Luna's Socks starring Twilight Sparkle and the Princesses Celestia and Luna
"It's absolutely wonderful to have you back home, my faithful student," Princess Celestia said to Twilight as she walked with her along the corridor that would lead to the East Wing of Canterlot Castle where the guest rooms were. "I've missed you terribly, you know."
Twilight suppressed a squeal of delight. The Princess had missed her? Oh, the things she wanted to say in reply! But all she could was blush crimson and whisper, in a voice embarrassingly heavy with emotion: "I've missed you too, Princess."
"It's such a shame that you can't stay in your old tower," Celestia continued as they passed a series of huge stained-glass windows interspersed with tapestries thousands of years old portraying the history of Equestria. "I'm afraid the renovations are really quite untimely."
"It's alright, Princess," Twilight replied, looking at each of the tapestries thoughtfully as they passed them. The one beside them now portrayed Celestia and Luna on the day they arrived in Equestria, appearing in the pitch-black sky of the dark and forest-covered world as two glowing stars that sliced through the darkness: Celestia's star a bright orange, Luna's smaller silver-blue. Twilight sighed. It had been so long since she'd walked along this corridor. She remembered when she'd been a little filly and her horn had just barely touched the tasselled bottom of the tapestries - she'd had to jump up to reach them. Now they were at the same level as her chest. "Everything changes, doesn't it? When I was living in the tower I never, ever thought I'd leave it - and now I hear it's being torn down. Well, I know it's going to be rebuilt, but I... I feel a little..." She frowned, unsure of what she meant.
"Melancholy?" Celestia's bright laugh cut through the sad atmosphere like sun through falling rain, and she stopped Twilight and looked at her, her own gold-pink eyes crinkling-up in a smile. "Oh, if this isn't that gloomy little filly who complained about how cold the flagstones were when you first came to stay with me here." Her smile deepened into affectionate reminiscence. "You know who you reminded me of then?"
"Who?" Twilight had seldom seen Celestia quite so informal as this. Her teacher had always shown her love and kindness and respect, but with them apart for so long and her returning all of a sudden like this for the Grand Jubilee, Twilight found herself noticing things that had probably always been there, but which were coming as a surprise to her now.
Celestia didn't reply but merely pointed her horn at the figure of a svelte blue-grey mare with a silver mane on a nearby tapestry. She was spiralling around the globe of Equestria on the opposite side of the white mare with a golden mane streaming behind her that was Princess Celestia herself.
"Who? Princess Luna?" Twilight's mouth dropped open. "Really?"
"Are you surprised?" asked Celestia as they resumed walking. "Before all the... unpleasantness, she would often come and visit Canterlot, and she'd stay in that very Tower I gave to you when you'd grown old enough to need your own place to study, away from your grumpy teacher!"
"Oh, you were never grumpy, Princess!" Twilight protested, but Celestia shook her head.
"Oh no, we both know I can be, Twilight Sparkle." Even her full name, which from anypony else's lips would sound cold and informal, felt like a burst of summer sunshine against Twilight's ears. There was a way that Celestia said it, as if she was saying the word "love" or "joy" that made the purple-coated unicorn's insides ache from happiness. All that melancholy brought on by thoughts of the tower was disappearing now. Celestia had the power, among all her other more conspicuous ones, of being able to cheer somepony up without making it obvious that that was what she was doing.
They had reached the East Wing now, and Celestia led her past door after open door – and as Twilight glanced inside each room, she saw the same thing in each of them: Pegasus ponies were hard at work hovering around the ceiling, pulling at pieces of furniture that for some unknown reason were stuck there! Chairs, couches, tables, hatstands, mirrors, even bookcases full of books were all hanging upside down, glued to the ceiling by some mysterious means.
Celestia was shaking her head. "But there is one significant difference between you and my younger sister, Twilight Sparkle," she said by way of explanation. "Luna can be an awful prankster when the whim takes her." They both stopped at the next door and peered in.
The Pegasuses in this room were all tugging at a rocking chair that was lurching back and forth on the ceiling, completely ignoring gravity. As soon as he saw Celestia and Twilight, their boss, a bulky brown-coated Pegasus stallion with stubble around his muzzle, stopped helping his men and flew down to them.
"Your Highness! Lady Sparkle!" he said, bowing low.
Twilight suppressed an embarrassed giggle. Ever since she'd come back, everypony had been calling her 'Lady Sparkle' or 'Lady Twilight Sparkle'. Her, a 'Lady'? It seemed so ludicrous to her that this strong, fierce-looking Pegasus stallion was bowing to her!
"How is it going, Boxxy?" asked Celestia. "Any luck yet?"
"I'm afraid not, your highness," he said, getting up and scratching his stubble with a labour-gnarled forehoof. "Whatever the Princess used to stick these on, it's not like any glue I've ever seen! There must be some magic involved as well somehow..."
Celestia turned to Twilight. "Maybe you'd like to help, my faithful student?"
"Me?" Twilight stepped back into the corridor instinctively. "But Princess, your magic is sooo much more powerful than mine."
Celestia chuckled, and brought her muzzle close to Twilight's ear so that Boxxy and the other Pegasuses couldn't hear. "It's just a little test. Haven't I ever told you that I'm not so very good at reversing non-rainbow magic?"
"But how could I even-" Twilight looked at the muscled Pegasuses who were still trying to tear the furniture down.
"It's what so impressed me about you in the first place, my faithful student," Celestia whispered. "Your special talent in magic spans all forms of it - even my little sister's powers of the night. So why not give it a try?"
Twilight recognised that tone. She was being tested, and no pony could refuse a test set by the Princess of the Sun. She swallowed and stepped forward into the room.
At a gesture from Celestia, Boxxy and the other Pegasuses moved out into the corridor to watch, leaving Twilight standing in the empty centre of the floor looking up at the ceiling. Just how in Celestia's name had Princess Luna managed to get everything up there? Well, magic of course,but what kind of magic, she wondered.
Twilight's horn started to glow, and soon it was enveloped in a purple aura that coursed up and down its length in spirals, and with a nudge from her will she sent a questing tendril forward, which soon spread to all the furniture, wreathing it in the same sparkling glow.
Twilight tested the shape and flavour of the magic - whenever a unicorn encountered another pony's magic, it would always be uniquely and distinctly their own. For example, Trixie's magic had been accompanied with the smell of lilacs and a sweetness that was undercut by a chill at its centre. It was hard to explain exactly, and even another unicorn could only fully understand the feeling if they had felt it themselves. It was like every sense was being combined together into a single super-sense which had all the elements of taste, texture, scent, sound and even some other strange sensations, like emotional colour or temperature or even itchiness. When Twilight had confronted Nightmare Moon, the dark mare's magic had felt like an angry itchiness, burning yet freezing, like a star broiling away in the depths of a winter sky. It had been singularly unpleasant.
But Twilight felt none of that in Princess Luna's magic. There was a sadness, a coolness rather than a coldness, a strange tone like the tolling of a bell through great depths of space, not deep and sonorous, but rather light and exultant. And underneath it all was a mirth - not the bright maternal cheeriness of Celestia and her magic, but the playful and cheeky giggle of a foal found stealing cookies from a cookie jar, knowing that the sweet treats were more than enough reward for the half-hearted scolding they would have to endure from their exasperated mother.
But as Twilight delved deeper into the structure of the spell, she felt herself begin to smile, and then she giggled, and finally she burst into peals of uncontrollable laughter as all over her body she felt like she was being tickled by unseen feathers, and soon she was rolling on the ground, laughing with huge, unseemly guffaws until suddenly she was surrounded in a golden corona and the unbearably tickly sensation ceased almost immediately.
Celestia , the golden brightness fading from her horn, helped her to her feet. Twilight's eyes were stained with tears from the laughter, and she was blushing. Those feathers had been everywhere! The soles of her hooves, the pits of her legs, the inside of her ears, even...
She blushed.
"I must apologise, Twilight Sparkle," sighed Celestia. "I should have realised that Luna would leave a trap in the magic for somepony trying to unravel it. Are you alright?"
Twilight nodded, but she didn't stop blushing.
"My punishment for this little prank of hers doesn't seem so harsh all of a sudden," said Celestia sternly.
"What did you do?" asked Twilight.
Celestia's eyes flashed. "I exiled her of course!"
"No!" Twilight was shocked.
"... to her room!" Celestia laughed. "Oh, Twilight Sparkle! Don't tell me you've been listening to all those rumours that I send ponies to the moon for things like this?" She sighed in exasperation. "I dearly love all my subjects, but sometimes they really are a bunch of silly little ponies!"
She gestured with her horn through one of the great open windows that looked out across the eastern courtyard at a slender tower that jutted out over it like the single perverse branch of a tree that had refused to grow in concert with the other branches and had instead gone its own eccentric way. A light glowed in the single window at the top of the tower, but its inhabitant could not be clearly seen.
Well, that explained it, then. Twilight had been wondering why the younger Princess hadn't been there to greet her with Celestia when she first arrived in Canterlot, but she'd assumed she was otherwise engaged at home on the Moon, in that gorgeous castle made of onyx and festooned with filigree-thin minarets that she'd marvelled at through her telescope on so many quiet nights as she wondered at what the mysterious Princess of the Moon was doing.
Celestia and Twilight walked on together in silence for a long while along the gently curving corridor that followed the edge of the circular courtyard, passing numberless guest rooms with their doors locked and the solar-disk sigil of Celestia emblazoned upon them, barring entrance, as they went.
The Princess sighed at Twilight's unspoken question. "Luna was very, very busy last night. She managed to do all the guest rooms in the entire wing before I found out. The guards had no idea anything was going on..." Her face turned suddenly harsh. "So I sent them all to the Moon!"
Twilight stopped dead, a look of horror spreading over her face. "B...but Princess, I thought you said-"
"Gotcha!" Celestia winked at her, but when Twilight didn't laugh and merely stared at her in confusion, she cocked her head to one side and said "I suppose I need to practice my joke-telling. Well, Luna always said I could be an old stick-in-the-mud!"
Twilight dropped her eyes, ashamed. "I'm so sorry, Princess Celestia, I...." But she went suddenly silent when she felt her teacher come close to her, lifting her chin up with her long, sleek muzzle. Twilight could smell that scent of freshly laundered linen hanging on a clothes line, swinging in a soft summer breeze as the sun warmed it - it was Celestia's scent, and whenever ever she smelled it her knees went weak and she closed her eyes in bliss.
But soon the scent faded as Celestia took her face away, but as she did so her lips brushed Twilight's neck, and the little unicorn pony found it impossible to stop herself from bringing a forehoof up to touch the spot where they'd touched her.
"The word "sorry" need never pass between us, Twilight Sparkle," said Celestia simply. And then she moved to one side and with the most cursory sparkle of her horn she opened a small door on the left of the corridor. "And here we have your room. I'm afraid that it was the only one left untouched by Luna's little prank-spree. It's small, but it does command a rather lovely view of the courtyard."
There was a four-poster bed in the centre of the room, draped heavy and thick with dark purple hangings and flashes of deep gold tassles and fringes here and there. There was a tall dresser too, carved in the ornate Canterlot fashion, with latching side-opening doors and beside it a full length lead-glass mirror, recessed into the wall and surrounded by handsome panelling and curtains.
But it was the piece of furniture on the wall to her right that made Twilight almost leap up in excitement. A huge bookcase that almost took up the whole wall! And it was full of books.
Twilight turned to Celestia with joy on her face as the Princess looked down at her warmly. The alicorn had had to stoop to enter the room and so her head was so close to Twilight's that she could feel her breath against her face.
"You've only been away for little under a year, Twilight Sparkle," said the Princess gaily. "Did you really think that I'd forget my star pupil's greatest love?"
Twilight dropped her gaze, blushing. Were books her greatest love?
"Why don't we take a look at the view?" Celestia suggested suddenly, drawing aside the curtains and opening the window with the gentlest application of her telekinetic magic.
The view was commanding, just as Celestia had said. From the large window, Twilight could see almost the whole of the East Wing they had traversed, a dashed trail of glowing orange triangles where torches shone through arched windows. But it also looked straight on to the bright window of the solitary little tower that jutted out across the courtyard. It was so close that Twilight imagined she could leap across it if she really tried. Well, maybe she couldn't, but Applejack or Rainbow Dash would certainly find it no hard task!
With another golden flash of magic, Celestia shut the window and drew the red velvet curtains closed. "Your room is, unfortunately, directly across from Luna's place of exile. I do hope she doesn't keep you awake with her music!"
"Princess Luna likes music?" Twilight was surprised. "What kind of music?"
Celestia's face tried not betray her annoyance, but the gentle flattening of her smile gave her away. "Anything, so long as it's loud."
Twilight suppressed a chuckle with difficulty. The thought of Luna behaving like a spoiled little filly playing her music too loud to annoy her mother was not just hilarious, it was down-right adorable! As it was, she was still smiling when Celestia moved towards her and hugged her pony-style, neck over neck, and whispered "It is SO good to have you home again, my darling. This breezy old castle feels warmer with you here. Sleep tight!" And then she closed the door behind her, leaving Twilight alone in the room.
Twilight sat on the edge of the bed for a good few minutes, recalling the Princess's touch against her coat with closed eyes, and at the same time enjoying the feeling of the satiny quilt beneath her rump and hind legs. It squeaked when she scooted across to get up and look at the books in the bookshelf, and she giggled at the silly noise. As she read the titles of the books neatly arranged on its shelves she at once realised that Celestia must have had it filled with all of her favourite filly-hood books. She sighed, and felt her eyes growing moist. It WAS good to be home.
Soon she was lying in bed, curled up with a book of hers called The Coltenshire Chronicle, and she had just begun to get involved in a particularly detailed discussion of the Third Pony-Griffon treaty when she suddenly heard a noise coming from across the courtyard.
It was music, and it was coming from Luna's room.
She recognised the song straight away. It was DJ PWN3's X-Questria Gurls. She enjoyed it herself, but usually at far more civilised decibels!
Twilight drew her hooves across the quilt with a satisfying squeak and tucked them under her body, concentrating hard on Griffon King Alwin the Swift's 10-point letter of disagreement over the determination of the border between his kingdom and that of the Pony Principate, quite sure that the current rhythmic onslaught would subside shortly. She counted off the verses and repetitions of "hooves in the air!" until the song reached its conclusion, but it droned on and on well past the point Twilight was familiar with.
Yes, it'd be just like Luna to have the extended mix.
For a few minutes she tried to ignore the music, but soon the lyrics of the song mixed with the words of the book, and the treaty between the griffons and the ponies turned into a surreal confusion- no wonder the Third Griffon-Pony War had flared up as a result of that treaty, she chuckled to herself! When the music showed no sign of stopping or being turned down, she levitated a pillow down to the end of the bed and pulled it over her ears, but satin and goose down proved to be no barrier to the noise coming across from Luna's little tower and she sighed in frustration.
Twilight began to get up, but stopped. Just... just what was she supposed to do in these circumstances? It wasn't as if it was Pinkie Pie who was playing her music too loud as she played pin-the-tail-on-the-pony with a singularly uninterested Gummy late at night. This was a Princess, and moreover a Princess who had once been the terrifying Nightmare Moon and had threatened all of Equestria with eternal darkness! What was she going to do?
Ask politely, Twilight decided at last. Politeness would get you everywhere, her mother used to tell her. A soft voice and a big smile worked on irritable shopkeepers and Princesses alike!
She walked up to the curtains with some trepidation, but then just like ripping off a sticking plaster she drew them aside swiftly with her magic, opened the window and peered out.
The courtyard was darker now, with only light from the windows of the guard-posts flickering intermittently in the darkness - but the window in the tower across the divide was still a bright rectangle, and Twilight found she could see directly into the room beyond it.
There was a large four-poster bed in that room as well, its frame and the two posts that were visible just as ornately carved as her own bed's. But whereas the one Twilight had been lying on was hung with swathes of purple cloth, the one in Luna's room had night-blue drapery embroidered with silver stars that sparkled as the evening breeze set them moving. But all of this the unicorn pony had to take in within the space of a heartbeat, for her eyes were straight away drawn to what she saw against the crisp white linen of the bedclothes themselves.
They were legs: two long, slender purple-gray legs, lazily rubbing their calves across the white satin sheets they were resting upon. Between them, a sky-blue tail whipped playfully back and forth, and as their owner rolled onto her side, there was a flutter of blue-grey wings just visible from behind the curtain of drapery.
The legs now lay on top of each other, and a hint of rump became visible from behind the fluttering fabric, and Twilight knew for sure now that the owner of those two lithesome limbs was the Princess of the Moon herself. For there on her coat was the dark-purple patch emblazoned with the crescent moon that was her cutie mark!
Twilight found herself mesmerised by the unconscious grace of the Princess' movements, and before she realised what she was doing she was leaning out of the window to get a better look.
Now that Twilight had a clearer view of the Princess, she could make out the rise and fall of her stomach as she breathed. The music was still blaring, but Twilight could no longer hear it, so engrossed was she in the clandestine pleasure of seeing the Princess of the Moon at her most candid.
As she watched, she saw a purple-gray foreleg appear from behind the drapery, reaching down to scratch absentmindedly at the cutie mark and then slide back up to straighten the feathers of a wing that had become dishevelled by being lain upon. But then Twilight saw the knees bend and the rump grow taut, and she knew that Luna was about to sit up, and in a blind panic she jerked away from the window, threw her back against the wall and grabbed the curtain in her mouth to stop it from moving, heart beating almost to bursting.
Twilight stood there for an age, not moving, hardly breathing, the curtain growing moist in her mouth as she listened to the music continue to blare out across the dark divide between them.
Throw your hooves in the air!
Shake 'em like you just don't-
The music suddenly went silent and a few heartbeats later, heartbeats which were heavy with her growing excitement, Twilight turned around and slowly slid her face from behind the curtain just far enough to be able to see Luna's window with her left eye.
She stifled a gasp. At last she could see Luna's face, for the alicorn was now sitting on the edge of the bed. Her head was bare of her crown, her powder-blue mane lightly tousled from lying on the bed. Her eyes were downcast, and she twitched her ears and stuck out the tip of her tongue as she concentrated on kicking her legs back and forth, rubbing the soles of her hooves against the carpet in a strange, childlike little game that brought a smile to Twilight's face.
But then Luna stopped, and getting off the bed she trotted out of sight to the right, returning a few moments later with some item of clothing in her mouth that she dropped on the bed.
They were socks! Long, woollen socks of a cream-pink colour, decorated with white embroidered crescents and tiny diamond-stars and ending in peach-pink soles.
Twilight had only ever seen the Princess in her royal attire: the high-peaked crown of the Moon, her resplendent blue crystal shoes, and her sable breastcollar. She'd never dreamed that she would wear something like bed socks! Even if they were such gorgeous socks, it seemed so homely to Twilight and yet...
...why was her heart beating even faster now?
Luna lay back on the bed on her rump and lifted a single, slim hind leg in the air. Taking one of the socks in her mouth she slipped it onto the hoof, slowly pulling it down so that the bunched material grew smooth and taut against her finely-toned calf.
Twilight's heart felt as if it was expanding too large for her chest, and a sudden warmth had started to flicker within her bones. For some mysterious reason she could feel the sock on her own right hind leg, the soft material being drawn up along the curve of her calf, tingling against her coat, and another's warm, moist breath there as well.
She wanted to close her eyes so that she could feel the pleasure building within her even more intensely, but she was afraid that if she stopped watching the phantom sensation would flee from her, never to be recaptured, so she forced herself to keep them open.
Luna was now lazily turning her socked-leg in the air, apparently admiring the shape and curve of it. She flexed her hoof, the peach-pink material crinkling up at the end of the sock, and as she did her mouth slipped slightly open and she lifted her teal-green eyes up to the canopy of the four poster bed.
Twilight could feel exactly what she was feeling, she was sure of it now. Magic, or sympathy, or some strange fantasy had gripped her - she wasn't sure what it was, but her own hoof crinkled up and for all the world she felt the smoothness of the sock's material against her sole rather than the rough shag of the carpet. And it felt exquisite, the silken sensation of the finest cashmere.
Luna was putting the second sock on now, and again Twilight felt the velvety wool against her coat. It was maddening! The warm melting tightness was flooding her body now and she knew she could no longer bare to watch with just one eye, so she cautiously slid her head father out from behind the curtain, still holding it absentmindedly in her mouth.
Now watching out in the open, the sensations in Twilight's body grew even more intense. Luna, holding the cuff of the second sock between her teeth was arranging it so that it sat straight on the top of her calf, and it was no longer the cotton of the curtains that Twilight could feel between her lips, but the softest and most luxurious of all wools. Her lips tingled as if somepony was brushing a feather across them, but the sensitivity of the tickling elsewhere was even stronger, and she drew her thighs together helplessly, trying to alleviate the feelings that were growing too strong for her to stand now. Her lips parted and the drapes fell from her mouth as she started to pant, as if she could breathe out the blistering heat that was welling up inside her.
And then Luna lifted her eyes from straightening the sock and suddenly looked straight across the dark divide at Twilight as she stared from the open window, the glance of her grey-green eyes leaping across the space into Twilight's violet ones like a bolt of lightning.
The unicorn pony stood there, stunned by the sudden simpatico of their eyes meeting. Were these really the same eyes that had long ago stared at her with hatred, the once malicious eyes that had promised her utter destruction at the hooves of the one staring at her through them?
But now they sparkled with mischievous, teasing humour, and Twilight thought she heard a soft voice speaking to her.
I caught you looking, Twilight Sparkle. Why were you watching me? Did you want to see how I looked in these socks? Could it be that you... find me beautiful?
It wasn't a voice in Twilight's head, but it wasn't her imagination either. The words had floated across the divide to her like a waking dream, spoken in the light-hearted lilt of Luna's coltish-yet-feminine voice. As they resounded in her head, the strange sensations welled up even stronger, rising up like a wave that threatened to crash down upon her and sweep her away....
But then Luna turned her face away and hopped off the bed, and the great surge that had risen ever higher fell away, leaving Twilight slumped against the window sill, breathless and unfulfilled. But she was still watching the window opposite with pleading eyes when Luna stepped up to it and looking her straight in the eye impudently stuck out her tongue at her.
This time it was the Princess's real voice that floated between the two windows:
"Goodnight Twilight Sparkle."
And with a sweep of her horn Luna closed the curtains and not long after the light inside her room was extinguished too.
Twilight dragged herself away from the window, and with a surge of magic too strong for such a minor task, she shut the window with a clatter, the crimson curtains billowing into the room as if caught in a sudden gust.
She threw herself on her bed, knocking the book that was still lying there open onto the floor, burning with embarrassment and humiliation and... frustration?
Oh, what madness had made her poke her head from behind the curtain? Why had she felt such an uncontrollable desire to watch the Princess put on her... her socks of all things?
Twilight's cheeks burned and she buried her head under her pillow, but the cool linen did little to alleviate the confusion of feelings still ebbing within her. She wanted to cry, or, or rush over to the tower and apologise or, or... oh, she didn't know what she wanted!
You wanted to put those socks on Luna's legs yourself, didn't you?
At the thought that had come into her mind unbidden, Twilight cried out "Augh!" and with a quick wave of magic she extinguished the candle on the dresser and slid into the bed, drawing the sheets and quilt up over her head.
It took Twilight forever to fall asleep, the incident playing over and over in her head, the same mixture of sensations and frustrations just memories now but nevertheless still raw and sensitive. But at last she fell into a fitful sleep, hot and uncomfortable but empty of dreams...
....until she awoke to the sound of the windows clattering open and the rustling of the curtains against the drapery of her bed.
She drew her head slowly out from under the covers to see that the whole room was lit up by silver-blue light pouring in from the now open window. The mirror had turned into a pool of quicksilver and the brass handles and hinges of the furniture were sparkling as if they had been doused in glitter.
Twilight climbed out of bed, her eyes glued to the beam of light piercing the room, and took a few nervous steps towards the window. She had closed it, hadn't she? There was no way she would have left it open, even accidentally, given the biting mountain breeze that flowed about the castle all year round.
But when she got close to the window there was a sudden blast of air, a gale that sent the curtains fluttering madly into the room. Twilight's mane blew about her face and into her eyes, forcing her to turn away from the window, and when she turned back she saw that she was no longer alone, for the incandescent form of Princess Luna, furling her wings against her sides, was already stepping daintily down through the air into the room as if on invisible stairs.
As soon as her glowing hooves touched the floor, Twilight was on her knees before her.
"P...Princess?" she whispered, gaping up at the stately figure standing before her. The brilliant moonlight that had been spilling in through the window was dying away now, and Luna's coat was returning to its normal blue-grey, but lit still by a thousand points of scintillating stardust. She was wearing socks on all four of her legs now and her mane was wild and tousled as if she'd just this moment left her bed.
"Why are you here, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked. Her voice had no anger in it, just curiosity with an undercurrent of irony as if she could burst out laughing at any moment.
"Why am I here?" repeated Twilight, unnerved. "But Princess Luna, Princess Celestia invited me here to celebrate the..."
Luna interrupted her. "This is my realm, not my sister's." Despite the words there was no hint of malice in her voice - in fact, a soft half-smile had slipped onto her face. "But that's not important right now. Please stand up, Twilight Sparkle. There's something between us that we must talk about."
"Some... something between us, Princess?" Twilight's face was a mask of nervous confusion as she got off her knees. If Luna wasn't angry, then why was she here suddenly, in her room?
Luna nodded. "My big sister loves you so much, Twilight Sparkle. You're all she ever talks about some mornings." She sighed in exasperation. "About how you singlehoofedly overcame an Ursa Minor, defeated a green dragon, outsmarted a hydra..."
Twilight felt her face grow suddenly hot. Princess Celestia talked about her? "But Princess, it was only with the help of my friends that I..."
"Oh, that doesn't matter," said Luna, cutting off her protest. "I've seen your great magical ability myself - and I've also heard that your talents extend beyond the realm of Rainbow Magic." Her eyes considered Twilight thoughtfully. "One of these days I think I shall have to put them to the test!"
Twilight gasped. "But I would never dare to challenge you, Princess Luna!"
Luna chuckled. It was a warm sound. "You already defeated me once, or have you forgotten our little duel in the Temple of the Two Sisters already? It wasn't so very long ago, you know." She took a few steps closer to Twilight. "But I suppose it was Nightmare Moon that you defeated, wasn't it? You might find Luna a far more formidable opponent."
Twilight took a step back. There was a challenge in those grey-green eyes. So Luna was angry at her! "Why... why are you so mad at me, Princess?" she whispered.
"'This breezy old castle feels sooooooo much warmer with you here!'" mocked Luna, lifting her muzzle in the air with a sniff. "Isn't that what my sister said to you?"
Twilight swallowed, nodding. It was true. And those words had made her so happy that she'd felt like melting away into the ground. "But Princess Luna, I.... I didn't mean... I don't want to get under your hooves here in the Castle..."
"Under my hooves?" Luna looked at her quizzically, her mane lifted about her face by the night wind continuing to flow in through the window. "Whatever do you mean, my sister's most faithful student?"
"I..." Twilight looked at Luna. Even dressed in her socks, her hair dishevelled, the Princess of the Moon sparkling eyes demanded the truth from her. "Oh, please don't be jealous of me, Princess! I... I never meant to get between you and Princess Celestia!"
Luna laughed explosively, beating her wings against her sides as she did. "Oh, Twilight Sparkle, you silly little bookworm!" She moved forward and as she did Twilight shied away, only to stop dead when she felt her rump hit the cold surface of the mirror. "I'm not jealous of you!"
Luna reared up before her, and Twilight cried out. Those teal eyes were flashing green, now, and they reminded her of another time and place, when the two of them were surrounded by cracked stone walls and cobwebs and darkness.
But the blow that Twilight feared never came, for Luna had draped her sock-covered forelegs about Twilight's neck, embracing her. And then she brought her lips so close to Twilight's ear that she could feel the Princess's cool breath against it.
Luna's voice was a whisper. "It's Celestia I'm jealous of."
Twilight melted in her embrace, sighing at the softness of the woollen socks around her neck across her back, the gentle scent of night-loving jasmine enveloping her. And as Luna's wings furled about Twilight she recalled the feeling of those feathers that had tickled her all over when she'd triggered the magical trap.
The magical trap that Princess Luna had left for her.
As Twilight looked into Luna's laughing eyes she knew straight away that it was true.
"Princess Luna, that trap you left... it was for me?" she asked.
Luna nodded. "Especially crafted just for you, my dear Twilight Sparkle. I knew that sooner or later you'd stick that inquisitive little horn of yours into my business." Her tone was teasing. "Did you enjoy it?"
Twilight's cheeks flushed, and she turned away. "Princess Luna, you... you're embarrassing me."
"Well, if that's the case then I'm just getting my own back," said Luna with a chuckle. "How do you think I felt when I saw you spying on me?" She trailed a forehoof up along Twilight's neck to her chin and turned her head back so they were back face to face. "...watching me with those big violet eyes of yours while I put on my socks?"
"I didn't mean to embarrass you," Twilight whispered. She felt as if Luna could see right through her! "I... I just wanted to see you dressing. Your legs..."
"My legs?" repeated Luna. "What about my legs?"
"They're.... they're so beautiful," Twilight could barely hear her own voice it was so soft. "I just wish.... I just wish that mine were as beautiful."
Luna looked at her, her teal eyes unblinking behind their night-black lashes. "Do you know, Twilight, that I find your naivety just as charming as you find my legs?" She drew her closer. "And do you know what those almond eyes of yours do to me, Twilight Sparkle? Those eyes you were watching me with, those huge, innocent eyes of yours?"
Twilight blinked in confusion. "My eyes?"
Luna laughed. "Your bewilderment is so totally adorable! You really have no idea how gorgeous you are, do you?" She brought her face closer. "Would you mind very much if I kissed you?"
Twilight's knees began to shake. "You... you want to kiss me, Princess?"
"Why shouldn't I want to?" said Luna with sudden emotion. "Why shouldn't I feel this way about the one who freed me from the eternal Nightmare my soul was trapped in?" And then she brought her lips against Twilight's, and the unicorn would have fallen to her knees if she weren't being held up by the Princess's wings. "Why do you think I left that room unpranked? The one room that just happens to be directly across from my own?"
"P-please, Princess Luna!" Twilight gasped. "Our... our horns are touching!" She felt the magic inside begin to well up from deep in her chest around her heart, travelling up her neck through her spine and up along her horn, until magic involuntarily began to pulse along its length in a tight spiral that mimicked the rapid beating of her heart.
And then Luna kissed her.
The lips that touched Twilight's were as cool as the glacial spaces between the stars, but the tongue that passed between them was warm and soft, and the unicorn pony found herself parting her own lips as it pressed against them, their breath intermingling as the magic coursing along both of their horns did the same, forming a single incandescent star that flooded the room with purple and silver-blue.
But just as quickly Luna broke the kiss.
"Here... but no farther tonight, my dear Twilight," she sighed, pulling her face away. The brilliant light that had been flowing along her horn was ebbing away now to a gentle glow. "If Celestia was to smell my scent on you over breakfast tomorrow morning, she would do far worse than exile me to my room."
Twilight looked at her, breathless and in confusion. The purple corona about her own horn was fading as well. "But Princess – haven't you already escaped?"
Luna giggled. "Oh Twilight, haven't you realised yet that all this is a dream?" She pirouetted in the centre of the room, a wide smile on her face. "My big sister might control the day and night, but she has no power over dreams. They are the secret realm I share with all you pony folk, and only I! But you, my sweet and gorgeous darling, will forever be welcome here!" And as she spoke she rose into the air with a great beating of her wings and the tip of her horn burst with a flare of silver-blue light that stripped the walls away, and Twilight saw that she was standing, alone now, in an endless sea of silver dunes, the pitch-black sky above her studded with glaring stars. And there, far on the horizon, past the great expanse of glittering silver sand, reared the slender and mysterious castle of onyx with its towering minarets.
But then that too was stripped away in another blinding flash of moonlight, and when Twilight could see again she was back in her bed in her own room and she realised she was awake, for real this time. The window and its velvet curtains were still closed and that the Princess of the Moon had ever come there was no sign...
...except for the gentle hint of jasmine upon her lips. A taste that lingered there and tingled, refusing to disappear until much later as Twilight lay in bed, her heart beating hard in her chest as she remembered the feeling of those tender wings around her, those soft woollen socks against her neck, those cool lips against her own.
* * *
The next day Twilight returned from a morning's shopping in the merchants' quarter of Canterlot City clutching a bag in her mouth. She snuck through the Eastern Gate into the Castle proper, the Elite Pegasus Guards nodding to her in greeting as she passed them, and as quickly and quietly as she could she trotted down the corridor towards her little room. The sharp sound of her hooves on the flagstones alarmed her, and more than once a shadow made her shy away, her heart beating fast.
But at last she reached her room. The door, wreathed in a purple aura, was just swinging open when a voice came suddenly from behind her, and she almost leaped into the air in surprise.
"Hello, my faithful student! Been out shopping have we?"
The bag dropped from Twilight's mouth as she turned, gaping in shock, to see Princess Celestia smiling down at her.
"Ah.... yes, Princess. Sh... shopping!" Twilight managed at last, a nervous grin springing onto her face.
If Celestia noticed her discomfort, she gave no indication. But she did look at Twilight with laughing eyes that suddenly reminded her of grey-green ones she had seen the night before.
And then the Princess's eyes dropped to the bag lying on the stone floor, and with a sparkle of golden magic she levitated it up before her face.
"This is from Hoity Toity's Boutique!" said Celestia with some surprise. "I never knew you to have an interest in fashion before, Twilight Sparkle." She smiled at the unicorn pony warmly, but Twilight merely mouthed at her dumbly, the reply sticking in her throat. "I suppose your friendship with Rarity has given you an interest in it?"
Twilight continued to stare dumbly at the bag hovering between the two of them for several more heartbeats, but then at last she nodded. "Yes. I..." she began.
"Oh well, I hope you enjoy them." Celestia floated the bag over to Twilight, who straight away took the cord in her mouth. "I'll see you at dinner, then, my faithful student. I hear we're having daffodil soufflé tonight!"
Twilight dropped on a knee and then Celestia turned and left- and was that a knowing smile on her face, or had Twilight just imagined it? Not wanting to wait to find out, she bolted into her room and locked the door behind her.
She threw the bag onto the bed and leaped up after it, her heart racing. Oh, thank goodness the Princess hadn't looked inside! She would have died from embarrassment.
Twilight dipped her muzzle into the bag eagerly and drew out the two pairs of socks she had just bought. They were cashmere, just like Luna's, but dyed azure with the precious juice of the berries found only in the Swayback Mountains and embroidered with tiny white stars that glittered in the light of early morning.
She pressed her cheek against the material, her heart jumping when she remembered the touch of Luna's socks against her face, and she felt herself getting warmer all over and sighed. She wanted to try them on right away, but something stopped her.
It was a voice.
She jumped off the bed, flinging the curtains aside and tearing the window open to look across the great divide at the little slanted tower on the other side of the courtyard.
The curtains to Luna's room were open, but of the Princess of the Moon there was no sign - and yet it was her voice that Twilight could hear, clear and giggling, in her mind.
"Oh my darling Twilight Sparkle! I cannot wait to see you try on your sexy new socks!"
THE END
