Bad Moon Rising

I See A Darkness

“I think I know that look.”

Twilight wheeled around as soon as Luna spoke, and the moon princess found her heart ache for the little alicorn. Her pupils were wide, wild, her breathing shallow. What had started as a little celebration had become something more like a grand ball, hosted in the derelict castle of the two sisters.

It had been decorated by Rarity and a small team of like- minded designers, but Celestia had asked that the weathered charm of the locale be emphasised, not covered up.

Luna had watched Twilight the entire day, seeing her greet dignitary after dignitary after politician after self-interested noble. All she could think was how much more suited the poor thing was to a library, instead of nervously sweating through her dress, twitching ill-fitting wings in panic.

Not wanting to let anyone down.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed, visibly trying to make herself smile.

Luna tilted her head.

“When did you stop calling me Luna, Twilight? I thought we had an agreement,” she teased, before leaning in to whisper in Twilight’s ear, “Why don’t you come walk with me, just for a little while,”

“Oh! But Celestia said I should mingle, get to know my new… new subjects,” Twilight replied, cringing as she repeated her mentor’s words.

“Ah yes, fascinating commentary from my elder sister,” Luna said, taking a small drink from her wine glass to prevent her mouth from involuntarily screaming some profanity, “Tell me, where has she gotten off to?”

“She told me there was something she needed to attend to in the old tower you two used to share,”

“Well, in her stead, I’ll take the role of your party coordinator, and this particular princess thinks that the guest of honour doesn’t need to do anything other than what they want… so tell me, do you want to stay here, greeting more ponies. Or do you want to come with me, someplace quiet, and talk,”

“Talk about what?” Twilight said, sounding short of breath.

Luna could have cried for her, and would have, were she not so concerned with Twilight’s feelings.

“We can talk about whatever you want, Twilight,”

Equestria’s newest princess took a few seconds to think, muttering inaudibly under her breath, before nodding towards Luna. It was all the encouragement needed. This wasn’t Twilight’s sort of event. It wasn’t Luna’s either, and she had staunchly argued with Celestia about it.

Given the stakes, given what happened last time alicorns came to Equestria, Luna didn’t want to risk stressing Twilight out, not to mention the obvious moral issues of making an already anxious pony even more worried.

Celestia had insisted it would be good for Twilight, to get her into the world a bit more. Celestia had claimed Twilight was a bit isolated as of late.

Luna had told Celestia that it was no wonder Twilight was feeling isolated.

Twilight followed her into the main hall. The food had been laid out, ready for all the guests to come in, and Luna watched as Twilight regarded it with undisguised dread and discomfort, doubtless picturing the throngs of ponies that would soon follow them.

“One benefit of being an alicorn, I suppose, is there’s always the option to fly away from places like this,” Luna said, pointing at the sky flowing in from where the roof once was.

“Oh, I can’t fly yet, I’ve been meaning to get Rainbow to teach me,” Twilight laughed frantically, grasping at the excuse to try to turn something into a joke, “These things are pretty useless at the moment.”

Luna levitated a couple of chairs over to them both. She could have tried to console Twilight about her wings, but she figured a break from talking about anything alicorn related would do Twilight some good.

“So, what do you want to talk about?” Luna asked, favouring Twilight with a kind, patient smile.

“Well, I guess it would be good to find out from you what duties I should expect now that I’m-”

“Twilight,” Luna interrupted, frustration battling against the want to soothe, “Is that… is that what you want to talk about? Or just what you think you should talk about?”

A wobble in the lip betrayed the answer.

“I really did want to spend more time with you, I hope you know that,” Twilight babbled, her voice tearful, “I wanted to spend a night with you in the astronomy tower, I just found myself so busy all the time.”

“Twilight,” Luna began, moving her chair closer so she could wrap a forehoof around the panicking new alicorn, “You didn’t do anything wrong, okay? I know how busy you are, don’t worry.”

“I really wish I’d made more time, you’ve always been so kind with me,” she continued, breathing shaky.

“Twilight, why are you speaking like you can’t still do those things? I’m not going anywhere,”

“But now I’ve got these,” Twilight exclaimed, gesturing to the wings on her back which weakly flapped out of sync, “And I feel really weird all the time since this ascension and I’m not going to have any time to do those things because there will be all these events and political things I need to do and I’m worried I’ll have to move away from Ponyville and-”

Luna listened to her rattle of an increasing list of her worries, her fears of a life slipping away from her, stolen of pleasure and ease by the station foist upon her head and the wings upon her back. And as the words fell from her, and her cadence spiralled into staccato rattling, Luna could feel herself getting more and more furious with her sister.

Where was she? Why hadn’t she stopped any of this?

But Luna wasn’t Celestia, and she couldn’t answer those questions.

What she was, was the princess who had always been worse at politicking, at manipulation, at the subtle arts of running the state.

But she had also always been the more tender of the two.

She’d always have that.

Luna leant forward and captured Twilight in a hug, rubbing her back with one hoof and stroking her hair with the other. The babbling drew to a sudden, stunned close. And when she could feel the breathing finally calm, Luna pulled back and looked into Twilight’s eyes.

“Listen to me, Twilight, I will die before I let that happen, okay? I promise you, I swear to you, I will not let that happen. You can live in Ponyville for as long as you want, and you can be with your friends. I won’t let anyone take you away from them, because you’ve more than earned it. And you don’t have to come to any more of these stupid, stupid parties, not a single one for the rest of your life if you don’t want.

“And, listen to me, I swear to you that we will have that night in the observatory, no lessons, no tests, nothing to prove. You can just tell me all you want about the stars and I’ll listen to you all night, and I’ll get the cook to make the most ridiculous cake that you or me or anyone has ever seen.”

Twilight’s lip wobbled as she took in Luna’s words. For a moment, it looked like Luna was going to earn a smile, but the worry was fast to return as Twilight uttered two words that made her blood boil.

“But Celestia-”

“Don’t you worry for a moment about Celestia, okay? She-” has been pushing you too hard your entire life and if she’d left you be for even a small instance you wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t have needed to complete Starswirl’s accursed spell because you could have just relaxed and enjoyed some time with your friends without being so anxious about earning my sister’s approval that you are forced to turn every single aspect of your life into something to be graded. You don’t need to be graded, Twilight, you’re good enough already.

Luna would have sorely loved to have told Twilight that.

But she was a princess, so she didn’t have that luxury.

“She loves you, but I think she might have gotten so caught up in your brilliance that she’s forgotten you need some time to relax. In fact, I’m going to speak to her right now, and straighten this out.”

“Oh you don’t have to-” Twilight tried to cry out, before Luna gently shushed her.

“Twilight, stop worrying so much about controlling what other ponies do, what goes on between myself and Celestia isn’t your issue to worry about. If you want to do something for me… just try to rest, okay?”

And once Twilight had agreed, and the world seemed a bit calmer, Luna turned around to head to the old tower she and her sister shared, and she was going to tell the sun princess that this had gone on too far, and that she was stepping in, for everyone’s own good.

Like Celestia had done for Luna, over a thousand years ago.

But as she started walking, it finally clicked. The thing she’d missed, the thing that Celestia doubtlessly would have picked up on instantly. And Luna would have dearly loved to have just kept walking, to try to put it out of her mind like it seemed every other pony in the world was able to, to live her life in the peaceful refuge of simply refusing to be concerned.

But Luna was a princess.

And so, predictably, interminably, eternally, she didn’t have that luxury.

So she turned back to Twilight, and spoke.

“Twilight, what did you mean when you said you feel weird all the time ever since you ascended?”