Lounging amidst the plush cushions of Princess Luna's bedchamber, you can't help but let your thoughts wander to… delicate subjects. The soft evening light filters through the balcony's gossamer curtains, casting warm apricot hues across your bare skin.

An idle glance traces the sinuous curves of Luna's sleeping form beside you. The Princess lays curled up in that gloriously equine way—legs tucked up under her lithe frame, those delicate wings furled against her flanks. Her midnight blue coat practically glows in the fading rays.

Ethereal tresses spill across the pillows in a starry azure cascade. Even at rest, Luna's very presence commands the eye to linger, drinking in each regal detail.

You reach out, overcome by an urge to run your fingers through those shimmering strands. But then your errant hand stills halfway, suddenly remembering the last time such a liberty roused her ire…

Best not to risk a repeat admonishment from your moody lunar beloved so close to your impending nuptials. Instead, you content yourself with simply watching the gentle rise and fall of her barrel with each hushed exhalation.

A wistful smile quirks your lips as you picture the sight, years from now. Luna, the most powerful and majestic of deities… perhaps, cradling a child of your joined bloodlines in those radiant wings. Your imaginings spin forth, painting vivid tableaus of filly and colt foals gallivanting underfoot as their mother looks on with regal indulgence.

The idyllic fantasy tugs at something deep within your soul. Truly, there could exist no greater culmination of your love and life's purpose than siring an heir to stand at Luna's side through the endless march of centuries to come. An immortal legacy, both figurative and literal.

Yet… would it be fair to them? You ponder with a furrowed brow. To bring new life into this realm, only for that spark to inevitably wither and gutter out whilst Luna remained, eternal and undying? The notion smarts like a century's worth of old wounds.

Regardless, the dilemma is worth broaching while the princess enjoys her respite. Settling back into the cushions, you clear your throat and pitch your voice into that mellifluous tenor that always seems to rouse your moody lunar mare's attentions.

"Love?" you softly murmur. "Hast thou given thought to the prospect of… progeny?" you ask, face lightly flushed as you broach the question.

You watch with bated breath as Luna's eyes languidly flutter open, blinking slowly before focusing upon you with that familiar intensity. The Princess regards your expectant expression for a heartbeat. Then her velvety lips curl in a sardonic smirk that immediately sets your instincts on edge.

"Well now, aren't we wasting no time broaching delicate subjects…" she practically purrs in that throaty contralto she has when just awakening. Each syllable dances across your nerves like the trailing caress of her feathery wingtips.

"Progeny, hmm?" Luna muses, rolling fluidly onto her barrel as she evaluates you from beneath hooded lids. Her mane ripples in a cosmic rainfall, stardust whorls ebbing and flowing across that sleek midnight coat. "Such heavy contemplations… One might deduce certain concerns furrow thy brow, my beloved."

She punctuates her teasing lilt with an impish flick of her tail across your waist. Despite the intimacy of the gesture, you don't miss the fleeting shadows playing behind those sapphire irises. Even at her most unguarded, your lunar beloved continues probing for some deeper kernel of insight buried amidst your queries.

The Princess arches her slender neck, her wings giving a languorous stretch that showcases every curve of her frame. Against your will, you find your gaze drawn in helpless appreciation to the sinuousness of her motions. After all these weeks of clandestine liaisons, Luna's effortless sensuality never fails to bewitch.

"Nay, nothing so profound. Just… idle musings," you smile affectionately, drawing her in close. "'Tis only natural for one to ponder what might befall possible futures, is it not?" you ask, pressing a small, chaste kiss atop her nose.

The corners of Luna's lips twitch in that almost-feline, knowing smirk you've come to know so well. A few errant strands of cosmic mane trail in languid coils across her withers as she shifts position, turning to fully face you with a regal tilt of her chin.

"Idle musings?" Her dulcet tones hold a lilt of sardonic amusement, one winged brow arching in that silent challenge. "Nay, beloved, We spy a deeper vein of consideration furrowed across thy countenance this eventide. Whispers of preoccupations better laid plain."

Luna leans in closer, muzzle dipping conspiratorially as her eyes gleam with that smoldering, all-too-perceptive light. "What weighs so heavily upon thy restless thoughts? Speak true, Anon—I shall brook no deflections or misted truths so close to our celestial union."

There's an undercurrent to her words you can't quite parse. Playful curiosity warring with some deeper prickle of… concern? Your lunar beloved's mercurial moods have ever swung between imperious arrogance and guarded vulnerability like cosmic pendulums. The mare currently fixing you with that piercing stare seems caught somewhere betwixt the two poles, awaiting whatever revelation you choose to impart.

You ponder for a heartbeat how much to divulge. Luna's intuition remains as keen as a wolf's—she'll sense any attempt at obfuscation or misdirection regarding your inner turmoils. Yet the issues gnawing at your soul this evening feel almost too… profound. Too existential to summarize in a few halting phrases without appearing utterly unhinged.

At last, you settle for the simplest version of the truth. Meeting that smoldering azure gaze steadily, you reach out to gently stroke the silken fur along Luna's jawline.

"We merely…" You pause, gathering your thoughts before continuing in that slow, implacable cadence. "Cannot seem to escape contemplating the notion of our love bearing forth new life unto this realm, only for us to inevitably…" You trail off with a rueful shake of your head.

The words catch in your throat, dry and raspy as scorched parchment. Those shimmering eyes of hers bore into you, unblinking. For all her prim equine airs, Luna displays an almost serpentine attentiveness in moments like these—intense, almost predatory, in her silent scrutiny.

You fight off the fleeting urge to swallow. It would belie the disquiet churning in your gut at having to give voice to these existential ponderings. Yet you know your beloved well enough to recognize when the Princess has sunk her proverbial fangs into a line of inquiry. There shall be no escaping this particular conversational quarry until she's had her fill.

So with a resolute inhalation, you press onward. "What awaits our… potential offspring?" The words feel leaden, almost too weighty to pass your lips. "Were we to bring forth new life in our union, they would greet this realm as the union of mortal and… immortal rendered flesh."

You pause, pulse thundering in your ears. Even after all these intimate weeks of playful backchannel and heated flirtation, uttering such existential notions out loud feels… profane, somehow. Like blasphemies spoken before altars of the holiest mysteries.

Luna's attentions remain utterly riveted upon you. Not a twitch or subtle swish of that mane of hers disturbs her poised façade. On the surface, her expression betrays naught but polite interest. Yet you sense those cosmic gears grinding away in that beautiful, incisive mind.

Swallowing hard against a sudden aridity gripping your throat, you resume your halting preamble. "Would it be right to shackle a soul to such… impermanence? Forcing them to love, age, and wither before your very eyes whilst you remain eternal, my nightingale?"

There. The kernel of your burgeoning doubts lies bare before Luna's gaze. You watch with bated breath as her exquisite features remain utterly unreadable for a long, drawn-out pause.

Princess Luna cants her head in a manner suggesting mirthful contemplation. For a lingering span, she remains silent while seeming to mull over your gravid query.

At last, the barest ghost of a sardonic smile teases those regal lips. "Thou dost worry overmuch about matters yet unspun by the loom of Fate, beloved," she chides gently. A few errant starry tresses caress your chest as the alicorn mare leans in closer.

"Have patience, love," Luna murmurs in that rich, smoky timbre. "Five days, and the dim morrow shall render itself clear upon the dawn of our nuptial bliss." One feathery wingtip trails along your jawline in a featherlight caress that sends delicious tingles cascading down your spine.

Before you can so much as part your lips, however, the Princess leans in nearer still, until your every inhalation carries the taste of her equine musk. "Although, if thou dost require concrete reassurances…" Luna breathes in a conspiratorial burr, velvety words ghosting across the sensitive whorls of your ear. "We shall endeavor to provide ample… distractions from such fretting this eventide."

You shiver involuntarily at her blatant insinuation, your mouth suddenly feeling arid. A beat of charged stillness stretches out between you as those lambent teal eyes of hers seemingly drink in your very essence. Then Luna blinks once in a slow, languid sweep of her lashes that utterly shatters the illusion.

"Unless of course… thou prefferst to wile the remaining hours mired in… circuitous metaphysics?" she husks, tilting her muzzle in a wordless challenge.

You regard Princess Luna with a mixture of boyish enthusiasm and wistful longing. Despite the rakish grin tugging at your lips, you can't quite mask the depths of emotions her teasing insinuations stir within you. This beautiful, mercurial creature with the soul of an immortal goddess all too often awakens the humbled poet lurking beneath your carnal veneers.

"Metaphysics, thou sayest?" you murmur, leaning in until the very air between you two grows charged with heady portent. Your next words emerge in a rasping growl that sends a delicious frisson rippling through your lunar beloved's withers. "Why Princess, We do believe accusations of such dry pedantry wound Us most grievously…"

With agonizing slowness, you reach up to languidly trail your fingertips along the feminine curve of Luna's jawline. She remains utterly transfixed, pupils dilating as your touch ghosts across those sleek fur lines in the lightest of caresses.

"Nay, dear Stardust," you breathe, hot and ardent against the velveteen contours of her ear. "Our only desire for this fading eventide is to explore the most sacred of mysteries in rapturous commune with our muse celestial…"

Luna's chest expands fractionally with a sharp inhalation, the rising tides of something fiercely sensual stirring to wakefulness behind her practiced airs of modesty. Her tongue darts out to moisten those lush lips in an unconscious equine tell. You can't resist a veritable grin of triumph at having stoked her baser embers so readily. "Every movement, every caress, every sound in our symphony of bliss…"

The sultry implications of your words seem to ripple through Princess Luna's very being like a physical force. You watch, rapt, as her pupils blow wide—brilliant turquoise irises swallowed by pools of midnight, devouring that regal facade in a tidal wave of primal ardor.

Those velvety lips part in a sharp inhalation, nostrils flaring delicately as the alicorn struggles to maintain her poise. Her sleek azure barrel visibly expands and contracts with each quickening breath.

"Such… brazenness…" Luna husks, the words emerging in a throaty rasp dripping with unspoken promises. Despite her bravado, you spy a telling quirk at the corner of her mouth—scarcely perceptible, yet present nonetheless.

A thrill courses through you at having chipped away that imperious outer shell, if only for an instant. Pressing your advantage, you lean in closer until your next words rasp directly against the delicate tip of her ear.

"What sayest thou, oh radiant Moonbeam?" You don't bother masking your grin at her muted shudder. "Wilt thou indulge thine unworthy servant's fervent cravings this eve? Or must We plead our case further before thy formidable tribunal?"

Luna's feathery lashes flutter infinitesimally. You watch, utterly transfixed, as those hooded eyes seem to drink you in—roving across your features in a smoldering caress that sets your pulse hammering anew.

At last, the Princess inclines her regal head in a subtle beckoning gesture, starry mane swirling in cosmic eddies.

"Then let thy lurid passions flow forth unchecked, my heart's flame," she rumbles in a tone brimming with sensual challenge. "Strip away coy pretenses and bared intentions, that We might savor the essence of thy storm entire."

Electricity crackles through the charged space between you at Luna's brazen decree. Before you can so much as part your lips, however, the alicorn shifts closer, barrel undulating in a sinuous, agonizingly slow motion against you.

"This hallowed union shalt be sealed in the tempest of our joined raptures," she vows, each syllable dripping carnal promise. "Let our ardors blaze unfettered beneath the cosmos' loving gaze this eventide, beloved…"

The chariot ride gives you ample time to appreciate the surreal situation you find yourself in as Canterlot Castle looms ever nearer on the horizon. You, Anon—a mere mortal who abandoned his true love Princess Luna so many centuries ago in pursuit of the elixir of life—now share the night sky with that same mythic mare of the moon.

Her cosmic mane ripples and flows like liquid starlight as she regards you with those piercing sapphire eyes. The undercurrents of hurt and rage from earlier have subsided… for now. Yet you can't shake the sense that the Princess remains perched on a knife's edge, torn between righteous fury and something softer, more vulnerable.

The thestrals bank in a lazy arc, adjusting course to approach one of the castle's lofty rear terraces. Delicate wisps of cloud matter part as you draw closer, allowing you an unimpeded glimpse of the breathtaking spired architecture.

Chiseled towers and parapets loom like craggy cliffs girding the palace's central citadel. Towering obelisks and buttresses appear sculpted from seamless slabs of gleaming marble, their soaring heights adorned with intricate celestial friezes and bas-reliefs. Despite its grandeur, Luna's home exudes an undeniable aura of… otherness. As if its very foundations were delicately upheld by more tenuous mystic forces than mere mortarwork.

This is far beyond what you could have imagined from your time in Equestria a thousand years ago; back then, Canterlot was but a mere village on the edge of the mountain. To think that tiny settlement had blossomed into the massive city sprawling before you…

You fight to keep your gawking eyes forward as the thestrals deftly pilot your chariot through a series of aerobatic maneuvers. The winged batponies swoop low, then peel off in arcing vectors before a steep climbing pivot. All while Luna lounges in her plush cushions, seemingly unruffled by their daredevil antics.

Finally, your conveyance glides through a yawning archway onto one of the terraces. The thestrals' wingbeats kick up dust as they settle upon the polished stonework. One of the burly guards touches down and dips his head respectfully towards Luna.

"We have arrived, Your Highness," he rumbles in a gravelly baritone. "It would be our honor to lend a hoof in disembarking this… elevated visitor."

His nostrils flare fractionally as you fight back an indignant scowl. The Princess hardly seems to note her subject's veiled insolence, however, and with a negligent flick of her feathered primaries, she addresses you in crisp Canterlot diction. "Very well. Let us repair inside these hallowed halls, knave." Her regal countenance offers no outward tells, though a slight furrow creases her brow. "There are matters requiring… further elucidation, as We have mentioned."

With that, Luna sweeps off the chariot in a single fluid motion. Those magnificent wings of hers extend to their full cosmic span, shimmering like a fragment of the night sky itself rendered in feathers. As much as you wish to shrink back from her imperious hauteur, some stubborn core part of you refuses to cower before this immortal spirit's grandeur.

You glance at the thestral guard and briefly take his hoof, hopping down from the chariot onto the stonework below. "Lead on then, Stardust," you intone, pitching your voice low. Whether to mask the tremor of uncertainty or convey some bravado is unclear even to you as you follow the princess inside.

The quiet echo of hoofsteps on marble floors reverberates through the expansive hallway as Princess Luna leads you deeper into the labyrinthine corridors of Canterlot Castle. Her mane shimmers with stray cosmic motes that cast faint kaleidoscopic patterns dancing across the polished walls.

Despite the grandeur of these palatial surroundings, you can't quite shake a creeping sense of trepidation. The proud arch of Luna's neck, the regal sway of her flanks—each seemingly innocuous detail belies a celestial power and millennia-honed mystique far beyond mortal ken.

You swallow hard against the dryness gripping your throat. This is not at all how you envisioned broaching your long-overdue reunion. Yet here you stride, an insignificant speck in the wake of Equestria's immortal Night Princess, bound for… what fate, exactly?

Only the steady percussive cadence of your boots on stone breaks the fraught stillness between you. Without preamble, Luna banks around a corner, proceeding down an adjoining passage lined with alcoves bearing various moon iconographies. You hasten to keep pace, taking stock of your otherworldly surroundings.

"These hallways are familiar to me, yet… different, Princess," you venture after several beats of silence have elapsed. An attempt to fill the void and soothe your own nerves, yes—but also the faintest of olive branches extended. "Before, every fresco and mural was an intimate companion, pondered over many a restless evening past."

Up ahead, Luna's gait slows fractionally. Over one shoulder, she casts you a sidelong look that betrays nothing of her thoughts on the matter. Still, you forge onward with your musings, buoyed by that infinitesimal acknowledgment.

"That one in particular—" You nod towards a larger-than-life mosaic depicting the Princesses warding off some otherworldly, tentacled cosmic horror. "I remember I once spent the better part of three nights pouring over the symbolism and celestiography depicted in the original." The faintest hint of a wry smirk ghosts across your lips as you recall the fond, if dry, memory. "Your sister eventually had to have me removed from the library on grounds of, ah… 'unkempt living habits', in her words."

There, a subtle crack in Luna's stoic façade at last—the merest upward twitch of one winged brow. Begrudging nostalgia, perhaps?

You follow the fluent sway of Luna's gait down the moonlit halls, drinking in the sights of this hauntingly familiar yet so strangely altered castle. It truly is as if you've stumbled through some cosmic weftway into a subtly skewed parallel of your fondest recollections.

Up ahead, your enigmatic lunar guide slows her cadence fractionally. For the span of several heartbeats, she glances over one shoulder at you, eyes glimmering in the dim torchlight like depthless cosmic pools. You note the way her feathery primaries give the barest twitch. A pointed flick of those regal ears suggests your clumsy attempts at levity were not entirely unheeded.

"Verily, 'twas ever thus whenever thou grew too… overindulgent in thine intellectual ardors," Luna remarks at last in a tone of affected weariness. Though you fancy catching a fleeting twinkle of nostalgic mirth flitting behind those sapphire depths. "We recall the handmaids' endless spates of griping over thy scholastic detritus littering the royal archives like a storm's winds had strewn them about."

The Princess shakes her regal head in a gesture of sardonic bemusement. Yet even as the motion sets her mane swirling in lambent cosmic cascades, you sense a subtle thawing—an intangible slackening of the brittle tensions that previously gripped her like iron shackles. A glimmer of your bygone camaraderie, perhaps, pushing forth through the cracks in her jaded veneer like the first vibrant petals of springtime after an endless winter's bitter dreaming.

You watch, heart rate quickening despite your best efforts to remain outwardly poised, as Luna pivots fully to fix you with a considering look. When next she speaks, her words emerge soft and burred—an almost conspiratorial murmur.

"Though We must admit, even Our most curmudgeonly archivists oft marveled over thy… singular zeal for unearthing even the driest and most recondite of knowledges. 'Twas both baffling and, in a peculiar way… endearing, truth be told."

You give a low, sardonic chuckle. "One might think I could have been a second Starswirl the Bearded, had I remained… though, admittedly I imagine my title wouldn't have been so… hair-brained." Ahh, starting to slip into rhyme again; seems like you're starting to ease into more comfortable conversations. Hopefully she doesn't mind.

"What impudence," she scoffs, rolling her eyes in that exaggeratedly equine manner that never fails to endear itself to you. "To even entertain comparisons between thy paltry scholarly triflings and one of Equestria's most legendary archmages? Truly, thine ego remains as voracious as ever."

Despite the Princess's sardonic disdain, the corners of her lips betrays the faintest of smirks. You can't resist a grin in return, reveling in this tentative rapport despite the fraught undercurrents lingering between you. Luna shakes her head once more, though her cosmic mane ripples playfully.

"Thou wert ever prone to shameless boasts and embellishments," she murmurs in a tone laced with something bordering on… nostalgia? "We wonder if perhaps that was a mortal idiosyncrasy intended to charm, or simply the product of an inflated sense of self-importance?"

Her wings give an affected little ruffle as she eyes you up and down in patent appraisal. You sense a glittering of impish mischief behind those irises of hers.

"Although We must admit, 'twas at times rather endearing to witness thy… excessive zeal," Luna concedes, pursing those lush indigo lips. "Like a determined colt scrambling to prove his prowess to elders. Had We been of a crueler disposition, We might even have encouraged such posturings for Our own amusement." The tiniest of rumbles, almost a suppressed giggle, reverberates in her throat at the thought.

You arch one eyebrow in response, crossing your arms in a show of playfully exaggerated umbrage. "Excessive zeal, you say?" you echo with an arched brow, sidestepping to bring yourself abreast of the statuesque alicorn as she swishes down the corridor. "Why, next you'll accuse this humble scholar of having let his studious ardor morph into downright obsessive squalor!"

You punctuate the declaration by flourishing one hand in an expansive arc. A few passing guardsponies skitter back in alarm at your sudden animated gestures, shooting nervous side-eyes at the lunar monarch in your midst.

Princess Luna, for her part, graces them with an utterly nonchalant look of regal indifference. "What, praytell, dost drive thee to such grandiloquent flamboyance?" she intones in that rich, cultured Canterlot accent of hers. "Unless of course, thou seekest to reaffirm thine own propensity for… peacocking, was it?"

Her words practically drip with barbs of sardonic amusement at your immodest display. Despite yourself, you can't quite resist meeting her mischievous gaze with an answering smirk, marveling at the easy way you've both slipped back into these comfortable grooves of playful banter.

You can't quite resist letting your lips quirk in a sardonic grin at Luna's barbed rejoinder. The Princess and her ever-keen wit—truly a delight to spar with! Her eyes dance with impish mischief, seemingly daring you to rise to the flagrant bait.

Still, two can play at these sorts of games. With an indolent roll of your shoulders, you school your features into an expression of exquisite nonchalance. "Why Princess, whatever could you mean?" you counter in a tone dripping practiced diffidence. "I was under the impression that pristine courtly manners dictated a modicum of… flourishing from any aspiring cavalier worth his salts in courting."

A beat lurches past as Luna cocks one imperious eyebrow in a wordless challenge of your bravado. Not missing a stride, you lift your chin and press the offense.

"Unless, of course, thy preference tends towards the uncouth philistine, who doth loaf about tavern dregs, uncaring for even the most basic observances of form and proper breeding?" You can't quite mask the impish twinkling in your eye. Riling up Luna's imperious instincts never fails to amuse, though you'd best mind straying too far into combative territory tonight.

The midnight blue alicorn snorts delicately, tossing her regal head in a show of exaggerated exasperation. Still, you don't miss the way her full lips quirk ever so subtly upwards. She's enjoying this little repartee just as much as you are!

"Thou artless wag," Luna intones, feigning a world-weary sigh. "We ought strip thee of thy posturing affectations and lay bare that inveterate showpony's spirit to humble itself in Our presence."

It takes all your willpower to not give her the 'make me' eyes, but you do manage to hold some manner of restraint. "Were it that easy, t'would have been a very short courtship indeed. But… I suppose there are other things we should attend to first… agreed?" You close your eyes and take a breath to calm yourself, giving her now a polite smile. "After all, we have 'matters' to discuss, 'tis as you decreed."

"So fixated on courtly affectations, this one," she drawls at length, each cultured syllable rolling off her tongue like cut velvet being unfurled. "Yet We cannot resist pondering how much of it stems from sincere ethos, and how much is naught but artifice donned like some gaudy mummer's robe?"

Those indigo wings extend fractionally in a minuscule ripple of motion. Despite the barb of her words, her tone remains honeyed—laced with the indelible sort of playful mischief you vividly recall from your courtship's dream-hazy halcyon days.

"Surely, no mere preening courtier's spawn could boast such… singular zeal for even the dustiest of academic trifles?" One slender brow arches in a pointed challenge. "Unless of course, thou art putting on airs to feed some base vanity lurking 'neath all that pomp and bluster?"

"Hadst thou considered, perhaps, that such singular zeal could somehow, simply… exist?" You wave a hand nonchalantly. "That a mortal such as myself might have had simpler motivations; I insist."

Luna casts you a sidelong look from beneath lowered lashes. Yet those quicksilver irises belie an impish gleam you've come to recognize all too well. She's thoroughly enjoying this little dance of witty rejoinders after so long apart.

"So resolute in thine… convictions," she remarks at length in a tone that suggests she only half-believes your professed motivations. A measured wing-swish punctuates the subtle challenge inherent in her words. "Though We must admit, 'tis rather… intriguing to ponder what could drive such airs of scholarly ardor in one not born to arcane mysteries."

Ah, there it is! The faintest quirk of one indigo lip—an unspoken dare dangled before you, baiting your spirit to rise and meet her bold pronouncement. Your lunar beloved has always excelled at stroking these particular metaphorical embers.

"Magic and arcana might be beyond my capabilities, true," you intone, before tapping your temple with a finger. "Though one as eternal as yourself should know that there are more paths to pursue. For that reason, precisely, is why I chose alchemy, and learning how to potion-brew."

Sliding into that subject, you focus to dial back the rhyming; best to draw back the levity and give the subject the seriousness it deserves. "'Twas… once more, never my intention to hurt you so, my Stardust," you breathe out a small sigh. "That same single-minded zeal that drove such ardor blinded me to the impact of my actions on what was to be our happiest day."

Princess Luna scrutinizes you with an impervious expression, that mask of aloof regality draping her elegant features. Yet you fancy catching the barest hint of curiosity tugging at the corner of her mouth as she mulls over your enigmatic confession.

"Alchemy, thou sayest?" she intones at length, dark brows angling in that inquisitive equine gesture you remember so fondly. "A most… unconventional pursuit for one of thy ilk, We must confess."

Luna's lambent turquoise depths remain utterly focused upon you, and her ears cant forward in that distinctive listening posture. The alicorn's muzzle remains slightly parted as if to better taste the very ether between you two for the faintest whispers of illumination. Even now, ageless eons removed from your salad days of courtship, you cannot help but feel a nostalgic pang at how utterly transfixed she grows when indulging her thirst for knowledge.

Steeling yourself beneath her scrutiny, you endeavor to gather the frayed threads of your narrative. "Alchemy was… a peculiar path to be certain," you admit with a faint quirk of your lips. "Though one that ultimately proved the sole means to secure my heart's deepest desire."

"You see…" Your voice lowers to a hushed murmur, imbuing each syllable with the weight of utmost sincerity. "My love for you became as all-consuming as the grandest stellar furnaces shortly after our betrothal was announced. And not simply in the carnal sense, though our… physical rapport was indeed…" You pause, allowing yourself a rueful chuckle at the recollection of those fevered nights spent worshipping every sublime inch of Luna's celestial form.

"No, 'twas a deeper longing that consumed my waking dreams," you continue, unable to tear your gaze from the Princess's captivated expression. "A yearning to join with you across the endless turnings of the cosmic wheel. To love and be loved in return, through the breadth of all eventualities, with nary a single revolution of the heavens separating us."

Princess Luna's gaze remains utterly transfixed upon you as you bare the emotional wellspring driving your quests of old. Those terrible cosmic wings extend in an unconscious display of grandeur, feathery primaries trailing faint auroras in their wake.

"So…" she murmurs at length, words etched in undisguised curiosity. "Thy single-minded pursuit of alchemical lore through the centuries was in truth… a labor of passion? An endeavor embarked upon to secure some manner of… everlasting congress with Us?"

The Night Princess's brow furrows infinitesimally as she mulls over this revelation. You can practically see the celestial gears grinding away behind those fathomless teal irises. When next Luna speaks, her tone carries a subtle undercurrent bordering on…awe?

"We must confess, the mind reels at such grandiose implications. To shackle one's spirit to the cosmic mysteries solely in pursuit of…" She pauses, as if tasting the words before uttering them with finality. "…love evermore with an immortal paramour?"

Wings rustling, Luna leans in closer to study your expression with laser-like intensity. The barest hint of an indigo flush blooms beneath that sleek midnight fur as the full import of your motivations settles in.

"Speak plain, for We would have this truth laid utterly bare," she declares in a tone edged with imperial command. "For what visions didst dance through a mortal mind to spawn such lofty and seemingly impossible ambitions?"

You consider Princess Luna's probing words with a thoughtful frown. Her unearthly gaze pierces you to the soul, those fathomless irises swirling with the mystery of a thousand cosmic eons. To speak plainly of the ambitions which first set you upon this path…

It seems suddenly so daunting a proposition. How to even begin unraveling the tangled motivations woven so deeply into your spirit's core? You let out a wistful sigh, buying a moment to gather your thoughts.

At last, you lock eyes with the statuesque princess and forge ahead:

"I suppose it all began with… daydreams, my Stardust," you murmur, unable to keep a hint of wistful longing from creeping into your voice. "Fevered imaginings wrought from the horrors of loss. Of watching you, eternal and undying, fade from my reach as the cruel tides of entropy swept me into oblivion's abyss… and before that, of my body growing old, my mind growing senile…"

You give an unconscious shudder, reliving those dark phantasms for but an instant. Yet even now, you sense Luna's regal countenance softening ever so slightly.

"I knew from the moment my love for you first blossomed, that I could not—would not—abide such existences divided betwixt the mortal and the immortal planes," you press on, unable to quell the rising ardor heating your words. "That no matter how blissful and rapturous our union should prove, the inescapable shadow of my transience would forever loom over our every embrace, every whispered endearment."

You draw in a steadying breath, Princess Luna regarding you with those infinite depths that put entire galaxies to shame. Her feathery wings give an infinitesimal ruffle, extending just a feather's breadth outwards. A subtle invitation to continue, you sense.

"As you say, Stardust… the prospect of losing you, even in fleeting imaginings…" This gives you pause. How to encapsulate that primal, visceral dread that gripped your soul from the moment you first entertained the ramifications of mortality in your union? "Let's just say the void that loomed chilled my spirit to the bone."

You let out a long exhale, the words emerging in a solitary plume on the hallway's still air. "And not simply an existential horror at my own death, though that too lurked ever in the back of my mind…" You note Luna's brow creasing infinitesimally at this revelation. "Nay, what gnawed at me far more were the nightmares of what your immortal existence would become in the wake of my extinguishing."

Despite your best efforts, your throat grows abruptly dry at the remembrance of those haunting visions—of your beloved Moonbeam left broken and bereft amidst the churning infinities of cosmic time. Forced to soldier on without even the comfort of decay's final reprieve, destined for a solitary road stretching on in perpetuity…

Thousands upon thousands of friends and subjects, fading like mayflies under Luna's ageless custodianship, while she remained, doomed to endure on and on as the lonely fulcrum of night's dreaming, her only companion being her sister.

Sucking in a sharp breath against the sudden tightness gripping your chest, you press on in throaty murmur laced with ardor. "These darkest of prophecies I could not—WOULD not—abide, sweet Moonbeam. For you most of all deserve to revel in the cosmic destinies allotted to us both."

Well, it seems your impassioned soliloquy has struck a chord within the regal Princess of the Night. Luna remains silent, though you notice the way her feathery wingtips give the faintest of agitated twitches. "So, thou doth profess," she murmurs at length, each syllabic footfall precise and measured as if treading upon tightropes. "An all-consuming ardor to bind thy ephemeral flame with Our eternal light."

The alicorn shifts her statuesque frame in an unconscious display of regal grandeur. Luna inches closer—near enough for you to see the aurora borealis of stardust whirling through the gossamer strands of her ethereal mane.

"We admit to being… intrigued by this grandiose quest thou spunnest across the ages," she husks, each word barely more than a conspiratorial whisper. "Wouldst thou expound upon this mythic elixir that supposedly granteth endless vigor and life unfading?"

Turquoise eyes blazing like newborn supernovae bore into yours with laserlike intensity. Heat prickles beneath your collar as Princess Luna awaits your response, utterly transfixed. There's an almost predatory quality to her unwavering scrutiny in these intimate quarters—as if her mere proximity instilled some intoxicating, mystical heaviness upon the very ether itself.

You open your mouth to respond, only for the curt clatter of approaching hoofsteps to cut you off. One of the Princess's royal batpony guards emerges around a corner up ahead, drawing up short upon beholding the two of you in this dimly-lit antechamber. He manages an awkward half-bow, throat visibly bobbing.

"Beg pardons, Your Majesty," the grizzled thestral stammers, clearly wrestling with his instinct to not acknowledge your presence outright. "I'd not realized you were… indisposed."

He sneaks a sidelong glance towards you, beady eyes narrowing. Luna, for her part, simply inclines her head in a negligent gesture—a silent command to proceed unbothered. The batpony rallies and presses on.

"The emissaries from the Griffon Kingdom have arrived ahead of schedule, Highness," he relays with a crisp exhale. "Their retinue grows… insistent on holding discourse regarding certain commercial shipping concerns before turning of the moon."

You turn your gaze down to your princess, and give a small, reassuring smile. "Suppose that will be a story for another time," you chuckle lightly, straightening yourself up to your full height as you let out a small huffed sigh. "Not to worry, I shan't be making any sort of grand escapes this night. Please, princess, do not let me keep you from your courtly duties."

Despite the gravity of your heartfelt confessions, Princess Luna eyes you with bemusement rather than scorn. The luminescence of her cosmic mane ripples like liquid moonlight across those noble features as she considers your acquiescent words.

"Very well then," the Princess remarks in that rich lunar timbre of hers. "We shall allow thee free range to wander Our hallowed halls… within reason, of course."

She punctuates that little caveat by arching one slender indigo brow in a wordless challenge. Still, you can't quite repress the surge of boyish glee bubbling up at having received Luna's indulgence—even if underpinned by veiled threats of retribution should you overstep.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," you manage, inclining your head in a respectful dip meant to convey gratitude. "I shall endeavor to keep a low profile while you attend to court matters. Just an insignificant being enjoying the cosmic grandeur of your kingdom from the sidelines."

The faintest of wrinkles creases the bridge of Luna's pert muzzle at your wry little aside. Before she can respond, however, the batpony guard clears his throat in a rusty rumble. "If it pleases you, Highness, I could assign a pair of sentries to… attend this visitor while you hold council?" He sneaks a sidelong look at you, beady eyes narrowing to inscrutable slits. "Simply to ensure no undue incidents nor… untoward explorations of restricted areas?"

Princess Luna appraises you for a lingering beat, giving her cosmic tresses a pensive toss. When at last she replies, her words emerge in a measured drawl. "No. We shall allow our esteemed guest a certain… degree of autonomy for the time being. Do be sure to remain within the royal residential wings, sirrah."

One feathery wing sweeps outwards, gesturing down the hall with regal insouciance.

"Enjoy thine evening revels and make thyself as comfortable as propriety allows." Despite the Princess's lofty words of assurance, her tone carries an unmistakable edge of subtle challenge. "Though pray take care to not overtax Our… hospitalities before We make adequate recompense this reunion. We would not see so momentous an occasion sullied by ambiguous improprieties."

Oh, she is utterly shameless, this Princess of the Night! For the span of several heartbeats, the two of you simply hold one another's gazes—the air between growing palpably charged and heavy with unspoken implications.

At last, Luna gives an idle wing-flutter, breaking the spell as she turns on one regal hoof and sets off down the hall. Her tail swishes almost playfully from side to side in her wake, leaving you watching after her retreating form.

Despite the underlying tension of unfinished business lingering between you, there's an undeniable spark of playfulness tingeing her aloof airs.

As if she fully expects you to take… certain liberties during your evening's idle roamings.

A wry smirk tugs at the corner of your mouth. Oh, you'll be the very picture of decorum, Princess. No need to fret over your hapless human paramour disgracing the royal suites with bawdy misconduct. Much.

The batpony guard eyes you with patent skepticism before sidling off to resume his watchful patrols. Left alone for the moment, you let out a low whistle of appreciation, surveying the opulent hallway's grandeur. Even after over a thousand years away, Equestria's architecture hasn't lost an iota of its breathtaking splendor… nor its distinctly otherworldly mystique.

Sweeping archways soar overhead in parabolic arcs chiseled from seamless slabs of ivory marble veined with glittering cosmic spirals. Delicate lunette frescoes and bas-relief friezes depict celestial iconographies and arcane stellar maps in lush hues. The vaulted walkways seem to go on forever, dimly-lit cerulean tiles stretching towards inscrutable distances.

You take a few meandering steps, running an idle hand along the ornately-carved balustrades. The polished stone remains refreshingly cool to the touch, negating any sense of stifling heat or stagnant dustiness one might expect from such ostentatious decor. No, these palatial interiors exude an ambiance of agelessness, of perpetual autumnal renewal.

You take a few indolent strides down the palatial corridor, unable to resist marveling at the grandeur surrounding you on all sides. Despite having strutted along very similar halls countless times in your days within the Castle of the Two Sisters, the sheer cosmic opulence of it all never fails to instill a sense of awestruck reverence.

Smiling to yourself, you run idle fingertips along the intricate friezes and lunettes lining the walls—massive columns festooned with arcane celestiographies and constelated with glyphs illustrating epic cosmological myths and allegories. You find yourself lingering over several familiar murals, rekindling memories of all the nights spent rapt before them in your scholarly youth.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, given your current… vulnerable state), the passage remains devoid of even the slightest spectral presence to inundate your wandering attentions. As you meander through an arched aperture into what seems to be an antechamber of sorts, your boots scuff quietly against the plush carpeting interwoven with starmaps and sigils.

The beat of wings rustling makes you pause, instinctively pivoting towards–

Oh. A quick sidelong glance confirms the intrusion is naught but another batpony guardmare bustling about. She pauses mid-flourish upon registering your presence in the chamber, canting her head in a mixture of consternation and trepidation. The two of you simply stare at one another for an achingly protracted moment, neither quite sure how to acknowledge this deliciously awkward encounter.

At last, the batpony guard clears her throat. "Ah, uhm… a thousand pardons, sir," she manages with a jerky bow of her head. "Didn't realize there were… visitors lurking about the west wing residential suites this evening. I shall, uh, take my leave at once if it pleases."

For a split second, you swear the poor mare looks as if she's debating whether to attempt making a hasty exit or simply stand at rapt attention. The comical indecision dancing across her features is enough to trigger a wry smirk from you despite your best efforts. Taking pity on the skittish servant, you elect to play along with her affected ignorance.

"No need for alarm, noble guard," you intone with a measured nod of greeting. "I've been granted leave by Her Majesty to discreetly wander the castle grounds for this evening's revels. Pray, make no fuss over my wandering comings and goings."

The batpony blinks owlishly at your casual dismissal of her concerns. She swallows visibly. "Ah… I see," she manages, still eyeing you with patent skepticism. "And Her Majesty, she… explicitly extended you free run of the royal residential quarters this evening?"

There's an undercurrent of frank disbelief coloring that inquiry. Yet the poor guard seems utterly torn between her understandable doubts… and the prospect of incurring Princess Luna's wrath by questioning her decrees.

You can't quite resist milking the delicious awkwardness of the situation. Hands clasped behind your back, you pace in an aimless half-circle, scrutinizing the mural-adorned walls with an air of exquisite nonchalance. "Why of course. Did you not hear her sumptuous decree resounding through these very halls?"

The batpony's furry ears cant forward in that patently equine listening gesture as you pivot towards her with a casual shrug. "I was instructed to 'make myself as comfortable as propriety allows within the royal residential wings', if memory recalls." You punctuate the remark by tapping one finger thoughtfully against your temple. "Though I must admit, the definition of 'propriety' grows ever more nebulous with each passing decade. What say you, my fine fuzzy shade?"

The batpony cocks her head, still regarding you with patent skepticism. "Propriety, eh?" she repeats slowly, as if tasting the word for any sour notes. Her beady yellow eyes rove over your form in a blatant onceover.

Despite your best efforts to keep your expression impassive, you can't quite resist the slight tugging of a smirk at the corners of your mouth. The guard's ears flatten infinitesimally as she notes your amusement.

"Look, sir… I don't want no trouble," she cautions in a low rumble. A leathery wing extends to indicate the plush interior of the chamber. "This whole wing is the personal quarters for the Princesses. I can't just let some strange biped go roamin' around unsupervised on Lady Luna's supposed say-so."

She snorts gruffly, nostrils flaring with disdain. For a few charged heartbeats, the two of you simply stand there in a silent clash of wills.

At last, the batpony gives a reluctant dip of her head. "Tell you what—you just stay put right here in this sitting room." She gestures again to the richly-appointed sitting area. Plush aubergine settees and tasseled poofs practically beg for lounging. "I'll send word to my superior that you're… a guest. Then we can get this whole misunderstanding sorted out proper-like."

The implied threat hangs in the air like a lead zeppelin as she arches one furry brow in challenge. It's clear the guard fully intends to keep you penned in like some exotic curiosity until the higher echelons can investigate.

You allow the smirk tugging at your lips to fully unfurl into a rakish grin. Beneath its cocksure veneer, however, prudent instincts niggle for caution. This batpony attendant clearly has her doubts about the veracity of your claims. Were you to push matters much further, it's safe to assume her skepticism might curdle into outright hostility.

Pivoting on your heel, you survey the lavish chamber with an air of studied nonchalance. Plush settees and tasseled ottomans festoon the space in rich jewel tones, all arranged facing an immense hearth carved from gleaming black marble veined with streaks of cosmic dust. The perfect staging for a royal audience, you muse. Or perhaps simply somewhere for Equestria's regal sovereigns to recline in opulent repose while receiving honored guests…

You shake your head minutely, batting away the errant thought. Best not get too bold, not this soon after your emotionally-charged reunion with dear Luna. No need to compound matters further by inviting the ire of her castle security detail, either.

"Very well," you acquiesce with a languid sweep of your hands. "I will await Lady Luna's confirmation here—for the sake of propriety's sanctity, you've naught to fear."

The batpony eyes you warily for a beat, clearly mulling whether to press her case. At last, she gives a curt nod and turns on one heel to exit the antechamber. No doubt she seeks to dispatch word of your mysterious presence to the higher echelons at once.

Left alone for the moment, you allow a soft exhalation of amused exasperation to whistle between your teeth. Oh, Stardust… Even a thousand years later, it seems your eternal kingdom remains as resplendent and headstrong as ever.

Chuckling under your breath, you saunter towards the hearth and lean one shoulder against the ornately-carved mantlepiece. Your wandering gaze inevitably settles upon the mural adorning the chamber's domed ceiling above.

Constellations and zodiac wheels spiral across that vaulted expanse, rendered in meticulous majolica tilework. The entire cosmic clockwork of the heavens has been captured in loving detail. You trace the familiar patterns and stellar allegories with your eyes, memories of your courtship's halcyon bloom flooding back unbidden…

A gentle summer breeze caresses the billowing drapes, setting them aflutter and allowing soft beams of afternoon light to cascade across the lavish sitting room. Princess Luna reclines amidst a nest of cushions in the middle, sleek midnight coat practically glowing in the sun's honeyed rays.

Her tail idly traces patterns along the lush carpeting as you emerge from behind a folding privacy screen, having changed into more court-appropriate attire. A dark purple doublet with golden inlaid buttons, a high, stuffy collar and cuffs, and leggings that definitely didn't leave you any room to… relax, so to speak.

Those beautiful wings extend in a languid stretch, ethereal tresses of her mane spilling across the pillows like rivulets of liquid starlight. "Hmm, thou lookest rather resplendent in those formal robes," Luna remarks in that rich, smoky alto of hers. A single winged brow arches appraisingly as she subjects you to an exaggerated once-over. "Though We must confess, a part of Us prefers thee attired in… rather less cumbersome accoutrements."

A warm flush prickles your cheeks at her brazen implication, despite your best efforts to maintain poise. The Princess's eyes positively smolder with mischievous intent as she notes your reaction.

"We… thanketh thee, princess," you intone, albeit a bit awkwardly. This 'royal we' dialect was certainly something you'd need to get used to; you weren't used to all this quite yet, despite having been cavorting with the two royal sisters since you were a youth. "Still, We believe this might be a bit… much, for us, though… unless that's the style of the dress?" you ask.

Unable to resist, she leans back into the plush cushions and gives her wings an airy flick. Those gemstone irises drink in the sight of you fidgeting and squirming in obvious discomfort at the overly formal raiment.

"Surely thou art merely experiencing sensations of… unfamiliarity with the dictates of courtly decorum?" she counters in a honeyed tone laced with gentle teasing. "Rest assured, We find the aesthetic most… becoming on thee."

Heat prickles across the back of your neck at those words, hinting at the playfully heated undercurrents swirling just beneath Luna's cultivated decorum. Flexing your hands at your sides, you can't quite repress the boyish urge to tug at your doublet's stiff collar.

"Well, if 'tis what the princess desire…eth?" you lilt up in a questioning of both the correct vernacular and the direct question to Luna herself. "Then We shall endure for thee." You make a point to do your best bow, but nearly stumble over as the stiffness of the outfit causes your balance to shift slightly. Luckily, you catch yourself with your hands before hitting the floor and ruining the raiment. "…But We will definitely be changing these out for more comfortable clothes as soon as court is finished," you chuckle.

Princess Luna's mane dances across her withers in gossamer waves as those hooded turquoise eyes appraise your flustered attempts at courtly decorum. A delicate smirk ghosts across her indigo lips, somehow both imperious and impish in the same instant.

"Worry not, beloved," she intones, vocals flowing like velvet across satin sheets. "We shall take exquisite delight in relieving thee of such… restrictive accoutrements once tonight's formalities reach their conclusion."

The tip of her tail traces a teasing spiral across the bedcovers, trailing ghostly afterimages. You swallow hard against the sudden tightness gripping your throat at Luna's utterly unsubtle implications. The Princess's smirk widens a fraction, betraying the hidden dimple in her cheek.

"For now, however," she continues. "'Twould behoove thee to affect a more… dignified mien befitting somepony of thy pending station."

With a subtle sweep of her wings, Luna rises from the rumpled bedding in a graceful, liquid motion. She steps towards you with the poise and regal bearing of… well, royalty itself, clad in cerulean flesh. Each feather-light hoof-fall seems to leave trailing coruscations of celestial energy winking across the plush carpet.

"Like so…" Luna murmurs, circling behind your rigid stance. The lightest brush of her wingtips against your shoulders prompts an involuntary shiver. You feel the Princess's warm exhalations stirring the fine hairs along the nape of your neck as she leans in with exaggerated ceremony. "Head upright, shoulders squared," she commands in a dulcet purr. "Project an aura of dignity and gravitas befitting thy soon-to-be royal station, beloved."

Despite the sheer absurdity of taking decorum lessons from a winged equine, you find yourself obeying Luna's instructions without a second thought. There's an undeniable mystique and presence to this immortal spirit you simply cannot resist…

That self-same patter of hoofsteps approaching breaks your reverie. You tilt your head just as Princess Luna emerges from a nearby archway in a swirl of cosmic star-mane. Upon catching sight of you lounging there, she draws up short—one slender wing instinctively flaring in mute surprise.

"Well now…" Her voice carries undisguised notes of bemusement. Keen cobalt eyes narrow as Luna takes in your casual repose amid the cushions of the sitting room. "Art thou already making free with Our private chambers on this hallowed eve?"

You straighten self-consciously, hands folding in your lap as you offer the regal alicorn a respectful nod. "Apologies, princess. 'Twas not my intent to encroach upon sanctuaries unbidden. These marvelous halls have a way of dredging up… memories, you could say."

A faint, rueful smile ghosts across your lips as you gesture idly towards the towering mural overhead. "So much of this cosmic grandeur rings with startling familiarity, despite the eons elapsed. I found myself… reminiscing upon cherished moments that feel simultaneously eons removed, yet as fresh as newly-spilled ink."

Princess Luna's chuckle rumbles in her throat like thunder on a summer eve. "Revisiting halcyon daydreams of courtship past, art thou?" she rejoins in that dulcet royal cadence of hers. "'Tis only natural, We suppose. The pangs of nostalgia strike even We who stand as immortal anchors amidst time's churning tides."

The regal alicorn prowls nearer on silent impetus, feathery wingtips trailing prismatic refractions in their wake. Luna casts you an inscrutable sidelong look from beneath one winged brow, coy smirk tugging at those lush indigo lips.

You hold your gaze for a brief moment, before looking away; all things considered, you've been wracking your brain in the background trying to figure out what her angle is. Why bring you here, of all places? Is she wishing to… rekindle old flames? Or simply chastise you one final time before throwing you in the dungeons for 'dereliction of duty'?

"I suppose… we're dancing around the true reason I'm here, then," you sigh, turning to face her as you lock your gaze with hers. "You said we have 'matters requiring further elucidation' and… well, after everything tonight, I figure it's best I'm an open book to you, Stardust."

You sit back on the cushions and rest your hands on your legs. "For the sake of wherever we end up after tonight… I hope these first steps bode well."

Princess Luna regards you for a prolonged heartbeat. Her terrible wings extend to their full cosmic span in an unconscious display of grandeur, ethereal mane swirling in gossamer eddies. Those turquoise irises blaze like newborn stars as she considers your plaintive confession.

"Ever the silver-tongued courtier, I see," she murmurs at length. Despite the Princess's arch tone, her words carry an undercurrent of wistful nostalgia. "'Open books' and 'first steps' proffered like well-rehearsed gambits across the jousting tilt."

Luna punctuates her wry observation with a negligent flick of her wings, delicate primaries trailing spectral afterimages. A few wayward pinions ruffle as the alicorn leans in closer, wings angling in a subtle beckoning sweep.

"Very well then," she declares in ringing Canterlot diction. "Since thou seem'st so avid to stride boldly forth down this particular conversational path, let Us oblige thy self-professed 'open book' philosophy post-haste."

The Princess comes to a measured halt before you, that terrible azure gaze searing straight through to your very essence. Constellations seem to swirl and eddy through those depthless cosmic pools, reflecting infinitudes both wondrous and utterly alien to mortal ken.

When next Luna speaks, her words emerge in a murmur so hushed it's almost conspiratorial. Yet they cut through the ambient stillness of the antechamber like blades of purest diamond:

"Why didst thou abandon Us that fateful eve one millennium past, beloved?" Her brow furrows as she awaits your response. "What drove thee to forsake our celestial union on the eve of its consummation?"

You draw a breath as the memory brings itself to the forefront of your mind. "In short, 'twas a fear of… leaving you behind, ironic as it may seem," you begin. "But that night…"

The full moon beams down in brilliant silver radiance, casting deep indigo shadows across the castle's sloping rooftops and turrets. You've been poring over these dusty old tomes and scrolls for hours, scouring every scrap of lore or hearsay about that fabled realm—Farasi. The land of the zebras and their mystic alchemies, rumored to hold the keys to transcending mortality itself.

A wry smile tugs at the corners of your mouth as you reach for yet another cracked, leather-bound folio. Immortality, eh? Just the sort of lofty aspiration fit for the consort-to-be of Equestria's own Princess of the Night. Your smile fades as quickly as it blossomed, however. After all, how could any mere mortal hope to stand eternal vigil by Luna's side across the eons?

Your quill scratches a few hasty notes about some archaic hieroglyphics mentioned in the text. At least you've pieced together enough clues to formulate a plan for reaching this 'Farasi Kingdom'. Now all that remains is… leaving everything behind to pursue it.

With a weary sigh, you cast your gaze towards the nearby writing desk. Laid out in pristine display rests a single sheet of parchment covered in your flowing calligraphy. The lengthy missive you've composed for Luna detailing your reasonings and your vows to return. You hesitate fractionally before rising from the small desk tucked away in this library alcove.

Time to stop delaying the inevitable, you tell yourself as you make your way across the hushed chamber. Each quiet footfall carries you inexorably closer to that heartfelt letter—and an irrevocable tomorrow filled with uncertainty.

The letter sits there upon the escritoire, an innocent-seeming parchment that belies the profundity of its contents. Its elegantly calligraphic script seems to mock you with each passing second, daring you to make your choice.

'Fare thee well, my radiant Moonbeam…'

The words practically burn into your retinas as you peruse those opening lines for what feels like the hundredth time tonight. Is there any way to truly soften the blow of what you intend? To explain your reasonings in such a way that Luna might… understand?

You already know how your beloved shall react upon reading your 'bald-faced justifications' for abandoning her on the eve of your long-awaited nuptials. You can practically hear that earth-shaking thunderclap of her infamous 'Royal Voice' now…

"ANON, THOU INCORRIGIBLE WRETCH! What madness is this desertion?!"

But for the sake of your eternity alongside her, you must take this step. You can only hope that in the time between you securing the elixir of life and returning, those pangs of hurt will have healed and you both can continue onwards. A few years is but a blink of an eye to an immortal goddess, after all—surely she would understand sacrificing a small time for the sake of eternity. Ceremonies are… transient, fickle things anyway—just a small formality in the grand scheme of things. Your love is more than just a simple ceremony, and soon it will blossom unto the endless march, hand-in-hoof.

Your jaw clenches, hands curling into white-knuckled fists at your sides. Once more, you cast your eyes over those bittersweet opening lines through a sheen of unshed tears. Despite knowing that it's the right thing, you hate to put both of you through this…

"My luminous jewel, by the time thine eyes findeth these words, I shalt already be well on my path towards…"

"Somewhere, deep down, I knew that I was going to hurt you by doing what I did… but beloved, you must understand, I… I was not aware of all that would transpire in the wake of my absence," you turn your gaze up to meet hers once more. "I never intended my actions to cause you such anguish, my Stardust…"

Princess Luna's wings sweep out in an unconscious display of grandeur as she considers your plaintive confession. Those eyes—cosmic nebulae burning with the light of a million stars—remain utterly transfixed upon you. Her teeth worry at her lower lip for the span of several heartbeats while she processes your appeal to reason.

"Hurting Us was never thine intent?" she echoes at last, each syllable etched in acid skepticism. Luna's regal head angles in that distinctly equine manner, stars swirling through her mane in eddies of celestial light. "Thou findest a curious way of conveying such… devotions."

Despite the razored edges lingering in her tone, the Princess cannot completely mask a certain underlying reluctance to her words. As if some primal part of her very essence still yearns to trust in whatever cosmic mysteries you withhold.

Yet the rest of her remains guarded, wary—a wounded soul not so eager to expose its softer underbelly after being so savagely rent.

Luna's svelte navy withers sway in an almost serpentine motion as she steps a fraction closer. Those gemstone irises blaze with the light of reborn suns, searing past all facades and baring each secret recess of your soul to her cosmic scrutiny.

"What couldst possibly excuse such a grievous betrayal, sir?" she challenges, bitter undercurrents swirling beneath that sonorous alto. "After pledging thine heart and dedicating every facet of thy mortal existence to Our cause celestial?"

You swallow hard against the sudden aridity gripping your throat. Luna's words hit like the hammer-blows of an angry god, laying bare the sheer extent of your transgressions in stark, unvarnished truth. How to even begin chipping away at the vaults of resentment sealing her heart against you?

Still, the Princess does not turn away. Despite the brittle edges fraying her regal mask, Luna holds your gaze in silent challenge—daring you to unbridle the full breadth of your justifications in one indelible torrent.

You hold her gaze for but a moment. "Do you remember… when we discussed the fate of our would-be progeny, days before what would have been the ceremony?" you ask, plaintively holding her gaze for a few moments before looking down at your hands. "Do you remember what you told me?"

The words seem to hang in the air, lingering like the fading vapor trails of twin shooting stars racing across the celestial sphere. Princess Luna's mouth works silently for a heartbeat, as if chewing over their implications.

At last, her velvety lips part to deliver a rejoinder in that signature regally-cultured cadence. "We recall those… delicate ruminations, yes." Despite her poise, you detect the faintest hitch of hesitation lacing those syllables. "Though We must confess the… exact particulars elude Our mind's grasp at present."

One feathered wing angles outward in an inquisitive sweep, beckoning you to elaborate. The Princess's terrible eyes blaze like newborn suns, ancient and inscrutable. Behind them churns whole cosmic tides of emotion and wisdom far beyond your mortal ken.

Luna shifts infinitesimally closer, mane rippling in diaphanous auroras that cast her delicate features in soft, ever-shifting halos of opalescent light. A faint hint of mystery and challenge ghosts across those regal lineaments.

"In not so many words, my concerns were… dismissed, by you," you mutter. "Told simply to 'have patience'. I thought nothing of it at the time, but deep down…" you trail off. "Deep down, I believe that was the moment my decision was made."

You turn your gaze back up to hers and nearly lose yourself in those shimmering sapphire irises. "My only wish was to be your light everlasting, love… just as you were for me."

Princess Luna's azure orbs regard you sidelong, infinite depths swirling with eddies of mixed emotion. "Dismissed?" The regal mare's voice carries notes of bemusement tinged with a edge of challenge. "Nay, beloved, thou dost misremember the spirit of Our counsel that eve."

Her regal head cants to one side in a bemused equine gesture. The ebony curve of Luna's muzzle twitches almost imperceptibly as that quicksilver stare seems to drink in your very essence.

"'Twas not dismissal, but an appeal to faith that We imparted," the Princess clarifies in rich lunar tones. Each syllable seems to caress the air between you, ponderous and measured as the cosmic clockworks overhead.

"A love so profound as to tempt the fundamental boundaries sundering immortal from ephemeral…" Luna's feathery lashes dip slowly, and, when next her eyes open, those azure pools blaze with the fire of stellar furnaces long since burnt to cinders. "Such was thy fancied aspiration, was it not? To become Our… eternal companion in the grandest of all senses imaginable?"

A heartbeat of pulsing silence hangs thick between you. The Princess's mane undulates in hypnotic, diaphanous waves—as if the very cosmos themselves hold their breath awaiting your reply.

When you manage a hesitant nod of acquiescence, Luna exhales a single plume of breathy vapor. "Then it should come as no surprise that We harbored… certain reservations over the viability of thine ambitions."

She lapses into muted quiet once more, seeming to gather her thoughts. Despite her diminutive equine stature, the sheer presence radiating from her immortal spirit instills in you the distinct sensation of facing down something far more vast and unknowable than could ever be properly rendered in mere words.

"Even so…" the Princess breathes at last, turquoise gaze arrowing straight through your bravado to the primal core lurking beneath. "We should not have dismissed thy concerns over perpetuity so lightly, it seems. For in doing so, We laid the first paving stones down a road of bitter strife for us both."

You give a small, wistful sigh. "Thank you, princess. Still… all the same, it doesn't excuse what transpired. I should have been more forthright with my thoughts and worries from the beginning. Perhaps… things could have occurred differently."

Those final words seem to hang in the air like smoke trails from a cosmic flare. You watch, utterly transfixed, as Luna considers this latest appeal with patent intensity. Each rise and fall of her barrel carries those celestial mane-tresses undulating in hypnotic ripples. The seconds stretch into a taut infinity as those cobalt irises bore directly into your soul. Twin cosmic vortices swirling with alien mysteries and unfathomable emotions.

At long last, Luna breaks the spell with an imperious toss of her regal head. "Shouldst, couldst, wouldst…" she husks, vocals pitched in a conspiratorial murmur. "Empty words, beloved—hollow syllables like hollow bones in the wind."

A feathery wing angles outward in a negligent beckoning gesture. Luna leans closer, until you can taste the electric ozone tang of her cosmic presence crackling on the very air. "For what's done cannot be merely… undone," the Princess intones in somber tones brimming with ancient wisdom. "Betrayals and recriminations may come and go like the turnings of tide and moon."

She pauses, locking you in that fathomless azure gaze with laser-like intensity. "But across the indelible span of existence, only consequences remain to be endured in full…"

You give a rueful smile, closing your eyes. "I suppose not," you say, turning your gaze down to the ground. "So. I've laid out my reasonings and my regrets… I know there is naught I could do to undo the wound I carelessly carved upon your soul, yet… I feel compelled to ask what you would have us do, now that I'm here, whole and hale once again?" you ask, the question cutting through the tension in the air.

A hushed silence hangs in the air, thick as woodsmoke. Despite your plaintive plea, Princess Luna regards you through narrowed eyes—turquoise irises blazing brighter than binary stars at the height of their stellar furnace cycles. Those feathery wings give a minute tremble, pinions rustling with susurrations as she considers your words.

At long last, the regal alicorn draws in a slow, centering breath that seems to displace the very ether surrounding you both. Her starswept mane undulates and swirls in an otherworldly display of celestial grandeur, wisps of stardust trailing in Luna's wake like spectral afterimages.

"Consequences…" The Princess samples the word with exaggerated care, voice pitched in a throaty murmur. Something about her tone lends the simple utterance solemn, almost ritualistic weight—as if invoking ontological mysteries far beyond your mortal ken.

"Truly, thine inquiry lays bare the heart of all matters between us now, does it not?" Luna's terrible eyes glimmer with a searing intensity that freezes you in place like a basilisk's paralyzing stare. "What judgments shall We render upon thee in light of thy… retrospective regrets?"

She allows the implications of that question to linger between you for several pounding heartbeats. The ambient stillness in this opulent antechamber feels almost corporeal now—a living, breathing presence awaiting some divine word or edict from on high to set its celestial gears in inexorable motion once more.

At last, with ponderous languor, Luna half-turns and gestures towards the hearth's massive mantelpiece with one feathery wing extension. A silent entreaty to follow as she meanders in that direction.

The Princess angles her regal head just so, eyes glinting with a hint of challenge. "Come, beloved. Let us take this matter up in a setting more… befitting the gravitas of our reunion, hmm?"

Your jaw works wordlessly for a suspended heartbeat as you regard the statuesque Princess before you. What consequences might she have in mind, you wonder—eyes trailing over the lithe, equine frame swathed in ethereal grandeur.

Despite the pounding of your heart echoing in your ears, some stubborn core part of your spirit remains steadfast in the face of this immortal mare's grandeur. You swallow hard, forcing your gaze to hold hers in a steady, resolute lock.

With a measured nod, you rise from the plush settee to follow Luna's beckoning sweep towards the crackling hearth's flamelit tableau. The soft glow of the hearth's crackling flames casts flickering shadows across Luna's face as she pivots with regal poise to face you fully. Her starmane ripples in diaphanous waves, tinged with opalescent hues by the dancing firelight.

"Let us be plain in this audience between paramours divided across a millennium's gulf," the Princess intones, her keen stare lancing straight through to your core. Despite the intimacy of her throaty murmurs, that clarion voice rings with the full grandeur and command of the cosmos itself given equine shape.

"Thou hast spoken true of thine errant quest into the desert kingdoms beyond," Luna rumbles. "And in so doing, returned to lay plain both thy… rationales and lamentations for abandoning Us upon that darkest of eves."

She pauses fractionally, feathery lashes dipping in that unconscious equine gesture of consideration. When next those gemstone irises blaze open, their cosmic depths glimmer with keen preternatural discernment.

"Yet We must still grapple with the maelstrom of ramifications wrought by thy self-same selfish ambitions…" The Princess lapses into thoughtful quiet for a pointed beat. Out of the corner of your eye, you note the hearth's roaring flames seeming to intensify and swell—growing brighter, more vibrant in direct correlation to Luna's mounting intensity.

"For whilst thou hast ostensibly secured eternity in liquid form," she adds at last, inclining her head towards the satchel resting at your side. "The indelible path of consequences leading to this reunion can no more be erased than the waning of the moon itself halted in its celestial tracks."

Her feathered wings extend fractionally, trailing gossamer auroras that hint at unknowable cosmic forces held in celestial check. Luna's voice remains pitched in hushed, conspiratorial undertones—yet it resonates with a soul-deep timbre that belies her equine frame's diminutive stature.

"We speak naught of empty chastisements nor airy pronouncements," she continues in that dark, silken murmur. Each syllable seems to shimmer with the ponderous weight of eons' worth of ancient wisdom. "But of the indelible burdens shaped from thy deeds of old."

The Princess steps nearer, wings reaching outward in an unconscious beckoning gesture. "…Which thou must needs learn to shoulder thine own self."

You kneel down upon one knee to lower to her eye level. "Whatever it takes to make things right… my Stardust."

Princess Luna remains silent for several aching heartbeats. Those depthless azure irises seem to lay bare each secret recess of your soul to their burning cosmic scrutiny. Then, at long last, she speaks in hushed yet resonant tones:

"Thou wishest to bear these… indelible burdens forged from thy misdeeds so readily?" A slight furrow creases the slender bridge of her muzzle as her feathered wings give an agitated twitch. "So be it, rash one. Though We must solemnly caution—the consequences of thy abdication once visited upon Our realm yet linger in ways mortal imaginings cannot fathom."

The words emerge hushed, almost conspiratorial—yet they resonate with the sort of cosmic gravitas that makes your very marrow ache. Luna's mane swirls with cosmic energies, stray tendrils of celestial light trailing in her wake like celestial contrails. She fixes you with a searing look from beneath lowered lashes, irises blazing brighter than binary stars.

"No matter thy perceived devotions, O prodigal spark, thou must bear witness to the entirety of thy unmaking's aftermath," the Princess decrees, pitching her resonant alto to carry the full gravity of her proclamation. "Only then shall We allow contemplations on potential… recompenses."

You nod solemnly, breathing out a sigh you didn't know you were holding. "I've been running from my responsibilities for a long time, beloved," you begin. "If what it takes to heal from this is to face the demons of our shared past, then so be it. I'll not shy away this time, love." You give her a small, wistful smile. "I will prove to you that I've grown since then… and I'll be the faithful consort that you deserved all those centuries ago."

Princess Luna eyes you with solemn intensity, her terrible wings extending to their full celestial span. Those depthless azure irises seem to lay bare the indelible tapestry of your very soul, penetrating through mortal facades to the cosmic essence burning at your core.

"We shall hold thee to those vows, beloved," she rumbles at last, each syllable reverberating with the ancient cadences of creation's first breath. "For the path ahead shall not be simple—nor swiftly trodden by feeble constitutions."

Luna steps closer, feathery wingtips trailing shimmering afterimages of celestial fire in their wake. Despite her diminutive stature, an aura of profound, nigh-unfathomable presence radiates off the petite Princess in waves of psychic pressure. You cannot resist squaring your shoulders, steeling your spirit against the almost corporeal force of her grandeur.

"Rest now, whilst thou can," the alicorn murmurs in a conspiratorial burr, tossing her regal head towards the chamber's arched egress. "On the morrow, We shall begin thine… initiation into the full breadth of consequence wrought by the devastation thou hath inflicted."

Luna's words seem to echo off the vaulted chamber walls, underpinned by subtle distortions and eddies of cosmic energy that lend them metaphysical gravitas. You taste the effervescent tang of celestial ozone crackling across your tongue as she speaks. "Guards! Escort Our prodigal flame to the east wing's guest quarters. Let him repose this eve as Our patience allows."

Two of the Princess's thestral night guards emerge from the shadows in a flutter of leathery wings, dipping their furred heads in obsequious bows. "At once, Your Majesty," the larger of the pair—you recognize him as the one from earlier that called the princess away to the night court—rumbles in a voice like gravel crunching underfoot.

"Until tomorrow then, Your Highness," you bow your head respectfully, and for a hesitant moment you feel the compulsion to reach forward to embrace her, but you hold it back. Standing once more, you regard her a final time with a nod, before leaving to follow the two batpony guards through the halls.

The batponies flank you in silence as you make your way through Canterlot Castle's labyrinthine corridors. Your eyes roam over every surface in quiet awe, drinking in details both hauntingly familiar yet subtly askew. As you pass beneath a soaring archway, the same thestral guard from earlier clears his throat in a gruff baritone rumble. "This way, sir. The east wing residential quarter lies just ahead."

You nod your acquiescence, unable to resist casting one final glance over your shoulder. Your gaze inevitably settles upon the frescoed mural adorning the ceiling's vaulted dome in that antechamber. Despite Princess Luna's rather… fraught declarations, some tiny flicker of optimism refuses to be utterly extinguished within your spirit.

After all, she heard you out. She chose not to simply unmake you where you knelt before her cosmic grandeur. And while the future remains shrouded in unfathomable mysteries, that briefest audience seemed to crack her eternal veneer of dispassionate animosity, if only for a few heartbeats. Call it foolish, but that tiny spark of… something kindles the smallest ember of hope that not all is lost between you after this bitter millennium of partings.

Up ahead, the broad double doors leading into the royal guest wing loom like monolithic sentinels. One of the batponies reaches out to shove them open with a casual sweep of his brawny shoulders, the ancient timber creaking softly inwards. A plush, burgundy-toned antechamber lies beyond, ringed with archways branching off to various suites and salon chambers.

"Here we are," rumbles the grizzled guard. He gestures with an idle wing-sweep towards the rightmost aperture framed by delicate cornices. "Your guest accommodations await, sir."

You pass through the imposing double doors into the opulent residential wing, marveling inwardly at the sheer grandeur surrounding you on all sides. Rich burgundy velour spans the walls, delicately embroidered with glittering celestial iconographies rendered in silver threadwork. Despite their ornate beauty, the geometric star charts and nebulous constellations appear somehow… alive, glimmering and shifting hypnotically in your peripheral vision as if illuminated by some unseen celestial radiance.

Overhead, an arched rotunda in the ceiling soars to dizzying heights—an entire firmament of malachite and lapis lazuli tile work depicting the heavens in exacting splendor.

Not for the first time in this fateful reunion, you're struck by the sobering realization that you—a mere mortal—stand at the umbral heart of a goddess's sanctum. Every opulent fixture and celestial flourish utterly foreign yet achingly familiar in ways that instill a peculiar nostalgic resonance deep within your soul.

One of the batponies snaps you from your musings with an impatient throat-clearing. You glance over to find the winged guard regarding you with one arched brow and a droll expression. He nods towards the indicated suite archway with an idle wing-flick. "In here, sir."

"Ah, right—sorry." Squaring your shoulders beneath that gimlet stare, you stride into the adjacent antechamber with all the poise and dignity you can muster. Torchlight dances across lavish furnishings upholstered in rich damask silks. Supple leather-bound tomes and celestial globes line the surrounding shelves. Despite its grandeur, the suite radiates an ageless and surprisingly inviting warmth—no doubt enhanced by the crackling hearth nestled into one corner.

You make your way across the plush wool carpeting, taking in the luxurious trappings with a wistful pang of reminiscence. The delicate, familiar fragrance of lavender perfumes the air, infused with subtle undercurrents of smoldering embers and… something else?

Turning back to the two batpony guards, you give a polite nod and smile. "Thank you both; I'll be fine for now. Return to your duties, sirs."

The thestral guards exchange a brief look. After a beat, the larger of the two simply grunts and inclines his head in a subtle nod. "Rest well then, sir. Should you require anything, the night staff shall be making their rounds."

With a whisper of leathery wing-membranes, the pair of batponies turn and exit the guest suite, leaving you alone at last. You take a moment to simply…breathe. Drink in the ambiance of this lavish yet hauntingly familiar setting.

The hearth's dancing flames cast wavering shadows across the plush upholstery and polished woodwork. That heady lavender fragrance seems to grow more pronounced, whispering of long-forgotten intimacies and indulgent nights spent reveling in sensual delights.

Despite your weariness after this emotional crucible of an evening, you cannot quite shake a lingering sense of static tension thrumming beneath your skin. As if the very air in this opulent chamber remains charged with unresolved energy in the wake of your heated reunion with Princess Luna.

You shake your head, trying to dislodge the thought. No sense dwelling on the unknown until you've had a chance to decompress, yes? You let out a long, steadying exhalation and make your way towards one of the nearby divans.

Utterly spent, you sink into the sumptuous, royal blue upholstery. The crackling fire warms your body, but cannot Quite soothe the lingering tension humming beneath your skin. Despite your Weariness, your mind keeps circling back to the passion burning in Luna's eyes as she leveled that soul-searing gaze upon you.

You shudder involuntarily, Images of her terrible cosmic grandeur flickering behind your eyelids like an afterimage seared onto your psyche. That ghostly caress of celestial power rolling off the Night Princess in waves of sublime force... truly, it's a miracle you remained upright before such preternatural majesty.

Yet amidst the vortex of turmoil churning within those fathomless sapphire orbs, you fancied catching hints of something... softer. More vulnerable, even. As if Luna's scorching indignation was but the outermost shell concealing primal embers of longing never truly extinguished.

You exhale a ragged breath, muscles gradually unwinding as you sink deeper into the plush cushions. Despite your jangling nerves, you cannot deny the undercurrent of heady nostalgia woven through this opulent guest suite. Every quivering shadow thrown by the hearth's firelight conjures reminiscences of tangled sheets and satin caresses amidst rumpled bedding. Of feathers and starry tresses spilling across silken pillows in reverent disarray.

These lavish chambers drip with the same saccharine indulgences that once defined your courtship's most indulgently intimate throes. Idly, you wonder if this is... some subtle test orchestrated by Luna? Some sly cosmic gambit to torment you with wistful remembrances of love's most feverishly blissful consummations?

Surely not. Your lunar beloved would not be so... petty as to subject you to such torturous mementos simply for her own amusement? And yet, your subconscious churns with unsettling speculations about just what "initiation" into the "aftermath" of your past sins the Princess has in store for you come the morrow.

You let out a shuddering sigh, struggling to center yourself amidst the riptides of memory and trepidation pulling at your convictions. Soldiering forward, you shuck your boots and outer layers until clad only in soft linens. The plush bedcovers beckon with the promise of at least a temporary reprieve from this evening's turbulence.

Settling beneath the velveteen sheets, you cannot resist breathing deep of their exquisite fragrance. Some deep, irrational corner of your spirit fancies the warmth and comforting aroma as a subtle overture from your erstwhile paramour herself.

A plaintive smile plays across your lips. If only that were so, you cannot help but think wistfully. With a bone-weary sigh, you close your eyes and endeavor to quiet the tempest of warring emotions churning through your being. The Princess has promised a new world of consequence awaiting on the morrow. Best to find what solace you can in dreams while their reverie still lingers...

You watch the human slouch away into the dimly-lit castle halls, guided by your batpony sentries. A flicker of… something, ghosts across your breast. Regret? Longing? Your ethereal mane swirls and eddies with myriad unspoken implications.

For now, tranquil solitude envelops the opulent antechamber once more. The hearth's embers cast wavering halos across the vaulted fresco overhead—entire galaxies captured in exquisite mosaic tilework twisting in the fickle firelight.

A bitter revelation unfurls within your breast, inescapable as a black hole's event horizon: All along, despite the expanse of eons, you have been inexorably drawn back into that singularity's umbral pull. Your antepenultimate betrayer's gravity well.

Of course, you expected as much from this reunion's first tremors. Yet even your timeless spirit reels at the revelations delivered so candidly by that cocksure human whelp. His audacious presumption to transcend the cosmic boundaries dividing immortal and ephemeral chafes against your regal bearing. How DARE he strive for such lofty, forbidden ambitions? To gift himself the spark of eternity itself… what divine hubris motivates such arrogance?

And yet, you muse with a dour twist of your muzzle, those professed aspirations… do align with the core of virtues you once extolled in him. Loyalty. Dedication. An ardor bordering on rapturous zealotry. All traits sorely lacking in your past courtiers and their empty pretensions of noblesse.

Your wings unfurl in a graceful, unconscious sweep as you pivot to appraise the chamber's ornately carved mantelpiece. Indeed, something resonates within your ancient spirit at the recollection of Anon's seething intensity. Those furnace-stoked passions that so fervently courted your affections across every long-forgotten battlefield and hallowed dance.

Despite all sense and propriety, you cannot deny a perverse… curiosity burns within your breast. A spark of fascination over what grandiose cosmic machinations your paramour of old wove to achieve his professed transcendence. Alchemy and desert-spanning quests, hmm? Perhaps you shall be able to pry such mysteries from his mortal shell yet…

Author's Note

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