The Diarchal Advisor

"So, heads up... she's not a morning pony." Arnon states bluntly.

Following the exciting, prior late-evening where an intrepid Moondancer was offered a place among Luna's budding court, some details had been in dire need of hashing out.

Arnon had to ensure that everything went smoothly, of course. There'd been a bit of a delay between the actual night where Moondancer accepted Luna's proposal, but that gave both time for each to prepare.

Luna hid it well, but she was a terrible little mix of nervous and excited that left her wings half-unfurled most nights.

"Well, she's the Princess of the Moon. Ruler of the Night. Why would she be?" Moondancer asks, confused by the 'advise', like it was blatantly obvious.

Now, sat across from him in the Royal Study, was Moondancer. He really needed his own office, but the cozy book-sphere of this room tends to work well on the nerdy caliber of Unicorn that the Sisters seem to attract as underlings.

Moondancer is her usual mess of nerd. Big, thick glasses sit on her snout, jammed as close against her nose-bridge as they can be, with a big wad of tape holding them together. Her red mane is pulled back into a quick-and-easy messy bun, the purple streak awkwardly running through it. A good chunk of her mustard-yellow fur, that could definitely use a thorough brushing, sits hidden underneath a large, droopy turtleneck sweater.

Overall, Arnon is just glad she keeps hygienic enough that he doesn't have to worry about a lingering nerd smell. She just... doesn't care about her appearance. At all. That's gonna be something they have to work through, because Luna is pretty big on that stuff.

She wouldn't waddle around in outdated suits of armor half the time if she wasn't.

The fire crackles softly, early-evening trying it's hardest to spill through closed curtains. Arnon had called her early to prep her on some things before Luna's awakening.

They weren't exactly alone, however. Twinkling Sprite, Luna's personal scribe, sits only a few feet from them. It's a few hours before the time he usually gets up, so he's trying his best not to cut into the conversation with his hoof-stifled yawns.

Sat at attention beside Arnon at his chair is his dutiful Night-Guard, Vivid. Who snores softly, leant up against the arm of the chair for support. She might have made the minor miscalculation of sitting too close to Arnon's hands while he was speaking. He's very gesture-heavy when he speaks, which can lead to the unprompted scratching of unprepared, tufted ears.

Vivid didn't stand a chance.

Truthfully, witnessing them like this was appeasing to Moondancer's initial worry about some of the rumors surrounding Thestrals.

"Funny, but not what I meant. Princess Luna enjoys her Evenings, and not her Mornings. Which means..." Arnon rolls his hand.

It seems to click for Moondancer. Honestly, she's a pretty big smarty too; the only other nerd of this caliber he's seen before is Twilight, though they've got their own brands of autistic streaks.
"...Oh! She'll be irritable in the Evening, and more Amicable by the Sunrise."

"...Interesting choice to go straight for the irritability, but we'll tackle that later." Arnon hums. She's probably measuring on the interaction to books pipeline that Twilight did, back when he first met her.

"Imagine your standard, Day-Bound workday. Now, simply flip the hours. Princess Luna awakens and meets with Princess Celestia in the Mornings, raises the Moon, commits her tasks, attends Night-Court, and rounds the day by greeting her recently-awoken sister, bedding as the sun rises. It's this routine you'll learn to match, as a Student of the Moon. I know you're used to being a Night Owl, but this is reintroducing a proper schedule, to what I assume was a free-form approach to 'sleep and eat whenever' lifestyle, right?" Arnon explains, trying to make it clear. Just liking to stay up late wasn't going to cut it here. This was a full night-shift of studentdom.

Moondancer nods, undeterred; that would probably have already been her choice of hours, if the library was open at those times.

"Good, good. I've heard you already have a home in the city?" Arnon prompts, flipping through a few papers on his lap. When he gets to her housing...

"I do, yes." Moondancer nods aptly.

"And it's in a state that would support the Princess visiting?" Arnon presses further. Most of these papers were health and safety violations for her current living conditions and the state of her home. He had a few of the local crown-funded construction types look it over. The way they worded it was... should be torn down.

"U-uhm..." Moondancer purses her lips.
"Maybe not quite up to... Princess quality." She does eventually admit. Alright, at least she's not the type to fib to save face. That's good.

"Princess Luna, in her infinite benevolence, is willing to offer you housing in the under-construction Thestral wing of the city, to run a Library for the denizens who prefer moonlit hours. Would you be interested?" Arnon prompts, looking up from the papers.
"It would, of course, incur funding towards your personal lifestyle, studies, and maintenance of the library to support this crown-granted duty."

"She would? Really?" Moondancer perks up. Obviously. "Why, that would be perfect! Absolutely!"

"Just remember to actually do some librarian work, will you? Between scouring every inch of parchment that finds itself in there. And, uh... keep it tidy." Arnon jokes, though there's a layer of truth to it. Her home had been scattered in various books, scrolls, pages, studies... haphazardly. One of the stationed guards had actually tripped over one of the stacks, and was on a short leave.

"Oh. Right, of course. Absolutely. When, uh... would this happen?" Moondancer asks, tapping her hooves together.

One of the parchments is held out to her, which she quickly takes it in her magic, a light off-purple glow that pulls it closer to herself.

"Sign that, and the crown will have some workers by to help pack on the morrow, and in your new abode directly after. All the details should be there, if you're looking for exacts. Everything should shape up to your expectations." Arnon instructs, hand on his lap.

Moondancer slowly reads through the page, her eyes widening further and further with every line she reads.
"That... oh, that is a lot of bits." She mumbles to herself.

"Both your tutelage funds to pursue your own studies, and subsidiary from the crown to maintain a public service." Arnon nods. Yeah, Princess' favorite little nerd-ponies tend to make bank. He'd looked at Twilight's income. Wasn't small, that's for sure.

"Oh, I have a question. If that's alright?" Moondancer asks, setting the parchment aside.

"Of course." Arnon offers, holding his hand up like an invitation.

"Two, actually. If that's okay." Moondancer quickly corrects.

"Yup. Go for it." Arnon nods. Probably something about importing specific things, or one of the million nerd questions --

"What, uh... happened to your arm?" She asks, head tilted.

Without missing a beat, Arnon tender holds his other arm, still bound in a cast. He purses his lip, biting back painful memories...
"Princess Luna broke it as a consequence of my insubordination. Fret not, she knows how to make a clean break. Your own should heal quite well, when they come." He explains quickly, tone warbling.

Moondancer's eyes go wide.

"W-what?" Hey, hold on!" Twinkling speaks up, quickly throwing out a concerned hoof upon hearing that, scrambling from his spot by the fire.

"Kidding. Challenged Princess Celestia at to hoof-wrestling. Alicorns are a powerful bunch." Arnon corrects, after laughing to himself.

Twinkling sighs, rubbing his face with his hooves. Moondancer doesn't laugh, however, leaning to squint at the cast closer.
"Please, try not to slander our Princess to her new student, Arnon."

"Couldn't help myself. Sorry." Arnon waves a hand around dismissively.

"A break implies that you held your position with enough resistance that a breaking-point could form. Are all of your species that strong?" Moondancer suddenly pushes, her latent curiosity bubbling to the surface.

Huh. Wasn't expecting that for an answer.
"Uh...well, it's more like our worlds operate on two separate powerscales. It's not that my entire species overtly strong, as our average is simply higher on an Equus' scale." Arnon tries to explain. That's how he's come to understand it, anyway.

"So you would consider yourself average for your species?" Moondancer continues.

"Yes, I suppose I would. I think we're at three questions now -- unless those were just tangent questions." Arnon tries to course correct.

Moondancer's face holds recognition, and her sudden burst of forward curiosity fades quickly.
"Right. Sorry. Uh... am I still good to ask my second question?"

"Of course. We don't ration knowledge in Equestria, as far as I'm aware." Arnon jokes, laughing.

Anymore, anyway. Arnon's seen the forbidden section in the royal library. Celestia wiped pre-harmony history hard, leaving only a few tidbits to hint. Theres a good three to four-hundred years of summarization and forgotten information, primarily blamed on their version of the Library of Alexandria burning down.

It was weird, how speckled their history and technology was. Arnon was pretty sure the only reason they didn't have guns was because unicorns could already blast lasers from their dome.

"I'm... not that familiar with Thestrals, actually." Moondancer admits, awkardly glancing between the two Bat-Ponies in the room.
"There aren't that many sources of knowledge revolving them that don't date to Nightmare Moon's era, and I'm sure that's... not the correct source to be looking for, in regards to the modern Thestral. Is there anything I should know? Any books I could read?" Moondancer explains, tapping her hooves together.

"Unfortunately, specialized literature is fairly rare on the topic of Thestrals. However, there are several Thestrals I could personally introduce you to that would love a cultural exchange. We could even use the library you establish as a grounds for new works to take place!" Twinkling explains, shifting over to seat between Moondancer and Arnon, clearly excited at the prospect.

Moondancer physically recoils at the mention of speaking to somepony. This confuses Twinkling, but Arnon has to stifle a snort-laugh as a cough. She's a shut-in, of course the worst part of the entire thing is having to actually talk to another living creatures. He's excited to see how Luna handles her own purple-pony.

"We'll handle that little tidbit when the time comes. All you need to know is they have a mixed diet, and live like they're on permanent night-shift. Otherwise, they're just pointier and fluffier." Arnon aptly sumizes, to which Twinkling can only shrug in agreement.

Vivid wasn't exactly helping deny those apt descriptions, the way she was softly snoring.

"Right... okay." Moondancer nods.

Arnon pushes himself up from his chair, before flicking Vivid's ear. It twitches, and Vivid's face scrunches as she starts to stir.

At first, confusion. Then, realization she was napping in front of several others. She's quick to try and hide the embarrassment, clearing her throat and standing tall, but an intrusive yawn interrupts her attempts to recover her dignity.

"Vivid, would you mind escorting Moondancer? A courier should be by tomorrow to pick up the letter, and we'll begin the moving process." Arnon explains. "And thank you for coming by. We look forward to seeing you around the castle -- and of course, you can always reach out to me if you have any questions."

"Y-yeah, of course. Absolutely. Miss Dancer, if you will?" Vivid quickly motions with her hoof, trotting for the door -- nearly bumping into one of the chairs.

"Oh! Okay. Thank you. So... we could get this going within the next few days?" Moondancer asks, pausing as she climbs off the opposing seat.

"We could have you in that library by midnight tomorrow." Arnon affirms, nodding.

A wide smile creeps across Moondancer's face.
"Great! Okay, thank you!" She quickly calls back -- promptly leaving Vivid in the dust, who scrambles after her.

Once it's just Twinkling and Arnon left in the royal study, Twinkling turns to Arnon, watching the human idly thumb through the remaining pages.

"I gave her the right form, right...? Yeah, I did. Alright, good." Arnon mumbles to himself.

"Unusually verbose of you, Royal Advisor." Twinkling chides, laughing.

"Yeah, yeah. Just trying to... brace her for the particular way Princess Luna tends to speak." Arnon rolls his eyes. "A little more complex than I prefer."

"I've heard how you speak during the day hours. Quite the shift." Twinkling comments, heading for the door.
"I've some preparations to make, since I doubt I'll be able to fall back asleep like Vivid. Do you need anything?"

"Nah, arm is fine. Do your thing, Twinkling." Arnon waves him off, finding himself alone in the study oncemore.

Overall, a good introduction that's going generally without hurdles. He's still assured that Moondancer is probably the best fit for Princess Luna... but part of him is glad he's already aware of some of their incoming hurdles.

"You need not do everything for us, Arnon. We are interested in speaking trivialities with our to-be student." A voice suddenly cuts in, as Princess Luna leans her head into the study, finding only her Advisor.

"If you'd like a chance to talk with her about..." Arnon flips through the top few pages. "Mailing address, emergency contacts, and references, just let me know and we'll push those off just for you." Arnon jokes, smiling at the newly-arrived Princess. She's clearly just woken up, and probably rushed right over the moment she heard about it. The bags under her eyes have yet to give up their proud position.

At first, Luna only squints... but eventually a soft laughter escapes her, the cold, ethereal demeanor dropping if only for a moment.
"Perhaps... not. We will wait with baited breath for our next proper face-to-face"

Luna slowly steps into the room, shutting it with her magic behind herself, the quiet room filled with little more than a crackling fireplace. It was to be a chilly night, and would likely continue to be fed throughout this night.
"Thou wasn't scheduled for our night tonight, if we recall properly." Luna comments as she nears.

Arnon flips over the last page, nodding to himself before leaving the pile of papers alone. Lots of little things that could be ignored until he was actually scheduled.

Pulling a little overtime after a day of Sun-Court to make sure the moon princess had everything going nicely. Not the first time he's done it... though Arnon's wondering why he has yet to so much as yawn. Probably still in work mode.

He turns to face the Princess, finding her standing but a foot from him, head tilted as she sniffs quietly at his cast.
"How does it fare? Healing well? We've yet to forgive our sister for injuring our Advisor." Luna tsks softly, eyes flicking up to meet his, watching his face from just under her mane.

"You know she feels worse about it than I do." Arnon shakes his head. "It's healing well, though. Couple more weeks, your pony doctors figure. They're still just trying to make sure they understand my weird body, since there's not many species actually biologically 'similar' that they have access to." Arnon explains, watching her curiously.

Considering their more personal interactions of late, the barrier between the two of them has been worn down significantly. Once cold and official, now... luke-warm and business casual. She wouldn't shy away from showing concern for Arnon, but Luna certainly ran the Night quite a bit different than Celestia ran the Day. And Arnon didn't mind it at all. They each had their quirks. Honestly, he's just glad she hasn't taken any of the things he's done personally. Like showing up in her room unannounced. Or showing up in her room, again, unannounced-- but drooling.

... Luna has been pretty kind about not taking his head for those. She seems to know he means well. As of late, she hasn't even been referring to him by his title, but by his name when they're alone.

"That is good. We've been torn that our push for you to engage in combat training had been set to the sidelines, but we are hopeful in it's renewal." Luna says, raising her head again.

"Combat training?" Arnon parrots, confused. They'd given him generalized training, the same that they typically give ambassadors, on self-preservation and basic situational knowhow.

"Correct. It would not do for one who serves us to not also be, in equal measure, prepared to defend us. Additionally, we believe thou wouldst look...good in armor." Luna continues to explain, though starts to hesitate near the end.

Luna was, quite notably, significantly more prominent in exuding confidence in two situations. Settings of public viewing, where she bore her regality in full, and when she was visiting in dreams. Her natural domain, where she alone held the gift to enter one's most private sanctum.

This was neither of those. There's a light flush to her cheeks, despite her attempts to remain stern and powerful. A difficult task when you're looking up at someone, and having difficulty maintaining prolonged eye contact.

Speaking of... her proximity is only amplifying how she's shorter than her sister, retaining the title of second tallest pony in the lands. Her head was right at his collarbones, meaning she was always looking up at him whenever they stood close, rather than the almost perfect level eye-contact of Celestia.

There's something... soft about Luna's entire complexion, without mentioning her boarding exotically silken touch-feel. The tone of her blue fur, accented by a flowing glimpse of the stars above and quiet, dark blacks. Unlike the bright, brilliant, flashy statement that is her sunbound sister, Luna's presence is just so subtly...

"Thou seems fond of staring, lately." Luna comments idly, tilting her head to the side.

"...Beautiful." Arnon mumbles quietly.

"O-oh?" Luna blinks, surprised.

Did he say that out loud? Her reaction is telling him he said that out loud. Shit.

But... she's not reacting poorly. Maybe it's an unusual surge of confidence, considering their already unusual relationship, or the way she seeks him out; the way she looks at him. The words start to leave his mouth before he realizes what he's saying.

"You know, uh..." Arnon starts, scratching his neck. "Would you wanna get something to eat sometime? Like, outside the castle. You and me. Someplace... cute and quiet?"

Luna stares at him for a long moment. The flush on her cheeks continually deepens, until it's a stark, deep-blue hue against her natural, softer tone. Funny, how she flushes the opposite color of most. She clears her throat, turning away as one of her wings unfurls, covering her mouth as she coughs politely.

"We are... busy with Night-Court. Numerous applicants to the city, New ventures being propositioned by several companies on the Thestral-District. Perhaps in thou's dreams." She utters quickly, before turning to take her leave.

The door to the study quietly clicks shut, leaving Arnon alone again.

... Was that a rejection? Arnon blows a raspberry, starting to collect the remaining pages.

... It didn't feel like a rejection. Was she being literal?

Arnon had no idea.