl and smelled a hint of animal musk. Eyes that caught the light and glowed green glared down at her, terrifying, alien. The monster atop her leaned close... and licked her cheek.

Luna blinked up at it, suddenly recognizing the tiger. He had stalked her through his own dream! She laughed suddenly, with relief as much as amusement. "Well, it seems you're a lucid dreamer," she said, looking up at him. "Or you're something like one that I've never seen before. Certainly I've never been hunted by someone whose dream I've shared!"

The tiger made a soft chuffing noise that might have been a word. The syllables were indistinct, on the very edge of Luna's hearing. He stepped back, taking his weight off of her, and sat on the forest floor. Luna got to her feet, dusting off bits of moss and twig. This dream was certainly vivid enough to belong to a lucid dreamer.

"So what now?" said Luna. "I came to look for some clue about where you are now. I have no idea how to tell you that." She considered. She could alter the dream, but how to change it to tell the tiger what she wanted? She looked over at the tiger, who was suddenly, for some reason, just at her eye level.

Blinking, Luna looked down at herself. She was a tiger again. Or perhaps "tigress" would be the better term. The tiger tilted his head at her and seemed to smile. He must have made her change again, he was the dreamer here, after all. But had it been on purpose? Luna made a mental effort and changed back to her usual human self, curious to see what the tiger would do.

He sniffed at her, then snorted, and she found herself once again a tiger. "Not a fan of humans?"

The tiger definitely said something in response, several deep, rumbling, almost purring words that were like nothing Luna had ever heard before. He still seemed to be smiling. Luna chuckled and smiled back. "Well, I don't understand you, and I've no idea how to get you to understand me, but I guess you kinda like... eep!" As she was speaking, the tiger had walked up to her and rubbed his head against her cheek, then nipped her ear.

"Oh, is that how it's going to be?" Luna knew where this was probably leading. If last night was anything to go by, at least. But she couldn't find it in her to object. Indeed just the memory of last night was stirring a heat between her legs. Giving up on verbal communication, she nipped at the tiger's ear in return, and got a brief, trilling purr in response. The tiger rubbed along her side, and Luna leaned into the feline caress, running her own cheek along the tiger's fur.

The tiger continued the gesture, bumping his head against her shoulder and then along her side, finally giving her hindquarters a sniff. She also inhaled, smelling the animal musk of him. A trill of desire went through her. He obviously felt much the same, for he nosed under her tail, skipping any further preliminaries.. She let out a soft, feline moan, then a louder one as the tiger licked her. He chuckled, and said something. She could almost guess at its meaning, it was sly, teasing, asking perhaps if she'd liked his attentions.

She answered the only way she could, lifting her tail up, setting her hind feet a little further apart. The tiger responded eagerly, and soon the two were once again dancing their ancient dance beneath the dream-image of the forest's alien stars.

Eventually, when the dance was done, Luna rolled over onto her paws. Looking down at them she said, "This is nice and all, but I think I'd rather be myself." It took only a small exertion of her will to return her to human form.

The tiger frowned faintly, and Luna sensed a faint unease in the dream. She sighed. "I'm sorry humans make you nervous. Stars, I have to figure out a way to talk to you. I wonder if Selene can dig me up a translation spell..."

The tiger replied in his own language, the meaning of it hovering tantalizingly on the edge of her understanding. It was a query of some kind, something the tiger was puzzled about. Then an interruption broke into the dream from the waking world.

"Your highness," came Selene's familiar voice through their neural tie, "I know you prefer to not be disturbed while you are dream-walking, but I believe I've found the location of the alien you're seeking."

"Wonderful!" Luna grinned at the tiger. "I'm afraid I have to go, but hopefully we'll be meeting in person soon!" Then, with a wave of her hand and a flicker of power, she pulled herself from the dream, from the dreaming realm, and into the waking world.

Chapter 2

He Who Stalks The Night woke in confusion. He was not surprised by his waking, nor by where he found himself; he was still in the cage, within the alien's animal keeping place, as he had been for weeks now. The dream, however, had been strange. It had been a shaman's dream, a knowing dream, where he should have been able to control all that took place. Certainly the strangely attractive alien he'd dreamed of twice now had answered to his will as such a dream construct ought at first. He'd had no difficulty changing her shape to one more conventionally pleasing. Though the need to do so had troubled him a bit.

But then she'd changed back without being willed to do so, and had left when he had still desired her to stay. Occasionally a construct in a shaman's dream might do something unexpected, the mind didn't always know what it knew, after all. But never before had one done something actively against his conscious desires. It was highly puzzling.

A dim light flicked on at the far side of the room and one of the aliens entered. He knew this one well by now, it was one of lesser rank, who tended the creatures' base needs. It provided food and carried away waste, and sometimes handled the smaller animals, but it never entered his cage.

The light, as always, interested him. None of the aliens he had met so far were shamans. He was not either, but he had enough of the gift to dream true, and that was also enough to know power when he saw it. The aliens' apparently magical weapons, conveyances, lights and many other strange and wonderful things seemed to be simply tools. They were tools far beyond the simple knapped stone and sparked fire that he knew, but still tools all the same.

He wished he could play with the little box on the wall that controlled the lights, and see how it worked. Of course were he out of this cage he might have better things to do, but still the light fascinated him. It was nothing like fire. It was more like sunlight or moonlight. Yet how could one capture and tame the sun or moon?

With a yawn, he rolled over on his sleeping mat, and smiled as the alien jumped. This one was terrified of him. Most of them seemed to be, to a greater or lesser degree, though the one who should fear him most did not have the sense to do so. He was not particularly interested in biting these underlings. They were not responsible for his plight. Now if he could get his paws on the chief of those who held him captive, or any of those who'd actually captured him, they would definitely regret doing so.

Despite his frustrated anger, he'd been docile and well-behaved for them thus far in hopes that it would lull them, and let them forget that he had reasons to hate them. Someday there would be a chance, a door not latched, something, and he would strike...

He sighed. He might as well return to the dream realm, if he was going to think like that. The dreams were just as real as his revenge fantasies. Yes perhaps there would be some chance, but truly he should flee rather than attack when that chance came. These beings had weapons beyond his understanding, and though he knew he could likely kill one or two of them, then they would almost certainly retaliate, and he would die, so what would be the use? Much as he hated having been captured and taken from his home, he still loved life.

A chime sounded, and he perked his ears up. That was the sound of a voice-machine, that let the aliens talk to others who were not present. He always paid careful attention when they were speaking. Knowing their language would be of immense use. He understood a few words already, mostly ones involving food. This time the alien sounded startled and dismayed. It was night, and the voice-machine almost never chimed at night. Something must be different.

He Who Stalks The Night rose a bit onto his paws, settling into a prepared crouch. Perhaps this would be the opportunity he needed.

The alien ceased speaking with the faint voice from the voice-machine and began to hurry frantically around the room, picking up clutter and wiping down tanks and cages. He watched the creature in amusement. Obviously the alien was being required to do its cleaning tasks more swiftly—and rather more thoroughly, this one had always seemed a bit lazy—than usual.

Time passed, while the low-ranked alien hurried about. He waited with a hunter's patience, ready to leap should the opportunity present itself. More lights were turned on, to better show the creatures held captive here. As far as he could tell, all the rest were mere dumb animals. He did not know why they were kept. He had thought at first they might be food animals, kept close so that one would not need to hunt, but after time it became quite clear there was some other purpose. Given the affection some aliens showed towards the ones they selected and left with, his current theory was that they were pets, kept the way children at home sometimes kept little arboreal rodents to play with.

The sound of the door opening again made him look up, to see the chief of his captors entering. His ears went back, but he suppressed his urge to growl and simply watched. The chief immediately began berating the lower ranking alien. He Who Stalks The Night didn't understand the language, but the tone was clear enough. He'd seen it happen before. The chief alien was both higher ranked and physically larger, and seemed happy to throw its weight around on both counts. He despised such bullies.

While the chief was in mid-rant, however, the door opened again. Immediately the alien put a false smile on its face, turned around, and bowed, a submissive gesture he had not yet seen from the strange creatures. He wondered exactly how their hierarchy worked. He'd had rather limited opportunities to observe the creatures, for he'd dealt with only a small number of them thus far.

The being who stepped in the door, though, wiped all such curiosity from his mind, for it was shockingly, impossibly familiar.

It was the female alien from his dream.

She was real.

And even from the far side of the spacious room he could sense such power radiating from her that he knew instantly she was a shaman of great strength.

His jaw fell open, and then his ears went down and he felt himself abandoning his prepared crouch to flatten himself to the floor of his cage in shame. Sweet gods above, what had he done? To take such liberties with any real person was unthinkable. And with a shaman? She would have his hide for a rug, and rightly so!

He watched with a kind of embarrassed dread as the shaman spoke imperiously to the other aliens. They both groveled, the chief particularly so. Like most bullies, the creature became spineless in the presence of one more powerful. The shaman pointed across the room, at where he still sat in his cage, and said something else. He cringed slightly at the seemingly accusatory gesture. Both the other aliens reacted with started fear and negation, shaking their heads. She repeated her phrase, and he recognized one of his small store of alien words, "open" in it.

The chief pointed as its lackey and said something demanding. The lackey slowly, reluctantly, approached the cage. The alien touched the door in a particular pattern, which was frustratingly difficult to see from within, and it slid open. The lackey scurried backwards, until he was on the far side of the room. The chief put himself as far as he could get from the open door as well, but the shaman strode boldly forward without hesitation.

She stepped within the cage and stood, looking down at He Who Stalks The Night. She was shorter than the chief, but all these aliens seemed tall and bizarrely slender, and he felt as if she was looming over him. He slunk forward a few steps and halted, looking ashamedly down at his front paws.

The sound of her voice was soft, no longer commanding, but low and warm. He didn't understand any of the words, but he looked up at her curiously. Was she not angry at him? Had she not hunted him down to punish him for his presumption in treating her as a dream construct? He felt her gathering magic then, and braced himself for whatever curse or punishment she might condemn him to, but he didn't look away as her hand touched his forehead.

Energy cascaded over and through him, making his fur stand on end. Then it settled again, whatever spell she had cast completed.

"There. Do you understand me now?"

His eyes flew wide in shock. "Yes!" he said in his own tongue, yet even as he spoke, he heard the sounds of her alien language come from his lips, and yet he still understood them.

"Wonderful! It worked! I wasn't certain it would. Now, let us be gone from this place. You quite assuredly do not belong here."

He blinked at her again. "You're not upset with me?" he said. Or rather that's what he tried to say. What actually came out in the alien tongue was, "You not mad?" He flattened his ears in dismay.

"What?" the shaman said, sounding puzzled.

"That no what mean say," came out of his lips, and he put a paw over his face, feeling ashamed and embarrassed all over again. Gods above, he sounded like a hopeless primitive. Which he probably was, compared to these creatures, but he wasn't stupid.

"Bother. I guess that part of the spell still needs some work. Well, now is not the time to perform further magical experiments. Come with me." She beckoned as she turned and strode from the cage. She walked as if she owned the whole world, and he couldn't help but admire the view of her strong stride as he followed behind her. Then his ears went back down again. He should not be thinking of her like that! It was a miracle that she didn't seem angry over what he'd done in the dream, but if he dared such thoughts in real life, he was going to get himself in trouble.

The shaman headed for the door, where the chief of his captors still stood, cowering, beside the lackey who was now looking as much astonished as afraid. As she opened the door to leave, though, the chief finally said, "Hey! You're not taking my tiger without paying for him! He cost me a great deal of money, you know! You can't go taking private property just because you're a princess." The chief straightened to its full height, more than a head taller than the shaman, and tried to look intimidating.

She rounded on the larger alien with a snarl. "He is not private property, he's a sentient being! I shall be charitable and presume you were merely ignorant, rather than utterly criminal, but he does not belong to you. I care nothing for whatever money you have paid."

"But..."

"But nothing, you heard him speak just now yourself! You have no claim to ownership over a person."

The chief scowled. "Parrots can speak that much. Neo-lemurs even more. Both are common pets. Speaking doesn't prove anything. And I can't just take a loss like that, he was expensive!"

"If you cooperate with the Lunar Guard's attempts to track down the slavers who captured him, you may be reimbursed for that money. But you had better pray that it was ignorance, and not willful participation in slavery, or I will personally nail your hide to the wall, do you understand?"

The chief backed away a few steps from the heat of her fury, while behind her He Who Stalks The Night couldn't help but snicker in amusement. "Y-yes, your highness."

"Good. That will be all." She stalked out of the room, and he followed her outside without so much as a glance back.

Outside another alien, this one wearing bits of shiny metal and bearing what he recognized as a small weapon at his waist, stood beside one of the alien's marvelous floating vehicles. The metal-clad alien opened the door of the vehicle and the shaman climbed in, then beckoned, and he followed obediently.

Inside he found two plushly upholstered couches facing each other across a small space, with wonderfully clear windows that gave a view of the alien city all around them, and a second compartment to the vehicle, where the metal-clad alien was now manipulating various controls. The shaman had seated herself on one couch, and so he climbed onto the other, as the only other option was to sit on the floor and be more or less on top of her feet.

On any other occasion he would have had his face plastered to the window as they began to move, but instead his gaze was riveted on the female alien across from him.

"I am Princess Luna," she said, inclining her head elegantly.

"Me Hunt Night," he replied, then sighed and put a paw over his face again. "Ugh."

Luna's laugh was gentle, not mocking. "I take it that's not a terribly good translation of your name?"

He Who Stalks The Night shook his head, staying silent rather than saying something else that would come out as though he'd been hit on the head.

"My translation spell obviously leaves much to be desired. I shall see what may be done to improve it." She smiled and added, "And in the meantime I assure you that I know you are not stupid, even if my error makes you sound as if you are."

"Thank you," he said, and relaxed just a little when the simple phrase wasn't mangled.

"Since I can't call you by your proper name, would it be all right if I come up with a nickname for you? Just until the spell is fixed?"

He nodded.

Luna smiled. "Then for now I believe I'll call you Stripes. If you don't object?"

He gave a little shrug. It was a cub sort of name, short and insignificant, but it would be better than being called "Me Hunt Night".

"I would ask you to tell me about yourself, but I imagine you'd prefer to avoid long stories just now. I assume that you were simply minding your own business when a group of humans attacked and imprisoned you, as I saw in your nightmare?"

The newly christened Stripes nodded, though being reminded of dreams made his embarrassment at what he'd done in them return.

"And you were then carried here. Do you know the name of the ship that took you?"

He shook his head.

"What about the people who crewed the ship?"

Another shake. He had known nothing at all of their language at that point, so picking out names from the general babble had been impossible.

"That's unfortunate. If I knew the ship, the captain, or enough of the crew to figure that out, I could trace its route back to your home world and arrange for your return. Right now, however, I have no idea where it is. There's nothing like you in known space, so they found some new world. That happens all the time, of course, the galaxy is a large place."

He frowned at the word "galaxy." Her spell was doing wonderfully at translating her words for him, even in this case when there was no direct equivalent in his language, the sense of what a word meant still came through. "Galaxy? All stars?"

Luna nodded. "Well... Not all stars. But all the ones you can see are part of this galaxy. You know that stars are distant suns, with worlds of their own, yes?"

He nodded. His star-gazing had given him his name, and the star-gazers of his home had long theorized that stars and suns were one and the same. His journey among these aliens had been more than sufficient proof that the theory was true.

"We are on such a world now, or rather we are on the moon of such a world. But with millions of other worlds out there, finding yours is impossible unless I know where to look. I'm certain you would like to go home, but unless I can find the people who captured you, you may not be able to. And for that I am sorry. I'm sorry for my fellow humans, as well. Your people's first meeting with mine shouldn't have been one of misunderstanding and violence."

He gave a little shrug. That was what it was, and nothing would change it. Being out among the stars that he had watched for so long was, in some ways, a dream come true. A dream he'd never known he had, but a dream nonetheless.

And that brought his thoughts back to the dream he'd shared with Luna. His ears heated again, and he braced himself to deliver a terribly-mangled apology. He really didn't want to bring up the subject; reminding her would probably result in her punishing him for his disrespect. But it had to be done. He could not simply pretend that he hadn't mistreated her. "I sorry about dreams. Did not know you real. Did not mean to... uh..." He flicked his ears in embarrassment and trailed off, not wanting to accidentally say something crude.

Luna laughed again, that gentle, rich sound. "There is nothing to apologize for. In dreams we often do strange things. And as you say, you did not know I was not merely another part of the dream." She glanced out the window and added, "We are almost to my castle. Look."

Stripes peered ahead. The car had risen as they'd been talking and was now high above the city. Before it rose a tower, taller than any structure he'd ever seen. It was taller than a tree; a sheer column rearing up massively above the lesser towers around it. It was crowned on top with a castle, a forest of spires and turrets, in turn crowned with one archaic tower that ended just short of the glassy dome that enclosed the whole city.

He gaped at the sight, even as they drew close enough that he could no longer see the whole structure. "All that yours?"

Luna smiled. "Yes. Though I only truly own the uppermost portion. The rest houses the lunar government."

Stripes simply nodded. Their car swooped up to the castle atop the tower and glided in to land on a pad obviously built for that purpose atop the walls. Said walls enclosed a large open space at the castle's heart, which was filled with greenery. Luna exited the car, and Stripes followed her across the landing pad and down a broad flight of stairs to the garden.

He felt something within him relax as he padded along a paved path, amid fragrant flowering bushes and graceful trees. The plants were not the ones of his home, but after so much time among the humans' unnatural straight lines it was good to be out in nature again. Even the paths here curved and wandered in an organic fashion amid the beds of flowers.

They came eventually to the castle proper, its gray stone walls rising here to the highest tower. An arched doorway led within, flanked by a pair of armored humans, and Stripes continued to follow Luna there.

The arch led to a broad hall, lit by the same strange, steadily glowing lights that he'd seen in other human places. There were planters here, with flowering plants in them, and the floor had a long carpet in plush burgundy trimmed with black. Luna went to a pair of doors that oddly had no handles, and touched a panel on the wall beside them. They opened with a soft hiss. Inside was a tiny room, partially lined with large glass windows that gave a view of the city far below. He entered it with Luna, and the doors closed behind them. He looked around curiously, wondering at the little room's purpose, while Luna touched another of those panels. There was a low hum, and the room began to move! It rose steadily, climbing the side of the castle. Eventually it halted and the doors opened again, letting them out onto a long hall lined with doors on either side, somewhere within the main body of the castle. Stripes exited, feeling amazed. These humans were a constant font of fascinating wonders.

When they reached their destination, there were more wonders. "These will be your rooms while you're staying here," said Luna, opening another door and ushering him inside. "My own rooms are directly next door, should you need me." Then she showed him how to use the little panels, which controlled not only the door but the lights and temperature as well.

Stripes immediately turned the lights out, opened and shut the door, and then spent several more minutes slowly dialing the lights up and down. Luna sat down on a couch and watched him with an indulgent smile. "You don't have anything like this where you're from?"

He shook his head silently and left the panel with the lights turned most of the way down, casting the room in a pleasant gloom that reminded him a little bit of the fire-lit chambers of his home.

"Well, wait until I show you the bathroom, then!" She got up and beckoned, and he followed her into a second room, where she pointed out the large bed—rather unlike the fur-lined floor pits he was used to, but quite comfortable when he jumped up onto it to test it—and the little panel next to it, where he could summon a servant to bring him food, without even leaving the bed. A second door led into a spacious bathroom, where Luna gave instructions on how to use the toilet in a matter-of-fact manner, and then grinned and showed him how hot and cold water could be run into a small sink, or into a gigantic basin meant for fully immersing one's self.

He had to restrain himself from filling the tub then and there. He could keep himself tolerably clean with his tongue, but a true bath was much more pleasant and much more thorough. An odd little chamber in the corner of the room proved to be a "shower", where if he preferred to rinse rather than soak he could stand beneath a spray of water.

"And now I shall leave you. It is late, and I have dreams to guard. Should you need anything, use the panel beside your bed. I have instructed the palace servants to treat you with the utmost respect." She smiled. "You are an ambassador for your race, even though I know you did not intend to become such. This gives you a quite exalted rank here. The servants will do anything within reason to see to your comfort."

He once again nodded silently.

She opened the door, then stopped and turned back. "I know you'd probably rather be home, but I'll do everything I can to make things as pleasant as possible for you here. And I am hunting for your home. Hopefully you can return there someday." Then she flashed him another small, warm smile. He found the expression, alien as it was, pleasing, and he found himself suddenly noticing the way she stood, backlit by the lights from the hall, one hand resting on the doorway. When she turned again to leave the motion was graceful and confident. She was utterly unlike any female he'd ever known, yet there was something appealing in her calm, confident nature, in the warmth of that smile, in the richness of her laugh.

He sat for some time in the dimness and contemplated the strangeness of his life. From an ordinary star-gazer, dream walker, and hunter of no particular note to a prisoner, treated like an animal, to an ambassador, surrounded by unthinkable luxury. If he didn't know how to spot the signs of a dream, he would think he was in one, this was all so unlikely.

Stripes rose and shook himself. He might as well take advantage of that luxury. He went to the bathroom and filled the tub. It was more than big enough for him, a human would practically be able to swim in it. The warm water was wonderfully relaxing, and he sank into it up to his chin and just floated, letting his mind wander.

It kept wandering back to Luna, for some reason. She had called herself "princess". Certainly he'd known she was a very important person even before that. But she'd referred to this castle as hers, and said it sat atop the building where this world's government resided. Did that mean she was the ruler here? Perhaps not, princess implied a king or a queen somewhere. But even so, she was of immensely high rank. Even given the illustrious position he found suddenly thrust upon him, she was far above him. And not of his species. Yet she was utterly fascinating to him, and he couldn't shake her from his mind.

Eventually he climbed from the tub and shook himself off. He spent some time grooming his fur to help it dry further, and then left the bathroom while still a bit damp to more thoroughly explore the rest of his new quarters. He found several more control panels, and discovered that the one by the door controlled the suite as a whole, but the others controlled the rooms individually. He also found several other oddities, including a sort of box near the bed that was very cold inside. Indeed one compartment within it seemed to be below freezing. He could immediately see how having a bit of winter always in reach might be useful. One could store meat in it, as one did during winter, and it would keep. Perhaps that was the box's purpose, or perhaps there was some more arcane use. A small control panel on the front of the box spit out little bits of ice when pushed, which was startling. He licked at one, but he wasn't really thirsty or hungry.

He should have been tired, but his mind was spinning and he knew he'd be unable to sleep. He prowled the room further, and found that a set of curtains in the bedroom hid a large glass window, running from floor to ceiling. He soon found that part of it was a door, which lead out onto a balcony. It overlooked the garden, while the castle's central spire towered above it when he raised his head to look upward.

He stood on the balcony for a time and surveyed the garden below. From his height and angle the castle walls blocked most of the city, mostly he could see the garden, with the moon's surface beyond the dome providing a spectacular backdrop. It was a barren world, and staring at it, he felt a deep pang of homesickness. There were no great forests here, no prey to hunt within them, no rivers to swim in, and no kin to be company. Admittedly he'd always been a little bit of a loner, he was not the most social of his people. Still, there was a difference between choosing some solitude and having utter aloneness thrust upon one.

Stripes looked up at the stars above. They should have been old friends, for he had studied the stars all his life, but even they were utterly alien, lying in patterns totally unlike those he knew. And instead of a ruddy moon shining down, there was a blue and white swirled world above, casting a cold light over everything. He was a long way from home, and he might never return.

Unbidden tears ran invisibly through the already damp fur of his cheeks as he gazed into the lunar night.

Chapter 3

Luna walked into her usual dining room and found everything changed. For years the room had been precisely the same; largely empty save for a small table with a single place setting. Now, however, the table had been replaced with a larger one and there were two places set. Her comfortable wing-backed chair still stood at one end of the table, but a low couch had been placed at the other.

Stripes padded in behind her and made a little sound of inquiry that was almost a meow.

"Good morning," said Luna. Somehow the change to her routine felt unsettling, even though it was her orders that had brought it about. And yet she found she was delighted to see the feline alien, and very curious what he would think about the breakfast she'd provided. "I hope you're hungry, I've sent for quite a lot of food. Feel free to sample it all and eat what you like. I am not a literal alicorn in the old sense of the word, but I can in fact cure poisoning, too, should something prove to sit ill with you. Otherwise I'd be much more cautious about giving you every food on the breakfast menu." She smiled.

Stripes tilted his head curiously. "Alicorn?" he said.

"Ah, yes, the translation spell probably doesn't quite know what to do with that one, does it? It means several different things. The most literal is 'the horn of a unicorn', an ancient object that was said to have magical powers, including the ability to cure any poison. It's also the name of a mythical sort of... divine animal; a unicorn with both horn and wings. The alicorns were said to be something like gods, holding great power. I suspect that's why we immortals are sometimes called alicorns. We are much like those old myths in abilities, if not in appearance."

Stripes nodded silently, his expression thoughtful.

"Do you have people like that on your home world?"

He frowned. "Like, but not same as." His frown turned into a scowl and he shook his head.

"I will work on the translation spell more today, hopefully I can fix it."

"Thanks."

"But come, breakfast is here. Seat yourself and eat." Servants were filing into the room, carrying covered serving platters. Luna took a seat in her chair and Stripes jumped up onto his couch, regarding the table curiously. It was soon half-covered in platters, for Luna had indeed ordered nearly everything the palace kitchen could offer for breakfast. The feline's teeth suggested he was a carnivore, but she had no idea what he might like or dislike. And his size suggested he'd have a large appetite, so she'd erred on the side of excess.

Stripes reached out and lifted the cover of the nearest platter, grasping the handle with a stubby thumb on his forepaw that Luna hadn't realized he had. He sniffed the contents curiously. The platter contained a pile of bacon, and apparently that met with his approval, for he immediately set about devouring the entire pile.

He ate neatly, picking up each piece almost delicately between his teeth, but the pieces vanished swiftly. When the bacon was gone he pushed the platter back and pulled forward another one. This proved to hold a stack of pancakes under its silver cover. He tilted his head at them and sniffed them thoroughly. He took a bite from the one on top and chewed it thoughtfully for a moment. Then he turned his attention to the little ramekin of butter sitting beside the stack. Luna blinked as he tasted it and then almost instantly devoured the entire thing. A small porcelain jug of syrup next to it was also tasted, and Stripes lapped up some of it, but didn't finish the whole thing. He pushed the pancakes aside and moved to the next platter.

This one held an omelette, made with ham and cheese. Stripes sampled it cautiously, and chewed thoughtfully for a moment, before apparently deciding it would do and eating the whole thing.

The following platter held a small stack of ham steaks, which were devoured even faster than the bacon had been, and somewhat more messily, for the feline got his paws involved in tearing pieces from them. He paused then and groomed them clean with his tongue before continuing.

Under the next silver dome was a bowl of porridge, with ramekins bearing butter and sugar beside it, along with a small jug of cream. A bit of porridge was lapped up but instantly rejected. The butter was eaten quickly, just as the last serving had been, and the sugar was sampled and mostly eaten. Then Stripes investigated the cream, and this was evidently a hit for not only he he lap it up rapidly, but he took the jug in his forepaws and tilted it at every angle, so that he could lick the inside completely clean.

A platter of sausages was investigated and a couple of them eaten, but the rest weren't finished. Perhaps the spices involved weren't quite to the feline's taste. A second omelette, this one involving mushrooms, was also partially eaten. The plate of hash browns following it was rejected after a few bites, and then a second plate of sausages, these ones in a somewhat different style, apparently proved more acceptable and were completely consumed.

Luna suddenly realized that Stripes was nearly done, and she'd been so fascinated by watching him eat that she'd barely even sipped her coffee, let alone touched the hash browns and eggs set before her. She picked up her fork and turned her attention to her food. It was good, as always. She could have ordered something more elaborate, the palace kitchens were home to three entirely different cooks, but she liked simple fare, especially for breakfast, and tended to mostly employ the plain cook's skills rather than the highly trained gourmet chef. The pastry chef was also kept busy, though, as Luna did have a little bit of a sweet tooth.

She took a swig of her coffee, which demonstrated that by having four sugars but no cream. Hot, black and sweet, just the way she liked it.

Something tickled her elbow and she jerked, nearly spilling the coffee.

"Sorry," said Stripes. He was standing beside her, close enough that his whiskers had brushed her. "Finished. No drink though? Yours, what is?"

"Oh dear. I completely forget to order you something to drink. I'm sorry. This is coffee that I'm drinking. It's a stimulant, something to help one wake up after a restless night."

The feline's ears perked up. "Yes? Can have?"

"Well... I have no idea if it will work on you, but I suppose it couldn't hurt. Selene? Please send for a large coffee for Mister Stripes." She remembered his lapping up of the cream earlier and added, "with plenty of cream and sugar."

"Yes, your highness," came the cool, feminine voice.

Stripes looked up at the ceiling, but of course there was nothing to see there. He tilted his head. "Who?"

"That's Selene. She's an artificial intelligence. She takes care of me."

"Ah." Stripes nodded. Luna wondered if he actually understood what an artificial intelligence was. He seemed quite smart but it was obvious that his home world was fairly low tech.

A few minutes later the coffee arrived. It came in a broad, low mug, which made Luna smile in approval. Somebody in the kitchen had thought about the difficulty of a feline drinking from a standard coffee mug. A jug of cream sat beside it on the tray, and a little stack of sugar cubes stood on a lace doily, with a small silver spoon beside them.

Stripes sniffed the mug, and lapped up a quick taste. He made a face, then moved on the inspect the rest of the tray. He picked up and crunched a sugar cube experimentally, and immediately dropped several into the drink, then poured in the entire pitcher of cream as well, making the coffee a pale caramel color. This was followed by a pause while he licked every spare drop of cream from the pitcher. Then he picked up the spoon with care and gave it a few stirs, and finally lapped at the drink. He gave an approving nod and continued, lapping slowly, savoring it. Luna returned her attention to her own breakfast, which was now somewhat cold, but polished off her plate quickly enough while Stripes finished his cup of coffee.

"I would love to spend the rest of the morning with you," said Luna when she was done, "but I want to take some time to look over your translation spell and see if it can be improved. I suspect you'd prefer to be able to speak clearly."

Stripes nodded emphatically, and Luna smiled.

"In that case, I'll see you again at lunch. If you need anything, address Selene and she will see to it that you're provided with it. Feel free to explore the gardens or look around the castle. Any doors that are locked are areas I'd prefer you didn't venture into, but much of this place is open to the public. There are quite a few interesting art installations, and the view from the castle walls is excellent. I'd prefer you didn't leave until you're more familiar with how things work here, if that's alright with you."

Stripes nodded again, and Luna rose and departed, headed for her workroom. Like her studio, it was attached to her personal quarters, but it was much less cluttered. Spells were dangerous things, prone to interacting in unexpected ways. Leaving them lying around half-finished the way she was prone to leaving artwork would eventually result in disaster.

She opened the locked door with a key and a spark of personal magic and stepped inside, surveying the space. She'd taken an hour or so to hastily construct the translation spell, with input from Selene, who was herself a partially magical construct, so it was not as if the room was unfamiliar, but she had designed it herself, to perfectly suit her needs, and it was always pleasing to step inside.

A series of circles and pentagrams inlaid in the floor took up most of the room. A bookshelf full of reference books occupied one long wall. A workbench stretched along another, and a large desk with a pigeon-hole back full of scrolls occupied most of a third. There were no windows. There was one simple, old-fashioned filament light bulb overhead. More complicated lighting tended to fail, technology and magic weren't incompatible, but they interacted in strange ways at times.

Luna sent a glowing ball of energy soaring up to supplement the dim yellowish glow, then went to the desk. The reference books she'd used earlier were still there, as was the printout Selene had given to her last night. She sat down in the comfortable chair and pulled out a sheet of paper to scribble notes on. Time to figure out what she'd done wrong.

Several hours later, she sat back and regarded the scattered papers in front of her. She thought she'd found the problem. Given that she'd written the original spell in a bit of a hurry, errors weren't surprising. There were several minor flaws she'd turned up. Most didn't actually impair the final result, but a few could potentially be causing the problem in question. Now it was a matter of re-writing the spell to correct those flaws. She stood and stretched before diving back into her task.

"Selene? Have you been monitoring Stripes?" she asked.

"Oh yes." The synthetic voice sounded amused, which was something Selene rarely allowed herself. She preferred to project an aloof, rather stereotypical AI persona most of the time.

"Oh?" said Luna, curious about what Selene might find so amusing.

"Yes. He's been exploring. He's been all the way to the observation deck on top of the tower, and now he's wandering the halls, poking his nose into every room that's not locked. Including some that perhaps should have been, there have been a number of minor incidents."

"Oh dear. You didn't stop him?"

"I was not directed to. And no permanent harm has been done. A number of servants and a few dignitaries have been quite startled, though, and I have received numerous reports of a 'wild animal' at large in the castle."

"Selene... you have control of all the locks, you know. You really shouldn't be letting him get into people's private quarters."

"Not even the Sigma Draconis ambassador's?"

Luna couldn't hold back a sudden snort of laughter. "Well... I suppose I'll forgive you for letting him startle that old blowhard. I've wanted to shake her up, or just shake her, often enough myself. But please don't let him do that again."

"Yes, your highness."

"Where is he now?"

"Two floors down. He's probably going to poke his nose into the kitchen any minute now."

"If he makes them ruin lunch I'll be very put out," said Luna with a frown. "Can you please redirect him somewhere else for now?"

"Yes, your highness." Selene's tone was still amused, and Luna shook her head. All kinds of things were being shaken up by the feline's presence, it seemed. She would probably have to send the delegation from Sigma Draconis some sort of formal apology.

She probably should be annoyed about that, but she wasn't. She found she was enjoying having Stripes around. She prized her solitude, yet even though she'd always jealously guarded such moments of privacy as breakfast alone, she'd invited him without a second thought, and had very much enjoyed having him there. He was... different. A breath of fresh air in a life that had been getting more than a little bit stagnant.

She sighed softly as she admitted that to herself. The challenges that had kept her involved and motivated a thousand years ago, when humanity had first set foot on the moon, were all long since dealt with. The exciting days of shepherding a rapidly budding lunar colony were ancient history. Even the stresses of the middle centuries, when she'd been establishing trade ties and working on making her principality self-sufficient, were all in the past. She still looked after her people and advocated for her domain on the galactic stage, but she had to admit that she'd let herself slide into complacency. Her more hands-off approach to local government had been justifiable when she'd been spending most of her efforts on interstellar relations, but how long had it been since she'd done more there than the most perfunctory and basic of diplomatic moves?

It was time something shook her up. Perhaps if Stripes hadn't arrived something else might have. Her maneuvering against the changelings had sparked a bit of interest, and it was possible that threat would yet turn into something serious enough to require her full attention, yet perhaps not. Either way, it was good to have something positive to engage her mind, rather than only threats and dangers.

And speaking of engaging her mind, it was time to write the new version of the translation spell. She sat back down and bent over her desk, pen in hand.

"Your highness?" Selene's voice, still sounding amused, interrupted her about half an hour later.

"Yes?"

"There's a... situation you should be aware of developing."

Luna looked up, though of course she couldn't see Selene, and raise her eyebrows. "A situation?"

"Yes. I'm afraid security has been called, but I thought you might wish to intervene, or have me do so, before they arrive."

"Oh dear. It's Stripes again, isn't it? What has he gotten himself into?"

Luna resisted the urge to put her hand over her face as she stood in the doorway and took in the scene. The castle incorporated a great many technological wonders in its design, from the obvious elevators and lights to the subtle climate controls that kept each part of it just the right temperature and humidity. All these things required maintenance, so there was a fairly extensive workshop located on the lowest floor of the castle proper.

An even larger shop was tucked away elsewhere in the capital tower, and some things were sent down there for repairs, but most could be fixed on site. This required technicians as well as shop space, and there were currently four of them in the room. Two of them were on top of a desk in the far corner. One was actually under a workbench, and a third had made an impromptu barricade from a few pieces of sheet metal and was clutching a welder like a weapon, which it actually could be at very close quarters. Her violent trembling, however, suggested that she was probably not going to be very good at wielding it.

Completely ignoring all four of them, in favor of lighting assembly that was in pieces on one workbench, was Stripes. He was up on his hind legs, his paws on either side of it, his tail twitching, and his whiskers seemed to be practically vibrating with energy as he examined the thing from every possible angle.

"Princess! Thank stars!" said one of the techs on the desk. "This animal just burst in and started running around the room. It must have gotten lose from the menagerie."

Luna raised one eyebrow. "'It' is Stripes, the newest ambassador to our world. I apologize for his intrusion, but you are in no danger, I assure you."

"Luna!" Stripes looked up from the workbench. "Can explain how works? Sunlight inside? No magic? What is?"

Luna laughed. The technicians stared. "It talks?" said the one under the workbench. Luna shot him a glare. "I believe I already said he is an ambassador. Not an animal."

"Uhm. Sorry." The man under the bench peered out, but still seemed reluctant to emerge.

Luna gave a little shrug, then walked over to Stripes and looked at the lighting unit. It was a fairly straightforward one, though it was of course much more complicated than the incandescent lights she remembered from her younger days. "It uses electricity to create light. It's not sunlight, it has no relation to the sun." A tiny pang went through her and she couldn't help but think, no more do I, these days.

"Electricity?"

"Your people don't have that yet, hmm? Electricity is the same as lightning. And it can also be made by rubbing something against fur under the right conditions, maybe you've done that and felt a small shock? They're merely different degrees of the same power."

"Ah! But rubbing fur not making this light."

Luna chuckled. "No, we don't generate electricity by rubbing fur. I can explain more if you like, but perhaps here is not the place to do it. You've rather frightened these people."

Stripes blinked and looked around, as if actually noticing the technicians for the first time. "Oh. Apologies," he said, giving a little nod to them. "Was excited. No mean hurt."

One of the techs on the desk climbed cautiously down. "It's okay."

Luna could just hear the one under the workbench mutter, "No it isn't." She chose to ignore that. The one clutching the welder put it down and straightened behind her barricade, looking embarrassed.

"Come, I'll explain more about electricity while we walk back to your quarters."

Stripes nodded and stepped away from the workbench. He followed Luna out of the room, leaving the four very relieved and also very embarrassed technicians behind. He was almost bouncing in the low gravity as they walked, taking far higher strides than strictly necessary. His whiskers will still twitching and his tail lashing.

"Feeling a little hyperactive?" asked Luna with a smile. "Perhaps tomorrow you shouldn't have any coffee."

"Ha! I have half, maybe. It was good. Is good to be out, to do, to see. Just wish I talk right!"

"I've been working on that, and I have a few ideas. I haven't quite finished the new version of the translation spell yet, but I will work on it more as time permits. Tomorrow, perhaps, I'll be able to get it done.

"Is good. But now, tell about electricity!"

Luna laughed and began to talk as they walked side by side through the castle's halls.

That evening, when her mundane responsibilities had been discharged and she could take up her dream-guard's mantle, she once again found the dreamscape at peace. She frowned. To have no sign of... interference for three nights running was highly unusual. What was she up to? Still, Luna had a goal this night, and was pleased enough to be able to reach it without conflict, so she spread her immaterial wings and soared through the dream bubbles, seeking. Selene had said that Stripes slept. Not all sleep was dreaming, but she hoped to find him here.

Her hopes were soon realized. She stepped into a dream bubble and found herself once more in an alien yet now-familiar forest night. Nocturnal animals called. A soft, warm breeze blew, rustling leaves and grasses. And a sense of presence lurked, unseen. Luna chuckled. So, that was to be the way of it again? She looked around, seeking any sign of the hunter that lurked here. There was no sound, no hint of orange and white in the dappled shadows.

Luna moved forward slowly, putting each foot down with care, probing mentally for a sense of another dreamer. He was here, somewhere, but where? A breeze flirted through the forest, sending the underbrush rustling. The sound meant that Stripes could be anywhere, about to pounce, and she would hear nothing. She spun, half expecting him to be behind her... and he dropped down from a tree branch overhead, sending her sprawling on the soft-mossy ground.

She lay there and laughed. "You win again!"

He stood over her grinning. "Yes."

Luna reached up and patted his cheek. She would never have been so familiar in the waking world, but here in the dream realm it was easier to feel comfortable. And besides, they'd done far more than touch the last time they'd dreamed together.

He flopped onto the moss beside her. Luna sat up, making herself comfortable on the moss and looked at him. "I'm glad I found you here. I had wanted to talk to you more today, but duty intervened."

"I understand. You're a ruler." Stripes stopped, blinking. "Wait, that's exactly what I meant to say. What the hell?"

"Huh. The translation spell seems to be working correctly now. Which means the track I was pursuing today was almost certainly the wrong one. And I've no idea what the right one would be. What the hell indeed." Luna blinked, then added, "So your people believe in hell?"

"Yes. Though the translation is giving me a kind of feeling that our hell and your hell are not quite the same thing. And I personally am not so sure it exists."

"You're not religious?"

Stripes gave a shrug. "I believe in the power of the shamans, I can see that with my own eyes, touch it with my own paws. I've never seen or touched or tasted a god or goddess. They might be real, but they might not."

"You're an agnostic, then?"

He pondered the sense that word gave him, and nodded. "That comes close enough, I suppose. What of you?"

"My ancestors were worshiped as gods and goddesses. For that matter, I and my sister have been worshiped as well! That sort of thing makes one cynical about faith. No, I don't believe in a higher power."

Stripes nodded. Something else she said caught his attention, though. "Will I be meeting this sister of yours?"

Luna tensed, her smile fading. She did not want to discuss her sister. "No," she said. Stripes didn't ask for any more.

There was an uncomfortable silence, but at length Luna deliberately straightened herself, put on a warmer expression, and said, "I should ask about your real name, now that you can tell it to me."

"He Who Stalks the Night," he said.

"That's a bit of a mouthful."

He chuckled. "That's the way of my people. Cub names are short and insignificant. Adult names must be earned, and have meaning. Truly, mine is still fairly short. I am nobody of note among us. The chief of my particular tribe is She Who Springs Strong And Swift To The Treetops To See The Horizon."

"Wow. So... does that mean I've been insulting you by calling you Stripes, since it's so short?"

He shrugged. "Maybe some of my people would be insulted. I don't mind, though." He gave a little cough and added, "Short names are also commonly used among family, close friends... and lovers."

She smiled. "Well, I would like to count you as a close friend." Her smile faded just a little. "I haven't had many of those lately."

"The burdens of rule?"

She shrugged, but gave no answer.

There was a long silence, which was surprisingly comfortable. Though as Stripes found his mind wandering, it drifted back to that first dream. With a sigh he broke the silence. "Luna... I must apologize again for what I did when last we dreamed together. I should not have-"

"Hush. You have apologized already. We shall speak no more of it."

"Then what will we speak of, since it seems we can finally actually talk?"

She smiled. "Tell me about this forest." She gestured to the dark wood around them. "Tell me what your home is like. I presume this is your home."

"It is, yes. I always preferred the forest to the village. People make demands on you. Trees do not." He smiled, rolling over onto his back and gazing up through the leaves to the sky above. "Neither do stars, though I suppose in a way they finally did, or I wouldn't be here."

Luna lay back too and looked up at the unfamiliar constellations. "For your sake I'm sorry. I'm sure you miss your home."

He gave another little shrug. "I was often lonely here as well. I do miss it. But still... I had no mate or cub to leave behind. I miss the world. I will miss my friends. But my soul is not broken because of it. And your world is so fascinating! I want to see more of it."

"I'll show you all I can." Luna smiled again. "Or have someone show you. Unfortunately I do have commitments. I could turn the dream to my world, if you like, and walk with you there. Though I also want to see your world."

"I can see more of your home when I wake. Come, I will show you mine now." He rose, and Luna rose too. She put her hand on his shoulders, and together they walked into the forest, as Stripes began speaking, telling her about the life he had left behind.

They walked and spoke, and she gathered a picture of a hunter-gatherer people, living just on the edge of leaving the stone age. They had some scraps of agriculture, and bits of simple metalwork. Stripe's tribe didn't make bronze, but he'd seen some, there were other tribes that had it. If they'd been less carnivorous they might be well into the bronze age, but they domesticated mostly animals, they didn't farm plants, and that meant they hadn't settled and built cities the way humanity had.

The world was fascinating, and Stripes proved to be a good conversationalist, once he could actually talk. So they walked and talked together until at last the dream began to dissolve around them and she could hear Selene's voice telling her that morning had arrived.

Chapter 4

He Who Stalks the Night woke with a feeling of contentment. It had been good to speak with Luna in the dream. He yawned and stretched, enjoying the softness of the bed under him and the nest of bedding he'd made on it. Today was beginning well. Hopefully it would continue as it had begun. Though before he went on with the day, he decided to perform an experiment. He'd been able to speak clearly in the dream. Had that been a property of the dream realm, or had something happened to make Luna's spell work properly?

"I can say exactly what I mean," he tried, but what came out was "Me say what think." He rolled his eyes at the butchered mess and renewed his resolve to mostly stay silent.

Still, that was a minor handicap and could be exploited. Being underestimated had its uses. He wasn't going to let that little problem ruin his day. So he completed his morning grooming routine in leisurely, hedonistic fashion, drawing out his enjoyment of a pleasant, relaxed morning. Though that meant he hadn't quite finished when the peculiar voice from nowhere, Selene, told him that breakfast would be ready shortly if he wanted to eat with the princess.

Deciding that he did, he gave himself one last grooming lick and leaped off the bed, and nearly hit his head on the ceiling.. The low gravity made even the smallest of jumps turn into mighty bounds. He was still getting used to that. He'd had more practice at walking, so proceeding from there was only slightly awkward. A kind of low, bouncing motion was the easiest way to get about, attempting to walk as normal simply didn't work. The mostly bipedal people he passed in the halls were bouncing similarly, which was likely the reason for the spaciousness everywhere, otherwise everyone would be bumping into the ceiling all the time.

Then again, that didn't explain the lavish decorating style or the richness of the carpets beneath his paws, so maybe the grandness of the spaces was simply because this was the place belonging to the one who ruled this world.

It was odd. He'd first lusted after her, not knowing she was real, then been ashamed and afraid of her, but he'd swiftly fallen into thinking of her as a friend. Their conversation last night had been a conversation among friends. In his thoughts it seemed like he ought to be keeping a respectful distance from a person of such power, but his feelings just didn't agree. They wanted to be close to her.

Certain other feelings wanted to be close in entirely different ways, but he ignored those. It would be wildly inappropriate. She had forgiven his behavior before because it had been a dream. He would no doubt be in a great deal of trouble if he tried such advances here in the waking world.

Stepping into the dining room and seeing Luna, however, put some of those thoughts back in his head. How could a spindly, furless biped be so attractive? Yet she was. Everything about her spoke of grace and strength, both inward and outward. It made him want to pounce on her and be absolutely indecent. He shook that thought out of his fool head and simply nodded a greeting in response to hers.

A series of covered platters were again brought out, and this time he found all the things he'd liked last time and none of the ones he had rejected. Feeling very pleased about that, he devoted himself to his food, as did Luna, and so the pair ate in a companionable silence for some time.

A cup of coffee had been served with the meal again, but this time it was smaller, and at least half of it was cream. He didn't mind that at all, the cream was the best part.

As he was licking the last of it from his whiskers, Selene's sourceless voice spoke. It was all he could do to not jump in the air, but he managed to only twitch slightly in surprise. He was glad he'd finished the coffee, else he probably would have spilled it.

"Miss Rarity is ready, I can send her in now if you're finished."

Luna glanced over at him and gave a little nod as she saw he was done. "Please do."

A moment later the door slid open and a young woman walked inside.

She was shorter than Luna by a fair bit, thought not abnormally so from what he'd seen of the humans thus far. She was slender, but with broad hips, and she had very pale skin. She was dressed in an outfit somewhat similar to Luna's, but where Luna's was simple to the point of severity, Rarity's dark, figure-hugging suit had more variation in texture, which despite its overall simplicity lent it a kind of richness. She also had bright purple hair that fell in long curls half way down her back. That seemed a little bit unusual. Other than Luna herself, most of the humans he'd seen had more muted tones, ranging from golden through brown to black. Bright colors seemed to be uncommon. He wondered if it meant anything. Perhaps he should ask? But asking a female about her appearance was always chancy business, they could be touchy about it. Would it be rude?

"Rarity, this is Stripes. Or no, wait... He Who Stalks the Night, yes?"

He gave Luna a smile. The nickname might be a cub's sort of name, but all the humans seemed to have short names, so he would not lose any status by using it. And he rather liked it. Luna had given it to him, and as he'd mentioned in the dream, it was the kind of name one used with those one was close to. He liked being close to her. "Stripes still good," he said, giving Rarity a smile.

"I see. Then Rarity, this is Stripes. Stripes, this is Rarity, who will be your personal assistant for at least the next week or two. She can answer any questions you have about this world, humans, or anything else that comes to mind. She will also be guiding you in the duties and privileges of being an ambassador." Luna smiled. "The duties are fairly light, don't worry."

Stripes nodded his understanding.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Rarity smiled. She held out one hand. "Let me introduce you to one basic human custom. Upon greeting each other we shake hands, by putting our hands together. If you are comfortable with trying it, you can give me your front paw?"

Stripes nodded again and held out one paw. Rarity grasped it with her hand, which couldn't really wrap around it properly, his paw was much, much larger than her hand, but she squeezed gently as best she could and shook it up and down once. "That's called a hand shake, and is a greeting of respect for most humans. Though if a human attempts to squeeze to the point of pain, they are trying to assert dominance."

Stripes nodded again. His digits were a little too short to grasp back properly, but the gesture was simple and sensible enough.

"It's said it originated as a way to show that one isn't holding a weapon, though I'm not sure I believe it." Rarity flashed him an almost conspiratorial smile. "There have been incidents of humans using the hand shake to pull somebody in and stab them with a knife in the other hand. I will not pretend that our species is harmless. We're not especially awful, as sentients go, but we have our bad apples."

Stripes blinked at the idiom, the translation was a little vague, but he didn't have to be convinced that humans could be dangerous, he knew that already. So he just nodded again.

"Figuring out who can be trusted and who cannot is part of what I'm here to help you with. But first, I would like to give you a little tour of the capitol building, which this lovely palace sits atop, and tell you a bit about interstellar diplomacy, since you are now a diplomat."

"And I have things to attend to," said Luna, rising. "Hopefully Rarity can answer any questions you may have, and also prevent you from... startling any more of the palace workers." She gave Stripes a little smile, and he felt his ears heat. He hadn't meant to frighten anyone yesterday, really he hadn't. He'd just gotten caught up in his interest, and the possibly excessive energy from the large cup of coffee he'd had that morning hadn't helped. He felt much less wired up this morning, though. The small cup was obviously a more reasonable portion for him. "I'll see you at dinner this evening. It's a semi-formal affair, there will be a few other diplomats there, but I won't be asking you to give any speeches just yet." Her tone was teasing, and Stripes felt his blush cool.

He flashed her a smile. "That good. Speeches not so good now."

She laughed. "I'll look forward to the day when you're ready to give one. And speaking of that day, the sooner I go, the sooner I can work on the translation spell some more." She gave him another friendly nod and smile, and departed, leaving him alone with Rarity.

"Shall we begin your tour?" said Rarity, gesturing towards the door.

Stripes once again nodded silently, and then followed her out into the by-now familiar halls of the palace. She led the way, with Stripes trailing behind. Her gait swished pleasantly back and forth as she walked, and he found his eyes following her from behind. It was interesting, though not quite as compelling as he'd found the similar view of Luna. He decided that he was not going to examine why that might be the case. Nor was he going to think too much about how easy it was to find these weird bipeds attractive.

Rarity's swishing gait stopped at an elevator, and Stripes was happy for the distraction. This one was larger than the one he'd ridden in before, though it had the same windows affording a view of the domed city and the distant lunar surface beyond. This elevator wend down, dropping with alarming swiftness, so the grand vista was soon swallowed up by towering buildings. It stopped finally not far above ground level.

The doors opened and Stripes followed Rarity out into another hall. This was broader, and much less opulent. Carpeted floors were replaced by smooth tiles, and carved tables decorated with elaborate art were replace by blank walls, uniformly colored. The broader hall was not without things to draw the eye, though, for it was thronged with beings of all sorts.

The majority were human, but only just. All kinds of other species mingled among them, and Stripes found it difficult to keep his eyes on Rarity as she began threading her way through the crowd.

Interestingly there were almost no other quadrupeds. Bipedalism seemed common, though a few creatures slithered, crawled, or in one case flew past. He even spotted one tripedal being, whose gait was truly bizarre. Eventually the hallway let out into a huge glass-walled atrium. He could see the bustle of the city with its many mechanical vehicles and other technological wonders beyond. In the other direction a pair of truly massive double doors led in to some unknown destination. They were shut tightly, but Rarity headed to a smaller door set in the same wall. A guard, armored much like the ones he'd seen about the palace but in slightly different colors, stood beside it.

Rarity presented the guard with a little square object, which the guard regarded for a moment. Then he nodded and opened the small door. Rarity beckoned to Stripes and stepped through.

He followed, into what at first seemed to be a kind of dim cave.

"Welcome to the Grand Lunar Conclave," said Rarity. There was a hint of amusement in her voice. Stripes looked around, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. There were no echoes here, the walls were covered in something soft, almost like carpeting, and perhaps more exotic means had been used as well, for his swiftly realized that the vast space before him must take up the entire width of the tower.

"What is?" he asked, looking out across the room. He and Rarity were standing on the uppermost of a series of rings that fell away to a distant floor. The place was empty, obviously not in use, but it looked like it could hold thousands.

"It's where the Lunar Senate meets, on those lowest two rings. Luna herself presides on some occasions, or the senate chair does when she isn't present. They sit at the bottom, there." Stripes looked at the lowest level, where there were two chairs. One was simple and ordinary, the other was still simple, but made of darker wood, and was taller with a crescent moon on the top. A thing he didn't have a name for stood in front of the ordinary chair. It was a sort of pole with a flat, angled plane atop it. The surface reminded him of the control panels in his suite, so it no doubt was some similar interface of some kind.

There were more of these objects on the two rings above, each one positioned in front of a chair or pair of chairs. The next two rings above that had groups of seats, some of which were nothing like chairs. Some of the groupings were large, especially on the lower of those two rings, while others had a single seat in front of a single interface object. The ring where they currently stood was above these, and was circled by a railing from which one could presumably watch all the proceedings below.

"Come on, your seat is around this side." She set off around the upper ring, and Stripes trailed behind her again, though his mind was puzzling over exactly what went on here that he should have a seat. The word "senate" had seemed to mean a governing council, and a stranger such as himself should have no part in governing this world, surely. Yet obviously strangers did participate here, given the seating arrangements set up for creatures other than human.

Rarity kept talking as they walked. "You don't actually have to do much, mind. You don't even have to attend if you don't want to, a lot of the upper ring ambassadors don't. And most of those in the lower ring have dedicated representatives, the ambassadors don't attend directly at all. But of course there's only one of you, so you can't exactly delegate somebody else."

She glanced back at him, and flashed a blinding smile at his confused expression. "I suppose I should explain in more detail. The Lunar Senate governs here. Luna can theoretically overrule their decisions but almost never does. The Grand Lunar Conclave refers to this place, but also to the larger group that includes both the senators and the foreign delegates who have seats in the upper two rings. The lower of those is traditionally held by nations who have large influence here, because of trade deals or large immigrant populations, things of that nature." She waved a hand in the general direction of the ring in question. "Any world or species who has sent us any sort of ambassador gets a place, though, and a voice. Not a vote, you don't get to decide anything, but there are points in the proceedings when you'll be given a chance to speak, if you happen to have anything to say. And even when the foreign delegates aren't speaking to the Senate, they do quite a lot of their speaking with each other here. The podiums are set up for private communication as well as public address."

Ah, podium! That was the word for the interface objects. Stripes nodded, since Rarity was looking back at him again. She smiled and continued. "There is all sorts of intrigue, wheeling and dealing, and carrying on here. It can be very exciting! Like the galaxy's largest soap opera. Humanity punches above our weight class a bit on the galactic stage, despite our actual home world being a complete backwater. So the moon has power. People come here to try and get a slice of that pie, one way or another. And we're handily positioned in a few ways, the moon is a bit of a trade hub. Being our ally is seen as a very good thing by many species."

She reached a set of stairs and descended to the next ring down, the one with several dozen little groupings of a few seats around a podium. A few strides further she stopped at one, which had a lounging couch about right for him, and a human-style chair beside it. "Here we are. There's no name as yet, since we don't know your writing system or what your species is called. If you want to write it out yourself you can, of course. As your assistant I'll be here to help you use the podium and follow the proper protocols for anything else you want to do."

Stripes nodded again. He put a paw on the podium, but unlike the control panel in his room, it remained dark when he touched it.

"Everything is turned off right now, since the Conclave isn't in session."

"Ah."

"Do you have any questions?"

Stripes had about a thousand, but half of them were probably too complicated for the poor translation and he didn't even know where to begin with most of the others. He looked around the dim, cavernous space again, and his eyes fell on the grander chair that Luna would sit in.

"Luna. You say she no rule?"

"They say she did in the early days of the colony, a thousand years ago, but now? No. Not often. She is very, ah, distant, I suppose you could say."

"You talk her?"

"Do I talk to her? Almost never. I work for her, but I almost always get my orders from Selene, not from Luna directly."

"Who talk her?"

Rarity blinked. "Well... no one, really."

Stripes tilted his head to the side. "She lonely, then?"

"I don't know." Rarity gave a little shrug. "She's not like us mere mortals. And I would think she could have all the company she wanted, if she actually wanted it. But perhaps she is."

Dinner that night was a formal affair. In fact it began with a formal reception, which initially confused him somewhat. He had expected a larger version of the meals he'd eaten with Luna, with guests seated at a table and served food where they sat. Instead Rarity ushered him into a large room with no seating at all, where the guests—mostly humans but with a fair scattering of other species—walked about and gathered in small groups to speak. Servants carried trays laden with bite-sized bits of food that seemed hardly worth bothering with. It was all quite strange and unexpected.

"This dinner?" he looked up at Rarity, tilting his head in confusion.

She laughed. "Oh no. This is the pre-dinner reception. The hors d’oeuvres are meant simply to tide one over until the meal proper. I suppose it would be dreadful if all these politicians and diplomats were cranky with hunger. Someone might start a war!" She winked at Stripes, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"I'm going to go get a glass of wine," said Rarity. "I'll be back in just a shake."

Stripes, left wondering exactly what she was going to shake—the translation spell didn't seem to be working quite perfectly on that one—looked around the room once again. As he sat considering how best to get some of the tidbits of food from trays carried above his head height, a human male approached. He had dark hair, streaked with gray, and was just a little bit broader across the stomach than the shoulders. He was dressed in dark, rather boring clothing.

"Good evening. You must be our newest ambassador. Stripes, isn't it?"

Stripes simply nodded.

"Senator John Johnson," the man replied with a nod of his own. "Are you familiar with the human custom of shaking hands?" The man held out one hand. Stripes sat back on his haunches and held out a paw in response. Senator Johnson tried to wrap his smaller hand around it and squeeze hard, which made Stripes smile just a little, for it didn't work terribly well. He remembered what Rarity had said about asserting dominance, and about stabbing in the back. He couldn't quite squeeze back, given the differing shape of his paw, but he returned what pressure he could with his claws out just a bit, letting the human feel them.

Senator Johnson pulled his hand back rather swiftly. "Ah yes, very good to meet you. How are you finding your visit to our little moon?"

"Good," he said simply.

The senator blinked, having obviously not expected such a terse reply. "That's, ah, good. Are you here on business? I have quite a number of trade interests myself. I'm always happy to talk shop about interstellar commerce." He flashed Stripes a smile that was probably meant to be friendly.

Stripes considered his response, but couldn't really come up with one. He ended up simply giving a small shrug and saying, "No business."

"I see. Just politics then, hmm?"

"No politics."

The senator blinked yet again. "But surely as an ambassador there's some... I mean you must have a reason to be here. You can't be appointed ambassador if you're just on vacation."

Stripes couldn't help but chuckle at his confusion. "No? Why no?"

"I... But Luna herself..."

"Stripes, darling," Rarity swanned up out of the crowed, a delicate glass full of blood red liquid in her hand. "I see the senator has introduced himself. It is as much of a pleasure as always, Senator Johnson."

"Rarity." The Senator gave her a little nod, but didn't hold out his hand. "Forgive me, I see Senator Sidana over there, and I must catch up with him on several important matters." He gave her a second nod, then turned and left, striding rapidly away.

"You no like," said Stripes.

Rarity snickered. "That is a massive understatement. The man is a pompous ass, among other sins."

"All senators like him?"

"Hah. Alas, far too many are. But many are decent people." She took a long drink from her glass. "Did you want some wine?"

"What is?"

"Alcohol. It's a mildly mind-altering substance. I don't know if you have it where you're from." She held the glass down at eye level. He sniffed it and recoiled.

"That spoiled."

"Well, yes it is fermented. Which is to say that it's technically made from rotten fruit. Not your thing, eh?"

"Coffee is good. Not this."

"Fair enough. Do you want a cup of coffee? I'm sure the kitchen could provide."

Stripes shook his head. Bipeds could wander around holding things. Having a drink in paw would pin him in place. "Food, maybe. Have eating rules?"

"Ah... no, not as such. It's generally considered polite to eat as neatly as possible, but for appetizers one is expected to use one's fingers. Just go up to a waiter and help yourself."

"Good."

The first waiter he approached nearly dropped his tray when Stripes reared up on his hind legs to better reach the little bits of food on it, but he successfully snagged a bite of something that smelled interesting, and the waiters got used to him fairly quickly.

The politicians, on the other paw, seemed to have more trouble. He was approached by quite a few, mostly human but also some not, who all wanted to know who he was, why he was there, and—apparently most of all—how he'd captured Princess Luna's particular attention.

They seemed entirely baffled by his answers, and his keen ears picked up more than one muttering about how he was obviously some kind of novelty pet as they walked away. He found himself more and more amused as the reception continued, and Rarity's giggles and sly asides about the various politicians only egged him on. By the time dinner proper arrived, he was feeling positively conspiratorial.

He was seated at a large table that ran the length of a massive dining room. Rarity was on one side of him, and a humanoid alien with charcoal-black skin sat on the other side. The first course was served almost immediately, a bowl of soup with a slice of bread on the side. He watched the humans pick up their spoons and considered. His opposable thumb was short and stubby compared to their long digits, and the handle of the spoon set at his place was quite small, but he could probably grasp it and imitate them if he wanted to.

He caught Senator Johnson giving him a sidelong look, as if curious what he would do, and decided to have a little fun. He stuck his muzzle over the bowl, sniffing, and after deciding that it smelled edible enough he simply started lapping it up. Nobody else, human or otherwise, was doing so, they were all using spoons, and he caught several more of his fellow guests giving him curious looks, with even a few outright stares.

A glance to the head of the table where Luna sat caught the corner of her mouth twitching up, as if she were trying not to smile. He met her gaze for just an instant and gave her a wink. He didn't know if the gesture would be the same among humans, but the sudden increased twitching of her mouth suggested that she got his meaning.

Rarity, beside him, was also having to hold back a smile. "Stripes," she leaned in and muttered, "what are you doing?"

"People think I pet. Why not be pet?"

"Oh heavens. You are going to break some of their tiny little minds, darling."

He shot her a grin and then dipped his head to lap up some more soup, even more messily than before. "Is fun," he said, and licked soup from his muzzle.

It was all Princess Luna could do to keep a straight face as she watched Stripes' antics. The confused muttering from others around the table only made it better. She'd never seen so many of her politicians so discomfited. And it was the worst and most stuffy of them that seemed the most bothered, with only added to her amusement.

"Your highness?" The human seated beside Luna was Senator Thorson, the current Lunar Chair and thus head of the senate. He was a decent enough sort, though he wouldn't have been Luna's personal first pick for the position. He was a little old-fashioned and just a touch sexist, though he'd never breathed a word wrong in her presence. He was currently regarding Stripes with a faint frown. "The newest ambassador seems somewhat... unconventional," he said. "Do you know him well?"

Luna couldn't resist replying, "Our acquaintance has been short but quite close. Why, one might even call it intimate. I hold him in the highest regard."

Senator Thorson had a decent poker face, so his eyebrows only rose a little bit in response. "I see."

Just then the staff were clearing away the soup course, and Stripes chose to take that momentary pause and recline on his chair, lifting one foot into the air and grooming part of his tail. Senator Thorson blinked incredulously at the sight, his practiced politician's mask finally slipping. So did at least half the other guests, and even the ones who hadn't been startled into open staring were stealing covert glances.

Somehow, against all odds, Luna managed to not snort out her drink.

When the dinner was over, Luna retired to her room. As she undressed, Selene's voice broke in. "You and Mr. Stripes appear to have caused substantial chaos tonight."

"Oh?"

"Oh yes. The commnet is humming with scandalized messages and rumor-mongering. Did you know that you are apparently into bestiality, and have declared an animal an ambassador in order to have an excuse to keep your forbidden paramour in the palace? That was the best one I've caught so far, I think. And entirely your own fault, it does seem to have originated from your comment to the Chair about having an 'intimate' relationship, though he never put it in such terms, but his retelling of the remark does seem to have mutated into that accusation almost immediately."

Luna broke into peals of laughter. "That... is the best thing... And so close to the truth! Yet so far away. Ah ha ha! I have not had this much fun in centuries!"

"You don't think these little pranks are risky, your highness?"

"My authority is fairly secure. Perhaps it's about time something shook things up here a bit. You're not catching any hits of cabals or treason, or any outright plotting to use this against me, are you?"

"No, nothing like that. Just quite a lot of fairly scandalized politicians and very eager rumor-mongers. Do expect the worst of the tabloids to have your penchant for animal sex on the front page tomorrow."

"They've printed worse! Remember that incident with the pseudop dust and the Eltharian?"

"I do indeed have that matter in my memory banks."

"If that didn't result in revolution and overthrow, this certainly won't. Hell, so long as they don't turn regicide there are days when I'd welcome a restructuring to take me out of the government entirely. I haven't done that much of late, you know. But perhaps I'll attend the next Grand Conclave, just to see what further rumors fly."

"No doubt there will be some if you do."

Luna just chuckled again and flopped down on her bed. "Time to tend to the dream realm. Don't disturb me until morning."

"Yes, your highness." Selene's voice vanished, though Luna knew the AI was always at least somewhat present everywhere in the vast building.

Luna closed her eyes, gathered her magic, and sank into the dream realm. It was peaceful there as it had been these last few nights and she smiled. Perhaps she could find Stripes again, and speak with him further. That pleasant thought distracted her just enough that she failed to gather her power and dodge in time when a sudden blackness—shot through with sickly purple and bearing a pair of glowing teal eyes—swept up from deep within the dream and wrapped dark tentacles around her.

"Nightmare," snarled Luna.

"Hello Princess," came a voice from the darkness, arrogantly smug at having captured her unawares. "It has been so long, I worry you will have forgotten me."

Luna struggled, but fighting the Nightmare was difficult enough at a distance. With it here, entwined around her, it was able to wiggle back into all the crevices in her mind that had once welcomed its presence.

"No," said Luna all the same, still fighting. "I reject you. I want nothing to do with your evil. You ruined everything."

"Now that is a bold lie, little princess. I didn't make you do anything. I only showed you your potential. And here you have the vision we dreamed together, your beautiful Lunar Empire. All because of me. So why don't I remind you why you invited me in, hmm? Let's take a little trip down memory lane."

"No!" cried Luna again, but the Nightmare pulled her inexorably into the dreaming memory, and as her present faded away and the past took over, her struggles stilled.

A young woman wearing a crude, bulky space-suit stands on the moon's empty, barren surface, staring up at the blue-swirled planet above. Behind her the angular form of a lunar lander looms, and two more suited humans flank her, all three taking in the spectacular view. Their eyes are caught by a spark of light passing steadily overhead—the ship that has brought them here, on its orbit around the moon.

Suddenly silent fire blossoms out in a plume from the ship. At the same instant the voice over the radio cuts off. All three lunar explorers are filled with shock, dismay, and sudden grief.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the modern Luna raged against being forced to re-experience this moment, these feelings.

The other two astronauts erupt into a babble of sound, but Luna remains silent, her mind filled with sudden hate. Explosions in space do not happen accidentally, with no warning. This is sabotage, and she knows of exactly one person with both the ability and desire to destroy her fledgling space program. Blocked on the political stage, it seems that Luna's sister has done the unthinkable and taken matters into her own hands.

"Celestia," hisses Luna softly, staring up at the fading glow of the explosion, still moving on the same track the ship had taken. Her treacherous sister has killed them all, Luna included, for with the ship gone there is no way home. They are doomed.

There is a way to save your lives, whispers a strange voice in her mind. Luna, already a mistress of dreaming and an initiate in the psychic arts recognizes it as a telepathic sending, something from outside herself. Who are you? What do you mean? Her questions echo inside her own mind, but the other answers.

I am Nightmare Moon. And you are not alone in the universe, little human. There are those watching who may save you, if you but know how to ask. Welcome me into your mind and I will show you how.

"See? Remember? I told you how to send the message that saved you."

"You did nothing. I've seen the Silirian logs. They were already watching. They were considering rescue well before our message reached them."

"Considering only. They might well have done nothing if you hadn't revealed you knew about alien life already. I saved you."

"You ruined everything."

"Did I? I did not cause your animosity towards your sister. She caused that, when she betrayed you. Your hate for her was what woke me, what drew my mind to your little spark of doomed life. I didn't cause your feud."

Luna snarled wordless defiance. The Nightmare hadn't caused it, but her poisoned words whispered in Luna's ear had made things a thousand times worse. She didn't want to remember the arguments, the accusations, the bitter fights that had spiraled far further out of control than any fights they'd had before. Yet the Nightmare inexorably dragged her through the memories, through every terrible thing Celestia had done or said, and every hateful response Luna had given in turn.

And as the dream-memories played out yet again in Luna's mind, her body twisted and turned in her bed. Whimpers of distress escaped involuntarily into the still night air, the sound carrying through open balcony doors to the garden below, where a guard standing watch sighed in sympathy, but remained at her post.

Chapter 5

Stripes should have been tired after a long day, but instead he found himself restless. He paced around his room, his tail lashing, and finally went out onto the balcony, staring out at the unchanging black above. No cloud-strewn sky here, ever. Even when the sun was in the sky it was framed against a backdrop of stark black.

Still, the strangeness wasn't all bad. In fact it was mostly quite fascinating. He's been in something of a rut back home. It was good to step out of it, to see and do and learn new things, even if he was occasionally rather homesick. And Luna... She was another fascinating thing, perhaps moreso than the little miracles of electricity and living tools.

A sound from the balcony beside his made him twitch an ear in that direction. It had sounded like a whimper. But wasn't that Luna's room? Who would be in the powerful ruler's room, whimpering?

Another, slightly louder whimper made both ears swivel. He could swear it was Luna's voice. But why would she be distressed? He went to the edge of the balcony, and he could see that the princess's balcony doors stood open. More whimpers sounded, and suddenly they seemed to have a familiar timbre. Just as his training mates had sounded, when he'd learned the art of walking amid dreams, when they chanced on a nightmare that had ensnared them.

Without really having decided to act, Stripes found himself eying the distance between the two balconies. It would be a long jump, but he was certain he could make it. The three story drop made things a slight risk, but discarded that thought immediately on hearing yet another sound of emotional distress from the next room. Instead he gathered himself, bunching his legs and giving an involuntary little tail-wiggle, before leaping as hard as he could for the opposite balcony.

He'd forgotten the lower gravity of this world, and even as his legs scrambled uselessly to catch some purpose he sailed completely over the princess's balcony and into thin air on the other side.

Fortunately the low gravity also meant that his landing wasn't that bad, and he'd been able to twist and get his feet under him. He crouched in the garden courtyard below and met the eyes of a startled guardswoman who he'd nearly landed on top of.

"Sorry," he said, then gathered himself, keeping the lesser gravity in mind this time, but knowing he'd need all of that assistance to make it three stories up, if he could at all. He leaped as hard as he could, and rose just above the lip of Luna's balcony in a strangely stately arc. He scrambled just a bit to get all four paws over the railing and down to the balcony proper, but there was no one to see his awkward landing. He gave one paw a lick, dismissing both the bad landing and his earlier complete failure, and padded towards the open balcony doors.

Inside, his sensitive eyes could instantly make out the form of a bed much like his own, and a blanket-tangled shape sprawled restlessly on it. Luna, a spot just above and between her closed eyes glowing with a wisp of magical power that showed she was doing more than merely sleeping, tossed and turned on the bed, whimpering as she did.

He put both paws up on the side of the bed, then halted, hesitating. Instinct to render aid had driven him here, but would that aid be welcome? Would he be interrupting some great dream work or vital dream battle if he tried to wake her?

Another sound of terrible pain and despair decided him. Whatever the risks, he couldn't simply sit back and hear her suffer like that. She was his rescuer, and he owed everything to her. He had to try to help if he could.

Tentatively he reached out a paw and touched her shoulder. She didn't respond, she only let out another whimper and rolled over in the already tangled bedsheets. He shook her shoulder, trying to be gentle. "Luna. Luna, wake."

She whimpered again, but her eyelids flickered.

"Luna. You dream. Wake."

He shook her shoulder a bit more firmly, then yanked his paw back as she suddenly sat bolt upright with a sharp, indrawn gasp of shock. Her eyes stared at him blankly, uncomprehending, then slowly focused. "Stripes?" She blinked at him. "How did you get in here? The door was locked."

She was still shivering faintly, and her breath was coming a little too fast, so he ignored the question and instead returned his paw to her shoulder, patting her in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. She gave a little shake, as if to shake off the last of the nightmare, and put her hand over his paw. "You wanted to help me, didn't you? Did Selene let you in?"

"I would never. You ordered me to lock the door, your highness," came the AI's voice, and there was a little sniff of offended pride in her tone. Stripes almost chuckled at it. "You never closed your balcony doors though."

Luna shook her head and smiled, the last of her distress seeming to fall from her. "I see. Well, I won't complain." She lifted her hand and stroked Stripe's head, petting him gently. "I am not usually so...troubled by nightmares, but I admit this one got the best of me, at least temporarily. So thank you."

Stripes let out a deep, rumbling purr, enjoying both her thanks and her touch. Emboldened by the closeness of the gesture, something she'd done in the dream realm but not in person until now, he said, "Want me stay?"

"I..." Luna hesitated.

"Not have to. But will be chasing away nightmares again if need. No more."

Luna chuckled at that and lay back down on the bed, shifting to one side and patting the spot beside her. "If you promise to behave, I'd like that."

"Promise, yes." He settled himself beside her, tucking his paws under him and getting comfortable within touching distance, but not touching her directly.

She smiled again and let out a soft sigh. "Thank you," she murmured, and then her eyes slid closed, and just like that she was asleep. She must have been truly exhausted, to slip back into slumber so easily. He was tired, but not enough so to instantly close his eyes and be in the dream realm. So he sat for a time and watched her. The lights were still off, but his eyes were more than sensitive enough to see her clearly in the dim light that filtered in through the still-open balcony doors.

She looked strangely fragile, lying there beside him. He'd been thinking of her in terms of her power, both political and magical, and it didn't hurt that she was so much taller than he, but she was also perhaps a quarter his weight, and in this moment her slender form seemed something incredibly delicate, something he wanted to protect any way he could.

Stripes woke up feeling warm and comfortable. Very warm. And perhaps a little too comfortable, for he almost instantly realized that he was still in Princess Luna's bed, and that the proper owner of said bed was pressed against his chest, clinging to him like some kind of oversized cub's toy.

He held very, very still and tried to figure out what to do. Luna shifted against him, stirring, and he tried to avoid panic. Would she be upset to find them so close? Should he move back quickly? But if she woke to him shoving himself away from her, would she be insulted? Surely since she had said he could stay, she wouldn't be angry, yet some irrational part of him was certain she would be.

She blinked her eyes open and regarded him fuzzily, her arms still wrapped around him. Then her cheeks blushed brightly pink. "Ah, forgive me." She swiftly disentangled herself, and Stripes felt a bit of relief that she merely found the situation as awkward as he did.

"No need forgive," he said. He rolled away from her and off the bed, landing smoothly on all four paws. Then he stretched luxuriously. As awkward as the awakening had been, the night itself had been very pleasant. He'd slept soundly, once sleep had finally claimed him, and Luna seemed to have done the same, for she looked fresh-faced, with no signs of tiredness.

She climbed from the bed, then glanced over at him. "I need to dress for the day."

He tilted his head at her, puzzled, then remembered that humans had a nudity taboo and nodded understanding. "I go then." He looked at the door, then smiled and went back out to the balcony. There were enough odd rumors about himself and the princess without him emerging from her quarters in semi-public first thing in the morning.

The jump back to his room was simple, he made it on the first try this time. Inside his own quarters, the bedroom was just as he'd left it, but there was a strip of light showing underneath the door to the other room. He frowned faintly. He was fairly certain he'd left the lights off.

Feeling curious, he opened the door, and found Rarity sitting primly on a couch; a flat, rectangular object resting beside her.

"Good morning, Ambassador Stripes." She looked past him to the bedroom beyond, and smiled rather slyly. "Sleep well?"

He blinked at her, then grinned. "Yes, much well."

"Wonderful. Now today you have no particular agenda, though I did want to get your signature on a few official documents. And there is another formal dinner this evening, should you choose to attend. But that is optional, and the rest of the day is open for you to explore the city, or spend time in the gardens, or whatever else might capture your fancy."

Stripes' ears perked up. "Gardens?"

"Yes. You've seen the main garden, of course, and there are additional gardens around the base of the tower, as well as several other public gardens throughout the city. I can arrange for you to visit any of them, if you like."

He considered that. "No need go far, have not seen gardens here yet, much. Look here now, go there later, maybe."

"Would you like my company? I suggest you have some form of escort if you leave the tower, but you're perfectly free to explore on your own within it." She gave him a little wink and added, "So long as you refrain from terrorizing technicians again, at least."

That made Stripes flatten his ears just a little. "Am much sorry. Was excited! And had coffee. But no, will not do again. Think will go alone, here."

"You can ask Selene to get me for you if you need my assistance, then. I'm here to help you with whatever you may require. But before I go, let's get that signature."

She showed him how to use his paws to make marks on the front of the rectangular thing she'd carried, which she called a "pad" and which apparently recorded various sorts of information. He put down the characters of his name, which he understood to mean that he was accepting the responsibility of representing his species here in a formal way. Since he was the only member of his species here, he couldn't help but represent them informally, so making it official didn't seem like a bad idea.

Then Rarity left, leaving him to make his way to the gardens on his own. That wasn't hard to do, since they took up the vast majority of the "floor" level of the castle that sat atop Luna's tower. Soon he was strolling along a path amid trees and shrubs that—though alien and strange in many ways—were not entirely unlike the trees of his home. He noticed, as he sat down on the grass, that though the sky above was still black and the sun shouldn't be up, there was a golden, sunlit glow over the garden. It didn't seem to have any single source, it was like the sun on an overcast day, but warmer. It must be some of the humans' wonderful technology again, no doubt to aid the plants in growing properly.

He thought back on the previous times he'd passed through or looked over the garden, and all had been at "night", when the lights would no doubt be left off, which was why he hadn't noticed it before. There must be some way of shading the garden when the sun was up during what should be night time too. He puzzled through how this might work for some time, relaxing with the little mental exercise while enjoying the cool grass beneath him and the calls of small creatures from all around him.

"Oh my! I didn't think we were getting any tigers! Aren't you handsome! Such an unusual coloration!" The voice was soft, yet bubbling with excitement. Stripes looked up to see a human standing on the path a few yards away, her hands clasped together in delight. She was tall and slender, and as best he could judge fairly young. Her hair was long and blonde, and her eyes were a deep, intense blue-green. "You must be very tame, too, if they've just put you out with the free-roaming animals and not in the menagerie. That's just wonderful. May I come say hello?" She approached, holding out a hand.

Stripes felt his lips twitch in a smile. "Hello," he said.

She let out an adorable squeak of surprise. "You talk!" Then her face suddenly fell and her cheeks turned bright red. "Oh! You're not a tiger at all, are you? You're a person! I'm so very sorry."

"Is well," said Stripes with a deep chuckle.

"I, uhm," the girl ducked her head, letting her long hair fall in front of her face. She shuffled her feet a bit.

"I called Stripes. You?"

"I'm Fluttershy," she said, so softly only his keen hearing made it possible to pick it up. There was a long, awkward pause while Stripes tried to think of some response. Fluttershy shuffled her feet again and glanced away, no doubt planning her escape.

On a sudden, whimsical impulse, Stripes let out a ridiculous mewling sound, the sort of noise a cub or a pet might make. A startled giggle emerged from behind the curtain of blonde hair. Fluttershy put a hand over her mouth as if dismayed by her own laughter, still hiding, but also sneaking a peek at him.

Stripes rose to his paws and approached her slowly, repeating the sound. He had played the pet to discomfit the powerful, why not do so again to ease the fearful? Fluttershy giggled again, and he tilted his head and gave her a broad wink. She laughed outright at that, finally lifting her head and looking out from behind her hair. Stripes butted his head against her hip, again the way a cub might, and she reached down and petted him. He leaned carefully into the petting and started a deep, rumbling purr, a warm smile on his face.

Fluttershy smiled too, and both stood close together for some time without any words, and without any need for them.

On the balcony high above, Princess Luna looked down at the pair, and found herself smiling too. Yet there was something wistful in her smile. She was up here, alone, and they were down there together, and though only a few dozen yards separated them, suddenly those two places seemed worlds apart.

Stripes decided to attend that night's formal dinner once more. He'd spent most of the day with Fluttershy. It had been an absolute delight to roam the garden with her. They'd mostly wandered in silence, enjoying a wordless understanding, but she'd broken into long stretches of conversation when he asked questions about the alien plants and animals there. She knew a great deal about them, and regarded the animals in particular as practically her property—or perhaps more like her friends—though they properly belonged to Princess Luna.

He'd helped her with her daily routine caring for the various free-roaming animals, and had visited the menagerie where less tame creatures lived in spacious enclosures. Fluttershy knew each of them by name and went fearlessly into the pens of even the largest and fiercest to check them for injuries and give them food and medications.

It had been fascinating, and also quite relaxing. Fluttershy's company was soothing, and she required nothing from him, not even speech. He found himself glad that she worked there, where he could see her every day. She said much the same, a little shyly, when he retired from the garden before dinner.

Now he was once again seating himself at the long table filled with people from all over the galaxy, and laying plans for causing more of the same mischief that had kept him entertained the previous night. Eating straight from the dishes was an obvious start, but that was simple practicality as much as anything else, holding a fork was far too much effort with his short thumbs.

The portions weren't especially large compared to his usual meals, so he finished his food rapidly and was left with nothing but time on his paws. Noticing that Luna's plate was still mostly full, he had a sudden impulse. He slipped out of his seat and crept along behind the backs of the mostly bipedal dignitaries. A few people noticed him passing, but he was below the eye level of most. A moment later he tickled the back of Luna's elbow with his whiskers. She started, nearly dropping her fork, and looked down at him.

"Stripes? Is something wrong?"

"You eat all that?" He nodded at her plate.

She blinked at him, then let out a snort of helpless laughter. "You're here to beg for scraps?"

He winked at her and nodded.

Luna shot a glance down the table at her guests. None were so crass as to be staring at her and Stripes outright, but she spotted a fair number of sidelong glances. She was torn between annoyance and amusement, the coin of her mood balancing on edge for a moment, but as she looked down at Stripes' expression it fell firmly on the side of amusement. She laughed and held a bit of meat out under the table.

"There, you ridiculous creature."

Stripes grinned up at her and picked the piece daintily from her fingers. She smiled back down at him, shaking her head.

Luna knew that being annoyed was probably the more rational reaction to the feline's antics, but she couldn't help but be cheered by them. It was good to have somebody around who could make her smile.

Later, when she was once more lying in her solitary bed, Luna slipped once more into her own personal realm. Her every sense was alert for the Nightmare, she would not be taken by surprise again. But of course, since she was being watchful, the damnable creature was nowhere to be seen. So she set about her task, surveying the dreamscape for nightmares.

Some time later she'd found only a handful. It looked to be a slow night. As she drifted amongst the dreams, she didn't consciously realize she was seeking out one particular dreamer, until she halted before a dream bubble, sensing that Stripes was dreaming within. She could tell by instinct that it was not a nightmare, far from it. For a moment she was tempted, but such...private dreams weren't appropriate for her to view. Tempting as it might be given what the dream probably contained.

Still, as she moved away to soothe other dreams, she kept finding herself glancing back, trying to deny to herself that she was curious about exactly what sort of fantasies occupied his nights. Such thoughts led to other thoughts, and Luna shortly decided that it was time to wake herself and do something about a growing itch that needed scratching.

Out of the dream realm and lying in her own bed, Luna closed her eyes and her mind slipped back to memories of what Stripes had done to her in those first dreams.

Some time later Luna relaxed, her blood cooling, her breath evening out. She heaved a deep sigh. It really wasn't decent of her to do what she'd just done. Stripes had only behaved so in the dream because he'd been away from his own kind, and hadn't known she wasn't a dream construct. He'd had to turn her into one of his own species to even want to touch her, so he couldn't possibly be interested in her actual self in that way. Still, she had to admit that she'd just had one of the best orgasms in recent memory, and her cheeks flushed in both pleasure and shame at the recognition of how much fantasizing about the odd feline had been responsible for that.

Luna sighed again, and glanced at the wall display. It was still relatively early. She should get back to the dream realm and finish her patrol for nightmares. She straightened her clothing, and the bedding, wiping her fingers off on the sheets, and then closed her eyes. Time to dream again.

Her power gathered around her and she slipped warily into the dream realm. There was a flicker of black tentacles at the edge of her vision. The Nightmare had been hovering about. Had she been watching what Luna was doing? Their minds were inextricably tied together, so perhaps she had been. Feeling both embarrassed and angry, Luna sent a spark of power at those black tendrils, and they recoiled. There was a faint hiss, and the Nightmare retreated. Whatever the monster had been doing, she didn't apparently consider it worth a fight.

Feeling better, Luna set out across the dream realm, in search of dreams to aid. Yet she instantly found a familiar dream floating before her, still pulsing with a hint of unmistakable lust. Luna scowled. The subconscious had great power here, so it wasn't surprising that Stripes' dream should turn up again, but she really should just ignore it and move on.

She should.

She really should.

Trying to find some way to rationalize it, Luna turned and approached the dream again. She could think of a few questions to ask Stripes about his homeworld, and surely he would sense her presence and the dream would shift away from whatever tigress he was dreaming of. Holding to that thought, she entered the dream, knowing what she would likely see, but pretending that she did not know. It was a thin lie, but she clung to it all the same.

Much, much later departed the dream entirely, but her head was spinning as she did. Not so long ago she'd been thinking that surely Stripes didn't want her, given how very unlike they were physically. She'd just seen direct proof that this wasn't the case, for it hadn't been one of his own people he'd been dallying with, it had been a dream construct of Luna herself. She also had immediate evidence that she found him attractive, given her own recent activities. It seemed very obvious that these two facts should fit together, should lead to the two of them being lovers.

Yet something about that thought was terrifying. Luna had taken lovers often, yet always casually, for nothing more than pure physical pleasure. It was why she also often went centuries without one, for a toy her own hand suited just as well. But Stripes... She found him fascinating as a person. She already dared to think of him as something like a friend, and just that seemed terrifyingly vulnerable. To take a friend as a lover, to become even closer, even more intimate... She had not been truly close to anyone since...

Luna cut that thought off. She would not let old fears, and the Nightmare's old poison ruin her current life. So the idea of loving someone was scary. That didn't mean she should hide from it. She set her face in an expression of determination as she went about her night's work, another dream—this one a natural nightmare, just the sort of thing she came here to deal with—floating before her. She would not hide from this. She would see where it led, and trust that the one who'd given her such care in the wake of her own nightmare would take care with whatever other feelings she might entrust to him as well.

Chapter 7

Stripes woke once more with Luna practically wrapped around him, cuddling him tightly. This was extremely pleasant, but also somewhat unnerving. Even though she was the one who'd invited him to be here, he still couldn't help feeling as though he were trespassing. He was half braced for exclamations of one sort or another when Luna's eyes blinked slowly open, but she only smiled at him and gave him a squeeze before rising and climbing out of the bed.

He climbed out as well, stretching and then licking a few stray patches of disarranged fur back into place. He looked over at Luna, who'd begun to pull her top off, presumably in preparation for dressing in something more formal for the day. She paused, glancing at Stripes, and he remembered that humans had a nudity taboo. No doubt she was about to ask him to go so that she could undress. But instead she suddenly smiled and resumed removing her clothing, moving slowly now, sliding the fabric over her body in a way that was instantly extremely distracting.

Stripes found himself having to take a deep breath and look away from her as certain reactions started stirring. His people didn't wear clothing, but they did often wear ornaments, and such were sometimes removed before mating to avoid damaging them, sometimes in a teasing or flirtatious way, even, so he was familiar with the concept of stripping.

But surely Luna couldn't be doing a strip-tease for him. That was a completely absurd thought. No doubt there was some human thing going on here that he didn't understand, that was all. He glanced at Luna again. She'd turned away from him and was wiggling as she pulled her pajama pants down over her rear, her delightfully rounded rump, clad still in some sort of undergarment of black lace, on full display.

Stripes swallowed hard. "Uh... I go wash now. We, uh, have breakfast later?"

Luna straightened and stepped out of her pants, turning and giving him a smile. She was wearing only her underclothes now, and even though he was used to seeing his own people wearing much less, something about the black lace against her pale skin was making it incredibly hard to think. "Certainly," she said. "I'll have Selene send your usual order to the kitchen."

Stripes found he was licking his lips. He cleared his throat awkwardly, his ears heating. "Yes. Good. Thank you." Then he turned and fled out to the balcony and across to his own room. It took some time before he felt calm enough to head out the front door and towards the dining room.

Luna was already there when he arrived, sipping a cup of coffee. His own cup, heavily adulterated with cream, was waiting. He jumped up onto his seat and lapped at it, trying to think of something to say other than bringing up last night's cuddling.

Fortunately the door swung open a moment later, and the hovering breakfast cart came through it. Applejack herself was pushing it today, rather than the usual kitchen servant. She set out plates and platters with brisk efficiency, but when all the food was served she gave Stripes a smile, and Luna a somewhat more hesitant one. "I wanted to say, your highness," she said, her voice just a bit nervous, "that I right appreciate how much you seem to like my cooking. Thank you mightily."

Luna blinked at her for a moment, astonished, then a radiant smile blossomed on her face. "You're very welcome. Applejack, isn't it?"

"Yes, your highness." Applejack gave an awkward little bob, as if trying to bow but not quite sure she should.

"Applejack top of kitchen," said Stripes, grinning.

Applejack flushed slightly, but also looked pleased. "Yep, that I am," she said and gave Stripes a nod.

"There's a rivalry among the chefs?" asked Luna, her expression amused.

"Yep," said Applejack again, giving another little bob towards Luna, though she was smiling. "And I'm winnin' right now, thanks to you, your highness. Though I dunno if I'm beatin' Pinkie Pie, she ain't playing by the same rules."

Luna chuckled. "I'm aware of the pastry chef. She doesn't seem to play by the laws of physics, either. She's one of the strongest earth mages I've ever met, but she channels that in...unusual ways."

"That she does." Applejack was grinning now, and Luna was smiling too. Stripes found himself pleased to see them speaking. Perhaps this could be the seed of a friendship for Luna. He could see what she'd said, about it being difficult to make friends with someone one had authority over. Applejack's initial awkwardness certainly bore that out. Yet now the awkwardness seemed gone. Looking at the pair, Stripes resolved to do anything he could to help such friendships for Luna grow.

"Come along, darling. We're almost there." Stripes padded along behind Rarity, both moving in the peculiar gait suited to the low lunar gravity. Rarity still did it more gracefully than Stripes did, but he was getting the hang of it, finally.

They were on their way to something called the Grand Airspeed Tourney, which Rarity had invited him to. He had no idea what that was, but he also had nothing better to do with his time, so he'd been delighted to accept her invitation. "One of my friends is competing, and I must cheer her on," Rarity had explained.

Now, having made their way through the streets to the Tourney's location, they stepped aboard a peculiar structure. It superficially reminded Stripes of the river barges his own people made, a flat surface with a railing all around the edge, narrowed to a prow at one end, but it was all of metal, and there was no water nearby.

A figure, clad in a pale blue dress and with long golden hair, was already standing on the barge when Stripes and Rarity arrived.

"Fluttershy, darling! You made it!"

"Hello, Rarity." Fluttershy's soft voice was barely audible over a hum that seemed to come from the barge's floor. The hum wasn't loud, but then neither was Fluttershy. She looked at Stripes, and gave him a shy but warm smile. He gave her a silent nod, continuing their habit of seldom speaking to each other.

He and Rarity stepped aboard the barge. A moment later another pair approached, the bright-pink of Pinkie Pie's hair was visible, bobbing cheerfully as she bounded as high as possible in the low gravity, for some distance. Moving more sedately beside her, with long, efficient strides, was Applejack.

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity greeted the pastry chef with delight, and Pinkie engulfed her in a hug.

"Hey Rares! I brought AJ along too, so the group would be complete."

"Howdy." Applejack held out a hand. "I'm Applejack. Think I've seen you about the palace, but I dunno that we've met."

"Rarity. Stripes tells me you're responsible for all the things I order when I'm feeling sinfully indulgent," said Rarity with a laugh. "I'll admit I usually get something from Gustave's side of the kitchen, his style quite suits me, but there really is nothing like your cooking for comfort food on a bad day."

"Well thank you kindly, ma'am." Applejack beamed at Rarity, who beamed back.

"My work here is done," said Pinkie Pie with a firm and strangely serious nod. Then she grinned. "Now let's get up there and watch Rainbow race!"

"Indeed, let's," said Rarity, and she moved to a spot where a panel that Stripes could by now recognize as a control panel stood mounted on the barge's railing. She fiddled with it for a moment and the barge's hum grew ever so slightly louder. Then it began to lift, and Stripes understood. He looked up, and overhead he saw several more barges like it floating, making a rough line in the air. Theirs hummed steadily upwards until it joined them.

Ahead of the line of barges another line hung, a glowing thing that reminded Stripes of the glows he saw in dreams. But this one was real, a ribbon of golden light hanging in the air. It stretched off to either side, and curved about, and as he took the tracery of it in, he realized that it formed a huge loop, with air barges dotted all along it. There were other glows hung about it as well, rings that pulsed with light, and far off to his left a solid structure hovered touching the ribbon, a kind of platform not unlike the barge. It was covered with little figures. A disembodied voice boomed from it, echoing all along the ribbon of light, announcing that the race was about to begin.

"This is the powered, high-speed, mile, which is Rainbow Dash's event," said Rarity, as Stripes watched the distant figures lining themselves up along the long platform that must be the race's starting line. "There's a powered low-speed race, a few shorter races, and several different unpowered races as well. We'll stay to watch those too, but we must cheer for this one."

Stripes put is paws up on the barge's railing, standing beside the humans, as they watched the starting line. A glowing red spot came to light above it. It pulsed once, twice, a third time, then turned yellow, then green, and with a sharp clap almost like thunder, the racers were off.

They moved swiftly through the air, each leaving a long streak of some kind of exhaust, like a cloud behind them. Most were white, though some were tinted other colors. One, though, was a distinct rainbow, and with his human friends shouting "Go, Rainbow Dash!" he suspected that was the one he was to cheer for. He watched as the rainbow flier took the lead immediately, and he shouted a cheer of his own, enjoying joining in the excitement.

As the racers drew nearer, he could see that they were all clad in sleek suits that had membranes between arms and legs, and bulky objects on their backs that left the exhaust trails behind, apparently propelling them through the air. Tiny motions of the membranes adjusted the angle of their flight, and he watched as each flier did so in order to pass through the glowing rings that dotted the course.

Rainbow Dash whipped past their barge, and Stripes shouted with the others as the goggled figure, her hair as rainbow as her contrail, sped past. She was well in the lead, though the others also whipped by at high speed.

Just past where the barge floated, a trio of rings forced the path of the race into a tight arc. Rainbow Dash curved gracefully through it, but pulling out of it to follow the straighter course again she didn't quite make the right angle and nearly touched the glowing ribbon that marked the course's outer edge. She over-corrected from that, and suddenly spun out of control, her rainbow contrail corkscrewing wildly. Stripes drew in a sharp breath in shock. Would she spin down and crash? She seemed likely to, but suddenly a glow lit beneath her and some force along the bottom of the racetrack caught her. The rest of the racers sped by, though the tight curve made another of them miss the last ring, and that flier arced away, back towards the starting line, apparently disqualified. Rainbow Dash started moving again, launching from the force field that had saved her, but she too arced back towards the starting line, out of the race.

"Poor Rainbow," said Rarity with a sigh. "That's the second time she's spun out during a race now."

The race finished, and somebody with an orange-and-yellow contrail won the prize. As the winner was doing a victory lap, an aircar halted by their barge, and Rainbow Dash jumped out of it. "Hey there." She was a fit young woman with bright rainbow hair, and with her goggles off, something about her looked vaguely familiar to Stripes.

"Rainbow, darling, I am so sorry." Rarity hugged Rainbow Dash, but Rainbow laughed and pushed her off.

"Nah, it's fine. The new rig is awesome! It's just that so much speed takes a lot more finesse. I've crashed in about half my practice runs too. Eventually I'll win one, just gotta keep trying."

"You're sure you're okay?" said Rarity.

"Yeah. Just so long as nobody starts calling me 'Rainbow Crash' again." Her narrowed eyes swept over the gathered group, and everyone present shook their heads, including Stripes. Rainbow's gaze settled on him.

"Hey, you're that tiger guy that nearly fell on my head the other night. Nice to see you when I'm not on duty."

Stripes blinked at Rainbow Dash. "Do not recall falling on you. Sorry?"

Rainbow laughed. "I'm in the guard. Regs mean I have to keep my hair up under the helmet. I was on post by the garden doors when you fell off your balcony."

"Oh! Yes, sorry."

"Nah, it's all good. Is it true you're banging Luna? I saw you jump back up to her balcony instead of yours." Rainbow grinned at Stripes, who felt his ears heating. She was as bold in conversation as she was in flight, it seemed, and as willing to crash. Asking such questions could very easily offend.

"Ah, no, only rumors. Luna is friend."

"It's gotta be pretty sweet, being friends with a princess."

"Is good. But is good much because am liking Luna, not because princess."

"Yeah, I gotcha." Rainbow grinned again. She looked around the group. "Having friends is great. Thanks for coming to cheer me, gals."

Pinkie Pie waved a pair of rainbow pom-poms, which she hadn't been carrying when she arrived. Stripes wondered where she'd gotten them from. "Go, Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow Dash laughed again. "They're about the start the powered low-speed, I gotta watch that. I started on an electric wing-suit, back when I was a kid."

She went to the rail, and Stripes put his paws up on it beside her, peering towards the starting line, where another group of racers was lining up. Stripes glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was intently watching the preparations for the race, her brightly colored hair moving in the breeze.

Deciding that if she could ask personal questions, he could too, Stripes said, "Why hair rainbow? Most humans not so bright colors. Is natural?"

"Nah, it's dye and a little bit of magic. My natural color is brown, which is boring."

"Oh. Is for, uh..." Stripes fished for how to say it. If it was just because brown was boring, did it have nothing to do with status, then?

"It's fashion, darling," said Rarity. "Colors are a personal statement, and I do think they should be more common than they are. I keep telling Fluttershy that she should consider color. Something subtle, but distinct would suit her quite well."

"It's silly, is what it is," said Applejack, and she rolled her eyes.

"Well your natural color suits you just fine," said Rarity, with a little sniff. "But I am very fond of my purple, I wouldn't go back to black for all the world."

Fluttershy giggled. "I like pink," she said softly. "Maybe someday."

"I can book us at the spa tomorrow, darling," said Rarity, her eyes suddenly bright.

Fluttershy ducked her head, her hair falling over her face. "Oh my. I don't know..."

"Come, you just said you like pink. Pink it shall be! A nice, pastel shade, I think, nothing like Pinkie Pie there."

"Pink is the best! P, I, N, K, pink!" Pinkie Pie's pom-poms were pink now as she waved them around excitedly. Where had the rainbow ones gone? A sudden loud noise sounded and Pinkie squealed. "Ooo, there's the starting gun! The race!"

The group all turned to the railing and peered at the race. The fliers were going at a good clip, but without any contrails, and they all had membranes that not only stretched from arm to leg, but extended further on long finger-like rods, which they gripped with handles to tilt and steer. The glowing rings had been re-distributed to make this course more of an acrobatic challenge, the point obviously being the difficulty of going through them all rather than sheer speed itself. The fliers swooped and looped and spun through them, still fast, but not so alarmingly fast as Rainbow's race had been.

That race soon ended, and more followed, including several shorter courses, and a set of downright sedate races where the fliers had no propelling jet packs at all, but used the sweep of wings even larger than those from the second race, in designs that mimicked bird's wings, to propel themselves through the air. Those races were separated into men's and women's categories, as scooping the massive wings through the air required considerable upper body strength, in which human males had a distinct advantage.

The cheers of the crowd, the company of friends, the interesting tastes of food sold from little air-carts that served up hot, greasy things on sticks, all of it was fascinating and exciting, and Stripes found himself extremely glad that Rarity had invited him along.

The only stain on the day was the occasional thought that he wished Luna could be here to share it with him.

"How was your outing?" asked Luna. She had requested Selene send Stripes to her workroom when he got back from the races. She sat perched on a stool, a pair of goggles pushed up on her forehead, her hair pulled back out of the way from working on the object that lay on the workbench in front of her.

"Was fun. You come next time."

Luna blinked, surprised at the suggestion. "I haven't presided over a race in centuries..."'

"Not preside, just come. Cheer, eat food, have fun."

"I don't know. If I go, it will certainly be turned into a big fuss."

"Go in disguise," said Stripes, grinning. "But should go. Should have fun, find friends."

Luna frowned faintly, not sure how to feel about that. There was something appealing about the thought of shedding the mantle of rule for a while. Yet there was also something terribly intimidating about it, especially about that last bit. "I've mentioned I'm not very good at making friends."

"Just talk, friends happen. Talked to Applejack this morning. Was nice?"

Luna’s frown eased into a smile as she remembered. "I suppose it was. It was good to tell her in person how much I appreciate her food."

“Yes. Talk, make friends, all good.”

Luna jumped on the chance to change the topic immediately. “Speaking of talking, I believe I’ve found the problem with the language spell.”

Stripes’ ears perked up and he looked at her with obvious interest.

“It has to do with bodily magical fields, you see. Your species has a strong one, which is uncommon, since self-integral magic is rare. I should have seen it, really, I’m in the same situation myself.”

Stripes tipped his head. “Not understanding, quite.”

Luna waved her hand. “The details don’t matter, really. The result does, and the result is that casting the spell on your person directly is why it went so wrong. I need to cast it on an object which you can have touching your body at all times. I, ah, considered a necklace, but it would bounce around as you walk, so the spell would be discontinuous. I considered a number of things, but the easiest for me to get, was this.” She picked up a length of black material from the workbench. “It’s, ah, from one of the tigers at the zoo, they have occasional outings with Fluttershy, and wear a leash and collar for better control. I, uh, left the leash off…” Luna felt her cheeks heating as she explained. The whole situation was absurd, really.

“So, will stop talking like am stupid animal, and will be looking like instead,” he said, grinning at her teasingly. “Such improvement!”

“You’re terrible,” said Luna, shaking her head and laughing. She knew he didn’t mean it.

“Yes!” Stripes’ whole face and body were set in lines of laughter. “But still love me anyway?”

The question caught Luna completely flat-footed, and she stood for a moment, staring at Stripes in stunned surprise. Love? She did, though, she realized. He’d wriggled into a heart she thought long since closed off to such things. Her whole being wanted to melt into that word, and yet at the same time it was terrifying. Love? And what if it were only a translation error, what if he hadn’t meant to say love at all?

He was looking at her, curiously, and she knelt down in front of him, getting on his eye level. “You’re great,” she said to him gently, at least wanting to express that. “But I think we really need to fix this spell before we talk more.”

He looked faintly puzzled, but he nodded at her in agreement.

She took the collar and Stripes tipped his head back so that she could buckle it around his neck. Once it was secure she triggered the spell on it, and was pleased to see the magic shimmer into place just as it should. She touched Stripes on the forehead, removing the faulty translation spell there. Then, finally, she straightened and said, “Okay, say something.”

“I’m not sure what to say, but… Hey, that’s working! Yes! I don’t sound like an idiot!”

Luna laughed. “I’m sure all the senators and newsies will be shocked all over again.”

“Hah. Indeed.”

“It is good to talk to you properly outside of the dream realm,” said Luna with a smile. Some of the shock at hearing “love” had worn off, but the word was still lingering in her mind. Knowing that now if Stripes said something about love he would mean it, Luna dared to make something of a move. She touched the collar gently, then brushed her fingers up the back of his neck to his ears. She knew just enough to be certain that this should be an overtly flirtatious touch, and not just a “friendly” touch. If Stripes meant “love” in that way, if he truly wanted what he seemed to want sexually, if he meant something more than just friendship, he should respond.

But instead he flattened his ears, his tail suddenly lashing, and oozed away from the touch in the manner of cats everywhere. Luna felt her heart sinking. She’d obviously misunderstood things somehow.

“Sorry,” she murmured, awkwardly.

“It’s fine. So… Ah… Rarity is having a garden party tomorrow, just past noon. I thought you might like to come? Meet some of my friends?”

“Oh.” Luna thought about that. As much as she wanted more, she liked having Stripes as a friend. Meeting more people who were his friends seemed less intimidating than trying to make friends of her own. “Sure, why not? Selene, clear my schedule, would you?”

“Of course, your highness,” came the voice from above.

“I’ll see you at dinner?” asked Luna.

“Yes.” Stripes nodded.

As he walked away, Luna was left feeling quite the jumble of feelings. She still wanted him, and yet it seemed he didn’t feel the same way. But she’s seen his dreams, he must! Perhaps she should call him back to talk to him? That would be dreadfully awkward. And she liked having him as a friend. Tomorrow seemed almost exciting, meeting more friends, with him. But also intimidating. Trying to make friends.

What a tangle.

What a tangle, thought Stripes to himself as he walked through the castle halls. He was headed down to the garden, to get some air and clear his head. His tail was lashing, and Luna’s touch was still singing along his spine. His ears were an incredible sensitive erogenous zone, and he’d half wanted to just jump on her right there, the way he had in that first dream meeting.

It wouldn’t go anywhere near that well in person, he knew. He was nobody at all. She was a princess. She could have any lover on her world, or in half the galaxy. She wouldn’t want him. She had to have touched his ears thinking it was only an innocent, friendly gesture. And if he’d responded the way he wanted… No. Bad idea. Pushing something like that on her would be wrong and presumptuous. And might get him zapped into space or something.

But he probably should tell her that his ears were a turn-on, so she didn’t do that again.

At least their friendship seemed to be going well. He hoped that she could make some other friends, too. He didn’t like how lonely she was.

As he went on his way his mind bounced from topic to topic, avoiding seeing or admitting the obvious, his own self-depreciation keeping him from noticing the plain and simple fact that a lonely lunar princess would no more have many lovers than many friends.

Chapter 8

It was a gorgeous lunar day, because of course all days were gorgeous, the temperature was perfectly maintained and the artificial light kept exactly so, but Luna still found herself appreciating it as she stood on her balcony and looked at the garden below. Several figures were scurrying around down there, preparing for Rarity’s intimate little garden party. Luna spotted the unmistakable cotton-candy fluff of Pinkie Pie, wheeling out a cart laden with cupcakes, and smiled.

Then she stepped back into her room to consider her own final preparation. What to wear? Any of her formal outfits would be right out. She wasn’t attending this as Princess Luna, she was attending as just Luna, Stripes’ friend.

Though she definitely wanted to be more than just his friend.

She circled the thought of her—to be honest—sexual frustration for a while. She needed to just talk to Stripes about this. But it was so hard to bring the subject up! Perhaps she could send some more obvious signal?

Luna heaved a sigh. Sending “signals” was a good way to have more misunderstanding. Still, perhaps she could do something to help bring the topic up naturally? Perhaps she could approach Stripes in a dream. Tartarus, perhaps she could even “walk in” on one of those sex dreams? That would bring the subject up! In what was probably the most awkward way possibly, admittedly Or…

Suddenly an idea came to her. It would be a terrible tease if he really did want her outside of dreams, she knew. But it would certainly be a way to broach the subject. A way to let him know that she knew, even. And after how much he’d teased and pranked and been silly so far, he should probably appreciate a good prank in return…

“Selene, can you have a few items fabbed for me quickly?” she said, and grabbed her datapad and stylus to sketch out what she would need. The fabric she could take care of herself, she had a spell to change the color of her clothing. All she needed was a couple of decorative pieces…

Stripes flopped down on the picnic cloth beside Rarity, and was greeted with a warm, “Hello there, darling.” Fluttershy was already sitting on the blanket as well, peeking out from behind her newly pink hair. Pinkie Pie and Applejack were having an amiable debate over the finer points of baking next to where the cupcake tray and a platter of apple tartlets sat side by side. Stripes had been the one to invite Applejack. Nobody had invited Pinkie Pie, it was a known thing that if there was a party in the castle, Pinkie Pie would simply be there, cupcakes and all.

Rainbow Dash arrived a moment later, striding amidst the flower beds with a jaunty wave, which meant the little party was only missing one person.

A moment later she arrived, emerging from the castle with a walk that was every bit as much a “stride” as Rainbow’s, but which somehow had quite a lot more going on around the hips. That wasn’t really where Stripes’ attention was fixed, though. That was, for once, on the outfit she was wearing. The close-fitting jumpsuit wasn’t quite skin-tight, but it was closely tailored enough to show every curve, and it was uniquely patterned with stripes that were definitely based on his own. They were white on blue rather than white on orange, but the shapes were very familiar indeed to him.

Even more startling than that, though, was the belt, and the neck-adornment, somewhere between a choker and a peytral, an elaborate woven thing that was tight about her throat but also covered all the bare skin that showed above the jumper’s neckline, with animal teeth—familiar to Stripes even though the species they were from couldn’t possibly be found here—woven into the pattern. The belt was similarly adorned with claws. The whole thing was familiar, because it was what a female of his own species might wear. It was, in fact, what he’d dreamed of Luna wearing on one particular occasion when he knew it had been a construct and not the princess herself in the dream.

Was he dreaming again? No. There was no way he could have slipped into a dream without noticing. He was far too experienced a dream-walker for that. So what was going on here?

“Hello there Stripes, Rarity, Fluttershy.” Luna waved at the three on the blanket. “May I join you?”

“Of course,” said Rarity, ever the gracious host.

Stripes just kept staring.

Luna looked at him with an impish smile and a wink. “How is your day going, Stripes?”

He shook himself. “Er. Well?” Strangely, he thought to himself, but then Pinkie Pie was bouncing in between everyone suddenly, insisting that it was cupcake time and they all needed to have one, and something at least resembling normal reasserted itself, if anything involving Pinkie Pie could be called normal.

The picnic proceeded, and Stripes was delighted to find that Luna and his other friends seemed to get on well. There was a bit of hesitation now and then, a certain awareness that they were Luna’s subjects, but Luna’s own hints of hesitant shyness soon had all the rest trying to draw her out.

Stripes, meanwhile, participated less than he might have otherwise, because a great deal of his attention was going towards keeping control over his wayward libido. Seeing Luna dressed as one of his own people—dressed as she’d been in a dream where they’d had sex, even—was incredibly alluring. It was hard to keep himself in a decent state, and hard to keep from staring, too.

When the picnic ended, Luna lingered in the garden, wandering along the paths with seeming aimlessness. Pinkie Pie had packed away the leftover cupcakes, Rarity had taken her color-coordinated picnic blankets, and even Fluttershy had gone, though not without saying goodbye to all the animals in the menagerie. But now it was only Stripes and Luna, and in the quiet little nooks of the garden not even the guards stationed at the castle’s doors could see them.

Was that on purpose? Was Luna…teasing him? Now that Stripes wasn’t struggling to act normally, now that he was following her into one such shadowed nook he could really think about what was going on, and his head spun with it. Luna had to have seen his dream to know what this outfit looked like. She had to have seen him mating with the dream construct version of herself. Yet if she’d been horrified by that, surely she wouldn’t invoke it by wearing that outfit! This had to be an invitation, surely it had to be?

But what if it wasn’t? What if she was only taunting him with her knowledge of what a pervert he was? Some terrible little voice inside Stripes’ head insisted that was the more likely answer. She could not be teasing him with intent to follow through, she had to be teasing him cruelly.

Yet Luna had never been cruel.

He was not inclined to be cruel either, but with his head completely whirling he was perhaps a little too abrupt when he finally stalked up to Luna, more or less cornering her in a shadowed nook beneath a massive tree, bordered by dense hedges that would allow neither her escape nor any passing voyeur’s view.

“What in all possible hells and heavens are you wearing?” he said, ears half-flat in frustrated confusion.

Luna arched one eyebrow, her expression amused, teasing. “Is it not obvious? Something I saw in a very…tempting dream.”

“Tempting—!” Stripes halted, having no idea how to even finish that thought. He yanked his mind back on something resembling a coherent track. “Luna… Do you know what you’re doing? Do you know the effect you have on me right now? Do you know what it did to me earlier when you touched my ears? If you keep doing things like this, I’m not going to be able to control myself.”

Luna looked at him for a long moment, and then her expression turned downright evil and she reached out, fondling Stripes’ ears again. He shuddered as the touch sent a wave of pleasure through him, no longer a feeling of confused arousal, for he was no longer confused. He’d told her what this did to him, and she’d done it anyway. She wasn’t toying with him after all, this was real.

“I’ve been so bad about finding words for how I feel about you,” said Luna, gently. “For which I apologize. Though you have not exactly spoken up either. If I hadn’t seen that dream I would believe you didn’t like bipeds, and no longer found me attractive after coming to know my true self.”

“I, er…” Stripes felt his ears heating, but Luna also continued to stroke and fondle them. “Sorry. I assumed you wouldn’t… I mean you’re a ruler, while I’m nobody. And you, I, uhm…” Hell, he might as well still be using the mangled translation spell, for all the eloquence he was managing.

“You are not nobody, Stripes. You are somebody very special. You’ve pulled me out of my solitude and helped me see my own world with new eyes.” She smiled, her eyes twinkling, while her blush grew brighter. “And I have just now put a little charm on this part of the garden, so that no one can hear anything that happens here. So I was rather hoping that we could re-create the better parts of certain dreams, if you’re willing.”

Stripes licked his lips. “You are amazing, and I’m not remotely worthy of you. But I am beyond willing.”

Some time later, Stripes lay slumped over on his side beside Luna. She was comfortably snuggled up to him, her warm body pressed to his as she nuzzled into his fur. “I can hardly believe that just happened,” she said. “It was even better than in my dreams.”

“You read my mind. Are we certain we’re both awake?” He felt like sleeping, drowsing in the warm light that filtered down through the trees above them. Idly he wondered how long the magic Luna had used to hide them would last.

“I think so.” Luna nuzzled at him again, and began combing her fingers through his fur. He couldn’t help himself, he rumbled with relaxed pleasure. This did seem unreal, but if it was a dream, let him never wake.

Eventually Luna sat up and stretched. This did very interesting things to various bits of her body, and Stripes idly wondered how she’d feel about a second round.

Luna nudged at the shredded remnants of her clothing with one foot, and shook her head. “I won’t complain at all about how this went, but we have a bit of a problem now. I really should get back inside and take care of a few things. But I can hardly stroll naked through the castle gates without making a stir.”

“Won’t your spell cover you?”

Luna shook her head. “The building is warded. I could cast the spell inside, and I can cast it out here, but I can’t carry it functioning over the threshold, it’ll break.”

“Oh.”

“Guess I’m stuck here with you.” Luna laughed, then bent and kissed his forehead.

He rubbed his cheek against her affectionately and chuckled. “I don’t think I mind at all.”

Luna was at yet another interminable formal pre-dinner reception. With the cooperation of the palace guard she’d gotten inside and to her rooms without a scandal, and now she was dressed in a flattering but conservative suit, appropriate to the occasion, even if she’d rather be naked and back in the garden with Stripes. The reception was, in a word, boring.

She had been to uncountable thousands of such events over the centuries, requiring almost none of her conscious attention. She could spend the entire event on a kind of auto-pilot, dealing with would-be toadies, genuine admirers, and those maneuvering for power with equal-handed noncommittal pleasantness that would satisfy the first, delight the second, and quietly infuriate the third. Normally she took some pleasure in making various little games of what to say and how to say it, just to keep from going mad with boredom, but tonight she needed no such stratagem, for her attention was focused on Stripes.

Not that anyone else in the room was likely to notice. She only occasionally let her eyes slide over him, though his bright coloration made him easily spotted amid a sea of dark clothing. Night colors would never go out of fashion as formal wear under her rule.

Instead of watching Stripes, Luna was listening to him. It was a small spell, simple yet undetectable save to an adept of similar status to herself, of which there were perhaps three on the whole of the moon. So while she mouthed empty pleasantries, she was listening to the glorious trail of confusion that Stripes was leaving behind him.

And all he was doing was talking.

“Hello, there, my friend.” Luna didn’t have to look for Stripes to recognize the man who’d greeted him. She knew that voice too well. Senator John Johnson, ever with an eye to the main chance. He was always trying to find ways to ingratiate himself with her, and she knew he’d spoken to Stripes before, seeing opportunity in somebody, however “primitive”, who had the princess’s ear.

“Are you well tonight?” Johnson was speaking very slowly, using simple words, as if Stripes had ever shown any signs of not understanding him.

“I’m doing quite well, thank you for inquiring,” replied Stripes, his tone urbane, a near perfect imitation of Johnson’s usual affect with fellow politicians. “And how are you this fine evening? Doing well, I trust?”

“Uh.” Luna did her utmost to not laugh, and spared a little glance to where Stripes and the senator were standing. Stripes was up on his hind legs, meerkat-style, the nearest he could come to a pleasant smile on his feline features. Senator Johnson looked like he’d been poleaxed. “I’m. Uh. Fine. Thank you.”

“How delightful.” Stripes neatly snagged an appetizer with one large paw, gave the senator a nod, then turned away in obvious dismissal, popping the morsel into his mouth and then dropping to all fours as he did so. He left Johnson looking completely gobsmacked, an expression Luna hadn’t ever seen on the arrogant, self-assured career politician, and she allowed herself a tiny smile as she turned her full attention back to the conversation around her.

Stripes continued to be a surprising delight in so many different ways.

The bowl placed in front of Stripes smelled wonderful, and with a wicked sense of fun he plunged his muzzle into it and started to drink messily. He’d spent the whole evening acting exactly the opposite of normal, with careful, culture language and delicate manners. Now he was deliberately reversing things once again, and the confusion he was causing was far too much fun.

It had been a pleasure to see Luna trying to hide her smiles whenever she looked his way. As incredibly arousing as she was, and as amazing as the sex earlier had been, he would rather have her smiles than anything else. Cheering, guarding, and comforting her were things he found deeply rewarding, even though he knew that she was in many ways so much more capable than he, making such urges a little absurd. Yet she did obviously need at least the cheering, and he would do what he could about the rest, too.

So he ate the meal with messy abandon, and gave Luna frequent sidelong looks, seeking the elusive sight of her smile. He also gave a few choice senators and ambassadors glances, reveling in the confusion on their faces. He’d been speaking in broken pidgin one moment, in their own cultured language the next, and now he was acting the animal again.

This meant, though, that he finished his food before most of the rest of the diners. That left him at loose ends. He considered the merits of a good, indecent grooming session for a moment, then, seeing the way Luna’s eyes were glazing over again as she sat at the head of the table, decided on something else.

The table was at a height such that he only had to crouch slightly to slip beneath it. He was sure at least some of the other guests saw him go, but he was also sure that nobody would be so poorly mannered as to bend over and peer under the table at him. So, with a grin on his face he crept slowly forward, avoiding the various legs and other appendages beneath the table.

He soon reached Luna, and he crouched and regarded her legs for a moment, still grinning. She was wearing a skirt, long enough to cover her knees, but short enough to leave a swathe of bare skin showing between its hem and the tops of her boots. He leaned slowly forward and deliberately brushed his whiskers against her legs.

Luna’s squeak of surprise made Stripes want to laugh. Her retaliatory kick was playful enough to reassure him that he hadn’t overstepped, too. His keen ears could just hear her murmur, sotto voice, “If I hadn’t known that was you, I might have kicked your nose in, you ridiculous creature.”

He slunk closer, until he could just about have put his head in her lap, and replied as softly as he could manage, “I could try something else under the table, if you didn’t like that. Wearing much under the skirt?”

That got another squeak, this one strangled, and another kick, which thumped him in the side. He chuckled.

“You’re terrible. Not just begging for scraps this time?”

“I’ll take those too, if you don’t want them.”

“No such luck, I happen to like crab bisque.”

“So sad.”

“Now shush, the next course is arriving, and I’m supposed to be hobnobbing, not talking to my lap.”

“Yes ma’am.” Stripes slunk back under the table, amusing himself by letting his tail brush a few various lower appendages as he went, and slipped back to his seat just in time to have a plate of something unfamiliar but delightfully savory-smelling placed in front of him. Food kept him busy enough for the rest of the meal, and when it was over and he might have gone and bothered Luna again, he saw her excusing herself. He didn’t say any farewells himself, he simply jumped down from the low bench provided him and left too.

Others were doing the same; once the highest ranked person left, Rarity had told him while discussing dining etiquette, everyone else was free to leave if they wished. No others, though, caught up to Luna to walk at her side as she threaded her way towards the elevators. Most of them did not live in the upper castle, they either had their own homes or resided in the conventional diplomatic quarters in the lower part of the tower.

“You are quite the prankster,” said Luna to him with a look that might have been dangerous were her voice not filled with laughter.

“I have to keep myself entertained somehow. I don’t have much actual diplomacy to do.” Stripes smiled.

“Even when there is real diplomacy, I do like a good prank. My sister and I…” Luna stopped abruptly, and her stride faltered.

“You’ve spoken of her before,” said Stripes gently. “It always seems to make you sad.”

Luna began walking again, but more slowly. “Yes. She and I… We were as close as any two people could be for many centuries, you understand. We were two immortals, alone amidst all humanity, heirs to a kingdom we had vowed to rule together. But we fought, too. We were—are still, I suppose—very different. We value different things. But our last disagreement… Celestia took it too far. I know she intended nothing more than to win, to get her way as she usually did, perhaps to teach me a lesson. But circumstances aligned such that it cost me a dear friend’s life, and I thought for a time it would cost my own life, and that of my companions as well. I cannot forgive her for that.”

“Oh.” Stripes couldn’t come up with anything else to say. Finally he said, “I’m sorry.”

Luna shrugged. “Ancient history, now. I do still miss her, though. I will always miss her. I have long since ceased cursing her name. But the things I said when last we spoke… No doubt she curses mine still.”

“I’m sorry,” was all Stripes could think of to say again, and there was a heavy silence between them as the elevator arrived and they rode it up to the top floor.

As they walked down the hall, though, Luna said, “Could you walk with me as I guard the dream realm tonight, Stripes?”

“It would be my pleasure,” he said, feeling a warm glow inside. Luna’s smile made that glow burn brighter. She opened her door and ushered Stripes inside. He entered, peering curiously around the first room, which he hadn’t seen before. He’d come in through the balcony the last time he’d been here. It was the same size as the similar room in his chambers, though he noticed an extra door leading from it, in addition to those leading to the bedroom and bathing room.

“I’m going to get changed.” Luna gave Stripes a little wink. “You can stay here, or you can come along if you like.”

Stripes felt his ears growing hot, and he permitted himself a leer as he replied, “I’ll take that second option.” Luna laughed, and put a little swish in her hips as she went into the bedroom. Stripes followed behind, finding himself very pleased that the swish was right at eye level. It was almost unreal to think that the owner of that alien and yet intensely alluring body actually liked him, wanted him, had willingly and openly courted him. Had lain with him, and not only in a dream!

He could almost convince himself he must in fact be dreaming now, and it became even more unreal as Luna began shedding clothing, not making a show of it, merely casually removing everything before crossing the room totally nude to retrieve a flowing nightgown.

She reached out and stroked his cheek once she was dressed. “It’s been a long day, so I won’t tease you tonight. My invitation was to sleep and to dream, I want to be clear. If that’s acceptable?”

“Of course!” said Stripes. He felt a hint of arousal, and it wasn’t exactly easy to tamp it down, but he wouldn’t dream of pushing further. Luna had already given him more than he could have hoped for today.

When Luna sat down on the bed and patted the blanket beside her, he jumped up readily, and soon they’d both cuddled up in the bed together. Stripes put both forepaws around Luna, and she pressed willingly close, snuggling into his fur, her head tucked beneath his chin. He nuzzled the top of her head tenderly, feeling a warm contentment settle over him. All hints of passion had ebbed away, but that was fine. This was wonderful.

“Before we sleep, and especially before we dream, I should speak to you about the dream realm here on my moon. It is like other dream realms, and yet it is also unlike, for it harbors a Nightmare.”

Stripes made a soft, wordless sound of questioning. The way she said “nightmare” suggested that she didn’t mean an ordinary bad dream.

“When I say Nightmare I mean an ancient, alien creature of great power, that is all mind and spirit, with no body. Long, long ago it used mine, for I invited it in from the dream realm. That was folly, but at the time I was distraught and desperate, and it seemed a wise choice.”

Stripes let out a soft hiss of breath through his teeth. “I’ve heard of such beings.”

“Yes. Other dreamwalkers I’ve spoken with often have heard legends of them, though I’ve never spoken with any who has met one directly. They seem to be ancient relics of some long past age. The one here, bound to this moon, will not speak of her past, so I know nothing of her origin. What I do know is that she delights in pain, feeds on suffering, and stokes the more ordinary nightmares of my citizens into horror-traps that allow her to fatten herself on their fear. Each night I travel the dream realm here and drive her off whenever I find her. When she is not about, I shepherd my people through more ordinary nightmares too, which is how I first found you. But because of her, the thing I ask of you may be dangerous. She is dangerous. Normally dream things have no power beyond the dreaming itself, but her nightmares are perilous. She can scar the mind, heart, and even body if permitted enough leeway.”

“I see.”

“She has at times held me trapped in nightmares of her devising, when she has caught me unawares. You woke me from one such, not long ago. Yet normally I have enough of an upper hand to keep her at bay. With your aid I think I will fare even better. But there is some risk, real risk and not only dream risk, in what I’m asking of you.”

Stripes almost said that he wasn’t afraid. But there was a thin shiver of fear somewhere near the base of his spine. He knew that Luna was beyond him by far, when it came to power. If this nightmare creature could outmatch her… Yet he certainly wasn’t going to leave Luna to fight it alone. “I’ll take that risk,” he finally said, and nuzzled the top of her head again. “I’d take greater risks, even, if you asked them of me.”

She let out a little sigh and burrowed further into his embrace. “I do love you so, my Stripes. My One Who Stalks The Night.”

Stripes felt warmth wash over him at those words. It was as if a fire, long banked, had flared within him. Gently, and with a feeling of something that might almost be called wonder, he replied, “I love you too, Luna.”

Then they were silent, as each sought the realm of sleep, needing no further solace than the deep intimacy of the embrace they shared.

Chapter 6

Stripes woke feeling very rested, and possibly a little too satisfied. He had a faint memory of having dreamed of Luna. It hadn't been a fully lucid dream, but something had nearly woken him at one point, some disturbance in the dream, and so he remembered the ending, when he'd climbed atop her fragile and yet strong form and joined himself with her intimately.

He felt his ears flushing at the memory. He needed to not be dreaming those sorts of dreams. At least this time he hadn't dream-assaulted the actual ruler of an entire planet, but still, it was really not a good idea. He climbed out of the bed and stretched. Embarrassment aside, he really did feel good. He noticed that the lights were on in the other room again, and when he opened the door he once more found Rarity there, data pad in hand, smiling cheerfully.

"Good morning!"

He jumped up on a couch and regarded her. "You wait here all night to be here early?"

She laughed, a delighted, cascading giggle. "Oh no, darling. Selene tells me when you start to wake. I do rise early, I've always believed in keeping on top of things in that way. Wine is my evening delight, but coffee is my morning lifeblood. Although speaking of morning food and drink, I'm afraid Luna has canceled her usual breakfast. She sends her deepest apology, but there's been a accident in the spaceyard, and it is the sort of thing that the princess is expected to speak to the media about, and be seen being calm and reassuring in this time of tragedy and so on."

"Am very sorry," said Stripes, instantly grasping the gravity of a situation that would require Luna's immediate presence.

"Yes. I try to not dwell on such things too much. The moon is a safe place, by and large, but life here is nevertheless far more precarious than it is on most planets. We depend utterly on our technology for the very air we breathe here."

Stripes tilted his head. "For air?"

"Yes. The moon is naturally without an atmosphere. That's why the domes over our cities. Some of the more hardscrabble affairs here don't even have domes, they're just dug in, with all the corridors sealed. We have to provide air, and keep it carefully contained, there is no naturally breathable air here."

Stripes' felt his eyes widening in amazement. The humans made the very air itself? That was a wonderful ability indeed.

Misinterpreting his wide-eyed expression, Rarity hastily said, "It really is very safe, there's never been a major dome accident. But out in the spaceyards things are more chaotic, with all sorts of industrial labor going on, ships being built, asteroids being towed in to mine, and so on. Accidents are still rare, but this one has caused several deaths, unfortunately, and people always worry when they're reminded about that kind of thing. So Luna must go and seem reassuring, so that we can all feel that somebody is in charge and that things will be alright."

Stripes nodded. "I understand."

"I can have breakfast served for you here in your room, or you can go down to the day kitchen. They'll be expecting you and a few others to turn up and request their breakfasts, that's fairly usual. I never breakfast, of course, I find my figure benefits from beginning the day without a heavy meal."

Stripes blinked at that.

"Shall I send an order to the kitchen for you to eat here?"

"Ah... No. I go myself." Stripes didn't feel like simply sitting around the room. He had yet to visit the kitchen, and he was curious about how some of the foods he'd tasted were prepared.

Finding the kitchen was simplicity in and of itself. He already knew exactly where it was, for his nose told him every time he passed near it. After Selene had warned him away from it on his first day exploring he had avoided it, not wanting to disrupt the production of his delicious meals, but now, apparently having permission, he cautiously poked his nose in through the broad double doors that led to this strange realm of food.

The scents that hung in the air were a chaotic mixture, almost overwhelming to his sensitive nose, and to go with that chaos was a chaos of sound and motion as what seemed like an army of people, nearly all humans, rushed about to place. As he sat by the door and watched the activity, it became clear that the kitchen had three distinct sections. Nearly in front of him was a hive of busy order, presided over by a human female with a thick braid of straw-yellow hair and bright green eyes. To one side a much larger area was complete chaos, with a tall male who dashed back and forth, exclaiming dramatically in despair, or stroking the long, curling mustache on his upper lip in delight. He fussed and fretted, and seemed particularly concerned with the placing of things on plates, as if the way the food looked as it was carried off was important.

There was no such fussing beneath the female's calmer gaze, and no dramatics either, just a firm correction or a satisfied nod.

The third area was behind the female's domain, and also had a human female in charge. Indeed she seemed to be the sole person working in that space, though she filled it as if there were three of her, bouncing from one thing to the next with manic energy. Her eyes were blue and her hair was a startling shade of vivid pink. He wondered again at the colors. He really should ask at some point why it was that most humans seemed to have a limited range of hair colors, yet a few were so much brighter than the rest.

The fact that Luna had brightly colored hair would have made him suspect it was a matter of status, yet all the various dignitaries and senators and so on had hair in more muted shades, while those he'd seen with bright colors appeared to hold lower-status positions. He'd seen a few humans in the halls in passing with bright hair, and Rarity of course, and now this pink person, whose hair was almost aggressively large as well as bright. Perhaps it was a form of asserting one's self despite low status? That seemed like the sort of thing that Rarity might do.

He shook off that thought and stepped aside as a man rushed out past him, carrying a laden tray. There was a fair bit of traffic in and out as breakfasts were presumably sent elsewhere in the palace. The trays, he noticed, seemed to float at a fixed height and were stabilized somehow, so the kitchen workers weren't so much carrying them really as pushing them along. That seemed quite handy, else some of the larger meals might be difficult to take any distance without spilling.

"Can I help you, sugarcube?"

While he'd been letting his thoughts wander, the woman who ran the calmer portion of the kitchen had come up to him. He blinked at bit at the odd form of address, the translation spell seemed to suggest he'd just been called a foodstuff? That made very little sense.

"Ah. Am here for breakfast."

"Can do. What do you want to eat?"

Stripes frowned faintly. "Am not knowing names, forgive. Me having eaten with Luna, last mornings? Meats, and also..." he managed to pull up the words he needed for the important part, "...also coffee, and much cream."

"Righty-o, I sure as shootin' remember that. It's a right distinctive order. Nice to see a body that appreciates my cooking in such quantity, too." She smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. "Same thing as yesterday?"

"Yes, please."

"It'll be just two shakes. If you want to go elsewhere and wait, just lemme know where to send it. Or you can tuck yourself out of the way and wait over at the table there." She pointed to a long table against one wall, lined with stools, where a handful of other people were sitting, some of them eating, and Stripes nodded. It was too tall for him, and he wasn't at all suited to sit on the narrow stools, but he sat beside it anyway. He could reach it on his hind legs, so he'd be able to eat once the food arrived.

Meanwhile he sat and watched the kitchen. The man with the mustache seemed quite irritable, and Stripes soon noticed that much it was directed at the calm young woman. Their underlings sometimes snapped at each other as well. Meanwhile the pink-haired one continued her flurry of activity without seeming to be bothered by either.

"Hi!"

Stripes nearly jumped out of his fur at the loud greeting behind him. The pink-haired woman who'd been stirring a bowl across the room only seconds before was now standing directly behind him.

"You're the tiger-alien that Luna's supposed to be shacking up with or at least that's what I was told and also told to never repeat to another soul but of course there's this whole debate about if aliens have souls and I mean even if they do have souls you wouldn't say somebody was a soul, they just have them, right?"

"Uh...."

"I'm Pinkie Pie. Nice to meet you!"

Stripes blinked at this swiftly-speaking bundle of energy. "Am Stripes."

"Awesome! Do you like bear claws? That's what I'm making right now. I do all the pastries and Applejack does all the plain cooking and Gustave does the fancy cooking and they do not get along at all because the princess almost always orders from Applejack and even more lately because I guess she's been eating with you and you eat a lot, which makes sense because you're huge, so it's good you don't want Gustave's cooking because it tends to be little tiny fancy pieces and you'd have to eat so many and all the senators and things always get his but Applejack is still very smug at him every time Luna orders one of her specialties, but of course just about everyone orders from me because I do all the desserts including the desserts that are actually breakfast, because a donut is definitely a dessert but people have them for breakfast and that's the same way with bear claws which I need to go stir some more in just a minute and doesn't that sound funny, stirring bear's claws? But of course they're not really anything to do with bears at all. I met a bear once because there's one in the menagerie and Fluttershy says he's very nice but Rainbow Dash said we shouldn't go into his cage because only Fluttershy is crazy-good with animals and we'd probably get mauled which would mean getting clawed and I only like bear claws when they're the kind you eat, not the kind that maybe helps eat you."

She finally paused to take a breath, and Stripes considered trying to interject something, though he had no idea what he could say in response to any of that.

"I have to go finish stirring the batter but it was good to meet you and maybe I'll see you again oh and what's your favorite kind of pastry?"

"Er... Not liking pastry, sorry."

"Gasp! Who doesn't like pastry?"

"Uh. Me?"

Pinkie Pie giggled at that. "Do you like any other kinds of sweet things?"

Stripes tilted his head. "Syrup okay? Sugar cubes not awful. Best thing cream, really."

"Ooo! Okay then! Bye!"

He blinked, and she was gone just as swiftly as she'd come, somehow sprinting through the chaos of the kitchen back to her part of it, where she set about furiously stirring a bowl of some kind of dough.

"Pinkie Pie's a bit like bein' hit between the eyes with a brick o' sugar, sometimes." Applejack's warm laugh pulled Stripes' attention around. She was holding a massive platter, and another kitchen worker had a second. They set the pair on the table. "There's yer breakfast, nice an' hot." She gave the stools a glance, and added, "Can you reach it there? If not I can jus' put it on the floor for ya, we keep it clean enough here to eat off of, but it's on plates anyhow."

"No, can reach. Thank you," said Stripes. Applejack went back to her work, and Stripes, his stomach growling, put his paws up on the table and set about dealing with his breakfast. He ate with a will, more or less inhaling the platters of meat, and pausing now and then to lap up the creamy coffee.

Just as he was finishing a cheery "Hi!" made him nearly jump out of his fur again. It was Pinkie Pie, carrying a bowl. "You said you liked cream and I thought that everybody should have dessert and it's just sad you don't like pastry but this goes on pastry or sometimes inside pastry and it's nearly entirely cream, there's a little sugar and I bet you'll like it so here." She plopped the bowl down in front of him.

Stripes saw it was filled with a kind of white fluff. It smelled of cream but was stiff, standing up in peaks. "What is?"

"Whipped cream! Try it!" Pinkie was practically vibrating in place.

He chuckled at her enthusiasm and lapped up the whipped cream. It tasted of cream and sugar, simply with a strange texture. That meant, of course, that it tasted extremely delicious, and so he'd soon licked the bowl clean, much to Pinkie Pie's obvious delight.

When he left the kitchen, both Applejack and Pinkie Pie called warm farewells, with invitations to return again soon.

Feeling good about his day so far, Stripes bounced down the hall with enough energy to send him nearly into the ceilings in the low gravity. On reaching his rooms, though, he glanced down the hall to where Luna's own rooms were, and his mood sobered. He was having a fine day, but she was somewhere out in space above the moon, dealing with a crisis. Her day was no doubt being anything but good. He found himself wishing there was something he could do about that, but he didn't know what.

Walking more sedately, he went through his rooms and out to the balcony. It was day, both the long day of the moon, and the shorter somehow managed day that kept the plants happy in their dark/light cycle. Birds were chirping in the trees of the garden below, and he heard a faint wisp of a different song floating on the breeze. Stripes recognized the voice as Fluttershy and, acting on sudden impulse, jumped over the balcony into the garden below. The drop felt alarming, but the low gravity made his fall strangely slow and his landing no more than a little jarring. He'd felt a greater impact dropping from a tree less than a quarter of the height back on his homeworld.

He caught a glimpse of fair hair, and followed that and the song to where Fluttershy was cleaning out one of the predatory bird enclosures. She had rubber gloves to her elbows, and a bucket that smelled sharply of rotted meat, and was picking up little bits that the birds had apparently dropped while eating. The birds in question, a pair of enormous golden eagles, sat side by side on their perch and watched her calmly as she worked, though they ruffled up their feathers slightly and one of them let out a clattering alarm call when they saw Stripes.

"It's alright," said Fluttershy in a soothing voice as she continued her work. "He's a friend. You don't have to be worried." The eagles actually smoothed their feathers back down and settled on their perch, somewhat to Stripes' astonishment. He wondered if it was a form of magic. He didn't sense any power from Fluttershy, but then some powers could be very subtle, especially those of the mind or heart.

"I'm almost done here, and then you can help me hose down the bear enclosure, if you like." Fluttershy gave Stripes a warm smile.

"Sound good," he said.

He spent the rest of the day with Fluttershy, finding her company more than pleasant. She even fed him dinner from the supplies for the carnivores, and though he certainly enjoyed the cooked and seasoned meat he'd been having, it was good to have it raw and fresh. Fluttershy explained as he ate that it wasn't really "fresh" at all, it was artificially made, created in near perfect imitation of real animals, for the moon was utterly unsuited to farming. Plant matter was apparently made in much the same way, in great tanks and vats that were the "farms" of the moon.

The night that eventually fell was artificial too, the sun overhead dimming until its light was barely visible, somehow. Fluttershy said her goodnight and left the garden. Stripes yawned and stretched, and was trying to decide if he wanted to take the elevator or jump up to his balcony when he saw the lights come on in Luna's room.

Acting on pure impulse, but unable to resist it, Stripes gathered himself and leaped up to Luna's balcony rather than his own. She had just taken off her jacket, letting it fall to the floor, and flopped down to sit on her bed. She saw Stripes, and her eyes went wide, but then she smiled. "Hello there."

"Hello. You had bad day?"

"Not as bad as it could have been, but it's certainly been very long." She yawned, as if demonstrating just how long it had been.

Stripes jumped up on the bed beside her and reached out, patting her shoulder. "Want could help."

Somewhat to his surprise, Luna leaned against his side. "You do help. It's nice to come home to a friendly face. I'd...forgotten what that was like." She put her cheek against him with a soft sigh. He couldn't resist nuzzling back against her cheek, and a deep purr rumbled from him.

After a moment, though, Luna flopped backwards onto the bed. "Stars above, I'm so tired."

"I go, so you sleep?" offered Stripes.

"I definitely should sleep." Luna looked up at him, and he couldn't read her expression. "You can stay, though, if you like. It was...nice, having my dreams guarded the other night." Her cheeks turned faintly pink.

Stripes blinked down at her for a moment, but he nodded. If she wanted him to stay, he would stay, that went without question. He wanted to stay, truth be told. Her company was always good, even if it still felt a little presumptuous at times for somebody like him to be so casual with somebody like her. The imp in him could never resist playing around, but at a serious moment like this it felt very strange, that she would want his company through the night.

He expected her to make him promise to behave again, as she had before, but she said no such thing, only resettled herself in the bed. He stretched out beside her, and next thing he knew she'd cuddled up against his side.

"Mmm. You're so fuzzy. It's like having the galaxy's nicest teddy bear."

The translation spell rendered the sense of that close enough for him to grasp that she meant something like a child's comfort toy, and he chuckled. "I not bear. But not mind acting like."

"That's good," said Luna. Her voice was heavy with drowsiness and her eyes slid shut. Only moments later she was sound asleep beside him. Stripes carefully put a paw over her, finding himself still purring. It was good to be beside her like this, even if nothing more could ever come of it.

He settled his own head down on the pillow, nuzzling against the top of hers, and closed his eyes, seeking sleep himself. It was some time in coming, but resting beside Luna was good, so he didn't mind. Eventually, though, sleep finally stole over him.

Stripes found himself in the realm of dreams. He hadn't consciously chosen to come here, but he accepted that his mind had probably sought this place out. The dreamscape was different for every empowered dreamer that walked it. He didn't know what Luna saw, but for him it was a forest, made of glowing plants, each plant a dream, and each one shining with the colors of that dream's emotions. Nightmares pulsed in sickly purple and blood red, while more benign dreams came in a rainbow of moods.

Stripes walked through the dream forest until he came to a clearing with a towering tree at its heart. The tree was the dream of a powerful dreamer, pulsing with a thousand rainbow shades, though a gentle blue predominated. He knew it was Luna's dream, and that her own dream realm was likely contained therein.

He hesitated a moment, but only a moment, before stepping forward and reaching a paw out to touch the glowing tree trunk.

Then he was whirled through a rushing elsewhere, a dreamscape of stars and nebulae and shining bubbles, before arriving in a more concrete dream.

Luna was there, as he'd known she would be. She sat on a cloud, as if it were solid, that floated high in a clear blue sky. The color was subtly different than the sky of his home, but it was not entirely unlike. Far, far below was a landscape of green fields and rolling hills, that rose to a mountain spire with an elaborate castle perched halfway up the side. But it was very, very far below, too far to see what manner of people might in habit the castle, for the building itself was hardly larger than a speck, a tiny gleam on the distant mountain's side.

Stripes padded across the soft, fleecy cloud-stuff toward Luna. "Hello."

"Hello there." Luna smiled at him. "It's good to see you here."

He stretched and then sat down on the cloud beside her. "It's good to be here. And also good to be able to speak with you without sounding like a complete primitive."

"I am very sorry about that. I think I've figured out the problem. It has to do with your species' natural aura. Having the spell cast on your person is tangling it in your own magic, you see, and it distorts the output. The input isn't coming from you, so its less effected, which is why you can understand just fine, but the output is significantly disturbed. I think I have a solution, I just need time to implement it. I was going to do that today, but, well..." She shrugged.

"It's fine. There are worse problems. To be honest I've been having a little bit of fun with it. Some of your politicians are far too entertaining to mess with."

"Oh yes! You should hear some of the rumors flying about. Half of them think you're a trained animal that I'm consorting with, and the other half seem to think this is some kind of sneaky power move. It's quite entertaining. I haven't had that much fun in centuries."

Stripes tilted his head to the side. "Would it be rude to ask how old you are?"

"About three thousand years, give or take a bit."

He blinked. "That is very old."

Luna laid back on the cloud and sighed. "Yes. Though after a while it stops feeling like getting older and starts feeling like the same things, passing again and again and again." She smiled then, looking at him. "You are at least something a little different. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good. I think I've made a friend or two."

"Oh? Friends are good to have."

"They are." He told her about Fluttershy, and counted Rarity as a friend also. He considered and added that some of the cooks seemed friendly, and he might try to get to know them better as well. "I would try to befriend your maintenance people, as I know they would have fascinating things to tell me about how your world's not-magic works, but I'm afraid I've traumatized them all."

Luna laughed. "They'll eventually get over it. But it's good to see you forming connections here."

"What of you, though? Do you have any friends here?"

"It's difficult to make friends with those one has authority over." Luna sighed, her eyes looking up into the sky above, her gaze unfocused, distant. "My sister could always manage it. I never quite learned how."

Stripes didn't ask about the sister this time. Instead he said, "You could meet my friends. Maybe it would be easier, if they were friends of a friend? I don't like the idea of you being alone."

"I have Selene. I have dreams. I have many things to keep me busy."

"I'm sure you do. But you said yourself, friends are good to have."

"That is true." Luna was silent again. The she sighed. "Being a princess is difficult. Certainly the power has its rewards, but it has its downsides as well."

"Why princess?" Stripes finally asked. "You rule the whole of the moon, do you not? Why not queen, then?"

"I..." Luna's eyes went distant again. Finally she said, "Long ago there was a queen. When she died, and my sister and I took her kingdom, we decided to reign as princesses, both to honor her, that she would be queen forever, and so that neither of us would take undue precedent over the other. That...did not quite work out as we'd hoped, but I still can't call myself queen. The queen will always be my mother."

"I'm sorry."

"Her loss is fifteen hundred years gone now, so I can hardly say I haven't gotten over it. Still, there are some things one never forgets."

"Yes. Family ties are strong."

"What of you, do you miss your family?"

Stripes sighed softly. "I cut my ties with them long before coming here. It is a long story, but the short of it is that they were not good people. It is like mourning a death, a little, to mourn the parents you should have had, but did not."

"I understand," said Luna gently.

"If I had not, I might miss them more now. I miss home, but I am glad to be here with you all the same."

Luna nodded. "Selene is still hunting for your homeworld. We have a few leads on the ship that took you, but none are panning out yet. Hopefully one will eventually."

"Thank you." Stripes felt a stab at that. He wanted to go home again, yet going home meant leaving here. Meant leaving Luna.

"And I will fix the language spell. I just have to find the time. I promise."

"Luna..." Stripes reached out and patted her with a paw. "You don't owe me anything. You've done a great deal for me already."

"I know I don't. But I want you to be happy."

"I am happy." Stripes was left thinking that he wanted her to be happy too, and that seemed like a more difficult goal than his own happiness. He was a simple creature. Good food, enough sleep, a few friends, that seemed like more than enough. Luna's difficulties were obviously more complex, and rooted far in the past. Yet he found himself somehow determined to do what he could about them, however he could.

Author's Note

Thought I'd posted this one some time back, but I guess not. Chapter seven is nearly done as well, so expect more soon.