After he returned to his assigned guest room, stripped down, and took a long shower, Sky realized that he still likely wasn't going to get to sleep. After drying off and making himself presentable, he looked at the clock, and stepped out into the hall, without his onesie and diaper underneath for the first time in over a day. He headed back towards Princess Celestia's dining room, and saw Silver Platter out by the doors, who glanced in his direction.

"Good morning, Mr. Scribbles. Are you well?" The butler asked, seeing how tired the pegasus' eyes looked.

"A pretty rough night, Mr. Platter, but rather than toss and turn, I'm hoping it's not too bold to ask if Her Highness would mind my company for breakfast this morning," Sky replied.

"I'm sure she won't mind, sir, she just went in," Silver replied.

"Thank you kindly," Sky replied, walking past him as he opened the door to the dining room, and stepped inside, seeing Celestia already seated at the dining table, who immediately looked up from her plate.

"Oh, Mr. Scribbles, what an unexpected pleasure. Please do have a seat," Celestia greeted, lighting up her horn and levitating a plate, glass, and another set of flatware over from the dining cart to the place right next to the head of the table.

Sky gave her an exhausted smile as he took his seat.

"Are you alright, Mr. Scribbles? You look... Tired, if you don't mind me saying," Celestia said as a stack of pancakes was placed on his plate.

"I don't mind, Princess. It was a rather rough night, and I don't think sleep is going to come easily just yet," Sky replied, as he began to cut into his stack of pancakes after drizzling them heavily with maple syrup.

"Well, I'm all ears, if you'd like to talk about it," the alicorn told him.

Sky swallowed his bite of pancakes and poured a glass of orange juice, taking a swallow.

"Well, if I'm going to continue towards the trials of becoming Princess Luna's Guardian of the Night, it's going to involve digging up a part of my past that I thought I had buried years ago... But it turns out if I did, it's a rather shallow grave," Sky commented.

"What do you mean?" the princess asked.

"I thought hard about what you told me at lunch yesterday, and that... Triggered something I subconsciously put in my mind, to remind me of the risks of abandonment and heartbreak when entering into a relationship that close... Because I've been through that, and I don't want to go through that again. But I have to, if I don't want to call it quits and head back to Ponyville," the pegasus explained, trying to keep his gaze down on his plate of pancakes.

Celestia thought carefully about what she could possibly say as she also continued into her breakfast, and the two of them had cleared their plates and finished their orange juice before she figured out how to answer.

"I don't want to assume anything about your past, or tell you it's better to get over whatever is stopping you from wanting to try again, so maybe you could take some time and talk to Luminescence. She's doing well, I take it?" Celestia asked.

Sky was honestly surprised at the suggestion. Not just because of the suggestion, but because that was the first time anypony in the castle had even mentioned the tower's maid.

"I-I assume so, Your Majesty. You're actually the first pony to mention her," Sky told her as he set his flatware down on his empty plate.

Celestia smiled softly at the pegasus.

"That doesn't surprise me, I don't believe any of the castle's staff are even aware of her existence anymore," the princess told him.

Sky became even more mystified.

"What do you mean, Princess?" He asked.

Celestia took another breath, pushing her plate away from the edge of the table a bit.

"Luminescence is Luna's previous Guardian. From her time before her banishment," Celestia briefly explained.

The look on the pegasus' face betrayed his absolute disbelief.

"I... I'm sorry, Princess, but how is that possible?" Sky asked, his complete attention on the Princess of the Sun.

Celestia thought about how to answer, before she got an idea. She closed her eyes in concentration for a few moments as her horn began to glow, and then without opening them, she held out her right hoof towards the pegasus.

"Take my hoof, and prepare yourself for a somewhat... Out-of-body experience," the princess told him.

Sky took a deep breath, then reached out with his left hoof, touching Celestia's outreached hoof, and indeed felt as if he had gone weightless as everything around him went white.

When the bright whiteness faded, Sky saw himself sitting in a hallway. The walls were cobble stone, as was the floor, not modern in any sense. He looked over to the left, and there was Princess Celestia coming down the hall. He got up and bowed, but she paid him absolutely no mind, as if he wasn't even there, and he decided to follow her down the hall. They passed several rooms, until they came to the fourth doorway on the left, and she walked in.

There was a pegasus royal guard, according to the armor neatly stacked in the corner next to the bed, who looked like he wanted to get up and salute the princess.

"Don't be ridiculous, Private, at ease, for goodness sake," Princess Celestia gently scolded him. Sky noticed the guard's left wing had been bandaged considerably. "What happened?"

"It was all so fast, Your Highness. I saw her jump, and barely caught her. With the added weight, I didn't have time to pull up completely," the guard told her.

Celestia stepped forward and put her hoof on the guard's front shoulder.

"The doctors tell me you'll make a full recovery. You should be proud. You saved a life. When you're fit to return to duty, a commendation and promotion is certainly in order," the princess told him.

"I'm flattered, Your Highness. Thank you," the guard replied.

With that, Celestia gave the guard one more smile before turning and going back out into the hall, going almost to the other end of the hallway, where she entered another room.

Sky almost didn't recognize the unicorn in the bed, but after doing a double take, he realized that it was indeed Lumi that he saw laying in the bed, and the way she stared at the ceiling could certainly be considered lifeless.

"I thought you'd like to know the gentlecolt who caught you in midair is going to make a full recovery," Celestia told her after she had come to the mare's bedside.

"He didn't have to do that," the unicorn mare replied, her voice dull and depressed. "Put himself in danger to save a pony who no longer wants to be here."

Celestia said nothing at first, taking a seat at the side of her bed.

"Do you think that's what she would have wanted you to do? If she was still in a right frame of mind?" Celestia asked.

Lumi scoffed.

"Going to try and cheer me up with hypothetical possibilities, Princess? Don't bother. With all due respect, you have no idea how I'm feeling."

Celestia waited a moment before replying.

"I have a pretty good idea, Luminescence. We have both just lost a pony very dear to us. Out of everypony, I think I'm the one pony who can come the closest to knowing exactly how you feel, and you have nothing but my sympathy."

"Sympathy won't take this heartache away, Princess... She was everything to me... But I want you to know that I don't blame you for what you had to do. No one would have survived an eternal night."

"I won't lie, and say I completely understand what she meant to you, Luminescence. There's love between siblings, and then, there's what is shared between lovers. I'm not just here to see that you're okay, I've come to ask you something."

Celestia got to her hooves and stepped up to the right side of the bed.

"I'm still coming to terms with her absence as well. We're both dealing with loss and betrayal. Luna will have her chance at redemption..." Celestia paused, seeing the hope on the mare's face. "But it's likely to be a longer wait than either of us realize. 'On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape...'"

Luminescence slowly understood. Celestia had interpreted a vision. A prophecy.

"And if I wanted to wait? Wait for as long as it took? You could make that happen?" the unicorn asked.

Celestia took a deep breath.

"I could, in a way, but it would cost you a piece of yourself, Luminescence. You must understand and accept this fact; your time with her is over. But, if you truly want to honor the pony you loved..."

Celestia slowly placed a hoof onto the bed, and set down the half-moon seal.

"You could keep the oath you made to her, take up the mantle of Guardianship again, and keep the dream realm as safe as you can. I'm going to need help in that regard, and I could go with mages with skillsets and trustworthiness that I'm unsure of... Or I'm hoping I can have the aid of the pony who clearly loved her as much as I did."

The scene went white, and Sky found himself back sitting at the dining table as Celestia withdrew her hoof and the glow of her horn dimmed to nothing. There was a few moments of silence, before her horn lit up again, and she levitated the plates and glasses over to the dish cart on the other side of the table.

"She agreed, and we performed the powerful ritual in what would become the Guardian's Tower. I made it clear that it would extend her life beyond measure, but confine her to the tower, and the dream realm. Since her return, my sister has never mentioned her former Guardian, so I can only assume she has successfully remained scarce, and difficult to find."

Celestia carefully gauged the pegasus' expression.

"I figure Luminescence has not told you any of this."

The pegasus shook his head.

"Not a single hint, Princess," Sky managed to say.

"Then I'll let you figure out how best to approach that subject with her, if you're unable to get any rest. I've got to get on with my day. I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Scribbles, whatever you decide. If you find the strength and determination to continue with the trials, I look forward to continue seeing you in the castle."

With that, Celestia pushed her chair away from the table, and got up, taking a moment to push the dish cart back to the kitchen, before silently leaving the dining room, leaving the exhausted pegasus alone at the table. He remained there a few moments, before getting up himself, and silently walking back out into the hall, back to his guest room to grab the moon seal, then made his way back down the hall, outside to cross the battlements, and into the Guardian's Tower again. Climbing the stairs, he opened the heavy wooden door, and stepped through the fog into the nursery again, finding Lumi in her maid outfit, wiping down the changing table.

"Good morning, Sky. You don't look terribly well. Is everything okay?" She asked, pausing in her work.

Sky took one breath, and simply asked, "When were you going to tell me?"

The maid's expression went to one of surprise for a moment before she immediately figured out what he was talking about.

"I... I suppose I was waiting for the right—"

"The right time?" Sky interrupted, finishing her sentence for her. The maid didn't offer a reply as the pegasus' sleep-deprived temper seemed short. "It was never the right time for him, either... To say that he's unhappy... To say that he's found somepony else he's happier with... To even fucking say goodbye when he decided to leave and never come back."

Luminescence remained silent.

"I don't know what to do right now... But I'm done waiting for everypony else's right time." Sky said, turning and going back through the fog.

"Sky, wait!" Lumi called, but she heard the door open and slam shut.

Keeping enough of his head to know that he would not be allowed to take off from the battlements, he kept a healthy trot back into the castle, back to the ground floor, and out the front door. The moment he was on the other side of the moat, he took to the sky and headed south back towards Ponyville, not caring if his exhausted body was going to get him very far...

Author's Note