Regress

by Level Dasher

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Slice of Life
Length: 1245

Princess Luna yearns for days past, whether she realizes it or not.

'Tis a night like any other. We have raised the moon, Tia has fallen into slumber, the guards are passing Us confused glances, We—

Wait...

Self-edited this time.
Cover art by Lortstreet54

A (very) short one-shot written and edited in less than two hours while sitting in a hospital bed.

Published 2018-04-26 13:10:07 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-26 13:10:07 UTC

Regress

“Good night, Tia. We are off to Our domain of dreams,” We say to Sister from the entryway of her chamber.

“Good night, Lulu,” she answers with a smile and, for some reason, an upturn of the brows. “See you in the morning, however briefly.”

Our muzzle droops slightly. “Yes, Sister.” We then attempt a small smile as well. “We look forward to thy pancakes in the morn.” As Sister giggles, We add, “And We will attempt to stay awake long enough to not drop Our face into them once again.”

Sister lets out a boisterous laugh at the comment. “Don’t feel bad about it, Lulu. At least now I know you do actually like them.” With a quick nod, she adds, “We really should thank Starlight Glimmer again for helping us figure out that argument between us.”

We smile. “Indeed. We thanketh thee for the reminder; We shall give her pleasant dreams tonight.”

“I’m sure she would appreciate it.”

With a nod, We begin closing Sister’s door and repeat, “Good night, Tia.”

Sister rests her head upon her pillow and yawns. “Good night, Luna.”

The thestrals at their posts nod to Us as We shut Sister’s door, and We return the gesture. “Shouldst ye hear any disturbances from Our sister’s room, do not hesitate to wake Us if ye deem it necessary.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” they both reply with practiced salutes.

“We thanketh ye. As ye were.” We smile at them, their eyes slightly narrowed in Our direction, before moving down the hallway.

As We continue Our pace, We barely hear the guards as they whisper between each other.

“Does she do that just to mess with us?”

“I dunno. Maybe. Or maybe it’s a moment of regression.”

“Hey, I’m just curious. As long as we can understand her, I don’t question it. Besides, she’s gotten really good at, well, everything else.”

It is at this moment that their conversation becomes too far to reach Our ears. The last comment fills Us with pride, but the previous guard’s muffled words puzzle Us.

As We approach Our own chamber, Our guards also give Us salutes. “Good evening, Your Highness.”

We smile and nod. “Good evening to ye as well, gentlecolts.” We take a moment to consider the comment of Our other guard. “As usual, shouldst thine compatriots come running for Us for the sake of Our sister, please do let them pass.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” they reply in unison, before glancing at each other.

“We thanketh ye.” We smirk, confirming Our decision to, as ‘twas worded, ‘mess with them,’ and place a light osculation upon each of their cheeks. “We are off to commence Our duties.” Immediately shutting Our door behind Us, We can almost hear their rapid heartbeats. Indeed, ‘tis quite amusing to keep Our guards on their hooves on occasion.

After Our usual pre-duty ministrations, We decide to take a moment to step onto the balcony before drifting to Our own state of working slumber. Looking down upon the city of Canterlot, We are pleased to see a fair number of citizens still mulling about, those that Sister dubs ‘night owls.’ Though we believe this term wouldst be more suited for pegasi due to the other races’ inability to fly, We have accepted this to be an adequate colloquialism of the times.

Our attention is then brought to a far-off hill just outside the city limits, where two small spots appear in Our range of vision. Stepping to Our instrument of stellar observation, We swivel it in the direction of the subjects of Our attention. A grin appears on Our face as We find two Earth ponies, a stallion and filly, with their own telescope upon a mount, admiring Our latest work. ‘Tis wonderful to be reaffirmed that We are indeed appreciated again since Our return.

After several minutes of watching the stallion focus their attention on Our sky, We see the filly grab the instrument and swiftly move it in Our direction, as if searching for Us Ourselves. Perhaps this is indeed the case? As the stallion attempts to change the direction of the telescope once again, Our eyes see what Our ears cannot hear; the movement of his lips create words that claim spying on Us is immeasurably rude.

We see the filly’s face fall, and she nods as she apologizes to the stallion. We, on the other hoof, have another idea. Smiling and focusing Our magic, We are able to grasp the filly’s telescope and turn it in Our direction, expectedly eliciting reactions of surprise from both ponies. After allowing the filly to glance through her lens, We lift Our head and wave with a bright smile adorning Our face. Bringing Our eye back down, We see the filly jump with a grin splitting her features, then nudge the stallion and point toward Our balcony, clearly speaking words of glee.

When the stallion places his own eye upon the scope, We once again lift Our head to become visible. With the wave of a wing, We mouth out the words, We thanketh ye for thine admiration. Expect pleasant dreams tonight.

As We return to gazing at Our subjects, We see the stallion look up towards Us and smile. He then pulls the filly, still grinning, toward his side as he responds, Have a wonderful evening, Your Highness. Whether or not he understood Our words is unknown, but Our gesture has its desired effect—the joy of Our subjects is clear.

With a contented sigh, We turn and stride back into Our chamber, ready to begin Our nightly duties. ‘Tis certainly a lonesome job, but We are the only one that can do it.

As We lay Ourselves upon Our mattress, Our thoughts stray back to the early guard’s comment. Depression… ‘Tis what he said, is it not? But 'tis simply not true. We have been quite content for the many years since We returned from Our banishment. Especially so since Starlight Glimmer helped Us resolve that quarrel with Sister. Ah, that does remind Us—We must attend to Miss Glimmer’s dreams tonight. Though not before We solve this matter of—

Wait…

That’s it. We misheard.

Regression.

…

…How long have I been in this state of mind?

Author's Note

As I mentioned in the long description, I wrote this story in the hospital, the night before I went into surgery. I needed something short and separate from everything else that I could focus on temporarily without worrying about needing to finish it later so I could go back to bigger projects right afterward.

This wasn't supposed to have much of a plot. It was originally meant to be a challenge for myself to write a story primarily in Luna's 'Ye Olde Equish,' and I originally thought it would be best to write something that took place in the past, before Luna's banishment, which would make her use of the old language make sense. When finding a proper subject became difficult (though I'm sure there's one out there that I just didn't think of), I settled on having Luna fall into a state of Regression, as opposed to marking this [Alt-U] since we know Luna doesn't really speak this way anymore.

I hope you enjoyed the story. 'Twas an interesting yarn to spin, however short, and it kept my mind off the fact that I was going to have a tube down my throat the following day...