Blue Moon

"Ow." He squeezed his eyes tight, ignoring the soreness all over his body, and tried to pretend he was still sleeping. Not to trick anyone. He just hoped that if he tried hard enough, he'd be not awake. Waking up was never this guy's favorite part of the day. It always meant the end of a good dream he didn't remember and the beginning of another long day of work, aches, and exhaustion. His groggy mind fumbled over thoughts. If the point of waking up is to wind down to where you're tired enough to sleep again, why do you even wake up? Just sleep forever... save yourself the trouble... just dream. Hmm... I didn't dream last night. No, I didn't forget, there was just no dream. But I remember a voice... a beautiful voice. What was I doing before I fell asleep?

It all came back to him at once. The drive home, the thief, the gun. He opened his eyes, squinting at the daylight coming in from... somewhere. He couldn't see or think clearly enough to tell where he was, other than not in his bed. The bed he was in was very nice though. Silk sheets, down pillows, elegantly carved and stained oak frame, the works. And the mattress... it defied the laws of comfort. It was the fanciest single bed he'd ever seen, much less laid in. Actually, probably the fanciest bed of any size he'd ever seen. He tried sitting up, but the sharp pain in his chest told him to lay the hell back down. With the arm that was the least achy (his right) he reached up and rubbed his eyes, feeling like he hadn't used them, or his arms, in ages.

He moved to run his hand through his hair, now able to take in the room around him a little better. It seemed like a luxurious master bedroom or something, like what you'd have seen in an old Disney cartoon. Cinderella came to mind. The walls were a sort of maroon, with a lovely stained wood running across the lower half of the wall. He couldn't quite remember what it was called, but it was classy. The floors were done in gorgeous marble tile, white swirled with gray. The huge window that was the room's sole source of light was flanked by thick ivory curtains, and the sun filtered through a thinner white one that blew gently in the breeze. He felt a tickling near his wrist; he had grown a bit of a beard.

After the freshly awake brony scratched his bristly scruff, he yawned and returned his arm to his side. He felt something odd under his hand now, a sort of cool silkiness that wasn't the feel of the very fine sheets he lay upon. It was more like putting your hand in a gentle brook, but like the water was composed of fine, smooth hair. It was just about indescribable. He looked down to see what could feel so nice, and then his heart skipped a beat.

Holy shit. I'm dreaming, right? I can't remember dreaming last night, so this has to be a dream. I have pony dreams all the time, so this is just another one, right? He tried to sit up again, followed by a quick "Ow!" under his breath. No, dreams don't hurt this bad... but I can't be in a decked out bedroom fit for royalty sleeping in silk sheets on the softest bed I've ever felt with down pillows- and her... his thoughts trailed off as he took 'her' in.

Her coat was a midnight blue, like the night sky when the moon is at its brightest. Her body was thin and youthful, the tone of her muscles complemented by curves in all the right places. Decorating the butt cheek he could see was a thick, blotted black mark with a white crescent moon in the midst of it. Her back half was off the bed, sitting on a red and very plush looking cushion on the floor. Her wings were folded neatly at her sides, not a feather out of place. Her face defined angelic, her eyes closed in slumber, her mouth forming a gentle smile. Her face itself was well defined, the angles and curves radiating regality. Her upper body rested on the bed, with her head using his thigh as a pillow. Her mane lay over the bedspread, like a blue starscape of infinite complexity flowing and ebbing about her face. From it, her spiral horn elegantly protruded, a reservoir of unknowable power. One of her ears peeked out from behind a lock of her ethereal mane, and gently twitched in a way only describable as cute beyond all belief.

As the brony lay there staring at Princess Luna, he noticed something else. She was completely naked. Her regalia lay neatly placed behind her near a dresser. As most ponies forgo clothing, this wouldn't normally be a big deal. But for a princess... for Luna... it was like seeing her as her bare self instead of her title. As he started to run his hand through her mane, he wondered why she was here, with him. And then why he was here with her. And... wrapped in enough bandages to pass as a certain Universal movie monster.

The movement caused the sleeping moon goddess to stir, which caused the guy to freeze. She was waking up. And he was freaking out. What am I going to say? What can I say? What if I make myself look like an idiot? What if Equestrian and English are completely different languages?!

She yawned, stretching her hooves over his legs absentmindedly. "Good morning," she mumbled to him. "Hah, I've not said that one in a while..." she trailed off as she blearily noticed he was awake and staring at her, eyes wide, mouth open, not really breathing. "You're awake!" she gleefully exclaimed, before removing herself from his lap with a faint blush. She pulled her front half off the bed and stood, smiling at him.

He lay there staring for a good few seconds more before managing "Uhh... uh-huh."

Another silence befell them before she nervously asked, "Would you... er... like something to eat? You've been unconscious for some time, and I expect you shall be hungry..."

He closed his mouth and swallowed dryly, "Sure," his voice cracking halfway through the single syllable.

As he cursed himself for his nonexistent eloquence, she rose to her hooves and levitated her tiara, breastplate, and shoes on. "I shall send for something from the kitchens then." She walked over to the impressively sized double doors and cracked them open, saying something to one of the guards standing outside it. She quickly returned to the bedside. "You must be confused as to where you are or who I am or how long you have been here..."

Finally, the guy managed to pull himself together enough to say something halfway clearly and intelligibly. "Thanks... and yeah, where am I? Is this part of Castle Canterlot? How long have I been out for? And why are you here?"

It was Luna's turn to be confused. "You know of Canterlot? Are you a resident of Equestria? And what do you mean by 'why are you here'?"

He apologized quickly, "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I mean... well, you're, like, the Princess of the Night. There's gotta be something more important than me to take up your time. And no, I'm from... it's a long story."

She smiled. "I have nothing of great importance to attend to at the moment. And you know of me? I fear I am at a disadvantage then, as I know not who you are."

He half-shrugged, half-winced, "I'm nobody, really. Name's Patrick though. Just call me Pat. So, how long have I been out for?"

Luna put a hoof to her chin and sat down on her cushion near the bed, "Oh, about three weeks now. I applied a few medical spells to accelerate the healing process and to prevent malnutrition, dehydration, and atrophy. You still require another week or so of treatment, but you are much better now than when I found you. To be honest, I thought you were dead at first."

Pat was silent for a moment. "You weren't too far off..."

She tilted her head to the side, "What do you mean by that?"

He took a deep breath. This is gonna be a joy to explain... "Alright. Keep a really open mind for this. Where I'm from isn't Equestria. It isn't a bordering nation. It's not even this planet. I'm from a planet called 'Earth'. I don't know where that is relative to Equestria, but it's probably something like another dimension or somesuch. I also don't know how I got here. The last thing I remember is that I was killed... My last memory before waking up here is bleeding to death on the floor. Maybe my soul ended up here, like Equestria is actually heaven? I could go for that."

Luna pondered what was said for a time, looking ever more thoughtful. "No, I doubt this is your existence's afterlife. The lack of other humans who have died and ended up here seems to put that theory to rest."

Pat chuckled, "Well there goes the plot for dozens of fanfics..."

"Fan-whats?" Luna questioned.

He let out an "Oh," before answering. "This is gonna sound weird... weirder than what I've already said."

"Please do go on. I've waited for some time for this conversation," she replied happily.

"Alright," he began, carefully propping himself up with a pillow. "Well, in my world, there's a television program... uh, I don't know if Equestrian technology has advanced to the motion picture and other such media yet-"

"We have movie theaters," Luna interrupted. "Ponykind is quite proficient with audio recording, playback, and even broadcast. A recent invention is the vinyl record, which makes most old gramophones look quite archaic. Ponies do so love their music. Advancements in photography quickly combined with sound and music to create fully voiced moving pictures. Fascinating, really. In my studies of technological advancements in the past thousand years... oh that requires some explaining."

Pat bit his lip. "Well, not really. I know about Nightmare Moon. And the Elements of Harmony. And the element bearers, and Discord, and Canterlot, and Ponyville, and more. As I was saying, in my world there's a broadcast sort of series of short motion pictures called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". It details the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and it was supposed to be completely fictional. It's a children's show, drawn in cartoon form and made for entertainment. It's really good though, and- are you ok?"

Luna's eyes were unfocused. She suddenly blinked, looking distraught. "Is this "television program" popular?"

He laughed in response, quickly cradling his ribs. "Yeah, but that's because it's good. The stories are well written, the characters are deep and relatable, and the animation style is great. Just about anyone can take a lesson from most of the episodes, regardless of age. It seems a lot of what makes it great would be that most of it is... real. Never thought I'd say that."

The princess shook herself of the feeling that she had been watched by unknown numbers of humans as curiosity took over again. "So if the... show is targeted at young ones, why then do you know of it? Are you a parent?"

Pat was quick to answer, "No, no. Like I said, it's really well made. So it wasn't long before teens and adults started taking notice of it, and soon there were enough male fans that they started calling themselves "bronies". A long while ago, the show was targeted exclusively for very young girls, and the future iterations continued to do so. Friendship is Magic is actually the fourth generation of the show... I'd not like to think if the earlier generations correlate to Equestrian history... But the fourth one is the one that was more appealing to all ages. I'm sort of a fan too. A big one."

Luna grinned, "So, I am in the presence of not only a human, but a brony? What luck have I that this should happen to me, meeting Patrick the brony!" She laughed, winking at him and clearly enjoying the chagrin he was experiencing. Her face soon took on a more somber expression, and she asked, "So then you know of my downfall, the thousand years banishment, and my salvation?"

He rolled his eyes, "I know the watered down version of the story. It was a kids show, after all, so I think a lot was toned down."

She tilted her head again, "So then bronies do not bear ill will towards me for my past sins?"

Pat's eyebrows went up, "Oh, of course not! There are thousands and thousands of Luna fans! You're quite popular. That, uh, fanfic thing I mentioned before, that means fan fiction writing. Stories written by bronies about anypony and everypony. I've read quite a few about you, actually... And maybe written one or two..."

Luna was nearly gawking at this point. "So then, are you a fan of me as well?"

Me'n my big mouth... Pat's cheeks were burning something fierce now. "Well, yes. You might say that... you're my favorite of the ponies. I even like Nightmare Moon a bit too... She isn't really hated so much by the fandom either. She possesses a raw sort of power and sensuality, drawing in fans of the darker night... Of course if they knew the real story, they probably wouldn't see her that way, but no one there knows what really happened... But now I have Princess Luna herself here. If it wouldn't bother you too much I'd love to hear the story first-hand. I mean, hoof. First-hoof."

Luna's face showed a pained look for just a moment before returning to a pleasant, if slightly forced smile. "Perhaps later. There is so much more I would like to know of your world, and I am sure you of mine. I would not wish to have the mood spoiled by such a tale." There was a knock at the door, indicating the food had arrived. "Ah, excellent, your first Equestrian breakfast is here. If you could call it breakfast at noon, that is," she giggled.