A Night to Remember
(Some background music if you like)
Night 149
You’re out in the gardens with Luna, Equestria’s moon goddess, looking up at the stars while sitting out on a blanket. It’s always nice out here, even better with Luna’s company. From the corner of your eye you see Luna turn her head to you.
”Anon, we wish to know-”
“I, Luna, use I.”
It’s been taking her sometime to get used to modern speech. She puffs her cheeks out in annoyance “-I wish to know, what were the nights on earth like?.”
You bring a hand to your chin in thought, so many ways you could answer this.
“Restless I guess would be a good start.” you say looking at her.
The alicorn tilts her head to the side; her mouth set in a puzzled frown “What do you mean?”
“Well” you begin “There is always something going on back on earth, no one even has time to sleep anymore.” You take your eyes from Luna back to the light laden sky. “The night sky is different too, not just in normal appearance and star formation but there is so much light coming from human cities that all of this.” You gesture to the sky with a hand, Luna’s eyes following intently. “Is almost impossible to see normally.”
”Im…possible?” the goddess asks disbelievingly.
You nod.
”That…that sounds horrid…” Luna says, looking up at the black, dotted sky with her ears laid back, the thought of an invisible night troubling her.
You wrap an arm around her waist in an effort to comfort her.
It works some as she stops dwelling on what you said, turning her cobalt eyes to look into your own.
”Well, w-what do you think of the night here Anon?” Luna asks, trying to hide the self- consciousness in her voice.
You take a moment to think.
“The night here…” you trail off, looking at a nervously shaking Luna.
“Is simply exquisite”
Luna blinks and inspects your face for any sign of deceit.
”Do you really mean that?” she asks with a hopeful undertone.
“A work of art even, earth’s night skys have been hailed as the ultimate beauty more than once, but one look at your work Luna put’s it all to shame, I’ve always loved the night, the stars, the moon.”
You give her a smile and pull her closer so that she’s up against you.
“But you give me a new appreciation of them, and I’m glad that I get to sit here and enjoy them all with the one who rules over them.”
Luna stares at you silently for a moment, and then a serine smile finds its way to her mouth.
She lays her head on your shoulder, nuzzling her muzzle onto the crook of your neck
”If you think that this is all something Anon, then watch this.” she says, voice no higher than a gentle whisper.
Her horn lights up silver, and you watch in awe as the cosmos above you shift, the very laws of space and physics bowing to the alicorn.
Stars move in graceful arcs to a single area in the sky, leaving silver streaks in their wake as they formed an image to match Luna’s whims.
Lined up, you see what she wanted to make.
Up in the pitch black sky, are yours and Luna’s faces next to one another, sporting smiles while underneath is the old symbol like Equestrian word for ‘friends for life’.
You hold Luna tight with a shaking arm, too moved for words.
Luna wraps a downy wing around you in response, the warm appendage warding off the night chill.
”I’m happy that you’re here Anon.” she says, voice still soft.
“Happy to be here with you too Luna.” you say, finding your voice.
You look back up into the glimmering heavens, the pony next to you held tight.
They say that life is an awful, ugly place without a best friend.
And the scenery has never looked so beautiful
Night 165 in Equestria
You pull on your thick jacket and walk out of your suite like room in the castle, nodding to the bat winged lunar guards patrolling the halls.
Shivering, you pull the jacket as close to yourself as you can.
It’s getting colder out every day with winter moving in, and since ponies have fur coats they don’t see the need of heating the castle all that much.
You move in a brisk walk to Luna’s room, eager to be next to the warm pony princess.
Feet echoing loudly on the stone floor, you think to yourself as the noise drowns out everything else.
What was it that Luna wanted to do again tonight? You think hard, but nothing comes to mind. With a gulp, you think harder, not wanting to look like a forgetful moron infront of the princess.
Nothing…
Coming to Luna’s room, you take a deep breath and look at the lunar guards flanking the door, who nod you in.
The room is large, much more roomy than most others and decorated with many magical artifacts, showing off Luna’s love of the arcane. Luna herself, who is poring over a book on her massive indigo hued bed, looks up at you, her face lighting up like the very stars she held power over
”Anon!” she cries joyfully.
A sensation of weightlessness takes you, then you are covered by a blue glow and hoisted to Luna. You land on the bed with a “pomf” and lay motionless for a moment, dizzy from the unexpected flight.
Luna blinks “Anon? Art thou ok?”
“ ‘Are you ok’ are the words you’re looking for Luna” you say, gaining your bearings and sitting up. The Moon goddess sticks her tongue out at you, eyes shut with the expected ‘Mmm!’ sound.
You raise an eyebrow. “Real mature.”
She giggles and nuzzles you, her perpetually moving mane tickling your face some before she pulls back.
”Anon, I’m sorry for calling you here without reason…” She says, her tone sobering.
Well, at least you won’t look like an idiot infront of her.
“Luna, there’s no reason to be sorry, I’m happy to be here with you for whatever reason, even if there’s none at all.” you say with a wide smile.
She smiles back wanly, but it fails to reach her eyes, which shine with an enigmatic, yet somber light
Something’s up…
“Luna, whats wrong?” you ask.
She shuffles some, clinching the bed covers in her hooves as she bites her lip.
”Am I that transparent?” she asks so quietly that you almost miss it. You swallow a lump in your throat and remain silent. Whatever is bugging her must be big.
She exhales and looks into your eyes.
Your breath almost stops when her cobalt orbs meet yours, they say the eyes are the windows to the soul but this…
You see it all…the soul of a force of nature cloaked in flesh.
Try as you might, you’re frozen, forced to peer into the very being of a god
So much…Too much!
Next to Luna, you’re so…insignificant. A flat and bland being next to the robust and learned alicorn.
So many things about her that you can’t even begin to understand, the human mind not able to handle the complex reality of a god.
You’re…afraid. She could destroy you with an idle thought, condemning you to complete and total non-existence.
Before you can think further, it all hits you. All of it.
Enough cold rage and frustration to eradicate the world and leave nothing but a twisted husk.
Sorrow worthy of a literal river of tears, each drop filled with a bitter memory.
Power, so much power that you are nothing but a dying ember next to the bright, blazing star that is she.
Regret for events that out-date you by millennia.
But most of all, loneliness…
Soul crushing isolation, deprived of even the right to communicate with others. No one to help you. No one to tell you it will be ok. No one to even say that they HATE you. Being forced to sleep with only the white noise your own mind makes in your ears.
All of it…It’s so utterly complete that tears sting the edges of your eyes. You can’t even begin to comprehend what its like, your mind wholly unable to process what total isolation is.
Why…
Your blood goes cold as you realize what brought this on. By sheer force of will, you drag your eyes away from Luna’s shimmering orbs to the window.
Outside hovering in the sky, is Luna’s namesake, bathing the world in it’s white light. Has she…has she felt this the whole time? You lick your dry lips and idly note that you had started to shake at some point. You turn your eyes back to the indigo alicorn, who has shut her eyes and looked away.
“Luna…” You stop, trying to steady your hyperventilating breath. “You…you were awake up there...the whole time?”
She mutely nods, and it feels like someone rammed a railroad spike into your chest
“Who all knows about this?”
For almost a full minute silence prevails, pressing down on your shoulders like a weight
”You…”
She opens her eyes and looks at you, tracks of shimmering silver falling from her eyes
All at once, you get the big picture. You forget her status as a sovereign and a deity, just for a moment. In front of you is an innocent who was unjustly punished, no tortured. And right now, she needs someone, she’s been needing someone for the longest time.
With speed that surprised even you, you wrap your arms around her and hold her tight.
Luna gasps “A-anon?”
You say nothing for a moment, then.
“I’m sorry.”
She clinches her eyes shut “N-no, you have nothing to be sorry for, it was my mistake and mine alone.“ As much as she tried to hide it, you still hear the undertone of hurt in her voice. Luna was clearly not in good shape. she just needs to...
“Let it out.” you say quietly.
”Wha?”
“Let it out, I won’t tell anyone anything.”
She grits her teeth and takes deep breaths ”I-I won’t…” Luna buries her head in your chest, her shoulders shaking.
You just hold her tighter.
A muffled sob echos in the spacious room, then another. You gently rock the moon goddess in your arms as she lets out a thousand years of pain in the form of heart wrenching crying.
Your own eyes tear up again just from the sound, if misery had it’s own noise, then you just found it. Even after all she’s been through, Luna is just another pony, one whose been damaged.
It was then and there, you decided…You would never let her be lonely again.
Slowly, Luna calms down, reduced to the occasional sniffle.
“Feel better?”
You feel her nod against your chest. She pulls her head up and looks at you with puffy eyes ”Anon, can you promise me something…?”
“Anything.”
”Promise me that you’ll keep this to yourself, I felt terrible for hiding this from you, but at the same time I didn't want you to worry and I need to maintain my appearance as a princess..." she asks, looking at you with a drained visage.
That’s all? You smile. “You didn't even need to ask.”
Luna sets her head back on your chest, her small smile telling you what she thought of your answer.
You rest your head on hers, being mindful of her spiraled horn. You know that this won't be the end of it all, or the facade she's been wearing to hide the effects of her banishment.
But you don't mind, as they say...
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
